252 From Matter to Man. 



higher man's mind has been gradually developed from 

 its lowliest phase. 



Consistently, therefore, with the rest of our material- 

 istic system, we shall reduce the human mind to its 

 physical elements, see what it is in skeleton form, 

 strip it of the magic virtues which ages of ignorance 

 have wrapped around it, drive out the fetich which 

 has hitherto dwelt in it, expose the mountebanks who 

 have hitherto traded on it, and show its purely 

 mechanical nature, origin, being, and working. 



Section I. What is the Human Mindt 



The mind is usually defined as man's thinking 

 faculty, and its seat is supposed to be in the brain. 

 The brain is thus called the organ of mind. What 

 then is the brain, and what is the nature of the action 

 by which it produces mental phenomena ? 



Avoiding technical terms, the brain is the sen- 

 sorium, or centre of the nervous or sensory system. 

 It is an infinitely complex mechanism situated in the 

 head of all the higher animals. It contains, or is 

 composed of millions of nerve cells, from which millions 

 of nerve fibres pass outwards to all parts of the body. 

 At the end of the nerve fibres are terminal organs 

 capable of receiving and transmitting to the sensorium 

 certain impressions. 



The sensorium does not act as a whole, but is differ- 

 entiated so that special areas are devoted to special 

 senses. Each area generally speaking is dual and 

 has a location in each hemisphere of the brain. 



