THE THEORY OF SENSATION. 187 



while that mutual influence cannot be questioned, the hypothesis of 

 the transfer of impressions is not the only one which can possibly 

 account for the necessity of the connexion. We may not be able to 

 state what is the office of the brain in sensation ; yet, unless it can 

 be shewn that this cannot be any other than the reception of impres- 

 sions, and unless it be proved that in no other way than that of 

 their transmission to the brain can the necessity for its connexion 

 with the nerves be explained, that necessary connexion, we again 

 insist, is no disproof of our present position. 



We conclude, therefore, as at the commencement we intimated 

 that we should by a theory, which, because it has in it, the least 

 assumption of knowledge which we do not possess, appears the most 

 philosophical and the most true, viz : — 



That external objects produce some unknown change on the organs 

 of sense, which change is the immediate antecedent or physical cause 

 of the state of mind called sensation. 



In conclusion we cannot but remark, that whatever may be the 

 process in sensation, its phenomena strikingly illustrate the wisdom 

 and beneficence of the Deity, who has by the adaptation of our sen- 

 sitive organs to external objects and to the perceiving mind, drawn 

 aside the thick veil which otherwise would have shrouded his glorious 

 universe, and has thus opened to his creatures sources of improve- 

 ment and delight so numerous and so inexhaustible. 



LEGENDS OF HULL, (No. I ) 



THE LAST OF THE PIG TAILS IN HULL, 



BY FORCEPS. 



Some of our readers may yet remember hearing in their youthful 

 days, the expression, which at one time was so common in Hull 

 among all classes — ^"Go to Dickey Sagg," but few of the present 

 day are aware of its origin. 



In the mayoralty of Sir Henry Etherington, in the year 1785, 

 there dwelt in Hull, a worthy man named Richard Sagg, who con- 

 trived to obtain no little notoriety, by which he gi'eatly enhanced his 

 pecuniary circumstances. His education had been liberal in the 

 extreme, and having been early placed under the care of an eminent 

 medical practitioner, he, by dint of hard labour and study, made 

 such proficiency as to rank him high in the estimation of the medical 



