16 



reason to believe this law of selection lies in the poisons 

 alone. The iiltiniate elements ot* nerve tissue may differ 

 in each section. In lower nature we have the laws of 

 cohesion and attraction, evidencing the one force called 

 electricity. This power exists in the wide domain of 

 matter animate and inanimate. The primary elements 

 of all bodies are kept together by its cohesive jiower. 

 It is indispensalde to existence and compactness of out- 

 line., A remarkal)le form of this force is seen in ani- 

 mal magnetism. This pervades all our nerve centers^ 

 ^ ^ and their prolongations. It permeates tlie primitive 



\\\^''rt/l>>J> fasciculi of muscle and binds them together. This ani- 

 ^^''^^^'nial magnetism will produce the same phenomena as 

 frictional and atmospheric electricity. It affects the 

 needle of the galvanometer, decomposes iodide of 

 potassium, produces light and heat, and gives severe 

 shocks such as are felt in the electric disciiarges of the 

 torpedo or eel The law of the correlation of foi^ces is 

 thus made manifest by this agent. Light is eliminated 

 from the black hair of a nervous person, with a vulcan- 

 ized rubber coml), or by friction from the fur of a cat, 

 in a marked degree, and heat is generated at the same 

 J time. It is present in muscle and nerve only during 



<^ - mClPv;, life^ and as long as the natural Avarmth remains, but is 

 completely absent in rir/o/' mortis ; yet if warm blood be 

 injected into the limbs of an animal after rigor has set in 

 tor a few hours, relaxation will return and with it ani- 

 mal magnetism; even contraction will be induced for a 

 short time. If artificial or extraneous magnetism should 

 be used to excite nerve or muscle while it occupies this 

 medium, there is no evidence of the presence of natural 

 inherent electricity; it seems the two can not coexist 

 in the same body at the same time. It is easy of dem- 

 onstration that the fasciculi of nerve and muscle have 

 in each, two antagonistic states of electricity. In the 



