12 Minute Anatomy of the ['^^S^S! jaCary "igf 
ordinary conditions appear to remain pretty constant; and if we 
admit the necessity of a circuit, of whatever nature, between sensory, 
sentient, motor, and functional or ganglionic nerve-fibres as absolutely 
complete at all parts, though not equally apparent, we should expect 
an impulse made at any point felt throughout the rest : whether this 
impulse were made through the medium of intervening tissues, 
which might modify its abruptness, or made directly, if it could be 
effected without injury, on the nerves themselves, the difference 
being simply whether the impulse be firstly directed centripetally or 
centrifugally; hence, if we show the peripheral plexuses among 
the single nucleated efferent and afferent fibres and single fibres 
from the dark-bordered nerve-fibres to be very widely related amongst 
each other — in fact continuous, externally and internally — then we 
might expect an irritation made at any part of the body would in- 
fluence the entire system ; yet this scarcely appears the case in the 
ordinar}^ condition : but suppose some trivial injury is received in a 
part distant from the centro-spinal centre, for a few days it may be 
almost unnoticed (though doubtless at the time of the injury the re- 
sponse in muscles, capillaries, &c., was duly made) until stiffness of 
the muscles of the neck and jaw, with other symptoms, indicate the 
peculiar irritability attendant on trismus, or lock-jaw; what then 
constitutes the difterence between these two conditions ? Here the 
exalted state of all parts of the surface and centre of the nervous 
system would tend to show their general connection ; or we might 
take an opposite condition induced by syncope or cold. Whether 
then should we consider the whole nervous system as made up of 
an innumerable number of small circuits (Dr. Beale's continuous 
and constantly passing currents), each controlling the parts with 
which it is in immediate relation, by position or function, without 
interfering with adjoining parts, but capable of such individual 
exaltation as to pass beyond its own boundary by contiguity of 
tissue or by participation in the primary impression by virtue of its 
general exaltation — or whether we should regard the whole nervous 
system as one circuit, one primary circuit only, which begins with 
the life of the individual before any distinct nerve-substance can be 
detected, and which harmonizes the first circulation of the embryo 
chick, but which, under the power of growth, adds to itself through 
life ; enlarging its stations, perfecting, exalting, or diminishing its 
powers ; no portion of which could be impressed in any way with- 
out its effect passing to the complete system; but that without 
duration or primary intensity, the secondary transmission or dis- 
tribution of the original impulse would not overcome the harmonic 
balance of normal relations, in other words, would not disturb its 
normal statical condition by induced currents, — is unsettled. 
Thus ^e might add to or diminish the impressionability up to 
a certain point without any noticeable correspondence or recognition ; 
