GENERAL NOTION OF HEMISPHERES. All these facts lead us, when we think about them, to some such explanatory conception as this: _The lower centres act from present sensational stimuli alone; the hemispheres act from perceptions and considerations,_ the sensations which they may receive serving only as suggesters of these. But what are perceptions but sensations grouped together? and what are considerations but expectations, in the fancy, of sensations which will be felt one way or another according as action takes this course or that? If I step aside on seeing a rattlesnake, from considering how dangerous an animal he is, the mental materials which constitute my prudential reflection are images more or less vivid of the movement of his head, of a sudden pain in my leg, of a state of terror, a swelling of the limb, a chill, delirium, unconsciousness, etc., etc., and the ruin of my hopes. But all these images are constructed out of my past experiences. They are _reproductions_ of what I have felt or witnessed. They are, in short, _remote_ sensations; and the _difference between the hemisphereless animal and the whole one_ may be concisely expressed by saying that the _one obeys absent, the other only present, objects._ The hemispheres would then seem to be _the seat of memory_. Vestiges of past experience must in some way be stored up in them, and must, when aroused by present stimuli, first appear as representations of distant goods and evils; and then must discharge into the appropriate motor channels for warding off the evil and securing the benefits of the good. If we liken the nervous currents to electric currents, we can compare the nervous system, _C_, below the hemispheres to a direct circuit from sense-organ to muscle along the line _S ... C ... M_ of Fig. 2. The hemisphere, _H_, adds the long circuit or loop-line through which the current may pass when for any reason the direct line is not used. Thus, a tired wayfarer on a hot day throws himself on the damp earth beneath a maple-tree. The sensations of delicious rest and coolness pouring themselves through the direct line would naturally discharge into the muscles of complete extension: he would abandon himself to the dangerous repose. But the loop-line being open, part of the current is drafted along it, and awakens rheumatic or catarrhal reminiscences, which prevail over the instigations of sense, and make the man arise and pursue his way to where he may enjoy his rest more safely. Presently we shall examine the manner in which the hemispheric loop-line may be supposed to serve as a reservoir for such reminiscences as these. Meanwhile I will ask the reader to notice some corollaries of its being such a reservoir. [Illustration: FIG. 2.]