398 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



interval of transmission, a still further time is necessary for 

 the brain to put itself in order — for its molecules to take 

 up the motions or positions necessary to the completion of 

 consciousness. Helmholtz considers that one-tenth of a 

 second is demanded for this purpose. Thus, in the case of 

 the whale above supposed, we have first half a second con- 

 sumed in the transmission of the intelligence through the 

 sensor nerves to the head, one-tenth of a second consumed 

 by the brain in completing the arrangements necessary to 

 consciousness, and, if the velocity of transmission through 

 the motor be the same as that through the sensor nerves, 

 half a second in sending a command to the tail to defend 

 itself. Thus one second and a tenth would elapse before 

 an impression made upon its caudal nerves could be re- 

 sponded to by a whale fifty feet long. 



Now, it is quite conceivable that an injury might be 

 inflicted which would render the nerves unfit to be the con- 

 ductors of the motion which results in sensation ; and if 

 such a thing occurred, no matter how severe the injury 

 might be, we should not be conscious of it. Or it may 

 be that, long before the time required by the brain to 

 complete the arrangement necessary to consciousness, its 

 power of arrangement might be wholly suspended. In 

 such a case also, though the injury might be of a nature 

 to cause death, this would occur without feeling of any 

 kind. Death in this case would be simply the sudden 

 negation of life, without any intervention of consciousness 

 whatever. 



Doubtless there are many kinds of death of this char- 

 acter. The passage of a musket-bullet through the brain 

 is a case in point ; and the placid asj)ect of a man thus killed 

 is in perfect accordance with the conclusion which might be 

 drawn a priori from the experiments of Helmholtz. Cases 

 of insensibility, moreover, are not uncommon which do not 

 result in death, and after which the persons affected have 



