VII 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



AS with the circulatory system, so with the 

 nervous system, the work of Galen was 

 centuries ahead of its time. Before him, Aristotle, 

 who twice refers to experiments on animals, had 

 observed the brain during life : for he says, " In no 

 animal has the blood any feeling when it is touched, 

 any more than the excretions ; nor has the brain, 

 or the marrow, any feeling when it is touched " : 

 but there is reason for believing that he neither 

 recognised the purpose of the brain, nor understood 

 the distribution of the nerves. Galen, by the help 

 of the experimental method, founded the physiology 

 of the nervous system : — 



" Galen's method of procedure was totally 

 different to that of an anatomist alone. He first 

 reviewed the anatomical position, and by dissection 

 showed the continuity of the nervous system, 

 both central and peripheral, and also that some 

 bundles of nerve fibres were distributed to the skin, 

 others to the muscles. Later, by process of the 

 physiological experiment of dividing such bundles of 

 fibres, he showed that the former were sensory fibres 



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