ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. 211 



Elsewhere,* 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 pas- 

 sions 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 chaoge 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 intermedia- 

 tion of the nerves of the foot ; and the stars are perceived, as if 

 they were in the heavens, by the intermediation 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 u 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 con- 

 siderable, though much over-estimated, anatomist, Bi- 

 chat, so far from having reached the level of Descartes, 

 could gravely argue that the apparatuses 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.f 



* " Les Passions de I'Ame," Article miii. 



f " Recherches physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort." Par Xav. Bichat 

 Art. SixiSme. 



