266 APPENDIX. [No. XVII. 



tions of each specific sense are connected together into one total in the 

 pneuma-noemic battery, from the opposed pole of which the dynamic or 

 motor nerves spring. 



The situation of this important battery is somewhere in the base of 

 the brain ; and I believe that in applying the electro-voltaic test in this 

 situation, I have obtained deflection of the galvanometer. Let me, how- 

 ever, speak with the utmost caution upon this point ; for although I have 

 tried the experiment over and over again, the animal is almost invariably 

 destroyed, and in fact by the electro-biological maps * which are suspended 

 upon the wall, you will at once perceive that an action here influences 

 every nerve in the body, and thus may very readily destroy vitality. 



Now, what are the qualities of this last battery, which has but one 

 impression for all the sensations of the body ? We find that it represents 

 totality, and cannot be limited. It has therefore the properties of infinity, 

 and gives to man his most exalted ideas. The ideas of soul, God, eternity, 

 immortality, are obtainable from this battery, acting in conjunction with 

 the lower batteries which I have already described. I regret exceedingly 

 that the hour allotted for this lecture has now been so far spent, that I 

 am unable fully to consider the properties of the mind deducible from 

 the theoretical structure which I have developed upon voltaic laws ; but, 

 under the circumstances, I feel bound to pass on to matters which can be 

 elucidated by direct experiment. 



When the voltaic force is carried by the sensor nerves to the brain, 

 it there causes some change of matter, by which polarity is ever after 

 determined. This phenomenon is a physical result of the most ordinary 

 kind ; for I have here a solution of argento-cyanide of potassium, with two 

 copper poles, and before the lecture I passed a voltaic circuit from one 

 pole to the second, by which I have effected a change of matter, and silver 

 has been precipitated on one side. Tou will now see that, immediately I 

 connect the two poles with the galvanometer, a strong deflection will 

 ensue, and, to use a metaphorical phrase, the solution has remembered 

 what I did to it. This experiment, which is but a sample of a class, must 

 only be regarded as analogical, and is only valuable to show that voltaic 

 electricity may produce effects which will ever after be apparent. 



In the arrangement of the nerves of the body, every sensor nerve is 

 opposed to every motor nerve, and may excite it to action under certain 

 circumstances. Now before I consider this subject in detail, I may state 

 that the voltaic circuit, when it has the choice of two or more roads, 

 invariably takes the easiest route, to the exclusion of all the rest. Here is 

 an arrangement in which one of my platinized silver batteries is connected 

 with two precipitating troughs, having the same distance to travel in both 

 cases, but one is charged with sulphate of copper, the other with sulphate 

 of zinc ; and yet with this trifling difference the entire current has passed 

 through the sulphate of copper, to the exclusion of the sulphate of zinc, 

 because copper was more easily reducible than zinc, and therefore offered 

 a somewhat easier passage to the voltaic force. 



Upon examining the arrangement, I find that the experiment has been 



* Copies of the maps in Mr. Smee's ' Elements of Electro-Biology ' and 

 The Mind of Man.' 



