Margaret McMillan

“ One cannot but dwell with pleasure on the fact that electric cables, and wires, and "installations " of every kind are projections, not of fighting organs, like the common knife or hammer, but of the nervous system. The nervous system which drains feeling, as it were, from every region of the body, collects it in special organs, attracts it, as Luys says, by means of nervous conductors, so that it becomes a mobile force, transmissible to a distance: the nervous system, which makes sympathy and unity possible! ”

“ It is also well established that the fibres of nerve-cells connect to make thinking possible— that the electric current is turned off and on constantly within us. In short, it is known that fibre and brain are the great originals of the latest order of apparatus for communication. But those whom we may still call the tool-makers of the world do not wait for indications from the brain specialist! They are forging far ahead, making "tools" for which the brain itself is not absolutely known to offer any prototype. ”

“ It is not likely, then, that the greatest wealth of all, human brain power, will be dammed back and cast under for ever. Sooner or later the time must come when such a course must be looked upon as a kind of race mutilation. When the depressing influences of dirt and disease have been swept away, the race, stimulated by the nature of the discoveries with which it is surrounded, must revolt against the artificial barrier that holds back its energies. ”

“ And just as light, though terrible, is reassuring, so those projections that bind continents together, and make the lonely station a part of the busy world, are chasing away the last terrors of the dark ages, wiping out their dark dreams. ”

“ For many years Broca worked, and before him men like him, Dubois Raymond, and other physiologists, were studying the nerve fibre, the electric action of nerves and muscle, and the transmission of nerve excitement. They found that there are hundreds of miles of nerve fibre in the human body, and that this fibre in living beings is just as much a roadway for traffic as is any line or cable ever laid. ”

“ The explosions of rage and despair with which one new machine after another was succeeded became feebler of course in time. The people resigned themselves, and began to feel, above all, that this progressive movement which did not favour them was in the nature of things and inevitable. ”

“ Through it we live, for what life is possible without electricity? And as for the human Brain itself, it not only exercises such action, it appears to offer the original of all conductors, coherers, multipliers, condensers, transmitters, and all other electrical apparatus whatsoever, and to make life of a higher kind possible through these. Long years have passed since Dubois Raymond began the serious study of the electric phenomena of nerves, muscles, and glands; long years have passed since he showed by experiment that the magnetic current can be deflected by the Will. ”

“ Yes! that same energy which makes communication between people thousands of miles apart possible, and destroys distance, is not only present in us, but through it we move, and live, and have our being. Through it we move (because muscles, above all other tissues of the body, except nerves, exercise electric action) . ”

“ The man in the street has grown used to the idea of ether waves that are received after a journey of thousands of miles, having been guided on their journey.
True, the physiologist is again on the track of the inventor, finding new parallels in the light of the new projection. Luys and others show how the action of nerve cells resembles that of the particles in a coherer and de-coherer of a Marconi instrument, and Mr. Collins confirms this, saying that the human body "has every essential for communication at a distance, without the aid of any mechanical instruments." ”

“ He will no longer merely fight the battle with disease. He will safeguard nascent faculty, and declare the sacredness of growing human life, of becoming life, just as of old the religious teachers proclaimed the sacredness of mere human existence. ”

“ He often makes comparisons between men and machines, and even trees and machines, greatly to the disadvantage of the latter. For example, "O, that we could displace the machine god and put a man god in his place!" ”

“ Thus it would appear that the eleven year old child of that very large class of workers who are in regular employment but with small wages has lost in the past thirty years more than 8 lb. in weight, and this serious loss has taken place in spite of the great advance in medical science and the improved sanitation of cities. Thus, the rapid improvement in machinery cannot be said to have brought any very great benefit to them. ”

“ They feed the impulse that will project them. It is clear that this is a natural process. It is also clear that success and progress depends largely from the first on the health and vigour of bodily organs. Now these are weakened by disease. They are weakened, too, by systems of training or teaching that ignore the final aim of self-projection. ”

“ They must be 'hands' always. They must serve machines, not make 'projects.'" This prophecy is really only a tradition. In every department of life science is making possible a new economy—a mode of dealing even with debris and refuse that makes these valuable as raw material. ”

“ The ends of the wire of the multiplier were connected with two vessels filled with liquid, and the index finger of both hands dipped in these vessels. A rod arranged in front of the vessel served to steady the position of the hands. Currents are then present in the muscles of both arms and of the breast, which, since the groups of muscles are symmetrically arranged, cancel each other, acting one on the other. When all is thus arranged, the man strongly contracts the muscle of one arm ”