ELECTRICAL ORGANS IN FISHES. 305 



ficial electrical apparatus, it is imperfect. It is necessarily 

 most insufficiently insulated, and there is, therefore, an enor- 

 mous loss of electricity ; but the quantity produced is com- 

 paratively so enormous that enough remains to form an 

 efficient circuit. It is, in fact, a remarkable example of the 

 munificent power and perfect freedom of action, in combina- 

 tion with strict adhesion to law, which distinguish the work 

 of the Creator in the formation and economy of organised 

 beings ; and it is only to be imitated in the most imperfect 

 manner by human ingenuity. 



The presumed correlation of the nervous and electrical 

 forces in no way trenches on the psychical department of 

 physiology, and has no tendency to exclude the psychical or 

 proper vital element from the science of organisation. The 

 physiology of man, at all events, can only be successfully 

 studied and prosecuted by approaching it from two opposite 

 poles. From the one, we approach its somatic department 

 through anatomy, chemistry, and physics ; by the kind of 

 evidence and method of research common to all such sciences. 

 From the other, guided by an evidence and method totally 

 different in kind, we enter on its intellectual and moral de- 

 partments through philosophy and revelation.* 



* This lecture was illustrated by a selection from the very complete series 

 of preparations of electrical organs in the Comparative Anatomy series in the 

 Museum of the University . 



