IX.] ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. 201 



theory of these processes, which has been followed by 

 all his successors. 



Descartes was no mere speculator, as some would 

 have us believe : but a man who knew of his own 

 knowledge what was to be known of the facts of 

 anatomy and physiology in his day. ' He was an 

 unwearied dissector and observer ; and it is said, that, 

 on a visitor once asking to see his library, Descartes 

 led him into a room set aside for dissections, and full 

 of specimens under examination. " There," said he, " is 

 my library." 



I anticipate a smile of incredulity when I thus 

 champion Descartes' claim to be considered a 

 physiologist of the first rank. I expect to be told 

 that I have read into his works what I find there, 

 and to be asked, Why is it that we are left to dis- 

 cover Descartes' deserts at this time of day, more 

 than two centuries after his death? How is it 

 that Descartes is utterly ignored in some of the latest 

 works which treat expressly of the subject in which 

 he is said to have been so great ? 



It is much easier to ask such questions than to 

 answer them, especially if one desires to be on good 

 terms with one's contemporaries ; but, if I must give 

 an answer, it is this : The growth of physical science 

 is now so prodigiously rapid, that those who are 

 actively engaged in keeping up with the present, have 

 much ado to find time to look at the past, and even 

 grow into the habit of neglecting it. But, natural as 

 this result may be, it is none the less detrimental. 

 The intellect loses, for there is assuredly no more 



