Remarks on Impulses Cerebral and Spinal. 



By 

 Professor Kicliard J. Anderson, M. D. 



The influence of suggestion is well-known to be great as regards 

 mental activity, whilst it seems to have played an important part on, 

 and in, the course of historic events, where large bodies of men appear 

 as active factors. But the reproduction of the stimuli evolves in 

 animals the original sensation of movement. 



The channels through which they act may at first be intricate, 

 but may afterwards be less complex owing to repetition, and indeed 

 may, after a time, be transmitted direct to the centre of reflex, and 

 end in a simple reflex action. Stimuli, that effect what are called, 

 somewhat indefinitely, the main-springs of action, are apt to be the 

 most potent. Interest, pleasure, and glory are the three motives of 

 the actions and the conduct of men. There are, however, means of 

 suggestion, chiefly auto-suggestion, that are sometimes very potent. 



The efferent results may be very complex, one set of muscles 

 succeeding another in action, but the result may be like simple reflex, 

 as when the odour or sight of food produces salivation. The im- 

 pression made through a sense organ may be slight, the result may 

 be far and wide reaching. 



It seems clear, however, that only a narrow tract of borderland 

 separates the central fi'om the circumferential, however we may take it. 

 Darwin seems to have had no difficulty in identifying the psychic 

 and physiological. The physiological may be lost in the psychic, but 

 the psychic may be followed by the physiological. In that case the 

 aesthetic or psychic takes the place, or is made to take the place, of 

 the more complicated series of operations. The "fetch and carry" may 



