72 



of muscles, and capable of causing a con- 

 fraction in them when they are divided.* 



The opinion that sensation is the con- 

 sequence of an action begun in and 

 transmitted through the nervous fibrils, 

 assists us in understanding how our sen- 

 sations may be very vivid from the 

 slightest impulses; such, for instance, as 

 take place in the application of odour to 

 the olfactory nerves, for it is not the 

 impulse, but the consequent action, that 

 is transmitted to the sensorium: and 

 why we may have no sensation from 

 the most violent impulses ; for such we 

 cannot but suppose to occur, when a 

 man is shot through the body, or has a 

 limb removed by a cannon ball ; occur- 

 rences which have however happened with- 

 out any distinct feeling intimating the event, 



* Croonian Lecture. 



