The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-04-09
The Relation OF Brain to Mind.


The latest addition to tho International
Scientific Series is a study of The Brain aud is
Functions. by DR.. J. LuYs. The work is nm alb
stract Of the authors personal experience at
the asylum of La Salpetriere. and the obscrva-
tions and conclusions naturally arrange them-
selves in two classes. Under the one head are
explained the technical processes employed in
arriving at the results indicated including
specially the method Of making regularly
strathed sections OF the cerebral tissue. and
Of faithfully reproducing these by means OF
photography by whose aid tho author believes
himself to have penetrated into hitherto uneX-
plored regions Of the nervous centres. Under
the second head is given a physiological eXpa-
nation OF the different fundamental properties
of the nervous elements. considered as living
astrological units. Having thus surveyed each
OF these elementary properties of the nervous
elements in their origin. in their evolution
throughout the organism. in their normal
manifestation and pathological deviation, DR..
Luys arrives at the conclusion that it is by
means Of their combination and By the harmo-
NOUS coordination Of all their truly specific en-
ergies that tho brain feels. remembers. and re-
acts. In short the object OF this volume is TO
expound on physiological grounds the princi-
pal phenomena Of cerebral activity.
l.
economy of tho structure Of the brain. we may
indicate three general properties of the ner-
vous elements whose result and rrfe1 the au-
thor traces in mental action. The common
principles which regulate the life OF the ncr-
vous centres are rcducible, we IRE told, TO GER
tain prmordial vital properties which We find
constantly underlying every combination Of
nervous activity. These fundamental proper
ties are grouped under three heads First Sen
siItldV. 10y which the nerve cells feel cXctation
from without and react in consequence by vir-
tue of the excitement Of their natural afllnites.
Second. Organic PhoSDhoreScence by which the
nervous Clements. like bodies that have re-
ceivrd tho vibrations Of light, preserve for IL
prolonged period. vestigos Of the cNcitations
! which have in the first place sot them in action
! and now and then stir up within themselves
| phosphoreScenttra traces, which are the records of
| the received impressions. Third. AutoDldtism,
which expresses the spontaneous reactions Of
hcvng cell that sets itself in activity Of its own
| motion and in an automatic manner eNpressos
| tho different states OF its scnsibility thrown
| into agitation. 1t is the history of these three
| general properties OF nervous elements that
| forms the object Of research in the physioogl-
cal portion of his work after which ho passes
| to the complex and interesting invest Iation of
cerebral activity proper.
III.
"Scnsibilty" in living beings awakcns with
! life. 1t is Inherent in the primordial phcnom-
enG Of the evolution Of tho embryonic coils
| Th" authort"rms it an hereditary legacy, which
accumulates necessarily 10y til" addition OF new
clements and new tissues in proportion as the
| organism completes and perioctS itself. In the
first phases Of fra life It is very difficult II fix
definitely the epoch at which scnsibility mani
tests itself as motor force; nevertheless, from