Our brain, body and nerves / by Andrew Wilson.

  • Wilson, Andrew
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our brain, body and nerves / by Andrew Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are involved in what is apparently a simple enough act. Muscles of the limbs, those of the body, of the eyes and of the head, are all duly affected by the idea of the brain, which, like the pointsman in the busy signal- box of a large railway station, must possess a power clearly and definitely of directing its messages and commands into the special channels provided for the muscles it desires to affect. The process, however, does not necessarily end here. We become conscious that the act is being and has been performed, and it is clear that means must exist for the brain, or that part of it which is the seat of intelligence, being informed of the fact. The outgoing messages have brought the muscles into play, but ingoing messages must have conveyed to the brain the information of the successful accomplishment of its ideas. In the case before us, our eyes have clearly been one means of informing the brain that the work has been done, our sense of touch, and probably other senses as well—hearing to wit, and the heat sense—have also played their part in the transmission of the intelligence that the fire has been replenished. We thus come to discern the great principle on which
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