OF ORGANIC NATURE. 17 



say, that every amount of nervous action is accompanied 

 by a certain amount of electrical disturbance in the 

 particles of the nerves in which that nervous action is 

 carried on. In this way the nervous action is related 

 to electricity in the same way that heat is related to 

 electricity ; and the same sort of argument which 

 demonstrates the two latter to be related to one an- 

 other shows that the nervous forces are correlated to 

 electricity; for the experiments of M. Dubois Reymond 

 and others have shown that whenever a nerve is in a 

 state of excitement, sending a message to the muscles 

 or conveying an impression to the brain, there is a 

 disturbance of the electrical condition of that nerve 

 which does not exist at other times ; and there are a 

 number of other facts and phenomena of that sort ; so 

 that we come to the broad conclusion that not onlv 



at 



as to living matter itself, but as to the forces that 

 matter exerts, there is a close relationship between the 

 organic and the inorganic world — the difference between 

 them arising from the diverse combination and dis- 

 position of identical forces, and not from any primary 

 diversitv, so far as we can see. 



I said just now that the Horse eventually died and 

 became converted into the same inorganic substances 

 from whence all but an inappreciable fraction of its 

 substance demonstrably originated, so that the actual 

 wanderings of matter are as remarkable as the trans- 

 migrations of the soul fabled by Indian tradition. But 

 before death has occurred, in the one sex or the other, 

 and in fact in both, certain products or parts of the 

 organism have been set free, certain parts of the 

 organisms of the two sexes have come into contact 



