107 



" To a man heavy with a day's exertion, or snoring after the 

 fatigues of a hearty meal, the loudest call and the brightest 

 light are as nothing ; liis bed may be of thorns, but he heeds 

 it not ; the coverings may fall off in the depth of winter, but 

 he only dreams of the frozen ocean and sleeps on j you pinch 

 him, he rolls to the other side ; you pull his nose, his hand 

 goes up to guard it ; you tickle his feet, and they are drawn 

 slowly up. You wake him at last by the continued irritation ; 

 but if you then leave off, he is perfectly ignorant of the means 

 that were adopted ; he is unconscious of having suffered any- 

 thing. Pain, however, may be felt even in sleep ; but the 

 mind must still be roused to a dreaming state. 



" Having thus demonstrated, as far as we are able, that no 

 pain can be felt in the human being, without the mind is 

 in an active condition, is it too much to infer that, where 

 no mind or mental power exists, there can be no pain what- 

 ever experienced ? 



"We have been compelled, hitherto, to assume that the 

 mind has its seat in the brain ; and it now becomes necessary 

 to the course of our argument to give some proofs for the 

 assumption. These are drawn from analogy and clinical ob- 

 servation. There are cases on record, in winch the whole 

 body has been paralytic, from injury to the spine, high up in 

 neck; yet the mind has been clear, and the intellect un- 

 clouded ; the power of appreciating sensations has remained, 

 but the impressions necessary to excite those sensations have 

 not been transmitted. Then, we know the influence of certain 

 stimulants upon the head; the effects of wine, alcohol, and 

 opium on the brain and mind ; the effects of injuries to the 

 skull, which deprive the man of sense whenever they severely 

 injure the brain. We see that the mind is destroyed in severe 

 cases of apoplexy ; and in cases of insanity we are usually able 

 to find certain lesions in the brain. In fact, at the present day, 

 so universal is the belief that the mind has its sent in the brain, 

 that the two words ;ire used occasionally as convertible terms. 



p 



