EXTRACT XXXVIII. A. 



ON SOME VIEWS OF THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS 

 OF THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM IN- 

 CLUDING NERVINE NUTRITION AND NERVE FORCE 

 EQUILIBRATION. 



WE have already stated that this system the sympathetic 

 or its equivalent exists in all living structures, and that 

 the energy generated by it is equivalent to vital energy, 

 and in fact constitutes life, as displayed in all living 

 organised textures, whether animal or vegetable. In 

 vegetable, and in the lower forms of animal structure, 

 we have not yet succeeded in determining the method 

 of production, nor in fully displaying the channels, or 

 fibres, along which this energy travels from the producing 

 to the energised, or innervated, textures, yet we feel 

 warranted in claiming: that such energy does travel, or 



o o/ 



circulate, in definite lines throughout and within the limits 

 of every such organic form or texture, in virtue of which 

 that organic form or texture lives and has its being. 



It may well be that the most skilful dissection, the 

 most scientific use of reagents, and the most adept 

 application of the highest powers of our microscopic 

 aids, have hitherto failed in enabling us to trace the 

 inner workings of this most inscrutable system in the 

 cryptic regions of almost homogeneous living textures, 

 and non-differentiated structural elements, in its main- 

 tenance of life, and regulation of the processes of 

 metabolic change and exchange, for does not the great 

 " Secret of life " itself lie here ? If, however, our views 

 on the subject can be widened by one hair's-breadth, 

 or made more definite, it behoves us not to rest content 



