The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-11-03
OUR BRAINS AND NERVES
What They are and How Tho
Work-Dr. Lilo Lewis Ex
plains it in an lntalli-
gent Manner.

If you prick a tree it keaps yo,,
still; no crying and no wincing. ~
if you prick a dog it yelps and jnmns
The tree hos no ne e This 81,
plains why the tree keeps 50 s,ill and
why the dog makes such a fuss.
A nerve is a white threa. runnin.
between two different parts Of r.,
body. Its business is to carry MO,
sages. You pinch the enc of a doo,s
tail. There are white threads run,
ming from the end of a dogs tail f.
his brain. The message sent ova,
these is the following:
To Headquarters in the .,kn,l
There is all awful pinching here.
iIPENOOFrAIl.
When the message reaches tha
br lin and is recorded and considered
there, the brain sends back at onca
the following message:
TIPENDOFTAIL: Jerk away 5rnm
the pinch quick:
COMMANDEr-IN CHER
headquarters,
The tail is jerked away and every
thug is | ,veiy again. 1t is not the
same white thread that conveys the
pinching message, that brings hack
the jerking message. They look
alike, but they arenot alike. The one
that carries the message from the end
of the tail to the brain is called th,.
nerve of feeling, and the white thread
that brings back the message from
the bl ain to the tail, commanding
it to jerk, is called the nerve Of n o
ton.
You will say that these messages
pass between Il dogs head and his
tail NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. quick as
lightning, that there Is no time for
framing formal messages. You are
mistaken.
The nature OF the nerve force en-
ployed in convey ing messages is not
understood. Before the discovery Of
electricity, 1t was thought that the
''animal spirlts' circulated in the
nerves. Since the discovery Of cleo
tricity, some psychologists hold that
the nerve force is electricity, and that
the white threads are simply con-
ductors and electricity. But no q
yet has dissolved electricity in the
nervous system.
Besides, the differencein the veIoc-
ity of the electric fluid and the nerve
fluid is SO great that ~ can hardly
believe that they are the same. The
experienced of Wheatstone proves that
electricity moves at the rate of 445, 900
miles a second: while Heimhoitz has
demonstrated that the velocity Of the
nerve fluid is not more than eighty
eight feet per second. II would
take the nerve fluid more than 200
days to pass through the distance
which Wheatstone's experiments
prove electricity achieves in one sec
ond. The supposition that the two
are identical, in view Of this amazing
difference in velocity, ein absurd.
If a dog were g thousand miles
long it would take sixteen hours for
a message to go from the end of his
tail and back again. You might cut
Oft his tail vnd carry it from New
York to C}eveIank before the news
could get to the dogs head and q
message come back t. Jerk. And
when the message 10 jerk arrived
there would be no tail there To JERK.
it should be remarked here that
messages travel faster on the nerves
of some people than on those Of 9th
ers. When you tell good story, five
persons will laugh at once, but Il
solemn looking man will remain SOL
emn for some seconds and double
himself up in commissions. It took
longer for the thing to work on him.
but such people have one advantage
a funny story works strong on them
when it does reach the brain.
might as well say just here that
there are several kinds of nerves
One kind conveys message Of feel
ing. We call these'nerves o. feeling
kind conveys messages
commanding motion. We call them
"nerves of notion" Another kind
attends to the business OF nutrition,
building up and taking down the
parts of the body. We call those
''nerves of assimilation Then there
is another sort called ''nerves o;
sense" There are four OF
these, known respectively as nerves
Of hearing, sight, smell and taste.
Most people think,i they come up
on a nerve in dissecting a body, that
- of course a nerve of feeling. But
now you see the chances are six t.
one that the nerve you are examin-
ing is not engaged in feeling, tut III
quite a different business. 1t may
be in the motion line, Or it may be
The nutrit On or provision JraGe, or
it may be a member OF the firm Of
senses.
When the message from the dogs
all arrives in bis brain 1t there IN
1ergOes a wonderful manipulation
before the message to jerk is ready TO
sent back. The brain net only
cells, but thinks, cnntriyes, Judges
md wills. 1t takes 2 marvellous
hing to do all that. in all G dS
Universe, the brain alone can perform
hese feats.
The brain is a miracle WORKED. It
caches out lis hands, fakes irene the
'arth a mass of iron ore. rough anu
lirty, touches it wit, is magia
wand, and it is changed into iA&e
Nous surgical instruments. 1t ut
worth five cents. 1t is now worth Il
hundred dollars.
Tucson, A. T., Nov. IA Ntar
tonight from Fort Bowie
avs: Natchez and twelve other
'ucks. with s~ixty-six women and
hildren at Silver Creek, surrendered