ORGANS OF SECRETION. 149 



cision exactly where bile, saliva, gastric juice, and other 

 secretions, are formed, it is at this time not possible either 

 to localise with anything approaching exactness the seat of 

 the mind, or to point out the anatomical elements or cells 

 intimately concerned in its manifestation. Nor is it difficult 

 to prove that the analogy implied by so many writers to 

 exist between the action of glands and the action of the 

 brain is a thoroughly false analogy. 



Some have held that the brain forms mind just as the 

 liver forms bile, but the idea cannot be sustained. Either 

 the relation of mind to its organ is essentially different 

 from that subsisting between bile and its organ, or the 

 mind is much more tangible substance than has been 

 generally supposed. Between the brain and its work, 

 and, for example, the liver and its work, there is no true 

 analogy whatever. Nor is there any true analogy between 

 mind as a product of the action 'of " the organ of the 

 mind," and bile as a product of the action of the liver. It 

 seems to me that the notion that the organ of the mind 

 works upon principles similar to those which obtain as 

 regards the secreting organs, is absolutely untenable, and 

 that the facts and arguments by which it has been thought 

 to establish some sort of analogy, are erroneous. Neither, 

 on the other hand, does the tissue (nerve) whose action is 

 most intimately associated with mind, necessarily take part 

 in the formation of the products of gland-cell action. Sub- 

 stances of very complex composition and wonderful properties 

 are formed in plants which are destitute of nerve tissue. Upon 

 the whole it is very improbable that nerves exert any direct 

 influence in the process of secretion, or in the production 

 or building up of highly elaborate chemical compounds. 



