Outlines of a philosophical argument on the infinite, and the final cause of creation; and on the intercourse between the soul and the body / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson.

  • Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of a philosophical argument on the infinite, and the final cause of creation; and on the intercourse between the soul and the body / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and preserve the machinery of the brain,) and passing also the coverings or integuments of the bones, namely, the cuticle, cutis, pericranium and hair; let us proceed at once to the inner parts. And here the first structure that occurs is the dura mater, a membrane consisting of tendinous fibres, lining the skull, and united to it in numerous places ; whereby it defends the underlying membranes and the substance of the cerebrum ; strengthens both the brains, maintains their figure, and pre- serves their respective boundaries; so that all the parts are kept immoveably in the genuine and natural position, and the cere- brum is not injured by immediate contact with the bones ; be- sides which, this membrane serves as a means to bring certain sensations inwards [to the soul]. Underneath it lies the pia mater, between which and the dura mater, according to some anatomists, there is a third membrane, viz., the arachnoid : but for the present let us keep to the pia mater, which dips down deep into the cerebrum, and besides investing its parts, also sheathes the spinal marrow and the nerves. This membrane is beset with innumerable blood-vessels, seeming to consist of hardly anything else. The end or purpose of it is, not only to envelop the cerebrum, but also to invest its intimate convolu- tions and folds; to distribute blood to it; partly to bring heat, partly to supply liquid, for nourishing, irrigating, and giving substance and combination to the parts: also not only to receive a fine sense, but to derive it inwards along the subtler mem- branes, that those which are subtler still may be able to receive the tremble of the delicate sensations; which exquisite mem- branes are brought into communication with all sorts of nerves by the pia mater; for the latter invests these nerves, and is their grand constituent, because it is their common covering.* We pass over the division of the cerebrum into hemispheres, and of the hemispheres into lobes, also the division of the brain into cerebrum and cerebellum, and into cortical or cineritious and medullary substances; each of which subdivisions, both generically and specifically, has its own particular use in convey- ing more and more inwards not only the rude sensations of the body, but the sensations of all the senses, till they arrive at the * Respecting the integuments óf the cranium, and the dura mater, arachnoid membrane and pia mater, see Heister, Op. Cit., n. 266—269.—( Tv.)