[Sidenote:  Dissection and the Governing Consciousness]

We come now to examine the mind’s influence upon the body from the standpoint of the body.  To do this we must go forth and investigate.  We must use eye, ear and hand.  We must use the forceps and scalpel and microscope of the anatomist and physiologist.

[Sidenote:  Subordinate Mental Units]

But it is well worth while that we should do this.  For our investigation will show a bodily structure peculiarly adapted to control by a governing consciousness.  It will reveal to the eye a physical mechanism peculiarly fitted for the dissemination of intelligence throughout the body.  And, most of all, it will disclose the existence within the body of subordinate mental units, each capable of receiving, understanding and acting upon the intelligence thus submitted.  And we shall have strongly corroborative evidence of the mind’s complete control over every function of the body.

Examine a green plant and you will observe that it is composed of numerous parts, each of which has some special function to perform.  The roots absorb food and drink from the soil.  The leaves breathe in carbonic acid from the air and transform it into the living substance of the plant.  Every plant has, therefore, an anatomical structure, its parts and tissues visible to the naked eye.

[Sidenote:  What the Microscope Shows]

Put one of these tissues under a microscope and you will find that it consists of a honeycomb of small compartments or units.  These compartments are called “cells,” and the structure of all plant tissues is described as “cellular.”  Wherever you may look in any plant, you will find these cells making up its tissues.  The activity of any part or tissue of the plant, and consequently all of the activities of the plant as a whole, are but the combined and co-operating activities of the various individual cells of which the tissues are composed. The living cell, therefore, is at the basis of all plant life.

[Sidenote:  The Little Universe Beyond]

In the same way, if you turn to the structure of any animal, you will find that it is composed of parts or organs made up of different kinds of tissues, and these tissues examined under a microscope will disclose a cellular structure similar to that exhibited by the plant.

Look where you will among living things, plant or animal, you will find that all are mere assemblages of cellular tissues.

Extend your investigation further, and examine into forms of life so minute that they can be seen only with the most powerful microscope and you will come upon a whole universe of tiny creatures consisting of a single cell.

[Sidenote:  The Unit of Life]

Indeed, it is a demonstrable fact that these tiny units of life consisting of but a single cell are far more numerous than the forms of life visible to the naked eye.  You will have some idea of their size and number when we tell you that millions may live and die and reproduce their kind in a single thimbleful of earth.