EMOTIONAL AND INSTINCTIVE ACTIONS. 195 



sicfcr it probable that these ganglia and tracts of gray matter, whose size is in 

 Man so trifling, in comparison to the bulk of his Cerebral Hemispheres, are 

 subservient to those Instinctive actions which are prompted by sensations, but 

 in which volition does not partake. 



204. It may be said that, in attributing to this division of the nervous centres 

 a function different from that of the Spinal Cord, on the one hand, and of the 

 Brain on the other, we are unnecessarily multiplying the systems of nervous 

 fibres which must then be supposed to exist in every trunk ; one, namely, 

 for reflex actions, another for the instinctive and emotional, and a third for 

 the volitional. But the tendency of Neurological research has certainly been 

 to show, that different functions are performed by the same trunk, in virtu^ of 

 its containing fibres, which are connected with different divisions of the ner- 

 vous centres ; and knowing, as we do, that these three distinct sources of 

 action have a real existence, it cannot be regarded as improbable, that their 

 channels also should be separate ( 227 note). Moreover, it has been seen 

 ( 172) that there is a distinct group of fibres in the Medulla Oblongata, which 

 has its ganglionic centre in the Corpora Gluadrigemina, and cannot be traced 

 into the Cerebral hemispheres ; it is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that it 

 is functionally as well as structurally distinct ; and no function can be attri- 

 buted to- them with such probability as that of producing those instinctive 

 and emotional movements of the body which are excited and directed through 

 the sense of Sight. On turning to the Invertebrata, we find important con- 

 firmation of these views in the fact, that, in general, the principal ganglionic 

 masses, occupying the place of the Brain of higher animals, are closely con- 

 nected with the organs of special sensation situated in the head, and are 

 therefore analogous to the Optic and other ganglia in Vertebrata ; whilst 

 scarcely any traces can be found of superadded ganglionic bodies, at all 

 resembling the Cerebral hemispheres. The almost exclusively Instinctive 

 character of the actions of such animals harmonizes well with the opinion 

 that these ganglia are the chief sources of them. 



265. The Emotions are concerned in Man, however, in many actions which 

 are in themselves strictly voluntary. Unless they be strongly excited, so as 

 to get the better of the will, they do not operate directly through the nervous 

 trunks, but are subservient to the intellectual operations, to which they supply 

 materials or motives. Thus, of two individuals, with differently constituted 

 minds, one shall judge of every thing through the medium of a gloomy morose 

 temper, which, like a darkened glass, represents to his judgment the whole 

 world in league to injure him ; and all his determinations, being based upon 

 this erroneous view, exhibit the indications of it in his actions ; which are 

 themselves, nevertheless, of an entirely voluntary character. On the other 

 hand, a person of a cheerful, benevolent disposition, looks at the world around 

 as through a Claude Lorraine glass, seeing every thing in its brightest and 

 sunniest aspect ; and, with intellectual faculties precisely similar to those of 

 the former individual, he will come to opposite conclusions ; because the 

 materials which form the -basis of his judgment are submitted to it in a very 

 different form. Various forms of Moral Insanity exhibit the same contrast in 

 a yet more striking light. We not unfrequently meet with individuals, still 

 holding their place in society, who are accustomed to act so much upon 

 feeling, and to be so little guided by reason, as to be scarcely regarded as sane ; 

 and a very little exaggeration of such a tendency causes the actions to be so 

 injurious to the individual himself or to those around him, that restraint is 

 required, although* th'e intellect is in no way disordered, nor are any of the 

 feelings perverted. Not unfrequently we may observe similar inconsistencies 

 resulting from the habitual indulgence of one particular feeling, or a morbid 

 exaggeration of it. The mother who, through weakness of will, yields to her 



