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ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY

        WASHINGTON

           Founded 1836
         C
Section .SOJAlL.^.
Number
2~3„2J~
9
      Form 113c, W. D., S. G. O.
-10543    (Revised June 13, 1936) 
 
 
THOUGHTS        \P<^-  £.
                          7
ON THE CONNECTION
LIFE.   Mill).   AND  MATTER
Ucspett to dentation.
By J. P. i;.\TCIIELDER, M. 1)
  " 'tin' true conquests, the only ones which do not cause a tear, are those
which are gained over ignorance. The most honorable, as well as the most use-
ful occupations of men, is to contribute to the extension of ideas."—Napoleon.

             U TI C A :

JiENNETT, BACKUS, & IIAWLEV, FRANKLIN SQTJAKE.

               1845. 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,
             By J. P. Batchelder, M. D.
In the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of New York. 
 
 
P R t: F A C E.
  The design of the author, in writing and publishing the follow-
ing pages, is to direct the attention of public teachers and others,
whose duties connect them with the education of youth, and of
the public in general, should he be so fortunate as to reach the
public mind, to those physiological principles, which, according
to his view, constitute the  very starting point at which all edu-
cational  movements  should originate, and to contribute  some-
thing towards  supplying a defect, which, it appears to him, ex-
ists in our systems of education.   If he  has  failed in the execu-
tion of that design, he indulges the hope, that his humble labors
will put some  abler  pen  in motion,  and consequently, be not
wholly lost.
   Early in his professional career,  he  was deeply impressed
with  the conviction,  that  a knowledge of physiology was as
necessary to a  correct understanding of the phenomena of dis-
ease, as those of health ; and therefore,  that all medical theories
should be closely connected with, if not absolutely based on that
science; which conviction induced him to study it with  more
than ordinary  attention,  and caused its  principles  not only to
pervade  most of his  pathological reasonings, but influence, un-
duly, perhaps, his metaphysical researches.
   This circumstance led him in the  first instance, to  contem-
plate mental  cultivation in the light of physiology,  and finally
induced  him to connect its principles with those of education ;
the beneficial  effects  experienced in the education of himself,
(for he is self-educated,) and others have fully satisfied him of
the utility and importance of that connection ; and as the culture
of the intellect  should commence in the  nursery, and be carried
on in the parlor as well as in the  school or college, the subjeel
commends itself to the consideration of parents, as well as pro-
fessed teachers. 
Preface.
  In considering this subject, he lias from time to time, availed
himself of information derived from various writers on physiolo-
gy, both ancient and modern, and endeavored to make such use of
it, as seemed best calculated to subserve the objects in view ;
but from his habits of reading and thinking, by  which  he has
constantly essayed to make others thoughts and reflections his
own, and to give them a  tinge of originality in  their passage
through  his mind, without regarding the sources whence they
were derived, he is  unable to make those acknowledgements of
indebtedness, which may  be due to particular authors;  believ-
ing, however, that no writer on physiology of any note, whether
ancient or  modern,  has been overlooked in  his  study  of that
science,  he  cheerfully acknowledges his obligations to all, but
more particularly to Ilaller, Blumenbach, Soemmering, Richer-
and, Parry,  Park,  Bichat, Bell,  Muller, and  Carpenter.   He
also  desires to express his obligation to several literary  gentle-
men, for their advice and  suggestions ;  and particularly to the
Rev. Professor Mandeville, of Clinton College, for his assistance
in correcting his manuscript.
   Unlearned in philology, and uninstructed  in  the  rules  of
composition, the  writer is forward to acknowledge, that in many
instances, he has experienced  (partly,  he thinks,  from  the ab-
struseness of the subject,) considerable  difficulty  in  expressing
his ideas with a clearness, which has been satisfactory even to
himself; but he trusts, that with the help derived, from the
sources alluded to, his language has been made so plain,  as to
enable his  readers  to apprehend  his  meaning without much
trouble.  As a literary production, its pretensions are  so  few,
and withal, so humble, that he supposes  no one will open  upon it
the battery of criticism, by which it might be soon demolished ;
nevertheless, as  truth  is  his object, he will not  feel hurt, but
gratified, if its faults, and  especially its errors,  be  detected and
pointed out,  in the spirit of philosophic candor.  The subject is
important, and worthy of more extended discussion, than the
author is able to bestow. 
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.
  This treatise is presented to the public, under the full convic-
tion, that the subject, although one of the utmost importance to
persons engaged in the education of children and youth,  either
as parents or teachers, is yet one, of which comparatively noth-
ing is known.
  The Author has long sustained a high reputation for extensive
reading, and scientific research, and for the practical application
of their results to the affairs of every day life.   The views here
presented, are the fruits of long and mature reflection, thorough
investigation, and much practical experience as a teacher, and it
is believed, that although some of them may be considered bold
and original, they will be found to bear the test  of rigorous ex-
amination,  and the closest scrutiny.   If we mistake not, many
of the physiological views,  will likewise  be interesting  to the
medical man, as well as the general reader.
  Utica, September, 1845. 
 
      THOUGHTS ON THE CONNECTION

                        OF

LIFE,  MIND  AND  MATTER.
   I havk been long convinced, that the legitimate object of
education, is not to give the pupil knowledge; but to teach
him  how  to  acquire it, how to employ the faculties with
which he  has been endowed.  To  do this, the instructor
himself should  be conversant with  the laws by which the
faculties arc governed; which implies a knowledge of physi-
ology, not possessed by many who  have not been led by
their  professional pursuits to acquire it.   Having been con-
siderably employed in early life as a teacher in the public
schools in  New  England, and for  thirty-five years  past,
almost daily engaged either as a public or private instructor
in teaching the science to which I am devoted, I have been
induced to bestow some thoughts  on the connection of life,
mind  and matter, and the laws by  which they arc governed
in that connection, relatively to education.   I am aware that
the union of life,  mind  and matter, is a subject involved in
great difficulty ;  that it has been considered by  some,  as
among the arcana of nature,  which science could  neither
unfold nor even reach.   It may, therefore,  seem presump-
tuous in me to  attempt to lift the veil.  But the man of
science, however humble his pretensions, need not be deter-
red in his reach after knowledge, until he has arrived at that
boundary upon which has been legibly inscribed the inhibi-
li.-n,  i; thus far shalt thou come and no farther."   God cre- 
ti
Thoughts on the Connection
 ated  matter for the manifestation of his own glorious attri-
 butes, and, that this manifestation might never cease, he has
 stamped it with the impress of perpetuity.   Its existence de-
 pends upon his will alone ; and in  order to make it capable
 of such  manifestation, it was  necessary to endow it with
 certain properties which should rise in the scale of impor-
 tance  in proportion to the number of his attributes that he
 designed to illustrate.  To display  his power and wisdom
 only, it was merely requisite to invest it with those proper-
 ties upon wliich the  phenomena of mere matter  depend,
 raid  from the  exertion of whose energies may be inferred
 the physical laws by which those phenomena are governed.
  These, properties and the laws to which they give rise,
 are no less permanent  than matter itself.  The properties
 to which we now  allude, are two only, viz:  attractability
 and repulsability ; and the endless forms and varieties wliich
 the  phenomena of inanimate matter present are the result of
 two functions only: attraction  and repulsion, which spring
 from  the  properties  above mentioned.   We are  totally
 ignorant  of the essences of these properties, because we are
 destitute  of organs by  wliich we can  take cognizance of
 them.
  For the manifestation of God's goodness, it was necessary
 to connect the vital principle with matter.  Whether vitality
 exists, distinct  from, and  independent of matter, is beyond
 our power to determine ; nor is it at all necessary that wc
 should, because it is manifested to us in no other wav  than
 through the medium of matter.  Connected with a substance
 whose properties, functions and hiws are ever  the same, the
 properties, functions, and laws of life as manifested through
the instrumentality of  this connection, are no less permanent
 and immutable than the connection itself.  God's  plan in
 regard to life, is no less  simple than it is in respect to in-
animate matter.   The properties essential  to  vitality, are
sensibility and mobility ; ailtl the essential functions "rowin"-
out of these properties, are sensation and motion ; by the
modifications of which all the operations and phenomena of 
of Life, Mind and Matter.
7
life are performed and exhibited.   From the study of these,
all  its laws may be deduced.
  To accomplish the design of manifesting vitality through
the instrumentality of matter, organization was necessary :
hence,  all animated matter  is organized.  Organization,
which is  the  act  or process of arranging or forming the
particles of matter  into instruments  of action, by  which
some operation  is performed, or  process carried on, or by
the agency of which some design is accomplished, implies
the existence of mind in the  being who organized, but not
in the thing organized; for vegetables are organized bodies,
and are consequently endowed with that species of vitality
which is connected with, or perhaps springs from organiza-
tion ; but they manifest no indications of mind; and why ?
Because God has  withheld from the matter of which they
are composed, organs by which it  can be produced or mani-
fested.  Without such organs, organized bodies were capa-
ble of showing forth his power and wisdom in a higher de-
gree, and in a more perfect manner than were  the properties
with which he had invested  mere inanimate inorganic mat-
ter.   For the manifestation  of His goodness, it was neces-
sary that matter should be invested with properties through
which it might be affected by that goodness ;  otherwise,  it
could  never  give any  evidence of the existence  of that
attribute.   That  matter  should be capable of manifesting
other attributes of God, such as his justice and  mercy, it
was necessary that mind as well as life, should in some way
or other be connected  with it; and it appears that vitality
constitutes the connecting link between mind and  matter.
In what consists the  essence  of life or of mind wc know
not, and probably never shall, because the  Creator  has
withheld from us  the organs by which they can be recog-
nized as separate and distinct cxistencies.   We can take
cognizance of them only  through the medium of matter, and
precisely in the same way as we do of  gravitation, chemi-
cal  affinity, electricity, etc.    Whether they can indeed exist
independently of matter, we can not for the reason assigned, 
8              Thoughts on the Connection
tell.   All analogy, and the immutability of Deity  warrant
the belief that they have no  such separate  existence ; and
that a connection of some kind or other with matter will  be
as necessary for their manifestations  in a  future, as  in the
present world.*  We  think  that inspiration fully maintains
this view of the subject; for wc are  told by the Apostle,
that we shall be changed ; that this corruptible must put  on
incorruption, and this mortal immortality.  When the last
trump shall sound, we shall be all changed in the twinkling
of an eye, and then  our bodies  refined and sublimated  by
that change, will rise  " to be our house immortal and eter-
nal."   If life  and mind do  not exist except in connection
with matter, and of course subject in a greater or less  de-
gree to its influence, of what vast consequence is it to  us,
and to all concerned in educating the mind, that we become
acquainted with them in this connection, and with the laws
by which they are governed !   It is this importance  of the
subject with  reference  to education, which has prompted
me to trace out and illustrate as far as I  may be able, the
laws  by which life, mind and matter in connection,  are
governed.   Although it might be interesting and instructive
to trace the connection of life with matter from the vegeta-
ble, (destitute of mind)  through the ascending series  up to
man, " creation's lord,"  yet  ps  it is not closely connected
with  our subject we shall forbear, and proceed to remark
that the human body is a machine  formed by God himself,
as an instrument for the manifestation of the phenomena of
vitality and mind.   As it is composed  of  matter connected
with  life and mind, it has been  supposed to be  necessarily
governed by  three different kinds of laws, viz : such  as
govern inanimate matter, such  as govern life, and such as
govern mind.   Like other matter, it is, to be sure, obedient
to the laws of gravitation, &c, but notwithstanding its com-

  * Dr. Adam Clarke says. " God the uncreated Spirit manifests Himself by
material substances.  Created spirits must be manifested in the same way ; and
though matter may exist without spirit, and spirit without matter; yet, without
the latter, spirit can not become manifest." 
of IAff, Mind and Matter.
!)
plexity of organs,  and its trifold composition,  we  believe
that no such complication of laws is necessary for the regu-
lation of its movements.   Wc have said that there are only
two properties, sensibility and mobility ; only two functions,
sensation and motion, which result from the combination of
life with matter, and that upon the various modifications of
these, all the phenomena of life depend.*  These properties
and functions are common to every organ of the body, and
of course the brain, the organ of  mind,  is as much under
their control in the performance of its function,  the produc-
tion of thought, as the liver in the production of  bile ; and
the laws by which the operations  of the former, the brain,
are governed are precisely the same as those by which the
actions of the  latter are regulated.   The secretion of bile
is performed by the capillaries of the liver ; the production
of ideas by those of the brain.   The  structure or organiza-
tion of  the liver is  such, that if a certain portion of  its
capillaries act at all, they must secrete bile ; in like manner,
the  structure or organization of the  brain is such, that if a
certain portion of its capillaries act at all, they must produce
ideas, and  can do nothing else, hence the uninterrupted flow
of thought during our waking  hours ; with this difference,
however, that we can (as will be  seen)  acquire an influence
over the actions of the capillaries of the brain so as to make
them produce such  trains of thought as we please, while
those of the liver  go on  forming bile independently of the
will. [See Appendix.]   The reason of this  might be  ex-
plained if required, by the  drift of our  subject.  The doc-
trine we mean to promulgate is, that the  production of
thought and the operations of the mind, as function of the
brain, are originated by the same causes, influenced in  the
same way, regulated  by the same principles, and governed

  * To carry out the analogy and simplicity of the design, we should say, meta-
physically speaking, that the properties of the mind are two only, perceptibility
and reflectibility ; and that  its functions were only two, perception and reflec-
tion ; and that all the phenomena of thought depended, upon the modifications of
those two properties and these two functions. 
10
Thoindtts on the Connection
 by the same laws, as are all the other operations and 1 unc-
 tions of the body.  In order to establish and elucidate this
 doctrine, it will be proper and necessary to show how the
 properties and functions of life,  or of the living  body are
 modified and governed ; how changes of action arc effected,
 and the laws by which they arc governed ; and to point out
 the causes  by which those changes  are  produced, and the
 laws by which those causes are governed ; and in  conclu-
 sion, endeavor en passant to prove that all these modifica-
 tions, actions, and changes of actions,  and the causes by
 which those changes of action  are effected; and the laws
 Ijv which all arc  governed, are equally applicable to the
 production of thought, and emotion in the mind, as they- are
 to the performance of function in all the other organs, of the
 body.  The two essential properties of  vitality,  viz: sensi-
 bility and  mobility  are so modified  by structure,  that
 every organ in  the human  body has a sensibility and mo-
 bility peculiar  to itself, and  therefore a  mode  of  serv
 sation and motion  which can belong to no other organ of a
 different  structure, consequently a function which no other
 can perform.   This modification of vital properties  and
 functions by structure is  of  a permanent character, and  is,
 therefore, a provision of the  Creator, and an illustration of
 his foresight, wisdom and goodness, to prevent the blending
 of  the functions of different organs, and the  confusion,
 which, but for  it, must  have ensued.  The proof that the
 properties and functions of an organ are modified by struc-
 ture, may be demanded.  If, then, the same sensation in an
 organ or tissue be  produced by a variety of  causes other
 than the true physical cause, and in its entire  absence,  and
 indeed by mere change  of  action in the organ  itself,  and
 without any  known or appreciable cause whatever,  the
 inference, we think, is  obvious and  irresistible, that  this
 sameness of sensation is owing to the peculiar structure  of
 the organ which so modifies its action, that if it act at all,
 it must act in the same way. and consequently always pro-
duce the same  sensation, and hence it is that  ihere are,  as 
of Life, Mind and Matter.
11
has been already hinted, no mistakes, no  blending of func-
tions in the system ;  each organ performing its own appro-
priate and peculiar function for the very best of all reasons,
because it must do  that or nothing.
   The eye, for instance, is acknowledged by all  to  be the
organ adapted to produce or experience the  sensation of
light, and this might  be inferred almost  a  priori, by any one
acquainted with its anatomical structure,  and  the  laws of
light, for it is a perfect optical instrument.   A certain some-
thing emenating from a luminous  body, and entering  into
this organ, produces  a luminous appearance, which is term-
ed the sensation of light.*   This emenation is  called light,
and is the true physical cause of the sensation  above men-
tioned ; but  it is a well  known fact, that this luminous ap-
pearance in the eye can be produced by many  causes other
than the true physical cause,  and indeed in its total absence,
as by the galvanic shock ; a blow on the eye, or even on the
back of the  head,  by a  fall  on the ice, as most people can
probably testify.  This sameness of sensation from so many
different causes, must arise from the peculiar  structure of
the organ, and is, therefore, a proof of the modification of
property and function by structure.
   The car is the organ destined to produce or experience the
sensation of sound, the physical cause of which, is the undula-
tions of air impinging against the  membrana  tympani, or
drum of the car, as it is  commonly called; but how often do
wc hear patients complaining of noises in the ear,  which arc
produced  by mere  changes of circulation in some  part of
the auditory apparatus, in the entire absence  of the  appro-
priate physical cause, the undulations of air.   These noises
are frequently described  by  patients, saying that they re-
semble the rolling of carriages ; the roaring of  the wind ;

  * This emanation from the luminous body penetrates the eye, and falling upon
the retina, causes a change in the circulation of that part, or, as some suppose,
in the action of the vessels of the chorid coat, which change is perceived by the
retina, and it is this perception of change, which, being modified by the structure
of the part, constitutes the sensation of light. 
V2
Thoughts on the  Connection
 the rushing of mighty waters, or the wjiizzing of steam from
 the tea-kettle.   We often hear people  complain of fatigue,
 a sensation peculiar to the muscles  and experience  it our-
 selves, when  no exertion, the physical cause of that sensa-
 tion, has been made.
    We  might  go on and multiply proofs; but it  is presumed
 that enough have been adduced to convince every one, that
 when   the  identical  sensation  has  been   produced  in the
 absence of its legitimate  physical  cause,  and  by  another
 altogether different in its physical  properties, it  must be
 ascribed to the fact that the  structure of the organ, or part
 experiencing it, can so modify its actions, as to give the  same
 result.   If it be true, that  sensation is modified by structure,
 then it  will follow that each  structure should  have a sensa-
 tion of  its own, and that instead of five senses, we may have
 twenty or fifty.*   As the brain, (by which term I mean to

  * Every structure or tissue in tlv* body has, it is believed, a sensation peculiar
 to itself, which especially relates to its function, and conservation.  An ache,
 is the sensation peculiar to bone, and is  produced by pressure.  The bones are the
 levers of  the organs to which the mechanical powers of the system are applied.
 Now pressure  is the appropriate cause  by which a lever or any other mechanical
 instrument effected is ordinarily put in motion: hence  it was necessary that
 the bones should have a sensibility and sensation, derived no doubt from their
 peculiarity of structure, which should at all times inform us of the fact, that they
 were subjected to an undue degree of that kind of force either from its internal
 or external application;  internal when  it arises from a morbid state of distention
 of the vessels of the bone, as when inflammation is going on in its structure ;
 or external, as  any one at any time may satisfy himself by making pressure with
 the thumb upon the shin bone, or  indeed any other bone in the body which is
 thinly covered.  This ache is the sensation which, when experienced in a degree
 that compromises the safety of the part, prompts  us to seek relief; hence its
conservative utility.  Fatigue is the sensation peculiar to the muscles, the organs
 of motion ; and is produced by an excessive exertion of their  powers.  Its final
end is to admonish us  of the  necessity of suspending further effort.  If we do
 not heed the timely admonition, the function, and perhaps indirectly the struc-
 ture of these organs will be seriously deranged, injured, or even destroyed.  So
of all the other distinctive tissues of the  body.  It might be amusing and instruc-
 tive to all, but it is emphatically interesting and important to the physician, to
understand this subject ; for it enables htm to ascertain with considerable accu-
 racy the seat of disease, by  attending to and analyzing the  pains and feelings
complained of  by patients. 
of Life, Mind and Matter.             I S
include the encephalon and spinal marrow and their appen-
dages, the nerves) is composed of a great variety of differ-
ent parts, each of which is, 1 suppose, capable of modifying
in its  own  particular  way, perception  and reflection, the
functions of the mind, it would seem to  flow from our doc-
trine  as  a  corollary independent of the arguments of the
phrenologists, that the brain is  made  up of a congeries of
organs, every one of which has a mode of perception and
reflection peculiar to itself.
  We shall  proceed to show, that besides this modification
of the properties and functions of vitality by structure, sen-
sation and  motion the two essential functions of life are
also modified by  physical causes, which may be divided
into two species, viz : chemical and mechanical.   It is abso-
lutely necessary that these functions  should  be thus modi-
fied, otherwise the same physical cause would not produce
the same change ; consequently, the same sensation  or per-
ception could not be expected invariably to follow.  It is
owing to this power of physical causes to modify sensation
and perception, that aloes  is always bitter ; honey  always
sweet; vinegar always sour ; &c, &c.  The same may be
said of physical  causes addressed to the other senses, as
smelling, tasting, feeling, &c.  Now, why is it so ?  The rea-
son is, that it is an universal and immutable law of  nature,
that  the physical properties essential to each  particular
kind of matter should always be the  same.   The same
law holds good  in regard  to changes produced  in  the
mind  as well as in the body : and hence  it is that objects of
the same physical properties, if they produce  any  change
in  the mind,  always excite  the  same ideas, the same
trains of thought, the  same intellectual operations,  and in-
deed,   the same emotions: therefore, a transparent body
always excites in the mind the idea of transparency, and a
disagreeable object always the emotion of disgust, because
diev  always produce  the  same  changes of action  in the
brain, the organ of mind.   To this it may be objected that
the same impressions, whether  physical or mental, after a
time,  cease to produce the same.changes, and consequently
               c 
 U             Thoughts on the  Connection

 cease to excite the same sensations and perceptions.   This,
 however, is owing to another law of the system, viz : that
 frequent  repetition  or constant application  of the  same
 causes destroys the susceptibility of the part to which they
 are applied,  to their particular  impression ; as  the irrita-
 tion excited  in  the  skin of  a person not accustomed to
 wearing  flannel  soon ceases to  be perceived.    It is ow-
 ing to the same  law  that the  same dose of medicine re-
 peated  daily, soon ceases to  produce its appropriate effect,
 that the  same  quantity  of  alcohol ceases to  intoxicate.
 This law is  universal, and therefore, its influence  extends
 to the mind.   For  instance, the  same object  of distress
 presented  daily, would soon cease to excite  emotions  of
 pity or compassion.   The wisdom and goodness  of  God
 are very clearly  manifested by the  institution of  this law of
the system; for  by the frequent or constant application of
hurtful agents to our  bodies,  they  lose their  susceptibility
to those impressions;  and hence it is,  that persons  who
have become acclimated, will be exempt  from diseases of
a particular region, while strangers moving into  it are soon
affected.*  In like manner the mind ceases to be annoyed
by the frequent repetition or  constant application of moral
causes which are calculated  to disturb its equanimity, be-
cause that part of the brain, the organ of mind> upon which
those causes  have so  constantly  or repeatedly  acted, has
lost its susceptibility to their particular impression.   Again,
to carry  the analogy a  little  farther, frequent change of
action or derangement of function in an organ, is sooner or
later followed by a change of structure in that part, and we
have permanent disease, or what medical men term organic
disease, which, if in an organ  whose function, as that of the
heart and lungs, is essential to life, is generally considered

  * It is owing to the prevalence of this law, that the tobacco chewer and the
rum drinker are not speedily cut off by  the use of those poisons, and it is owing
to the same cause, that a person by taking daily a quantity of arsenic, would
come at length to take with impunity a dose  which would destroy the life ol
another who had not been habituated to its use.  In this way, murder is said
to have been committed without suspicion. 
of Life, Mind and Matter.              15
incurable, because the  change of function  caused by this
very change of structure tends to give permanency to the
morbid state of its organization.  So in regard to the mind,
which is the function of the brain, when any moral cause is
frequently  repeated  or constantly applied, the very struc-
ture of the  brain  becomes  altered, and we have incurable
madness or mania.
  Another law by which changes of action  or function in
the body are modified is this ; that when any part has been
deprived  of its susceptibility  to  a  particular stimulus  or
impression,  it may be specially restored bv mcrdy chang-
ing the physical cause; and it is on this principle that many
diseases which are  only  functional  are cured.  So in the
mind, when it has lost its susceptibility to any moral cause,
for the same reason  it may be restored by simply exchang-
ing that for another  ; and hence it is, that many are so much
relieved, or even cured of insanity by a mere exchange of
the moral causes which have deranged the intellect, for those
which tend to restore its susceptibility, or for such as are
suited to renew its healthy operations;  and in this consists
the grand secret of curing that most terrible of all maladies.
Again, the functions of the body are  modified by the quan-
tity of  arterial blood  circulating  in  the particular part to
which the altered  function belongs.  And here the analogy
is drawn still closer; for the operations of the mind, like the
functions of every other part of the  body, are altered  or
modified by the quantity of blood  which for the time being,
is circulating in the brain, the  organ  of the mind.  If the
physician wishes to increase the function of an organ, he has
only to contrive to throw a little more blood into  it.   If it
be an organ of secretion, as the liver or  lachrymal gland,
an increased quantity of bile, or of tears will be the result.
If it be an organ of  motion, increased mobility will follow.
If it be the mental organ, an increased quantity of thought
will be produced.  Do  you ask for proof.   Take a glass or
two of wine, a cup  of tea  or coffee, or a  pill of opium,
which induce the vessels of the brain to  relax, and conse- 
16             Thoughts on the Connection

quentlv admit more arterial blood into that organ, and you
will have an increased quantity of function ; the intellectual
wheels will move on with more power, as well as rapidity;
or if any one, in these days of te-totalism, should object to
these expedient?, for increasing the powers  of the mind, or
more properly speaking, the function of  the brain,  he may
be told that its  functions, like  those of every other  organ
under the control of the  will, may be increased  within cer-
tain limits by exercise.  To illustrate as well as to carry on
the argument.  The muscles are the organs of motion, and
when we begin to put them in action, as in the morning on
rising from the  bed, or when  we engage  in any exercise
requiring more than ordinary exertion, we find our  first
movements are comparatively  feeble and inert:  but  as we
go on exercising, they become more and more  facile and
agile, increasing in celerity and power ;  and why ?  because
more  blood  is  brought  by exercise into the muscles.   So
when we begin to think  on any subject,  especially  if it be
one upon which we are  not  accustomed  to  meditate, the
first operations  of our minds  are feeble, but by a continu-
ance of the  effort they  become stronger and stronger, be-
cause by exercise, more  blood  is derived to the brain.  All
of us have, undoubtedly, noticed the paleness of an orator's
face when he begins to address an audience, and have ob-
served that his  first efforts are feeble and labored :  but as
he goes.on, color comes  in  his  face,  his eye kindles, and his
whole countenance glows ;  phenomena which indicate that
more blood has by some means or  other gained admission
into the vessels of the head, and consequently into  those of
the brain ; his  thoughts  now  come  with rapidity, his intel-
lectual operations proceed with power, Ins  ideas  follow
each other  in such rapid succession, that  he cannot  stop
for wrords  and expressions to represent them,  his mouth
is a door of utterance, out of which language flows with the
same facility  and rapidity with which thoughts pass throuo-h
his mind.  If now the effort be much longer continued, the
vessels of the head will become so distended with  blood, 
of Life, Mind and Matter.             17
that they  are  compelled to resist, and often painfully, and
it is in this  way we  explain  the  fact that many persons
experience headache after intense thinking, or a vigorous
effort at public speaking, just as  pain is produced  in the
muscles, the organs of motion, by long continued or  severe
exertion.
  We shall  push this part of the inquiry no farther  at this
time,  but proceed to show how  the functions of the  living
body  are  commenced and  carried  on ;  how  physical
causes produce action and changes of action in the system ;
and endeavor to prove that their mode of producing action
and changes of action in the mind, is exactly similar  to that
by which they produce action and changes of action in the
body, and  also  that moral  causes  operate on  the body
exactly like physical  causes, and that in the production and
change of action, they are governed by precisely the same
laws, and consequently, that to educate the mind, it is ab-
solutely necessary  to educate the body.  The  function of
every organ in the body is performed by a set of  vessels
called capillaries, from the fact of their  being exceedingly
fine,  like the smallest hairs.   They are to be considered  as
the principal antagonists of the heart, or  as furnishing  in
every part of the body  antagonistical resistance to  the ac-
tion of that organ.   Their action is  modified in each par-
ticular organ by the substance  which has  been  thrown
around and among  them,  by  which they  are  connected
together ;  a circumstance which gives peculiarity to their
function,  as well as identity to the organ.   These working
 vessels, which do the business of the system, are in the first
instance excited to action by physical causes, chemical  or
mechanical; and we will here premise that the impressions
which they  make  are either  agreeable  or disagreeable,
painful or pleasureable  as the case may be, because upon
 this  important fact is based a  law by  which  their influ-
 ence is greatly modified.  We  shall assume,  as  it will
 fullv  answer our purpose, that life  commences at birth,
 and that the body is then completely formed and furnished 
 lb             Thoughts on the Connection

 with all its appropriate fluids.   The air, as in the case of
 the first man, while in the very hands of his  Creator, rush-
 ing into  the nostrils  of  the new-born  infant, reaches  and
 expands its lungs; by which  expansion all the pulmonary
 vessels are enlarged and elongated.  Prior to the expansion
 of the lungs, their vessels, except  such as were  necessary
 to nutrition are supposed to  be  empty.  According to a
 well  known  law  of hydraulics, into these vessels,  in
 which a sort of  vacuum had been  thus formed by the
 expansion before  alluded to, the fluids would flow and dis-
 tend  them,  until by simple  mechanical  distention,  they
 would be excited to  resistance, and stimulated to contract;
 which would foree a portion of their contents out of them
 into other vessels.  The  mere weight  of the atmosphere,
 which is  about fifteen pounds  to the square inch, would of
 itself put the delicate air-vessels of the lungs  on the stretch,
 and stimulate them to contract strongly; which, by forcing
 out a quantity of air, constitutes expiration.  When this was
 accomplished, according to the law of the system, which is
 that  every degree of contraction should be followed by a
 spontaneous  relaxation,   generally  in  proportion to  the
 previous  contraction, these vessels would  relax,  and  again
 of course, be filled and distended, by the in-rushing of ano-
 ther portion of atmospheric air, which constitutes inspira-
 tion.  What an organ as a whole  does, will be done by all
 its vessels ; therefore, the contraction of the  lungs in expi-
ration, forces the  blood out of  their vessels into the heart,
 (a hollow muscle) and distends it; as mechanical  distention
is the  natural  or  physical stimulus which excites the mus-
cles to act, it causes  that organ to contract, and the blood
is thrown into the arteries, and through them, into all parts
of the system, where it  stimulates every vessel and every
 part to act; for every organ  will do  what all its vessels
 do.   Hence it is,  that when the vessels of a muscle are dis-
 tended with red or arterial blood, they will be prompted to
contract  in  order to force it  out, and what  all the vessels
of a muscle  do,  the same will the muscle as a whole do • 
of Life, Mind and Matter.               If?
that is, it will contract as a  whole,  and its legitimate ef-
fect as an organ of  motion  will  be manifested.   Now  the
nerves, which give the vessels' the power to feel the impres-
sion of the  fluids,  and  also  enable them to act,  or  rather
re-act upon  their  contents, take cognizance  of their  ac-
tion or contraction, and so to speak, communicate the intel-
ligence to the  sensorium ; or to  use another mode of ex-
pression, they produce a change of action in that part of the
brain in  which they (the nerves)  originate, and there excite
the perception of  this  change,  which constitutes thought.
This change, and the consequent perception of it, is repeated
again  and again, as  often as the  original  cause is applied,
until at length the brain or some portion of its vessels, gets
a habit of acting in this particular way, and then the indi-
vidual, by fixing his  attention  upon this  perception, may
excite at his pleasure the same change of action in his brain,
and thus reproduce the  same perception, idea, or train of
thoughts.   Having learned from experience that he has ac-
quired this power over the vessels of the brain, he comes at
length to desire to  have  it,  (the  change) reproduced in the
absence of its  physical  cause;  and  by trying  again  and
again, he acquires the power of reproducing it, and then he
will have the idea of  that which was the physical cause of
the change, as well in its absence as in  its  presence.   This
constitutes voluntary thinking ;  the only  mode of thinking
which strengthens the  mind, or produces  any valuable re-
sults ; the art of which it is the  object and business of edu-
cation to teach.*
  * When a physical or sensible object is presented to any of the senses ; to the
eye for instance, the light reflected irom it enters the organ, and produces a
change in the state of the retina,, which is transmitted to that part of the brain
from wliich the optic nerve arises, and  there produces a change which is per-
ceived imperfectly at first, it is admitted,  especially in early infancy;  but when
the same sensible object is presented again and again, the change each time
will be produced, perceived and compared with previous changes until the con-
sciousness of its having been perceived before, is fully awakened ; when, almost
simultaneously with consciousness another faculty to wit, attention is originated.
Now attention is voluntary or involuntary.  At first it is involuntary, but by 
20               Thoughts on the Connection
   It remains to be shown, that the muscles called voluntary,
become subject  to volition or the will, in  the  same way as
the power of the will over  the action of the  vessels of the
brain is acquired, which has just been considered and attempt-
ed to be explained.   The blood flowing into the muscles as
soon as their  vessels are large enough  to admit it, excites
them to act, and they do  act involuntarily at first, before
and  for a  considerable time after birth.   In this way, mus-
cles are first prompted  and  excited  to  act.   The nerves,
besides supplying them with the power to  feel and  to  move,
take cognizance of the motion thus excited, and transmit a
knowledge of  it to that part of the brain, or spinal marrow
in which they  have their origin, and there produce a change
in the actions of its  capillary  vessels which, in a longer or
shorter time after birth, (perhaps before as some think,)  and
after frequent  repetitions comes to be perceived ; and when
it has been perceived again and again, the individual  taking
pleasure in the perception and consciousness of the change
excited  by the  transmitted action of the  muscle, desires,
and at length determines to reproduce it, and  by frequently

repetition, emotion is produced, which is soon  followed by desire, or its oppo-
site aversion.  Consciousness and attention, constitute the understanding ; de-
sire and the  determination to which it gives rise, constitute the will.  Con-
sciousness and attention are attended with pleasure ; the pleasure of knowing,
or of knowledge, which at first  is  passive, but which by repetition  becomes
active, and then follows the desire of reproducing thought, and soon that of acquir-
ing new ideas.  Thus, when an  idea has been produced again and again by the
presence of a physical object, we come at length to desire its recurrence in thf
absence of its archetype, the physical object, and by single or repeated trials, the
individual acquires the power of producing the same change in the vessels of the
brain, which was excited by the physical agent when present, and then will the
identical idea or ideas be produced,  and the same consciousness and attention
will ensue ; the identity of which is settled by comparison with previous results.
At first the reproduction, it is true, will be more or less difficult, and  more or
less perfect, until bye-and-bye, the individual acquires a perfect control  over the
action of the vessels concerned in the process, and then the result is obtained
with  the greatest facility.  It is in this way, that we acquire the power and the
habit of voluntary thinking, as any one may convince himself who will  take the
trouble  of patiently watching the operations of his own  mind, especially when
endeavoring  to master a new or difficult subject. 
of Life, Mind and Matter.
21
repeating the effort,  acquires the power to reproduce it,
(i. e. the change in the brain, or  spinal marrow,)  and then
the muscle moves in obedience to his will, and then, and not
till then, does it become a voluntary  muscle.  Let any one
observe how the child learns to  walk; or how he  himself
must proceed when he would perform any  motions  which
are entirely new  to him.  In the performance of such, do
his muscles at first move with precision in obedience to his
will ?  Or has he to train and educate them Justin the same
way as he did when a child ?  It is in this manner that all
our  voluntary  powers,  whether of  mind  or  muscle, of
thought or action, are acquired, and in  fact strengthened.
By thus acquiring  the power of changing the actions of
the vessels of the brain,  and making them  subservient to
our will, we can learn to think  on anything we  please, or
continue a train of  voluntary  thinking  on  any  particular
subject.    When these vessels  have  been  obliged   by the
will to act for  a considerable time in any  particular man-
ner, they become fatigued like the vessels in the  voluntary
muscles, and sooner  or later, we are tired  of thinking on
this or  that particular subject, and if we do not  now stop
or  turn the current of thought  into  another channel, or
to another subject,  the effort  will become painful.   So in
the muscles, when  vc have fatigue from  any particular
kind of action,  we  must either stop, or change it for some
other effort in order  to  be relieved  from  that  sensation.
Voluntary  thinking, like voluntary action, causes fatigue,
and these are the only modes of action  that do cause it.
From the view  of the subject  just taken,  and the reasoning
thereon,  wc  learn that God  has  not endowed man with
voluntary powers, and consequently,  has not made  him a
moral agent; but it is true, that  he has so constructed  and
constituted him, that he becomes  such  by his  own choice and
efforts, (in  the manner already shown.) and  therefore it is
right and proper, that he  should be held responsible for all
his voluntary acts.   But the question, how do physical
causes operate  on the capillaries of an organ to mnke them
              r 
Thoughts on Life, Mind and Matter.
act  at all, or  to  change their action  still remains  to be
answered.   We have said, that the impressions which they
make are agreeable or disagreeable, pleasurable or painful,.
and that  upon this fact, was founded  an important  law, by
which actions of the body were regulated.   The law is this ;
anything that makes a pleasing  impression  on the body, in-
duces the vessels of the  part,  on which it is made, to relax,
and whatever makes a disagreeable or  painful impression
on it, induces its vessels to contract, or in other words,  to
resist.*   The latter part of this law is,  however, modified
by another circumstance, which is this: if the  impression be
made on  the  outside  of the  vessel, or  exterior to  an organ,
and be stronger than that made on the inside by  the  fluids
within, it will produce relaxation, upon the principle pointed
out  by Hypocrates, that the  stronger effaces  the  weaker
impression.   If the  impression, exterior  to  an organ, be
stronger  than that within, its vessels will relax, and continue
to do so, until they become distended and over distended,
and come at  last to resist painfully, and then we are assured
that  the internal is stronger  than the external impression.
We  do not, however, resist corporeally  or mentally,  what-
ever is pleasing to us; and therefore, it is, that the first part
of the law which causes  the vessels to  relax in consequence
of pleasurable impressions, holds equally whether they be
made internally or  externally.   Notwithstanding,  if it be
external, it operates on the same principle, as  if it had been
d'sagreeable  or painful, because if the external pleasurable
impression be stronger than that which is made by the fluids
within the vessels, they will relax or forego their resistancer
and  allow themselves to be  distended.   We wish to have
it kept in view, that in this way we explain the  influence of
causes which produce changes  in the mind, by  operating
upon the vessels of the brain, the organ of the  mind.   There

  * So far as the author recollects, this important doctrine was first broached and
promulgated by  the celebrated English orator, Edmund  Burke,, in his work on
the Sublime and Beautiful. 
The  Passions.
23
 is in this respect,  no difference between  the  formation of
 ideas by the brain, and the secretion or formation of bile by
 the liver.  The general principle is  the same.  Both are
 the functions of their respective organs, but with this differ-
 ence, that the peculiar organization of the brain, constrains
 it not only to form ideasj but, so to speak, to know what it
 is doing, or to be conscious what ideas it is  forming, what
 trains of thought it is carrying on, and to  what conclusions
 it has arrived ; while the liver, from its  own peculiarity of
 structure,  is compelled  to  make  bile if it do anything at
 all; but is not allowed to know what it is about;  and there-
 fore, it  can never be  educated ; but the brain  is the organ
 toward which all our efforts at training should be directed,
 and hence, the  importance of being weli  acquainted  with
 the mode in which  changes of action in it, are effected, and
 the laws by which they are regulated and governed.
   If we would get a new idea, we  must  try  to make the
 vessels  of the brain undertake the precise  action necessary
 to its production or formation, just as we would try to make
 certain  muscles perform  a certain action entirely new;  and
 we all  know that  this  is done by repeated  efforts;  and
 exactly in the same way the  formation of a new idea is to
 be accomplished.   If we would gel an idea into the head of
 another, we must try to make  the vessels of his brain act just
 as the vessels of our brains acted or do act when that idea
 was or  is present in our minds. And  as  we  can perform
 any set or series of motions with a facility proportioned to
 the frequency with which we have  performed  them, so we
 can carry on with ease any trains of thought in proportion
 to the  number  of  times we have obliged  them  to  pass
 through the mind, and thus we get habits of thinking just as
 we do habits of acting.
                      THE PASSIONS.
   We shall now proceed to  consider a  class of feelings or
emotions which have  been considered as  exclusively mental,
and  therefore more particularly appropriate  to the design 
24
The Passions.
 we have  in view.   These mental  feelings  are excited  by
 external causes, and are involuntary.  They are termed pas-
 sions, and have been generally, but  I think very erroneously,
 considered distinct from intellectual operations.  The rea-
 sons for this opinion are not strictly called for, and therefore
 will not be assigned.   The ordinary movements of the vessels
 of the  brain  are, like those of every other  organ, owing
 to the influence  of impressions unconsciously made  on their
 internal surfaces, constantly and uniformly  prompting them
 to  act, and consequently during our waking hours to keep
 up a train of thought, which is continually passing  through
 the mind, without our knowing why or wherefore,  as in the
 case of some people  who  are  said to whistle for  want of
 thought.
   This kind of thinking arises from the automatic movements
 of the vessels of the brain, and has little  more effect in aug-
 menting the knowledge of the individual who practices or in-
 dulges in it, than the automatic movements of the vessels of
 the liver, or the lungs.   It is voluntary thinking only, which,
 like voluntary action, produces important results. This regu-
 larity of action in the vessels of the brain is, however, liable
 to be disturbed by impressions from without,  more  power-
 ful than those made  by  the fluids within the  vessels, and
 change of action in the vessels of the  organ of mind will
 produce change of feeling in the mind itself, and this change
 of feeling may react and produce changes of action in the
 brain, which, with their results, (i. e. actions in other parts,)
 constitute the influences of the passions  on  the body, and
 are not unfrequently the  cause  of serious disease ; but they
 act in the production of disease, and in all other respects on
 the same  principle  as physical causes.   The passions, like
 physical causes, may be  divided into two classes, painful or
 pleasurable, according  to  the  kind of feeling which they
 produce, or with which they are  accompanied or attended.
 The passions belonging to  the first  class, are grief, fear, and
anger.   Those belonging to the second, are joy, hope, and
love; all  the  other  passions may  be considered  as mere 
(hief.
2'j
mixtures or modifications of ihese  six.   Perhaps we might
simplify them still more, and say that there were two only,
grief and joy.

                         GRIEF.
   Loss or damage is the physical cause which disturbs the
circulation of the brain, and gives rise  to that painful emo-
tion of the  mind, which  is  termed grief.  Why does this
sense of privation alter the circulation of that organ,  and in
what does  this  alteration consist?  It consists in  an  in-
creased quantity of blood in the brain, or in some portion
of  it;  the  phrenologist would  say, in the organ of ac-
quisitiveness.   That there is an increased  determination of
blood to the head, is obvious from the  redness of  the face
and eyes, and from  the  sense of fullness in the  head, so
often noticed and complained of by persons  affected with
grief, and in some instances, apoplexy  is produced by this
passion.   How does grief operate in the production  of this
increased fullness of the vessels of the brain?  One of two
things  must take  place, either the action of the  heart must
be increased, or the vessels of the brain must relax; and it
is obvious from all the  phenomena of grief, that the former
does not occur, for, the pulse of a person laboring under the
influence of this  passion is slow, the heart not unfrequently
seems  to pause in its action,  and  every sixth or eighth beat
is lost, and the afflicted person is insensible to  everything
about him, and even neglects the calls of nature; food and
drink are either refused or  not thought of, and the voice of
friendship  and sympathy falls  unheeded  upon   his  ear.
Nothing interests  him.  As the increased action  of the
heart can not be  called in to explain the increased fullness
of the vessels of the brain, we must turn to the other cause,
viz: a  relaxation  of the vessels of that organ ; and the ques-
tion, how is this  relaxation  produced, again recurs.  We
have said, that an impression  made  exterior to an  organ
which is stronger than  that made by the fluids on  the ves-
sels of the  part,  will cause  those vessels to relax, and be- 
2il                   'The Passions.

come distended, and perhaps overdistended, upon the prin-
 ciple laid down by  Ilypocrates, that the stronger effaces
 the weaker impression.  Now, the cause of  this passion is
the loss, or privation of an object that is exterior to  us ; is
disagreeable or painful, and is stronger than that made by
the fluids within the vessels of the  brain;  and hence, those
vessels  relax or forego their resistance, and suffer them-
selves to be distended; and if the  cause of grief be very
great or sudden, death may be the  consequence, as happen-
ed in the case of Eli, the judge of Israel, who, when he
heard of the  death of his two sons, Hophni and Phineas, and
of the capture of the Ark of the Lord, fell down and died.
With such results, most of us  are  familiar, either from re-
port or  our own observation.   It is like a blow on the head,
which stupifies or causes death, by  causing the rupture of a
vessel of the brain, or by inducing  inflammation of that
organ.  An increased determination of blood to an organ,
we have said, increases its function, if it be  within certain
limits, but if it be excessive, so as to overdistend  its vessels,
and cause them to resist  inordinately, then it interrupts or
destroys the function of the organ in question, and  this is
precisely the case in sudden or violent grief.    The vessels,
taken by surprise,  forego  their  resistance, and  become so
overdistended,  that they cannot perform their regular and
appropriate  function,  which,  in the brain, cannot  be long
suspended without fatal consequences.   Hence, it is proper
when we have intelligence  to communicate, which is calcu-
lated to produce sudden and violent grief, to  prepare the
mind of the  person to whom  the  communication is  to be
made by such information as will  gradually lead him to infer
the result.  Nature's  method  of  preventing  the disastrous
consequences of grief, by unloading the distended vessels of
the head, is in perfect keeping with the regularity and uni-
formity  of all her laws, and is moreover, a striking illustra-
tion of the one  alluded to;  that the function  of an organ is
increased by increasing the quantity of arterial blood  in its
vessels.   In  grief we  have said, that there is an increased 
Fear.
21
determination of blood to the head ; in which'case, the face.
eyes, and lachrymal glands, all participate, and if the rush
be not too violent, an increased quantity of tears is secreted.
Hence it is, that weeping always  brings relief, and in part,
secures the patient from all danger by unloading the vessels
of the brain of so much of their contents, as will secure the
integrity of the organ, and consequently, the continuance of
its function.   Weeping is, therefore,  to  be always greeted
as the  bow  of safety, indicating that  the  storm  of  grief
which threatened  destruction, is  passing away.   In very
sudden and very violent grief,  we must " weep or die."'

                           FEAR.
   The  next of the painful  passions  is fear, which operates
upon another and opposite  principle.  Instead of producing
a relaxation of the vessels of the brain, it causes an increas-
ed contraction, not only in  the vessels of that organ, but in
those of other organs under its control or influence.  Hence,
color flies from the face  of him that is affrighted, and a uni-
versal  tremor, arising jfrom  the violent contractions  of
the  muscles of voluntary motion, seizes him ; and further
more, when the emotion  is extreme, this universal contrac-
tion fixes the  victim immoveably  to  the  spot  on which he
stands, as well as deprives  him of his senses.   The ancient
poets understood this.  Homer, speaking of Dolon, who was
surprised while on his way to  the Grecian camp by Ulysses
and Diomede, says:

         -------------" Against the trembling wood,
         The wretch stood prop'd, and quivered as he stood,
         A sudden palsy seized his turning head,
         His loose teeth chattered, and his color fled."

This passion is caused by  any object  which  excites in us
the  apprehension of personal  danger.    Its impression is
painful, and it refers alone to ourselves, and by turning our
thoughts  inward,  and fixing  them upon ourselves, it  has 
28
The Passions.
precisely the  effect  of a  disagreeable impression made  on
the inside of vessels, and should therefore, upon the princi-
ple which has been laid down, produce contraction, and it is
on this principle that we explain its phenomena.*'   We have
said, that fear  contracts  the muscles,  and  fixes its  subject
like Dolon, to the  spot on which he  stands.   Now, to this,
it  might be objected, that the affrighted are apt to run away,
and sometimes actually do:  poetically speaking, " fear adds
wings to their flight."   This, however, is a mistake.   Fear
prompts no  one  to fly, but rather deprives him of the power
of flight.f  The reason why an affrighted person runs away
  * This passion may act medicinally in cases in which the vessels are overdis-
tended, as in inflammation, &c, and there are not wanting in the records of the
profession examples of its efficacy, as a remedial agent.   A gentleman afflicted
with gout, often cursed his foot and wished it at the devil.  In one of these par-
oxysms of rage, a terrible agitation and commotion  occurred  in the  chimney
which began at the top and descended with frightful rapidity to the fire-place in
the gentleman's room, which was instantly filled with soot and dust, in the midst
of which up rose an imp of diminutive size, who made the astounding announce-
ment that his master was coming and would soon  be there.  The gentleman
mistaking him for a little devil, (who was in  fact only a chimney sweep's boy>
that had been sent to explore the chimney  and give information of the speedy
advent of his master, but who making a false step in the discha rge of his mission
had fallen from the top to the bottom of the flue,) and concluding that the old
devil himself had taken  him  at  his word, rose  and fled.   The gout,  we are
informed, left the gentleman quite as unceremoniously as he had left  the room-

  t " George Grochanzy, a Polander, who  had enlisted as a soldier in the service
of the King of Prussia, deserted.   A small party was sent in pursuit of him, and
when he least expected it, they surprised him singing and dancing  among a
company of peasants, who were together in  an  inn, and were making merry.
This event, so sudden and unforeseen, and  at the same time so dreadful in  its
consequences, struck him in such a manner, that  giving a great cry, he became
altogether  stupid and insensible, and was seized without  the  least  resistance.
They carried him to Glaucau, where he was brought before a council of war and
received sentence as a deserter.  He suffered himself to be led  and  disposed of
at the will of those about hiin, without uttering a word, or giving the least sign
that he knew what had happened,  or would happen to him.   During all the time
that he was  in custody, he neither eat, nor  drank, nor slept, nor had any evacu-
tion.   Some of his comrades were sent to see him ; after that he  was visited
by some officers of his corps, then by some priests ;  but still continued in the
same state, without discovering the least signs of  sensibility.  Promises, entrea- 
Fear.
29
from the cause of danger,  is not owing to  fear,  which, as we
have  shown, would rivet him to the spot;  but to hope, which
naturally prompts to action.*  This it will be seen is in perfect
accordance  with one  of the  physiological principles  which
have  been laid down, viz : that violent  contraction  will  be
followed by  a spontaneous relaxation which is  generally in
ties and threatenings were  equally ineffectual.  The physicians who were con-
sulted upon his case, were of opinion  that he was in  a state of hopeless idiocy.
It was first suspected that thoss appearances were feigned; but these suspicions
necessarily gave  way, when it was known that he took no sustenance, and that
the involuntary functions of nature were  in a great measure suspended.  After
some time, they knocked off his fetters and left him at liberty to go whither ha
would.  He received his liberty with the same insensibility that he had showed
upon other occasions.   He remained fixed and immovable.   His eyes turned
wildly  here and there, without taking cognizance of any object, and the muscles
of his face were fallen and  fixed like those of a dead body.  Being left to  him-
self, he passed twenty day3 in this condition, without eating, drinking or having
any evacuation, and died on the 20th day.  He  had  been  sometimes heard to
fetch deep sighs ; and once he rushed with great violence on a soldier, who had
a mug  of liquor in his hand and forced it from  him, and  having  drank off the
liquor with great eagerness, let the mug drop to the ground." The foregoing fur-
nishes one of the most remarkable cases of genuine fear and its consequences on
record.  In this case of  the Poland^r, no  relaxation followed  the  previous con-
traction of the capillaries, consequently no hope sprang up in his bosom.

   *  The following case in  exemplification of the  doctrine  of  the  text may be
somewhat amusing:
   " Charles Gustavus, King of Sweeden, was besieging Prague, when a boor of
most extraordinary visage, desired admittance to his tent, and being allowed en.
trance, offered by way of amusement  to the King to devour a whole hog of one
hundred weight  in his preseucu    The old General Koningsmarc, who stood by
the King's side, and who, soldier as he was, had not got rid of the prejudices of
his childhood, hinted to his  royal master that the peasant ought to be burnt as a
Borcerer.   " Sire," said the  fellow, irritated at the remark, " if your majesty will
but make  that old gentleman lake off his  sword  and  spurs, 1  will eat him im-
mediately, before I begin the hog."   General Koningsmarc (who at the  head
of a body of Swedes, had just performed wonders against the Austrians, and who
was  looked upon  as one of the bravest men of the age,) could not stand this pro-
posal, especially as it was accompanied by a most hideous expansion of the fright-
ful peasant's jaws.  Without uttering a word, the veteran general turned suddenly
round,  ran out of the court, and thought himself not safe until he had arrived at
his quarters, where he remained  twenty-four hours, locked up securely, befora
he ha \  got fully  rid of tha panic wn'ch had so severejy affected him."
                  P 
30
The Passions.
proportion to the previous contraction.  Now when the ves-
sels, which contracted under the influence of fear, begin to
relax,  hope springs up in the mind of the sufferer, and his
efforts to escape will be in proportion to his previous appre-
hension of danger.   Without this spontaneous  relaxation
of vessels, no ray  of hope  could corns:  unyielding and
unutterable despair would have entire possession: the func-
tions  of life would cease, and the person  would die: he
would be literally  " scared to  death."  To carry out  the
analogy ; it is not necessary  that the  physical cause of fear
should be present, or actually exist.   The emotion, as in the
instances already adduced, of sensations  produced in  the
absence of their appropriate  physical causes, by the mere
action of the vessels of the part experiencing them, may be
produced by the simple apprehension of danger, when there
is no real cause for it, as is the case with persons who " bor-
row trouble," or are frightened at " chimeras dire," ghosts
and hobgoblins.  A ludicrous exemplification of this truth,
many  will recollect, is given  in the narrative of the life and
adventures of Don Quixotte.
                          JOY.
  This passion is  the  converse of grief in every respect,
whether physically  or morally considered.  Joy is a  pleas-
urable ; grief, a painful  emotion.  Joy brightens the eye,
prompts to activity, and renders mind  and body more in-
tensaly alive to every impression, and causes every function
of bath to bs  peformed with alacrity  and  delight: Grief
bedims the eye, diffuses a torpor and  listlessness  over body
and mind, rendering both indifferent to external impressions
and passing events, indisposing to motion and causing every
function, corporeal and mental, to languish.
  We have stated that mental impressions operate on the
brain just as physical impressions do on  the organs of sense ;
the pleasurable, producing relaxation,  and those  that are
painful, contraction of the vessels of  the part  subject to
their  influence ; and it is a fact that other organs are brought 
Joy.
31
by sympathy into  the same condition.   In  grief, the  cause
being painful and external, the attention is abstracted  from
everything within  and personal, and is fixed upon that cause :
hence the vessels of the brain forego their  resistance, yield,
are overdistended, and,  as  has been laid down as an axiom
in physiology, that the  function of an organ is invariably
disturbed, suspended or destroyed when its vessels arc preter-
naturally and inordinately distended, so we find the function
of the brain is suspended  from that cause, and  therefore it
does not transmit the requisite and wonted degree of ner-
vous power to the other  organs of the body, and on this
account their vessels do not feel  the  impulse of the fluids
within, and  of course do not resist, but suffer themselves to
be too much distended for the  due performance of their
appropriate functions; in grief, the vessels  of the heart, the
lungs, the stomach, the muscles, the  organs of locomotion
and also those of the organs of secretion, sympathising with
those of  the brain, become overdistended;  hence,  the slow,
sluggish  or intermitting pulse;  the  interrupted breathing,
with frequent sighing; the loss of appetite and digestion ;
the indisposedness  to action, as well as the suspension of the
ordinary secretions.  In joy, the  very reverse of this takes
place.   Under the influence of this passion the vessels  of
the heart, the lungs and the muscles,  sympathizing  with
those of the brain, relax;  hence, the bounding pulse, the
heaving bosom, the nimble foot, and the " leaping for joy."
  Joy, like grief or  fear, when excessive, may produce the
most deleterious effects, as in the case of Diagoras,  who
died from excess of joy, on  the crowning of his three sons
as victors at the Olympic games.  Joy, when inordinate, is
in fact, more dangorous than any of the depressing passions,
on account of the increased energy  with which the  heart
acts ; which, by forcing an  undue quantity of blood into the
relaxed and yielding vessels of the brain, causes them to be
so distended or overdistended, as to produce inflammation
in its substance or membranes, or a suspension, temporary
or permanent, of its functions. 
32
The  Passions.
                           ANGER.
   Anger, of all  the passions,  is the most displeasing.   Its
 cause is external, and always painful;  and, therefore, in-
 duces relaxation of the vessels of the brain, and consequent-
 ly, the admission of a greater quantity of arterial blood into
 that  organ, which,  as has  been said, always increases the
 function of an organ, provided it be moderate, but if im-
 moderate or  inordinate,  it  will suspend  or  annihilate its
 function.  In  anger, the vessels of  the brain relax, and re-
 ceive more red blood :* hence, the powers of the mind are
 increased.   The vessels of the  heart and of the muscles, the
 organs of locomotion, sympathizing  with those of the brain,
 also relax, and more red blood is admitted into them ; hence,
 the increase of their activity, besides an increased  amount
 of nervous energy,  (the production of which, like that of
 thought, is  also a  function of the brain,) is transmitted
 through the nerves to the  heart, and other muscles.  Under
 the influence of this  passion, if moderate, all the powers and
 faculties of the mind and body  are augmented; if immoder-
 ate, they may  be, and  sometimes are, suspended or  destroy-
ed.  John Hunter,  one of the  brightest ornaments of the
 medical profession,  is  said  to have died  almost instanta-
 neously, from a sudden gust of anger.f
  * Red blood is that; which circulates in the arteries ; black blood that which
circulates in the veins.  Red and arterial, applied to blood, arp synonymous, as
are also black and venous.

  t Although this passion may be productive of fatal effects, yet it may be, and
often is employed either by accident or design,  as a powerful remedial agent, of
which I have known many instances.  A woman in New Hampshire, who was
exceedingly troubled for breath, 6aid to  her husband, in her anguish, "Oh! I
must die ; I can not breathe any longer!"  " Never mind, my dear," was his
consoling reply, " you need not breathe; nobody wants you to breathe any lon-
ger !"  It is hardly necessary to add that the lady made a most rapid recovery
and liveid many years to be the companion of her tender spouse. 
                    Hope—Love.                     'S3

                          HOFK.

   Hope i3 a pleasing passion,  and,  as  we have  seen, very
generally  springs as a matter of necessity from the cessation
of fear, and  psrhaps it  always arisss in this way, for we
first think of what may be b3n3ficial to us;  then we desire
to possess it; then we  set about the method of acquiring it,
whereupon, the obstacles to its attainment presenting them-
selves, and being disagreeable, produce contraction of the
vessels of some  portion of the brain, and fear is the result.
If this contraction be followed by a spontaneous relaxation,
or  obviated by a discovery,  that the obstacles  may be re-
removed  or surmounted, hope springs up, and all our ener-
gies are exerted  to  procure the  desired object.  Hope in-
creases all the powers and  faculties of the mind as well as
the functions of the body, and is never dangerous, either in
its direct  or indirect consequences; it is, therefore, as  " an
anchor to the soul, sure  and steadfast."
                          LOVE.

   Love is a pleasurable passion,  and  will consequently  pro-
duce  a relaxation of the vessels  of the brain, whether it is
excited by an internal  cause, as an overweaning self-conceit,
or by an  external object.  It  is, however, very apt to have
some  other passion associated with,  or  engrafted upon it,
which greatly  modifies its effects on the  mind, and also on
the system generally.   When obstacles present themselves,
which appear  to  be too formidable to be overcome or re-
moved, the apprehension of losing  the object beloved, ex-
cites  fear, and  we have  the sighing, desponding lover.  If
a rival presents himself, anger  is  roused,  and we have
jealousy ; if hope, then we have the ecstasy, the very poetry
of love.   All the other passions seem to be mere modifica-
tions  of the foregoing, and their influences on the mind or
body might be easily described, by successively analyzing
them, together with their complications. 
34
The Passions.
              GOVERNMENT OF THC PASSIONS.
   In all educational movements, the passions  present some
 very important considerations, which divide themselves into
 two classes.  1st.  Those which regard the government and
 control of the passions themselves  ; and 2ndly, those which
 regard the use which  is to be made of them in strengthening
 the mind,  and rendering its operations more  vigorous and
 efficient in the attainment and application of knowledge.
   First: the control and government of the passions.   It is
 admitted by all, that the passions are involuntary ; how then
 shall they  be controlled or governed ?  How shall a man
 become  the master of his  own spirit ?  The  rule is  very
 short, comprehensive  and  infallible.   If the passions be in-
 voluntary,  their external  signs notwithstanding, arc  ever
 subject to  the will.   Let  these be withheld, and the emo-
 tion either ceases, or readily  submits  to the regulations of
 reason :  or what is still more efficacious, let the individual
 under the influence of  any passion  determine to manifest the
 external  signs of  its  opposite, or  antagonistic emotion.*
 For instance, let him that is angry, expand  his brows,  and
 compel his features to  assume the external signs of pleasure,
 or of laughter, and the tiger instantly retires to his kennel,
 and  the  probability is that the subject of the experiment
 will soon  find himself in the  laughing mood,—at least the
 propensity to strike will have ceased.   To  reverse the  po-
sition, let him that is pleased, or disposed to laugh,  knit his
 brows, and assume the expression, attitude  and gestures of
wrath, and the  propensity  to smile will soon  subside.  If
ever so well pleased, let " the monarch  frown, and from his
eyeballs flash the living fire ;"—soon he will be in  no very
 "melting mood."  The pupil must be instructed when he feels
the first kindlings of anger, to expand the  brows, be silent
  * A friend has referred me to Seneca's morals for some facts, in relation to
this subject; but I have not been able to lay my hand on that book, and as it is
some fifty years since I read it, I cannot say whether the above suggestion
have been derived from it or not. 
Use of the Passions.
35
or use  soft words and gentle  motions, and he will easily
quell or control the rising storm, as reason shall deem best.
When it is desirable to control or regulate any other pas-
sion, the same rule should be followed.
  The second consideration.  What uses shall be  made of
the passions in strengthening the mind and rendering its op-
erations more vigorous and efficient  in  the  attainment and
use of knowledge?  The axiom in physiology, that  an  in-
creased determination of blood to an organ, if moderate or
within certain limits, increases its  function, will greatly as-
sist us in arriving  at just conclusions  upon  this part  of our
subject.   Now the production of thought and  nervous en-
ergy is the function of the brain, how then is its function to
be increased ?   The  answer is, by rendering its circulation
of blood more active.  What passions  then shall  be called
in to aid us in the  production  of this effect ?  Not grief,
certainly, for although it causes a relaxation of the vessels
of the brain, and consequently  an increased determination
of blood to that organ ; yet by fixing  the  attention exclu-
sively upon the object of bereavement, it causes the sufferer
to disregard all other matters, and therefore produces torpor
and inactivity of body and mind, causing  the functions of
both to languish, it is therefore unfavorable to  the improve-
ment  of either.   Neither shall  we invoke the passion of
fear,  for that, as we have  seen, produces  contraction  not
only of the vessels of the brain, but of all other organs  un-
der  its  immediate  control, and  thereby paralyzing every
effort.
   Than  fear,  no other  passion,  if we  except grief, is so
hostile to mental improvement.   Here  the subject of corpo-
real punishment as a  mean promotive of  educational pur-
poses, is forced  upon  our consideration.   It has  been, and
is perhaps even now,  a pretty  generally received opinion
that the rod or the ferrule is an important if not an essential
agent in the education  of youth; it  has, however, been,
particularly of late, objected  to by  many as debasing the
mind by bringing it under  the  influence of a slavish fear, 
30
The  Passions.
 and in this point of view it  is, we  conceive, altogether ob-
 jectionable upon the principles laid down  in this treatise.
 That the rod in the hand  of a judicious teacher has some-
 times  answered a valuable purpose, we are ready to admit;
 but the true principle of its  agency  has we believe been
 entirely  overlooked—that it  has  often stimulated  many
 an idle boy to get his lesson, who would have  utterly neg-
 lected it, is not to be denied, but upon our  principles  it  is
 not the fear or dread  of the instrument, but the hope of es-
 caping its torture, which has prompted the idler to exertion
 and study.  Fear stupifies  and paralyzes : Hope exhilerates
 and excites to action.
   All  infliction of corporeal  punishment, except for faults of
 a  criminal nature, such as  lying,  &c,  should be banished
 from our schools; because  it  is in the power of every  teach-
 er who is  duly qualified to  excite hopes of a higher and no-
 bler description, than that  which only  looks  to an  immunity
 from bodily pain.*   Notwithstanding, we believe that it con-
 sists with  the duty of the instructor very often to  place be-
 fore the mind of the pupil, the inconveniences and disadvan-
 tages which inevitably result from ignorance, as well  as  the
 benefits  which spring from knowledge, for  the purpose  of
 arousing in him the hope of  avoiding the former,  or  of ob-
 taining the latter by a diligent application to study.  Anger,
 as it has been  shown,  increases the activity  of the mind  as

  * Upon this point, the writer speaks  from considerable  experience, having
 taught a number of different schools,  and some reputed to be very unruly and
 disorderly during eight or ten winters in succession  without inflicting corporeal
 punishment upon a single scholar.  By treating the elder and more advanced
pupils with a sort of companionable civility and politeness, and the younger with
 paternal kindness  and gentleness, and avowing the determination to turn any
 one out  of school, who should refuse,  after suitable  admonition and rebuke, to
comply with certain rules and regulations, which were always written and read
 once or twice a week, he found no difficulty in reducing even very turbulent
 schools to a regularity, bordrring upon  that of military discipline.  " Children are
 men and women in miniature," and if  treated as such at school, and in the fam-
 ily circle, will, when fully  grown, have a higher sense of their own responsibili-
 ties, and a nobler bearing towards their fellow creatures. 
Use of the Passions.
37
well as  body, but on account of its immoral tendencies, it
should never be employed in the education of youth.  Al-
though we may " be angry and sin not," yet the motives to
action suggested by this passion are never magnanimous.
Anger, by circumscribing and concentrating  the energies
of the mind upon a single object, neither enlarges the under-
standing, nor prompts to deeds  of glorious memory.  Was
it the wrath of Xantippe, or the patient endurance and un-
flinching fortitude of Socrates, her husband, upon whose de-
voted head  she once  " rained an horrible  tempest," that
caused her name to be handed down to  posterity through a
lapse of more than two thousand years ?
  Love, when  conjoined to  hope, increases the powers of
the mind ; but it is the love of knowledge, and not of beauty,
an affection for himself, and  not for  woman,  which  the
teacher  should endeavor to excite in the mind of the pupil,
for  the  learner  always makes most  proficiency when
fond  of his  instructor, and  ardently in  love with  the
science to be learned;  because  we are so  constituted that
we find  no difficulty in fixing our thoughts upon that about
which we love to think, or exerting ourselves to do that
which is pleasing to the being whom  we love.  In regard
to competition, emulation, rivalry, praise, profit  or  reward,
we shall only observe with Sir Roger De Coverly, that much
may be  said on both sides.
              ACTIVITY, AND  SIZE  OF ORGANS.

  Phrenologists tell us  that the  power of an organ depends
upon its activity and size; and if their doctrine that the brain
is a  congeries of organs, giving rise to certain  faculties or
manifestations of mind, be true, it then behooves us to search
out the circumstances by which activity and  size may be
increased.  It is a well  known  fact that exercise  causes a
greater degree of developement of the part exercised ; in
proof of which the arm  of the black mith  is often and  fa-
miliarly alluded to; and this is  explainable upon the princi-
ple that the performance of function causes a greater deter- 
38            Activity, and Size of Organs.

mination of blood to the organ performing it, and as the blood
contains the material of which the organ itself is  composed,
the capillaries, whose business it is to  construct  and repair
the organ,  do themselves participate in the increased activity
of those which  perform its  peculiar  function, and in that
way cause its bulk to increase pari passu with the increase
of function.  According to  the  doctrine laid  down in this
paper, all that is necessary in order to produce an increase
of function is to cause the  transmission of  a moderately
increased quantity of blood to an organ; and  this will hold
good whether it is an organ of motion, sensation or secre-
tion ; and  we may  add that the performance of  function
causes the  requisite quantity of blood to be supplied in pro-
portion to the demand, so long  as the increased  activity of
the organ is kept up.
  We shall now, for  the  sake of illustration, assume  with
phrenologists that the brain is composed of a  considera-
ble number of organs, which give rise to as  many distinct
faculties of the  mind,  and proceed to inquire how the prin-
ciples, which have been laid down, can be applied so as to
increase the activity and size of the respective organs.   The
main principle, it will  be recollected, is, that  an  increased
quantity of blood must be determined to an  organ in order
to increase its function and size.  As this part of our  sub-
ject more particularly regards the intellect, which a  man is
supposed to have always about him, we shall pursue the inves-
tigat'on on principles purely intellectual, irrespective of those
physical agents,  as wine, opium, and  other stimulants which
have been  hinted at, and which are  sometimes resorted  to
for the  promotion  of  mental activity ; but which may not
always be at command; and if they were, should be avoided,
because their effects are too evanescent to accomplish  the
object we have in view, and moreover tend  to deteriorate
and  ultimately  destroy the functions both of  body and of
mind.   It becomes necessary, in this  view, to  advert again
to the influence of attention in modifying the actions of the
system.  In a former  part of this pnper we have considered 
How to increase them.
39
its agency in the production of the voluntary  motions, and
showed that it was the principal or sole agent  employed  by
nature to connect  the will with certain muscles termed vol-
untary,  and  briefly  alluded,  by way of analogy, to  its
power in enabling us to get a control over the actions of the
capillary vessels of the brain, by which we were enabled to
carry on voluntary thinking, upon any subject on which we
chose  to think.   At present, as in the former instance, we
shall contiue to  employ the term attention not in its ordinary
acceptation, but in its logical sense, which is, "the immediate
direction of the  mind to a subject."
   Now the actions of the body are carried on in  health so
stealthily as not to awaken consciousness in the mind, and
therefore, an  individual so long  as  he is in perfect health,
does not know that his heart  beats, or  arteries  pulsate,  or
that the process of digestion, or  indeed any other, is going
on within his  body.  In health,  the  action of the  heart is
perfectly balanced by the resistance  of the capillaries  over
the whole body; but if the attention be directed to and fixed
upon any particular part, the  minute vessels  in that  part,
upon the principle, that the stronger  external,  effaces the
weaker  internal impression,  forego  their resistance, and
admit more red blood, which not only exalts its sensibility,
and therefore enables  it to perceive impressions which be-
fore were imperceptible; but  stimulates the  vessels to  an
increased action, or resistance, which now becomes capable
of awakening  consciousness  in  the  mind.  If a person  fix
the attention upon any part of the body,*  to  any  spot  for
instance, not larger than a  sixpence  over the knee-pan, if
you please,  which is, perhaps,  more  free  than almost any
other  part,  from  vessels that pulsate, he will in a few  min-
utes, especially if  the  experiment be repeated a few times,
perceive a sense of throbbing, which  had never  been felt
before ;  and every one is familiar with the fact, that when

  * If the attention be closely directed to either hand, a change in the circula-
tion, and consequently in the feeling of that organ will h« immediately perceived. 
40            Actimlu, and Size of Organs.

we see or hear a person cough or yawn, the  attention is
unconsciously turned inward, upon the throat or muscles of
the jaw, we soon experience  in ourselves the same sensa-
tions as were experienced by him who is the subject of our
observation; to relieve which, the desire to cough or yawn
becomes almost, and in some cases, quite irresistible.  Even
the sight of food will  make  the hungry dog slaver as  was
remarked by Darwin.   Upon this principle, we explain the
fact, that almost every medical student, especially if he  be
of  a nervous or hypochondriacal temperament,  feels  in a
greater or less degree, the symptoms  of the  diseases about
which  he  reads, or upon  which he  meditates.  A young
gentleman, a student of medicine, called on me one evening,
after hearing my lecture on dropsy  of the chest, and asked
my opinion as to the propriety of an immediate performance
of the operation, for evacuating  the water with which  he
was persuaded his thorax was filled.   I explained to  him
the nature of his case, and heard no more of it.  A moderate
determination of blood  to an organ, we have said, is all that is
necessary in order to increase its function, and by increase
of function, to augment its volume; and as  we have  seen
that fixing the attention of the mind upon  any  particular
part of the body, causes more blood'to flow into that part, it
follows that we may by this mode  of procedure, increase
at will the  functions of the different organs in  the brain,
upon whose activity, the various faculties of the mind de-
pend, and furthermore,  that by increasing the  activity of
function, we come at length to augment the volume, size and
power of the organs themselves.*   Asa proof that we pos-
sess this power of calling any faculty into action, by fixing
the attention upon the site of its appropriate organ,  I would
invite a phrenologist, or any one  acquainted with the  lo-
cality of the different organs, to fix his attention upon the

  * The author is quite confident that in soms points the configuration of his
own head has undergone a change, which he thinks has been effected by this pro-
cess. 
How to increase them.
41
organ of individuality, and see if he does not find his mind
instantly engaged in  considering  individuals,  persons or
things ;—upon the organ of locality, time, form, size, weight,
color, or tune, and see if his mind be not immediately em-
ployed in forming and considering ideas  suggested by those
several organs ;—also upon the organs appropriated to the
sentiments, as benevolence, conscientiousness, etc., and see
if the same results do not follow ; and moreover, I believe
he will  find that the same doctrine  holds equally  in regard
to the propensities.   Let him for instance,  fix his attention
on the organ of acquisitiveness, and  he  will soon be think-
ing of wealth, or devising the  means of acquiring it;—upon
destructiveness, and  he will  be rioting in bloodshed and
slaughter; and if every individual in an assembly or crowd,
were to fasten his attention upon his  organ of combative-
ness, there would soon be quarreling, and perhaps fighting.
To make use  of this principle in the education of the organs.
or the acquisition of knowledge, I would suggest  that  when
we would get a complete idea of an object, let the organ of
individuality be first invoked, in the manner proposed, next
locality, next form, size, weight,  color, order and number,
and  we shall  have  a perfect  conception or notion of the
thing itself, and also in most cases of its various circumstances,
connections, relations, &c.   We shall  in fact have made a
complete analysis of it, and when  we would recall  it for
subsequent  reflection, we  have  only  to make the organs
repeat the same actions, and the same complex idea will be
instantly recognized  as before  the mind's eye.   The various
organs of the  brain are rendered relatively active by an
impulse from within, i. e. an  increased determination of blood
to them, and then they will form  the  ideas which are con-
genial to the function  of the organ rendered thus active.
This  mode of activity  the phrenologists term conception,
and is nearly allied to fancy, or imagination ; and differs from
memory in this, that the ideas  suggested in this  way are in-
dependent of the will, whereas  in exercising the memory
upon anv subject which had been previously in  the mind, 
42
Education of the Senses.
 we have only to make the same organs by an effort of the
 will perform  the  same actions as were performed by them
 in the first instance, and then  the same ideas, and the same
 trains of thought  will pass through the mind.
                EDUCATION OF THE SENSES.
   The following remarks upon the education of the  senses
 will conclude the  subject.   As the  senses are the primeval
 inlets of  knowledge—the  savans that collect all the materi-
 als which are to furnish employment for the mind  during
 its  sojourn  in its tenement of clay, the  importance  of the
 subject would seem to challenge more time, attention, and
 ability, than we can give it; but we entertain the  hope that
 it will commend itself to some one who will do it  ample
 justice.   It  is said that the senses of smell and taste, furnish
 no materials for the mind to reflect on.  If " perfumes as of
 Eden  flowed sweetly along"—if ambrosia or  nectar, the
 fabled food  and drink of the gods, rested upon  the tongue,
 neither the exquisite flavor of  the one, nor the  enchanting
 aroma of the other,  would leave an  impression that could
 be recalled for the scrutiny of the  mind.*  Placed as these
 senses are at the entrance  of those passages through  which
 food and air, the  extraneous  substances essential  to  our
 physical  existence are admitted, they seem designed by na-
 ture to perform  the office of sentinels to advise us that sub-
 stances hurtful or  offensive  to the body are  present;  and
which if permitted to pass these portals of the system, may
disturb its economy, and ultimately dislodge the  immortal
resident,—therefore, as soon as the  danger is  past, they are
of no further  use.  This  surely is in perfect accordance
 with the  frugality of nature, which  does nothing  in  vain;—
never comes short and seldom exceeds.  In the education of
  Comb in his Essays, on Phrenology, says :
  * " The functions of this sense, (taste ) are to produce sensations of taste alone
and these  cannot be recalled by the will.  The functions of smell are confined
to the producing of agreeable or disagreeable sensations, &c. These cannot be
reproduced by an effort of the will.'' 
                Education of the Senses.             43

the senses, I am persuaded that  an important  principle has
been overlooked, and consequently a great error committed
by neglecting the consideration that they are all in the  per-
formance of their functions, connected with muscles, whose
actions are cognizable to the mind, and in a greater or less
degree under the control  of the will, and that without due
attention to this fact, the education of the senses can never
be perfected.   In regard to the sense of smell, no odor is
perceived, however strongly impregnated or even saturated,
the atmosphere may be with its effluvia, unless the muscles
of respiration are called into action, and inspiration takes
place, as in ordinary breathing, involuntary it may be, or
voluntary as when  we smell of a substance, with a view to
ascertain its peculiar odor, or to make some nice distinction,
or to enjoy the voluptuousness of some particular fragrance.
It is averred by some  whose sense of smell has been cul-
tivated, or rather educated, that they can recall the odor of
any substance  which  they have examined in this way, and
reflect upon it as they can upon any other sensation.  This
I doubt not, is  almost, if not entirely the result of education;
for with many persons, and I  have reason to believe, with
a  great majority of mankind, it is not  so, owing to their
having neglected  to bestow the  same  attention  upon this
sense, as upon  those of sight and touch.  If this sense is to
be educated, it must be done as in all  other  cases, by the
efforts of the will.   We must first desire knowledge ; then
labor for its attainment.   Much the same views hold good
in the regard to the sense of the taste.   That sense remains
dormant, unless the muscles connected with, or subservient
to it  are put in action.  For instance, if the mouth be open-
ed, and  a piece of sugar, or a  piece of aloes, the diagonals
of sapidity, be put upon the tongue, no other than a mere
mechanical impression,  will be made  upon  the  organ of
taste, no flavor will be perceived so long as the tongue is
kept motionless; but the instant the slightest movement is
made, the characteristic taste of either  will be perceived,
and the  only way in which this sense, like that of smell, can 
44
Education of the  Senses.
 be educated, is to fix the attention upon the tongue, and then
 cause it to perform  motions as in tasting, and to notice
 those particular motions in  each individual case or experi-
 ment, and  when  the substance tasted,  is removed, if we
 would recall the perception  of its flavor, we must cause the
 tongue to  perform again the  same motions which it did,
 when the sapid body was  present,  and again the  peculiar
 flavor of the substance  tasted will  be  perceived.*   In this
 manner the sense of taste, as well  as  smell, is  brought to
 such exquisite  perfection, as  in the case of cooks and apoth-
 ecaries, that they  are enabled  to analyze by the odor and
 flavor, the most complicated dishes and medicines with  all
 but chemical accuracy.
                 EDUCATION  OF THE EYE.
   This noble organ is a  perfectly formed optical  instrument,
 endowed with vitality.   Its external shell is composed of the
 cornea and sclerotica, the former, situated in front, is perfect-
 ly transparent for the admission of the  rays of light, and is
 also more convex, which augments  its converging power.
 The centre of  the  cornea  corresponds to a  small circular
 spot or foramen in the posterior part of the retina, (foramen
 centrale, or foramen of Soemmering, so called from its discov-
 erer,) whose margin in the perfect eye is of a bright yellow
 color, and in whose centre is the appearance of a hole about
 the size of a pin's head,  which is according  to  Amnion, a
 mere depression of the surface of the retina occasioned by
 the more intimate union at this point  of the choroid and reti-
 na by the intermedium of vessels, and  is consequently, ac-
 cording to the  doctrine  laid  down in this treatise, the most
 sensitive  part of the retina, the sensibility of a part being in
 proportion to its vascularity.   This  minute central point of
the foramen receives that single pencil of light which strikes
 and enters the centre of the cornea perpendicularly to its
 surface, and passes on in a direct line to the point  above-

  * It will be necessary to repeat this experiment on the taste, and also on the
smell, a great many times, before the result above mcutioned, will be obtained. 
                          Sight.                       45

mentioned,  (the foramen ccntralc.) without being at all re-
fracted in its passage through the denser media of the cor-
nea and  humours.   A line passing through  the ceulre of
the cornea at a right angle with its  external surface, tut.I
terminating in that foramen, may be called the axis of  the
eye, or  the  axis of vision, as  it may be referred to in
relation to the organ itself or its function, and which is al-
ways directed with great  exactness towards the object or
point looked at.  The point in the object, at which wc look,
and  from which the pencil of light entering the eye in  the
manner just described is reflected, is the most luminous, and
consequently most  perfectly  seen, and therefore,  may be
termed  by  way of distinction,  the point of vision.  It is
indeed the only part that is  seen  with perfect accuracy:
and  this is as it should be ; for, as wc  can  attend to  but one
thing at a time, nature designed that we should see perfectly
one  thing only at a time, but as every object upon which
we look, or upon which the eye  rests, is composed of parts,
or surrounded by  other things, it was no  Jess the design of
nature  that  while  the  eye was busied with a single point,
light reflected from other points about it, should be admitted
into the organ, and make impressions  upon the retina :n the
vicinity  of  I he foramen of Soemmering,  which, although
faint, compared with those made upon the  foramen  itself,
were nevertheless, sufficiently strong, to  acquaint the indi-
vidual with their existence, and to excite in him a desire to
examine them: a desire which will  prompt him  to move the
eye, and direct the axis  of vision to and  successively over
every part,  that all portions may be seen and examined with
the  same accuracy.  When, therefore, we would see an
object, in the most  perlect  manner, and get a complete „dea
of it, we must move  the eye, so as  to  carry the : xis of
vision over every  part of it; and  when th,s .s done w-th
suitable  care and attention, we can hardly fail of geifng a
correct  and complete  notion of it, comprising all its parts
and properties, as color, shape and size, and in tact, of its
relations to, and connections with, other things.  If the thing
              t'' 
40
Education  of the Senses.
 surveyed, be large or complex, it may be  analyzed or di-
 vided into parts, each of which in succession, may be ex-
 amined in the same manner.   Thus, the  eye may be edu-
 cated, and made capable of increasing to an inconceivable
 degree  the amount of knowledge,  exact and definite, that
 may be acquired through the  medium of this noble sense,
 which seems to confer on man a sort of ubiquity, that ena-
 bles him to take cognizance of every object within the cir-
 cle of his vision, as  if in his immediate presence.   Without
 an apparatus of motion, the  eye,  though a perfect optical
 instrument, would  be of little  use,  because when immove-
 ably fixed for any  considerable time  on  any  object, even
 the point of vision becomes more and more dim and obscure,
 until the power of perception is entirely lost, and the organ,
 so far as that particular object is concerned, is useless; but
 the slightest movement  restores its power.  This accords
 fully with a law of the system, which has been already ad-
 verted to and explained, to wit: that a part to which a
 stimulus has  been constantly  or repeatedly applied, loses
its susceptibility to that  particular impression.
  Besides being an optical, the eye is also  a  mathematical
instrument.   It is the quadrant which the God of nature has
bestowed on man for the purpose of enabling him to calcu-
late heights, distances and magnitude, by  simply  noticing
the degree of contraction exercised  by certain musles em-
polyed in carrying the axis of the eye and of vision from one
object to another ;  or from one part of an object to another
part;—or of  lengths and distance, by carrying it from one
end of a thing to the other ;—or from place to place.   With-
out the trouble of making actual admeasurements, the well
educated and experienced eye is capable of  making all these
 estimates, with an accuracy sufficient to answer all the ordi-
 nary purposes of life, and which, with extraordinary culti-
 vation, will fall very little  short of mathematical certainty.
 The joiner  or carpenter, for instance, who has been in the
 habit of measuring with the eye, will tell you at a glance
 the length of a piece of timber as  correctly  as a  carelc^ 
Sight.
47
 measurer would do with his rule, and the experienced eye
 of the engineer enables him to judge with astonishing accu-
 racy of the height or distance of an object without his sextant
 or quadrant.   I once knew a tailor, noted for his good fits,
 who had brought this power  of measuring by the eye to
 such perfection, that he seldom, if ever,  had recourse to his
 measure for the cut of a coat; as an evidence  of the fact,
 he cut the uniform coats for a whole company of infantry,
 belonging  to the town in which I resided, without a single
 failure, or even an indifferent fit.  He required but a minute's
 survey of  each soldier.   Brown, the celebrated cutter of
 full length  profile likenesses, is another example in point.
   The eye  takes cognizance of the  color, size,  height, dis-
 tance and relations of things.   As color has little utility in
 the great system of nature,  we shall confine our remarks
 mostly to the manner in  which  height and distance, shape
 and magnitude are judged of through the instrumentality of
 this organ.   Without finding fault with  the explanations of
 this matter given by others, we shall bring forward a the-
 ory, (perhaps, we should  rather say, hypothesis,) for which
 we will  bespeak a candid consideration, and only ask that
 it should be taken for what it is worth.  We ought to pre-
 mise that the people of civilized nations, have by  convention
 or law,  established certain measures  or  standards for the
 admeasurement of space, and  the magnitude of  the things
 which it contains ; and we believe  that the  mind,  in judging
 of these matters by the eye, does so  by noticing the degree
 of contraction exercised by the muscles, employed in carry-
 ing the axis of vision from one designated  point to another,
 or from one end to the other, of one or another of these es-
 tablished measures or standards.   For instance, we learn
 to judge of a foot, or yard, with the eye, by  fixing the axis of
 vision on one end of a twelve inch rule or a yard-stick, and
then carrying it to the other extremity, taking care to notice
 the degree  of muscular contraction necessary to  effect this ;
or of an  inch, or any other fractional part of the  measure,
by carrying the axis of  vision from  one  point to another. 
Education of the Senses.
When this  has been practised upon for a  little time, the
mind has obtained a standard which approximates to accu-
racy in proportion  to the  number of times, and degree of
attention with which the experiment has been tried.    This
standard and mode of judging  are acquired unconsciously
in early life, and  in a manner  which  has,  perhaps,  never
been  thought of  in  our riper  years-   In the same  way,
standards for greater distances, as rods, furlongs and  miles,
quarters or halves of miles, are acquired.  In order to  a cor-
rect understanding of the  theory  we  propose, we should
premise that there is a point  upon which the axis  of  vision
always rests, and  from  which it imperceptibly, but we be-
lieve, invariably starts when  the eye is about to commence
its survey for the measurement of the height, distance, or
magnitude of any object.   This point, we shall endeavor to
ascerta.n.   The position which an individual in an erect pos-
ture naturally assumes, is that, in which all parts of his body
are so perfectly adjusted, with reference to the centre of gravi-
ty, that the erect position is  maintained with the least possible
exertion of the muscles, and  we may conceive of the possi-
bility of this  adjustment being so perfectly accurate, that
the perpendicular might be  maintained without any volun-
tary muscular effort whatever.   The power and the  habit
of  this adjustment, were  acquired  unconsciously  in  in-
fancy  and early  life, and  are constantly practised upon in
riper years, to the end of our being, with a mere conscious-
ness of the  fact,  that we possess them.   Again, the sponta-
neous action of the muscles attached to the eye-ball of a
person in the  position just  described, would,  in the absence
of all volition, bring the axes of the  eyes to correspond in
drection with a horizontal  line, crossing the perpendicular
at right angles, so that the  axis of vision  will fall upon  an
object which is exactly  on  the same level with the eye.  To
illustrate : suppose a person  situated on an exact level, and
in the posture just described, with his eyes  just five feet
above that level, the axis of his vision would spontaneously
rest upon a visible object at the same altitude with the eye, 
Sight.
49
i. e. just five feet above the level.   The truth of this propo-
sition is not in reality at all affected by the distance which
intervenes  between the object and the eye,  although, from
the process of foreshortening it, may be apparently so.   In
relation to  this point d'appui of vision, another considera-
tion presents itself, which is, that the " globe or ball of the
eye is not  exactly spherical; the line forming the visual
axis exceeds its transverse diameter," and  " is parallel in the
two eyes," consequently, an object cannot be looked at with
both eyes at the same time. Although it may be simulta-
neously perceived by both, one eye only looks at, sees and
notices it.   This however, holds true only in regard to a cer-
tain distance ; for, notwithstanding, the correspondency of the
axes of the eyes, yet, when all volition is suspended, the spon-
taneous action of the muscles of the eye balls will produce a
concurrence of their axes, and cause them both to rest upon
the same object, if placed  at a  certain  distance  from the
beholder, and it is then, and then only, that it will be looked
at and seen, at  the  same  time  by both.    From numerous
experiments, we are convinced that this  distance, at which
 an object is seen simultaneously with both eyes, is about
forty yards, or  from forty  to sixty, varying  somewhat  in
different individuals, as the space between their eyes varies.
 Let  a person  facing the south, be placed on the level  as
before described, whose eyes are exactly five feet above that
level, with his mesial line,  (i. e. that line which divides the
body into  two equal halves, right and left, and consequently,
is exactly midway between the eyes,) corresponding with the
 meridian,  and let an object just large  enough to be seen, be
 placed at  the distance of eight rods  from  the eyes, and on
 the same horizontal level, and  at the point where this line
 is intersected by the meridional line afore-mentioned, and it
 will be found that the axes of both eyes will come to rest
 concurrently upon it, by the spontaneous action of the mus-
 cles of the ball independently of all voluntary  effort  to
 bring them to this point,  or to  produce this result.   That,
 then, is the point d'appui, upon  which  the  axis of vision 
r>n
Education of the Senses.
rests, and  from which we believe, as before suggested, it
starts when the  mind is about to consider any object with
the view of judging by  the  sight of its distance, height,
shape or magnitude, and in so doing, it notes the degree of
contraction made by  said muscles, in carrying the axis of
vision from that point to the base and summit of the object,
when it would ascertain its height,  or judge  of its  alti-
tude ; also the degree of contraction necessary to carry the
said  axis from the aforesaid point d'appui, laterally from
right to left, in order to  ascertain the length or breadth of
the object, and for ascertaining its shape as well  as size, the
mind noticing the degree  and  modification of the contrac-
tions of the several muscles, as they cause the axis of vision
to trace the contour or outlines of the things of whose shape
it would form an accurate conception.
   Again : in front of a person, situated as has been just de-
scribed, place a rod, five feet long, perpendicularly, so as to
correspond with the mesial line, and the axis of  vision  can
be readily  brought to  the  lower extremity of the  rod,
(which  is  also just five feet in ad vance of a line dropped
from the eye,) by a voluntary effort of the inferior straight
muscle, without the slightest inclination of the head.  If the
axis be now made to pass up and  down from  one end of
the rod to the other a number of times, the individual  all
the while, carefully noticing  with what degree of contrac-
tion the muscles act in  order  to accomplish this, will  soon
have acquired a standard of measurement, by which he can
judge of and ascertain  the height of any object  at the dis-
tance of five feet from the eye.  If the rod be now removed
to the distance of twenty  feet, and made to assume the same
position, and if the axis  of vision be made to pass from the
place occupied  by its lower extremity, to the point where
it now  rests, and this process be many times repeated in the
manner aforesaid, he will have  a standard of admeasure-
ment, by which he  will be enabled subsequently to judge
with considerable accuracy, when the  axis of the eye  has
been carried through the space of twenty feet on the same 
Sight.
r>i
level.   He may now fix the axis of vision upon the  lower
extremity of the rod in  its new position, and carry it up-
ward until  it rests  upon its upper end, and by  a few repe-
titions,  he will find how much the muscles must contract in
order to make the axis pass through the space of five feet,
at the  distance of twenty.   In this way let the pupil be
schooled, and in a short time he will acquire  the power of
measuring distances, and  judging with wonderful accuracy
of height  and  dimension  in all  directions, and at  every
ordinary distance within  the customary field  of vision.  It
is believed that every one,  from the infant, sitting or stand-
ing upon the floor,* to the  tallest  Anakim in the land, has
a point d'appui of his own,  which depends upon the distance
of his eye above the afore-mentioned level.
  The use of the eye is commenced in early infancy, and
its education, if it be proper to employ that term in this con-
nection, is carried on in the way  which  has been indicated,
until the power and  the art  of measuring and observing has
been acquired before the learner was aware of the manner
in which this sense had been educated ; and perhaps many
people pass through a long life ignorant of the fact that they
possess this power, and above  all that they had had  any
agency in its acquisition,  supposing  all  the while that the
judgments they formed were intuitive, and that the knowl-
edge resulting from  the employment of this sense also came
by a sort of intuition.  Let the  attention of the child  and
the pupil be directed to this subject  by  the parent and the
teacher, and let him  be made to practice daily upon the prin-
ciples suggested, and the results ascertained and tested  by
the actual application  of  the standards  in use  among the
people,  and it is the  firm  belief of the writer that pupils in
a certain period will possess  a  much  greater  amount of
knowledge,  as well  as stronger and far more comprehensive

  * In whatever posture the body may be, it is believed that this fixed or start-
ing point of the eye always exists, and is that to which the axes of the eyes are
Lr.iught by the spontaneous action of the muscles of the globe. 
52
Education of the Senses.
 and active minds, than they would have had if this kind of
 culture had been neglected.   If this belief be well founded,
 then let the method be tried in all our schools, and its prac-
 tice be enjoined  upon the scholars when out of school; and
 also let it be adopted and practiced upon by every individ-
 ual in the community, and the writer ventures to think that
 all who make the attempt, and follow it up perseveringly for
 a considerable time will be not only gratified, but astonished
 at the facility  with which the eye furnishes the mind with
 clear, strong and complete conceptions of things.   The grat-
 ification will more than compensate for the trouble ; indeed
 the eye  will  soon do its work without trouble or effort.
 Conceptions, clear and strong, will seem to  come  as by in-
 tuition.   If complex, embracing great objeects, compounded
of many  parts;—or prospects comprising  many different
 tilings, those parts and things will be conceived and judged
 of in their places and relations, without those movements of
 the organ to which  we  have alluded ;  also the relative dis-
 tances between  the various parts and things will be settled
in the mind  by simple inspection, because we know, having
 learned by  experience, how much the muscles  of the eye
must  be  made to contract in order to  carry its axis  from
 part to part, or from one thing to another.   In this way  wc
 explain the fact that we often get complex notions, and mea-
sure distances without moving the-eye.   (See page 45.)
  In conclusion,  I will add, that in no way is the accuracv
 with which  the axis of the eye is  directed to a point, and
 the corresponding accuracy  of adjustment of the contrac-
 tion of the muscles connected with the  limbs so well exem-
 plified as  in the  art  of gunnery.  In  the shooting line,  the
 feats of Mr. M.  James, my neighbor across the way, who
 is the best manufacturer of rifles in America, and probably
 the best marksman with that kind of gun in the world, are
 wonderful, if not marvellous.  In gunnery, and militarv and
 civil engineering, the education of the visual organ is of na-
 tional importance.   If the eye of every soldier,  marine and
 gunner in the United States Army and  Navy was perfectly 
Hearing.
53
educated, they would be terrible foemen to the enemies of
the country.   Nor is this the only respect in which the edu-
cation of the eye is of national importance,for show mean
artisan whose eye has been schooled to perfection, and I will
show you a perfect handicraftsman.  It is hardly necessary
to say, that the eye of the medical man, especially if he  be
a surgeon, should be well educated.

               OF THE SENSE OF HEARING.
   Hearing is the  sense by which we perceive sound.  The
ear, or more strictly speaking, the auditory  nerve, is its ap-
propriate organ—the vibrations of the air its physical cause.
It has been observed  in a former  part  of this  paper, that
every organ is so constructed, or in other  words its struc-
ture and organization  are such, that if  it  act at all, it will
perform its own  legitimate  function, and nothing  else.   I
now observe that the arrangement of the auditory  appara-
tus is such, that if action be excited in the  acoustic nerve,
cither at its termination in the labyrinth, or its origin in the
brain, or indeed in any part  of it along its course to its des-
tination, sound will  be produced ; hence it is that vibrations
of solids or fluids, or mere changes  of circulation in  the au-
ditory apparatus, in the entire absence of the true physical
cause, are  capable of producing sensations of sound;  as is
proved by the noises in the ear  which are  so  often  com-
plained of by patients,  and  especially those afflicted  with
that  species of deafness which is termed nervous.  From
the action  and changes of action in the organ  of  hearing
the mind derives all its ideas of sound ; but  simple audition
does not in man, as in  many animals, comprize the whole
function of the organ, which, like the other organs of sense,
is  capable of being greatly improved by  education.   So far
as educational purposes are concerned, reference  is to be
had mostly, if not exclusively, to those  sounds which are
caused by  the vibrations or  undulations of air impinging  on
the membrana tympani, or  drum of the ear.   The impor-
tance of this sense, and of its  education, can not be  duly
              c 
54
Education of the  Senses.
appreciated, without taking into consideration the fact that
upon it the faculty of speech depends.  Without it  the lan-
guage of the  voice, and consequently one of the fine  arts>
the one most  capable  of enrapturing the soul,  could never
have existed.   Without the '• concord of sweet sounds," the
joy of heaven would be defective.*  The education of this
sense, it must  be admitted, is of the highest importance; but
from the obscurity of. the subject, its education has been left
either to nature,  to the  individual efforts of each person,
or almost entirely neglected.  At  all events*, the  principles
upon which the success of educational exertions depend, do
not appear to  have been well developed or satisfactorily set-
tled.   The principle which we shall  assume in regard to its
education, is the same as  that  assumed  in  the  education of
the  other senses, to wit, muscular contraction.  We  hold
that in this  respect the analogy  extends to> all the senses,
for with each  of the five, muscles are connected upon whose
action their utility as instruments of intellection is based.
   The  muscles connected  with the sense of hearing1, to
which we have alluded, and which are attached to the chain
of bones  extending from the membrana tympani, or drum
of the ear, to  the foramen ovale, are  the tensor palati, laxa-
tor  palati, and the stapedius.  These muscles, thus situated
and attached, are primitively, as well as consecutively affec-
ted by every  motion communicated to those little bones, by
the vibrations of that  membrane, produced  by undulations
of the air, or  any  other physical cause, and from that  cir-
cumstance are compelled, so to speak, to take cognizance of
every kind and degree of  movement which those bones are
made to perform.  These  changes in  the state of those
muscles, produced by the physical causes just alluded to, and
modified by the properties peculiar to each,  sooner or  later
awaken consciousness in the mind, and  at length the desire

  * The ear is susceptible of such exquisite cultivation, that a devotee of music
once assured me that he would be willing." to' lie at lielrs dark door," could he
eajoy the music of heaven ! 
Hearing.
O'.i
for their repetition in the absence of the causes wliich occa-
sioned them, and by repeated trials  the individual finadv
acquires the power of reproducing them at pleasure; thus
the control of the will over the action of these muscles is ac-
quired in the same way as it is acquired overall the other mus-
cles which are considered voluntary. When this  ascendancv
over those muscles has been obtained, they  can  h$ an effort
of the will be made to act or relax, just  as they  did when
influenced by this or that physical cause, and an idea of the
same sound will arise in the mind, as well in the absence as
in the presence of the particular cause.  For instance, when
a person wishes to call to memory a  particular  sound  or
the notes of a tune, he has only to  make these muscles act
so as to move the  bones just as they were moved at the
time when the  sound was made, or the  tunc sung, and the
same sounds will be recognized.  The musician, when his
eye falls upon a note or a series  of notes, will  cause  these
muscles to act  and the  bones  to move, just as they did or
should act and move when those notes were struck, and in
this way will be able to think over a tune or piece of music
as well in the absence  as in  the presence  of the physical
cause.  In this way, if, when we hear a noise or a voice for
the first time, we have been attentive to the changes which
have taken place in the ear,  we shall  be able by an effort of
the will to re-produce the conception.  But these are not
the only muscles which may subserve the function of  hear-
ing, and which should be considered in the  education of this
sense.  The muscles connected with the ossicula give us no
ideas of the direction in which sounds come; a  very impor-
tant part of the knowledge to be derived from the faculty of
hearing.   Of this more hereafter.
   In  a former part of this paper, it has been remarked, that
our sensations were  essentially modified  by  the physical
properties of the  agents operating  upon  the  senses, and
furthermore, that this was also indispensable ;  for without
it, one sensation could not  be distinguished from another.
As the physical properties of the  same substances arc  al- 
56
Education  of the Senses.
 ways the same and identical, it follows, that aloes is always
 bitter, and sugar  always sweet, and that, therefore, there
 can never be any difficulty in distinguishing them ; and the
 same principle holds in regard to the capability of physical
 bodies,  to modify the  undulations or vibrations of air, and
 consequently, the sensations  produced in the ear, furnish
 the same^ertainty of discrimination, as is done by the other
 senses, and upon this power of discrimination, depends in a
 great degree the real  utility of this sense, whose final end
 is to enable us to apprehend the existence of agents which
 are not cognizable to the other senses, and likewise, to dis-
 tinguish them one from  another; and  to  determine their
 distances and positions, relations  and situations in  respect
 to each other, and to ourselves.  A knowledge of the exis-
 tence of certain bodies or agents, by the sense of hearing,
 depends upon their capability or  power of exciting undula-
 tions  or vibrations in the media, with which they are con-
 nected, and which are capable of producing  some  change
 in the state of  the auditory nerve ; and the power of dis-
 crimination, as has been observed, depends upon  the  man-
 ner in which those undulations or vibrations  are modified
 by the physical properties of those agents.
      OF THE MEASUREMENT  OF DISTANCE BY THE EAR.
   Individual safety, as well  as other important considera-
 tions may depend on  our knowledge of the distance which
 intervenes between us, and the  bodies causing the sound.
 Intensity of sound seems to be the principle of admeasure-
 ment  by which the distance of a  sonorous body  is  ascer-
 tained.   The vibrations or undulations of the air, impinging
 against  the  membrane tympani, constitute  the physical
 cause of sound, and the  impulse communicated from that
 membrane to  the auditory  nerve, through  the medium of
 the chain of bones  with  which it  (the membrane)  is con-
nected, is  its proximate cause.   Now, the muscles attached
 to the ossicula, or small  bones of the  ear, experiencing a
 change in their state of tension, take cognizance of the mo- 
Hearing.
:x
tion which these bones  are  made  to  undergo, and being
endowed like other voluntary  muscles  with  nerves, which
not only confer on them the power of motion, but the facul-
ty of transmitting to the brain, the organ of  mind, a know-
ledge of the  changes  in their  condition, they excite in the
mind a consciousness of those  changes.   The  stronger the
impulse, the  greater will be the extent of the motions of the
ossicula; and  as  this  degree  of  motion  in those bones, is
measured and judged of by the influence or effect which it
has on those muscles, a man is,  in this way, furnished with
means by which the intensity  of sound, as a measure of dis-
tance,  is determined.*   The principle upon  which this de-
pends  is, that sound  in its distribution throughout a larger

  * Nature, no less bountiful in her resources, than simple in her operations, al-
ways taks care not to be balked in her purposes, and has therefore, in order to
secure against the failure of functions of vital importance, furnished us with double
organs, and in like manner she has not, in relation to the intensity of sound, con-
fined the mode of judging solely to the  muscles, except in cases in which great
nicety is required ; but has so constructed the organs of hearing that vibrations
shall be  communicated to the auditory nerve by means of the membrane which
subtends the fenestra rotunda, whose oscillations are, it is believed, capable of ex-
citing the nerve, not only in the presence, but in the. absence of the membrana
tympani  ; nor has she been satisfied with this, but has superadded another meth-
od by  which sounds are perceived and their intensity judged of.  The bony lab-
yrinth is lined by a membrane or sacculus which encloses the liquid called ihe
perilymph.  The auditory nerve is distributed upon this membrane,  and in con-
tact with the bony cavities which surround it.  Now sonorous vibrations are, as
is well  known,  communicable through solids, as  well as through aeriform or
fluid bodies, and hence it is that the nerve receives impulses communicated to it
by the solids with which it is in contact,  and takes cognizance of them, but with
much less accuracy, just as if they had been imparted by vibrations whose force
has been spent upon the flu'd contained in  the aforementioned membrane or
sacculus, through the chain of bones, as has been described.   Inconsequence of
these superadded arrangements, we should be enabled to judge with some degree
of accuracy of the distance of sonorous bodies, by the intensity of the sound even
if in case of accident we were deprived  of the membrana tympani, and all the
ossicula. I have myself seen several persons who had lost those important parts,
but who would nevertheless hear tolerably well, and if I rightly remember could
distinguish musical sounds.   If I am not mistaken, a lad similarly situated in-
formed me that he could sing some tunes.  With what accuracy these persons
could measure distances by the ear I cannot sny, as it has not occurred to me ever
to make that point a subject of investigation  or inquiry. 
58
Education of the Senses.
 and still larger quantity of matter diminishes as it diverges
 in every direction from the point at which it originated, and
 the rule of diminution, is in proportion to the square of the
 distance from the centre.  For instance, the velocity of the
 particles of the medium by which sounds are conveyed, is less
 by one hundred at the distance of ten feet from the sounding
 body,  than it  is at  one foot.
   We judge of distance, by the ear, upon another principle,
 to wit: the reflection or reverberation of sound.  When
 this is  perfect, we have the echo;  which depends upon the
 distance, and  this must be such, that  to obtain  a distinct
 repetition,  the reflected  sound  shall not arrive at the ear,
before the  perception of the  original sound  has  ceased;
otherwise, the resonance  will  be indistinct, a  mere noise.
 We, no doubt, learn to judge of  distances  by the reflection
of sounds, which are  not, as in  the  echo,  distinct; but in
what manner, it is  difficult to explain.  We do it as in many
other instances, by experience, obtained and practiced  upon
at an age too  early to have been noticed with sufficient at-
tention, to be recollected and explained in subsequent years ;
 although we may habitually act  upon it many times during
 almost every waking hour.   It  is, most probably, in this
 way, that blind people acquire the  faculty  of judging of the
dimensions of a room  by the sound of the voice.   Dr. Dar-
 win, was the first who  suggested  this idea.   Taking the
 hint, from  an anecdote  related  in his  Zoonomia,*  I  have
 availed myself of almost every opportunity which presented
 itself,  in the course of an extensive  practice in ophthalmic
 surgery,  for  the  investigation of  this  curious  subject,
 and have been  often  amused, and sometimes astonished at
 the accuracy  with  which the blind  judge of distances  bv
 the ear, and especially the size of  the  different  apartments
 of a building;  but I  believe  this power  is  possessed  by

   * " The late Justice Fielding walked for the first time into my room, when
 lie once  visited me, and after speaking a few words, said ' this room is about 2:2
 Sfect long, 18 wide, and 12 feet high;' all which lie guessed by the ear with treat
 accuracy." — Dai win's  Zoonomia. 
Hearing.
5V
those  only  who were  not  born  blind, or who  lost  their
sight  in  very  early  life.    " The  resonance of  rooms,"
says   Arnott,   " depends  on  this  continued reverbera-
ation,"* and this remark furnishes  the principle upon which
this  method of judging is  founded-f   By the  cultivation
of this sense, as in the case of the blind, we are  enabled
to distinguish with considerable accuracy  the resonance of
reflected sounds ;  and in fact I  have  no doubt that in ordi-
nary life, without more than the common  degree of culture,
we practice continually  and successfully, although  uncon-
sciously, upon this  same principle in judging of distance  by
the ear.  Having learned by experience to distinguish sounds
one from another in consequence of their being modified by
the  physical  properties  appropriate  and peculiar to each
cause,  wc  at the  same time, likewise, learn  the  force of
sounds thus modified at the distance of one, two, or ten rods,
&c.  ;  and  at length we  come  to  judge,  with considerable
accuracy, of the distance of the cause which  produces this
or that particular sound or noise, as modified  by space ; and
the  more familiar we  are with particular sounds, the  more
accurately  shall we judge of distance by their means.
   There is one  other consideration which should perhaps be
  * " It is worthy of remark, that every apartment or confined space has a certain
musical note proper to it, the character of which depends upon the number of
pulses or repetitions, of a sound produced in a given time by the returns from
its walls.  The velocity of sound being uniform, this number must depend on
the size  of the apartment."—ArnotVs Physics.  These pulses or repetitions of
sound are no doubt much more accurately perceived  and distinguished by the
blind, whose oilier  senses and especially that of hearing, have been cultivated
with such care as to make amends in some degree for the loss of sight.

  t If the distance intervening between the sonorous body and the surface by
which the sound is  reflected  be less than  48 or 50 feet, the direct and reflected
sounds will be blended,and the more so the nearer the reflecting is to the sonor-
ous body ; and consequently the  nicer and more cultivated  must be the ear By
which these sounds  can be distinguished so as to draw any just conclusions asfo
distance.  If less than one twelfth of a second  of time intervene between  the-
hearing of the direct and reflected sonnds, there will be no distinct echo ; but
a mere  resonance ;  but if more than one twelfth of a second intervene, there
will be, no resonance, but a complete echo. 
GO
Education of the Senses.
 taken into the account in connection with  this part of our
 subject, to wit:  the effect which the vibrations of the mem-
 brana tympani, and the movements of the ossicula have upon
 the chorda tympani, a nerve connected with the tendon of the
 stapedius muscle, and  also with the long leg of the  incus,
 and the manubrium, or handle of the malleus,  to which it
 is so very closely attached, and that too so very near its cen-
 tre of motion that no movement in the latter can  possibly
 happen which does not affect this nerve.  It should be recol-
 lected, moreover, that the above-mentioned nerve also passes
 near the insertion of the tensor tympani into  the short pro-
 cess of the malleus, and furthermore that it makes its exit
 out of the  cavitv of the tympanum in company  with  the
 musculus externus mallei.
      DIRECTION  AND SITUATION OF SONOROUS  BODIES.
   Nature, although bountiful in her gifts, is chary in the be-
 stowment of them under circumstances in which ihey could
 be turned to no good account by the recipient.  No benefit
 could inure to the infant to be able to judge of the  distance
and direction of sonorous  bodies before  he  possessed the
power of avoiding such as might  be hurtful,  or of appre-
 hending  and appropriating such as might be useful or  pleas-
ing: hence he has been left to learn by experience how  to
acquire this important faculty of judging of the distance and
direction of the causes of sound.   It is, however, to  be re-
gretted that in the case of nearly every individual the edu-
cation of the senses has been allowed to go on pari passu
with their employment, altogether  independent of any spe-
cial effort for their improvement; while it has been known
to every observer that  they were susceptible of  the highest
degree of culture ; as in cases where persons bereft of one
sense, have by cultivation  brought   another to such perfec-
tion, as to become almost a substitute for that  of which thev
had been deprived.   Is not the education of the senses, (the
primeval inlets  of all our knowledge.) a subject  too impor-
tant to be left to chance, or undirected, unassisted individual 
Hearing.
61
effort? or should it not rather have a place in all our systems
of education, especially such as are elementary?
   As in vision, although light is recived into  both eyes, yet
we look at and see an object with but one, unless it be placed
at a distance of more than 40 or 50 yards, and in a position
corresponding with the  mesial  line  of our  bodies ; so, in
hearing, sound is received by both ears, but perceived by
one only, unless the sonorous body be located either directly
before or  behind, and in strict  accordance with the line
above mentioned ; or  in other   words exactly  equidistant
from  either car ; in which case we hear the sound equally
with both,  but we can not tell from what direction it  comes.
When the cause of sound is on  either side  of the  mesial
line, and  especially if a little  distance from  it,  it  is heard
best by the ear to  which  it  is nearest.  In the   eye, a line
drawn from the centre of the cornea, at right angles with
its surface, to the  foramen of Soemmering constitutes the
axis of the eye, and a ray of light reflected from an  object,
which enters the centre of the cornea at right angles with
its surface, and passing on unrefracted to the aforesaid fora-
men, may be said to be the axis of the eye, or of vision ;  so
in the car, a line passing  directly from the sonorous body
through the middle of the  external meatus  to the point in the
centre of the membrana tympani at which the extremity of
the handle of the malleus is attached  to that membrane, con-
stitutes the axis of the ear, or of hearing in reference  to
function, and a ray of sound  passing from the sonorous body
and entering the meatus in the same direction, and impinging
upon  the same point of connection between  the handle of
the malleus  and  the membrana  tympani, will  make  the
strongest impression  upon the auditory nerve,  and  conse-
quently will  cause the clearest  audition.   This point of
attachment between the handle of the malleus and the mem-
brana tympani is to the  car what  the foramen of Soemmer-
ing is to  the eye.  Because sounds entering the ear  in this
direction are best  heard,  wc turn the head one  way or the
other, until the axis of the ear is directed exactly to the place
             ii 
62
Education of the Senses.
whence the sound  proceeds, and which is instantly recog-
nized by an ear that has been only slightly trained.  When
that has been accomplished, we are no  longer in doubt as
to the direction of  the sonorous body.   This is the true atti-
tude of listening, especially when we are anxious to catch or
discriminate any certain sounds, or to  apprehend them  for
some definite purpose.  I have no doubt we have the power
of judging of the direction and situation of sonorous bodies
by the echo or reverberation of  the sound, and likewise by
its resonance ; but  this is perhaps but seldom  attempted with
much success except by persons whose sense of hearing  has
been educated and  considerably practised in this respect.   It
is, however, undoubtedly true that every person is constantly
though unconsciously practising upon  this principle, which
is based on the  fact that in sound, as in light,  the  angle of
reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence.  It is
exceedingly probable that reflection of sound by  the  exter-
nal ear, and its resonance in the meatus, as well as its reflec-
tion  from  surrounding bodies, have an important bearing
upon this branch of the function of hearing.   The wave of
sound, acting upon the column  of air occupying this passage,
puts it in motion.   If  the  axis of this  column be at  right
angles with the circumference of the  wave of sound,  the
strongest impulse will be on that portion of  the membrana
tympani  which  is attached to the extremity of  the handle of
tke malleus;  but if the axis of this column of air be oblique
to the circumference  of the wave, the impulse  will  be  com-
municated to some portion of the elastic  walls of the pas-
sage, and reflected perhaps again and  again  before it impin-
ges upon any part of the  tympanum, or drum of the ear ;
now as sound, like light, travels through the  air in  straight
lines, we learn to follow back,  so to speak, these reflections
of sounds, and in this way to form a judgment, imperfect it
may  be, of the direction of the causes which  originated
them.  When a sound  is heard, which has been heard  be-
fore, perhaps many times, and sometimes in  the attitude of
listening, i.e. in the direction of the axis of the ear, so that
an idea of it  and also of its physical cause has been  under 
Hearing.
63
such  circumstances formed,  we have then in  the  mind  a
standard with which it is at every subsequent hearing com-
pared, and when a difference is found to exist between the con-
ception of the re-hearing and  the hearing on a prior occasion,
and having likewise learned by experience, that this difference
is caused  by  difference of direction only; we change the
position of the ear so as to admit the sound in a line which
corsponds with its  axis,—when the  judgment in respect to
the direction and situation of the sonorous body is  immedi-
ately settled.  It is altogether  probable  that we are, in the
first instance, led to attend  to  the direction of sonorous
bodies, very much in the  same  way as we are to that of
visible objects, and that the principles of judging are the
same in both cases, to wit, muscular contraction.   To be  a
little more particular: When the axis of vision is fixed on a
point, other  objects in the field of vision will be discerned,
though less  perfectly seen, yet  with sufficient clearness and
distinctness  not only  to inform  us of their  existence, but to
excite curiosity and  prompt the individual  to  turn the axis
of the eye upon them in succession, for the purpose  of ex-
amination.  The same,  to a  certain extent, holds in regard
to the ear.   Sounds  are heard in  various  directions other
than  that of the  axis  of the  ear, yet with a distinctness
which, as in the case of vision,  prompts the individual, espe-
cially in early life, to alter the position of the ear in order
to get a  more perfect  conception.  This  method soon be-
comes habitual, and is continued through life.  In this way
we are induced primarily to attend to the direction of sound,
and  to  form judgments concerning  it.   In regard to the
training and practice, the analogy between the eye and the
ear holds  with considerable strictness.  In seeing, we judge
of the direction of objects without  moving the eye, because
we have learned by experience how much the  globe  of the
eye, or in some instances the whole head must be turned ;
in other words, how  much this or that muscle,  or sett  of
muscles, must be made to contract in order to cause the axis of
the eye to be directed to an object whose reflected light enters
the eye in a direction divergent from its axis; so in hearing 
64
Education of the Senses.
 when sounds enter the ear in a direction different from that
 of  its  axis, having learned  from frequently repeated trials
 how far the ear must be moved that its axis may correspond
 with the direction  in which the  sound comes, we judge  of
 that direction without moving the organ.  It should  be con-
 stantly borne  in mind, that  in our  physical  organs,  as well
 as intellectual faculties, improvement is the  sure reward  of
 exercise, and  that exercise is the essential pre-requisite, the
 sine qua non of improvement in both ; and furthermore, that
 improvement  will be nearly in proportion to exercise.  The
 exercise and education  of the senses, and especially that of
 hearing, the anatomical structure of which seems to  be per-
 fect at  birth,  should commence  in  very early life,  and be
 carried  on in the nursery, the  pai'lor, and the public  school-
 room, under the direction of the  parent or public teacher.
 The child or pupil  may be hoodwinked, and various  articles
 of different metals and  components, as glasses, tea-cups and
 saucers, bowls, pitchers, &c. &c, of different sizes  and   in
 different directions, may be struck, and  the learner called
 upon to designate the article, and to judge of its size, direc-
 tion and distance from the ear.  The walk or step of differ-
 ent persons ; the kind of carriages or vehicles passing in the
 streets, whether they be loaded or  empty, and the  kind  of
loading, &c, may be made questions to exercise the  ear and
judgment of the pupil.  In these, and a thousand other ways
 which the ingenuity of  the  parent  or teacher will suggest,
 this sense  may  be cultivated and improved.  The habit
 well established  in childhood, will be continued, and the
 hearing perfected in after life, to a  degree  of which very
 few have any just conception.  As  an ear attuned to music,
is capable of ministering so  greatly to the happiness of man-
 kind ; and as almost  every  child whose  ear has been duly
 educated, may be taught to sing,* or  at least, enabled  to

  *  The power of the will over the muscles which modulate the tones of the
vocal organ, is acquired as in the case of the larger muscles, which are by com-
mon consent deemed voluntary.  The process is in both cases the same, and has
been detailed on page 20 and 21.  It is applicable to the education of  the voice. 
Touch.
f\r>
experience the delight  which is awakened in the soul, by a
" concord of sweet sounds,"' great pains should  be taken to
educate the ear for  the perception  of musical  sounds, but
being  so unfortunate as not to  have  an  ear for music, the
author is incapable  of  giving any directions for  the  attain-
ment of that object.  However, he  indulges the hope, that
the time is not far distant, when music will be taught in all
the elementary schools in this, as it is in other countries,
especially in Germany.
                  OF THE SENSE OF TOUCH.
   Anatomically and physiologically considered, the philoso-
phy of the  touch is  less  perfectly understood, than that  of
either of the other senses.  The cause of this has most pro-
 bably arisen from the  number of sensations,  as heat, cold,
 weight, dryness,  moisture,  anxiety,  itching, hunger, thirst,
pleasure, pain, roughness and smoothness, which have been,
with what propriety, we shall not stop to inquire, attributed
to it.  In regard to most of these sensations, there  is very
likely, a  special  modification of structure  adapted to  the
 perception of each of  them.   As all  animals, from  man  in
 whom it is the most perfect, down  to the polypus,  possess
 this sense in a greater or less degree, it may be deemed the
 universal  sense.    By means of it,  we  become first  ac-
 quainted with bodies  extraneous to ourselves,  and  it is in-
 deed  the only  one which convinces us of the actual exist-
 ence of  the external  world.   As extraneous matters may
 come in contact with  every  part  of the  surface of our
 bodies, for  weal or for woe, so every portion of that surface
 has been endowed with the sense of feeling ;* but in man,

  * " The touch distributed over the whole surface, appears to  be the elemen-
tary sense ; and all the others are only modifications of it, accommodated to
certain properties of bodies."—Richerand.
  This view of Richerand's is certainly in  accordance with the beautiful sim-
plicity of nature, and is very likely to be true, the necessary modifications being
added to the  original ground-work.  Although the touch has been termed the
geometrical sense, it is notwithstanding now and then liable to err. 
66
Education of the Senses.
as in animals, some parts of it are more sensitive, and bettor
fitted than others, to make us acquainted  with surrounding
objects.  They are, therefore, better  adapted to the purpo-
ses of  inteliection, and may  on  that account, be more ap-
propriately considered as the organs to which this  sense has
been particularly allotted :  as the hand, for instance, and also
the lips and tip of the tongue.  From the readiness  and facili-
ty,  with which the eye and ear are employed in the investi-
gation  of things, the sense  of  touch, which is the  corrector,
and in fact, the most  important  of all the senses, has been
comparatively  neglected, and consequently,  its  education
overlooked ; but the  success which has attended modern
attempts to improve the mental condition of the blind, and
accounts of the  perfection  to  which the sense of  touch has
been brought in more than one  instance,  establish the  fact,
that it  is susceptible of the  highest degree of improvement
by  culture.   Notwithstanding this neglect, man,  so far  as
his own faculties are  concerned, is indebted to this sense for
his sublime station at  the head of this sublunary  creation;
for we find in looking through the whole  range of animated
nature, that the place assigned to the several tribes of ani-
mals is elevated in proportion to the degree with which they
have been endowed with this sense.
  The other senses are all prompted  to action by  the prop-
erties of matter, and of those only do they take cognizance;
but the sense of touch  makes  us acquainted with  matter
itself.  The hearing has to do with the undulations or vibra-
tions of matter; the smell,  with its odors ; the taste, with  its
flavors, and some of  its chemical  properties; the eye with
its  properties by which light is reflected ;*  but  the touch
being conversant with matter itself, is not only less liable  to
mistakes; but is, as has been hinted, the corrector of all  its
congeners.   It is truly the geometrical sense, and gives  us
results with  mathematical  precision, so long as its functions

  * It is not yet settled among philosophers whether light is a mere property of
matter, or an absolute body ; a luminiferous ether. 
Touch.
67
arc confined to properties indicating the occupancy of space,
as length, breadth, &c, which  are perhaps, in strict con-
struction, its legitimate objects.   In the performance of this,
its most appropriate function,  it  should be  recollected that
this sense like the others, is connected with certain muscles,
upon whose contraction, its accuracy depends,  and that this
muscular contraction,  as in the  other  senses,  is  the basis
upon which every educational effort must depend  for suc-
cess.   To this proposition, there  is one apparent exception,
which is not, however, without analogy.   The subcutaneous
substance  is of a  middle nature  between  the cellular  tis-
sue, and muscular  fibre, and consequently,  has a degree of
contractility, intermediate between that belonging to those
structures,  and hence, the power  of judging of the figure and
size of bodies which are merely pressed against the person,
without motion either in them, or  the  part of the body in
contact with them.*   In this connection, we  may mention
that there are certain  other  portions  of the surface  of the
human body, covering the  erectile tissues which are en-
dowed with an highly  sublimated and peculiar modification
of the sense of touch ;  but this, being of a voluptuous char-
acter, does not seem to be very well  fitted to enlarge the
boundaries of knowledge, or increase the mental powers.
   This modification, was considered by Buffon,  as  a sixth
sense.
   Most animals, and perhaps all,  have parts better adapted
to the exercise of this  sense  than others; in  man, the lips,
  * It is owing to the shrinking or shrivelling of this subcutaneous substance,
and also perhaps partly to the shrinking and wrinkled state of the skin itself,
which may be  indeed only the result of the above-mentioned causes, that the
touch is rendered obtuse in old people, and also  in emaciated subjects.  This
shrinking and shrivelling of the skin constitute the first indications of the ap-
proach of old age, and of signs of decay and decrepitude from that cause. In
most cases they may be postponed, and the life prolonged several years, by the
timely and  frequent use oi the warm, or what is better, the vapor bath, which
causes a relaxation of the capillaries  of the  surface, and counteracts the
effects above-mentioned. The writer is indebted to Darwin for this suggestion.
Based on sound philosophy, its correctness cannot be questioned. 
68
Ed'icationof the Senses.
 tip of the tongue, and the hand, more particularly the ends of
 the fingers, are the parts which possess the touch in its most
 exalted degree.   The exaltation of the touch in these parts, is
 owing partly to their being  more copiously supplied with
 vessels circulating red blood, and partly to the arrangement
 of their papillre ;  which, together with their connection with
 numerous muscles of volition, constitute their greater fitness
 to be employed as the instruments of this sense.   It  should
 be kept in mind, and therefore  it is  so often repeated, that
 this connection of the senses with  the voluntary muscles,
 forms the basis upon which, according to our theory, all ed-
 ucational efforts must mainly depend.  Perhaps  it would be
 no great exaggeration, wrere we to  say, that the improve-
 ment of this sense as an organ of intellect, by education, re-
 sults almost exclusively, from the employment of those mus-
 cles.   Haller defines touch to be that sense which takes cog-
 nizance of resistance alone.  In the  present connection, we
 purpose to confine its function to that resistance, which bo-
dies composing the external world, make to parts of our
bodies  pressed against them by the action of our own mus-
 cles.   In  this sense only, is the faculty of touch susceptible
of improvement by education, because when brought by this
means  in  contact with surrounding objects,  it is under the
 control of the will, and is thus employed for the  purpose of
acquiring knowledge.  In this view  of the  subject, it must
be admitted that the perceptions by this sense are of a very
limited character ;  but they are not  liable to the errors which
pertain to those of the sight and hearing, which so often ex-
tend their researches into the vast  fields of illimitable  space.
 The relation which touch has  to sight,  has given rise to
 much discussion among the learned ; and it is still a contro-
verted question, whether our ideas of distance, extension, and
 figure, are gained  by touch alone ;  but we think that enough
 was said while treating  of the education of the eve and ear,
and especially that of the former, to convince any  candid per-
son that both these senses arc in fact  capable of taking am-
 ple cognizance  of these properties of matter, and that  the 
Touch.
69
eye is indeed the organ most commonly employed in judging
of extension, figure, and  distance.
   The process for the education of this sense is analogous to
that of the sense of hearing, and in fact, of all the other sens-
es.  On account of the greater facility with which the eye
takes cognizance of  matter  subjected  to its  inspection, it
should be covered in all our attempts at improvement of the
other organs of  sense.   This hint has probably been deriv-
ed from the fact  familiar to all, that the other senses, and es-
pecially those of hearing and touch, arc   so much improved
when the sight is lost.  Let the pupil then be hoodwinked,
and try to distinguish different metals, wood,  and persons,
by the feel:  then endeavor to denominate pieces of coins,
&c.   In  doing  this,  the  different degrees  of temperature
should be  regarded ; because the sensations in this respect,
depend on the powers of conducting caloric which is pecu-
liar to each metal.  If the  sensations of heat and  cold are to
be regarded  as belonging to the touch, the rule of judging of
them is quite independent of muscular action.*
   These sensations are chiefly confined to parts of the body
obnoxious to the  vicissitudes  of  temperature, the  physical
causes producing them;  and as the agencies of these causes,
if much increased or  diminished,  might be attended with
very  injurious consequences the sensations they produce are
designed to preserve us, by a timely intimation that certain
changes are going on in parts exposed,  incompatible with
the due performance of function or even with the continuance
of organization.

  * It  has been  conjectured that a different  set of nerves have been provided
for the  recognition of the sensations of heat and cold ; but. we think the nerves,
like the capillaries, are precisely the same in  all parts of the body, and that their
peculiar perceptive faculties and functions arise from  the peculiar  tissues with
which they are surrounded, and which so modify their common sensibility as to
enable them to experience and transmit to the sensorium this or that feeling ; and
that they arc from the same causes and in like manner disqualified for different
perceptions.
c: 
70
Education  of the  Senses.
   Relaxation or contraction of the capillaries constitutes the
physical changes which give rise to the  sensations  of heat
and cold ; and it should be remembered that these sensations,
as has been suggested, maybe produced by those states of the
vessels independent of their physical causes, i. e. the addition
or abstraction of caloric.  The degree of sensation indicates
the degree  of contraction  or relaxation,  rather than the  in-
tensity of the physical cause.
          OF DIMENSION, EXTENSION,  DISTANCE,  &.C.

   These are the legitimate objects to be regarded in the ed-
ucation of the touch. The pupil blindfolded should be made to
pass his finger, hand, or foot, over a graduated measure, and
note how much certain muscles must be made to contract in
order to carry the member  over, or along a certain space.
In this way the properties of space  may be judged of after
considerable experience, with wonderful accuracy.   Math-
ematical  figures, solid  or superficial,  should  be made the
subjects of  experiment.   In the same way the relative size
and position of things, may be ascertained.   I knew a young
gentleman,  blind  either  from birth,  or very early infancy
who subsequently attended medical lectures; became a good
anatomist,  and as I was informed, passed a satisfactory ex-
amination,  and received his degree in due form.  Whether
he ever attempted to  practice his profession I  have  not had
the means of knowing.*
  * This young gentleman attended three courses of my lectures on anatomy.
When lecturing on osteology, I always took care to put the several bones upon
which I was discoursing into his hands, and soon had the pleasure to find that he
was following me in the demonstration by passing the hand over the several parts
which were being described.  He was also in the habit of coming to the table and
examining the subject, and tracing out in the same manner the muscles, blood-
vessels, and various other soft parts, as the viscera, &c. &c.  In the daily class ex-
aminations, he made much fewer mistakes than was to have been expected. I
was particularly struck with the accuracy of his knowledge of the relative situa-
tion of parts, and took great pleasure and pains (o assist him in educating
sense of touch.  I recollect his coming into my lecture room  one even-
ing, when Dr.  Gridlcy rather jocosely  said to  him, "Demming,  tell  us 
Touch.
71
  The young gentleman above alluded to was able to distin-
guish many colors by the feel, but was unable to explain to
me the principles upon which his judgments were formed.

                        OF  WEIGHT.

  It is very questionable whether gravity has any relation
to the sense of touch.  In our opinion, it more particularly
respects the  muscles, or rather the degree of force  with
which they must contract, in order to raise a body from the
ground, or to remove it from the place in which it stands.
In either of these cases,  trials should be made upon bodies,
whose weight has been  previously  ascertained : our stand-
ard weights, for instance.   When the degree of contraction
has been noted again and again, or with a sufficient number
of repetitions  to  give the pupil a standard  within himself,
the experiment may be extended  to other bodies.
                    PLEASURE AND PAIN.

   These sensations have been, as suggested in  a former part
of this paper, attributed to the sense of touch ; but very erro-
neously so in the opinion of the writer.   Every part, every
tissue of the body as well as the organs proper to the senses,
may be the seat of pain.   This sensation is always  owing to
an  over-contracted, or an over-distended state of the capil-
laries of the  part in which it is located.   If those vessels be
constricted, or inordinately contracted, pain is experienced ;
if only slightly constricted, the sensation will be uneasiness,
rather than  decided positive pain.  Suppose  3 to indicate

whether the room is lighted or not."  After a moment's pause he replied, " Ra-
ther badly lighted, sir, only two lamps burning."  " True," says the  doctor>
«' but how do you know it ?  How do you know that there are two lamps, or
any lamps at all ?  May there  not be a candle or two?"  " I know," replied
Demming, " there are two lights, and that they are lamps, by the crackling which
they make in burning, which is  different from that made by the burning of can-
dles." Neither the Doctor nor myself could hear th&crackling of which he spake
with so much confidence.  This showed that the education of another sense had
not been negelcted. 
72
Education of the Senses.
 the state of distention which is natural to these vessels, and
 consequently, that in which no sensation whatever is expe-
 rienced : then suppose a cause of an irritating nature to be
 applied to  their  inner  surfaces which stimulates them  to
 contract down  to   2,   uneasiness  wTill  be felt ;  if it
 stimulate  still  more,  and  cause the vessels to contract
 to 1,  pain  will be experienced ;  and we shall be prompt-
 ed  to seek  relief;  if the  contraction  be  still greater,
 the pain will be  more  violent, and the  vessels  will, from
 their  vehement efforts to  contract,  lose  their vitality :
 in other words, they  will contract until they die. : On  the
 other hand, taking 3 as before, for the natural standard of full-
 ness, if the  vessels be distended to 4, there will be as in the
 case of moderate contraction, uneasiness ; if to 5, pain ;  the
 vessels will resist painfully, if to 6, or upward, the pain will
 be violent, because the vessels resist forcibly, painfully; and
 will soon lose their vitality as sometimes happens  in neglect-
 ed, mal-trcated, or intense inflammation.  In the former case,
 the  pain  from  over-contraction  will be  attended  with a
 shrinking or diminution of the size of the part; and if many
 vessels be involved in  the affection, or  if its seat be in an
 important organ, the  vessels  of the skin will do what the
 vessels of the part affected do, i.  e. contract or shrink (and
 this  is  what we  always mean by  organic sympathy; when
 we  say that one part sympathizes with  another, we mean
 that it, as a whole, or that its vessels do what the part pri-
 marily affected, or its vessels do,) and a  sense of chilliness
 will be experienced.
   Pain from  over-contraction, is relieved by whatever in-
 duces  the vessels  to  relax,  as  fomentations,  warm 'bath,
friction, opium, &c.  Examples of pain from this cause are
exhibited in chronic rheumatism, in the cold stage of inter-
mittents,  and in various other analogous diseases.   Pain
from cold or the abstraction of caloric is of this kind.   The
other variety of pain, which  arises from  an over-distended
state of the  vessels, in which they are not  only put upon the
stretch, but  arc stimulated  to resist painfully, is relieved  by 
Pleasure and Pain.
73
the abstraction of fluids, &c, and also by narcotics, which,
by lessening the sensibility of the vessels, prevent their feel-
ing impulses from within,  and induce them to forego their
resistance, and relax ; but in order to make this  relief per-
manent, the activity and force of the heart must be consider-
ably abated, otherwise  the vessels which  have been indu-
ced  to relax  or to forego their resistance, will  again  be
fully distended, and we shall soon have them again put upon
the stretch ; the consequence of which,  will be  violent re-
sistance, and a renewal of the pain.   Examples of this kind
of pain are  to be found  in  inflammation, acute rheumatism,
tonic gout, &c, &c.  The nerves, which are distributed to,
and preside over the organs of organic life, as the stomach,
bowels, glands, and the capillaries of nutrition  throughout
the whole system, have  ganglia placed  upon them,  which
intercept  and prevent the  transmission to the sensorium of
sensations pertaining to  organic life, so long  as they are
consistent with  the healthy performance  of function.  Of
course, those sensations never reach the  mind  until that
contingency ceases, and actions incompatible with the regu-
lar and due performance of function begin ; but when such
actions, as interfere with, and derange the  function, or en-
danger the  structure of organs or parts do begin, then, as
the nerve itself is  continued on through  the ganglions to
the brain  or spinal marrow, changes  will take place in the
brain or sensorium commune, which will awaken conscious-
ness in the mind ; until this happens,  the structures and tis-
sues pertaining to organic life,  cannot be considered as or-
gans of sense ;  as has been intimated, that they might be.
The perception of these changes  is unpleasant, or  pain-
ful, and prompts us to desire  and seek relief,  but it is not
(although the cause of intelligence,) calculated, except, so
far as  the means of relief are concerned, to enlarge the
field of knowledge, or augment intellectual power.
  But not  so with the five senses. On their nerves, no ganglia
are placed ; there  is, therefore, no  interference  with the
transmission of intelligence of the changes which are going 
74
Education of the  Senses.
 on  in them.*   Their  appropriate and peculiar stimuli pro-
 duce  changes, which  it  may  be,  and  most probably  arc,

   *  To this  doctrine, an objection might be raised, from the fact that  ganglia
 are placed on the posterior fasciculi of all the spinal  and some of the cerebral
 nerves which are, by common consent, admitted to be nerves of sensation, and
 particularly subservient to the sense of touch ; upon a little reflection, however, it
 will be obvious that this is not only not repugnant to, but  in perfect accordance
 with our doctrine;—that it should be so, if that doctrine be true.  These poste-
 rior  fasciculi  not only render the parts to which they are distributed sensitive, but
 transmit to the organ of mind the perception of those changes which  constitute
 sensation. Now then, as circulation, secretion, nutrition,  and functions of organic
 life, are going on in the parts to which these fasciculi are sent, as well as the other
 actions and changes, it is necessary that ganglia should be  placed  on them, or
 that some other arrangement should exist by which the perception of those chan-
 ges belonging to organic life should be interrupted and utterly prevented, so long
 as they are consistent with  health.  Again, it might  be urged that changes pe-
 culiar to organic  action  are perpetually going on in parts to which the nerves
 exclusively appropriated to the other senses, as  sight,  hearing, taste and smell,
 as well as to touch, are sent, and that therefore ganglia should have  been placed
 upon them for the reasons already assigned ; but it should be recollected that these
 very changes are wrought by vessels which are supplied by nerves from the gan-
 gliac system, and that the nerves peculiar to  any sense are  not  required to take
 cognizance of them.   This, it is believed, is a full answer to these objections.
 The importance of this subject, perhaps, warrants a further consideration.  Me-
 chanical distention, which is alternately applied and  withdrawn, is the  natural
 stimulus, which prompts the capillaries of organic life, to which the gangliac sys-
 tem is appropriated, to act; and the nerves  of this system  take  cognizance of
 the state of those vessels only, which respects their contraction or dilatation, con-
striction or relaxation/and especially so when  either  is  abnormal.  The senses
 of taste and smell are excited by the chemical properties  of matter, the sense of
 hearing simply by its undulations, vibrations, or oscillations, and the sense of
sight by a property of matter, as some suppose, which is termed light, or as others
 think by a lumimferous ether.   In  neither of these cases is it known that the ap-
propriate stimuli in their ordinary action effect the  capacity of the vessels con-
 nected with the organic actions of  those senses  ; and if they did, as they  may,
and perhaps sometimes do, when acting intensely or with more than their usual
 power, the nerves which belong to the  gangliac system would take cognizance of
 these irregularities.   If the capillaries were stimulated to action by any irritating
 qualities in the fluids  which they circulate,  they would, according to the  law
 already glanced at, lose their susceptibility for that particular impression ; for the
 fluids containing the irritating quality  are always present, and  therefore would
 be always in  contact with the inner surfaces  of the vessels ;  the necessary con-
sequence of such a contingency would be the derangement of function, and ul
timately a change of structure and organization.  Organic disease would follow. 
Pleasure and Pain.
75
mere contractions or relaxations, modified by the structure
peculiar to the organ, which are perceived and transmitted
to the brain by the nerves adapted  by the  same peculiarity
of structure for this or that peculiar function, and of course,
can do nothing else.  If these changes  produced in the or-
gans of sense, be mere contractions or dilatations, modified
by the peculiarity of structure, then they will, as  the one or
the other  prevails, be  attended with  pleasure  or  pain,
which will also be perceived by the nerve  at the same time
that the  change itself is  perceived.  If the  contraction, or
relaxation  be no more than  ordinary, there will  be neither
pleasure  nor pain, and consequently, no emotion will accom-
pany the perception of change effected in the organ, by the
object which is acting upon  it; the result will be, that of
simple cognition ; but if  the  contraction  or  relaxation be
more than common, pleasure or pain will certainly accom-
pany the perception of change, and the idea will be pleasur-
able or painful, and instantly followed by desire or aversion.
The pains and pleasures of sense are, like knowledge, pro-
duced directly or indirectly by objects exterior to the body,
(all of which have a greater  or  less  tendency to produce
them,) and are realized by that sense only whose adapted-
ness fits it to  acquire the knowledge  of the  entity whose
properties are calculated  to call that sense  into action.   For
instance, the pleasure derived from colors,  can be  expe-
rienced only through the medium of the sight, the  sense
from which alone, we derive  our  knowledge of color.   It
should not, however,  be  forgotten that the  same  feelings
may arise from  the mere  action  of the  capillaries of the
sense  in the entire absence of their appropriate physical
causes.   Feelings  produced  in this way,  belong to  the
imagination, and constitute  its pleasures  and its pains.  If
contraction or relaxation of  the capillaries beyond the ordi-
nary degree be the physical cause of pleasure or of pain in
the senses, then it follows that every entity has a tendency
to produce these feelings in  the sense upon which they  are
titled to operate.   If I bring up to my recollection, a land- 
76
Education of the Senses.
 scape  or  prospect  which  I  have  examined ;  or  a scene
 through which I have passed, the several senses which
 were called into activity by the objects which at first oper-
 ated on them will again  become active  and perform  the
 same actions, and the same ideas  will be produced  and be
 accompanied  by the same  feelings.  In  all such cases  the
 effect is the necessary  result  of experience.  In regard to
 the feelings belonging to this class, which are ever disposed
 to transcend  reality, prudence  would seem to dictate that
 we should always endeavor to  compare  those  which refer
 to the past or the  future, with those  actually experienced or
 realized, in order  to prevent our being exercised with  an
 undue degree of regret for such as have been lost, or disap-
 pointment when we  enter  upon  the enjoyment of those
 which have been  in prospect.  In  the  contingency men-
 tioned, the pleasure or pain is as much the necessary result
 as the conception of the object or any of  its properties ; but
 it should be remarked  that the intensity of the feeling, as
 well as  the vividness of the idea, may be  increased by the
 attention voluntarily exerted.  The  principles  upon  which
 this  fact depends  have already been enumerated and ex-
 plained.  As attention  is under  the  control of the will;  as
 feelings with nine-tenths of the  world become  motives to
 action ;  as all agencies acting upon the body, and especially
 upon the senses, have  the power  of modifying the actions
 which they excite ; and as there  are  properties in every
 agent which are fitted to produce pleasurable or painful feel-
 ings, the pupil should early be taught in all  cases to fix his
 attention as much  as  possible upon those of the first class ;
 by  which proccedure,  his feelings and consequent conduct
 will be such, as greatly to promote his own happiness, and
 that of those about him.  It  is owing to the neglect of this
 rule, that so many  persons find something in almost every-
 thing to cavil  at; an infirmity, exceedingly prevalent in our
own  country; with the English, it is quite  national  ; espe-
 cially, if anything  French, be the  subject of consideration.
 Let the  pupil be taught ever to look upon  the " bright side.'' 
Touch.
77
   Right feeling, and right acting, depend upon right think-
ing ; and right thinking, upon right education ;  which, is
therefore, inseparably connected with the hopes and happi-
ness of man, for time and eternity; and also with his coun-
try's weal, her woe, her glory.  The best educated men, I
mean in  the broadest  acceptation of the term, will be the
best and most efficient men.   They will be the men of pow-
er, and the men in power ;  the rulers of the  nations ;  the
sovereigns of the world !  knowledge is power !
   If this, then, be so, the philanthropist and the patriot must
feel with solemn concern, the importance of having the prin-
ciples of education, rightly and thoroughly understood, and
judiciously carried out in practice. This nation, composed of
sovereign states, with their own separate governments, and
embracing a vast  extent of territory,  with almost every
variety of climate,  soil and  production, has consequently,
so many, and  such  diverse interests, that  apart from  the
form of its  government, it  can hardly be said, to possess
" that  unity of sentiment and interest, which makes men
feel, and  act as  one social  body,"  and  which constitutes
nationality.  The writer would therefore suggest,  for  the
consideration of  the citizens  of this great republic,  that
measures be taken for devising and establishing a system of
education with " the Bible, without note or comment," for
one  of its  elementary books, which may concentrate  the
feelings and affections  of the people, promote "the reign
of mild peace" among ourselves,  and  the nations of the
earth,  and give  character and perpetuity to our own  glo-
rious Union and  its Institutions. 
APPENDIX.
    The  mind  during our waking hours, and also perhaps during
sleep, is continually engaged in some active mode of thinking, and
this fact, of which none will  doubt, goes to establish the analogy
between the brain as the organ of mind and other organs, as the
liver or salivary glands, which go on  forming bile or saliva all the
while, whether we will or not; in like manner the brain goes on
forming ideas, whether we will or not.   This may be termed spon-
taneous thinking, and is  attended with no effort of the will, and
is of course without fatigue.   Whether we shall think or  not, is
no more optional than it is whether bile or saliva shall be secre.
ted.   The brain forms ideas just as the liver forms bile, and with
no more effort;  but  by fixing  the  attention, (i. e. the immediate
direction of the mind,) upon  an  entity, the brain  spontaneously
forms ideas of it.  This may be termed one species of voluntary
thinking, and is very easily performed, and  therefore attended
with little or no fatigue.  It is  undoubtedly the mode pursued by
all great thinkers.  One of our most profound statesmen, whose
gigantic  intellect towers above all others  in the  land, when once
questioned concerning his mode of investigating subjects by which
he was led to such stupendous  results, replied that he only placed
the subject  before  him, and  watched the  workings  of his  own
mind  in relation to it.   This was to him mere spontaneous think-
ing ;  the  only voluntary  effort required or employed was simply
that of fixing and keeping the mind directed to, or in other words,
the attention fixed upon the subject,  which cost at the most but
little comparative effort.   In the case above alluded to, it required
scarcely an effort, it having been the  habit of the distinguished
individual.   Now, the attention is generally under the control of
the will ; but sometimes it is not, and therefore  when  a  subject
greatly interests us, we cannot, for  the  reason just assigned, help
thinking of it.   The  attention is fixed upon it, and  the  brain
keeps forming ideas  concerning  it.*  It is still  the spontaneous
mode of thinking under the control of the attention, or in company

  * Hold an object before the mind ; concentrate the thoughts upon it; and soon
it will glow, or at least become  luminous. 
                         Appendix.                      TJ

with it, and may be of little use, for unless strictly watched, the
mind will go on forming the same ideas, (i e. thinking in a circle,)
of the subject which is thus kept before it.  To  prevent this, a
stronger effort of the will must be invoked, and the capillary vessels
of the brain compelled to perform new actions, that the views of the
intellect may be extended; in many instances originality of thought
will  be the result.  Reasoning from analogy,  we should  infer
that the process of thinking, like the secretion of bile, is carried
on during sleep ; but in a manner of which we are  quite as un-
conscious as we are of secretion, or of any other function of or-
ganic life.  Ganglia are placed upon the nerves going to the
liver, (and also to  all  other parts connected with the  functions
of organic life,) upon  whose influence the secretion  of bile de-
pends ; by which  anatomical  arrangement all  consciousness of
such an operation in the liver, even in our waking hours, is pre-
vented ; but another method of preventing the consciousness of cere-
bral  action during  sleep, has been devised by the all-wise  Ma-
ker of our bodies.   The better to  understand this  subject, we
must take a brief physiological view of the phenomena of sleep,
the final end of which is, the repose of the system by suspending all
its voluntary powers,  mental and corporeal.  When sleep is per-
feet, all  consciousness  both in  regard to the actions of the body
and of external agencies is lost, consequently all, except such as
belong to organic life, (of which, when normal,  the  individual is
likewise  unconscious,) cease to be carried on, and the whole sys-
tern is reduced to a condition analogous to that which is peculiarly
appropriated to organic life.   The  question  which  we propose
mainly to consider, is, the nature  of the cause of sleep, and the
manner in which it operates to  induce that state.   The cause, we
think, is a certain degree of  pressure, or  perhaps more  properly
speaking, compression  of the  medullary substance of the brain.
This doctrine  that  sleep is caused by the compression of the me-
dullary or parenchymatous substance of the  brain, we shall  now
endeavor to prove, and  then proceed to show in  what way that
effect is produced.
   1.  It is a well known fact  that mechanical pressure, whether
from extravasated  fluids, or from other causes,  with which the
suro-eon is more particularly conversant,  is capable of destroying 
80
Appendix.
all consciousness, and inducing a  lethargic  state of the  gravest
character.
  2.  The sense of fulness about the forehead and eyebrows ;  the
flush  of the  cheeks  and redness of the  eyes, clearly  betoken
that an increased quantity of blood  has been received into those
parts, and as the  brain and its meninges, parts within the scull,
receive their blood from the same vessels as the parts  without,
the inference is fully warranted that this increased determination
of blood to the head  obtains as well in the  internal as in the ex-
ternal parts, in which the signs of it are so conspicuous.  With-
out adducing other arguments, as  this point will probably be con-
ceded, we shall  proceed  to inquire how this  increased flow of
blood to the brain is produced.  That it is not occasioned by  an
increased action  of the  heart, is clear,  from the fact that during
sleep the pulse  is slower and weaker  than it  is  when  we are
awake  ; if, then, it be not attributable to an increased activity of
that organ, it will follow, as a necessary consequence, that relax-
ation of the capillaries of the face and brain is the cause to which
we must look for an explanation of the phenomena of sleep.  This
view  of the case is fully justified  by the phenomena  themselves;
the conjunctiva becomes red; the cheeks  flushed ;  a sense of ful-
ness about the forehead and eyebrows is experienced ; the muscles
of the  face and neck  relax, and presently the eyes close;  the
mouth  opens, and the  head  rests  upon the chest, and finally, if
there be no mechanical  impediments, the whole body falls pros-
trate  ;  phenomena exhibiting a state of relaxation not only of  the
capillaries of the brain, but of the  whole muscular  system con-
nected with voluntary motion.*   The recumbent posture assumed
  * This is in full accordance with a law of the system, alluded to in this paper,
which is, that increased contraction or resistance is sooner or later followed by a
spontaneous relaxation which is usually proportionate with the previous contrac-
tion.  If the vessels of the brain have been made to labor with unwonted energy
in voluntary efforts, intellectual or corporeal, the relaxation which spontaneously
follows will be commensurate  and the sleep proportionally profound.
  Again, I would remark that this state of relaxation, on the approach of sleep
is attended with pleasure, either as a cause or an effect, and this fact, (i. e the con-
nection of pleasure with relaxation,) which has been dwelt upon and explained
when another part of our subject was under consideration, goes far to corroborate
the position which has been taken. 
Appendix.
81
by the body, is, that which is, philosophically considered, the most
favorable for repose, as  well  as for the complete turgescence of
the vessels of the brain,  and without which, sleep is seldom pro-
found, or completely refreshing.    We may further remark that
the effect is not confined, as is  too generally  supposed, to the
voluntary powers ; but is extended to the functions of organic life ;
therefore, respiration, as  well as circulation is diminished, and di-
gestion, secretion, and indeed all the functions of organic life are
carried on during sleep  with  less energy;  and the whole  body
may be truly said to rest.
   By the recumbent posture, the gravity of the blood is taken off,
and thus the labor of the  heart is lessened, and the vessels of the
brain will continue to be distended  until resistance to further dis-
tension, is excited, which will be  increased not in  the vessels
of the brain only, but in other parts of the body also, until it either
forces the blood out of the capillaries of the brain, and thus relieves
that organ to a certain degree of its compression ; or until the re-
sistance becomes painful, and in either case there will be a partial
renewal of consciousness, and the sleeper will dream ; or if the
resistance of  the small  vessels should change  to positive and
vigorous contraction,  the compressing cause will be removed, and
with its removal the  slumbers of the individual will cease, and the
vessels of the brain resume their wonted action, and that organ its
ordinary function of thought.  If the sleep, however, has  been
protracted and profound, a sense of heaviness in the head and lassi-
fude of body will be experienced, which  will continue for  some
time before the brain and other organs under its control will take
on their accustomed activity.  Dreaming and  somnolence (and
perhaps insanity) are nothing more nor less than the spontaneous
thinking of which we have been  speaking,  attended  with a con-
sciousness which varies in degree  at different times,  and under
different circumstances,  but which is always below that of the
waking state, therefore,  the  greater the consciousness,   short
of complete wakefulness, the more vivid  will be the dream, and
the more likely to be remembered.   If the person dreaming  have
consciousness enough, and a  sufficient control of the will to make
the vessels of the brain iterate the actions which took place while
dreaming, or in other words, think the dream over again, he will
be quite sure to remember it; but if he neglects to do this, he will 
82
Appendix.
 most assuredly be unable to recollect it, and the more especially
 so, if he fall asleep after having dreamed.   People seldom dream
 at the commencement of sleep, or if they do, the dreams are not
 often remembered for the reasons above assigned.   Although we
 have no control  over the succession  of ideas in dreaming,  and in
 some cases it must be confessed, the connection is quite unaccounta -
 ble, yet I doubt not that ordinarily the same laws of association ob-
 tain in regard to the sequence of thought in that state as in other
 modes of thinking, to wit: " resemblance or analogy ; opposition
 or contrast; contiguity, or nearness  of time and  place ; cause and
 effect; premises  and consequences ;"*  all of which may be modi-
 fied by the disposition and habits of thinking peculiar to each indi-
 vidual.   Upon this principle 1 have very often been  able to ex-
 plain my own and the dreams of others.f  The senses do not all
 fall asleep at once,  but in succession.   Those of smell, taste, and
 in fact  that  of   the touch  taken in its most extended sense, are
 so slightly connected with volition that we need scarcely  regard
 them in connection with sleep, except to say that they are the first
 to come under its influence :  the next in order is the  sight, and
 lastly the hearing: and in the transition from sleeping to waking,
 the order is reversed ;  the sense of hearing is first awakened, then
 sight, and lastly, touch,  smell,  and taste.    The  faculty  of
 speech is never called into action,  unless the sense of hearing is to
 a certain degree awake : hence it is, that you may for the  time
 being, hold conversation with most sleep-talkers.   With some, the
 hearing is so dull that it is necessary to speak to them in a  louder
tone,  which may be done without the risk of waking them, and not
 unfrequently it is also necessary  to repeat  questions in order to
 commence or  keep up the colloquy.  When  persons talk in their
 sleep we  are made acquainted  with  the  spontaneous  thinkino-
 which occupies  their ■ minds.  This sleep-talking  affords very
 satisfactory evidence of the activity of the mind during sleep.
 Without  it we should have  been  obliged in our present state of
 physiological knowledge, to have depended mainly on the evidence
  * Hedge's Logic.
  t In this connection the dreams of Joseph; of Pharaoh, his butler and ba-
ker, and of Nebuchadnezzar, may be considered with interest. May not indeed the
interpretation of dreams depend upon the same principles of association 1 
Appendix.
83
furnished by analogy, for without the exercise of the will (which
is the very essence of voluntarity, and which is suspended when
sleep is complete) in some small degree, the process of spontane-
ous thinking would  be imperceptible,  at least the evidence of it
would be very imperfect, and dubious.   As the will is the faculty
of the mind, most closely associated with the external senses, it is
of course the  first to  yield which  it does  in about the  same pro-
portion as it is affiliated to the senses which, as we have seen are
more or less readily affected by the approach of sleep ; hence, as
the hearing becomes more and more awake, the individual is in
the same proportion  more and more disposed to talk, and as the wa-
king of that sense increases, the locomotive organs, which require
from the will a much stronger impulse, are put in motion and the
sleep-talker becomes a sleep-walker; hence somnambulism.  The
author is fully aware of the difficulty of proving that thinking goes
on  when we are asleep  as well as when we are awake ;   but
the fact that many persons who have been blind for a great num.
ber of years continue to dream of visible objects, goes very far
in addition  to what has been said  to settle the question in the af-
firmative.*   In such cases it is the action  of the capillaries at the
origin of the optic nerve (or in other words, the spontaneous think-
ing of visible  objects, exactly analogous  to what it would have
been, if the person had not been blind or asleep and was looking at
the objects  of  which he was dreaming) which produces the ideas
peculiar to vision.   In fact, the  feelings  may be  and often  are
excited by internal causes alone, as has been shown.   A person
in sleep may feel as if he, himself was bound down by force, or his
arms may  be crossed, and he may dream  that they are so held by
another ; and moreover the images of the persons performing these
disagreeable acts may be distinctly formed.  In these  cases,  and
in numerous others which might be mentioned, the afferent nerves
whose office it is to make the sensorium acquainted with the state
of the  centrifugal organs, especially those of locomotion, convey to
it intelligence, or excite in it a consciousness of the condition of the
muscles thus circumstanced,  while the brain is not  sufficiently
awake to produce the necessary  change in  the efferent nerves to

  * This fact may be of some practical consequence, as it  shows that the optic
nerve has not lost its power. 
8 i                      Appendix.
 cause the muscles of the arms to act, and alter the position of these
 spell-bound members, although the desire to do so may be awakened,
 and finally so much increased as to become intense and painful,
 just as any other vehement desire ungratified causes pain.   Now
 pain, like all other disagreable impressions  produces contraction,
 and in this case it causes it in the capillary vessels of the brain,
 and of the spinal marrow, at the origin of the nerves which go to
 the muscles of the arms, and what takes place there, likewise takes
 place at the other, the peripheral extremity of the nerves, and con-
 sequently in  the capillaries of the muscles; and what all the
 vessels of a single muscle (or of a number) do, the same will the
 muscle or muscles do;—that is, contract  and move the  limbs,
 and with the movement of them, the night-mare also ceases*.  It
 might be not only amusing, but instructive,  and  perhaps useful to
 trace out the analogy which the  writer thinks  exists  between
 spontaneous thinking, dreaming, and insanity.   It might suggest
 hints relative to the treatment of that malady.
   The education  of the muscles having been omitted as a
 distinct topic, the writer would barely  suggest, that to the
 mechanic, it is a subject of grave  import.   Every appren-
 tice, while learning his trade, especially, if it be one  of light
 labour, should be taught and urged to work fast, and  soon he
 will acquire  the habit of doing so ;  of worki ng all  the  while
 as if upon a wager ; and he will then do it with as  much
 ease and as  little  fatigue as if he worked to the  "tune of
 Old Hundred."   Thus learned, he will accomplish nearly
 twice as much ; consequently, be twice as useful;  do twice
 the good, and be more  valuable in the community than any
 two drones, and may  expect a double  reward.   Let this
 method of learning trades  be adopted, and  soon  we  shall
 have few mechanics of the old school; and they will be far
 in the back ground.

  * The foregoing explains the reason why ni;dit-mare, although very distres-
sing, is not dangerous. 
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