Mind and Brain.

  • Laycock, Thomas, 1812-1876.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mind and Brain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    psychology, however informal it may be. And when the generalisations which can thus be made respecting the feelings and actions of mankind are reduced to general propositions, they become the empirical laws of a prac- tical science of physiognomy. Thus prepared, the student will be able to carry on the twofold process of observation and induction already re- ferred to without that complexity and difficulty which is otherwise experienced. All his observations can be arranged, accordingly as they are intended to develop a knowledge of the brain as an instrument of research—i.e., of its physiology proper; or as they are intended to apply to a knowledge of human nature—i.e., as facts of mental science. To both these ends the student can either ob- serve and experiment upon his own states of conscious- ness in their corporeal relations, or upon those of other living things about him. By the former method he will soon acquire the habit of detecting the necessary rela- tions which corporeal changes, from whatever cause aris- ing, bear to his mental states, and thus gain a large amount of practical self-knowledge ; by similar observa- tions on others, he will in like manner gain a large amount of practical knowledge of mankind. Children and the insane are, however, the best subjects for study, but especially children, as the corporeal and mental phe- nomena they manifest are less complex in them than in adults. The habits and instincts of the lower animals, whether wild or domestic, including the inhabitants of aviaries, vivaria, or aquaria, will supply never-failing objects of instruction and interest. The entire insect world is a crea- tion to itself, in which the relations of the law of design to organisation are manifested in every variety of phase, and in which the busy life of mankind, with all its multi-