268 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



its basis and cansation is bodily dis- 

 ease, and the multitudinous forms of 

 mental weakness, degeneracy, and ab- 

 erration are to be studied as effects of 

 corporeal infirmity or disease of the 

 nerve-structure. Tbe light thrown upon 

 the science of mind through the mani- 

 festations of mental failure has been of 

 great importance, and physiological in- 

 vestigation has now brouglit us to an- 

 other and very significant aspect of the 

 subject. 



For all scientific men the doctrine 

 of evolution is established, and its high- 

 est interest to them is that it is con- 

 stantly giving new clews to the inter- 

 pretation of nature and opening new 

 avenues to productive research. This 

 doctrine teaches that tbe grades of life 

 have arisen in past ages through the 

 operation of laws by which the higher 

 have been derived from the lower. But 

 if this be true, then the nervous systems 

 of animated beings are to be regarded 

 as products of evolution, so that the 

 hierarchy of nervous centers of which 

 we have spoken has been built up by 

 the successive attainment of higher and 

 higher levels of organization. Man, as 

 the latest product and highest term of 

 evolution, combines in his organism the 

 various automatic systems successively 

 reached in the long course of organic 

 development. Biology works out the 

 great laws of upward and divergent 

 unfolding, but there is another side 

 to the phenomena which it is tbe busi- 

 ness of pathology to investigate. Cor- 

 responding to the progressive and up- 

 ward changes of evolution, there are the 

 downward and retrogressive changes of 

 dissolution, by which the constructive 

 work is reversed and undone. But, if we 

 have a true theory of the way the nerv- 

 ous system of man has been evolved, 

 will not that theory afford guidance 

 concerning the order of dissolution, and 

 throw light upon the nature of nervous 

 maladies and mental derangement? This 

 question has been answered affirmative- 

 ly. We print a lecture by Dr. J. Hugh- 



lings Jackson, the first of a course be- 

 fore the Eoyal College of Physicians in 

 London, on the ''Evolution and Disso- 

 lution of the Nervous System," in which 

 the subject is treated from the point of 

 view here indicated. Dr. Hughlings 

 Jackson is not onJy an eminent prac- 

 titioner in the department of nervous 

 diseases, but he is an able philosoph- 

 ical student of medical subjects, and, 

 although the Croonian lectures are ad- 

 dressed to medical men, the one we print 

 will be found of general interest as 

 opening a new chapter of original in- 

 vestigation in this important field of 

 research. 



A MODEL BENEFACTION. 



It is announced in the papers that 

 Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given the sum 

 of fifty thousand dollars to tbe Bellevue 

 Hospital Medical College of this city, for 

 the erection and equipment of a building 

 to be devoted to original investigations 

 on subjects connected with the progress 

 of medicine and the prevention of dis- 

 ease. Mr. Carnegie is well known as a 

 man of large liberality who has accurau- 

 alted a fortune by his own enterprise, 

 and uses it generously in the promotion 

 of projects of public and private benefi- 

 cence. We have before had occasion to 

 observe the wise discrimination of his 

 contributions, but in this case he has 

 undoubtedly devoted his money to the 

 noblest use for which money can ever 

 be expended. The endowment of hos- 

 pitals and dispensaries for the imme- 

 diate relief of suffering is, of course, 

 highly commendable, and they are so 

 obviously necessary, and their benign 

 results are so direct and palpable, that 

 sympathetic charity is ever ready to 

 lend them support. But that is a more 

 far-sighted and efficient benevolence 

 which provides for the extension of 

 medical knowledge, the research into 

 the causes and conditions of disease, 

 and tbe increase in the resources of 

 medical art, by the systematic scien- 



