KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



more masses of a gelatinous substance, very 

 vascular, of different color and consistence, 

 which give rise to white threads, called nervous 

 filaments. These filaments unite and form 

 nerves, nervous chords, which go to this or that 

 viscus and there spread themselves. These 

 masses of gelatinous substance, called ganglions 

 or plexuses, these sources of nervous filaments 

 and the nerves formed from them, are more 

 or less numerous, according to the number 

 of parts or viscera with which the animal is pro- 

 vided, and for which they are destined. 



These nervous apparatuses exist, even in ani- 

 mals which have neither spinal marrow nor 

 brain ; consequently, their origin and their action 

 in these imperfect animals are independent of 

 all other nervous systems. 



They are the type of the nervous system of the 

 viscera, of the abdomen, of the chest, and of the 

 vessels of animals of the most perfect organisa- 

 tion, and of man. 



As long as there exists in an animal of the 

 lower order, a sole internal part, and a sole gang- 

 lion with its nervous filaments, this nerve acts in 

 an insulated manner; but as soon as, in a 

 single individual, the existence of several organs 

 renders several ganglions and several nerves 

 necessary, these ganglions and these nerves ordi- 

 narily enter into communication by means of 

 filaments, passing from one to the other. 



There are then as many of these ganglions 

 and of these different nerves, as there are dif- 

 ferent viscera; and as each viscus is destined to 

 a particular use, to digestion, to the secretion of 

 bile or semen y as each viscus has its specific 

 irritability, these ganglions and these nerves 

 must necessarily have their interior structure and 

 their functions, differing from each other. 



It is probable, that in animals, even of the 

 lowest order, this nervous system is endowed 

 with sensibility; but in man, and the higher 

 animals, it is, like the spinal marrow and the 

 nerves of the senses, entirely under the dominion 

 of the brain. In a state of health, the viscera 

 and the vessels execute their functions without 

 any volition on our part, and without our having 

 the slightest consciousness of the fact : the intes- 

 tines are in fact in continual motion; they 

 choose the nutriment winch suits them, and 

 reject heterogeneous substances; they form the 

 secretions and the excretions. 



But, we have seen that vegetables present to 

 us similar phenomena: the capacity of being 

 stimulated, of re-acting against stimulus, a cha- 

 racter of irritability, ought not to be confounded, 

 as most physiologists do confound it, with the 

 faculty of perceiving a stimulus, of having a con- 

 sciousness of it, of feeling it. The perception, 

 the consciousness of an irritation, of an impres- 

 sion, are inseparable from the nerve of sensation. 

 Sensation, or organic sensibility without con- 

 sciousness, is a contradiction in terms, but a 

 contradiction very sagely preserved and professed 

 in our schools. Sensibility, or the faculty of 

 feeling, constitutes the essential character of the 

 animal. When the changes produced by an 

 impression take place without consciousness, 

 they must be considered the result of irritability, 

 and as belonging to automatic life; but when 

 changes take place with consciousness, with per- 



ception, with sensation, this act of consciousness, 

 of perceiving, belongs to the animal life. 



" But," you will say, " admitting that, in a 

 state of perfect health, we have no consciousness 

 of what passes in the heart, stomach, liver, &c, 

 still we feel hunger and thirst, and the need of 

 certain evacuations; we experience trouble, un- 

 easiness, and pains, in the intestines, &c, and in 

 general it would be difficult to find a part of the 

 body, the bones, tendons, and even hair, not 

 excepted, which may not, under certain circum- 

 stances, transmit sensations, and consequently 

 become an organ of animal life. How happens 

 this?" 



We have seen, that the ganglions and nerves 

 of the viscera and vessels communicate together; 

 they send several filaments of communication 

 to the spinal marrow, and this is immediately 

 connected with the brain. It is thus that all 

 the impressions on the other nervous systems are 

 transmitted to the centre of all sensibility, and 

 that the influence of all the nerves on the brain, 

 and of the brain on all the nerves, is established. 

 It is for this reason, that the nervous apparatus 

 of the chest and abdomen has received the name 

 of sympathetic nerve, or, because its branches of 

 communication take their course between the 

 ribs to the spinal marrow, the intercostal nerve. 

 Besides these means of reciprocal action and 

 reaction, several nerves of the spinal marrow and 

 of the head, such as the hypoglossal nerve, the 

 glosso-pharyngeal, the abductor, the facial nerve, 

 unite themselves with the sympathetic. 



The organs of both lives can only perform 

 their special functions in proportion to their 

 development, to their organic function. Before 

 the liver, the kidneys, the stomach, are formed, 

 there can be no secretion of bile, of urine, of 

 gastric juice; in like manner, the propensities 

 and talents cannot unfold themselves until the 

 brain is developed. 



The divers ganglions, plexuses and nerves of 

 the sympathetic, are not developed simultane- 

 ously ; and for this reason, the functions of the 

 organs of vegetable life do not commence and 

 terminate simultaneously. It is the same with 

 the various ganglions and pairs of nerves of the 

 spinal marrow and of the nerves of the senses. 

 Their successive and independent development 

 and death, explain their successive and inde- 

 pendent perfection and failure of the various 

 organs of voluntary motion, and of the senses. 



I shall hereafter prove, that the different con- 

 stituent parts of the brain, each of which is 

 destined to a peculiar function, are equally sub- 

 jected to successive development and destruc- 

 tion. This explains how instincts, propensities, 

 and talents do not all either appear or fail, at the 

 same periods of life. 



OUR CLIMATE. 



Our "horrid climate," so fertile in ca- 

 tarrhs, rheumatism, and blue devils, — what 

 can be said of it ? But what should prompt 

 the invalid to fly — the mere creature of 

 skiey influences to pack up and depart — the 

 devout admirer of nature's loveliness to 

 hasten to some more genial clime ? Our 



