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.

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    supply of that fluid, and a no less constant removal of the products of the reaction to which it ministers. 32. Thus, then, the Apparatus of Organic Life may be said to consist of the organs by which Blood is made, those by which it is kept in circulation, and those by which it is maintained in purity ; but the action of these has to be supplemented by that of the Apparatus of Animal Life. For, in the first place, the Animal must obtain its food by the exercise of its senses, of its psychical powers, and of its locomotive organs ; and even in the Ingestion and Digestion of the food, when procured, the assistance of Muscles is required. So the Circulation of Blood is maintained by a muscular organ, the Heart, and is regulated locally by the muscularity of the ! walls of the Arteries ; and both the rhythmical contraction of the Heart, and the calibre of the Arteries, are greatly influenced by the Nervous system. Again, the ordinary movements of Respiration, which constitute the most important of all the provisions by which the Blood is kept in the condition required for the development of the Nervous and Muscular forces, are dependent in the higher animals upon the Nervo-muscular apparatus; and although they are so completely automatic in their character, as to be performed not only without effort, but in opposition to effort, they are so far under the control of the higher Nervous centres, as to be subservient to the Vocal expression of Psychical states. So, again, although the action of the Excretory organs, by which the products of the “ waste ” are removed from the Blood, is essentially independent of the Nervo-muscular apparatus, this has a certain control over their outlets, which enables the excretions to be retained and discharged at suitable times. 33. We shall find, then, that in the higher Animals the Nervous system is the instrument, not only of those Psychical powders by which they are pre-eminently distinguished, but also of many operations which minister solely to the maintenance of the Organic Functions. But the portions of it which are directly concerned in