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

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    117/810 (page 49)
    Nervous mechanism to the impressions made upon it, in virtue of its original or acquired endowments; but the Nerve-centres concerned in them being of a higher order, their reflex activity cannot be called forth ■without affecting the consciousness of the Animal that executes them (§§ 57, 77, 78). 49. In ascending through the Molluscous series, we find the Nervous system increasing in complexity, in accordance with the increasing complexity of the general organization; the addition of new organs of special Sensation, and of new parts to be moved by Muscles, involving the addition of new ganglionic centres, whose functions are respectively adapted to these purposes. The possession of a distinct head, in which are located the organs of Vision, the rudimentary organs of Hearing, and the organs (if any such exist) of Smell and Taste, constitutes the distinction between the two primary divisions of the series,—the cephalous and the acephalous; the Snail and Whelk being typical examples of the former, the Oyster and Cockle of the latter. In the Cephalous Mollusks, we always find a pair of ganglia situated in the head; which pair, termed the cephalic ganglia, is really made up of several distinct ganglionic centres, and is connected by cords that pass round the oesophagus, with other ganglia disposed in various parts of the trunk. Still, generally speaking, the Nervous system bears but a small proportion to the whole mass of the body; and the ganglia which minister to its general movements, are often small in proportion to those which serve some special purpose, such as the actions of Respiration. This is what we should expect from the general inertness of the character of these animals (typified by the term sluggish), and from the small amount of Muscular structure which they possess. 50. Again, we find no other multiplication of similar centres, than a doubling on the two sides of the body; excepting in a few cases, m which the organs they supply are correspondingly multiplied,— as in the arms of the Cuttle-fish, which are furnished with great E