2552. Since the artery is constantly operating upon the fibre, but the nerve only, when it has been stimulated; so must this change in the condition of the fibre reside in the change of the nervous influence.
2553. In unirritated conditions the nerve does not act upon the fibre; the latter is not illuminated, nor does it stand in a state of tension with the nerve, which is not in itself polar, but is only, when stimulated, a sun towards the fibre, or polar within itself. If the chain be then dissevered, the fibre is in a state of indifference.
2554. Thus, in the event of tension, the nervous extremity of the fibre becomes negative, the arterial extremity positive; both ends necessarily attract each other in order to discharge or unload themselves. This attraction is an abbreviation or contraction.
2555. After the discharge the fibrous extremities are homonymous; they repel each other, and relaxation or extension ensues.
2556. The motion of the fibres is consequently a perfectly galvanic process, devoid of material interference, between nerve, fibre, and blood. The nerve is silver, the artery zinc, and the fibre moist card. All theories of motion based upon swelling of blood, elementary change, and such like causes, are not animal, though organic in character; the former are injections, the latter chemical processes.
2557. Through the fibrous tissue being shortened and elongated, the entire animal is self-displaced.
2558. Through the fibrous tissue the animal appears as animal, through the point-tissue it is (and that in essence) an animal. God is in himself, but he first appears in the world. This elucidates or explains the relation of "noumenon" and "phenomenon."
4. Function of the Cellular Tissue.
2559. This tissue has no other function than that in the plant. Many saps or juices are effused into the cells. The latter are engaged in constant expansion and contraction, whereby they decompose and propel these juices. They are the proper seat of the nutritive process, since they coincide with the capillary vessels.
2560. But as every rigidification is combined with volatilization, so does a process of evaporation occur in them at the same time.