1885.] The Relations of Mind and Matter. 943 
and cause important modifications in its constitution. These 
cases seem closely analogous to what we know of the constitu- 
tion of the mental organism, though the susceptibility of the lat- 
ter to external influences is far greater. Yet it has a fixed organi- 
zation through the harmony of its internal energies. It is ex- 
posed to the inflow of external energies through the medium of 
the brain. And its internal conditions change under the influence 
of these inflowing energies. But at every resting stage of its 
development it gains a stable condition of internal energies, which 
remains persistent during the temporary absence of consciousness, 
And consciousness appears to be a peculiar expression of the 
motor energy which flows from the brain into the mind, The 
nerve current appears to produce chemical disintegration in some 
highly unstable element of the brain cells, as in the muscle cells, 
The energy set free by this disintegration seems merely to inten- 
sify without changing the character of the influence producing it, 
It flows into the mental organism, and in so doing takes on the 
special condition of consciousness, or manifests consciousness as 
one of the effects of its intact with the mind. Its final effect, 
however, is to impress the mind with a new motor state, which 
directly or indirectly repeats the conditions of the instigating ex- 
ternal energy. 
If such be in any sense a correct conception of the character 
and relations of the mental organism, certain other necessary 
consequences follow. Not only does the mind receive energy 
from the brain, but its innate energies affect the brain, and set up 
disintegration in its cells like that produced by the nerve current. 
And the energy produced by this disintegration flows out as a 
nerve current over the motor nerves to the muscles, which it 
rouses into activity.! Such is the two-fold relation of the mind 
to external nature. But it has interrelations of its own. Thought 
energies flow from part to part of the mental organism, and ideas 
are evolved from their interconnection, much of the mental evo- 
1 The indications are that external energy does not flow directly into the mind, nor 
does mental energy flow outwards, In both cases an intermediate energy is used, 
that set free by chemical change in the tissues of the brain, The inflowing nerve 
current induces this change, and the mind is affected by the energy thus set free. In 
like manner the mind does not emit energy, or only to the slight extent necessary for 
inductive action. It exerts force on the brain cells, and induces a special emission 
of nerve energy. It constantly receives, but it never yields its stores of motor en- 
ergy. It resembles a land-locked lake, into which hundreds of streams flow, but to 
- which there is no outlet, 
