COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



excreted by the kidneys varies with the amount 

 of mental exertion ; and that emotional excite- 

 ment so alters the composition of the blood 

 that infants have been poisoned by milk se- 

 creted by their frightened or angry mothers. 

 And lastly may be cited the beautiful experi- 

 ments of Professor Lombard, in which the heat 

 evolved by the cerebrum during the act of 

 thinking was not only detected but measured, 

 and found to vary according to the amount of 

 mental activity going on. 



These, though the most conspicuous, are but 

 a few among the facts which force upon the 

 physiologist the conclusion that there is no such 

 thing as a change in consciousness which has 

 not for its correlative a chemical change in ner- 

 vous tissue. Hence we may the better under- 

 stand the significance of familiar facts which 

 point to a quantitative correlation between cer- 

 tain states of consciousness and the outward phe- 

 nomena which give rise to them. A bright 

 light, as measured by the photometer, produces 

 a more vivid state of consciousness than a dim 

 light. Substances which the thermometer de- 

 clares to be hot are, under normal circum- 

 stances, mentally recognized as being hot. The 

 consciousness of a sound varies in vividness with 

 the violence of the concussions to which the 

 sound is due. And bodies which are heavy in 

 the balance excite in us correlative sensations of 



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