Brain as an organ of mind / by H. Charlton Bastian.

  • Bastian, H. Charlton.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brain as an organ of mind / by H. Charlton Bastian. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    73/762 (page 55)
    THE USE AND NATURE OF SENSE ORGANS, Heat and light are physical influences to which even the lowest units of living matter respond, whether their mode of life and nutrition he most akin to that of Plants or to that of Animals. These influences act upon such organisms, either by stimulating, retarding, or otherwise modifying the chemical changes occurring in their interior, and upon the existence of which their Life depends. Where the vital processes of the organism are stimulated by these physical agencies, their incidence may, in many instances, become the cause of so-called ‘ spontaneous * movements. And some sort of foundation exists for this popular mode of expression. A movement which follows immediately upon some localized external stimulus is not said to he ‘ spontaneous: ’ the term is generally applied where the cause of the movement is not distinctly recognizable. In some of these cases—as when we have to do with the influence of a diffused physical agent such as heat—an undetected or unconsidered external cause really exists, which, by stimulating the vital processes, gives rise to movements seemingly spontaneous. Whilst in other cases, movements apparently spontaneous are to he referred to internal states or changes, that is to impres- sions emanating from some of the internal organs which, after passing through one or more ganglia, are trans-