HOW THE BRAIN THINKS 



hundred feet a second. If you count very fast 

 you can count ten in a second, and it takes about 

 a tenth of a second for a grown man to find out 

 that some one is jabbing his toe with a pin and 

 get an order back to pull his toe away. "Slow 

 as thought " would be a likelier phrase. 



And now we come to the very marrow of the 

 question: What is this wave, or impulse? What 

 is thought? 



Up to a year ago the best answer that could be 

 made was this: A nerve may be stimulated by 

 an electric current and muscles set in action ; and, 

 conversely, a nerve in action is always accompanied 

 by an electrical disturbance, slight, it is true, but 

 strong enough to be measured with accuracy. In 

 an unprejudiced mind the inference was easy. 

 The ways of nature are simple. The whole ad- 

 vance of knowledge has been an identification of 

 things seemingly unrelated. In the present in- 

 stance it is allowable to assume that two forces 

 which accomplish the same result and are in- 

 separable are very near of kin. As there is no 

 nerve action without the evident presence of 

 electrification, it is possible that we shall some day 

 find that nerve action, thought, and consciousness, 

 and what in our present ignorance we call elec- 

 tricity, are one and the same. 



This view gained heavy reinforcements a year 

 265 



