Relations between the Physical and the Moral. 223 



On this obscure problem some say that ' where there can be no 

 consciousness, because the brain is wanting, there is, in spite of 

 appearances, only mechanism.' Others say that 'where there is 

 clearly selection, reflection, psychical action, there must also be 

 consciousness, in spite of appearances.' For the present, we will 

 not join in this discussion. A German physiologist, however, 

 quoted by Wundt, holds that he has by the following experiment 

 proved the absence of all consciousness in the spinal cord. He 

 takes two frogs, the one blinded, in order to diminish the number 

 of impressions from without, and the other without its head. He 

 places them in a vessel containing water at 20 Cent of tem- 

 perature ; the two frogs remain perfectly quiet in their warm bath, 

 But he gradually heats the water in the vessel, and then the scene 

 changes. The non-decapitated frog appears to be ill at ease, 

 changes its place, breathes with difficulty, and its sufferings become 

 greater as the temperature rises. At 30 it makes all possible 

 efforts to escape ; finally, at 33 it dies of tetanic convulsions. In 

 the mean time, the headless frog remains quietly in its place ; ' the 

 spinal cord slumbers, it does not perceive the danger.' The tem- 

 perature goes on rising, the other frog is now dead, and still the 

 headless one continues motionless. Finally at 45 its carcase rises 

 to the surface, * it is as stiff as a board.' 



Yet, perhaps, as Wundt observes, this experiment is not de- 

 cisive ; first, because other experiments have given the opposite 

 results. Moreover, the development of consciousness must neces- 

 sarily depend on the entire organization, and it is quite possible 

 that if a headless animal could live a sufficient length of time 

 there would be formed in it a consciousness like that of the lower 

 species, which would consist merely of the faculty of appre- 

 hending the external world. It would not be correct to say that 

 the amphioxus, the only one among fishes and vertebrata which 

 has a spinal cord without a brain, has no consciousness because 

 it has no brain ; and if it be admitted that the little ganglia of the 

 invertebrata can form a consciousness, the same may hold good 

 for the spinal cord. 



But not to insist on a point which cannot here be profitably 

 discussed, we go on with our study of the phenomena of uncon- 

 sciousness. 



