This diagram shows how certain cells of the outer layer are budded off and transferred to a safe place within the body. In this position the cells are further developed, throwing out one long fibre, which goes to some distant organ of the body, and short fibres, which, though they do not join those of other cells and become continuous, closely interlace and put them into communication. They are also separated from one another by connective tissue, which supports them, holding them suspended with only their fibres approaching one another (Diagram 43). Diagram 44 shows how the bone which replaces the supporting rod (see Diagram 6) throws an arch round the feltwork of connective tissue in which the nerve cells are suspended, giving them still further protection. It will be noticed in the figures of Diagram 42, which is fuller than Diagram 5, that there are three of these buds—one central and two lateral. The central one becomes a tube running the whole length of the animal, while the lateral buds form solid clusters or ganglia, arranged in pairs at intervals beside it (see Diagram 45). Fibres from these ganglia go to the skin, and bring to the nerve cells information from the outside world, which they duly pass on to the cells of the central column. The cells of the central column, when set in motion by the ganglion cells, send out impulses to the muscles, whose contraction is necessary to perform the movement which circumstances indicate. A movement brought about in this way is called reflex. [Illustration: DIAGRAM 45.—CENTRAL NERVE TUBE AND GANGLIA.] The reflex movements are, however, not quite the simplest. For instance, the food is moved along the alimentary canal by the contraction of two sets of muscle fibres—an outer longitudinal coat and an inner circular one. Between these two coats are some nerve cells, which are thrown into activity by the presence of food and the iron compounds of the bile secreted by the liver in the tube. These sympathetic cells do not send their impulses to any centre for examination, but at once stimulate the muscle fibres between which they lie, thereby producing the peristaltic movements we have already described. Yet it should be remembered that, though these cells act independently of the central nervous system, they are under its control, and can, if need be, have their action modified for the benefit of the body as a whole. For convenience’ sake, we had better here specify the chief kinds of nervous action. First there is what we may call the immediate nerve action, such as that we have just been describing; secondly there is reflex action, the centres for which are in the spinal cord and the base of the brain; and thirdly there is voluntary movement, which arises out of the interaction of centres in the hemisphere of the brain, where the most complex machinery of all is kept. II.