LINES OF COMMUNICATION AND FORCE 125 



A low form of sensitiveness, cognition, and consciousness is necessary to every independent organism, however 

 rudimentary and minute. Without these the individual could not possibly maintain its place in nature. 



If an amoeba — which consists of a more or less homogeneous, jelly-looking speck — be examined under the micro- 

 scope, it will be seen to move in every direction, to feel about for food, and when it finds it to throw its body over 

 the food and convert whatever part of the body the food touches into a temporary stomach. Every part of the 

 amceba can discharge the aggregate functions of the individual. The movements of the amoeba are independent, 

 dehberate, and purpose-like. They are controlled movements ; the control extending to all parts of the amoeba, 

 and, within limits, to the matter on or in which the amoeba moves. 



In the lowest plants and animals, where there is httle or no differentiation, and where every part virtually 

 resembles every other part, the lines of communication and force, whatever they are, are of the simplest and most 

 direct. The conditions which obtain are analogous to those which obtain in mreless telegraphy, where messages 

 are despatched and received without the aid of wires or visible means of communication. That the messages in 

 both cases are transmitted through matter in a state of vibration goes without saying. That the messages in both 

 cases are transmitted in waves in more or less straight lines seems equally certain. As in wireless telegraphy 

 obstacles such as buildings, stone walls, &c., do not prevent the transmission of messages, so in plants and animals, 

 even where differentiation occurs, and where heterogeneous substances are present, messages between the different 

 parts of individuals and the outer world are possible. It would seem that wherever there is continuity of matter 

 (not necessarily homogeneous matter) in the organic and inorganic kingdoms, messages may be sent and received 

 in the absence of separate, independent, visible lines of communication, such as telegraph wires on the one hand and 

 nerves on the other. 



There is reason to believe from recent observations that force travels in waves and in nearly straight hues, with 

 a certain amotmt of similar lateral, branching wave movement. This is seen in the lightning flash, rendered visible 

 by the aid of instantaneous photography. The movements of lightning are not, as was generally beheved, simple 

 zigzag, straight-Une movements, as depicted by artists, but arborescent or branched wavy movements, where there 

 is the central or main movement in a more or less straight line, and a great many similar branching, subsidiary wave 

 movements. A flash of lightning, as revealed by instantaneous photography, resembles a tree with its branches, or a 

 leaf with its midrib and subsidiary venation. 



The instantaneous photograph gives what is practically an analysis of the movements of hghtning, and these 

 movements are amongst the most rapid and striking in nature (vide Plates xxix. to xxxi. inclusive). 



If we regard lightning as one of the representative forces of nature, it is difficult to escape from the conclusion 

 that all force, whether in the inorganic or organic kingdom, is primarily and essentially of the dendritic type — that 

 is, power acting upon matter in one particular and main direction, and in lateral, branching, subsidiary directions. 

 Such a view would very largely account for the general form of plants and animals, and for the major part of their 

 details. It would also account for the main and subsidiary lines of communication in plants and animals. 



The nerves branch from the neurons, ganglia, and nerve cells found in the brain and spinal cord ; the arteries 

 branch from the heart ; and the blood- and other vessels are laid down and formed in the dendritic tracts mapped 

 out by the saps of plants and animals in the processes of development and growth. Fluids permeating matter tend 

 to separate into streams, and this holds true equally of organic and inorganic fluids. It is also true of organic and 

 inorganic matter. 



This community of force and of form in plants and animals, and in the universe, is in keeping with the origin 

 and nature of plants and animals. Plants and animals derive all the materials composing them directly or in- 

 directly from the external universe. They also derive a considerable proportion of the force which actuates them 

 from the same source. If the hfe or vital force which characterises plants and animals were ehminated, the elements, 

 or such of the elements as are incorporated in plants and animals, would in no way differ from similar elements found 

 in the physical universe. The elements are common to the inorganic and organic Idngdoms ahke, and the so-called 

 inorganic elements build up at the outset, and continue to circulate through, plants and animals so long as they 

 continue to hve. 



It is now known that masses of plant and animal protoplasm are connected to each other by the most dehcate 

 protoplasmic threads, requiring in many cases very high powers of the microscope to see them. These dehcate, 

 almost invisible threads, there is reason to believe, reveal the first traces of Knes of communication along which 

 force can travel in living matter. It is difficult to understand how the almost invisible protoplasmic threads 

 referred to are formed, but they can scarcely be a product of mere viscosity, as in that case they would almost 

 inevitably break long before reaching the extreme degree of tenuity which characterises them. 



Plants and animals are derived from cells, spores, and eggs, and the hues of communication and of force in 

 many cases radiate from or converge towards a central point ; the point in question corresponding with the seat 



