Physiological psychology : a case of suspension of the mental faculties, of the powers of speech, and special senses, with the exception of sight and touch, continuing for many months : with a commentary on some of the more important of its bearings, upon the philosophy of the human mind, and the physiological psychology of man / by Robert Dunn.

  • Dunn, Robert, 1799-1877.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological psychology : a case of suspension of the mental faculties, of the powers of speech, and special senses, with the exception of sight and touch, continuing for many months : with a commentary on some of the more important of its bearings, upon the philosophy of the human mind, and the physiological psychology of man / by Robert Dunn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    remarkable case, up to this time, as yet put upon record, in illustrating the nature of a purely sensorial and instinc- tive, as distinguished from an intelligent existence, and the gradual nature of the transition from one to the other.” (Dr. Carpenter’s Principles of Human Physiology, 5th edition, 1855.) I may here repeat, what I have elsewhere stated, that u among living physiologists, Dr. Carpenter has done more than any other man to specialise the functions of the ner- vous centres of the encephalon ; and through comparative anatomy, by analytical reasoning and strict induction, to advance our knowledge of the physiological psychology of man. To my mind, he has fully established the following important positions :— 1. The independent character of the sensory ganglia as instruments of sensation, and of respondent consensual and instinctive actions. 2. The superadded character of the cerebrum or great hemispherical ganglia, as the phrenic ganglia of the brain, —the seat of our intellectual operations and reasoning pro- cesses, where ideas are formed, and where the will exerts its power. 3. The composite or mixed nature of the propensities, emotions, and moral feelings, as compounded of ideas and sensorial feelings of pleasure and pain—the former, their intellectual or psychical element, having their seat in the hemispherical ganglia, and the latter or sensational, in the sensorium commune or sensory ganglia. The establishment of these positions, the independent character of the sensory ganglia, and the restriction of the functions of the cerebrum to the operations of the intellect and the will, this separation and localisation of the centres of sensation and ideation, of feeling and of thought, and the development of the composite nature of the active powers of the mind, the emotions, propensities, and pas- sions, constitute a real and a most important advance in psychological science.”* And Dr. Carpenter’s chapters, in the fifth and last edition of his Human Physiology, “ On the Functions of the Ce- rebro-Spinal Nervous System, and on the Mind and its Operations,” I cannot too earnestly recommend to the study * Case of Tubercles in the Brain, with remarks Physiological and Psycho- logical on the Functions of the Nervous Centres, involved in the Disease. (Association Journal, August lltli, 1854.)