DEATH AND IMMORTALITY 173 



in the direction of death. The subject of paralytic 

 dementia, for example, must be regarded as essen- 

 tially dead, since those structures have been hope- 

 lessly destroyed which subserve intelligence, the 

 finer emotions, and the moral sense. The body may 

 otherwise have few physical defects, and may hold 

 in its cells the potential that would suffice to main- 

 tain it for years, but this bodily health in no wise 

 alters the fact of the intrinsically mortal decadence. 

 On the contrary, it serves to emphasize the antithesis 

 between body and soul. But if we concede sound- 

 ness to this position, we are forced a step farther. 

 We are compelled to regard every insult to the nobler 

 structures of the brain as being, in a singularly real 

 and intimate sense, a limitation of life and a step, if 

 only a small one, toward actual dissolution. Every 

 alcoholic debauch, every intoxication that benumbs 

 the cortical functions of the brain, must be inter- 

 preted in the light of the supremacy of the cerebrum 

 in the determination of what is truly vital. 



II 



This dependence of personality on the integrity 

 of the cortical structures is the most convincing 

 evidence that thought is a function of the brain. 

 Probably there is nobody who, knowing the evidence, 

 would be disposed to deny that disease of the brain 

 is the direct cause of degradation of thought and 

 personality, and that death of the brain causes 

 cessation of thought. But there are very many who 



