Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-07-31

AAh'1A1Sl W thS SAta'I1 PICS auNlCCN
by Bell is that Of the heart. The
famous DR.. Harvey examined, at
the request Of Charles l., a noble
man of the Montgomery family,
who, in consequence Of an abcess,
had a fstulous opening into the
chest, through which the heart
could be seen and handled. The
great physiologist was astonished to
find it insensiblc. II then brought
him." he says, ''to the king, that he
might perceive, as | di:f, that un-
less when we touched the outer skin
Or when he saw our fingers in the
cavity, this young nob]eman knew
not that we touched the hcart.''
\ ct it is to the heart that we refer
oursJ Joys, our sorrows, and our affec-
tlous; we speak of good hearted
and bad hearted, a true hearted and
a heart]ess man. Shielded from
physical violence by an outvork of
bones, it is not invested with SEN
sations which could have attributed
nothing to its preservation, but,
while it can be grasped with the
fingers, and give no intimation Of
the fact to its pcssessor, it unmis-
takab]y responds to the varied qucs-
tions Of the mind, and, by the gen
eral consent Of mankind, is pro-
nounced the seat Of our pleasures,
gricfs, sympathies, hatreds and
love. Persons have frequently drop
red down dead from the vehemence
with which it contracts or expands
upon the sudden announcement of
good or bad new5-its muscular
walls being strained too far in the
upward or downward direction to
enable them to return-aud one of
the purposes which this property of
the heart is. probably designed to
subservc, is to put check upon the
passions through the alarming physi-
cal sensation they excite.
The brain, again., is enclosed in
4 bony case. All our bodily SEN
'ations are dependent upon the
nerves, but even the nerves do not
give rise to feeling unless they are
II connexion with the brain. The
nervous chord, which, in familiar
anguage, is called the spinal mar
'ow, is the channel by which this
communication is kept up in the
major part Of them; and when a
section Of what may be termed the
great trunk for the conveyance of
'ur sensations is deceased, and by
he breach in its continuity, the
lcrycs below the disordered part
:an no longer send their accustom-
ID intelligence to the brain, the
portion Of the body which thus be-
:omcs isolated may be burned or
hacked, and no more pain will re-
ult than if it belonged to u dead
:arcass instead Of to a living man.
The brain, therefore, in snbordi-
latioa to the mind, IS the physical
enter ofall sensation. Yet, strange
o say, it is itself insensible to the
Wounds which arc torture to the
kin, and which wounds the brain
lone enables us to feel. ut is as
nsensiblc,' says Sir Charles Bell,
as the leather Of our shoe, and a
'icce may be cut off without inter-
upting the patient in the sentence
c is uttering." Because the bone
which cnvclops it is its protection
yainst injuries from without; it
as no perception Of them when
irected against its own fabric,
hough it is, at the same time, the
ole source Of the pain which these
1iuries inhict upon the other por-
ions OF the system. But the skull
; 10 defense against the effects Of
Temperance, or a vitiated atmos-
here, or too great mental toll. TO
hose, Consequently, the same brain
,l:ich has been created insensib]e
, the cut OF a knife is fully alive,
nd giddiness, headache and apo
lectjc expressions give ample
Office to us to sts'p the evil, unless
&c are prepared to pay the penalty.
-Lontfon Quarterly.
Ig- I,,,,---~- IT. .r