THE COMMON NERVOUS SYSTEM 361 



of means to ends," in the various arrangements of parts, 

 organs, and textures, which are to be met with along the 

 evolutionary way, in individual organisms, as well as, at the 

 various stages of racial development, and organic evolution, 

 generally. 



Life, thus, becomes the function, and indisputable attri- 

 bute, of the sympathetic nervous system, all the non- 

 systemically innervated textures composing its material 

 basis, and all nervine activity, apart from the systemic, 

 being its dynamic possession. 



It may, further, be contended that the systemic nervous 

 system itself is but an outgrowth from the sympathetic 

 nervous system, and a specialisation, for particular pur- 

 poses, in order to meet requirements which the generalised, 

 organic, and dynamic, sympathetic arrangements, are 

 unable, and unfitted, to meet, and, therefore, that the 

 machinery of life belongs absolutely to the sympathetic 

 nervous system, and is operated by that system, to satisfy 

 the entire organic wants of every living organism, vege- 

 table, and animal, invertebrate, and vertebrate, automatic > 

 and reasoning. 



Assorting the constituent textures of the body on the 

 principle, that there are but two divisions possibly demon- 

 strable, we are struck with the root observation, that the 

 evolution of the embryo, must have a determining effec^ 

 in laying the foundation of the divisional distinction ; and, 

 from this point of view, we are warranted in taking for 

 granted, that the original division of the ovum into 

 ectoderm, mesoderm, and hypoderm, is responsible for 

 the initiation of the developmental arrangements, whereby 

 the differentiation is effected. Thus, the mesoderm, and 

 hypoderm, may be regarded as the peculiar organic habitat 

 of the sympathetic nervous system, with its formative 

 machinery, material, and dynamic, while the ectoderm 

 may, in like manner, be regarded as the organic matrix, 

 from which the systemic nervous system is ultimately 

 evolved, by the formative, and organising, energy, of the 

 neighbouring sympathetic nervature, on the peculiar organic 

 elements of that embryonic ectodermal area. 



The sympathetic nervous system is, thus, constituted 

 of, or claims as part of itself, the alimentary apparatus, the 



