| Vascules
and Valves |
Woodland
Path Oil
on Canvas
|
In most plants and animals, materials are transported
around their bodies in 'vascular systems'. A road
is a kind of vascule, a flat membrane on which
trolleys roll or animals walk. Beneath the drained
surface are often embedded other vascular-type
systems carrying nourishment into the living superorganism.
Electricity wires are vascules carrying charged
electrons. Other examples are water pipes, sewerage
systems, gas mains and telephone networks.
The vascular systems of cities is more complex
that any other living organism, and quite as comprehensive.
Major roads link up all the mouths (farms, fields,
quarries, gardens, ports, airports etc) with the
city centres, and become the throats down which
all the food is swallowed. Many of them pour their
traffic into a vast network of important streets
joining region to region, and often converging
on a central area. On either side of these busy
routs are further systems of side streets leading
into a network of narrow lanes and footpaths.
|
|
Complete penetration of all parts of the organism
is achieved through the multitudes of gates,
doorways, switches, valves, taps, metres,
etc acting as valves and filters. Every house
and room is thereby connected to the outer
world, and to all the inner systems of the
city. Many ramified systems of inner corridors,
lifts, stairways and tunnels penetrate to
the recesses of the tallest buildings, ensuring
that each living creature, and every area
of membrane within or without the buildings
can be reached. In some nether regions, prisons
or bank vaults, access is very rigorously
limited, although the whole system is tightly
controlled by a system of codes and valves,
the simplest form of which is a key. It is
interesting to wander through a city with
these thoughts in mind, and notice the manner
in which the movements of people and goods
are controlled and restricted. Lights, signs,
marks, locks, catches and a host of conventions
serve the city as complex chemicals serve
the vascular systems of other animals.
A key is a code which controls a valve. The
valve is part of the digestive system, the
key is part of the nervous system. At these
points, and at many others, we see two systems
interact.
All this is so familiar to us, that we fail
to realise the intricacy of the whole. When
similar structures are discovered through
a microscope, they leave us spellbound and
awestruck.
|
| Return
to Contents Page |
|
