On the influence of education and training in preventing diseases of the nervous system / by Robert Brudenell Carter.

  • Carter, Robert Brudenell, 1828-1918.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the influence of education and training in preventing diseases of the nervous system / by Robert Brudenell Carter. 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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    volitional power, supplies the conditions necessary to moral responsibility. It is plainly essential to the continued existence of all animals, that they should perform certain move- ments : for the aeration of their circulating fluids; for the capture of their prey; for their flight or conceal- ment from danger; and for the fulfilment of various other purposes in their economy. This necessity is perfectly provided for by the working of the spinal system; because the circumstances which require motion on the part of the animal, are those which produce an impression on the extremities of the afferent nerves, and ultimately cause the development of a force in the centre, which immediately discharges or expends itself in the accomplishment of the neces- sary act. Thus, the presence in the throat of food to be swallowed, and the presence of impure blood in the lungs, are the immediate and unerring excitants of the operations which such circumstances respectively demand; and the force concerned being instinctive, and not volitional, leaves no room for neglect on the part of the animal, who might otherwise be choked by forgetting to swallow, or suffocated by forgetting to breathe. A large portion of the actions of insects, and espe- cially their actions of progression, are, for the most part, spinal; and it is evident that the mechanism described in the last paragraph would be adequate to the accomplishment of all they do. But, if possessed only of a spinal system, although they might retain their present habits, they would have no enjoyment of existence, and would resemble machines, in every-