xii TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAP. 



this system confers on some animals only the faculty of muscular 

 movement, on others this faculty together with that of feeling, 

 and on others again these two faculties together with that of forming 

 ideas, and of carrjring out by this means various acts of intelli- 

 gence. 



That the system of organs under examination fulfils four very 

 different kinds of functions, but only when it has reached a com- 

 plexity sufficient to give it the power of doing so. 



II. Of the Nervous Fluid 



That there is developed in the bodies of certain animals a very 

 subtle, invisible, containable fluid, remarkable for the rapidity 

 of its movements ; that this fluid has the faculty of exciting 

 muscular movement, and that by its means nerves which are 

 affected produce feeling ; that, when its entire mass is agitated, it 

 gives rise to inner emotions ; and that finally it is the singular 

 agent by which ideas and all intellectual acts are formed. 



III. Of Physical Sensibility and the Mechanism of 



Sensations 



That it is not true that any matter, or any part of a living body, 

 can have in itself the faculty of feeling ; but that it is true that 

 feeling is a phenomenon resulting from the functions of a special 

 system of organs capable of giving rise to it. 



That feeling is the result of action upon the subtle nervous 

 fluid of an affected nerve, which is propagated throughout the 

 nervous fluid of the sensitive system, and is terminated by a 

 general reaction which is carried back to the individual's inner 

 feeling and to the point aSeoted. 



IV. Of the Inner Feeling, the Emotions that it may 



experience, and the Power which it thence 

 derives for the Production of Actions 



That the inner feeling results from the totality of internal 

 sensations produced by the vital movements, and from the fact 

 that all parts of the nervous fluid are in communication so as to 

 form a single though divided whole, which is capable of acquiring 

 those general agitations termed emotions. 



That this inner feeling is the bond of union between the 

 physical and moral, and the origin of both ; that the feeling in 

 question on the one hand acquaints the individual with sensations 

 that he experiences (whence the physical) ; and, on the other 

 hand, gives him consciousness of his ideas and thoughts (whence 

 the moral) ; and lastly, as a result of emotions aroused by needs, 

 causes the individual to act without any participation of his will 

 (whence instinct). 



