Outlines of psychology : with special reference to the theory of education / by James Sully.

  • James Sully
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of psychology : with special reference to the theory of education / by James Sully. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    larly ]n the brain-centres, accompany these psychical changes. Growth and Development of Brain. The brain like all other parts of the organism grows in bulk or size, and develops or manifests certain changes in its forma- tion or structure. The two processes, growth and development, do not progress with the same degree of rapidity. The size nearly attains its maximum about the end of the 7th year, whereas the degree of struc- tural development reached at this time is not much above that of the embryonic condition,^ By increase of structural development is here meant greater unlikeness of the several parts, or a higher degree of 'differentiation'; also a higher degree of intricacy of arrangement which seems to be best defin- able as the formation of special connections between part and part. Order of Development of Brain-organs. There is a further order of development noticeable. The higher structures known as the cerebral hemispheres seem to develop later than the lower structures (basal ganglia, &c.). These higher structures appear to have greater complexity, that is to say, to involve more intricate arrangements among themselves and with other struc- tures, than the lower brain centres. Brain Development and Exercise. The brain being an organ closely connected with the rest of the bodily organism would tend to grow to a certain extent with the growth of the orgnnism as a whole and indepen- dently of any activity of its own. But such growth would be rudimentary only. Like all other organs it ^ See Bastian, The Brain as an Organ of Mind, p. 375.
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