Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-01-16

the residence Of the intellectual and mora
attributes of man; the point at which the
spiritual and material worlds blend and unite.
The soft, puipy sheet, so curiously folded
away in the cavity Of the skull and W hich is
kept constantly flooded with bright, arterial
blood, is the material structure that God has
prepared as the organ of the thought. How
mind and matter are joned-how the i'm
mortal spirit, during the life period of its be-
lug, dwells, ana can only dwell, in the ever
changing cerebral fabric, il an inscrutabe
mystery. Nevertheless, such is the fact
We know nothing of mind except as bound
up with matter in the brain, and in this al.
liancA there arises an intimate dependence of
the former upon the latter-of the mind up
on its material organ. Bodily conditions ex-
ert powerful influence over mental feelings, |
conceptions and states, independent of the
will. In iainting, there is a transient sus-
pension Of the circulation, and hence tenn
porary pause in the flow Of blood through the
brain, and the mind disappears in uncon-
scousness Sir Ashley Cooper checked the |
vital current in the arteries that led to the
brain Of dog, wnen the animal fell sense
less ms the circulation WAS restored it re-
vived Bichat showed that the influence of
the scarlet or arterial blood is necessary to
the due performance Of the cerebral func.
tions If dark colored or veinous blood be
substituted for it, and transmitted to the
braiu by the arteries, the ani,aal falls into o
state Of total insensibiity. If when a por-
ton Of the skull is removed, slight pressure
be made upon the brain, mental paralysis in
stantly follows, and continues until the pres
sure is removed A case is recorded where
consciousness, which had been extinguished
for six months was restored by removing a
small portion of the skull which pressed upon
the brain. In fever, the blood acquires dis
eased condition, and so disorders the brain as
to replace the normal course of thought by
the rawlings and phantasns sf delrium. I'm
usual rapidty Of the flow of blood through
the brain, or undue pressure within it, as in
d" determination Of blood" or congestion"
disturbe the minds action. Nitrous oxyd
gas respired so affects the brain as to arouse
! the mind into preternatural violence of ac-
ton; while the respiration Of carbonic acid
gas, even in the small proportion often found
| in unventilated apartments, depresses and
stupefes the mind in spite Of the utmost eff
fort Of voition. The opinion is now gener-
ally entertained by the most eminent physi-
ologists that arrangement Of mind involves
disorder Of its material instrument. DIR.
Beck, in his medical Jurisprudence, says :
" The causes Of insanity are usually divided
into physical and moral, or bodily and men,
tai; but a separation Of this kind is not con-
ducive to just views of the disease. Insani-
ty is essentially a bodily disease, and the
moral causes operate in producing it as they
do in producing other complaints"
Our state Of Mind and Conduct depends upon
Conditions Of the Brain.
We gather from these, and uu merous other
! facts of Il similar nature which l have not
space to merton, that when the mind acts
naturally it is because the changes within
the brain 20 on in normal way, and that a
perverted material organ produces cores
bonding arrangement Of mind. Accompany
inc every thought, each act Of the recollec-
ton, or Of the reasoning and imaginative
and emotional powers there is certain kind
and amount OF material transformation which
is essential to these mental acts aud any
agent or force brought to bear upon the brain
which arrests or nodifes or hinders these
IN ,tarial changes, necessarily disturbs anC
peryerts the mental operations. This fac
0 Of the essential dependence of mental pro
t resses upon cerebral mutations we are tot
8 much inclined to overlook. We regard tn
: niud's acts alone, distracted from all thei
e material acts upon which they depend. W
# haze such a habit Of contrasting mind ant
# matter-of considering them as separate auC
/, even antagonist forms of beiug-that we, q
Il it were, detach our conceptions of menta
{ existence ana action from their vital connex
V ions. Haiijuated to conceive of mind in it
n final and highest destiny as disencumbere
rt Of matter, We neglect the inexorable fact tha
r such is not its condition here aud nolc. A
Ia children, when out at play, are utterly VI
n conscious Of that lever.actIOn OF bones, tn
is contractility and spring Of muscles; and th
ic lightning dispatches that are continually fy
inr in all directions over the nerve wirG
from headquarters to the hands, feet, tongu
! livs, ewes, and the whole mobile and sens
-. tive system so we are all apt to forget th'
- when we think, and hope, and reflect, an
- wish, and remember, and calculate, or exc
ths mind in any way, We are really splnnin
= the wheel work Of that most complicated ar
,s wonderful Of all machines, that master pie
81, Of divine invention, the human brain. | {
:. not affirm that intellectual operations Origi
81 ate or consist in material changes of the brai
nj but only that in the present state Of exi
- teuce, the mental principle cannot act exec
a. through it's organ, by which such chang
~, necessarily occur. The factis undeniable tn;
- in this stage Of beiNg, the Creator has
III woven the mental element into brain tss
-, that the former cannot work except throu
~ the latter, aad in accordance with the laws
m. TO Be CONTINUED.