204 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. [LECT. 



Elsewhere, 1 Descartes, in arguing that the seat of 

 the passions is not (as many suppose) the heart, but 

 the brain, uses the following remarkable language : 



" The opinion of those who think that the soul receives its 

 passions in the heart, is of no weight, for it is based upon the 

 fact that the passions cause a change to be felt in that organ ; 

 and it is easy to see that this change is felt, as if it were in the 

 heart, only by the intermediation of a little nerve which descends 

 from the brain to it ; Just as pain is felt, as if it were in the 

 foot, by the intermediation of the nerves of the foot. ; and the 

 stars are perceived, as if they were in the heavens, by the inter- 

 mediation of their light and of the optic nerves. So that it is no 

 more necessary for the soul to exert its functions immediately in 

 the heart, to feel its passions there, than it is necessary that it 

 should be in the heavens to see the stars there." 



This definite allocation of all the phenomena of 

 consciousness to the brain as their organ, was a step 

 the value of which it is difficult for us to appraise, so 

 completely has Descartes' view incorporated itself with 

 every-day thought and common language. A lunatic 

 is said to be "crack-brained" or "touched in the 

 head," a confused thinker is " muddle-headed," while 

 a clever man is said to have " plenty of brains ;" but it 

 must be remembered that at the end of the last 

 century a considerable, though much over-estimated, 

 anatomist, Bichat, so far from having reached the 

 level of Descartes, could gravely argue that the appar- 

 atuses of organic life are the sole seat of the passions, 

 which in no way affect the brain, except so far as it is 

 the agent by which the influence of the passions is 

 transmitted to the muscles. 2 



1 " Les Passions de 1'Ame," Article xxxiii. 



2 " Kecherches physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort." Par Xav. 

 Bichat. Art. Sixieme. 



