Body and mind : an inquiry into their connection and mutual influence, specially in reference to mental disorders being the Gulstonian lectures for 1870, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians with appendix / by Henry Maudsley.
- Henry Maudsley
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Body and mind : an inquiry into their connection and mutual influence, specially in reference to mental disorders being the Gulstonian lectures for 1870, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians with appendix / by Henry Maudsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![!•] SENSORI-MOTOR ACTS. j3 There can be no doubt that the ganglionic nuclei of the senses—the sensorial nuclei—are connected with motor nuclei; and that we have in such anatomical arrangement the agency of a number of reflex move- ments. Most of the instinctive acts of animals are of this kind, the faculties being innate in them. In man, however, who is actually the most helpless, though potentially the most powerful, of all living creatures when he comes into the world, the sensory and asso- ciated motor nuclei must be educated, just as the spinal centres must To illustrate this sensori-motor or instinc- tive action, we may take the results of Flourens' well- known experiment of removing the cerebral hemispheres of a pigeon. What happens ? The pigeon seemingly loses at once all intelligence and all power of sponta- neous action. It appears as if it were asleep; yet, if thrown into the air, it will fly. If iaid on its back' k struggles on to its legs again ■ the pupil of the eye con- tracts to light, and, if the light be very bright, the eyes are shut. It will dress its feathers if they are ruffled, and will sometimes follow with a movement of its head the movement of a candle before it; and, when a pistol is fired off, it will open its eyes, stretch its neck, raise its head, and then fall back into its former attitude It is quite evident from this experiment that general sensibility and special sensations are possible after the removal of the hemispheres j but they are not then transformed into ideas. The impressions of sense reach and affect the sensory centres, but they are not intellectually perceived- and the proper movements are excited, but these a ' are](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20407750_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
