The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-05-22

One of the most interesting ar
ticles delivered before the Psychol-
ogical division of the Honolulu
Teachers s'Aesociation, was thepaper
by Mrs. Mary Dillingham; Frear on
"The Relation Of Soul Activity
to Brain Growth" At the request
of many Of those interested in the
work, the article is given in full
below:
An able thinker and student of
science said The other day that he
would not write page on so deep and
uneXplored subject as the one before
US, with less than ten years of study
as a guarantee. But whatever one
might or might not do from choice as
regards floating a theory, we are in
spite of ourselves plunged headlong
into a whirlpool Of discussion on the
relation of soul activity to brain
growth. YOnder are some who
have gone under, victims to thought.
Others are manfully stemming the tide
beating back waves of materialism-
Our heads may swim but we shall be
in good company.
It ia O long time since writer ask
ed, for what is your life and answer
ed himself, it is but breath that van
isheth away. All down the ages men
have been trying to understand them
selves. Self has seemed to these
thinkers to be separate firm body. 1t
has been given us it's habitat heart
liver, bowels and, more recently and
permanently, brain. Numerous eX-
periments have been performed on
animals to see how far brain and
brain alone is the organ of psychic
action. A decapitated snake was seen to
turn and move rapidly in the direction
of its hole. Another decapitated snake
raised itself into the attitude Of attack
and struck its murderer with such
precision and force as to render the
man unconscious from the shock of
this ghoulish perfOrmance). Frogs
and pigeons have performed the func-
tions of life naturally after their
brains have been removed, and young
ducks, mothered by hen, upon the
entire removal of brain, and introduc.
ton to water for the first time have
shown their ability to swim.
Moreover unacceptable children
chose born without cerebrum or cere-
bellum) have lived as long as four
days, have breathed naturally, suck
ed, swallowed, opened and shut their
eyes, shown aversion to bitter taste,
and influence of light by dilation of
pupils. Again actions on the part of
normal human beings during sleep,
or in the state called familiarly "ab.
sence of mind" have led some think
ers to lay stress on the idea that grey
matter wherever found and not brain
only, is the organ of mind. Physi-
clans claim, however, that all the
earliest acts of human infants are un-
cerebral. Moreover the early death
of unacceptable beings would seem to
show that, to the human animal at
least, brain is necessary for the pro-
Iongation of existence and for the eX-
ecution of mental dictates. Brain,
then, rather than heart, liver or
mind.
But why do we say "seat of mind "
or "orpan of mind ?n Is not brain
identical with mind? We say crudely
that we see with our eyes and feel
with our fingers, but We know that
really excitations in eyes and fingers
are carried by nerves to the brain.
Now, do not our sensations occur in
the brain, and do not impulses or pur-
poses of action originate there? In
the brain are found hundreds of mil
lions of nerve cells with their marvel
lous and intricate connections all COM
plete. Says one thinker: "There are
abundant means of physical reflection
to serve all the purposes of mental
reflection"
John Fiske writes: "The physical
organs in connection with whose ac-
tivity consciousness is manifested, are
the upper and outer parts OF the brain
the cerebrum and cerebellum. E.
The impressions received by the cere-
brum and cerebellum are waves Of
molecular disturbance sent up along
centripetal nerves from the lower CEN
tres, and presently drafted off along
centrifugal nerves back to the lower
centres, thus causing the myriad
movements which make up our active
life. Now there is no consciousness
except where molecular disturbance
is generated in the cerebrum and cere-
bellum faster than it can be drafted
off to the lower centres. It is the sur
plus of molecular disturbance remain !
ing in the cerebrum and cerebellum,
and reflected back and forth among
these cells, that affords the physical
condition for the manifestation Of con-
sciOUsness. Memory, judgment, emo
ton, reason and volitiOn begin with
this retention of a surplus Of molecular
motion in the highest centres. AS we
survey the vertebrate sub. kingdom Of