SCIENCE AND MIND 257 



time of Galen was the doctrine of intellectual 

 and sensory functions of the brain generally 

 accepted. 



Now, of course, the doctrine is such a common- 

 place that the term " brains " is often used as a 

 synonym for mind. 



But what is the brain ? From one standpoint it is 

 ninety or ninety-five per cent, water and essenti- 

 ally highly phosphorised fats in a weak salt solution ; 

 from another standpoint it consists of some hundred 

 of millions of cells connected with each other, and 

 with all the tissues of the body, by means of nerve- 

 fibres ; from still another standpoint, it consists 

 of a mass of molecules particularly responsive to 

 vibrations of the ether and air. When it is 

 removed from the skull it is found to have certain 

 furrows and fissures running in definite directions, 

 and dividing it into lobes and convolutions, and the 

 lobes and convolutions correspond, in the main, 

 with those of the higher apes. There are about 

 three pounds weight of brain in man, but the 

 lower animals have comparatively small brains ; 

 yet " whether it be the brain-cell of a glowworm 

 or one trembling with the harmonies of Tristan 

 und Isolde^ the stuff it is made of is much the 

 same " ; it is merely a specialised form of pro- 

 toplasm, containing considerable quantities of 

 phosphorus. 



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