Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter.

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/810 (page 22)
    21. Another illustration, drawn from the movements of the Eyes, may place this doctrine in a still clearer light ; inasmuch as the action of the living Automaton can be watched either by a bystander, or by the Ego that calls it forth. Let the reader will to fix his gaze on the face of a person directly opposite to him, and then ivill to move his head from side to side ; his eyeballs will be seen to roll in their sockets in the contrary direction, and this not only without any volitional effort on his part, but even without his being in any way conscious of the act, except by a process of reasoning. Or, if he move his head upwards and downwards, his eyes (still fixed on the opposite face) will roll conversely downwards and upwards. And if, instead of looking at the face of another, he fix his gaze upon the reflection of his own eyes in a mirror, and then move his head as before, he will be able to satisfy himself that his Automaton is directing his eyes for him; every alteration in the position of his head being accompanied by a roll of his eyeballs in the opposite direction, so that their axes continue to be turned towards the reflected image, so long as he wills to keep them so. 22. The same may be shown to be true of all the so-called Voluntary movements. What we will is, not to throw this or that muscle into contraction, but to produce a certain preconceived result. That result may be within the capacity of our ordinary Mechanism ; but, if it be not, we have to create a new mechanism by a course of training or practice ; the effect of which (as already shown) is to make the Automatic apparatus grow to the mode in which it is habitually exercised.—That this is the true theory of these movements, is evident from several considerations, of which a few must here suffice. If the performance of a Voluntary move- ment required a transmission of Nervous power direct from the Brain (which may be assumed to be the instrument of the Will) to the Muscles concerned in its production, then we should need to know what those muscles are, and to select and combine