THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

We often lieur complaining people say, " Oh, dear, my nerves!" as if they wished that they had been born without them. If such a thing could have happened they would have had no control over their bodies at all—no knowledge of where they were or what they were doing. What a state of disorder they would be in! As it. is, our nerves carry messages from' and to the brain, and through these messages all our actions are kept in good order. For this reason we say that the nerves " co-ordinate " our actions. Here is a simple example. When we want to walk, the nerves carry continuous messages to our legs to move in a certain direction; we never try to walk forwards with one leg and backwards with the other. We have nerves in every part of our body. You can think of your nerves as being rather like parts of a telephone system; each nerve is a telephone line. In the telephone system there is, as you know, a central exchange, through which any house with a telephone can be connected with any other house with a telephone. Your nerves, too, have a central exchange, called "■ the central nervous system." It consists of your brain and spinal cord, which is a thick nerve extending down the whole length of your spine. Every nerve in your body is linked up with this central system. That is why there are no accidents so bad as those which leave the brain or the spine injured, because after such an accident the nerves can never do their duty properly again.