1885.] The Relations of Mind and Matter. 857 
cumstance it is impossible to comprehend under the theory that 
the thoughts are but motor affections of brain matter. In these 
years of disorder it is absolutely certain that considerable modi- 
fications must take place in this matter. The motions affecting 
its cells and fibers cannot continue absolutely the same as they 
were years before, but must have become greatly changed and 
reorganized under years of influx of external energies. But if 
we view the mental organism as separate from the cerebrum 
these strange phenomena lose much of their mysteriousness. In 
that case the disorder of the cerebrum may not have directly 
affected the mind, but simply broken the connection between the 
mind and its organ of manifestation and development. The men- 
tal organism may lie for years intact, as a crystal lies buried in 
its bed of rock. It retains its original conditions since it has been 
removed from the influence of disturbing energies. And when 
once again it regains its powers of manifestation, through the 
regained normal condition of the cerebrum, it must reappear in 
the precise condition which it had attained at the period of the 
broken connection, and with all its memories and ideas intact. 
If we consider the relations of the nervous system from this 
point of view, we perceive it to be composed of a vast aggregate 
of fibers, which divide into their constituent fibrillz in the gan- 
glion cells. These fibers are in contact, at their opposite extremi- 
ties, with two distinct sources of energy. One series of them — 
runs from the brain to the sense organs on the surface. Another 
series runs from the brain to the muscles, The first series has its 
receptive extremities at the surface, and conveys the energies of 
external nature to the brain to discharge them into the mental 
organism. The second series has its receptive extremities in the 
brain, and conveys energies received from the mental organism 
to the muscles, there to discharge them. Each of these fibers 
apparently has its fixed and single duty. If one of the sensory 
nerves be touched, it carries an impression to a fixed locality in 
the brain. If one of the motor nerves be touched, it carries an 
impression toa fixed muscle. The more deeply anatomy and 
physiology search into the conditions of the nervous system the 
more clearly it appears to be simply such an instrument for the 
conveyance of impressions to and from two sources of energy, 
an external and an internal one, and the less fitted does it seem 
to sustain the theory that the brain is the organ of the mind. 
