St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-10
THE Brain.

DR.. VIM. A. Hammond, of New York,
who is perhaps the most eminent authority
in this country upon nervous diseases, and
especially of the brain, in recent lecture
upon the uses and abuses of the brain,
slightly contradicted the favorite maxim of
Sir Vim. Hamilton, the eminent
Scotch metaphysician, ''that in this
world there is nothing great but
man, and in man there is nothing great but
mindn DR.. Hammond's view is 'that in
man there is nothing great but brain" The
brain makes the mind, and so is the greater
of the two. Illustrating his theme by the use
of chart upon which white and gray matter
were outlined, he regarded the white matter
as of comparatively little importance con-
trasted with the real force stored up in the
gray matter, and explained how, by means OF
convolutions, the gray matter was spread
over a large surface. While not in the habit
of idolizing anything, he said if he should
ever set up god it would be a little bunch
of this gray matter. Mind is the force de-
veloped by nervous energy, but the force
evolved from the brain is not simple force.
A ray Of sunlight can be split up into its
seven prismatic colors, so the mind force is
a compound of four forces, the perceptions,
the intellect, the emotions, and volition or
the will.
The mind and soul should not be confound-
ell. The one could be proven in court OF
Justice, the existence of the other matter of
faith merely. Too little attention is paid to
the cultivation of the perceptions. 1t is only
through these, and through what the senses
teach, that the mind is enabled to know any
thing. The old theory of innate ideas is
quite absurd. Without perception it
cannot be understood that 1 plus 1 make
2. The importance of the proper Gull
tivation of the perceptions in children is of
prime importance. One of the best ways to
teach a child is to give it a picture and ask it
to observe carefully and report what it sees.
Children should not be sent to school at too
early an age, and the little ones should be
only taught to observe, to gain ideas OF
things. No child should be sent to school
before the age of ten years, and twelve years
would be a better age. Kindergartens
attempt to teach children to use their percep-
tions, but, from his view, they are not good.
A child sent to school at ten or twelve will
know more at fifteen than one sent at seven.
Adults use their perceptions too little and
should teach themselves to observe. Chill
dren may be hurt by too much study, but
few ever are injured by an generalization of
the intellect.
= 41,o 4ar4 for ordc aiJ1ct
brain trouble, he urged, is sleep. 1t is then
the brain makes good the waste incurred dur
ing the working hours. Even the heart
rests one-third of the time, eight hours out
of the twenty-four. Regarding the number
of hours to be passed in sleep, each PERSONS
own consciousness is the best and proper
safeguard Eight hours, however, would be
good average. Let man sleep one-third
of his life, work one-third, and pass
one-third in recreation. The mathematicians
were instanced as the hardest workers, and
they usually sleep long. The emotions were
described as the most wearing of any Of the
elements Of the brain. The free giving way
to these tells the soonest upon the individual.
The following illustration was used:
The individuals who suffer most from emotion
al troubles are the men who go down town in the
morning, knowing that they must raise half q
million dollars before 8 o'clock, and not knowing
where to get it. 1t is the worry and anxiety
which wears them out. Anxiety is one of the most
wearing of the emotions. Some may think that
love is, but it is not at least not now. 1t was a
hundred years ago, but now love has become a
matter of business and business anxieties have
taken its place. The mind cannot be absorbed
by two opposing emotions, and business ankle
ties being the stronger have driven out love, the
weaker.
The emotions, however, should be care
fully nurtured, especially in woman, as they
form one of her chief charms, but woman's
education should not be purely intellectual.
Women are naturally more emotional than
men and are guided more by their emotions.
In allowing the emotions of children to
run riot much harm is done
and they should be carefully con-
troIled. The will is rarely abnormally devel-
oped, though there are cases, as are instanced
in the few records of premeditated murders.
The difference of the brain of the sexes was
touched upon. The difference exists, though
it will not do to assert that the male brain is
the superior of the female brain. Before in
fancy passes this difference can be detected,
and with this difference in size
and formation it is very i'm
proper to give both brains the
same education. The girls brain is of one
kind, the boys of another, and clearly it is
not right to give different natures exactly the
same training. AS bodies differ so do brains,
and so should the education and the mature
life. The emotional nature of woman may
be the highest type of mental development,
but it is not the nature of man, and the edu-
cational paths of the boy and girl cannot be
parallel.
DR.. Spitzka a writer upon the brain, does
not entirely agree with DR.. Hammond, in re-
gard to the white and gray matter of the
brain, but it is rare that the doctors do agree.
He holds that the acquisition of the percep-
tons is not necessarily good thing. In the
white matter lies the memory, the associa-
tons, and it is through this, that the gray
matter is forced to act. He denies that
there is a radical difference between
the brains of males and females, though the
latter are usually, but not always, smaller.
He has never seen an anatomist who could
pick up brain and declare stthis is brain
of male or of female" If thousand
brains of each sex were concentrated, in the
females would be found slight tendency
toward depreciation, less gray matter, and a
leaning toward a. lower order of man.
DR.. Spitzka contends that one grave evil