ANATOMICAL. 215 



Our next object is the transverse section of the 

 spinal cord, that main branch of the telegraph system of 

 the body which runs through the entire length of the 

 backbone, the vertebra?. 



Let us compare this injected specimen with a small 

 piece of a submarine telegraph cable, bearing in mind 

 the idea of the association of life with electricity. 



Observe the striking resemblance which one bears 

 to the other. The grey matter of the brain surrounds 

 the central aperture, up which flashes the sense of 

 feeling from the most distant member of the body, the 

 foot, conveying the message to the brain, from which 

 proceeded the command that the return messenger 

 announces has been obeyed say, to kick that piece of 

 orange-peel from the pavement which some thoughtless 

 person had thrown there. Then from that great main 

 trunk the nerves all issue, running so entirely over the 

 whole building or, shall we say again, i( temple "? of the 

 body, that, in a specimen in a glass case in the museum 

 of the College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the 

 human skeleton, standing in an upright position, appears 

 to be literally covered with very minute silken threads 

 from top to bottom, all the flesh having been removed, 

 and nothing but the bones and nerves left. Here is the 

 telegraph system at once both anticipated and illustrated ; 

 but who shall explain its mystery ? 



Next, awaiting our inspection as well as our reflection, 

 is a transverse section of an adult optic nerve; this 

 measures an eighth of an inch in diameter, and this again 

 is the mysterious instrument which conveys the reflec- 

 tion of every object you and I have ever looked upon to 

 the central telegraph station I mean the brain, where 

 it is "left till called for," when the mind, reading 

 off from the picture left on the "sensitized plate" as 



