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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



by antecedent feeling, whether or not the feelings 

 concerned have connection with other feelings in 

 neighboring organs. 



At this point of the discussion I am reminded 

 that it is incumbent on me to explain, consistently 

 with my hypothesis, the conditions falling under 

 the terras sleep, swoon, coma, death, and the in- 

 organic state. In this connection I need hardly 

 remark that it is equally necessary to both hy- 

 potheses — that of concomitance and alternation 

 alike — to admit that dynamical equilibrium in an 

 organ presupposes the absence of what we ordi- 

 narily call feeling ; for it is the disturbance of 

 this equilibrium that creates molecular vibration 

 or nervous action — what is ordinarily deemed a 

 mere train of physical sequences. The hypothe- 

 sis of alternation is quite consistent with uncon- 

 sciousness where dynamical equilibrium exists, 

 for where no energy is being received no feeling 

 can, by the hypothesis, exist. It is impossible to 

 say with absolute certainty that in sleep, coma, 

 or swoon, there is total unconsciousness; but 

 even if there is an entire absence of feeling, it is 

 doubtless due to the supervention of a state of 

 equilibrium in the grouped organs of feeling — 

 the nerves. This state of equilibrium may be 

 considered as arising from the withdrawal of the 

 blood-supply which seems necessary to preserve 

 the semi-fluid condition of the "axis-cylinders" 

 or true nerves — a condition in which doubtless 

 vibration can alone arise from the ordinary excit- 

 ing causes, and therefore a condition indispen- 

 sable to the presence of feeling. The withdrawal 

 of the blood from the nervous system seems to 

 be the true cause, for it has been observed that 

 sensibility appears to diminish as the circulation 

 is lowered, especially when it is withdrawn from 

 the higher organs of feeling, namely, the coordi- 

 nating and generalizing organs that make up the 

 brain. 



Death would seem to bring about the perfect 

 condition of equilibrium of the complex system 

 of feeling and acting organs and the supervention 

 of the inorganic state. 



Inorganic matter, strictly defined, is a condi- 

 tion of matter in which feeling and acting organs 

 are not arranged to operate in connected series or 

 groups. Now, although all elements that receive 

 energy must by the hypothesis feel and act some- 

 what like nerves individually, yet, inasmuch as 

 these feelings have no grouping organ to connect 

 them, in the case of inorganic matter they must 

 feel as individuals. And since individual feelings 

 are not feelings of feelings, so to speak, from the 

 want of a grouping organ, tbey are therefore des- 



titute of intelligence (sense of difference), which 

 can alone arise in a grouping organ — an organ 

 connected with several organs so as to feel their 

 different states, or to have their different states 

 communicated to it or combined with its own. 

 But the condition of the inorganic world, com- 

 monly so called, may be the seat of organization 

 of the kind necessary to intelligence in a degree 

 of which we have never yet dreamed, just as the 

 tissues of some Medusas, destitute of nerves in 

 the ordinary sense of the term, have been discov- 

 ered by Mr. Romanes to be the seat of virtual 

 nerves or lines of organized molecular activity. 

 This, however, is for future investigation. Pos- 

 sibly, by the aid of the microphone and extensive 

 research, much truth may yet be gained to con- 

 nect the so-called inorganic world with what is at 

 present called organic. Life will then be regard- 

 ed as pervading all Nature, and a cosmic philoso- 

 phy will become possible. 



The most formidable objections, however, 

 which the hypothesis of alternation has to an- 

 swer are objections arising from the custom of* 

 regarding the mental condition of the thinking 

 and feeling substance, matter, as something quite 

 unique, and opposed to every other condition of 

 that substance. 



Mind has been defined by one representative 

 of this mode of thought, namely, Prof. Bain, as 

 "opposed to the external world." He says: 

 " The External or Object World is distinguished 

 by the property called extension. The Internal 

 or the Subject World is our experience of every- 

 thing not extended. A tree, which possesses ex- 

 tension, is a part of the object-world ; a pleas- 

 ure, a volition, a thought, are facts of the 

 subject-world." The same writer again says, 

 "We may have a simple name for the whole 

 phenomena of mind, as ' The Subject,' ' The Un- 

 extended.' " 



Now, since feeling is the general term for all 

 phases of consciousness, for all mental states, 

 feeling is therefore regarded as unextended. Mr. 

 Bain does not, in defining mind, say in so many 

 words that the object-world includes not only 

 matter and space, but energy. Yet he speaks of 

 " resisting matter " and " unresisting empty 

 space," which implies that energy is included 

 under the term " object." Besides, although he 

 speaks of feelings prompting actions all through 

 his elaborate works on "Mind," he speaks of the 

 physical sequences as running side by side with 

 the mental sequences, and of the feelings or men- 

 tal states as being concomitant with the physical 

 processes in nervous action. It is clear, there- 



