THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 353 



and bone, which together, make up the living human 

 body. Evolution, here, from the unicellular into the multi- 

 cellular organism, by gradual structural accretion, and 

 advancement in organic complexity, has secured the 

 control, and working, in harmony, under nervine adminis- 

 tration, of this vast organic cosmos, as it has done, in 

 every other observable sphere throughout the domain of 

 nature, animate, and inanimate. " The Nervous System " 

 is, therefore, synonymous with what constitutes the living 

 body, being, at once, the dynamic source of life, and the 

 organic controller, and sustainer, of the formative impulses, 

 by which development has proceeded, from cell to cell, and 

 tissue to tissue, until the completion of the organism has 

 been effected, when it, still, is able under ordinary circum- 

 stances, to maintain its vital continuity for a certain period, 

 or until the, forces, and conditions, of dissolution, more 

 than counterbalance those of life. 



The nervous system, thus, warrants us, in claiming for 

 it, a position of ubiquity, and importance, in the living 

 human body, comparable only to that claimed for the 

 principle of circulation, where we embodied the idea in 

 these words : circulatio circulate onum^ omnia circulatio ; we 

 would, therefore, advance the opinion, that a similar 

 form of words is required, to express, and to accentuate, 

 its truth, viz. nervus nervorum omnia neruus. 



The nervous system, or organic all-in-all, becomes, 

 therefore, the living framework, or loom, through which 

 the "weft and the woof" of life are passed, and woven 

 into the duplex fabric, of organic work, and of " thought, 

 word, and deed," by the agency of continuous circulation, 

 material, and dynamic, determined, and operated, by vital 

 activity, in obedience to the " laws of life," and the 

 " presiding ego," and its implied sympathetic and 

 systemic, "division of labour," and the resultant dual, 

 and communal, output. 



