38 MIND. 



I have placed the preceding arguments alone, but to them may 

 be subjoined another equally demonstrative as any, that the 

 stength of the various intellectual powers and inclinations accords 

 with the size of the various parts of the brain ; that exactly as 

 the various parts of the brain are successively developed is the 

 character developed, and as they shrink with age does the cha- 

 racter again change. 



In contending that the mind is a power of the living brain, and 

 the exercise of it the functions of that organ, I contend for merely 

 a physical fact; and no Christian who has just conceptions of the 

 Author of Nature will hesitate to look boldly at Nature as she is, 

 lest he should discover facts opposite to the pronunciations of 

 his revelation; for the word and the works of the Almighty cannot 



Combe, on the effects of injuries of the brain upon the manifestation of the 

 mind, in the Transactions of the Phrenological Society, Edinb. 1824.) 



If after insanity no trace of disease is sometimes discoverable in the brain, let 

 us remember that the same is sometimes the case after epilepsy and various un- 

 doubted diseases of the brain, and sometimes with respect to the stomach after 

 chronic dyspepsia. Diseases may be functional only. Nay, when our senses are 

 not nice enough to discover structural affection of the brain in insanity, &c. we 

 have generally strong presumptive evidence of its affection, in the thickening or 

 excessive secretions of its membranes, points more easily ascertained than equal 

 changes in the delicate texture of the brain. 



Those who thus attempt to prove the substantial distinctness of the mind and 

 brain, forget that their facts, or rather arguments, are equally strong against what 

 they all admit, the necessary connection of the mind and brain in this life ; and 

 are therefore grounded on what, if true, were violations of the course of nature. 



There is a passage in Hippocrates, de Morbo Sacro, well worth quoting : 

 " Men ought to know, that from the brain only proceed pleasure and joy, and 

 laughter and sport, as well as griefs, anxieties, sorrows, and weeping. By it we 

 are wise especially, and understand, and see, and hear, and appreciate what is 

 base and honourable, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, distinguishing them 

 partly by habit, partly by their utility. By it we distinguish what is pleasurable, 

 and what disagreeable, according to circumstances ; and, by it, the same things do 

 not please us under all circumstances. By it we are insane and delirious ; expe- 

 rience terrors and fears, partly by night, partly by day; and sleeplessness, and ill- 

 timed errors, and groundless cares; do not recognise those who are with us; lose 

 our habits, and forget our experience. And all this we suffer from the brain if it 

 is not healthy, &c. : wherefore I say, that the brain is the messenger and inter- 

 preter of intelligence and wisdom. But the praecordia have obtained the name 

 of Qpevet among the Greeks, by custom, not from fact and nature ; and I know 

 not what property they have of knowing and understanding, except that in sudden 

 and great joy or sorrow they leap," &c. 



