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the very term sensation implies something of which the mind 

 is conscious ; thus, for example, if I touch a piece of wood 

 with the finger, a certain effect is produced on the ends of the 

 sentient nerves, which is called an impression, and this impres- 

 sion — when it has been transmitted to the brain — is, by the 

 agency of that organ, perceived j and then, and not until then, 

 sensation is produced. The blood makes an impression upon 

 the inner surface of the heart ; but as this impression is not 

 under ordinary circumstances transmitted to the brain, it is 

 not perceived ; and, consequently, sensation is not produced.' 



" Again, ' sensation necessarily implies consciousness.' 



" Leaving now the phraseology of science, let us illustrate, 

 by a few well-known striking facts, the dependence of sensa- 

 tion upon the mental powers. A person in an epileptic fit is 

 in a condition where the mind, is, for the time, entirely gone ; 

 and where any injuries, even of the most frightful character, 

 may be inflicted without producing any sensation whatever. 

 I have known a boy, when seized by a convulsion, put his arm 

 round a hot steam-pipe, and keep it there until the fit was 

 over, producing a most serious burn. A man was once 

 brought into the Infirmary in this town who had been seized 

 with a fit, when standing near a blacksmith's forge, while the 

 men were at dinner j he fell with his back on the fire, and did 

 not move away until the fit was over. The effects may be 

 well conceived. Persons under similar circumstances have 

 been wholly consumed by falling into limekilns. 



" I have been told by a medical friend of a case where the 

 mind had been weakened by the effects of water in the head : 

 the patient, a child, was left imbecile, and its perceptions so 

 greatly blunted, that one day it absolutely sat upon the fire to 

 procure warmth, and remained there until it was removed. 



" It is not, however, necessary that the mind shall be pros- 

 trated by a fit : it may be rendered equally insensible by the 

 effects of a severe shock. 



" Four years ago, a man had his legs taken off, near Liver- 



