The Laws of health.

  • Nabarro, David, 1874-
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Laws of health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    CHAPTER X TFIE BBAIN, SPINAL CORD, AND NERVES 173. A TREE or a plant lives, grows, and dies just as an animal does. But a tree or plant cannot move from place to place, nor can it see, hear, feel, taste or smell as animals can. The reason is that plants and trees do not possess muscles, brains, or nerves which enable animals to do these things. Of course animals them- selves differ very much in this respect. The simplest and lowest forms of animal life, such as a jelly-fish, are not much above the trees and plants in their power of movement and of experiencing sensations. As we go up the scale of the animal kingdom so the muscles become more definite, and the brain and nervous system become gradually more and more complicated. At last we come to man, the most perfect and complete of the animals, in whom the nervous system is a beautiful and complicated network of fibres or threads, presided over by the most wonderful of all the organs of the body—namely, the brain. Man is much above the lower animals because he can speak and think, reason and judge. For this reason the human brain is much more complicated in appearance and structure than the brain of the lower animals. 174. The nervous system consists of (1) the brain, (2) the spinal cord, and (3) the nerves. All the nerves in