the late Sir Charles Bell. In his Bridgewater Treatise on the Hand, he has satisfactorily proved that every organ of sense is constructed with an apparatus of muscles so arranged, that, analogous to the adjusting screws, joints, and sliding tubes of the telescope, the eye and the hand, for example, may be moved in any direction in which the mind may have to SEARCH for its object. Now in each of these muscles the fibres of two nerves ramify-one to excite the contractions and give direction to the muscles; the second, to convey to the mind the sensation roused by such contractions. By these pliant means, the adjustments required both for sensation and volition are effected. "Placed between two worlds, the invisible and material, our nervous system conveys cognition from each." By these important additions to our knowledge of structure and function of the organs of sense, Sir Charles Bell has demonstrably decided a question of deep metaphysical importance, that in sensation the mind is active as well as passive; that as vision (for example) is less distinct in parts of the retina in pro

portion to their distance from the central point, the mind is roused by an indistinct view of its object to will its movements in SEARCH of a more distinct view of it. Not contented with a sight, it searches for an insight.*

That this indistinctness of vision occurs in the unadjusted eye, any one may satisfy himself by the following easy experiment:-" If a candle is placed at the distance of ten feet, and a finger is set up at arm's length between the eyes and the candle, when the candle is looked at, the finger will appear double, and when the finger alone is looked at, the candle will be seen double; and the same thing happens with regard to all other objects at like distances which fall within the sphere of vision. In this phenomenon," says Dr. Reid (on the Mind)," it is evident to those

* Confirmation of this will be found in words wrongly called synonymous, I believe, in every language—we must look before we can see distinctly; we must listen before we can hear (in the Stock Exchange, at least) what any individual is saying; we must handle, before we can feel the texture of a cloth. Though Lady Macbeth's eyes were open, their sense was shut.

who understand the principles of Optics, that the pictures of the objects which are seen double do not fall upon the points of the retina which are similarly situated, but that the pictures of the objects seen single do fall on points similarly situated." It follows from this, that, "when we look at an object, the circumjacent objects may be seen at the same time, although more indistinctly, and this it is which excites the APPETITE of the organ to search for a more distinct and satisfactory sensation."

If, then, there is no error in this inductive process, we may, I think, safely infer, that every organ of sense has its specific excitors. That of the eye, is light; that of the ear, sound; that of smell, fragrance; of taste, flavour; of touch, gradations of pressure; and that when the APPETITE of each sense is once roused, it searches by means of its adjusting apparatus for the object by which it is to be gratified.*

* I am persuaded it will be found, on due attention to what passes while any sense is gratified by its appropriate object, that such sense has as distinct an appetite for such object as the stomach for food.

The youth Mitchell, blind, deaf, and dumb, whose case is given with such philosophical accuracy by the late Professor Stewart and and Mr. Wardrop, by whom he was couched, passed hours at a time in searching for the light and sound, from which he received impressions too faint to enable him to distinguish definite objects, but still sufficient to gratify the senses which they thus pleasingly excited.

Now all the adjustments essentially necessary for the well-being of an animal are spontaneous-without consciousness-without volition or interference of the mind; and many reciprocally excite each other. As stated in a former page, a dash of cold water on the surface excites the sentient nerves of the skin. The nerves, so excited, induce such change in the spinal cord as to oblige it to excite the muscles moving the ribs. The chest is thus expanded-fresh air is inhaled— that condition is given to the blood on which its vitality depends-and it is now the appropriate exciter of the action of the heart and all the arteries of the body. This I

believe to be the real material source of animal vitality.*

the

* Eggs hatched in ovens become abortive unless supplied abundantly with fresh air and water. Without a continual supply of water from an evaporating basin the constituent water of the egg would be withdrawn by the heated and dry air of the oven, and the organisation of the egg would be destroyed. Without oxygen of fresh air its vitality during the transition of its structure to that of a bird would perish, as proved by all experiments on suspended animation. I have found that zinc and silver applied to the cut end of a perfectly dry nerve excited no contraction in the muscles to which it was distributed. The sensibility of all sentient nerves is more excitable when wet than when dry. It was probably this appetite for water in Beethoven's sense of touch which so often gave annoyance to his landladies. By imbibition of water, the stricture of the skin confining, when dry and contracted, the sentient extremities of nerves, is relaxed, and oygen of the air freely admitted. But air withcut water (as was shown by Dr. Priestley's experiment of dark venous blood becoming bright red when exposed to a current of air in a wet bladder) would not probably impart vitality. This, as well as temperature, should be taken into the account in estimating the effects of baths. The late Baron Larry, in his narrative of Bonaparte's campaigns, gives a vivid report of the exhilarating effects on his vitality produced by the friction and shampooing he so much enjoyed in the baths of Egypt.