wills, be transmitted from a station in twenty new directions.

the legs in the foregoing cases appears to be given by the contact of the extremities with the solid surface on which they rest. In other instances the appropriate impression can only be made by the contact of a liquid. Thus a water beetle, having had its head removed, remained motionless as long as it rested on a dry surface, but when cast into water, it executed the usual swimming motions with great energy and rapidity, striking all its comrades to one side by its violence, and persisting in these for more than half an hour."*

FIGURE 7.-SECTION OF THE SPINAL CORD.

the little collections of nervous cells with which the several parts are connected by their nerves; while impulses derived from their "brain" serve only to harmonize, control, and direct their spon

In its simplest form this is called the "reflex function"-a name given to it by Dr. Marshall Hall, to whose investigations we owe much of our knowledge respecting the laws of nervous action. The idea of a reflex action is simply that to which reference has been made before; a stimulus to one part of the body being conveyed by a conductor to the cells at the centre, and "reflected" by them upon another, which it excites to activity. Thus, for example, a pinch or prick of the skin excites the muscles to contract. The name of "reflex" has been given to this action, because it may, and in many cases naturally does, take place without consciousness. There may be no feeling and no will, yet actions having all the appearance of design may be produced. Thus in some cases of paralysis, when, owing to an injury of the spinal cord, all sensibility and all voluntary power, in respect to one or more of the limbs, are abolish- Facts of this kind prove that the ordinary ed, a pinch or tickling of the paralyzed member movements of the legs and wings, in insects and will cause it to be withdrawn, without any con- similar animals, are effected not by a direct efsciousness on the patient's part. This is an ex-fort of will, but reflexly, through the medium of hibition of the reflex function of the spinal cord. Similar results, of even more striking character, may be produced at will in the lower creatures. We know how long decapitated insects continue to move their limbs; how vigorously, for exam-taneous motions. The spinal cord in ourselves ple, a headless wasp plies his sting. "If the head of a centipede be cut off while it is in motion, the body will continue to move onward by the action of the legs; and the same will take place in the separate parts if the body be divided into several distinct portions. After these actions have come to an end, they may be excited again by irritating any part of the nervous centres or the cut extremity of the nervous cord. The body is moved forward by the regular and successive action of the legs, as in the natural state, but its movements are always forward, never backward, and are only directed to one side when the forward movement is checked by an obstacle. If, again, the nervous cord of a centipede be divided in the middle of the trunk, so that the hinder legs are cut off from connection with the head, they will continue to move, but not in harmony with those of the fore-part of the body, being completely paralyzed so far as the animal's controlling power is concerned, though still capable of performing reflex move-tributed are at the same time thrown into conments by the influence of their own nerve cells, which may thus continue to propel the body in opposition to the determinations of the animal itself. The case is still more remarkable when the nervous cord is not merely divided, but a portion of it is entirely removed from the middle of the trunk; for the anterior legs still remain obedient to the animal's control, the legs of the segments from which the cord has been removed are altogether motionless, while those of the posterior segments continue to act in a manner which shows that the animal has no power of checking or directing them.

"The stimulus to the reflex movements of

has a similar office. Figure 7 represents a section of it, about its middle portion. A nerve is seen proceeding from it on each side. The white portions in the figure represent the external layers of the cord, which consist of white fibres; the dark part represents the central cellular or gray matter. Each nerve arises from the cord by two roots: the anterior one is the nerve of motion, or that which conveys impulses from the centre to the muscles; the posterior is the nerve of sensation, which conveys impulses from the skin and other parts to the centre. It will be seen that the posterior root alone is in immediate connection with the gray matter. This root also has a small mass of nerve cells situated upon it, a short distance from its origin; the motor root has none. While the nerve is perfect, if it be irritated (as by galvanism, pricking, etc.) at any point below the junction of its roots, the animal gives signs of pain, and some or all of the muscles to which it is dis

traction. But the proof that these two "roots" of the nerve (or two nerves, as they should perhaps be considered, though they are bound up in one sheath) have different offices, is this: If the roots are separately divided, sensation is cut off by the division of the posterior, and the power of voluntary notion by that of the anterior root. At the same time, irritation of the posterior root above the point of division causes pain, and irritation of the anterior below the point at which it is divided still produces movement in the muscles. This was an experiment of Sir Charles Bell's, and it puts it beyond question that the Dr. Carpenter.

nerves which convey sensation upward and those which carry motor impulses downward are different.

We have called the nerve which carries impressions upward sensitive; and so it is, but only by virtue of the connection of the cord with the brain. If it be cut off from that, sensation ceases, but as before shown, all the actions which sensation ordinarily prompts do not cease. The spinal cord is organized as a centre for reflex action in the highest animals, as the simple nervous cord is in insects; and similar results to those which are produced in insects when connection with the head is severed ensue also, under like circumstances, in quadrupeds and man, though less powerfully, and lasting for a very brief interval. A fowl flaps her wings and struggles for several seconds after the spinal cord is completely divided. And in reptiles, in which the processes of life, being less vigorous, are also less rapidly exhausted, reflex actions will continue a long time after complete removal of the brain. A frog, for example, in such a condition will put up its leg as if to push away any thing that irritates its side. Cut off, therefore, from the brain, the nerve called sensitive still produces an effect, and induces more or less perfectly its appropriate action, although no sensation accompanies it. An action of this kind is called automatic.*

motion at the centre, and motion produces quasisensation at the extremes. Thus, the foot on the ground represents sensation, and that in progress motion, and the two contemplated together represent the links in a chain of nervous fate."

This automatic action is the foundation of our nervous life; but other forms of life are in immediate relation with it, modifying and controlling it, and reducing it to a diminished amount and importance. Just as the animal rises in the scale, so do its lower, or automatic functions receive more influence from those above them, and express more fully the dictates of consciousness and will. Man is the least automatic of all animals, through the greater preponderance of his conscious part, which uses the automatic organs as its ever ready instrument. But the instrument must exist or it could not be used; and constantly supreme as is the rational part in man, it can exercise this supremacy only because the inferior, and merely physical powers, are ever waiting on its behests.

At the upper part of the spinal cord there is added on another set of nervous centres-masses, that is, of gray matter-which preside over other actions, those, namely, of breathing and of eating. These are still essentially automatic, yet less purely so than some of those whose seat is lower down the cord. They are situated in an expanded portion of the spinal cord, just below its junction with the brain; and here is found a special part of the nervous system, the destruction of which is at once fatal to life. Not, however, because there is any special vitality connected with it, but simply because on it depends the performance of respiration. To this part is conveyed the stimulus arising from the presence of impure blood in the lungs or in the system at large, and from it radiates the influence which calls into play the group of muscles which ex

Thus we live an automatic life, in which various actions are carried on merely by virtue of the mechanical powers in the organs, and the arrangement of the nerves and cells within the spinal cord. We may call this our spinal life. It is the entire life, probably, of the lowest animals, whose functions are thus taken up into our being, and made a basis on which is erected the superstructure of our conscious, our human, life. By means of it we perform the actions which we can carry on without any heed, or even knowl-pand the chest. A sensation-the need of breathedge of their taking place. Walking, when our attention is wholly absorbed in something else, affords a good illustration of an action performed automatically. "When we are walking without attending to our steps, the foot coming down to the ground conveys the quasi-sensation of its contact to the spinal centres; these are roused to a corresponding motion; in other words, they command the muscles of the other leg to put it into a forward movement. No sooner is this executed than at the end of the movement another manifest quasi-sensation (an impression which might be felt but is not) is afforded by the fresh contact with the earth, which contact, reaching the centres, engenders a second motion, and so forth, throughout the walk. There is a simple circle, in which quasi-sensation excites

The proof that there is no sensation when the connection with the brain is severed is given by cases of paraly. sis from disease or injury, in which this severance is effected, and consciousness in respect to the parts thus cut off is wholly wanting. It has been argued that there is a consciousness a sensation-pertaining to the cord itself; but this is not within the ordinary meaning of the term, and that question belongs at present wholly to the domain of speculation.

ing-which becomes overpowering when long resisted, is normally connected with the performance of respiration; but this is not essential. In profound coma, or unconsciousness from disease, and under the action of chloroform, respi. ration continues, though slowly, and with diminished energy. The case is the same with the

act of swallowing, which, like breathing, is automatic so far as the act itself is concerned, being produced without, and even against, our will, upon the contact of food with the upper part of the throat; and though normally connected with certain sensations, will yet take place in their absence. We swallow during sleep, and infants born with the brain wholly wanting can both breathe and suck. Figure 8 represents the upper portion of the spinal cord, on which three actions depend.

or involuntary jerks and twitchings, and, in brief, all that condition known by the expressive name of "fidgets," and which will sometimes affect the best-meaning people at the most unbecoming times. This affection is capable of a sufficiently simple explanation. The nervous centres which control the muscular activity (that "reflex" or involuntary activity which has been described) are then in a state of undue excitement, and yielding to stimuli too slight, or without any external stimulus at all, they call the muscles into irregular and spasmodic contraction. Cramps and a tendency to involuntary sighing are often due to a similar condition; the muscles themselves, however, sometimes sharing with the spinal cord in an increased excitability.

Each of these partly automatic actions has a special nerve appropriated as its excitor, that is, a nerve which receives impressions from the organs concerned-the lung cells on the one hand, and the surface of the back part of the mouth on the other. These nerves convey a stimulus What is the source of this irritability which to the centre, and from thence it is diffused renders it impossible to keep the muscles still? through other nerves (of motion) to the muscles We can answer, in general, that irritability by which the appointed action is effected. But means weakness-it is a tendency to too easy an the excitement of these muscles is not depend- overthrow of the balance in which the living ent on this special nerve alone; respiration es- textures exist; the excessive action arises from pecially has the widest relations, and almost all too rapid a decay. A philosophical physician the sensitive nerves in the body may rouse or compares it to the whirling movement of the modify it. The sudden inspiration produced hands of a watch of which the mainspring is by the shock of cold water on the skin is a fa- broken; and the eminent French experimentalmiliar instance of this kind of action. ist, M. Claude Bernard, has thrown a light on this condition by pointing out that an unnatural

living animal at a period immediately preceding the death of the part. In our physical as in our moral nature, strength is calm, patient, orderly; weakness hurries, can not be at rest, attempts too much. The force which, in the living frame, binds up the elements into organic forms, being relaxed, too easily permits them to sink down, and ineffectual mimicries of energy ensue.

Above all these parts comes the brain, containing the nervous centres which subserve feel-proneness to activity exists in every organ of a ing, thought, and will; but the description of these we must leave to another time, and also of the means by which all these separate parts are harmoniously blended into one, and made to co-operate in every action of the man. In the mean time we see what the method is by which a basis is laid for our higher life of consciousness and moral choice, in the subordination to these powers of an animal machine, in which the processes requisite for maintaining life are carried on of themselves. If we had to perform the actions that have been enumerated by direct volitions, all our energy would be squandered upon them, and we should have no time for any thing better. Breathing alone would occupy all our life, if each breath were a distinct voluntary act. By the committal of so much to a mere unconscious operation of nervous power, mind is emancipated, and placed in its fit relations; devoted to other interests and burdened with nobler cares.

This lower portion of the nervous system, however, controlling as it does the functions of chief necessity to life, is of paramount importance to health. Derangements of its action are seen in the paroxysms of asthma and the seizures of epilepsy, in both of which affections the muscles are thrown into excessive contraction through a morbid condition induced in the spinal cord. Of a different order are that languor and feeling of utter disability for muscular exertion which creep over us at times. These feelings show that the nerve-centres which preside over muscular exertion have become oppressed and sluggish, perhaps through being badly nourished for want of proper exercise. Of a different kind, again, are tremblings of the muscles,

But how is living strength to be insured in respect to the functions we have spoken of? The laws we have been tracing give us a partial answer to this question. Strength in the living body (for reasons that it would be very interesting to trace) is maintained by the full but natural exercise of each organ; and as we have seen, the action of these portions of the nervous system is made dependent upon influences conveyed to them by the sensitive nerves distributed over the various parts of the body. And among these the nerves passing to the skin are the chief. The full access of all healthful stimuli to the surface, and its freedom from all that irritates or impedes its functions, are the first external conditions of the normal vigor of this nervous circle. Among these stimuli fresh air and pure water hold the first place. Sufficient warmth is second. The great and even wonderful advantages of cleanliness are partly referable to the direct influence of a skin healthily active, open to all the natural stimuli, and free from morbid irritation upon the nerve-centres of which it is the appointed excitant. This influence is altogether distinct from those cleansing functions which the healthy skin performs for the blood; and in any just estimate of its value is far too important to be overlooked.

That state of general vigor which we call

the royal pardon of Louis Philippe, and almost a hint that his return would be welcome, had power to move him. "I am tired of kings," he said; and to the day of his death he occupied himself in writing, and sometimes publishing, sharp satires upon their form of government.

Young,

With such a precedent it is not strange that the daughter should go farther still. ardent, enthusiastic, and moreover French, the name of freedom became to her in time fraught with wide meaning. At twenty, then, we find her an orphan, and sole possessor of an ample fortune-a dangerous position, truly, but there were events closing about her path more dangerous than these.

"Tone" also depends upon the healthy action | the lovely but ill-fated Madame Roland, and a of these nervous centres. It consists in a ha- lineage that claims the blood of Dessaix and the bitual moderate contraction of the muscles, due Viosmenel. But Clotilde has a republican herito a constant stimulus exerted on them by the tage as well. Her father, who died only last spinal cord, and is valuable less for itself than year, adopted America into his heart many years as a sign of a sound nervous balance. Tone is before, when he fled from France in consequence maintained partly by healthful impressions ra- of a duel with one nearly allied to the throne. diated upon the spinal cord, through the nerves, In time he thought to return. He never refrom all parts of the body, and partly by the turned. In America he found free scope to exstimulus poured down upon it from the brain. press his republican ideas and freedom to live So it is disturbed by whatever conveys irritating them out. Settling in New Orleans, not even or depressing influences in either direction. A single injudicious meal, a single sleepless night, a single passion or piece of bad news will destroy it. On the other hand, a vivid hope, a cheerful resolve, an absorbing interest will restore it as if by magic. For in man these lower officers in the nervous hierarchy draw their very breath according to the biddings of the higher powers. But the dependence of the higher on the lower is no less direct. The mutual action takes place in each line. A chief condition of keeping the brain healthy is to keep these unconscious nervous functions in full vigor and in natural alternations of activity and repose. Thus it is that (besides its effect in increasing the breathing and the general vigor of the vital processes) Yet on this night of May she sits there playmuscular exercise has so manifest a beneficial ing in a dream of other days-her childhood's influence on a depressed or irritable state of days; and her thoughts are as unconscious of mind. The bodily movement, by affording an peril as in those early years when her father gave outlet to the activity of the spinal cord, with- her her first ideas of republicanism and her modraws a source of irritation from the brain; or ther related to her fascinating tales of the past, it may relieve excitement of that organ by car- and inspired her with an enthusiasm almost rying off its energy into a safe channel. We equal to her own for the hero of Elba and St. see evidence of the same law in the delightful Helena, under whom her ancestor, Dessaix, had effect of a cheerful walk, and in the demand for won honor and renown. violent exertion which is so frequent in insanity. Every part of the nervous system makes its influence felt by all the rest. A sort of constitutional monarchy exists within us; no power in this small state is absolute, or can escape the checks and limitations which the other powers impose. Doubtless the brain is King; but Lords and Commons have their seats below, and guard their privilege with jealous zeal. If the "constitution" of our personal realm is to be preserved intact, it must be by the efforts of each part lawfully directed to a common end.

CLOTILDE AND THE CONTRA-
BAND.

CLOT

YLOTILDE at the piano played lingering chords-slow strains of Oratorios, or convent chorals and chants, humming softly meanwhile accompanying words in purely-uttered French. Without the night was dark and gloomy. Rain pattered, thunder muttered, and lightning flashed its fiery lances athwart the dense sky. Within all was radiance. Splendors of silk and damask, treasures of art and taste, illumined by the rosy flames which streamed abroad from the tinted shades of the chandelier. A scene of luxury, and Clotilde playing at the piano-Clotilde, a young girl of French birth and parentage, whose face brings to mind the portraits of

All the late traditions of her mother's family turned upon "mon Empereur;" and the "conqueror" was never more fondly eulogized, nor his cruelle captivité more indignantly deplored, than in those stories which the young French mother told her child. Clearly had Clotilde treasured them in her memory-splendid stories of daring and valor, that lit the flame of patriotic ardor to burn on unquenched through a lifetime. But sitting at the piano there, playing that old music of her dead mother's, you see nothing of this. Only a fair girl, with a calm face veiled with pensiveness, which accords well with the Church canticles and convent chorals.

Suddenly a new sound breaks in upon the evening murmurs of the street. Tramp, tramp, tramp! heavily they file by on the pavement below, a body of men newly organized to protect "Southern rights."

Tramp, tramp, tramp! The face at the piano drops its cloistered veil, and there dawns upon it the blending of heroism and resolve that marks the face of Madame Roland.

She starts from her seat. She goes to the window and leans out, heedless of the rain that dashes into her face and against her breast. When she turns away her cheek is flushed from its accustomed rose into vivid scarlet, and at that moment the door opens. She springs forward.

"Ah, Maurice, it is you! I am so glad! | point a glance at Ralston arrested further speech. What news?"

"Mille pardonne, Mademoiselle; I but threw the plural in to save your courtesy the pains; but I assure you I am not too sensitive to assume the whole burden of the interruption." Her color returned, her native dignity now insolent withal-one with whom she had never asserted itself.

Clotilde, without answering, returned to her and beauty, and fashion" not inconsistent with first question,

With a warning expression, which she did not heed, Maurice unfolded a newspaper and commenced reading: "Reinforcements of the army called for-wheel, left him the possessor of a princely forskirmish near the Potomac, and several of the Federals taken prisoners," etc.; lastly, "News from Europe. England and France declared neutral."

"France!" the girl listener exclaimed, amazement ringing in her tones. "France!"-and this time the voice was both indignant and sorrowful. "Oh my country! But it is not true; there is some mistake; France will never join with England in this cold disregard. She will not so soon forget St. Helena. She was a faith-spise their very sound. ful friend to America in her early struggle. She will not fail her now, when traitors at her own hearth-stone threaten utter destruction to the Union!"

In her earnestness she had forgotten the pres-out his hand, while a smile of singular sweetence of Mr. Ralston; but her cousin had not, and he bit his lip uneasily, for these were dangerous sentiments to utter in such days as had come upon them.