PSYCHIATRY IN THE FUNCTIONAL PSYCHOSES 287 



animation of the relations of psychology, or mental physiology, to 

 all of the associated reactions of the physical organism. This is 

 the necessary basis of pathological physiology for psychiatry. 

 Approaching the subject newly from this point of view the physi- 

 cian should seek to inform himself concerning at least the imme- 

 diate facts of mental function and the accepted postulates of 

 psychology. But in preparation for such a study it should be 

 recognized that mental physiology is included in general physiology 

 as concerning a part of the vital activities of the living organism; 

 also that certain general modes of action in the body always have 

 a part in mental function. Some of the symptom-factors of mental 

 disorder have their genesis in conditions that affect primarily other 

 parts of the organism than the brain. General physiology there- 

 fore claims the attention of the psychiatrist to certain essential 

 principles whose importance can only be indicated here by mention- 

 ing some of those of immediate interest ; the purpose is to present 

 some of the physiological reasons for the proposition that the pro- 

 blem of psychiatry lies in the functional psychoses. 



References to Physiological Principles 



A distinctive feature of modern biology is the fundamental con- 

 ception of a living body as a physical mechanism (Huxley) ; under- 

 lying all the phenomena of the animal organism is the reflex action 

 of the nervous system, and physiologists generally agree to con- 

 sider every action as aroused by some cause or stimulus (Sedg- 

 wick); under the biological conception man is an organism for 

 reacting on impressions (James). The nervous and mental mech- 

 anisms being regarded as constituted of three minor ones, their 

 action appears in a sensory, a central or transformation, 

 and a motor process; in the central process part of the work done 

 by the nervous system leads to consciousness; the response to a 

 stimulus may be a muscular contraction, a secretion in a gland, 

 a vascular change, or even a trophic or metabolic influence, all 

 pertaining to the centrifugal system. While reflex action is not 

 conscious action, one may be conscious of the act, and in many 

 cases conscious changes precede, accompany, or occasion the change. 

 The most important reflex of all is commonly ignored, viz., that 

 which provides for the constant readjustment of the parts of the 

 system to each other, by virtue of which the entire mechanism is 

 receptive even to minimal stimuli. This may be termed the neuro- 

 equilibrium reflex. The tone of the nervous system is this wonder- 

 fully complex adjustment of inhibition and stimulation. Every 

 metabolic process in all the nerve-cells exerts its influence on the 

 entire nervous system. One of the most remarkable reflex asso- 



