he
disturbance propagates itself before your eyes to the other end, the
onward march of the disturbance being announced by the development of
heat and fumes along the line of propagation. In some such way the
molecules of the nerves are successively overthrown; and if Mr. Gore
could only devise some means of winding up his exhausted antimony, as
the nutritive blood winds up exhausted nerves, the comparison would be
complete. The subject may be summed up, as Du Bois-Reymond has summed
it up, by reference to the case of a whale struck by a harpoon in the
tail. If the animal were 70 feet long, a second would elapse before
the disturbance could reach the brain. But the impression after its
arrival has to diffuse itself and throw the brain into the molecular
condition necessary to consciousness. Then, and not till then, the
command to the tail to defend itself is shot through the motor nerves.
Another second must elapse before the command can reach the tail, so
that more than two seconds transpire between the infliction of the
wound and the muscular response of the part wounded. The interval
required for the kindling of consciousness would probably more than
suffice for the destruction of the brain by lightning, or even by a
rifle-bullet. Before the organ can arrange itself it may, therefore,
be destroyed, and in such a case we may safely conclude that death is
painless.

*****

The experiences of common life supply us with copious instances of the
liberation of vast stores of muscular power by an infinitesimal
'priming' of the muscles by the nerves. We all know the effect
produced on a 'nervous' organisation by a slight sound which causes
affright. An aerial wave, the energy of which would not reach a
minute fraction of that necessary to raise the thousandth of a grain
through the thousandth of an inch, can throw the whole human frame
into a powerful mechanical spasm, followed by violent respiration and
palpitation. The eye of course, may be appealed to as well as the
ear. Of this the lamented Lange gives the following vivid
illustration:

A merchant sits complacently in his easy chair, not knowing whether
smoking, sleeping, newspaper reading, or the digestion of food
occupies the largest portion of his personality. A servant enters the
room with a telegram bearing the words, 'Antwerp, &c... Jonas
and Co. have failed.' 'Tell James to harness the horses!' The servant
flies. Upstairs the merchant, wide awa