Secrets of the Occult TV - Richard Dawkins TV - William Shakespeare - Queen Victoria - Charles Dickens - Father Ted TV -
[Thomas] Willis suspected that the brain held more than his colleagues assumed. Like Newton, Willis was an alchemist willing to experiment to get to the truth. Willis was the first to dissect the nerves leading to the brain. He explained how they function together. His lectures held his audiences spellbound. In 1664 he published Cerebri Anatome, at the time the most comprehensive study of the brain. Secrets of the Occult, 2008
The total length of nerve cells in a human brain if laid end to end would stretch right round the circumference of the world not just once but twenty-five times. Richard Dawkins, lecture 1: Waking Up in the Universe 1991
Giraffe: On its downward journey, the nerve (at this point it is bundled in with the larger vagus nerve) passes within inches of the larynx, which is its final destination. Yet it proceeds down the whole length of the neck before turning round and going all the way back up again ... The creationist, Owen, failed to draw the obvious conclusion. Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth p362
Thy nerves are in their infancy again,
And have no vigour in them. William Shakespeare, The Tempest I ii 487-488, Prospero
Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves. Queen Victoria
Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are! Charles Dickens
Ted: The poor really got on his nerves.
Dougal: And the needy. Father Ted: New Jack City s2e9, re Jack, Channel 4 1996