MATERIALISM AND ITS LESSONS. 669 



which the words which he was just going to utter when it happened 

 had remained locked up, as they might have been locked up in the 

 phonograph, to be let go the moment the obstructing pressure was 

 removed. The patient did not remember, when he came to himself, 

 that the mare had kicked him ; the last thing before he was insensible 

 which he did remember was, that she wheeled her heels round and 

 laid back her ears viciously. 



Cases of this kind show how entirely dependent every function of 

 mind is upon a sound state of the mechanism of the brain. Just as 

 we can, by pressing firmly upon the sensory nerve of the arm, prevent 

 an impression made upon the finger being carried to the brain and felt 

 there, so by pressing upon the brain we can as certainly stop a thought 

 or a volition. In both cases a good recovery presently followed the 

 removal of the pressure upon the brain ; but it would be of no little 

 medical interest to have the after-histories of the persons, since it 

 happens sometimes after a serious injury to the head that, despite an 

 immediate recovery, slow, degenerative changes are set up in the brain 

 months or years afterward, which go on to cause a gradual weakening, 

 and perhaps eventual destruction, of mind. Now the instructive mat- 

 ter in this case is that the moral character is usually impaired first, and 

 sometimes is completely perverted, without a corresponding deteriora- 

 tion of the understanding ; the person is a thoroughly changed char- 

 acter for the worse. The injury has produced disorder in the most 

 delicate part of the mental organization, that which is separated from 

 actual contact with the skull only by the thin investing membranes of 

 the brain ; and, once damaged, it is seldom that it is ever restored 

 completely to its former state of soundness. However, happy recov- 

 eries are now and then made from mental derangement caused by 

 physical injury of the brain. Some years ago a miner was sent to the 

 Ayrshire District Asylum, who, four years before, had been struck to 

 the ground insensible by a mass of falling coal, which fractured his 

 skull. He lay unconscious for four days after the accident, then came 

 gradually to himself, and was able in four weeks to resume his work 

 in the pit. But his wife noticed a steadily increasing change for the 

 worse in his character and habits ; whereas he had formerly been 

 cheerful, sociable, and good-natured, always kind and affectionate to 

 her and his children, he now became irritable, moody, surly, suspicious, 

 shunning the company of his fellow workmen, and impatient with her 

 and the children. This bad state increased ; he was often excited, 

 used threats of violence to his wife and others, finally became quite 

 maniacal, attempted to kill them, had a succession of epileptic fits, 

 and was sent to the asylum as a dangerous lunatic. There he showed 

 himself extremely suspicious and surly, entertained a fixed delusion 

 that he was the victim of a conspiracy on the part of his wife and 

 others, and displayed bitter and resentful feelings. At the place 

 where the skull had been fractured there was a well-marked depres- 



