A discourse on mental philosophy as connected with mental disease : delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society, June 2, 1830 / by Rufus Wyman.

  • Wyman, Rufus, 1778-1842.
Date:
1830
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A discourse on mental philosophy as connected with mental disease : delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society, June 2, 1830 / by Rufus Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    respects the diseased states deviate from a slate of health. The same learned author proceeds in his descrip- tion, and remarks, under the genus Ecphronia, or in- sanity, that there is 'diseased perception with little derangement of the judgment,' &c. The medical student would certainly inquire, what are the mental functions or states, intended by perception and judg- ment. Unless he do this, he cannot understand the description. Dugald Stewart* observes, that 'in or- dinary language we apply the same word, perception, to the knowledge, which we have by our senses, of external objects, and to our knowledge of speculative truth; and yet an author would be justly censured who should treat of these two operations of the mind under the same article of perception.' In the definite and philosophical use of the term, perception denotes that mental function, which refers to an external ob- ject as its cause, the impression made upon an organ of sensation. Thus when we have a certain impres- sion upon the ear, followed by a sensation, we refer it to a man cutting wood with an axe. But there is another use of the same term, perception,! when we speak of the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas, or of the perception of the relation of the successive steps of a geometrical demonstration, &c. Er Good has adopted both uses of this word in the proem to his fourth class. J In his description of the genus Ecphronia of the same class, * Elements, Vol, I. ch. 3. t Consciousness, or discernment, is the proper term. t See also Dr Good's Lucr*.. De Rerum Natura, Vol. II. p. 110.