18S9.] 4Jo LCope. 



fracture his skull. lie, however, did not lose for an instant his conscious- 

 ness, but informed those surrounding him, that he was about to meet Dr. 

 I. Hayes Agnew in consultation at the residence of a patient and to send 

 there for him at once. By the most skillful treatment, aided by his won- 

 derful physical vigor, he apparently recovered entirelj'. This was in 

 August, 1879, and almost to the hour of his death, on December 20,^888, 

 he pursued his usual vocation. During the last year of his life, he under- 

 went great sufferings, from which the skill of his physicians was unable 

 to relieve him. How far the frightful shock to his system had sapped his 

 vitality and caused this trouble, it is perhaps impossible accurately to 

 determine. He was entirely conscious that his life hung by a thread and 

 realized as a physician that his case was hopeless. He died, however, like 

 a soldier at his post, with the most serene courage and self-possession. 



His first wife having died in 1848, Dr. Wister was happily married a 

 second time on June 36, 1854, to Miss Annie Lee Furness, who survives 

 him, as well as his daughter by his first wife, Mrs. Clifford B. Rossell. 



An Outline of tJie PhilosopJiy of Evolution. 



By E. D. Cope. 



{Read before the American PMlosopMcal Society, October 4, 1SS9.) 



Mental processes are divided into those of presentation and those of 

 representation, or those of perception and those of ideation. A vast dif- 

 ference distinguishes the physiological action of these two forms of men- 

 tality. Sensuous perception is a more distinct, sometimes even a violent 

 state of consciousness, while ideation is a much less distinct condition, 

 although the range of its degrees of impressiveness in consciousness is 

 very great. In a conflict between perception and ideation for the control 

 of consciousness, the former can nearly always win, temporarily at least, 

 in the healthy organism. But the impressiveness of perception is perhaps 

 the cause of its remarkable transitory character. It is a fact of great im- 

 portance that sensations cannot be exactly reproduced in memory, while 

 ideas can be so reproduced. Sensations leave residua, it is true, which are the 

 materials of ideation, but it is only ideas which memory preserves in their 

 original form. It has been suggested * that this result is due to a destruc- 

 tion of tissue caused by the greater energy of sensations ; while ideation, 

 less violent, is principally constructive, organizing brain molecules into 



♦American Naturalist, 1S86, p. 83. 



