THE HUMAN TYPE. 285 



this form of activity is, in its governing relations, col- 

 lected and specialized in the cerebrum." * 



Without attempting to dogmatize upon a subject so 

 imperfectly known, we may suggest that many of the 

 habits of Ants, Bees, and even of animals of a more prim- 

 itive type, afford as good evidence of consciousness as 

 the actions of human creatures themselves. 



6. The consciousness of self, or general corporeal sen- 

 sitiveness, is the earliest sign of individuality, or personal 

 knowledge. This is previous to the senses, and inde- 

 pendent of the nervous system. It manifests itself in 

 animals without nerves, as the Polyps, and seems to be 

 a necessary attribute of animal life. Yet this most prim- 

 itive and most clearly innate faculty implies mind, for 

 by it we know that our body is our body. The corporeal 

 structure is an object of which the mind takes cogni- 

 zance. The presence of this sensitivity proves the ex- 

 istence of something distinct from the body. 



7. The consciousness of the physical conditions or 

 states of the body as tonicity, languor, hunger, thirst, 

 warmth, and cold has been termed common sensation, 

 or coenasthesis. It is especially conducted, at least in the 

 higher animals, by the ganglionic or sympathetic sys- 

 tem of nerves. By means of the connection of this with 

 the cerebro-spinal system the various affections of the 

 mind and body mutually act upon each other, rendering 

 the phenomena quite complex. Certain obscure ideas, 

 of which one may be said to be half-conscious, and which 

 taken together make up what we call the disposition or 

 temper of a man, are the result of organic sensibility act- 



* Bascom's " Comparative Psychology." 



