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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    exercised singly and to excess, it alone and its special organ become exhausted from the fatigue, and the rest of them remain as ready for ac- tive employment as if the wliole five had been entirely at rest. Hence, when we wish to cultivate acuteness in any one sense exclusively, we must exercise it frequently, bat never con- tinue its activity so long at one time us to exhaust its energies. By follow- ing this method we shall succeed in developing the wished for acuteness, more readily than if we restricted the exercise exclusively to the one, and continued it without intermission. Every one is aware of tliis, because, the organs of the external senses being visible, it is easy to discover that one ov more may act while the rest are in repose ; and that,for example, when we are tired witii looldmi intently at any thing, we may nevertheless listen, or taste, or smell, with great pleasure and refreshment. This arrangement is at- tended' with the great advantage not only that our iiifoitnation regarding external objects is multiplied, and ren- d-,?red accurate, in proportion to the number of senses by which their differ- ent qualities arc recognised, but that when, from necessity or inadvertence, any 2>articulap organ is lost, its place may in. a/ considerable measure be sup- plied by augmented action on the part of the others. In the same way, when ' some faculty of the mind is wearied by long-continued exercise, we tind a source of enjoyment in the exercise of others. It is thus, for instance, thar the harassed man of business finds re- creation in reading or in music ; for when tlie mind has been intently dwelling on some particular object, we seek distraction not in simple rest, but in exercising those faculties which have been lying quiescent. It was by persevering application in the study of the individual faculties that Dr (-rail was ultimately enabled to i)lace the tue physiology of the brain upon a solid and jjermanent foundation, by demonstrating beyond the possi- bility of reasonable doubt its grand princi])le, that the bi-aiu is not a sin- gle organ, serving as a v.-hole for the manifestation of all the faculties of the mind equally, but is, on the con- trary, an aggregate of many different parts, each subserving one. and only one, individual mental faculty, ex- actly as one external organ subserves the sense of touch, another that of sight, and a third that of hearing— instead of a single orgau being suffi- cient for all. The different organs of the brain are not indeed so distinctly separated from each other as are those of tlie external senses; because their very functions require their conjunc- tion, and not their separation. The external senses are so distinct in func- tion tliat we Hiaj' conceire of any one of them acting without the asso- ciated action of any of the others: we may hear without seeing, smelling, tasting, or touching the object which emits the sound; or we may sec with- out hearing anything. But the inter- nal faculties of the mind are too closely connected to admit of such iso- lated action, and it is impossible for us in any circumstances to call into play only one feeling, or one intellec- tual faculty at a time. Do what we like, and check it as we may, no sin- gle internal power or emotion can start into activity without several others being instantly associated in the action. One feeling or thought rouses another in spite of our utmost efforts at suppression ; and hence guilt or shame, for- example, is often unwittingly betrayed by excited fear, when the culprit would almost give up life itself to be able to prevent its exhibition. In exact accordance with this mode of operation of, and inti- mate union between;, the internal fa- culties, wc find that, as might liave been expected, the closest union sub- sists among their re.=?|)ective organs in the brain, and that it is as impossible to delineate their precise local boun- daries, although their situations are. known, as it is to define the functions of each with mathematical precision. Yet, strange to say, this harmony of relation botv/een structure and func- tion has been dwelt upon by many as an insuperable objection toplirenology. The alleged organs, it is argued.
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