WHOLE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 601 



It is because the voluntary muscles are more 

 abundantly supplied with nerves than the heart, 

 stomach, liver, bowels, &c. that they are enabled 

 to obey the mandates of the brain. But it has 

 often been asked, what is the use of nerves in 

 parts not subject to the will ? I answer, that with- 

 out nerves in the stomach, we could not be in- 

 formed by the sense of hunger, when and how 

 much nourishment to take that without nerves, 

 the heart, liver, bowels, and other viscera, could 

 not warn us of approaching disease by the sensa- 

 tion of pain, nor direct in the employment of 

 suitable remedies. Through the agency of nerves 

 distributed to the lungs, we are enabled to regu- 

 late the process of breathing, and thus to obtain 

 the principle of life from the atmosphere. To 

 this act, the infant is first prompted by the pain- 



physical agent, and not a mere phantom of the imagination. Dr. 

 Alison also maintains, that " vitality has no connexion whatever 

 with the notion of mind as distinguished from matter." And even 

 Lord Brougham has so far forgot himself as to hazard the asser- 

 tion, that " mind has no necessary connexion with sensation." 

 But it might as well be said, that motion has no connexion what- 

 ever with matter, as that mind has no necessary connexion with 

 the vitality of the nervous system, or with sensation ; for it is self- 

 evident that, in our present state of existence, there can be no 

 perception, memory, comparison, or, v5g, without sensation, and 

 no sensation without life ; consequently, that all the phenomena 

 of mind are strictly physiological. And it is only when we attempt 

 to ascertain the mode of its operation after the dissolution of the 

 body, that we lose ourselves in the labyrinth of the hyperphysical 

 sciences. 



