THE PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION OF 

 CONSCIOUSNESS. 



By Dr. Paul Carus. 



Professor C. L. Herrick has favored my article on "The 

 Seat of Consciousness" with a reply, stating the main objec- 

 tions to my theory, which are in brief as follows: (i) He re- 

 gards my definition of the words " feeling " and " intelligence " 

 as unacceptable ; (2) he maintains that upon a dynamic theory 

 of consciousness (such as I suggest) there is no need of a spe- 

 cial organ, and if a co-ordinating mechanism were needed, the 

 corpus striatiun could not perform the function ; the anatomical 

 appearance, he says, is misleading ; there are various masses of 

 fibres passing through it in various directions which give to it 

 the spurious character of a co-ordinating centre, but in fact it is 

 almost structureless ; (3) he insists that " the unity discovered 

 " by all psychologists in consciousness is not like any physio- 

 " logical unity we know of. It has for its peculiarity that which 

 "separates it toto ccelo from all physical processes in its intimate 

 " and conditioning relation to our own existence. 

 "The felt unity of consciousness has no necessary relation to 

 ' ' any observed physiological unity and the selection of an organ 

 "becomes a superfluity." 



As to the first objection I would say that the term " feel- 

 ing " in the sense which I use it, is a legitimate extension of the 

 popular meaning of the word ; it is almost commonly ac- 

 cepted by the most prominent physiologists and psychologists 

 of Germany, and I dare say also of England. I cite Helm- 

 holtz, Hering, Meynert, Wundt, Bilroth.^ 



'I happen to have a passage before me in the posthumous essay of the last- 

 mentioned on music in the Deutsche Rundschati, (Vol. XXI, No. i, p. 98) in 

 which he says: " Ein Sinneseindruck kann empfunden werden ohne dass er 

 zum Bewusstsein kommt. Wenn man einen enthaupteten Frosch mit einer 

 Pincette kneipt, so zuckt das Bein ; wir nehmen deshalb an, das der Frosch- 

 rumpf erafindet, sprechen ihm aber das Bewusstsein ab," etc. 



