A letter to the Reverend Thomas Rennell, concerning his Remarks on scepticism / from a graduate in medicine, of the University of Oxford.

  • Mayo, Thomas, 1790-1871.
Date:
[1819?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Reverend Thomas Rennell, concerning his Remarks on scepticism / from a graduate in medicine, of the University of Oxford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    distinctness of that which is material, from that which is immaterial, erroneously or from false date, or as tending, with equal unsuccess, to disprove or understate the closeness of connexion established for the present between these principles, and ob¬ viously consistent with their essential di¬ stinctness. That argument which I should select from your work as peculiarly illustrating the difficulty of proving from physiology the distinct existence of mind, is the one in which you ingeniously endeavour to ex¬ hibit thought as originating and exciting an affection of the brain *. You adduce the instance of distressing information sud¬ denly received by letter, and occasioning, to all appearance, a severe affection of the nervous system. Here thought, at first, ap¬ pears distinct from, and controlling, matter. Analogy, however, forces us from this ground* and obliges us to confess, that probably there was an affection of the brain, coexisting