f 4
76 O B S E R V A T I O N S ON THE
the \vell known effcfts of comprefiion on the nerves of a found animal, and
the experiment of producing repeated contrailions of a mufcle by prefiing
its nerve, after cutting it acrofs, feem to indicate that the energy depends
on matter capable of being affeded by funple preiTure.
That the matter on which the energy depends is a fecreted fluid, we are,
indeed, far from being able to prove.
But, to fay that the offices of the nerves are not performed by a fecreted
fluid, merely becaufe wc cannot comprehend how any part of the blood,
or any humour prepared from it, could render the mind fenfible of an injury,
or throw a mufcle into a¿tion, is, in my opinion, faying a great deal
too much; for, in the generation of animals, eíFedls more incomprehen-"
fible and ailoniiliing feem to depend on the fecretion and mixture of the
fluids of the teftes and ovaria; the brain, the nerves, the nervous energy,
and complex fabric of other organs, being thereby produced.
C H A P -
N E R V O U S ' S Y S T EM. 77
C H A P T E R XXIV.
Of the Ufes of the Nerves.
' ' T ^ H A T , by the medium of the nerves, we feel, and are enabled to perform
motion, is very generally agreed ; but many eminent authors
have, at different periods, fuppofed that the nerves alfo contain or conduct
the matter by which the body grows or is nouriihed *.
This notion I fliall in the firft place confider.
C H A P-
* Gliflbn, Charlcton, Ent, Cole, VisuSens, Willis, Boerhaave, Santorinus, Mazinus, Kinneir, &«.