OF VITAL MOTION. 37 



influence are identical with those which attend the 

 communication or withdrawal of that physical agent 

 with which we have been already occupied, so 

 identical, indeed, that we naturally inquire whether 

 the higher and mystical force does not operate through, 

 and by means of, this ordinary agent. Independently 

 of any unintelligible theories on the subject, it would 

 appear that the peculiar nature of the nervous system, 

 and the relation which this system holds to the rest of 

 the organism, would authorize such a conjecture. The 

 composition is of cells and fibres, constructed upon a 

 common type, and moulded from a common plasm, 

 with the other parts of the body; and structurally, 

 therefore, there is no sufficient reason to suppose 

 speciality of attributes. Nerve and ganglion, also, 

 dissolve away under the ordinary destructive agencies 

 which act upon the body, and change into new chemical 

 compounds, identical in nature and history with the 

 compounds which result from the disintegration of the 

 rest of the organism. Viewing the question, there- 

 fore, in connexion with genesis, as in the act of 

 nutrition elsewhere, a certain amount of ordinary 

 physical force must attend the formation of nervous 

 matter : and viewing it in connexion with destruction 

 or disintegration, or, in other words, in relation to 

 the respiratory function, the chemical affinity, which 

 is here in active play, is but another name for the 

 same force. A proportionate destruction of tissue is 



