V ANIMAL AUTOMATISM 210 



brutes are machines, and are said to have 

 carried its practical applications so far as to treat 

 domestic animals with neglect, if not with actual 

 cruelty. As late as the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, the problem was discussed very fully and 

 ably by Bouillier, in his " Essai philosophique sur 

 F Ame des Betes," while Condillac deals with it in 

 his " Traite des Animaux ; " but since then it has 

 received little attention. Nevertheless, modern 

 research has brought to light a great multitude of 

 facts, which not only show that Descartes' view is 

 defensible, but render it far more defensible than 

 it was in his day. 



It must be premised, that it is wholly impossi- 

 ble absolutely to prove the presence or absence of 

 consciousness in anything but one's own brain, 

 though, by analogy, we are justified in assuming 

 its existence in other men. Now if, by some 

 accident, a man's spinal cord is divided, his limbs 

 are paralysed, so far as his volition is concerned, 

 below the point of injury ; and he is incapable of 

 experiencing all those states of consciousness 

 which, in his uninjured state, would be excited by 

 irritation of those nerves which come off below 

 the injury. If the spinal cord is divided in the 



client sans douleur ; ils croissent sans le scavoir ; ils ne desircnt 

 rien ; ils ne connoissent rien ; et s'ils agissent avec adresse et d'une 

 maniere qui marque 1'intelligence, c'est que Dieu les faisant pour 

 les conserver, il a conforme leurs corps de telle maniere, qu'ils 

 evitent organiquement, sans le scavoir, tout ce qui pent les de- 

 truire et qu'ils semblent craindre. " (Fcuilletde Conches. Medita- 

 tions Hetaphysiqucset Correspondence de N, Malcbranche. Ncu- 

 viemc Meditation. 1841.) 



