Ixii Journal of Comparative Neurology, 



The ActiTity of the Cortex in Reproduction and HalluciBation.* 



The author claims that the prevailing view implies that garnered 

 concepts remain immanent, but unconscious, in the cortex. Natural 

 analogies, however, indicate that the concepts are stored in quite 

 other forms than those by which consciousness recognizes them. 



Practice teaches the ganglion cells to work co-ordinately (in the 

 motor sphere of the cortex, for example). This co-ordinated process 

 becomes associated with optic centres. Repetition of a given set of 

 optic excitements renews the recollection of the result of associated 

 previous activity. 



Consciousness in the form of a verbal concept is nothing but a 

 result of the association of various cortical areas. 



Hallucination is not different in origin from reproduction. 

 Acoustic stimuli are more likely to become hallucinations because 

 when outwardly projected they are less subject to competition with 

 new impressions. The content of hallucination is associonally 

 awakened. 



Bad Medical Advice. 



Under the above heading Dr. Kellogg speaks some plain words 

 which ought to be heard by every practitioner and teacher. 



He cites the custom of a Professor in an eastern medical college 

 who introduced his lectures by explaining the best methods of avoid- 

 ing venereal disease and admitted tha<; he supposed such exposures 

 were to be expected. 



Many physicians make it a part of their business to teach young 

 men that continence is injurious and occasional indulgence the best 

 safeguard. 



It is a mistaken analogy which attributes the function of the re- 

 productive organs to the glands, and forgets that it is also nervous and 

 that impotence results from changes in the cord more often than in the 

 glands. The system may be permanently injured before the age of 

 puberty. In the words of the editor of the Medical Age, " Vice is 

 voluntary; and it is only by the exercise of a resolute self-will that vir- 

 tue is maintained." 



Those members of the medical profession who palliate or encour- 

 age vice in these forms have much to account for and the corruption, 

 which reigns in some of our larger universities through the vile and 



'^ Bikeles, G. Die Thatigkeit der Grosshirnrinde bei der Reproduction und 

 Hallucination. Centralblatt f. Physiologic. VI, 26. 



