Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1858-09-25

same shtlect Its TO TIE junction, bow
ever, q these almost lnconslsleut qualities
IN this rs wen as ID some other delicate
parts OF thc hods. That wo owe orr com.
f9rt--onr safety to their sensibility, our
comfort 70 their fepnse.
Auothcf Of the examples adduced by
I Bell is that Of She heart. The famous Dr..
Harvey examined. ot the request Of Charles
/ /, anoblemau Of The Montgomery family.
who, 10 consequence Of an o5seess, had a
hstnlous opening into the chest. through
which the heart could be seen and handled.
The great pbysiologist vas astonished to
fed i insensihle then brought him, 4"
be says, "to the King. that he might be-
hold and touch so extraordinary thing,
aud that be might perceive, as | did, that
unless when he saw our fngers in the cavi-
", this young nOblemaa knew not that we
touched The heart" Yet it is to the heart
that we refer our Joys, our sorrows, and
our affections; we speak Of good-hearted,
a hard hearted, q true-hearted, aud heart
less man Shielded from physical violence
by an outwoFk Of bones, il is not invested
with sensations which could have contribu-
ted nothing TO its preservation, bat while
II can be grusped with the fingers, aud
/ give no intmatiOn Of the fact to its pos
SCISSOR, It uumistaksbly responds to the var
led emoliOns of the mind, and by the gen.
eral consent Of mankiud is pronounced the
seat Of our pleasures, grefs, sympathies,
hatreds and love. Persons have frequently
dropped down dead from the vchemence
with which it. contracts or expands upon
the sudden announcement of good or bad
Dews, its muscular walls being strained too
far in the upward or downward direction
to enable them to return-and one of the
/ purposes which this property Of the heart
is probably designed to subserye is to put
check Ipon the passions, through the
alarming physical sensations they excite
Thc brain is enclosed in o bony case
All our bodily sensations are dependent
upon the nerves, but even the nerves do
not give rise to feeling, unless they are in
connection With the brain. The nervous
chord which, in familiar language, is called
the spinal marrow, is the channel by which
this communication is kept up as to the ma
| jor part of them, aud when tho section of
what may be termed the great trunk road
for the conveyance of our sensations is dis.
SttcNOg anu elbC VI SNCu III tlo EubtlnuIllty
below the disordered part eau no longer
send its accustomed intelligence TO the
brain, the portion of the body which thus
becomes isolated may be burned or hacked,
and no more pain win result than if it be-
longed 10 dead carcass Instead of liv-
ing man. The brain, therefore, in Subor-
dinatiun to the mind, is the physical centre
OF al sensation Yet, strange to say, it is
itself insensibe to the wounds which are
torture TO the skin, and which wounds the
brain alone enables us to feel. ut is as ia:
sensible, says Charles Bell ''as the leather
os our shoe, and piece may be cat of
without interrupting the patient in the SEN
tence that he is uttering. Because the
bone which envelopes it il its protection
against Injuries from without, it has no
perception Of them when directed against
its own fabric, though it is at the same
time the sole cause OF the pain which
those injuries inaict upon the other portions
OF the system But the skull is no defence
against the effects of intempcrence, or
|Fitiatcd atmosphere, or the great mental
toll To these consequently too the same
brain which has been created insensible to
the cut Of the knife, is rendered fully alive,
and giddiness, headaches, apopletic oppres-
sion gives ample notice to us to stop the
evil unless we are prepared to pay the
penalty y.-L0ndow Quarterly.