THE RELATIONS OF MATTER AND MIND. 
Read at the Annual Meeting of the Indiana State Medical Society, 
May 16, 1894. 
BY JAS. F. HIBBERD, M.D., LL.D. 
RICHMOND, IND. 
REPRINTED FROM 
THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 
DECEMBER 15, 1891,. 
CHICAGO: 
American Medical Association Press. 
1894. THE RELATIONS OF MATTER AND MIND. 
Read at the Annual Meeting of the Indiana State Medical Society, 
May 16,1894. 
BY JAS. F. HIBBERD, M.D., LL.D. 
RICHMOND, IND. 
REPRINTED FROM 
THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
DECEMBER 15, 189/,. 
CHICAGO: 
American Medical Association Press. 
1894. THE RELATIONS OF MATTER AND MIND. 
In the near future the most important and useful 
progress in medicine will be along biologic lines. 
Biology is the science of living things ; in the broader 
sense covering all vital processes; teaches the phe- 
nomena concerning the genesis, the development, de- 
cline and death of all vital organisms. 
To my mind it is a self-evident proposition that a 
physician should fully understand the cytogenesis, 
the morphology, the histology, the anatomy, the phy- 
siology and the pathology of man, and as man is a 
microcosm of animated nature it is but a corollary 
that a perfect physician must be a thorough biologist. 
In the matter of the biology of the human mind 
there is abroad a great popular misunderstanding, and 
I am apt to believe that physicians have not given 
such attention to the relations of matter and mind as 
to leave no shadow of dubiety in the premises in their 
own minds. 
No student of current mental conditions has failed 
to recognize the difficulty of accounting for the in- 
congruities of mental manifestations met with in all 
classes of people, and certainly no physician of expe- 
rience but has been puzzled in many instances to 
draw the line between physical disease and so-called 
mind disorders. Much of the uncertainty in these 
cases is due to the fact that we have not sufficiently 
mastered the physics or the functions of the nervous 
organization in which the mind originates. In this 
state of knowledge it has been beyond our ability 
to point out definitely the true relation to hypnotism, 
to spiritualism, clairvoyance, Christian science, faith 
cures and a long list of similar disturbances to ordi- 
nary normal mental operations. It is my contention 4 
that all these are understandable erratic operations 
of the mind as emanating from the nervous organiza- 
tion, and it is the intent of this dissertation to indi- 
cate how I arrive at this conclusion. I beg to pre- 
mise that in this study the definition of psychology 
is restricted to its etymologic signification, to-wit, 
the science of the soul, quite a distinct thing from 
the somatic mind as herein elucidated, and that 
in this discussion I do not enter the realm of 
psychology. 
When one attempts the analysis of the relation of 
matter and mind by a study of it, as it exists in the 
human adult, one fails of success most signally. The 
relation here is so involved, its manifestations so 
diverse, so extensive and apparently so mysterious 
that its essential nature can not be made out by such 
a study, and yet this has been almost the exclusive 
field cultivated by investigators of metaphysics since 
the time of Aristotle with the constant result of end- 
less disagreements and confounding confusion. Ac- 
cordingly, for a satisfactory elucidation of this rela- 
tion we must pass the school men,depart from scholas- 
ticism, and make use of modern scientific methods 
of investigating involved problems, devoting our- 
selves to seeking the simplest form in which the rela- 
tion of matter and mind exhibits itself and follow- 
ing its development, step by step, in its ascending 
scale until it reaches its maximum in enlightened 
man. 
The amoeba is the lowest organism that exhibits the 
essential characteristics of animal life and its gene- 
sis is in protoplasm. The amoeba is conceded on all 
hands to be an animal, and I will seek in it the first 
link of the chain of nervous energy that extends 
through all forms of animal development up to man, 
and still continues to extend in man as witnessed in 
his expanding knowledge and increasing enlighten- 
ment. The amoeba is a single cell whose habitat is 
water containing protoplasm, and at rest and not 
under pressure, is globular. If it desires food it 5 
projects from its surface a pseudopod, a finger-like 
process, from its general substance. If this feeler 
finds nothing the animal wants, the pseudopod is 
retracted into the general mass of the amoeba. This 
may be repeated indefinitely and from any part of 
the cell, and when the pseudopod finds something 
seemingly suitable to its needs the body of the amoeba 
follows up the pseudopod, and if the something, on 
examination, turns out to be a morsel of food, laps 
itself about the morsel, secretes a digestive juice, dis- 
solves and absorbs the nutritious part of it, then un- 
wraps its body and releases the indigestible refuse. 
When sufficiently developed to procreate its species 
the amoeba divides by fission, making two organisms 
with identical structure and functions, each of which 
follows precisely the same career as the parent and 
has posterity in like manner to continue the family. 
Here, then, is an animal of low degree, representing 
in minature all the essential phenomena of the most 
exalted animal creation ; e. g., it has volition-it wills 
to move and at once projects a pseudopod; it has 
judgment-it meets a morsel of something, seizes and 
examines it; if found to be food appropriates it, if 
not food discards it; it has secretion and absorption 
-it pours out a digestive fluid, dissolves its food in- 
to a peptone which it absorbs and assimilates; it has 
growth and reproduction-it develops by appropriat- 
ing food, and reaching the procreative stage, divides, 
creating two amoeba. Are not these functions of 
the amoeba all of the essential functions of hu- 
man beings? Are not the differences between the 
amoeba and man, differences of degree and mode of 
manifestation and not of kind? Does not the amoeba, 
a single microscopic cell of undifferentiated proto- 
plasm, exhibit in every part of its organism all the 
attributes that promote the life and perpetuate the 
species of man who is but a .community of untold 
billions of cells differentiated into departments and 
organs, such that each function has its assigned cells 
to perform every special service? In short, if man 6 
is a microcosm of the cosmos, is not the amoeba 
with equal appropriateness a microcosm of the man? 
If protoplasm is the blastema of the amoeba whence 
comes protoplasm? To answer this basic query, I 
must call attention to leading facts in the dynamics 
of physics operating to fashion the world as wre find it, 
such as will indicate my line of argument. I must, 
however, confine my rehearsal to some of the more 
salient points; to recite all that would support my 
contention would require a volume, while my privi- 
leges of time and space will be exhausted in a few 
paragraphs. 
There are about seventy elements that constitute 
the world, but only a small percentage of them are 
met with in a simple or uncombined state. These 
elements the Creator has made up of atoms and has 
endowed the atoms with ceaseless oscillatory motion. 
When the atoms of two elements are conjugated under 
chemic affinity a new substance is formed, wherein 
each element has lost its distinctive atoms and mo- 
tions, forming molecules that have their distinctive 
characteristics. These new substances are subject to 
the law of chemic affinity and are as ready to conju- 
gate under proper conditions as were their parent 
elements, and thus these conjugations go on almost 
ad infinitum. Those continuing conjugations of 
atoms and molecules are the effect of a primal law 
of the Creator impressed upon matter in the begin- 
ning, the mandate being that neither atom nor mole- 
cule shall ever rest, and by reason of perpetual mo- 
tion shall work perpetual progress. Every step in 
this progress modified the environment and every 
modification of the environment invited phases of 
the conjugation of molecules not possible under any 
previous condition. When these progressive conju- 
gations had continued for eons, the face of our globe 
had reached a condition wherein four of the elements, 
to-wit, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon com- 
bined to form a semi-fluid, slimy mass and this slime 
was primary protoplasm. The primal law of prog- 7 
ress, forcible as ever, wrought modifications in this 
protoplasm and in time a speck of it segregated and 
became a cell in which was manifested an advanced 
phase of matter in motion, known as vital activity, 
notable in that the cell absorbed surrounding mate- 
rial and converted it into its own substance. This is 
a point to claim acutest attention. It marks the first 
step in the operation of the primal law of matter and 
motion beyond the simple, never-failing conjugation 
of atoms and molecules whenever conditions favored, 
and always in definite proportions and with unvary- 
ing results limited to the act of union. True, this 
first step was but a slight departure ; the surrounding 
material from which the new-born cell absorbed its 
pabulum was the protoplasm from which it was just 
segregated, which, already cognate, required but 
slight assimilation to become identical with the cell 
substance, but, nevertheless, this step was the initial 
one in the mode of motion in matter that has pro- 
duced all the marvelous forms and colors and mo- 
tions of the vegetable kingdom, as well as the still more 
wondrous developments in the animal kingdom. 
The initial cell was without a nucleus and was 
known as a moner, but the energy creating it con- 
tinuing, further developments followed, a nucleus 
was formed, presently more elements were incorpo- 
rated completing the plasm of the amoeba which then 
appeared. Nor did harmonious progress halt or waver 
with the amoeba; development continued in it until 
its congeners were many. 
Thus was the amoeba born, and further progress 
of animal organisms to higher classes was by the 
aggregation of cells in greater and greater numbers 
and their differentiation into organs and systems for 
special but associated service. As has bee*n illus- 
trated, the amoeba was undifferentiated protoplasm 
but it had voluntary motion, exercised equally by 
every part of its body, while in the higher animals 
motion is the service of the muscular tissue. The 
amoeba had secretion but no glands; in the higher 8 
animals are many secretions, each produced by a 
special glandular structure. It exhibited consen- 
tient autonomy in all its parts ; this is secured in the 
higher animals only through the most intricate nerv- 
ous organization. With the increase of associated 
cellsand differentiation of function in the more than 
300,000 species of the animal kingdom, the develop- 
ment of the nervous system progresses pari passu 
with the other systems and, finally, in man it still 
continues its evolution, at least of function, w'hile all 
other cognate departments appear to have attained 
their limits. As a whole, the scale of progress has 
been uniform-there are no cataclysmic phenomena 
in biology. There are, however, needs of animals 
that have caused the cultivation and achievement of 
special diversions of nervous energy with corre- 
sponding development of cells to answer the demand, 
e. g., the eagle can see its prey from an unknown ele- 
vation ; the dog can follow a selected scent when 
mingled with numerous other closely related scents, 
and so on. Even in different individuals of the 
same species there are marked divergences from the 
average normal, illustrated in the arithmetical juve- 
nile prodigy who adds up five columns of four digits 
each, at the same time, and in the musical monstros- 
ity known as "Blind Tom." All these specialized 
sense developments are due to the influence of the 
environment on the direction the primal energy 
in matter and motion may take when acting through 
protoplasm. 
In the further consideration of the relations of 
matter and somatic mind, we will abandon the anat- 
omy of the nervous system and study its physiology, 
adopting the classification of Hulings-Jackson who 
divides it into lowest, middle and highest levels. The 
lowest level is the old spinal system of Marshall 
Hall, composed of centers that preside over the auto- 
matic activities of the body. The middle level con- 
sists of the motor area of Ferrier and others, in the 
central cortical region of the hemispheres. The 9 
highest level is represented in the anterior and pos- 
terior regions of the hemispheres and, like the cen- 
ters of the other levels is sensori-motor. The cen- 
ters of the lowest level may act independently of the 
centers above it. The centers of the middle level can 
act independently of the highest centers but are nec- 
essarily associated with the centers of the lowest 
level. The highest level is the supreme commandant 
of the nervous system, but its centers can only exer- 
cise physical force through the centers of the levels 
below it. Its marked distinctness is being the seat 
of the somatic mind, and the anterior region of the 
hemispheres is more specialized in this behalf than 
the posterior, where the mixed motor function 
predominates. 
In this connection it is important to understand 
that the brains of men differ in form, size and force 
one from all others, as the bodies of men differ in 
form, size and force, one from all others, and in like 
manner the sundry regions of the brain differ as the 
sundry organs of the body differ; in short, as there 
are no two human bodies precisely alike, so there 
are no two human brains precisely alike, and by 
the same token no two somatic minds alike. 
The mind is made up of departments or sections 
that usually act in more or less harmonious concert 
but may, and in truth do often, manifest exalted 
function in one department and depressed activity 
in another department, and these varying conditions 
frequently change under changing environment and 
stimulation. If we gain a clear concept of these 
pregnant facts we will have but little trouble in 
understanding that the occult mental phenomena, 
claimed as a special endowment of supernal power 
is simply the unbalanced erratic activity of a per- 
turbed physical brain. 
In numerous instances one department of the mind 
has been exalted, with apparently a corresponding 
and related depression in another department, and 
under this condition the functioning of the stimu- 10 
lated center is so intense that it overrides the func- 
tion of other centers of the highest level, indeed 
dominates them all to the extent of suppressing all 
consciousness of every act not under the dominion 
of the excited center, as e. g., in catalepsy, somnam- 
bulism, hypnotism and numerous minor and more 
transient manifestations during excited passions. In 
other instances, several centers have undue function- 
ing and together disturb the average normal activity 
of the mind, inducing hysteria, spiritualism, clair- 
voyance, Christian science and quite a catalogue of 
other morbid conditions of varying intensity and 
duration, covering the superstitions of the world, 
countless in number and inconceivably discordant 
in form, extent and direction. 
These errors of function of the intellectual nerve 
cells of the anterior region of the cerebral hemi- 
spheres are not always of this gross and distinct 
character, indeed, generally, they are in the first 
departure an almost imperceptible step, a mere shad- 
ing of error, growing deeper and darker in many 
sad instances, until the somatic mind is entirely 
obliterated. 
The etiology of these erratic phases of the somatic 
mind is as varied as the manifestations and not con- 
stant in any number of them. The physical struc- 
ture of man is not identical in any two persons and 
the nervous tissue, both macroscopic and microscopic 
is morphologically as irregular as other systems; 
this undoubtedly accounts entirely for some of the 
defects of function and is a coadjutor more or less 
potent in many. 
The environment is responsible for much that pre- 
sents in these cases, teaching both by observed exam- 
ple and covert influence. The inmates of a French 
juvenile institution suffered from an invasion of cat- 
alepsy, epileptiform seizures and other neuroses, and 
the distemper was arrested only by the exhibition of 
incandescent metal instruments prepared to cauter- 
ize the next victim of the disorder'. But in no case 11 
are such derangements either induced or relieved by 
the will power of one person over another, except 
through spoken word or suggestive motion. The 
greatest misconception touching hypnotism arises 
from the widely entertained popular belief that a 
hypnotist can control a hypnotee by will power alone, 
whereas it has been abundantly proven that the hyp- 
notist can not influence the hypnotee through the 
exercise of unassisted will power, but only through 
present suggestion or previous arrangement. 
In the history of the amoeba it was shown that the 
cell exercised the attributes of a living animal by all 
parts of its protoplasm, and that the development of 
the higher animals, including man, was by an in- 
crease of cells and their association and differentia- 
tion into tissues, organs and systems each with 
special functions. It is, however, important to un- 
derstand that in the increase of cells and increase of 
better defined function the individual cells retained 
something of the original attributes and attitude of 
the amoeba, illustrated in man as in all the higher ani- 
mals, by the fact that the cells of every tissue select 
the pabulum for the tissue from the general supply; 
thus the cells of bone select from the current of 
blood the material for bone, absorb and convert it 
into bone; the cells of muscle select the appropriate 
instrument for muscular tissue and transform it 
into muscle; and the nerve cells arrest from the cir- 
culation only the substances to maintain nervous 
tissue; and in all these instances this service is per- 
formed by virtue of the inherent discriminating 
energy of the cells independently of the highest, the 
middle or the lowest levels of the nervous system; 
this energy being the lineal descendant through pro- 
toplasm and the amoeba of the primal energy of mat- 
ter in motion, here, as in all intermediate organisms 
between moner and man, modified by the surround- 
ings, and harmonized by the higher nervous levels of 
the system. 
In all past time, the origin and nature of conscious- 12 
ness has been the most abstruse problem in meta- 
physiology. The origin of mental energy in man, 
inculcated in this dissertation, affords a solution of 
the problem. Neither the amoeba nor the cells of 
the tissues of man can seize the floating particle of 
matter, examine it, and decide whether or not it is 
fit for food without knowing the particle was there 
and the purpose for which it was examined, and 
knowing is an act of consciousness. The differ- 
ence between their consciousness and that aris- 
ing from the anterior convolutions of the hemi- 
spheres is one of degree and not of kind. The former 
is evanescent, serves its purpose for the occasion and 
vanishes unregistered; the latter is permanent, 
always ready for action while the brain is intact and 
registers its service in the memory. 
Do not these converging testimonies focus the 
truth in the proposition that the somatic mind 
of man is dearly enough the highest manifestation 
and legitimate sequence of the operation of the 
primal law of matter and motion, impressed by the 
Creator in the beginning on the elements of the 
earth?