The various theories of the relation of mind and brain : reviewed / by George Duncan.

  • Duncan, G. (George)
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The various theories of the relation of mind and brain : reviewed / by George Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    brain whatever, but of disease of the spinal cord. And insanity, is it always accompanied with disease of the brain % If not—and we know that it is not—then the materialist’s theory is good for nothing. I never could discover the authority that warrants the mate¬ rialist’s assertion that insanity is always accompanied with brain disease. This assertion, like all the others, merely proves his power of assertion. It likewise shows that he has nothing but assertion to offer us in defence of his position. I will prove anon that the brain has been extensively diseased without insanity ensuing. I therefore argue that the materialist cannot make out a case in defence of his theory. But we have yet one argument—and, at first sight, a pretty strong one too—which is put forth in defence of materialism—that is, that fractures in the skull often cause unconsciousness. We admit the fact. But what does it amount to % Positively nothing. Let us state the strongest case on record in the materialist’s favour. “A sailor fell from the yard-arm on the deck* and was taken up insensible. For months he re¬ mained in that state, but was otherwise healthy. On examining his head an obvious depression on the skull was at once observed, and thirteen months and a few days after the accident he was carried into the operating theatre and there trepanned. The depressed portion of the bone was raised from off the brain; his fingers, which had been moving all along to the mo¬ tion of his heart, ceased immediately when the bone
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