It
cannot be otherwise. The brain cannot take more than its share without
injury to other organs. It cannot _do_ more than its share without
depriving other organs of that exercise and nourishment which are
essential to their health and vigor. It is in the power of the
individual to throw, as it were, the whole vigor of the constitution
into any one part, and, by giving to this part exclusive or excessive
attention, to develop it at the expense, and to the neglect, of the
others."[7]
In the system of lichens, Nylander reckons all organs of equal
value.[8] No one of them can be neglected without evil to the whole
organization. From lichens to men and women there is no exception to
the law, that, if one member suffers, all the members suffer. What is
true of the neglect of a single organ, is true in a geometrical ratio
of the neglect of a system of organs. If the nutritive system is
wrong, the evil of poor nourishment and bad assimilation infects the
whole economy. Brain and thought are enfeebled, because the stomach
and liver are in error. If the nervous system is abnormally developed,
every organ feels the _twist_ in the nerves. The balance and
co-ordination of movement and function are destroyed, and the ill
percolates into an unhappy posterity.
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