CiiAP. XXV.] PHTvENOLOGY: OLD AND NEW. 545 



In regard to Visceral Impressions, the reader must 

 now be well aware that sensations are not habitually 

 received from internal organs, and that vague impressions 

 only are felt at intervals so long as these organs continue 

 in a healthy condition. That impressions, however, 

 habitually pass from some of the viscera to the Brain, 

 although devoid of conscious accompaniments, can be 

 shown by good indirect evidence. Systemic impressions 

 are, in this manner, liable to exercise an important 

 influence upon the genei-al current of our Thoughts and 

 Emotions, and they may also modify to a marked extent 

 the activity of the Brain within the spheres of one or 

 more of the Special Senses. Thus, though not themselves 

 attended by Consciousness, it is unquestionably true that 

 various ' visceral impressions ' powerfully modify the Con- 

 scious Life of lower animals as well as of Man. 



It is more than probable, therefore, that these Systemic 

 Impressions pass by definite routes through the Medulla 

 and lower parts of the Brain, and thence upwards to some 

 definite region of the Cerebral Cortex, whence they possi- 

 bly radiate in different directions. The fact that the 

 impressions are of an ' unconscious ' type need not inspire 

 doubts as to whether they reach the Cerebral Cortex. The 

 probabilities are greatly in favour of their doing so. 



The parts of the Cortex, hov/ever, to which such impres- 

 sions principally proceed is at present unknown. Ferrier 

 is inclined to believe that they go to the Occipital Lobes. 

 But the evidence adduced by him seems to the writer 

 inadequate to support such a conclusion, and he himself 

 does not strongly insist upon it.* Apart, moreover, from 

 the dubious nature of the special evidence upon which 

 Ferrier' s opinion in regard to the cerebral localization 

 of Visceral Impressions is based, this conclusion is one 

 * "Functions of the Brain," p. 192 



