Philosophy of mind, developing new sources of ideas, designating their distinctive classes, and simplifying the faculties and operations of the whole mind.

  • Stearns, John, 1770-1848.
Date:
1840
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Philosophy of mind, developing new sources of ideas, designating their distinctive classes, and simplifying the faculties and operations of the whole mind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    selection of this topic has heen influenced by a desire to excite the attention of the Medical Faculty, move particularly, to the study of the human mind, and in a few preliminary remarks, I shall demon- strate its practical importance to the physician, by showing the influence which it exerts upon the body. Dr. Rush observes : ' It is the duty of physicians to assert then- prerogative, and to rescue mental science from the usurpations of school-men. It can only be perfected by the aid and discoveries of medicine. A knowledge of the functions and operations of the mind is useful to the physician in the study of physiology, hygeine, pathology, and in the practice of medicine. It furnishes many useful analogies by which we can explain and illustrate the functions of the body. ' Is the will influenced by motives ] So the body is influenced by external and internal impressions. Is the will destitute of a self- determining power 1 So the body is devoid of an independent prin- ciple of life. Both are influenced by associations and habits, and both equally require repose, after active exertion.' This knowledge also enables us to develope the causes of disease, and to preserve a regular exercise of the faculties and operations of the mind, so as to prevent disease, arising from their torpor, or from their undue exer- cise. A physician destitute of this knowledge, is a very incompetent judge of the influence which the mind exerts upon the body, in the production and cure of diseases ; nor can he avail himself of a remedy more efficacious than the most potent article of the materia medica. Dr. Reid justly remarks, that ' all such practitioners are like a surgeon, who, while he secures one artery, suffers his patient to bleed to death by another.' Before the fall of man, his mind was pure, holy, and perfectly equal and regular in all its operations upon the body, which it animated and sustained in perfect health. Such a perfection of mind and body, justly balanced in all *.heir reciprocal operations, was destined to endure for ever in the perfect enjoyment of that unalloyed felicity which is known only to the inhabitants of paradise. Exempt from disease, and undisturbed by inordinate passions, this harmonious compound flourished in the health and vigor of youth, until a poison, artfully infused into the mind, contami- nated the body with pain, disease, and death. The effects of this infection were evinced in the conviction of shame and guil which our first parents instantly exhibited ; and also in that depravity of mind, thereby induced, which caused such an unequal operation of the passions and faculties, as to affect the body with disease, and an immediate and direct tendency to its destruction. At that moment