SECT. IV.] NATURE OF THE SOUL. 449 



mixed. Of this kind are the muscles of respiration, which 

 almost constantly act automatically, but over which, however, 

 the mind has such control, that it can accelerate, retard, or even 

 stop the respiratory movements for a time. But if a mechanical 

 stimulus be too powerful, then the muscles of respiration are 

 excited into action in spite of the will; for example, if a 

 crumb slips into the trachea, a violent cough ensues altogether 

 uncontrollable by the will; thus also the mind cannot prevent 

 sneezing when the pituitary membrane of the nostrils is stimu- 

 lated by an acrid stimulus. 



In establishing that no action and no movement can be 

 termed animal, of which the mind is not conscious, and which 

 does not depend upon its free will, I shall possibly seem to have 

 restricted the influence of the soul over the body too much, since 

 there are very distinguished men, especially of the Stahlian School, 

 who have taught that not only every movement is directly re- 

 gulated by the soul, but also other functions of the animal body ; 

 adopting this fundamental principle, that consciousness is not 

 necessary to each function of the mind. But it is certain that 

 as yet we know nothing more of the human soul than that it 

 thinks,^ and that it cannot do this, so long as it is connected 

 with the body, without the assistance of the brain. It is not 

 proved, as assumed by the Stahlians, that the soul is the im- 

 mediate cause of other animal functions which do not involve 

 thought. But although we were to concede the assumption, 

 deductions follow from it which must be pronounced absurd, 

 and which admit of no defence, as has been fully shown by 

 Haller,^ and Platner,^ who, although an eminent supporter of 

 the Stahlian doctrine, says that it is true that muscles continue 

 to act, the nerves of which have been tied, or divided, and that 

 some Stahlians have gone too far, since they wished to attribute 

 these movements also to the soul, which to this end they 

 maintain to be diflPused through the body, and spoke of the 

 remaining portions of the soul as if it were divisible, and as if 

 they continued the movement that originated from the divided 



' See "Van Swieten's Commentary, torn, i, $ 1. 

 ^ Elem. Physiol. 



^ See De Haen's Heilungsmethode, 3ter Band. In the first division, on some 

 difficulties in the system of Haller. 



29 



