The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-12-16
AUTOMATISM.
Curious Effects of Curious Causes Oh
Man and Beast.

Curious Effects OF Curious Causes Oh
Man and Beasts
We are not left to the unaided study
OF our mental processes for proof that
the human brain is mechanism. In
the laboratory of Professor Goltz, in
Strasburg, l saw terrier from which he
had removed, by repeated experiments,
all the surface of the brain, thereby re-
ducing the animal to simple auto ma
ton. Looked at while lying in his stall,
he seemed at first in no wise different
from other dogs; he took food when of
fered to him, was fat, sleek aud very
quiet. When / approached him he took
no notice of me, but when the assistant
caught him by the tail he instantly be-
came the embodiment OF fury. He had
not sufficient perceptive power to recog-
nize the point of assault, so that his
ke per, standing behind him, was not in
danger. With flashing eyes and hair all
erect the dog howled and barked furi-
ously, necessarily swapping and biting,
first on this side and then on that, tear
ing with his forelegs ard in every way
manifesting rage. When his tail was
dropped ny the attendant and his head
touched, the storm at once subsidized,
the fury was turned into calm, and the
animal, a few seconds before so rageful,
was purring like cat and stretching
out its head for caresses. This curious
process could be repeated indefinitely.
Take hold of its tail, ard instantly the
storm broke out atresh; pat his head,
and all was tenderness. 1t was possi-
BILE to play ut 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 subsequently showed sufficient
life to cause him to be carried to the
hospital, where be finally recovered his
general heath, but remained in men
tai state very similar to that OF Professor
Goltz's dog. AS he walked about the
rooms and corridors of the Soldiers
Home in Paris, he appeared to the
stranger like an ordinary man, unless it
were in his apathetic manner. When his
he followed, sat down with them, and
the food being placed upon his plate,
and q knife and fork in his hands would
commence to eat. That this was not
done in obedience to thought or know
ledge was shown by the fact that his
dinner could be at once interrupted by
awakening new train of feeling by
new external impulse. Put crooked
stick resembling a gun into his hand,
and at once the man was seized with a
rage comparable to that produced in the
Strasburg dog by taking hold of his tail.
The fury of conflict was on him; with
a loud yell he would recommence the
skirmish in which he had been wound
ed. and, crying to his comrades, would
make q rush st 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 table or elsewhere, he would make
the motions of eating; hand him spade
and he wonld begin to dig, 1t is plain
that the impulse produced by seeing his
comrades move to the dining-room
started the chain of automatic move.
ments which resulted in his seating
himself at the table. The weapon called
into new lie the well-known acts OF the
battlefield. The spade brought back
the day, when, innocent 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 emotions and mental acts was evil
IDENTITY lost, and the mental functions
were performed only in obedience to
impulses from Without. c., were au-
tomato. The human brain is - CON.
plex and very delicate mechanism, so
uniform in its actions, so marvellous in
its creation that it is able to measure
The rapidity ofits own processes. There
are scarcely two brains which work ex-
actly with the same rapidity and ease.
Oae man thinks faster than another
man for reasons as pnrely physical as
those which give to one man a faster
gait than that of another.-Dr. II. G.
W0od, in LippIHcoH.