^ 



THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1884. 



THE EELATIONS BETWEEN THE MIND AND THE 



NERYOUS SYSTEM.* 



By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D. 



IN order that one person may know what another person is talking 

 about, there must be an agreement in regard to the meaning of 

 the terms employed. Without this there can be no common ground on 

 which those engaged in a discussion as speakers and listeners can stand. 

 For it is obvious that if by a word one of the disputants means one 

 thing and another by the same word means quite another thing, they 

 will both talk of different things, and that hence their statements 

 and arguments will be worse than useless, for they will not only have 

 been of no avail in convincing an adversary or in instructing a pupil, 

 but they will in all probability have been potent agencies in stirring 

 up the bad blood that so often shows itself where, least of all, it ought 

 to appear — in efforts to arrive at the truth. 



It is especially necessary that there should be no misunderstanding 

 in regard to one's terminology when we come to discuss those subjects 

 in regard to which our knowledge is not full and precise, and which, 

 consequently, have been studied from different stand-points by differ- 

 ent inquirers, and by the light that their own minds have thrown upon 

 them rather than by that of other minds. Suppose, for instance, that 

 a doctor of music should go into the turpentine-regions of North Caro- 

 lina to give a lecture on "pitch " to the dwellers in the pine-forests, and 

 should talk of the elevation of the voice or of an instrument — is it not 

 quite within the range of probability that some one of the audience 

 would rise in indignation and tell the learned gentleman that he did 

 not know what he was talking about, and that every man, woman, and 



* An address delivered at the Lehigh University, on " Founder's Day," October 9, 



1S84. 



VOL. XXTI. — 1 



