The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-27

plump and full of nervous matter, is
! found to be followed out or "vacuo-
lated" cavity within its substance
| having formed and filed With water.
/ This means that a part of the cell sub
stance has been actually consumed
/ cisely as coal is consumed when one
/ gets heat from a furnace.
1t is found, further. that if an animal
whose brain cells are thus exhausted is
/ permitted to rest and to sleep. its cells
rapidly recuperate new material being
supplied from the blood. until the vac
| uolatiOn has disappeared, and the cell
/ is practically as good as new again.
1 This explains why sleep is necessary
TO our existence. During waking hours
/ our brains are literally worn away, and
sleep is the state during which the re-
pair shops of the brain make good the
Isdamage of the waking hours. Thus
the brain Of person who suffers from
insomnia is IN the condition of a loco
motive which is run night and day
without going to the repair shOps-dis-
aster must ultimately result
1t is not sleep alone, however, that
rests the brain cell, though sleep is alb
solutely essential to recuperation of the
brain as a whole. But not all parts of
the brain are involved in any one kind
of mental effort. The blood supply of
E
sion or contraction of different arteries
parts Of the brain may be flushed with
/ blood and other parts damned off, so
to speak, somewhat as the various cur
rents of an irrigated field are regulated
by the gardener. And as rapid flow of
blood is essential to great mental ac-
tivity this means that one part of the
brain may be very actively at work
while another part is resting and re-
operating. Thus it is that a person
suffering from brain fatigue may leave
his desk and go out into the fields with
gOlfstick. or on the highways with
bicycle. and. by diverting his mind. give
the overWorked cells a chance to rest
and recuperate. But it must not be
overlooked that such exercise involves
other brain coils, which. in turn become
exhausted. and that, in the end, for the
recuperation of the brain as a whole.
sleep is absolutely essential No recre-
alton, no medicine, no stimulant will
take its place. The man who does not
give himself sufficient hours Of sleep. or
who is unable TO sleep when he makes
the effort, is literally burning away his
brain substance, and can no more keen
on Indefinitely in this way than a loco
motive can run on indefinitely without
getting fresh supplies of fuel.
In this new view il appears that each
brain cell is a sort of storage battery.
which can perform a certain amount
of work and then must be recharged.
This likeness to a battery is further
emphasized by the fact that the nature
Of the brain cells work consists, like
that Of any other battery, of the send
ing out of charges of energy along con-
Meeting wires, or at least along fibres
that may be likened to wires. Bra z,
cells, when examined under the micro
scope, are found not to be simple globu-
lar bodies, like many other kinds of
cells. On the contrary they are irreg-
ular in shape, and when properly STAIN
ed. little wire-like fbres can be seen
jutting out from them in various direc-
tons. 1t is along these fibres that mes
sages are sent out. much as messen-
gers 60 and come from a telephone
central office.
JUST LIKE a TELEPHONE.
This likening of the brain to a tele-
phone central Office. is a comparison
that may be carried to a remarkable
length. Indeed, no other comparison
serves so well to give one a correct no
ton of the method of brain action. But
until recently there was one phase of
the matter that could not be explained.
How is it that the various messages
that are surging through the brain are
directed TO proper channels, among
these multitudnOus wires? When you
call up the central Office, you give a
certain number, and the hello girl
connects your particular wire with that
number. When you are through talking
the girl breaks the circuit. and you can
no longer communicate along that line.
But is there anything similar to this
making and breaking OF circuits posi-
BILE in the brain2 Astonishing as il may
seem, the answer is yes There is pre-
cisely such a series of changes in the
circuits of the, brain cells as is effected
by the hello girl. with the telephone
wires.
The manner of it is this. Recent stud |
les Of the brain cell, particularly those |
made by the Spanish physiologist, |