Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-08-13

U
If Mr. Eyeleh had presented the matter in this form it
would have been all right; but he said nothing Of its
being a mere suggestion" Of Hersche leaving the
general and unscientc reader to infer that no less
eminent an astronomer than Sir John Herscheln really
entertained such idea.
Next Mr. Eyeleth endeayors soften the effect Of his
statement regarding medical men, and attempts to draw
distinction between prevailing opinion and g he
prevailing opinion We do care which of these ex-
pressions he adopts for it is equally untrue whether he
says that il is prevailing opinion he prevailing
opinion 'among medical that animal life is moth
ing less than electricity circulating through
the through wires of copper" 1t is not pre-
vang opinion does Dr. Carpenter of London whose
work physiology, at 1ol he Cites assert that it is
prevailing opinion lie simply says that it has been
and continues to be favorite theory w some theory
may be entertained By without its being at all
yalent theory. To be properly said TO be prevale, a
theory opinion must be growing predominant one
most generally received current precaecat dis
ease is which is general predominant existing
extensively Prof Carpenter very far from saying that
the opinion in question is prevalent one for he knows
that there is ground ut least in this country for such
statement and repeat, what before said that have
not met with single well educated physician who enter
tanned the opinion.
differ from Dr. Carpenter in his statement that sit
the propagation of and that of electrical in
fuence" There is material difference between the
nervous influence it is called, and electricity There
is no analogy between its relations to matter and that OF
the nervous influence" to matter The latter requires
particular organization for its supposed propagation
while the former is Indifferent to organization. To illus
trate: if is crushed by the blow of hammer
its organization destroyed only partially deranged
by long PRESSURE the influence cannot pass
along it. But the very admits the passage of
of electricity perfectly well, and the
nerve in its normal condition Where, then, is the
alogy between electricity and the influenced
Again, do not admit the prsuaent heory-and it GER
ainy very prevalent one, in the true of the
wordhat the influence is propagateda theory
old at least the Aristoteian philosophy ITSELF and
which was probably derived from India, where it was
treasured up in the Vedas and Shasres of the Hndoos
1t is theory invented hide the ignorance Of
pretending philosophers one the language OF which,
expressive of locomoon pagaton, invented to
supply the defects of the poverty of language Those
who originally entertained may have adopted the loco
motive language used to express their ideas merely
from the poverty of language ITSELF and its inability to
convey the real ideas of philosophers in better terms and
because they really entertained the ideas expressed
by their language taken literally.
No facts have yet been discovered experiments have
electricity and the influence That electricity
will muscular conractons is proof that it is
similar in its nature to the nervous influence which
the ordinary contracons in the living body for other
agencies viii muscular conractions alsopercus
son for instance. Conractions Of the muscles also
be effected independently of nerves even. This the
experiments of my distinguished friend Dr. BEsNET Dow
LER of New Orleans, of the greatest Of American
psychologists and whose extensive observations and
perimeus cited by Dr. Carpenter, of London in the
last edition Of his physiology, most amply establishes
The muscles of the contract powerfully percussion
for time after DEATH when the is severed
from the body the shoulder and tic principal
removed thus showing that the existence of
is not essential to muscular contraction.
That any thing is propagated along the when
muscular motion takes place is bare assumption found
in all the books true which Psychologist has yet
been able establish 1t is essential part Of the theo
ry always universally adopted, from the old physi-
oogst however, that all voluntary motions proceed from
central seasor to which aerent and efferent
proceed from the periphery that this sensorum receives
impressions through channel set of nerves from
without and transmits under the control of the will the
influence along another set Of to the mus
cles To make every thing harmonic with this theory
complicated system Of nerves has been invented of
which are capable of demonstration by the scape Ask
nerves. the nerves Of motion and those Of sensation
only and he cannot do it. The entire theory of
Sir Charles Bell and Marshall Hall regarding the
vous system TO be found in all the books anatomy
and physiology and taught in all medical colleges is
entirely destitute Of demonstration besides being
ceedngy complicated 1t appears to that the old doc
trne Of the sensorum being seated in part of the
Uranium viii have to be abandoned for that Of dgsei
Sssora, which, indeed derives much support from viyi
sections which have witnessed in New Orleans perform
ed on the great sauran Of South ern waters the a
gator the greatest Of American vvsectors Dr. Bennett
Dowler. Drs. Marshall Hall and Bell Of London, have
built up their theory vvisections made chiefly
the lowest reptlia frogs and turtles If arguments
drawn from these sufficient to give force q compli
Gated theory Of the system assuredy those de-
rived from the vyisecons Of the alligator deserving
Of much higher consideration These vivsectons which
have Witnessed upon the alligator prove clearly to my
mind that the sensorium is not in the cranum but that it
resides as a whole, in the entire system that
the mind the thinking and feeling principle Of the exact
Of which nothing is known except that it exists
occupies the entire system at the time and
that when 1t acts the whole Of it acts and not
particular point seated somewhere in the Uranium,
body knows where is maintained by the old theorists
by this do say that there is much Of the
mental force or agency in part Of the body
in another, end that the thinks just much
the brain or spinal cord but simply that that force or
agency distributed throughout all the body, and that
there is particular point, called the sensorum which
presdes all the other parts and to which all impress
made the periphery travel along the
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