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.

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    Next saw we Dread all trembling, how he shook, With foot uncertain proffer'd here and there : Benumb'd of speech, and, with a ghastly look, Search'd every place, all pale and dead for fear. And Misery:— His face was lean, and some deal pined away, And eke his hands consumed to the bone. In considering minutely the evidences of the connexion of mind and body, we gradually perceive that the organ most intimately associated with mind is the Brain. Other organs have been assigned, at various times, as the special seats of mental activity, but these are now abandoned. Yet, although the Brain is by pre-eminence the mental organ, other organs co-operate; more especially, the Senses, the Muscles, and the great Viscera. The peculiar structure of the Brain will be afterwards adverted to. For the present, I remark that it is a very large and complicated organ ; it receives a copious supply of blood, computed as one-fifth of the entire circu- lation, a circumstance betokening great activity of some kind or other. Now the facts that connect the mind with the brain are numerous and irresistible. Let us rehearse a few of them, under the two aspects already stated ; brain changes affecting the mind, mental changes affecting the brain. Under the first topic, the commonest observation is the effect of a blow on the head, which suspends for the time consciousness and thought; at a certain pitch of severity it produces a permanent injury of the faculties,