Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-06-09

battery is further emphasized by the
fact that the nature of the brain
cells work consists, like that of any
other battery, Of the sending out of
charges of energy along connecting
wires, Or, at least, along fibres that
may be likened to wires. Brain cells,
when examined under tho microscope,
are found not to be simple globular
bodies, like many other kinds of cells.
On the contrary they are irregular in
shape,- and when properly strained,
little wire-like tibres can be seen iut-
ting out from them in various direc-
tions. 1t is along these fibres that
the messages come to the cell, and
other messages are sent out, much as
messages 60 and como from a tele-
phone central office.
This likening Of the brain to a
telephone central Office is q compari-
son that may be carried to q remark
able length. Indeed, no other com
parison serves 80 we'll to give one a
correct notion of the method of brain
acIion. But until recently there was
ono phase of the matter that could
not bo explained. How is it that the
various messages that are surging
through the brain are directed to
proper channels among these multi,
tudinous wires ? When you call up
the central Office you give certain
number, and the operator connects
your particular wire with that num-
ber. When you are through talking
the operator breaks the circuit, and
you can no longer communicate along
that line. But is there anything
similar to this making and breaking
of currents possible in the brain ?
Astonishing as it may seem, the
answer is yes. There is precisely
such series of changes in tho cir
cults of the brain cells as is effected
by the operator with the telephone
wires.
The manner of it is this. Recent
studies of the brain cell, particularly
those made by the Spanish physiolo-
gist, Ramon Cajal, have shown that
many wires which lead out from a
cell do not go on uninterruptedly to
a termination in some other distant
cell, as they were formerly supposed
to do, but instead terminate in "blind
ends" That is TO say, they point
out toward other cells, but do not
reach them. Such q fibre clearly can
not convey any message, because, like
telephone wire that has been cut, it
does not load anywhere. But under
certain conditions of stimulation a
very extraordinary thing happens.
The "blind" fibre, under stimulus
from its central cell, longthens out
until it touches fibre of q neigbor-
ing cell, and presto, with such contact,
q circuit is completed and message
flashes between the cells. Mani
feastly such coming together of the
"blind" fibres is precisely comparable
to the operators connecting your
telephone with another. And as in
the case of the telephones, so in the
case of the cells, when the communi-
cation is completed the cnonection is
broken, the fbres retract and cease
to touch one another, and no further
message can be sent.
Sometimes the telephone girl does
not understand your order, or reports
that the number you wish is "en-
gagged" and you cannot send your
message. Similarly, in the brain, it
seems sometimes as if certain circuits
ono wishes to uee arc engaged in
othor channels; for how often does
one "puzzlc his brain" to recall q
fact or name, which he feels tha:
he knows perfectly, but which will
not come at command. And then
how, perhaps, hours afterward, the
elusive name will flash before him, Of
if the telephone girl of his brain coli
had at last succeeded in getting the
right connection. When ono reflects
that each of thoae wonderful brain
cells is microscopic in size, requiring,
indeed, high power of the micro
scope to make it visible, and that
there arc billiona of them in a cubic
inch of brain substance, one is led to
wonder that such mistakes of con.
nection, or failures to connect, do not
occur oftener. AS it is, the telephone
Office of the brain is easily the most
wonderful structure of Which we
have any knowledge. The most deli
cate pioco Of mechanism ever devised
by human hands is o crude thing com.
pared with tho marvellous brain cell.
In time of war it often happens