338 FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOYS SYSTEM. 



sation which first set this process in operation; and the various movements 

 of the face and person, by which Actors endeavour to express strong Emotions, 

 are only effectual in conveying their meaning, when they result from the actual 

 working of the emotions in the mind of the performer, who has, by an effort 

 of the will, identified himself (so to speak) with the character he personates. 

 A still more remarkable case is that, in which paroxysms of Hysterical con- 

 vulsion, in themselves beyond the power of the Will to excite or to control, 

 are brought on by a voluntary effort; which seems to act by "getting up," so 

 to speak, the state of feeling, which is the immediate cause of the disordered 

 movements. In all these instances, and others of like nature, it would seem 

 as if the agency of the Cerebrum produced the same condition in the Sensory 

 ganglia and their motor fibres, as that which is more directly excited by sen- 

 sations received through their own afferent nerves. It may be reasonably 

 surmised, that -the Sensory ganglia, like the Cephalic ganglia which are the 

 instruments of the Instinctive actions of the lower animals, can .only be excited 

 to action by stimuli immediately operating upon them ; but that these stimuli 

 may be either Sensations directly originating in external objects, or Concep- 

 tions resulting from the remembrance of those objects, of which there is strong 

 reason to believe that the Cerebrum is the storehouse. 



440. The Emotions are concerned in Man, however, in many actions, which 

 are in themselves strictly voluntary. Unless they be strongly excited, so as 

 to get the better of the Will, they do not operate directly through the nervous 

 trunks, but are subservient to the intellectual operations; to which they supply 

 materials, or motives. Thus, of two individuals, with differently constituted 

 minds, one shall judge of everything through the medium of a gloomy morose 

 temper, which, like a darkened glass, represents to his judgment the whole 

 world in league to injure him; and all his determinations, being based upon 

 this erroneous view, exhibit the indications of it in his actions ; which are 

 themselves, nevertheless, of an entirely voluntary character. On the other 

 hand, a person of a cheerful, benevolent disposition, looks at the world around 

 as through a Claude Lorraine glass, seeing everything in its brightest and 

 sunniest aspect; and, with intellectual faculties precisely similar to those of 

 the former individual, he will come to opposite conclusions ; because the 

 materials, which form the basis of his judgment, are submitted to it in a very 

 different condition. Various forms of Moral Insanity exhibit the same con- 

 trast in a yet more striking light. We not unfrequently meet with individuals, 

 still holding their place in society, who are accustomed to act so much upon 

 feeling, and to be so little guided by reason, as to be scarcely regarded as 

 sane; and a very little exaggeration of such a tendency causes the actions to 

 be so injurious to the individual himself, or to those around him, that restraint 

 is required, although the intellect is in no way disordered, nor are any of the 

 feelings perverted. Not unfrequently we may observe similar inconsistencies 

 resulting from the habitual indulgence of one particular feeling, or a morbid 

 exaggeration of it. The mother \vho, through weakness of will, yields to her 

 instinctive fondness for her offspring, in allowing it gratifications which she 

 knows to be injurious to it, is placing herself below the level of many less 

 gifted beings. The habit of yielding to a natural infirmity of temper ol'tcn 

 lends into paroxysms of ungovernable rage, which, in their turn, pass into a 

 state of maniacal excitement. It is not unfrequently seen, that a delusion of 

 the intellect (constituting what is commonly known as Monomania) has in 

 reality resulted from a disordered state of the feelings, which have represented 

 every occurrence in a wrong light to the mind of the individual. All such 

 conditions are of extreme interest, when compared with those which are met 

 with amongst idiots, and animals enjoying a much lower degree of intelligence: 

 for the result is much the same, in whatever way the balance between the 



