398 Vegetable Pathology* 



rated upon by external objects, that the comparison ceases; 

 That the mind and soul are two distinct qualities, there can 

 be no doubt : for the soul remains with the body when the 

 mind is gone ; and the brute creation have many of the powers 

 of the mind without possessing the soul. I may be asked, 

 what do I call mind ? To this I answer, that the mind is that 

 medullary part of man and animals called the brain, to which the 

 senses convey ideas by nerves terminating thereon. In man, pos- 

 sessed of that divine part called the soul, the brain receives im- 

 pressions through the senses ; and, having the power of retain- 

 ing, improving, and enlarging the ideas impressed upon it, is 

 acted on by the soul, to enable it to choose good from evil, 

 to give his actions that moral beauty which is called con- 

 science. In animals, though similar impressions are made 

 upon the brain by the nerves through the senses, yet, having 

 no soul, they have no power to distinguish good from evil, 

 and thus all their actions must be the result of impressions 

 made upon them by external objects. Instinct supplies to 

 them the place of the moral choice of man; and, where that 

 choice would be necessary for their guidance, they involun- 

 tarily act, like vegetables, without any knowledge or conscious- 

 ness of what they are doing. A dog, and other animals, may 

 be taught to do many things, which in man would be the 

 result of a moral choice ; but they make those distinctions 

 not by the power of any moral influence, but solely from the 

 impressions made upon their brain, whether caused by the 

 recollection of past punishment, or by the fear of future pain ; 

 and unless from long habit they should have forgotten their 

 natural propensities, they would, when those impressions were 

 worn out, return to their original nature. Now, the seat of 

 all sensation is the brain ; and however we refer any pain or 

 pleasure in any part of our person to the part affected, yet, the 

 nerves, conducting that sensation to the brain, the brain is 

 the place alone affected. This is too well known and acknow- 

 ledged to require illustration ; but I may mention the practice 

 of nerving a horse's foot to cure him of lameness, and the use 

 of the tourniquet to deaden the pain of amputation. I have 

 heard, from unquestionable authority, that persons who have 

 lost a limb in distant countries have frequently imagined pain 

 in that very limb, but which the remains of the divided nerves 

 have conveyed to the brain, and thus caused this illusion. If, 

 then, the seat of sensation is the brain, it follows, of course, 

 that where there is no brain there can be no sensation ; and 

 therefore the senses would in such case be unnecessary. Vege- 

 tables, therefore, can have no sensation, • nor any power of 

 action originating from themselves; and it follows, that all 



