The Brain-battery
The same writer says: "All states of body and mind involve constant
molecular and chemical change. The suggestion arises that the brain,
with its millions of cells and its inconceivable changes in substance,
may be regarded as a transmitting and receiving battery. The brain being
a kind of battery, and the nerves being conductors of released stored-up
energy to different parts of the body, by a kind of action similar to
the actions of electricity and magnetism, it is suggested that, either
by means of the ether, or of some still finer form of matter, discharges
of brain energy may be conducted beyond the limits of the body. If the
nerve-track corresponds to wires, this refined medium may correspond to
the ether-field supposed to be employed in wireless telegraphy. As
electrical movements are conducted without wires, or other visible
media, so may brain-discharges be conveyed beyond the mechanism of the
battery, without the intervention of nerves--except as they may
constitute a part of the battery. Generally speaking, such discharges
would originate in two ways, viz., by direct mental action, or by mental
or physical states--perhaps by a combination."