CEREBRAL SURGERY WITHOUT ANESTHETICS 567 



points of view, this picture is sufficiently startling. But when I take 

 the more purely psychological point of view, I am impressed with the 

 conviction that we are here dealing with the reality of a soul, as a 

 spiritual agent, which while it is confessedly dependent for its 

 development upon the development and normal functioning of the 

 nervous centers, is, nevertheless, capable of attaining in the exercise 

 of its higher and more complex forms of self-consciousness, a relative 

 independence of those nervous centers. And if we ask ourselves 

 whether this independence may perchance become absolute, after the 

 destructive forces of nature have completely disintegrated the cere- 

 bral substance, we can not, indeed, answer " Yes," with the certainty 

 of positive science. But upon my mind the impression made by such 

 experiences as these is favorable to the affirmative answer. And so 

 far as positive science can answer the inquiry at all, or even throw 

 much light upon it, I prefer to follow along the lines of the seen and 

 tangible and universally verifiable, rather than take the leap involved 

 in a premature interpretation of doubtful phenomena by hypotheses 

 touching the wholly unseen and intangible. Here, at any rate, is this 

 conscious soul, manifesting itself as a partially " disembodied spirit.'' 

 Its voice I can hear and interpret as one of my own kind. This man- 

 ifestation appeals to me at present, and in accordance with scientific 

 methods, much more strongly than any alleged communications from 

 wholly disembodied spirits. Perhaps, however, at sometime in the 

 future of the physical and psychological sciences, the two voices may 

 speak with one accord. 



