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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![belongs. They cross each other and, entering the body on the opposite side, each permeates the half of the frame that does not belong to it. The nerve system flowing from the right brain supplies with nerve force the left side of the body and vice versa. This is distinctly shown in paralysis and it has been demonstrated beyond furthei ques- tion by the experiments of Professor Ferrier.(o] Probably, few have formed the slightest conception of the true character of the fibrous structure of the brain. The number of fibres has been actually counted to the extent of a surface inch, shewing, says Dr. Wigan, the inconceivable number of more than three thousand millions to the square inch ! From this outline of the structure of the brain, we learn that in fact we have two brains, distinct and entire, as we have two eyes and two ears. One brain can act when the other is impotent, as is proved by the partial loss of brain control in paralysis, when one hemisphere of the brain only is affected. These two brains rest upon a bed of pulpy material which forms the point of union between them as also between the brain and the body. Upon this as a centre converge the nerves that pass from the brain to the body, conveying the commands of the will, and the nerves that carry to the mind the impressions made upon the senses by the external world. It is at this point that they are transmitted to the brain. The precise function of this organ has not been positively (a) l)r. Wigan says, “the object of this arrangement is at present in- comprehensible ” (p. 19). In a little treatise on Heredity and Hybridism, I have ventured to suggest that this is the contrivance by which the two germs of the two parents are united so as to form one structure. The suggestion of two germs will account also for two brains and two nerve systems, and for the duplex structure of the whole body, for all of which no reason whatever has hitherto been even surmised. [77]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2244385x_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
