The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe. 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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    to our consciousness the entrance of our friend, wo must rernain un- moved and unaftected by his ])re- sence ; and unless the muscular nerves were ready to obey the commands of the will, we could no more extend a hand to welcome him or give expres- sion to our joy, than if we lay in a swoon powerless at his feet. In this way the mind and body arc equally dependent on each other. Without a brain to think, and nerves, muscles, and bones to execute, the mind would be, so far as we arc concerned, power- less and useless. And, on the other hand, these organs, without mind to guide and direct them in their exer- cise, would be, like the paralyzed limb, an unmeaning and motionless en- cumbrance. Such, then, is a brief outline of the uses of the brain and nerves. The study of the functions of the nerves abounds in interest and attractions for every intelligent mind; but as their more minute investigation would lead us too far from the objects more im- mediately in view, we must, for the present, quit the subject, and return to the consideration of the brain, which, as the organ through which all the mental operations are carried on, and by the condition of which they are continually influenced, possesses claims upon our attention which it is impossible to overrate. As already ri*niarked, all physiolo- gists are agreed that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that during life its co-operation is as indispens- able to the active manifestations of the mental faculties as the eye is to the sense of sight, or the ear to that of hearing. But for practical purposes, it is extremely important to go a step farther than this general fact, and as- certain whether, in manifesting the mind, the brain acts as a single organ in every mental operation, or whether it is really, as we have de- scribed it, an aggregate of dilferent parts, each constituting the organ of a distinct power of the mind, in the same way as each of the organs of the external senses is appropriated to its special function. On this ques- tion, also, there is now scarcely any diversity of opinion, as almost all ob- servers concur in considering tlic latter to be the correct view; and even those who deny the minuter subdivi- sions indicated by the phrenologists, mostly agree in rogarding the anterior lobe as t!ie special seat of the intellect, and the other parts of the brain as the seat of the pas.sions and moral feelings. There are so few exceptions to the general belief of these propositions, that I consider myself fairly entitled to hold them as established ; particu- larly as the phrenologists have suc- ceeded in demonstrating their truth by a mass of evidence which, when care- fully examined, it is impossible success- fully to resist. If this were the proper place for the discussion, it would not be diffi- cult to adduce very conclusive evidence in favour of the proposition, that every primary mental power, whether of intellect or of feeling, has a portion of the brain specially appropriated for its own exercise. The unity of the mind itself has been thought by some to be incompatible with its acting- through the medium of a plurality of organs; but this argument becomes entirely w ithout weight when we con- sider the analogous case of the exter- nal senses, each of which has its own distinct and appropriate organ—the eye, the ear, the nose, &c.—although the mind, which sees, hears, and smells, is a unit. Even were there no other evidence, therefore, the analogy of the senses would itself render it in the highest degi-ee probable that each mental faculty acts through the me- dium of a special cerebral organ. Hence, instead of detaining the reader with any of the numerous proofs which might easily be adduced were this the place for them, I shall for the present assume the principle as esta- blished, and content myself with one or two illustrations of the expediency of keeping it in view in all practical treatment in which the mind is con- cerned. As man is constituted at present, when any one of the five senses is
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