The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-07-18

"Cnange6 IN memofy iui tsstt.e.5 ffs1gess -
theory. In youth when ths efcesssef repair
over waste Isl at the maximum, but 9ieR dis
soharges'throug anystranslth fibre are needful
i'm order to5sWorka permanent nnfritiye
change, setting upaa line of communication
(which shall last through life; hence learning is
easy and rapid, and memery is powerful. IN
old age, when waste is slightly In excess OF
repair. and both are at the minimumi a great
many discharges are necessary for the achieve
ment of any permanent nutritive change;
hence learning is slowand difficult, and mem
ory is feeble And rhence-wbat Is most sig
nihcantt of all-the old man does not remem-
ber recent events, while he remembers very
well what happened in his youth, when bis
rate of nutrition was rapid.
"The physical Interpretation Of these secon-
Diary automatic processes is' not, difficult, ac-
cording to the hypothesis here expounded:
During the process of learning, there is an e1-
tensive formation. of, new, transit-lines, and and
consequently an appreclable interval between
accumulation of molecular disturbance IN the
cerebral cells and its discharge. Impressions
persist long enough to be compared together,
and accordingly there is reason and there ls
volitlon. There is a maximum OF CONSCIOUS
ness, because there is q maximum duration OF
the nutrltive changes, and hence WEAKNESS
soon follows; cerebral nutrition entailing
greater waste than occurs in any other part OF
the system But with constant repetition'tn the
resistance to the passage of fluctuations along
the new transitlines disappears entirely. Nu-
triton has 50 modified them that, as above ex'
planned, they become lines Of traction insteao
OF lines of resistance. AS we say, nothing,
can prevent the one group of ideas or move.
ments from following the other. The dis
charges are made instantly, and along with
minipum duration OF nutrltive change there
is minimum of consciousness. The combina-
tsons become permanently organized In the
brain structure, and In becoming permanently
organized. they become instructive or auto
matte. H..
1--WE may now understand why it Is that IN
man the instincts are to great extent acquir-
ed in early life, while in other animals the ma
'jorlty OF the instincts are already organized at
birth. The distinction is not an absolute one,
as many of the higher vertebrates. both birds
and mammals, cannot take care of themselves
Immediately alter birth, though they soon De-
come able to do 30. The lower ne descend
the animal scale the more completely organized
is the psychical life of the newly-born organ
ism. The reason is obviously to be found In
the greater specially and compiexity OF the. CO.
ordinations made by the higher anlmas, and
especially by man. When, for example, we
put forth hehand to grasp an object, the mus.
cular adjustments are instructive as those OF
the Ay.catcher pouncing on an insect; 'volition
being concerned merely In setting the process
golng.' But in ourselves, us Mr.. Spencer
points ont, the impressions and motions are
endlessly varied, and the complex combina-
tions of them occur severaily with less fre-
uuency than is the case with the simpler COM
bInations formed by lower animals. They are
accordingly not co-ordinated before birth,
though they are easily co:ordinated during
childhood.
..While ancestra! experience impresses upon
the brain nutrltIve tendency towards the for
nation of certain special nerve-connections,
individual experience tends now to assist and
now 10 check the inherited tendency. And 80
the number and direction Of transit lines In any
brain ia due to the cooperation OF lnnumera-
ale ancestral aud individual experiences,
Locke was therefore wrong in calling the In
fant's mind blank sheet upon which expert
ence is to.wrlfe knowledge. The mind OF TIC.
infant cunnot be compared to blank sheet,
but rather to sheet already written over here
and there with invisible ink, which tends to
show itself as the chemistry of experience
supplies the requisite conditions. Or, drop
ping metaphor, the infants mind ls correlated
with the functions of q mass of nerye-iissue
which already has certain definite nutritlve
tendencies. On the other hand, the school Of
Leibuitz and Kant was wrong In assuming
kind OF Intuitional knowledge not due to ex-
perience. For the ideas formerly called innate,
or intultionsl, are the results Of nutrllive ten
denotes int the cerebral tissue, which have been
strengthened by the uniform experience OF
countless generations, until they have become
as reslstlessas the tendency of the dorsal line
of the embryo TO develops into vertebral col
umn. The strength Of fiLocke's position lay in
the. assertion that all knowledge is ultimately
derived from experience is, from the In
tercourse between the organism and the envi-
ronment. The strength of Kant's position lay
in,ths recognition of the fact that the brain
has definite tendencies, even at birth. Modern
psychology, aided 1yphysiology, harmonzes
the two seemingly opposite views, by showing
us that IN learning we are merely acquiring
latent capacities Of reproducing Ideas, beneath
which capacities lie more or less powerful nu-
tritive tendencies, that are transmlssible from
parent to child.H
DR.. Fiske repels the charge OF material
ism. The concluding paragraph Of the lee
ture under consideration defines his position
on this subject:
sour philosophy, based as it is upon the
Relativlty of all knowledge, acknowledges
no kinship, either with materiallsm orwith
idealsm. For as the plain scientific fact must
suffice, that Mind and Matter-subject and OBJ
Iect-are pbenomenally distinct, and form an
antithesis which cannot be transcribed. The
unknown Reality, which uIderlles the one and
The other, must forever remain inaccessible.
And any hypothesis which attempts to formu-
late that Reality Is incapable of veriacation,
and must be excluded from Philosophy"