LECTURE II. 49 



distinction seems a natural and useful one, 

 and throws light on the physiology of the 

 visceral nerve. In vegetables, and in some 

 of the lower kinds of animals, no traces 

 of a nervous system are discoverable. In 

 others of the lower order of animals, that 

 have organs for the preparation and distri- 

 bution of nutriment, they are supplied by 

 a visceral nerve, which it is probable main- 

 tains amongst those organs a concurrence 

 of impressions and actions. In the ascend- 

 ing complexity of the nervous system, we 

 find a nervous chord more or less beset 

 with ganglia, which supplies other parts of 

 the body besides the viscera, and which 

 probably serves to maintain amongst them 

 likewise a concurrence of impressions and 

 actions. We next find at one end of this 

 chord a kind of ganglion, or brain, which 

 gradually becomes larger and more complex 

 as we trace the series of links upwards to 

 man, in whom it bears a much larger pro- 

 portion to the nervous system in general 

 than in any other animak The visceral 

 nerve, in the ascending series of animals, 

 appears connected with the animal nerves j 



E 



