NUTRITION, INNERVATION, ETC. 565 



principle of circulation as one of the active determining 

 factors in the economy of nutrition or metabolism. 



The process of uni-cellular material circulation is effected, 

 in virtue of the pseudo-fibral, linear, or successional 

 molecular arrangement, of the mtra-cellular substance, and 

 necessarily, therefore, along "the lines of least resistance," 

 secured by such developmental disposition, determined 

 and operated by its specific or innate energy, and supple- 

 mented by the necessary surrounding maternal conditions, 

 material and dynamic. Intra-cellular circulation, therefore, 

 consists of the processional movement of the intra-cellular 

 contents along definite lines, secured by definite develop- 

 mental provisions, in obedience to definite " vital laws " 

 and requirements by " vital dynamics " ; these latter, or 

 " vital dynamics," being so specific and sui generis as to 

 partake of, and transcend, all the dynamics now known 

 to science. Innervation, in a word, is the dynamic sine 

 qua non of life, or the active vitality ; without it, the 

 future or possible live elements of organic matter refuse to 

 alter their still inorganic character and arrangement, and 

 continue to yield themselves to the continued domination 

 of inertia and other ordinary inorganic laws ; but with it, 

 and favourable conditions for its operation or exercise, 

 the elements, as by enchantment, assume the conformation 

 and characteristics of living forms, yielding themselves to 

 its behests, meeting its every requirement, and partaking 

 in its conquests of vitality and organic order over dead 

 matter and inorganic forces. 



As the dynamics of the fecundated ovum, in its intra- 

 cellular life, are due to, and operated by, in nervation, so 

 they continue, in its kariokinetic divisions, to dominate 

 the individual life of each of these divisions or units, and 

 by nervine combination of them, to direct their life and 

 work to the accomplishment of common, developmental, 

 and functional ends, until the resultant multi-cellular 

 organism assumes proportions, requiring its division in 

 turn into organs and systems requiring more or less 

 specific and individual innervation. 



Innervation is, therefore, divisible into intra-cellular, 

 inter-cellular, and inter-systemic systems, according as 

 vitality is existent and operative in cell, multi-cell, or 



