Principles of the human mind deduced from physical laws : being a sequel to Elements of electro-biology ; together with The lecture on the voltaic mechanism of man, delivered at the London Institution, April 11, 1849 / by Alfred Smee, F.R.S., senior surgeon to the Royal General Dispensary, surgeon to the Bank of England, and to the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital, and lecturer on surgery.

  • Smee, Alfred, 1818-1877.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of the human mind deduced from physical laws : being a sequel to Elements of electro-biology ; together with The lecture on the voltaic mechanism of man, delivered at the London Institution, April 11, 1849 / by Alfred Smee, F.R.S., senior surgeon to the Royal General Dispensary, surgeon to the Bank of England, and to the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital, and lecturer on surgery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    PRINCIPLES OF THE HUMAN MIND. KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD. 1. Our ideas of the external world arise, primarily, from an action upon the ultimate nervous fibres of the organs of sensation, by the specific stimulus com- petent to excite each organ of sensation respectively. 2. Each primitive nervous fibril is called a unit; the repetition of units, Number. 3. That which is competent to act upon these nervous fibrils is called Matter. 4. Whenever matter undergoes any change which renders it appreciable to our senses, it is said to evince Force. 5. The definite combination of nervous fibres ex- cited to action, determines the character of the idea pre- sented to the mind, such as form, position, magnitude. 6. Each combination may be expressed by a word or cypher, and forms a definite image. The use of words is called Language. 7. The sum total of all the possible combinations of the ultimate nervous fibrils, excited to action, comprises all the possible images which can be repre- sented to the mind. 8. Inasmuch as the possible combination of all the nervous fibrils is immensely numerous, so are the