The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-07
THINK WITH YOUR LIVER.
NOT HARD TO DO, If YOU CULTI-
vATE THE HABIT.

and other yiscern DO a Good Deal
of Thinking for ThemseIves-Hov
n Turtle Stays Alive After He Is
Dcad-The Darkest Place In the
World.
From the Hartford Times.
DO you think with your liver?"
THAT sounds like a humorous query"
said Dr. William A. Hammond, the ia
nous neurologist and ex-surgeon general
of the army. yesterday, but in truth it
touches a new scientific problem. The
most eminent psychologists of to-day an
swer it in the affirmative.
THE ancients believed that various men
tai functions were located in the viscera
of the human body. They placed anger in
the spleen. ana attributed the gentle emo
lions to the heart. Their idea still sur
wives to a considerable extent. We speak
of a good heart and a. loving heart ILL
tempered persons we call splenetic;
coward is white-livered, and people resem-
bling ourselves are of our own Kidney
Strange to say, science has come to
indorse this notion, with limitations.
There is no possible doubt that every hui
man being does a good deal of thinking
with his heart his liver, his kidneys and
various other organs.
"The point of the argument lies in the
fact, now undisputed, that the 'ganglla,'
which are scattered all through the body,
are nothing more nor less than little
brains Along the sympathetic nerves
they are strung like beads, and 3without
no a Of he }, iR,lrf
ona OF u" could get along at all. They are
largely made up of the same sort of gray
matter that composeS the thinking part
OF the brain. This grey tissue is the most
wonderful substance, so far as we know,
in the whole universe surprising in i.s
grandeur sun, moon and stars, and every
thug else of whichwe have any knoWI-
edge. 1t is the substance that makes MAJ
what he is-the head of all animated na-
ture. If | should ever be disposed 20
make for myself a god, would select a
piece OF it a s the object of my alteration.
The system of sympathetic nerves OK
tends throughout the body, and there are
galglia even in the fingers and toes. Bu:,
if We examine the heart, we find there
q great collection of them. There is, in
fact, lot of grey mind stuff in tho
heart. That organ is a secondary brain
1t is particularly an emotional center,
just as the ancients believed JOY makes
1t fiutter, and an alarming noise will stop
its beating altogether for moment The
ganglia which it contains are supposed to
control its rhythmic pulsations
but the greatest collection of grey It's.
sue outside of the brain proper is behind
the stomach. Here is located an elaborat tie
interlacement of sympathetic nerves
which is called the solar plexus. Owing
to this fact, properly-delivered blow up
on a mans stomach will kill him as
quickly as If his skull was smashed in
In old times, when condemned persons
were executed by tying them to a wheel
and breaking their bones with club, the
mercHul coup de grace was usually given
by a stroke on the stomach.
THE gangIia save us an immens,
amount of trouble, attending to mucn of
our unconscious but necessary thinking
FOR example, a young lady has to give
her mind to learning a new piece of mn
sic, but after she has become familiar
with 1t, she can play it and talk to her
best young man at the same time Her
spinal chored and ganglia play the niece
SO that she is at liberty to use her brain
Tor conversational purposes. When Won
go home from your office, you do not nave
to pay attention to the turning of the
proper corners; your spinal chord takes
you to your residence.
so you see that it is a mistake to cop
slider the mind as shut I'D inside of tbe
Skull; 1t extends through the length or
the backbone and Families all over the
BODY. The ganglia are like so many iit
tie galvanic batteries; they produce nina
ana the white nerve threads serve as
wires LOT the transmission of thought. Ii
is the same. way in the brain proper. the
thln rind of grey matter does all tho
thinking, and the white interior has only
mechanical function. We have often
heard, by the way of the wonderful nor
ceptlve powers developed by blind people
throush the sense of touch. 1t is surmis-
ed that this phenomenon is attribute HE
to an extraordinary education of the 10
cal ganglia. Persons thus afflicted NAV
actually develop little brains in their Fl n.
ger-tps ''"
IF a turtle be killed and its meat Ont
into small bits, you will observe that tbe
pieces of flesh culver as if alive for
many hours. II Is the same way with a
snake or lizard. and the reason is simn1v
tnat the ganglia of a reptile are moro
developed than those of a human heipo
and act more independently They corr
tinue to respond to stimuli long after tbe
destruction of the nerve system az q
whole. The tail of a tortoise will vi
prate' II plnched, several months after
tne mead OF the animal has been removed
and the entire contents of the shell have
been scooped out and made into soun !
nave seen snake crawl to its hole q
distance of several feet, after it's head
had been cut off, showing that tbs
knowledge it acquired before mutilation
was still present and available for the
object in view. In like manner a deca n
itated frog will perform acts showing The
possession of perception. intellect and
Said Prof. Elmer Gates of the College
Of Mind Art, when asked about this sub.
ject:
Did you ever notice that great anxiety
produces an uneasiness at the stomach ,
The ganglia in the great interlacement
OF sympathetic nerves behind that organ
are responding to the emotion. If Won
doubt that they can think, lust notice
what a row they will kick up at the hare
idea that anything disgusting is to he
swallowed; nausea and shivering give
evidence of their Impressions. Thew can
be educated, and they can forget. / have
trained dog to have. horror of mink
milk, by putting an emetic In 1t. After a
while the mere sight of pink milk would
make the animal vomit, though II con-
talned no emetic. Nevertheless he wouId
drink 1t in the dark. readily enough Nv
and by taught him that the pink milk
was understandable, and there was nd
further digfraGo on, "a