.Notes, ii'. 7 — 8, 169 



cold water. It is plain, however, that in reality he assigned to it an office scarcely less 

 important than that he attached to the heart. It is tnie he made this latter the actual 

 sensory centre, but he represented it as so directly dependent upon the brain for. the 

 discharge of its functions, and as so instantaneously aflfected by any change which occurs 

 in this organ, that heart and brain came as it were to form one consolidated organ. 

 Seeing that it was impossible for A, to admit the doctrine which made the brain the 

 sensory centre (ii. lo, Note 9), it was necessary for him to devise some other account 

 of the matter ; and the ingenious hypothesis he put forth had at least this merit that it 

 apparently covered all the anatomical, physiological, and pathological facts, actual or 

 supposed, with which he was acquainted. It seemed for instance to explain : (i). The 

 supposed absence of any anatomical connection between brain and sense-organs (ii. 10, 

 Not.e 9). (2). The presence of connecting links between these organs and the heart. 

 For A. imagined that the heart itself was the sense-organ of touch and taste (ii. 10, 

 Note 10), and that the other sense-organs, ear, eye, nostril, were connected by certain 

 ducts or passages (ii. 10, Note 19) with the blood-vessels, and through these of course with 

 the heart (Z>. G. ii. 6, 32). (3). The apparent insensibility of the brain when touched 

 (ii. 7, Note 5). (4). The fact that keenness of sensibility is diminished or annulled in 

 anaemic • parts, increased in hyperaemic ; and that parts naturally without blood are not 

 sensitive (ii. 10, 14). (5). The supposed bloodlessness of the brain-substance (ii. 10, 

 Note 18). (6), The fact that the heart is the centre of the vascular system. (7). That 

 the heart is the firet part to enter. into activity and the last to stop work, ^^ primuni vivens, 

 ultimum martens" (Z>. G^. ii. 5, 11), and therefore probably the seat of the essential 

 characteristic of animal life, viz. sensibility. (8). The augmentation or, diminution of the 

 heart's action when intense pleasure or pain is experienced. (9). The loss of sensibility from 

 loss of blood {H. A. iii; 19, §). (10). The loss of sensibility and other psychical effects 

 of brain lesion, as explained in the text. (11). The position of the heart in the centre of 

 the body (ii. 2, . Note 6), a dignified and safe position, as of an acropolis (iii. 7, iij, 

 worthy of so high an office. One of the main difficulties .which led A. astray in.thisj 

 _ matter was the apparent want of anatomical connection between brain and sense-organs.^ 

 A very few years later Erasistratus and Herophilus (whose name still lives in the , 

 torcular Herophili) showed that such a connection did exist, in the nerves, which they 

 were among the first to separate from tendons, ligaments and. the like. Since that i 

 day the doctrine which A. repudiated has been universally recognised as true. The 

 unscientific world, however, feeling the heart throb or slacken in joy or grief, still makes j 

 this organ the centre of their emotional feelings ; and the scientific world still recognises, ' 

 as an undoubted fact, the intimate- connection and rapid sympathy between heart and 

 brain, which A. first pointed out. " En resume," says Claude Bernard, " chez Thomme 

 le coeur est le plus sensible des organes de la vie vegetative ; il re9oit le premier de tous 

 I'influence nerveuse cerebrale. Le cerveau est le plus sensible des organes de la vie 

 animale ; il re9oit le premier de tous I'influence de la circulation du sang. De la resulte 

 que ces deux organes culminants de la machine vivante soient dans des rapports incessans 

 d'action et de reaction. Le coeur et le cerveau se trouvent des lors dans une solidarite 

 d'actions reciproques des jJus intimes, "qui se multiplient et,se resseryent d'autant plus 

 que I'organisme devient plus developpe et plus delicat" {Revue d. deux Mondes, 1865, 

 t. Ivi. p. 250). 



28.. Cf. ii. 3, Note 16. 

 . .29. D. G. i. 17, etc. ' 



(Ch. 8.) 1. What does A. mean by saying that Touch is the primary sense ? One is 

 tempted at first to attribute to him the view held by modern physiologists, that the higher 



