On some of the pathological and physiological relations of brain, mind, and higher nerve function : being the address delivered at the beginning of the session of the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / by Alexander Robertson.

  • Robertson, Alexander.
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the pathological and physiological relations of brain, mind, and higher nerve function : being the address delivered at the beginning of the session of the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / by Alexander Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    under the necessity of resting their conclusions mainly on the revelations of their own consciousness. Systems of psychology so constructed could not fail to be defective, at least, as com- plete expositions of mind in all its relations. But while concurring with a recent distinguished writer on mental physiology (Dr. Maudsley), in regarding introspection as only one of several means of investigation now within our power, it seems to me that in his estimate of the labours of metaphysi- cians in the past, he has not made sufficient acknowledgment of the backward state of the sciences to which I have referred. Now, however, that these sciences have of late years attained so great a development, no writer on psychology can afford to ignore the testimony they bear. This is at present being fully appreciated by metaphysicians themselves, as is well shown by a recent work that has emanated from Edinburgh University. Moreover, in their enthusiasm for anatomical, physiological, and pathological methods, Maudsley, and other writers of the school to which he belongs, have shown too great a disposition to overlook or undervalue the significance of facts which are not revealed to us by any of these methods: I refer to such conceptions as the existence of the Deity, and to the aspirations after immortality. The belief in a Deity, however degraded the conception of Him, and the aspirations after immortality, are, as Dr. Tylor shows, to be found wherever man dwells, and are far too universal to be accounted for by contact with civilisation, as some allege they may be explained. These are facts as real as those we ascertain by the scalpel, the micro- scope, or the crucible, and ought to be taken into account and duly weighed in every system of mental philosophy. Passing now from preliminary considerations, we proceed to the discussion of those questions which form the special subject of this address. Though their pathological aspect, as is fitting here, will occupy a large share of our attention, it will tend to their better elucidation, and will altogether be most appro- priate to have regard, in the first instance, to their anatomical and physiological relations. This leads me at the outset to remind you of a few general facts respecting the architecture of the nervous system. The most simple form of a nervous apparatus, in the much referred to ascidian, for example, is two sets of fibres meeting at a centre, the ganglion. The one fibre is afferent, the other efferent, and the ganglion receives the impression and emits force. This, as you well know, is reflex action in its simplest form, at least as effected by a distinct nervous mechanism. How wide now is the application of the theory of this mode of