The Pedestrian's Record

6 the pedestrian's record. could not beat: in fact, every animal, without elec­ tricity, and without the nervous wires for its distribu­ tion, would cease ; denied the existence of electric power, animals and plants would die, and the earth would become " a lump of death and chaos of hard clay." The great importance of electric force upon animate and inanimate bodies has never as yet re­ ceived that amount of attention which its omni­ presence demands ; it assists our eyes to see and is with our fingers as they write ; it forms our thoughts, sug­ gests to the discoverer his conception, the singer his voice. The brain, no doubt, immediately controls these functions, but it could not unless electric forcepervaded the cerebral mass and gave its power to the brain. Every one knows that the brain controls the action of the body, and that the sympathetic system of nerves in­ fluences the workings ofthe internal parts of the animal system, and that the mind cannot in any way compel or frustrate such motions. For instance, man cannot put a stop to the action of his heart, although he can withhold his hand from striking his foe ; he can run off the cinder-path and cease to compete in a race, but cannot prevent the processes of digestion and assimilation from performing their functions. In sleep these important functions arecarried on without his recognition, but should any slight interference with them occur, it would at once be brought to his notice, uneasiness would cause restlessness, which would in due course awake him to the reality of his position, when the brain would dictate the means