The age-herald., 1901-07-22
THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM
 OF THE BODY.
(To be Continued.)

No doubt our little friends have learned pretty thoroughly the uses of the telegraph, and some of them may even have sent mes- sages by this magic link that binds the coun- tries of the world so closely together. At any rate, you all know what wonderful in- vention 1t is and of what great service 1t is to all kinds of people for business and pleas ure. But, wonderful as it is, you have bet ter and more complete telegraph system in your own body, that is in constant use. This Is the great network of nerves that extends over every part of your body, missing not one little particle of space. If you stick pin in any portion of your flesh you will im- mediately feel pain. If you had not touched some portion of this nerve network you would have felt nothing. So you can easily understand that the telegraph wires in your body form greater and more perfect sys- tenn than those in all the rest of the world put together that are made by man.
 The central station of the nerve telegraph system is in the brain and spinal cord. These are just like the telegraph instruments that receive the little dots and dashes from the wires and tell the operator what Is being said to him. They receive and classify all the impressions that come in over the tele- graph wires of the nerves. ---if.
 All through the body are little Jumps of nerve, called nerve cells. There are millions of them, and they are so very small that they have to be magnified hundreds of times to become large enough to examine. These nerve cells are connected by mesh of nerve threads so very small that it would take doz- ems of them to equal the thickness of spiders web. The nerve threads cover every single bit of the body, and are the real tele- graph wires of the system. The nerve cells are like the little stations along the railroad on the way to the central office. Each one of these nerve cells is battery all by itself. When a message of some sensation is threads | through hundreds of nerve cells, or little stations, on it's way to the central offices, the brain and spinal cord. As the message passes through a nerve cell 1t receives a shock from the battery of that nerve cell and is sent on faster than before. It reaches another nerve cell, and receives another boost along its way, until finally it reaches the spinal cord and the brain.
 The brain classifies each message 1t re- ceiyes and knows what to do with 1t. 1t sends the message back to the end of the nerve thread that started 1t, and labels the message pain, pleasure, annoyance, disgust happiness, laughter, just as the case may be, so that the muscles around the end of tho thread will know just what to do when tho message arrives.
 There are so many nerve threads con- meeting the multitudes of nerve cells that sometimes a message from the end of one nerve thread reaches the spinal cord by a hundred different routes. This is in case one or more sets of nerve threads should be out of working order, and so that the mes sage should reach the brain in any case.
 The spinal cord Is the main line to the brain. It receives the messages from the nerve threads and sends them to the head operator, at the central station, the brain, in doublequick time. If the spinal cord should be broken or otherwise out of order, you could feel no pain in any part of your body except your head. If you should break leg, you would feel no pain In that case. Moreover, you could not move any part of your body, for when the brain telegraphed an order to- for instance, your feet to help you to walk, the order would stop at the broken place, and your feet would never know what was wanted of them.