Zoological philosophy / by J.B. Lamarck ; translated, with an introduction by Hugh Elliot.

  • Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Zoological philosophy / by J.B. Lamarck ; translated, with an introduction by Hugh Elliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    could never have an idea in a dream, that he had not had when awake, nor recall an object of which he was previously ignorant. If someone were to be confined from his childhood in a room where dayhght was only admitted from above, and if all necessaries were supplied to him without communication, he would assuredly never see in his dreams any of those objects which affect men so strongly m society. Thus dreams disclose to us the mechanism of memory, ]ust as memory teaches us the mechanism of ideas ; when I see my dog dreaming, barking in his sleep, and giving unequivocal signs of the thoughts which agitate him, I become convinced that he too has ideas, of however hmited a kind. It is not only during sleep that the functions of the inner feeHng may be suspended or disturbed. While we are awake, a sudden strong emotion sometimes suspends altogether the functions of this feehng, and even all movement in the free part of the nervous fluid; we then suffer from syncope, that is to say, we lose all con- sciousness and power of action; sometimes also an extensive irritation, such as occurs in certain fevers, similarly suspends the functions of the inner feehng and yet agitates the free portion of the nervous fluid in such a way as to call up disordered ideas and thoughts, and lead to actions no less disordered : in such a case we suffer from what is called dehrium. Dehrium therefore resembles dreams as regards the disorder of ideas, thoughts and judgments, and it is clear that this disorder in both cases arises from the fact that the functions of the inner feeHng are sus- pended, so that it no longer controls the movements of the nervous fluid.i But the violence of the nervous agitation causing delirium is the reason for beheving that this phenomenon is not only the product of a strong irritation, but sometimes also of a powerful moral affection ; so that individuals experiencing it then obtain very Httle advantage from their knowledge, for their inner feehng, whose functions are disturbed and suspended, no longer guides the nervous fluid in a way suitable for correct ideas. Indeed, when moral sensibihty is very great, the emotions produced in the inner feehng by certain ideas or thoughts are sometimes so considerable, that the functions of this feehng are disturbed, and it is . unable to guide the nervous fluid towards the performance of the new 1 With regard to the faint delirium or kind of dizziness, commonly experienced when we are falling off to sleep, it is probably due to the fact that the inner feeling, which is losing control of the movements still taking place in the nervous fluid, resumes and again gives up that control several times alternately, until complete sleep has supervened.