GENERAL RECAPITULATION, PATHOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS. 837 



of consciousness termed Sensations are associated the simple feelings of pleasure 

 and pain, the seat of which is obviously sensorial ; and similar feelings, associat- 

 ing themselves with those states of consciousness termed Ideas, give to them 

 an Emotional character, and become the sources of those motives by which the 

 determination of conduct made by the Reason is in great part guided. 



XI. The "reflex action" of the Sensory Ganglia, which proceeds from their 

 own independent activity, is manifested in all those instinctive or automatic 

 movements, which are excited through sensations, and which may hence be 

 designated as consensual or sensor i-motor. These actions are but little noticed, 

 in Man, in the active state of his Cerebrum; for the automatic movements on 

 which the maintenance of his organic functions is immediately dependent are 

 provided for by the Spinal centres; and the purposes which are answered in 

 the lower animals by the higher order of Instinctive actions are worked out in 

 him by the Intelligence. There is, however, a large group of secondarily^ 

 automatic movements, which, though originally determined by the Will, are 

 brought by habit so far under the direct influence of sensations, that they con- 

 tinue, whilst prompted and guided by the latter, after the Will has ceased to 

 act. The operation of the Sensory Ganglia in Man is usually subservient to 

 that of the Cerebrum ; for the influence of Sensational changes, being propa- 

 gated upwards to that organ, excites further changes in it; these, reflected 

 downwards to the Sensori-motor centres, become the sources of ideational or of 

 emotional movements; and the determining power of the Will, in producing 

 volitional movements, is exercised through the same channel. It is a remarka 

 ble indication of the participation of the Sensorial centres even in volitional 

 movements that these cannot be executed save with the concurrence of guiding 

 sensations. The extent to which the Sensory Ganglia may act as independent 

 centres of action is seen in cases in which the functions of the Cerebrum are 

 entirely in abeyance. This may happen through congenital defect, as in some 

 cases of complete Idiocy, especially among the Cretins of the first degree, who 

 spend their whole time in basking in the sun or sitting by the fire (experiencing 

 merely sensorial pleasure), and who show no higher traces of intelligence than 

 is evinced by their going, when excited by hunger, to the places where they 

 have been accustomed to receive food. It may occur, too, as a consequence of 

 disease or injury. Of this we have an example in a case mentioned by Dr. 

 Rush, of a man who was so violently affected by some losses in trade, that he 

 was deprived almost instantly of his mental faculties; he did not take the 

 slightest notice of anything, not even expressing a desire for food, but merely 

 receiving it when it was put into his mouth ; a servant dressed him in the 

 morning, and conducted him to a seat in his parlor, where he remained the 

 whole day, with his body bent forwards and his eyes fixed on the floor; in this 

 state he continued for five years, and then recovered completely and rather 

 suddenly. The well-known case of the sailor who suffered for more than a year 

 from depressed fracture of the skull, and was at last restored to his normal con- 

 dition by the elevation of the depressed bone (which was effected by Mr. Cline), 

 affords another illustration of the same suspension of cerebral activity, without 

 the loss of sensorial power ; this man passed the period between the accident 

 and the operation in a condition very similar to that of the subject of the pre- 

 ceding case; and after his recovery, the whole intervening space was a perfect 

 blank to his recollection. The most remarkable example of this condition, 

 however, yet put on record, is a case which occurred a few years ago under the 

 observation of Mr. Dunn, 1 of whose excellent account an abridgment is here 

 given, for the sake of illustrating the nature of a purely sensorial arid instinctive, 

 as distinguished from an intelligent existence, and the gradual nature of the 



1 " Lancet," Nov. 15 and 29, 1845. 



