238 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



which the systemic and sympathetic nervatures are 

 mutually intermixed and related, so that, when the 

 independent existence, is attained, the systemic nervous 

 system is able to take up the duty of learning how to 

 carry out the work of a voluntarily superintended, and, 

 more or less intellectually directed, organism. 



As this process of, foetal and infantile learning, goes 

 on, the growing, and developing, organism, undergoes a 

 process of structural perfecting, by which it is, more and 

 more, prepared to carry out the increasing working 

 necessities of the growing intellect, until a state of 

 material maturity is attained, after which, it may be, that 

 the intellect continues to develop, until its material 

 foundations begin to crumble, and decay. 



Meantime, during the periods of youth, adult age, and 

 senile decay, the material organism is able, with more or 

 less success, to meet all the requirements of the pre- 

 dominant partner, by virtue of the possession of the 

 truly wonderful development of evolutionary devices, 

 structural adaptations and functional facilities procured ; 

 as, for example, in that developmental device just men- 

 tioned, when the systemic nervature was united, by direct 

 glandular and vascular continuity with the alimentary 

 canal, and where, it will be remembered, the buccal cavity, 

 with its lining mucosa, was uplifted into the cranial cavity, 

 and secured, by common encapsulation, to the most 

 dependent central cerebral prolongation, the infundibulum, 

 thereby affording, an outlet from the cranial cavity, by 

 which the work of its drainage could be obtained. 



This device is truly one of the most remarkable in the 

 history of the developmental evolution of the human 

 organism, and attracts every day to its manner of 

 working and its functional position in the economy of 

 neural, excretion, alimentation, and digestion, an uncon- 

 scious attention, both lay, and professional, beyond that 

 given to any other part of the economy, for here the 

 mouth, the tongue and the throat, are alike concerned, 

 in the experience of every individual, more or less ; and 

 in the light of what has been already advanced, in con- 

 nection with the subject, it is bound to become a consciously 

 valuable possession in the everyday experience of every 



