122 WHAT IS LIFE? 



Secondly, if by a hurt, i.e. concussion, disease, &c., 

 damage is done to these cells, or even by pressure, the 

 mental power of the individual is effaced or aberrated, 

 according to the extent of the damage. 1 This condition, 

 if it is complete, so long as it lasts, is a mental death : 

 mind and soul cease to exist. 2 



of expressing the fact that the two invariably go together." ("A 

 Modern Zoroastrian," S. Laing, 1895, p. 128.) 



1 " So far as science gives any positive knowledge as to the 

 relations of mind to matter, it amounts to this : That all we call 

 mind is indissolubly connected with matter through the grey cells of 

 the brain and other nervous ganglia. This is positive. If the skull 

 could be removed without injury to the living organism, a skilful 

 physiologist could play with his finger on the human brain, as on 

 that of a dog, pigeon, or other animal, and by pressure on different 

 notes, as on the keys of a piano, annihilate successively voluntary 

 motion, speech, hearing, sight, and finally will, consciousness, 

 reasoning power, and memory." (" A Modern Zoroastrian," S. 

 Laing, 1895, p. 140.) . 



2 " The highest activities of the animal body, the wonderful 

 manifestations of consciousness, the complex phenomena of the 

 activities of thought, have their seat in the fore-brain. It is possible 

 to remove the great hemispheres of a mammal, piece by piece, 

 without killing the animal, thus proving that the higher mental 

 activities, consciousness and thought, conscious volition and sensation, 

 may be destroyed one by one, and finally entirely annihilated. If the 

 animal thus treated is artificially fed, it may be kept alive for a long 

 time ; for the nourishment of the entire body, digestion, respiration, 

 the circulation of the blood, secretion, in short, the vegetative 

 functions, are in no way destroyed by this destruction of the most 

 important mental organs. Conscious sensation and voluntary motion, 

 the capacity for thought and the combination of the various higher 

 mental activities, have alone been lost " (" The Evolution of Man," 

 Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 1883, vol. ii. p. 225). " The functions of most 

 of the parts of the brain which lie in front of the medulla oblongata 

 are, at present, very ill understood ; but it is certain that extensive 

 injury, or removal, of the cerebral hemispheres puts an end to 

 intelligence and voluntary movement, and leaves the animal in the 



