Volume 1

The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer.

Date:
1835-37
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ferent from the sensation of the brain, arising from other actions of this viscus : and also knowing that such action of the brain as produces such sensation in the mind, is endeavouring to set other parts of the body into action which may be called voluntary, or rather actions in volun- tary parts ; and that when such actions of the brain have taken place, such dispositions of the brain are lost; I say, knowing so much, we may, from analogy, form some idea of bodily dispositions. But the disposi- tions of the body appear to differ in this respect from those of the brain, that in the brain there is only the disposition, the ultimate or conse- quent action talcing place in the body. But this is, perhaps, because we are not much acquainted with the immediate effects of the disposi- tion in the brain, being led away by the visible actions which take place in the body. To explain this, let us suppose that I have an impression made on my body in such a manner that my sensitive principle is sensible of it; if, for instance, a man gives me a knock on the head that makes me angry, I form a disposition from that for resenting it: that disposition in my mind produces an action in my brain which forms a peculiar state of the mind, which is anger. If it was an action of some other kind, it might be affection or gratitude. The brain can do nothing by way of retaliation, whether it be gratitude or revenge which directs, but to set parts of the body to work. Having received a blow on my head, the disposition in my brain to produce the action of revenge sets my hands to work to give my enemy another blow, and then the disposition is at an end. So that whenever the action has taken place, the dispo- sition is gone*. The ultimate effect is made sensible to us, and we are apt to imagine that it is the immediate act of the disposition of the brain; but it is only that the immediate action which took place in the brain made other parts of the body act secondarily, so that three actions are necessary to the ultimate effect; but they are not all three actions of the brain. There is, 1st, the action which produces the disposition; 2nd, the action of the nerves in consequence of the disposition; 3rd, * [The disposition does not cease because the action has taken place, but because a new feeling, that of gratified revenge, has arisen in the mind, and taken the place of the previous disposition. Had the blow of retaliation missed its aim, the disposition would have continued, notwithstanding the action had taken place, until a second and more effectual one had been given. This mode of reasoning from metaphysics and false analogy is extremely unsatisfactory, although it must be admitted, that many striking analogies exist between the powers and actions of the mind and those of the body, which Hunter seems to have studied with attention, and of which he has adduced some apt examples.]