TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 647 
termed the ‘stigmata of degeneration,’ which are really the stigmata of non- 
development. 
It is now almost demonstrated that all the serious forms of mental disease 
can be associated directly with microscopic and bio-chemical alterations in the 
brain-cells. We find that in the brain there is a general solidarity of action, 
which in a way may be said to correspond to the metaphysical doctrine of the 
unity of mind, but that doctrine has to be extended so as also to include the 
unity of mind and body. If the term ‘unity’ goes too far, the term ‘paral- 
lelism’ is certainly a correct description of the facts. 
A bad nervous or mental heredity tends especially to interfere with the 
development process of body and mind. If that heredity is very strong, we are 
apt to find complete arrestment as in idiocy; where it is less strong, we have 
- attacks of mania and a tendency to that mental arrestment and death which I 
have called ‘adolescent insanity,’ and subsequently ‘dementia’ or mindlessness. 
The normal power of the brain and mind to react to stimuli is impaired in some 
way in all cases of mental disease. ‘This abnormality necessarily upsets the 
social life of the community. 
The hizhest quality required for human society is the power of mental inhibi- 
tion or self-control. We cannot dissociate that from bodily inhibition. We 
conclude that there are centres of mental inhibition, probably situated in the 
fore part of the brain, which are non-developed in idiocy, poorly developed in 
the primitive races, and diseased in the insane. This is one of the most impor- 
tant relationships of body and mind, and is one of the most essential parts of 
psychiatric study. 
I think the facts which are often described by the term ‘subconscious’ and 
“subliminal consciousness’ are much better understood and fall in with physi- 
olomical facts by h-ing looked on as merely molecular and bio-chemical changes 
within the brain-cells. 
(iit) From the Standpoint of Physiology. 
By J. S. Haupane, M.D., F.RS. 
From the everyday point of view a man or higher animal is a personality 
consciously and purposively controlling, with greater or less success, his body, 
and through it the surrounding environment. From another point of view, 
however, the behaviour of the man is dependent on his physical environment, 
and on the blind physical or physiological processes occurring around and 
within his body. His perceptions and actions, and his continued existence, 
depend absolutely on the material and energy coming to him from the environ- 
ment, and on the bodily structure transmitted to him from his parents. From 
this point of view no independent mind or soul can be distinguished ; all 
psychical activity is demonstrably dependent on the body and its physical 
environment, and is apparently a mere accompaniment of physiological changes. 
The facts on which this conclusion depends appear at first sight to be unassailable, 
and to become more and more cogent with every year of advance in knowledge. 
These two views clash with each other. If we adopt the first view, we are 
faced by the hard facts on which the second view depends. If we adopt the 
second, we encounter the difficulty that, from their very nature, physical and 
mere physiological processes afford no explanation of intelligent behaviour. The 
difficulties of the first view have been sufficiently emphasised in recent times in 
consequence of the great advances in physical and physiological knowledge. 
But the difficulties of the second view are equally great, if not greater. They 
have been admirably stated in Dr. McDougall’s recent book on ‘Body and 
Mind,’ to which I may refer. r 
These difficulties cannot be solved by any theory of interaction between the 
body and the mind or soul. Between body and mind there is no interaction, 
simply because the body, more fully understood, is the mind. From the 
physical and chemical standpoint a man is about 70 kilogrammes of material 
with a certain configuration, properties, and internal movements—this material 
consisting of a great variety of chemical compounds, interacting upon one 
another in various ways. From the physiological standpoint the man is a living 
organism blindly fulfilling its biological destiny. From the psychological stand- 
