594 VIEWS OF BELL AND 



more excitable, giving the greatest energy to the 

 nutritive functions." And Sir Charles Bell ob- 

 serves in his late work on the nervous system, 

 that " vital power is possessed through the agency 

 of nervous matter, diffused through all animals, 

 from the simplest up to man." (1836, p. 17). Dr. 

 Billing also maintains, that " the nervous system 

 regulates and supplies all the organs with energy, 

 and that without nerves there is no organic con- 

 tractility." (Principles of Medicine.) And Mill ler 

 contends, that " the organs of animals manifest as 

 great a dependence on nerves, as plants do on 

 light." (Op. Citat. p. 43.) In the same strain, 

 we are told by Mr. Earle, that " the agent which 

 causes animal heat, the fluidity of the blood, and 

 maintains all the functions of life, is something 

 which proceeds from the brain, alon^ the spinal 

 marrow to the extremities of the nerves; and 

 that animal heat is as much to be considered a 

 secretion as bile, saliva, or gastric juice." (New 

 Expos, of the Nerv. System, p. 137.) 



As if to fill up the measure of our astonishment, 

 Edward Johnson observes, that the heart and all 

 the other organs derive their power of action 

 from a fluid brought to them by the nerves from 

 the brain, by whose action that fluid is produced, 

 that wherever there is an artery, vein, or ab- 

 sorbent, there must also be a nerve to enable these 

 vessels to convey their fluids, &c. But, as if 

 conscious that all this amounts to nothing in the 



