85 



of the body can be traced into the substance of the 

 brain beyond the basal ganglia. The olfactory and 

 optic nerves were inferentially supposed to issue from 

 the cerebrum, but no experiment nor development 

 shows this to l)e the case. We liave only to suppose 

 the upper parts of tlie encephaloii, the spinal cord, and 

 the bodily ganglia to be depositories of psychic power 

 to explain much in pathology. I have often been struck 

 by Goethe's statement : 



" Who of tlie living seeks to know and tell, 

 Strives first the living spirit to expel, 

 He has in hand the separate parts alone, 

 But lacks the spirit bond that makes them one," 



The fulcrum arguments in support of the idea that 

 our mental and moral natures are "functions" of mole- 

 cules of nerve substance, rest on three grounds prin- 

 cipally, (r/) The effect produced on mind by the 

 healthy action of the nervous system. (^) The mental 

 changes consequent upon pathological conditions, 

 (c) The r(;lation between mental power and the 

 size of the organ in which it exists. In a word, the 

 endeav^or to find out what mind is, by a careful study 

 of the phenomena of nerve ticsue. This effort is praise- 

 worthy, but is as one-sided as the logomachy of the 

 mental philosophers. ^ 



We will consider the last arii-ument adduced in 

 respeci to the relation of the massiveness of the brain 

 to mental power. It is said there must be a necessary 

 connection between the quantity of nerve substance — 

 t'lie proportion of grey and wliite tissue and fanctional 

 mentaJitij. The larger the brain is, the more compli- 

 cated, varied and powerful are these functions. The 

 nervous system is traced upwards in the scale of being 

 from an asidian mollusk to the ganglia of the centi- 

 c 



