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). 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.[1] And now, though large areas of the brain hold their secrets fast-locked, yet the middle or motor brain has yielded up its secret.
- ↑ Rosenthal thus describes the experiment. "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; the result is an immediate deflection of the multiplier, which indicates the presence of a current ascending in the contracted arm from the hand to the shoulder. We are therefore able, by the mere power of the will, to generate an electric current, and to set the magnetic needle in motion."
