The duality of the mind : read at the meeting of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, May 12, 1875 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox.
- Edward William Cox
- Date:
- [1875]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The duality of the mind : read at the meeting of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, May 12, 1875 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![is It is here referred to as a reservation from the too general assertion, that one brain can perforin all the functions of mind perfectly though the other brain be destroyed. Dr. Wigan, indeed, recognises thefact that the highest exertionsof mind require the concentration upon them of the exertions oTBoth brains, and he has noticed in all cases of extensive disease of one brain an “inability to exercise continuous study, or to learn by heart,” although the one healthy brain may exercise the ordinary functions of mind. It is, perhaps, necessary to prevent possible misconcep- tion by stating once for all, that when the terms “mind” and “ brain ” are here used, it is not in the sense in which they are used by the Materialists, who contend that the brain is the mind and deny the existence in Man of any- thing other than brain.^ The proposition I venture to ad- vance is that the brain is the material mechanism by which the operations we call “mental” are conducted, and that “the Mincl ” is the name given to the sum of these operations viewed as a whole. But besides this material mechanism there ds the Conscious Self, that takes cognizance of the conditions and actions of the brain, and controls them by that Psychic or Soul Force we call the Will. Dr. Wigan presents the argument in this conclusive form :— One of two things must be: either each hemisphere is a perfect whole, capable of exercising all the functions which in the aggregate foim the mind of the individual, or else each half must exercise some of those functions, and the other half the remainder, so as between them to make up a mind. The exact resemblance of the two hemispheres of the brain at once negatives the supposition that they perform different offices. If the functions of mind were performed cumulatively by the two, it is clear that, on being destroyed, only portions of the mind would be annihilated, and not the whole mind. [85]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2244385x_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
