Volume 1

Mind and brain, or, The correlations of consciousness and organisation; systemically investigated and applied to philosophy, mental science and practice / by Thomas Laycock.

Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mind and brain, or, The correlations of consciousness and organisation; systemically investigated and applied to philosophy, mental science and practice / by Thomas Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the most attractive of all scientific pursuits, but also, that the science itself is as easy of acquirement, and much more within the reach of the general public, than those which require elaborate apparatus for their successful prosecution. For the student of mental science has, m the phenomena of his own consciousness, both the means and the matter of observation —his own brain is an in- strument which, if rightly used, exceeds all other instru- mental aids to research whatever. By it he is brought, m truth, into direct and immediate relation with those forces of matter upon which all vital phenomena depend. And if it be necessary to connect those phenomena with the structure and functions of organisms, modern physio- logy in all its departments, presents him with an extent of knowledge on this point so great, that, as compared with it, the physiology of Plato was not so advanced as the vague knowledge of most intelligent persons of modern times. Nay, children in our ragged schools m Edinburgh, at least, are more advanced in this respect than the wisest of the ancients. It must not be forgotten, however, that discipline and a method should be mainly directed to acquiring and apply- ing a knowledge of the physiology of the brain, if the ob- iect aimed at be to develop a practical science of mind. 1 The student, to this end, must be ever on the watch to counteract the insidious operation of preconceived notions and prejudices, as the most important of the obstacles to a proper knowledge of the nature of his instrument. 2. Ke must thoroughly satisfy himself of the inestimable import Tce of the science itself, as that the final object of which is to enable him to know and exercise dominion over himself and others. AVith such convictions he will not r a y be persuaded that he need give less time and b ur to the knowledge of his own nature than he is