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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![traced because, unlike the brain, it presents no surface on which observation or experiment can be made. It lies within the bone structure and cannot be reached without death to the patient. But, considering its position, its connection with both brains, with the entire nerve system and through that with the body, there can be no doubt that it is the organ by means of which the two brains are brought into ^harmonious action, and also that through which the Psychic or Soul Force, directed by the Will, is brought to bear upon the two mental organs above and the two nerve systems below. As the nerves of the senses also centre here, it is probably the medium through which the impressions made upon the senses are conveyed to the brain, and by the brain to the Conscious Self by whom they are received and stored away and become memories. If this be so, the important conclusion follows, that here is the point at which the Conscious Self receives its infor- mation from the senses and conveys its commands to the body, and here also is the mechanism by which the unity of the individual self is reconciled with the duality of the mental machinery—a question to be considered hereafter. Dr. Wigan says of the material mechanism of the Mind: The two hemispheres of the brain are really and in fact two distinct and entire organs, and each respectively as complete (indeed, more complete) and as fully perfect in all its parts, for the purposes it is intended to perform, as are the two eyes. It would be just as reasonable to talk of the two lobes or globes of the eye as of the two hemispheres of the brain. The decussation of the fibres in the corpora pyramidalia is not merely visible, but proved by innumerable consequences necessarily resulting from it, as Hemiplegia and Paralysis. Each set of fibres retains its separate functions in passing to the opposite side and the opposite columns of the spinal marrow. That some of the powers and functions may be combined in the medulla oblongata is no greater objection to the absolute completeness and individuality of each hemisphere of the brain, or evidence of their forming but one organ, than the fact of our seeing only one object [78]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2244385x_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
