V ANIMAL AUTOMATISM 205 



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 tlio 

 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 immedi- 

 ately 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 ap- 

 praise, so completely has Descartes' view incor- 

 porated 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 re- 

 membered that at the end of the last century a 

 considerable, though much over-estimated, anato- 

 mist, Bichat, so far from having reached the level 

 of Descartes, could gravely argue that the ap- 

 paratuses 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. 1 



Modern physiology, aided by pathology, easily 

 demonstrates that the brain is the seat of all forms 

 of consciousness, and fully bears out Descartes' ex- 

 planation of the reference of those sensations in 



1 Rcclierclics physiologiques sur la Vie et la, Mort. Par 

 Xav. Bichat. Art. Sixieme. 



