Mind and body : The theories of their relation / by Alexander Bain.

  • Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mind and body : The theories of their relation / by Alexander Bain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    16/216 (page 6)
    CHAPTEE II. CONNEXION OF MIND AND BODY. The facts showing that the connexion of Mind and Body is not occasional or partial, but thorough-going and complete, are such as the following:— In the first place, it has been noted in all ages and countries, that the Feelings possess a natural language or Expression. So constant are the appearances charac- terizing the different classes of emotions, that we regard them as a part of the emotions themselves. The smile of joy, the puckered features in pain, the stare of astonishment, the quivering of fear, the tones and glance of tenderness, the frown of anger,—are united in seemingly inseparable association with the states of feeling that they indicate. If a feeling arises without its appro- priate sign or accompaniment, we account for the failure either by voluntary suppression, or by the faintness of the excitement, there being a certain degree or intensity requisite to affect the bodily organs.* * The following- remarks of Mr. Darwin are in point:—Most of our emotions [he should have said all] are so closely connected with their expression, that they hardly exist if the body remains passive. A man, for instance, may know that his life is in the extremest peril, and may strongly desire to save it j yet, as Louis XVI. said, when surrounded by