Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-18
4 Wonderful Machine.


WHAT are the essence of mind and the
essence of matter, and whether they are
at the bottom two things or one thing,
are beyond ascertainment and will prob
ably ever remain so. The nature of the
union is a mystery, just as the nature of
the union between gravity and matter is
mystery; in both cases we investigate
only the laws of the phenomena.
As the problem is one of the con-
nection between two systems of
action, the first step toward its
solution must be to resolve these two sys-
TENS into their simplest elements. The
structural elements of the nervous sys-
tenn are marvelOusly simple; they consist
of microscopic cells and fibers, the for
mer being seats or centers of force, and
the latter being the means of transmit
ting it
Cells and fibers are the instruments of
mental action, and exactly as we rise in
the scale of intelligence in animated
creatures, there is an increase in the mass
of the nervous centers-that is, a multiple
cation of the nerves and fibers which con-
stitute them. In man, the most intelli-
gent of the animal series, the organ of in
telligenceis relatively very large, and at
tains the highest degree of compleXity.
Professor Balm represents the nervous
elements of the human brain as follows:
"Ihe thin cake of gray substance sur
rounding the hemispheres of the brain
and extended into many doublings by the
furrowed or convoluted structure, is some
what difficult to measure. Ifhas been es-
| timated at upward of 800 square inches,
or as nearly equal to a square surface Of
| eighteen inches in the side. Its thickness
| is variable, but, on an average, it may be
stated at one-tenth of an inch. 1t is the
| largest accumulation of gray matter in
| the body. 1t is made up of several layers
of gray substance, divided by layers of
white substance. The gray substance is
nearly compact mass of cOrpuscles of
variable size. The large caudate nerve
cells are mingled with very small corpus
cles, less than the thousandth of an inch
in diameter. Allowing for intervals, we
may suppose that linear row of 500
cells occupies an inch, thus giving $780,
600 to the square inch for 300 inches. If
One-half the thickness of the layer is made
up of flbers, the corpuscles or cells, taken
by themselves would be a mass one
twentieth of an inch thick, say sixteen
cells in depth. Multiplying these num-
bers together, we should reach total of
1,2OO, 100000 cells il the gray covering of
the hemispheres. AS every cell is united
with at least two fibers often many more,
we may multiply this number by four for
the number of connecting fbers attached
to the mass, which gives 4,8OO,00O,0C0.
Now, in saying that such a wonderful
organism as this is the seat and embodi-
ment of the mind, we require to give dis
tinctness to our conceptions, and are COM
PEELED to regard the connected cells and
fibers as the simple instruments of simple
mental processes, as the whole fabric is
an organ and measure of the whole mind.
The corporal elements are cells and
fibers-what are the psychical elements in
their lowest analysis? The old division
of the mind into faculties, as reason,
Judgment, memory, and imagination-is
insufficient, for these are far from being
ultimate elementary processes, but are
rather the most complex actions of the
complete forces of the intelligence in diff
ferent modes of exercise. The latter psy-
chology resolves all these sO-called facul-
ties into few constituents which form,
if we may SO speak, the conjecture Of the
intellect AS Prof Balm remarks: 1--WE
have no power of memory in radical
separation from the power of reason or
the power of imagination. The classical
ton is tinted with the fault called in logic
cross division The real fundamental
separation of the powers of the intellect
is into three facts, called: First, Dis
elimination, the sense, feeling, or con-
seriousness of difference; second, similar
ity, the sense, feeling, or consciousness of
agreement; and, third, retentiveness, or
the power of memory, or acquisition.
These three functions, however much
they are mingled in our mental operationsg
are yet totally distinct properties, and
each the groundwork of different super
structure. AS an ultimate analysis of the
mental powers, their number cannot be
increased or diminished; fewer would
not explain the facts, more are unneces-
sary. They are the intellect, the whole
intellect, and nothing but the intellect
Monthly.