NERVE SYSTEM. 49 



running forward and backward would bring neigh- 

 bouring ganglia, and possibly the brain also, into play. 

 Singular as this may appear to be, it is exceedingly 

 like that which is constantly occurring within our- 

 selves. If, by example, an unfortunate soldier has a 

 shot wound dividing his spine, near to the middle of 

 its length, the whole of the lower part of his body 

 will be absolutely paralysed ; he will be deprived of 

 both sensation and voluntary movements in his legs. 

 But if, now, his feet be tickled by a feather, although 

 he will feel nothing and know nothing of what is 

 occurring, unless informed by the eye, his legs will 

 plunge violently, and strive to remove the feet from 

 the source of titillation, because the irritation will be 

 carried by his leg nerves to those nerve cells of the 

 spine which are below the injury, and which exceed- 

 ingly resemble the ganglia of the insect ; and from 

 these impulses are reflected, resulting in energetic 

 action, with which his brain has, of course, nothing 

 to do, precisely as in the case of the decapitated 

 drone, which will by its legs forcibly push from it a 

 cause of annoyance, if such a word may be employed 

 in relation to that which has no consciousness. With- 

 out going to so dread an example as a wounded 

 soldier, we may constantly trace in ourselves, or our 

 friends, movements which are purely reflex, resulting 

 neither from a sensation nor a mental impression, but 

 made, possibly, in the absence of both. 



Nothing can be more striking than the difference 

 between the arrangement of the ganglia of the bee 

 larva and that of the same insect in the perfect 

 condition, unless we take into account the exceed- 



F 



