The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-12-13
AUT0MATISM.


brain is mechanism. In the laboratory
of Professor Goltz, in Strasburg, saw
a terrier from which he had removed,
by repeated experiments, all the surface
of the brain, thereby reducing the ami
NAL to a simple automaton. Looked at
while lying in his stall, he seemed at
first in no wise different from other
dogs; he took food when offered him;
was fat, sleek and very quiet. When
/ approached him he took no notice of
by the tail he instantly became the en-
bodiment of fury He had not sutfi-
cient perceptive power to recognize the
point of assault, SO that the keeper
standing behind him was not in danger.
With flashing eyes and hair all erect,
the dog howled and barked furiously,
necessarily swapping and biting, first
on this side and on that. tearing with
his fore legs and in every way manifest
ing rage When his tail was dropped
by the attendant and his head touched,
the storm was at once subdued, the
fury was turned into calm, and the
animal, few seconds before so rageful,
was purring like a cat and stretching
out its head for earesses. This curious
process could be repeated indefinitely.
Take hold of it's tail, aud instantly the
storm broke out afresh; pat his head,
and all was tenderness. 1t was posi-
bic to play at will with the passions of
the animal by the slightest touches.
During the Franco-German contest a
French soldier was struck in the head
with bullet and left on the field for
dead, but afterwards showed sufficient
life to cause him to be carried to the
hospital, where he finally recovered his
general health, but remained in men,
tai state very similar to that of Profes-
sor Goltz's dog. As he walked about
the rooms and corridors of the Soldiers
Home in Paris, he appeared to a
stranger like an ordinary man, unless it
were in his apathetic manner. When
his comrades were called to the dining
table lie followed, sat down with them,
and the food being placed upon his
plate, and knife and fork in his
hands, would commence to eat. That
this was not done III obedience to
thought or knowledge, was shown by
the fact that his dinner could be. at
once interrupted by awakening new
train of feeling by new external i'm
pulse. Put a crooked stick resembling
gun into his hand, and at once the
man was seized with rage comparable
to that produced in the Strasburg dog
by taking hold of his tail. The fury
of conflict was upon him; with loud
veil he would recommence the skirmish
in which he had been wounded, and,
crying to his comrades, would make a
rush at the supposed assailant. Take
the stick out of his hand, and at once
his apathy would settle upon him; give
him knife and fork, and whether at
the table or elsewhere he would make
the motion of eating; hand him spade,
and he would commence to dig. 1t was
plain that the impulse produced by
seeing his comrades moving to the
dining.room started the chain of auto
matte movements which resulted in his
seating himself at the table. The
weapon called into new life the we'll
known acts of the battle field; the
spade brought back the day when, in
nocent of blood, he cultivated the
vineyards of sunny France.
In both the dog and the man just
spoken of the control of the will over
the motions and mental acts were evil
IDENTIFY lost, and the mental functions
were performed only in obedience to
impulse from without; they were auto
matte. The human brain is a complex
and very delicate mechanism, so uni
form in its actions, SO marvellous in its
creation, that it is able to measure the
rapidity Of its own process. There are
scarcely two brains which work exactly