NERVES AND TELEGRAPHIC WIRES. 487 



veins convey blood to and from the heart. If any of these 

 nerves be electrified, even after the death of the animal, or 

 after the separation of a limb from the body, muscular move- 

 ments are induced, and the limb moves as if instinct with life. 



Without these nerves we should be unable to feel the 

 severest shock, but they permeate the body so completely, 

 that not a part of the skin can be pricked without a nerve 

 being wounded. 



It is by means of these conductors that the will is made to 

 act upon the limbs. The mind, for example, desires the legs 

 to walk, and they do so, the order being transmitted to them 

 through the nerves. 



As a rule, we are unconscious of this process. But, when 

 paialysis takes place, and the nerves refuse to perform their 

 functions, the will is absolutely useless, and, however desirous 

 a man may be of walking, he cannot move a step if the nerves 

 of his legs are paralyzed. In cases where the paralysis comes 

 on slowly and in detail, the patient mostly becomes conscious 

 of the part played by the nerves, and feels that his will can to 

 a certain degree rouse the expiring powers of the nerve fluid. 



This in its turn is but the conductor for another and 

 infinitely more subtle fluid, of which our space will not allow 

 us to treat, but which forms the connecting link between body 

 and spirit. Perhaps some of my readers may have seen those 

 curious preparations of the human form, when the arteries have 

 been injected with red wax, and the veins with blue wax, and 

 then the fleshy portions dissolved away by chemical means. 



The result is a perfect human form, and even to the very 

 tips of the fingers and toes the blood-vessels follow the contour 

 of the body. Did we have means of injecting the nervous 

 system, we should arrive at similar results, except that the 

 nerves would be found infinitely more intricate than the veins 

 and arteries. Thus a human being is a series of human forms, 

 interwoven with each other, and mutually dependent on each 

 other. 



It is curious to see how the great discoveries of modern days 

 have but copied Nature. 



Take, for example, the network of telegraphic wires which is 

 day by day spreading itself over the surface of the earth, and 



