Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-03-21
Home Correspondence.
A METAPHYSICAL DISSERTA.
TON.
Brain vs.. Soul.

Ed. BULLETIN:-Thc scientific world
is staggered ut the audacity Of the last
experiment Of Prof Muller. Of Weisnicht,
in Germany, and which cannot ye. be
lieve to be fully authenticated. 1t is the
case Of the transfer Of the brain Of sa-
loon keeper, just dead, to- the skull Of u
living soldier The work was performed
With such care and skill and dextcrity,
and the joining Of the veins and arteries
were so perfect that union followed, and
the throbbing Of the soldiers heart sent
| the soldiers blood through the beer sell
| er's brain, and sc: it to work In its new
home rs if nothing had happened. The
queer fact in the premises is that although
Il is within the soldiers head. and there.
fore his by right Of possession, yet it will
not adjust itself to its new surroundings,
and utterly refuses to sever its allegiance
to its first love, but thinks continually
| the thoughts Of the beer seller, and re.
members the events of the beer sellers
life. Nor is this all, for the brain has
carried along with it the disposition and
loves and hates and volitions of its old
master. It has fully taken control Of the
new body, which, through the body Of the
soldier, performs the acts and the tongue
utters the words Of the beer seller.
If this marvellous tale be true, it GER
tainly is another blow ut the dearly cher
ishcd faith of nine tenths Of CLristendom.
We all hold our theology most tenacious
ly, and facts like this, which require US
to modify 1t, are extremely uncomfortable
| AZ well as nconvenient. No doubt the
least troublesome course to pursue would
| be to turn Prof Muller and all his brood
over TO the inquisitiOn, as in the case Of
GalilliO.
The tendency Of scientific research for
the last half century has been in the di-
rcctiOn Of Materialism, but this last
achievement is n prodigious stride, ami
goes over as much ground ut one leap as
is usually plodded over in many years.
| We have been taught that there is In
man soul that thinks aud reasons and
wills That 1t is the mind, tho spirit, in
short. that it is the very man, and that
the brain and nerves and all the man that
is visible are but its temporary servants
to do its bidding for n little three score
and ten years here on earth.
X That 1t is inherently immortal and will
continue to exist intact after the physical
man has become food for the worms
| Now this is beautiful theory, and one
We love to cling to. How unwelcome.
how cruel. then. the story that comes to
us from over the Rhine.
There was taken from the beer seller
aud transferred to the soldier just the
brain ana nothing more, simply the Ger
s5rum and Cerebellum, merely and purely
u physical organ, and yet there went with
it, all the thought, reason, identity. men,
ory and will with all the other evidences
of soul that the beer seller ever possessed.
How, then, can we question that the
substance Of the brain Is inseparable from
tho phenomena we call soul. that it is
above It and controls 1t, that instead Of
thought controlling the action Of the
brain 1t Is simply result Of such action,
that there can be no human mind with.
out human brain.
If the beer seller had possessed soul