Neotropics

“ In pursuance of this supposition we may assume that the ether, which pervades not only all space but all matter, is, under special conditions in certain parts of the nervous system, capable of being affected by the nervous changes in such way as to result in feeling, and is reciprocally capable under these conditions of affecting the nervous changes. But if we accept this explanation, we must assume that the potentiality [pg 115] of feeling is universal, and that the evolution of feeling in the ether takes place only under the extremely complex conditions occurring in certain nervous centres. ”

“ Returning to pure science, no phenomena in plant life are so extremely varied or have yet been more incapable of generalisation than the "tropic" movements, such as the twining of tendrils, the heliotropic movements of some towards and of others away from light, and the opposite geotropic movements of the root and shoot, in the direction of gravitation or away from it. My latest investigations recently communicated to the Royal Society have established a single fundamental reaction which underlies all these effects so extremely diverse. ”

“ The point which as evolutionists we are bound to hold fast to is that all the new forms of being that make their appearance are really nothing more than results of the redistribution of the original and unchanging materials. The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains; and the 'evolution' of the brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed. In this story no new natures, no factors not present at the beginning, are introduced at any later stage. ”

“ This change in the heliotropic sensitiveness, produced by certain metabolic products in the animal body is of great biological significance. I have already shown that it even serves to save the lives of the above-mentioned young larvæ of Chrysorrhœa. When the young larvæ are awakened from their winter sleep by the spring sunshine they are actively positively heliotropic. The positive heliotropism leaves them no freedom of movement, but forces them to creep (eindeutig) straight upward to the top of a tree or branch. ”

“ The theory of statoliths is, however, not essential for the explanation of the opposite geotropic effects in the shoot and in the root. The observed fact, that the perceptive region in the root is separated from the responding region, is sufficient to explain the difference of geotropic action in the two organs. Through whatever means the stimulus of gravity may act, it is inevitable, from the fact that the stimulation of the shoot is direct and of the root indirect, that an identical stimulus should in two cases induce responsive reactions of opposite signs. ”

“ The most my brain could take in of her explanation was something like: "Rocket, then phototropism." Now that makes scant sense. So far as I know, phototropism—movement toward light—is an organic phenomenon. One thinks of it as a response of protoplasm, in some plants and animal organisms, most of them simple, to the stimulus of light; certainly not as a force capable of moving inorganic matter. ”

“ Such a thing was surely not a physical or biochemical impossibility in the light of a newer science which includes the theories of relativity and intra-atomic action. One might easily imagine an alien nucleus of substance or energy, formless or otherwise, kept alive by imperceptible or immaterial subtractions from the life-force or bodily tissue and fluids of other and more palpably living things into which it penetrates and with whose fabric it sometimes completely merges itself. ”

“ An increase in the difference of the two external inputs tilts the potential in favor of the population with the greatest input, an effect also seen in linear, connectionist models, e.g. [11] . Modulations of the input common to both populations affect the curvature of the potential. For common inputs below the bifurcation, the potential exhibits a dimple, reflecting an attracting spontaneous state, while above the bifurcation the spontaneous state is repelling. This modulation of the potential via changes in the common input is a consequence of the nonlinearity of the system. ”

“ These are all natural phenomena.
"The radiation of a thinking brain, gentlemen, is not a natural phenomena—not a natural characteristic warp in space," he corrected with a slight smile. "It causes a vibration in the region of the end-hysteresis loop of space itself when space is saturated to that threshold by the natural warps and strains. It exerts a triggering action that releases a more powerful nonphysical radiation, which in turn releases the space strain that causes—things—to move. ”

“ Everybody knows that the nebular hypothesis, as it is to-day, draws its strongest support from spectroscopic facts. There shine the nebulæ in the heavens, and the spectroscope tells us what they really are, namely, vast clouds of incandescent gas, mainly, if not entirely, hydrogen and nitrogen. If we attempt to trace the chain of evolution through which our planet is supposed to have grown, we shall find the sky is full of intermediate forms. ”

“ This is no longer a mere presumption; if the nebular hypothesis, so called, after being stripped of its non-essential features, is recognized as a true theory—as it is by all the prominent physicists of the day since the recent revelations of the spectroscope—the gaseous form of matter, in fact, precedes the liquid and solid forms in the order of Nature, and the solid is not the initial, but the concluding term of material evolution. ”

“ Chymists of great Knowledge have proved the very near Relation between the vitriolic, and the nitrous Acid; and some: by fair Experiments have also shewn there is a great Analogy between the nitrous and the marine or muriatic. They have endeavoured to prove, from these Experiments, that the nitrous, and the vitriolic on the one Part, and that the nitrous and muriatic, on the other, have so great Uniformity in many Instances, that they must be derived the one from the other: But it should seem most agreeable to Nature, to refer both ”

“ When the structure has yielded, the same inertia becomes a condition of its comparative permanence in the new form, and of the new habits the body then manifests. Plasticity, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once. Each relatively stable phase of equilibrium in such a structure is marked by what we may call a new set of habits. Organic matter, especially nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity of this sort ”

“ TROPIC EQUILIBRIUM UNDER VARYING INTENSITIES OF STIMULUS.
The following experiment will show that the position of tropic equilibrium is not fixed but subject to variation under changes of effective stimulation.
Fig. 185.—Effect of variation of intensity of light on phototropic equilibrium. Increase of intensity of light from L to L' produces an increased positive curvature and a new state of balance. Diminished intensity of light l brings about a new balance at a lower level. The cessation of light (l within a circle) restores the normal position of the organ. ”

“ Such elements as are serviceable are utilised when the later and higher forms of sensibility come into existence. These useful elements of protopathic sensibility become fused with epicritic elements to form the fully developed sensibility which is possessed by the normal skin. Utilisation by means of the process of fusion is the fate of the greater part of the complex body of processes which make up protopathic sensibility. It is only the smaller part which undergoes the other fate of suppression. ”

“ Now, after the principle of elementary disorder has been introduced and accepted by us as valid throughout nature, the fundamental question arises as to the calculation of the probability of a given state, and the actual derivation of the entropy therefrom. From the entropy all the laws of thermodynamic states of equilibrium, for material substances, and also for energy radiation, may be uniquely derived. ”

“ A plasmic substance causes definite chemical and physical changes only when it is present in a certain condition of motion. The peculiar agency which the idioplasm has in each ontogenetic stage of development and in each part of the organism depends on the activity of a definite group of micellæ in the cross section of the strand or of a complex of such groups, while this local stimulus controls the chemical and physical processes by dynamic influence and by transmission of a specific mode of motion, even to a microscopically small distance. ”

“ It commends itself to common sense that the deeper layers precede the more external and superficial in development and evolution. The converse I have seen in the brain of an alcoholic wreck, with mental enfeeblement and degeneration even of the lower nervous system. In this case the superficial layer of small pyramids was distinctly atrophied. The association fibres did not show a corresponding amount of degeneration and disappearance as if they were hitched on to deeper strata of cells. ”

“ It is plain that the nebular hypothesis would be doubled in importance, and our views of the universe greatly expanded, if it could be shown that an evolution of complex from simple forms of matter accompanied the development of planets from the nebulæ. Evolution could look for no grander triumph. For the evidence to support such a theory, we must depend mainly upon the spectroscope. ”

“ On the other hand, we have little difficulty in conceiving of a mechanism by which telepathy could operate; the difficulty is to account for the energy not diminishing more rapidly as the distance increases. But, after all, is is inconceivable that the energy, when it is liberated under the most favourable circumstances, may suffice to produce the effects reported in the spontaneous cases referred to?
At any rate we can but wait until the further progress of research, not necessarily in this field alone, may throw some light upon the problem. ”

“ Furthermore, "any actual material system receives disturbances from without, the effect of which coming at haphazard without regard to state of system for the time being is, pro tanto, to renew or maintain the independence of the molecular motions, that very distribution of co-ordinates (of collision) which is required to make diminish. So there is a general tendency for to diminish, though it may conceivably increase in particular cases. Just as in matters political, change for the better is possible, but the tendency is for all change to be from bad to worse." ”

“ In motions toward the earth's body, as toward the terrella a variation is displayed due to the unlikeness, inequality, and imperfection of its eminences: So every variation of the versorium or mariners' compass, everywhere by land or by sea, which thing has so sorely disturbed men's minds, is discerned and recognized as due to the same causes. The magnetick dip (which is the wonderful turning of magnetick things to the body of the terrella) in systematick course, is seen in clearer light to be the same thing upon the earth. ”

“ But we cannot conceive of light suddenly losing its phototropic effect by an increase of intensity. The experiment just described will offer full explanation for this apparent anomaly. Feeble or moderate stimulus remains, as we have seen, localised, hence the contraction of the proximal side gives rise to positive curvature. But the intense excitation caused by sunlight would be transmitted to the distal side and thus bring about neutralisation. ”

“ We have to recognize the existence of an etheric body acting as an intermediary between intention, desire, or (in the case of human beings) thought of the soul and the physical vibrations of the nerves. This is why, in an earlier chapter, I have drawn attention to our power of sending out etheric vibrations beyond the limits of the physical body, as in the case of De Rocha's experiments. Such experiments show that there is in us something not composed of dense matter, which is able to convey vibrations to dense matter ”

“ But the association of “becoming” with entropy-change is not to be understood in the same way. It is clearly not sufficient that the change in the random element of the world should deliver an impulse at the end of a nerve, leaving the mind to create in response to this stimulus the fancy that it is turning the reel of a cinematograph. ”

“ Each man felt a sinister dizziness as he left the laboratory. After a moment of nausea and the sensation of falling into an abysmal pit, they felt no other reaction to the rapid vibrations of the apparatus. But the current continued to whine, sending the oscillations throughout their bodies and weapons with unceasing force. Gradually the weird, spectral world of the Fifth Dimension unfolded itself before them. ”

“ This is what happens where either solids or liquids pass over a path; there seems no reason why it should not happen where the thing that passes is a mere wave of rearrangement in matter that does not displace itself, but merely changes chemically or turns itself round in place, or vibrates across the line. The most plausible views of the nerve-current make it out to be the passage of some such wave of rearrangement as this. ”

“ The Notochord. The early formation of the notochord has already been described in detail (pp. 292-300) . It is developed, in most if not all cases, as an axial differentiation of the hypoblast, and forms at first a solid cord of cells, without a sheath, placed between the nervous system and the dorsal wall of the alimentary tract, and extending from the base of the front of the mid-brain to the end of the tail. The section in the region of the brain will be dealt with by itself. ”