Objects for the Microscope. 223 



form papillae spread out in looped capillaries, whilst on the 

 surface beneath is seen an intermediate plexus of minute 

 vessels. The artery and its vein are distinctly visible in 

 each papilla, with the attendant nerve. 



THE BRAIN. ' 

 Cat Rabbit Mouse, &c. &c. 



OR, SECTIONS OF SPINAL CORD OR GANGLIA. 



We touch any slide of Brain reverently, for we stand 

 here upon the border-land between the visible and the 

 invisible, the known and the unknown, whether it be of 

 animal instinct or human reason, whose seat lies here. 



Beautiful are these delicate capillaries, spreading round 

 and over each convolution of the brain ; strange are these 

 stellate forms of nerve corpuscles imbedded in a dimly- 

 shaded or granular substance. Nerve fibres ramify and 

 interlace nerve force flies along each fibre with immea- 

 surable velocity. We know that, chained within this 

 complex nerve system, the living soul goes to and fro in 

 contact with the outer world, upon the countless paths 

 which issue from the twelve pair of cerebral nerves and 

 thirty-one spinal nerves ; each of these has a double fibre 

 of sensation and of motion ; they are separate, yet sheathed 

 together ; if we cut one of them the power of movement is 

 gone, whilst sensation remains ; if we cut the other, then 

 convulsive, irregular movement stirs a limb which can no 

 longer feel. We know that, flashing from the invisible 

 dweller within that little brain, instinct or intelligence 

 governs the whole of this material frame. We have learned 

 works on the phenomena of motion or the physiology of the 

 nerves, theories plausible and wild concerning this organ 

 of the mind, and we feel keenly how very slight a jar may 

 trouble for ever the right action of the intellect ; but we 

 really have little knowledge beyond the mere structure of 

 the Brain, and we gaze wistfully, it may be, at the most 

 difficult of all preparations to prepare satisfactorily. 



All these preparations may be procured at Baker's, from 

 fifteen pence to two shillings each. 



