An address delivered at the opening of the classes of the Medical School attached to the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1845 / [Alexander Shaw].

  • Shaw, Alexander, 1804-1890.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address delivered at the opening of the classes of the Medical School attached to the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1845 / [Alexander Shaw]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    its faculties, and at the same time empower him to exe¬ cute the works prompted by his reason. But it is found, on looking to the structure of the Lower Animals, that they are formed on the same plan as man; and, in some animals, the organs approximate so closely to those of the human body, that they are nearly identical. In other words, creatures, placed im¬ measurably below man in point of psychical endow¬ ments, and which cannot correctly be said to possess what can be dignified with the name of a mind at all, still have an organization similar to man! That fact has appeared to some so inconsistent with the explana¬ tion referred to, as to be subversive of it; and argu¬ ments, founded upon it, have been brought forward by clever, but superficial men, to the effect of degrading the position of man in the animal kingdom. The difficulty has arisen, from physiologists admit¬ ting too readily that man’s organization is not superior to that of any of the brutes. The human body is planned, undoubtedly, on the same model as that of the inferior animals; resemblances are therefore met with, sometimes exceedingly close and striking, between the parts of each; but if those organs which are espe¬ cially subservient to the Mind, be particularly studied, and contrasted with the analogous parts of the lower creatures, there manifest proofs will be obtained of the superiority of man’s formation. In pursuing this subject, it will be best approached, by enquiring, what organs are essentially requisite for the wants of every animal, high and low in the scale of animal existence. After settling that point, we shall be able to direct attention with better effect, to the struc¬ tures which minister more particularly to themind of man. I will carry you at once to the lowest point in the B