| Summary: | "The more important endowments of life are bestowed upon the Nervous System, which embraces the Brain, the organs of the Senses, and the instruments of Volition. Through it are also communicated the sensibilities which control the instinctive or automatic movements. Thus it governs the actions of volition, as well as those movements which are appropriated to the vital organization. The Nervous System is therefore that part of Anatomy in which are to be discovered not only the different properties of the living fibre, but also the relations of the organs to each other, and the dependence of the muscular system upon those organs. The present volume contains many proofs that, by the advancement of anatomical science, we are enabled to make important practical distinctions; and these give value to that which can never be without interest to a student of nature. All the proofs of design, of relation, of prospective contrivance, which are deduced from the mechanical parts of the animal frame, are as nothing to the instances which the contemplation of the Nervous System affords. The relations to external nature, the sources of enjoyment, the provisions against injuries, the order and symmetry adapted to bestow motion and action, visible in the Nervous System, supply accumulated proofs of benevolence, as well as of divine intelligence, in the construction of our bodies"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).
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