ANIMAL LIFEASSIUILA TION. 



323 



of wires penetrating every portion of the 

 country, and combining it into centers small 

 and large, whereby the minute intercommuni- 

 cation of part with part and of these parts 

 with the whole is brought about. The nerves 

 are accordingly the means of the complete as- 

 sociation of all the separated members of the 

 body, even to the cell, interconnecting every 

 point in the Organism with the series of lower 

 centers, till they reach the seat of supreme 

 authority. The cranial nerves go to the Brain 

 directly, as they lie nearest, but the vast mul- 

 titude of the other nerves show a gradation 

 of control, a kind of hierarchy, which orders, 

 correlates and unifies the corporeal activities, 

 internal and external. 



The great fact, then, of the large popula- 

 tion of Nerves is Association, which is here 

 realized in its highest organic potence. Tak- 

 ing the cell as the least and final indviduation 

 of Nature, billions of units in one Organism, 

 the Nervous System as a whole is what co-or- 

 dinates and associates them. The preceding 

 secondary Brain, as we may call it, embracing 

 the three Systems the Spinal Cord, the Sym- 

 pathetic Nerve, and the Neural Differentia- 

 tion ramifying in all directions and individ- 

 uating as if in correspondence with Nature 

 herself has now completed its mediation, 

 outer and inner, has connected the outside 



