ABSTRACT OF THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
3 
correlative sciences, as well as the use of the microscope, alone 
made it possible. 
Still, to quote Ladd, " it is a surprise, from which investigation 
can never recover, to find that the connection between our sensa- 
tions, mental images, and volitions, and the peculiar material 
constitution and functions of the cerebral mass of nervous matter, 
should be so intimate as it undoubtedly is." 
The doctrine of Evolution also had a helping hand in drawing 
attention to the relative facts of mind and nervous system ; for if 
the mind, as we find it in human beings, was placed ready-made 
in the human body, with all its emotions and capacities for actions 
and re-actions, a solution of the manner of their connection seems 
at once hopeless ; but if, on the other hand, mind and body have 
grown up together through a struggle of ages from the most 
elementary form, their intimate connection would be natural, and 
their relations capable of being traced. Those who pursued this 
enquiry in Comparative Physiology found facts to accord with this 
conception. 
Without recapitulating the order and increment of complexity, 
it may be stated that the fundamental part of all nervous systems 
seems to be a central cellular or granular mass, supposed to be 
capable of sensation, forming ideas, purposes, &c. ; from this, or 
these ganglia, nerves run to the extremities and other parts of 
the body. These may be classed under two heads. Around one 
class are formed the active organs of the body, as muscles and 
glands ; around the other class are grouped the perceptive organs, 
as eyes, ears, &c. The generally received opinion is, that stimuli 
from the external world, impinging on the perceptive organs, 
cause these to transmit a message to the central ganglia, where an 
idea is formed from the message, judgment formed as to the 
relative import of the information received, and a suitable 
combination of active organs stimulated through the other or 
efferent nerves to make what efforts the exigencies of the case 
require. In man there are a great many of these ganglia, known 
as the spinal cord, the medulla oblongata, cerebellum, cerebrum, &c, 
as well as a great many smaller ones scattered about the body. 
This circle of action, i.e., first external stimulus on the organ of 
sense, transmission of intelligence to central ganglia, and trans- 
mission thence of co-ordinated action, is called the law of " reflex 
action." 
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