WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS RESIDE. 677 



fixed, the less often has it been adverted to. So in the phenomena of mental 

 decay we have the newer impressions dying out first, because they are less firmly 

 organized into the system. 



The old man in his second childhood goes back literally to his first child- 

 hood, and his memory is that of the child. It is sometimes to be commented 

 upon that we have not found any tracts in the brain of higher significance than 

 the sensory tracts. One or two cases on record of wounds in different parts of 

 the brain show interference with the will, but it is still somewhat doubtful where 

 these parts of the brain are located. The power of speech should be connected 

 with the power of thought, for it is almost impossible for us to think without lan- 

 guage. Words are the coins of thought, and there is no barter that can take their 

 place. Somewhere back in the occipital cortex is supposed to be the center of 

 speech. Somewhere perhaps in the field where all the senses seem to meet and 

 overlap each other. We cannot locate this so well as many other things, because 

 in animals on which our experiments are carried on the field of language is very 

 small. Many phenomena of disease, too, show that a great many of our psychic 

 processes are carried on in connection with the senses. In a person suffering 

 from brain disease, it was noted that when he tried to grasp an object in the 

 hand of the physician, he moved his head from side to side, then seized the physi- 

 cian's arm and followed it nntil he reached the hand. He could not count ob- 

 jects without touching them. Often in attempting to touch objects he reached 

 beyond them. In counting small objects he often overlooked them, or counted 

 the same ones repeatedly. At a later period he could recognize small letters, 

 but if they were combined to form a word he could neither read the word nor 

 point out the separate letters. There was simply a hemorrhage in the brain in- 

 terfering with the centres of sight, and yet it interfered with the mental concep- 

 tions of space, positioxi and number. Hundreds of similar examples might be 

 brought forward if it were necessary, but enough has been said. We are not yet 

 done with such investigations. Perhaps we never shall be. We know from ex- 

 perience that every avenue towards truth is closed by a question, by a doubt. 

 We are a little nearer to the solution of some things. What is our consciousness ? 

 The elaborated result of cell action, the foam that crests the wave of our uncon- 

 sciousness. What is memory ? Persistence of arrangement. What is reason, 

 judgment, etc.? Elaborations of sensory memories and impulses. That is as far 

 as we have gone, and it is at least a different view of affairs from that which held 

 the world so long. 



WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS RESIDE ? 



We have outlined the structure of the cerebro-spinal system, and have stated 

 what may fairly be set down as established concerning the functions of this sys- 

 tem up to the cerebral hemispheres. With respect to the presence of conscious- 

 ness in the parts already examined, it is plain that opinions radically differ. Some 

 maintain that consciousness is not manifested apart from the action of the cere- 



