1:70 REPORT 1861. 



tiie effect upon the nervous system quite homogeneous. Outward motion is the 

 cause, inward motion is the effect. Instead of having the solid forms of the out- 

 ward world standing as it were face to face with the nervous energy, and being 

 obliged to consider how it is possible for two things so entirely heterogeneous to 

 come into so close a state of mental action and reaction, we have now the whole 

 problem reduced to two developments of motion : first, motion in the fluids around 

 us; and secondly, a certain determination given, by their means, to the atomic 

 movements or vibrations of the neiTes. How the movements of the nerve-force 

 are converted into those of mind-force we cannot say, any more than we can explain 

 how it is that mechanical motion is converted into heat, or vice versa ; but the out- 

 ward phenomena are traced, in the way we have now indicated, as far back to the 

 inward consciousness as seems possible, without breaking through the last film of 

 separation that divides the conscious from the unconscious world. Secondly, the 

 theory we have adopted enables us to di-aw a clear line of separation between sen- 

 sation (properly so called) and all the subsequent mental phenomena which attach 

 themselves to it. Thus, taking the sense of hearing, we can now easily strip away 

 every possible association which connects itself with what M'O hear, and understand 

 that the sensation of hearing itself simply implies the nei-vous effect of certain atmo- 

 spheric vibrations, and nothing more. Taking the sense of sight, we can at once 

 negative the possibility of sensizing size, shape, thickness, distance, or any other of 

 the properties of bodies : all we see sensationally is colour, as being the direct result 

 in the consciousness of the luminous vibrations which affect the optic ner\'e. And 

 so in like manner does every sense confine itself to one single and peculiar series of 

 phenomena, which are not by any means to be confounded with the mental acts 

 and associations aftei-wards connected -with them. Thirdly, the same theory in- 

 troduces vmity into the entire sphere of sensational phenomena. The whole of 

 these phenomena are reduced to the single principle of motion, as the invariable 

 antecedent ; this motion, as it exists in external nature, exciting a corresponding 

 action in the nerves, and then, through the nerve-force, affecting the mind. Thus, 

 then, we find, by the combined aid of physics and physiology, (1) that man pos- 

 sesses a nervous system pervaded by a force which can pass freely from everj' point 

 in the human system to the centre, and fi-om the centre to eveiy point in the cu.'- 

 cumference ; (2) that he is placed in a universe palpitating with countless millions 

 of vibrations, of which vibrations the nerves of the different sense-organs are directly 

 susceptible; (3) that the whole connexion which the mind has, or can possibly 

 have, with the external world is fonued by the motion of the fluids around us, or 

 the motion of the particles of bodies that come into chemical contact vrith the 

 nerves ; (4) that the material universe, therefore, makes itself known to us entirely 

 through the medium of motion ; (.5) that this motion expresses itself in the nervous 

 system by modifying the regular vital action which is always going on there ; and 

 (lastly) that this modification of the nerve-force manifests itself to our conscious- 

 ness m the varied phenomena of what we term sensation. Thus the world com- 

 municates with the consciousness wholly through motion as a link of connexion, 

 and out of the experiences thus foi-med our whole inteUigence is subsequently built 

 up by the laws of mental development. 



On Prison Dietary in India. By Dr. Mouatt. 

 The author commenced by giving a brief histoiy of the successive dietaries in 

 use in Bengal, and then proceeded to detail the residts of an inquiry which had 

 been made into the sanitary influences of the existing dietaiy. He stated subse- 

 quently the principles that should guide the formation of a prison dietary, applied 

 those principles to the dietary in use, and concluded by suggesting the remedies 

 necessary to correct the eiTors of that scale of food, without losing sight of the pri- 

 mary objects it is intended to fulfil, namely, to maintain the health of prisoners at 

 the lowest possible cost to the State, so as, on the one hand, to avoid improper in- 

 dulgences, and, on the other, to secure a sufficiency of food to preserve health and 

 prevent disease. Facts and figures were produced to show connexion between the 

 diet-scales and the mortality from diseases most neai-ly associated -ndth the func- 

 tions of digestion — dysenterj^, diarrhoea, scurvy, phthisis, and cholera, of which the 

 connexion was believed to be veiy doubtful. ' The dietetic value of the chief arti- 



