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"These nerves are like telegraphic wires, and convey impressions to and from the brain with the velocity of lightning."—Edward Bliss Foote, M.D., Plain Home Talk, 1880
A Model for the Body and the World
The telegraph and its network changed how people saw themselves and their world. Physiologists compared the nerves to cables, the brain to a telegraph office, nerve-endings to transmitters, thoughts to telegraphic messages, and the entire nervous system to a telegraph network. The metaphor also worked in reverse: writers often described the telegraph network as the nervous system of the nation or the world. |
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