The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-03-31
THE MIND AND BODY"
DIR. q. STANLEY MANS SECOND
LICTURE
In the Tenth Course Of Thomas Memorial
Lectures Some Telling Points
Brought Ont.

I
by DR.. G. Stanley Hall in the Richmond
College chapel last night and was attended
by an audience no less cultivated but
larger than that OF Monday night. Many
! people had TO stand during the lecture,
and as many more could not even get
inside. The only thing to disturb the
| equanimity OF the big crowd was the
fainting OF two young men IN the audi
ence. This occurred soon after the open
| ing OF the lecture. ana was due TO insurfl-
Client ventilation which was Immediately
remedied. The young men soon recovered.
Professor Boatwright in welcoming tho
audience to this. the second lecture or
| DR.. Hall. spoke OF the wonder which sucn
! a gathering for such purpose would nave
/ aroused nifty years ago IN the founders
| of the college. But, said he, 1t wos pro-
/ phetic vision OF what has now begun
to be fulfilled that they selected this site
for the campus. and II is our part 10
build upon the foundation they laid by
erecting edfces and establishing courses
such as this course OF Thomas lectures.
ard 1 have no doubt that the people or
Richmond will do their part.
THE LECTURE.
DR.. Hall spoke very entertaningly for
more than an hour. and held the unoi-
vided attention Of the audience.
His subject was Mind and Body" and
he made use of an astounding mass OF
erudi,ion and unfamiliar results OF ex-
ceedngly delicate investigation and re-
search: yet II was all done without dis
play and in a manner interesting even
TO the uninitiated. His address abounded
IN happy bits OF humor, not just thrown
in. but placed by a master hand, ana
which they quckeued the hearers, they
pOintedly illustrated his arguments, which
were about as follows:
Aristotle and Galen taught that brain
substance was simply phlegm and for
centuries no one suspected its complex
| organization. The great brain auato-
mists of the Seventeenth Century before
the microscope described the chief parts
OF the brain. but even Descartes said
the soul was I'm the pineal gland, and had
no other point of contact with the body.
About 1860 careful laboratory studies
begun by Hitscho and Frltche determined
the parts OF the brain for the eye, arm.
and Leg and Brocca fixed the speech
centre IN a sharply localized point just
above the left ear. called the island OF
Reil. These studies entirely did away
with the old phrenoogy. which placed
speech over the eye. family instincts in
the back of the brain. etc.
American babies are born with larger
heads than Euporean. The brain OF
colored children stops growing some years
earlier than the brain OF the white race
There are now three methods; the first
Is that Of Meynert. which hardens the
brain so that ,he fibros can be traced by
splitting the connected hssure. The
second is that OF Flechsig. which traces
hbres by cross section and determines the
4. III.
quire the medullary insulating substance.
and studies chiefly the embryo brain. Tho
third method studies diseases after death
according to the law that when the cells
Of the cortex are destroyed, as in tumor.
apJoplexy, etc. the fbres connected
with them degenerate downward. This
method is also sometimes applied TO ami
mails in Vivisection. Where these three
methods agree the results can be relied
on.
THREE CLASSES OF FIBRES.
There are three chief classes OF fbres:
first. those that 20 down the spinal cord
and connect with the muscles of the body.
and are Called the projection system.
Second. those that connect the two halves
OF the brain. and OF the cord. and are
called commisures And third, those that
connect one part OF the outside layer Of
grey cells with other groups of cells on
the same side Of the brain. The latter
are called Association iibres and are sup
POSED 10 mediate the association Of ideas
in ordinary thought
"Golsl and CaJal. his very clever Span
ish pupil. have clearly distinguished the
smaller and many branched sensory cells
from the long and large motor cells.
which all have one very prolonged axis
cylinder fibre one of the most remark
able conclusions is that the dead brain,
as we have heretofore known and studied
IT, is not mOtiOnless. but that the cells
in action constantly make amoeboid
movements and are perpetually making
and breaking connections or concats by
means OF their prOlongation.
zone Of the most interesting studies IS
that OF the fatigue Of brain cells. This
can now actually be observed in the liv-
ing cell under the influence of work. IL
is strange sight TO see through the
microscope the nucleus OF the cell slowly
decompose and shrink and grow dark
as work or fatigue Of the day wears 1t
down. Half the diseases are due to fati-
que carried beyond the point where sleep
can wind them up 10 their original state.
1T IS now possible also 10 determine
the exact time of thought. We know pre-
cisely the rate at which sensation travels
e. r., up the arm. how long it takes TO
cross 10 the other side Of the BRAIN 10
start the cells acting. and for the motor
impulse TO go 10 the muscles
THE METHOD RHYTHM.
Again, thought appears to distribute
energy from over-rested parts Of the
brain, where there is sur. US OF energy
10 points Of great fatigue. where there
is too little energy. 1t thus unihes the
brain and strengthens IT, Vigorous mus
cular exercise. especially skilled and deli
cate work actu,lly increases the volume
OF brain matter. just as gymnastics en-
larges the muscles.
THE method of all nerve work is rythm.
Cells do not discharge continuously. but
internationally A stetboscope applied TO
tense muscle always gives a low note
which shows the rate of these cell dis
charges, which go of in volleys and not
irregularly. Rhythm IS the basis OF every
kind OF psychic action. This is Illustrated
in the old German maxim, THE mother
of prose is poetry: the mother OF poetry
is music. and the mother of music is
God" Rhythm dominates in everything !
that pertains TO love. war and religion. |
IL determines the carrying power OF the |
mind.
Education thus. whether Of muscle. |
mind, or WILL is brain building. The old |
fashioned education by means OF memory |
only educated a part OF the BRAIN per- |
haps as large a silver dollar. The OBJ |
ject-lesson methods put a new area OF |
, brain IN cphcnI fro,,, tur1 o.. for. .g.-o.