Editokiai,, Neurology and Psychology. 185 



expected to, while others, destined to the brain, there evolve 

 the gaseous "animal spirits" on which nervous action de- 

 pends. So far as was necessary for his purposes, all ambi- 

 guities were cleared away and the relations between the un- 

 cxtended individual soul and the interblending currents 

 of animal spirits as they entered or issued from the brain 

 were dogmatically settled in a way refreshing to ears accus- 

 tomed to the guarded statements of modern observers. It 

 should be remembered, however, that his statements rested 

 upon no inconsiderable amount of medical and philosophical 

 authority. 



That the notion that the soul, being unextended and 

 a unit in our consciousness, must sustain a definite relation 

 with the body at a single point, can be ascribed to Descartes, 

 as implied by Wundt, is unwarranted, yet he did extend its 

 currency so that even to-day, in a more or less obscure way, 

 it burdens all psychological speculation. 



Mechanical as were the doctrines of Descartes, he never 

 went to the lengths of modern materialism in identifying 

 physical and psychical. He did not identify the " vital 

 spirits" or their interplay with the soul life. 



All nerves are tubes containing these spirits, and in sen- 

 sory nerves the agitation passes toward the brain, where in 

 the ventricles it is communicated to the central mass of vital 

 fluid therein. The currents thus produced may, under suit- 

 able conditions, pass out through motor nerves to the appro- 

 priate muscles, producing what have since been termed 

 reflexes. 



The soul itself is lodged in the pineal body, which must 

 be its specific seat; because, first, it is centrally located; sec- 

 ond, it is the only unpaired organ of the brain; third, it is in 

 direct communication with the ventricles. 



The soul is usually affected by the currents setting from 

 the body and fabricates its presentations from the impressions 

 thus derived, but it also impresses its own acts upon the 

 " vital fluids" giving rise to motor currents. Aimless eddys 



