850 The Relations of Mind and Matter. (September, 
appears as a consequence of thought, that mental action cannot 
go on without a constant supply of arterial blood and must cease 
periodically until the brain can regain its integrity through the 
assimilation of nutriment, and finally that no other organ of the 
mind can be discovered. The latter point, however, can be left 
for future consideration. It will suffice here to say that if such 
an organ does exist, though imperceptible to the anatomist, and 
if the brain is its instrument of activity, the above-named cere- 
bral phenomena would be as necessary as on the brain-mind 
theory. 
The earliest effort to definitely deal with this question is that 
of Cabanis, who advanced the idea that the brain acts like a gland, 
and secretes thought. This idea made a decided ripple in the 
thinking world, though it has long since died out. Maudsley’s 
idea is that every sensory impression upon the brain leaves be- 
hind it some modification of the nerve elements. This he con- 
siders to be the physical basis of memory. He looks on the 
change that takes place as a motion, which he considers analo- 
gous to the “compounds, and compounds of compounds, of 
vibrations in music.” Other authors propound like views, and 
consider thought to be a persistent vibration of the nerve fibers 
of the brain. Luys offers the same idea ina fuller shape. He 
says: “I have proposed to apply the term phosphorescence to that 
curious property the nerve elements possess of remaining a 
longer or shorter time in the state of vibration into which they 
have been thrown by the arrival of external excitations; as we 
` see phosphorescent substances illuminated by solar rays con- 
tinue to shine after the source of light which has illuminated 
them has disappeared.” 
This is the present state of the brain-mind theory, as advanced 
by its most ardent and learned advocates. The only definite 
conclusion to which they can arrive is, that thought is a persistent 
vibration of the cerebral nerve fibers. Indeed there is no other 
theory open to them, The discoveries of late years hinder them 
from taking refuge in the powers of a brain cell of unknown 
Organization. It has become evident that the brain cell is essen- 
_ tially a mass of very delicate fibrillæ which are continued through 
_ the nucleus, and in all probability are continuous with the nerve 
“fibers, Thus we have nothing but fibers of greater or less 
4 minuteness to deal with, and it seems to follow as a necessary 
