Principles of Physiological Psychology

by Wilhelm Wundt (1902)

Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

Introduction

Part I. The Bodily Substrate of the Mental Life

Chapter 1. The Organic Evolution of Mental Function

Chapter 2. Structural Elements of the Nervous System

Chapter 3. Physiological Mechanics of Nerve Substance

Chapter 4. Morphological Development of the Central Organs

Chapter 5. Course of the Paths of Nervous Conduction

Chapter 6. Physiological Function of the Central Parts

1
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
by Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

INTRODUCTION

§1. The Problem of Physiological Psychology

THE title of the present work is in itself a sufficiently clear indication of the contents. In it, the
attempt is made to show the connexion between two sciences whose subject-matters are closely
interrelated, but which have, for the most part, followed wholly divergent paths. Physiology and
psychology cover, between them, the field of vital phenomena; they deal with the facts of life at
large, and in particular with the facts of human life. Physiology is concerned with all those
phenomena of life that present them selves to us in sense perception as bodily processes, and
accordingly form part of that total environment which we name the external world. Psychology,
on the other hand, seeks to give account of the interconnexion of processes which are evinced
by our own consciousness, or which we infer from such manifestations of the bodily life in other
creatures as indicate the presence of a consciousness similar to our own.

This division of vital processes into physical and psychical is useful and even necessary for the
solution of scientific problems. We must, however, remember that the life of an organism is really
one; complex, it is true, but still unitary. We can, therefore, no more separate the processes of
bodily life from conscious processes than we can mark off an outer experience, mediated by
sense perceptions, and oppose it, as something wholly separate and apart, to what we call
'inner' experience, the events or our own consciousness. On the contrary: just as one and the
same thing, e.g., a tree that I perceive before me, falls as external object within the scope of
natural science, and as conscious contents within that of psychology, so there are many
phenomena of the physical life that are uniformly connected with conscious processes, while
these in turn are always bound up with processes in the living body. It is a matter of every-day
experience that we refer certain bodily movements directly to volitions, which we can observe as
such only in our consciousness. Conversely, we refer the ideas of external objects that arise in
consciousness either to direct affection of the organs of sense, or, in the case of memory
images, to physiological excitations within the sensory centres, which we interpret as after-
effects of foregone sense impressions.

[p. 2] It follows, then, that physiology and psychology have many points of contact. In general
there can of course be no doubt that their problems are distinct. But psychology is called upon to
trace out the relations that obtain between conscious processes and certain phenomena of the
physical life; and physiology, on its side, cannot afford to neglect the conscious contents in
which certain phenomena of this bodily life manifest them selves to us. Indeed, as regards
physiology, the interdependence of the two sciences is plainly in evidence. Practically everything
that the physiologists tell us, by way of fact or of hypothesis, concerning the processes in the
organs of sense and in the brain, is based upon determinate mental symptoms: so that

2
psychology has long been recognised, explicitly or implicitly, as an indispensable auxiliary of
physiological investigation. Psychologists, it is true, have been apt to take a different attitude
towards physiology. They have tended to regard as superfluous any reference to the physical
organism; they have supposed that nothing more is required for a science of mind than the direct
apprehension of conscious processes themselves. It is in token of dissent from any such
standpoint that the present work is entitled a "physiological psychology." We take issue, upon
this matter, with every treatment of psychology that is based on simple self-observation or on
philosophical presuppositions. We shall, wherever the occasion seems to demand, employ
physiology in the service of psychology. We are thus, as was indicated above, following the
example of physiology itself, which has never been in a position to disregard facts that properly
belong to psychology, - although it has often been hampered in its use of them by the defects of
the empirical or metaphysical psychology which it has found current.

Physiological psychology is, therefore, first of all psychology. It has in view the same principal
object upon which all other forms of psychological exposition are directed: the investigation of
conscious processes in the modes of connexion peculiar to them. It is not a province of
physiology; nor does it attempt, as has been mistakenly asserted, to derive or explain the
phenomena of the psychical from those of the physical life. We may read this meaning into the
phrase 'physiological psychology,' just as we might interpret the title 'microscopical anatomy' to
mean a discussion, with illustrations from anatomy, of what has been accomplished by the
microscope; but the words should be no more misleading in the one case than they are in the
other. As employed in the present work, the adjective 'physiological' implies simply that our
psychology will avail itself to the full of the means that modern physiology puts at its disposal for
the analysis of conscious processes. It will do this in two ways.

(I) Psychological inquiries have, up to the most recent times, been undertaken solely in the
interest of philosophy ; physiology was enabled, by [p. 3] the character of its problems, to
advance more quickly towards the application of exact experimental methods. Since, however,
the experimental modification of the processes of life, as practised by physiology, oftentimes
effects a concomitant change, direct or indirect, in the processes of consciousness,--which, as
we have seen, form part of vital processes at large,--it is clear that physiology is, in the very
nature of the case, qualified to assist psychology on the side of method; thus rendering the same
help to psychology that it, itself received from physics. In so far as physiological psychology
receives assistance from physiology in the elaboration of experimental methods, it may be
termed experimental psychology. This name suggests, what should not be forgotten, that
psychology, in adopting the experimental methods of physiology, does not by any means take
them over as they are, and apply them without change to a new material. The methods of
experimental psychology have been transformed--in some instances, actually remodelled--by
psychology itself, to meet the specific requirements of psychological investigation. Psychology
has adapted physiological as physiology adapted physical methods, to its own ends.

(2) An adequate definition of life, taken in the wider sense, must (as we said just now) cover both
the vital processes of the physical organism and the processes of consciousness. Hence,
wherever we meet with vital phenomena that present the two aspects, physical and psychical
there naturally arises a question as to the relations in which these aspects stand to each other.
So we come face to face with a whole series of special problems, which may be occasionally

3
touched upon by physiology or psychology, but which cannot receive their final solution at the
hands of either, just by reason of that division of labour to which both sciences alike stand
committed. Experimental psychology is no better able to cope with them than is any other form
of psychology, seeing that it differs from its rivals dilly in method, and not in aim or purpose.
Physiological psychology, on the other hand, is competent to investigate the relations that hold
between the processes of the physical and those of the mental life. And in so far as it accepts
this second problem, we may name it a psychophysics.[1] If we free this term from any sort of
metaphysical implication [p. 4] as to the relation of mind and body, and understand by it nothing
more than an investigation of the relations that may be shown empirically to obtain between the
psychical and the physical aspects of vital processes, it is clear at once that psychophysics
becomes for us not, what it is some times taken to be, a science intermediate between
physiology and psychology, but rather a science that is auxiliary to both. It must, however,
render service more especially to psychology, since the relations existing between determinate
conditions of the physical organization, on the one hand, and the processes of consciousness,
on the other, are primarily of interest to the psychologist. In its final purpose, therefore, this
psychophysical problem that we have assigned to physiological psychology proves to be itself
psychological. In execution, it will he predominantly physiological since psychophysics is
concerned to follow up the anatomical and physiological investigation of the bodily substrates of
conscious processes, and to subject its results to critical examination with a view to their bearing
upon our psychical life.

There are thus two problems which are suggested by the title "physiological psychology": the
problem of method, which involves the application of experiment, and the problem of a
psychophysical supplement, which involves a knowledge of the bodily substrates of the mental
life. For psychology itself, the former is the more essential; the second is of importance mainly
for the philosophical question of the unitariness of vital processes at large. As an experimental
science, physiological psychology seeks to accomplish a reform in psychological investigation
comparable with the revolution brought about in the natural sciences by the introduction of the
experimental method. From one point of view, indeed, the change wrought is still more radical:
for while in natural science it is possible under favourable conditions, to male an accurate
observation without recourse to experiment, there is no such possibility in psychology. It is only
with grave reservations that what is called 'pure self-observation' can properly be termed
observation at all and under no circumstances can it lay claim to accuracy. On the other hand, it
is of the essence of experiment that we can vary the conditions of an occurrence at will and, if
we are aiming at exact results; in a quantitatively determinable way Hence, even in the domain
of natural science the aid of the experimental method becomes indispensable whenever the
problem set is the analysis of transient and impermanent phenomena, and not merely the
observation of persistent and relatively constant objects. But conscious contents are at the
opposite pole from permanent objects; they are processes, fleeting occurrences, in continual flux
and change. In their case, therefore, the experimental method is of cardinal importance; it and it
alone males a scientific introspection possible. For all accurate observational implies that the
object [p. 5] of observation (in this case the psychical process) can be held fast by the attention,
and any changes that it undergoes attentively followed. And this fixation by the attention implies,
in its turn, that the observed object is independent of the observer. Now it is obvious that the
required independence does not obtain in any attempt at a direct self-observation, undertaken
without the help of experiment. The endeavour to observe oneself must inevitably introduce

4
changes into the course of mental events,--changes which could not have occured without it,
and whose usual consequence is that the very process which was to have been observed
disappears from consciousness. The psychological experiment proceeds very differently. In the
first place, it creates external conditions that look towards the introduction of a determinate
mental process at a given moment. In the second place, it makes the observer so far master of
the general situation, that the state of consciousness accompanying this process remain
approximately unchanged. The great importance of the experimental method, therefore, lies not
simply in the fact that, here as in the physical realm, it enables us arbitrarily to vary the
conditions of our observations, but also and essentially in the further fact that it makes
observation itself possible for us. The results of this observation may then be fruitfully employed
in the examination of other mental phenomena, whose nature prevents their own direct
experimental modification.

We may add that, fortunately for the science, there are other sources of objective psychological
knowledge, which become accessible at the very point which the experimental method fails us.
These are certain products of the common mental life, in which we may trace the operation of
determinate psychical motives: chief among them are language, myth and custom. In part
determined by historical conditions, they are also, in part dependent upon universal
psychological laws; and the phenomena that are referable to these laws form the subject-matter
of a special psychological discipline, ethnic psychology. The results of ethnic psychology
constitute, at the same time, our chief source of information regarding the general psychology of
the complex mental processes. In this way, experimental psychology and ethnic psychology
form the two principal departments of scientific psychology at large. They are supplemented by
child and animal psychology, which in conjunction with ethnic psychology attempt to resolve the
problems of psychogenesis. Workers in both these fields may, of course, avail themselves within
certain limits of the advantages of the experimental method. But the results of experiment are
here matters of objective observation only, and the experimental method accordingly loses the
peculiar significance which it possesses as an instrument of introspection. Finally, child
psychology and experimental psychology in the narrower sense may be bracketed together as
individual [p. 6] psychology while animal psychology and ethnic psychology form the two halves
of a generic or comparative psychology. These distinctions within psychology are, however, by
no means to be put on a level with the analogous divisions of the province of physiology. Child
psychology and animal psychology are of relatively slight importance, as compared with the
sciences which deal with the corresponding physiological problems of ontogeny and phylogeny.
On the other hand, ethnic psychology must always come to the assistance of individual
psychology, when the developmental forms of the complex mental processes are in question.

Kant once declared that psychology was incapable of ever raising itself to the rank of an exact
natural science.[2] The reasons that he gives for this opinion have often been repeated in later
times.[3] In the first place, Kant says, psychology cannot become an exact science because
mathematics is inapplicable to the phenomenon of the internal sense; the pure internal
perception, in which mental phenomena must be constructed,--time,--has but one dimension. In
the second place, however, it cannot even become an experimental science, because in it the
manifold of internal observation cannot be arbitrarily varied,--still less, another thinking subject
be submitted to one's experiments, conformably to the end in view; moreover, the very fact of
observation means alteration of the observed object. The first of these objections is erroneous;

5
the second is, at the least, one-sided. It is not true that the course of inner events evinces only
one dimension, time. If this were the case, its mathematical representation would, certainly be
impossible; for such representation always requires at least two variables, which can be
subsumed under the concept of magnitude. But, as a matter of fact, our sensations and feelings
are intensive magnitudes, which form temporal series. The course of mental events has,
therefore, at any rate two dimensions; and with this fact is given the general possibility of its
presentation in mathematical form. Otherwise, indeed Herbart could hardly have lighted upon
the idea of applying mathematics to psychology. And his attempt has the indisputable merit of
proving once and for all the possibility of an application of mathematical methods in the sphere
of mind.[4]

If Herbart, nevertheless, failed to accomplish the task which he set himself, the reason of his
failure is very simple; it lay in the overweening confidence with which he regarded the method of
pure self-observation and the hypotheses whereby he filled out the gaps that this observation
leaves. It is Fechner's service to have found and followed the true way; to have shown us how a
'mathematical psychology' may, within certain limits, be realised in practice. Fechner's method
consists in the experimental modification of consciousness by sensory stimuli; it leads, under
favourable circumstances, to the establishment
of certain quantitative relations between the physical and the psychical.[5]At [p. 7] the present
day, experimental psychology has ceased to regard this formulation of mental measurements as
its exclusive or even as its principal problem. Its aim is now more general; it attempts, by
arbitrary modification of consciousness, to arrive at a causal analysis of mental processes.
Fechner's determinations are also affected, to some extent, by his conception of Psychophysics
as a specific science of the 'interactions of mind and body.' But, in saying this, we do not lessen
the magnitude of his achievement. He was the first to show how Herbart's idea of an 'exact
psychology' might be turned to practical account.

The arguments that Kant adduces in support of his second objection, that the inner experience is
inaccessible to experimental investigation, are all derived from purely internal sources, from the
subjective flow of processes; and there, of course, we cannot challenge its validity. Our
psychical experiences are, primarily, indeterminate magnitudes; they are incapable of exact
treatment until they have been referred to determinate units of measurement, which in turn may
be brought into constant causal relations with other given magnitudes. But we have, in the
experimental modification of consciousness by external stimuli, a means to this very end,--to the
discovery of the units of measurement and the relations required. Modification from without
enables us to subject our mental processes to arbitrarily determined conditions, over which we
have complete control and which we may keep constant or vary as we will. Hence the objection
urged against experimental psychology, that it seeks to do away with introspection, which is the
sine qua non of any psychology, is based upon a misunderstanding. The only form of
introspection which experimental psychology seeks to banish from the science is that professing
self-observation which thinks it can arrive directly, without further assistance, at an exact
characterisation of mental facts, and which is therefore inevitably exposed to the grossest self-
deception. The aim of the experimental procedure is to substitute for this subjective method,
whose sole resource is an inaccurate inner perception, a true and reliable introspection, and to
this end it brings consciousness under accurately adjustable objective conditions. For the rest,
here as elsewhere, we must estimate the value of the method, in the last resort, by its results. It

6
is certain that the subjective method has no success to boast of; for there is hardly a single
question of fact upon which its representatives do not hold radically divergent opinions. Whether
and how far the experimental method is in better cast, the reader will be able to decide for
himself at the conclusion of this work. He must, however, in all justice remember that the
application of experiment to mental problems is still only a few decades old.[6]

The omission, in the above list of the various psychological disciplines, of any mention of what is
called rational psychology is not accidental. The term was introduced into mental science by C.
Wolff (1679-1754), to denote a knowledge of the mental life gained, in independence of
experience, simply and solely [p. 8] from metaphysical concepts. The result has proved, that any
such metaphysical treatment of psychology must, if it is to maintain its existence, be constantly
making surreptitious incursions into the realm of experience. Wolff himself found it necessary to
work out an empirical psychology, alongside of the rational: though it must be confessed that, in
fact, the rational contains about as much experience as the empirical and the empirical about as
much metaphysics as the rational. The whole distinction rests upon a complete misapprehension
of the scientific position, not only of psychology, but also of philosophy. Psychology is, in reality,
just as much an experiential science as is physics or chemistry. But it can never be the business
of philosophy to usurp the place of any special science; philosophy has its beginnings, in every
case, in the established results of the special sciences. Hence the works upon rational
psychology stand in approximately the same relation to the actual progress of psychological
science as does the nature-philosophy of Schelling or Hegel to the development of modern
natural science.[7]

There are certain psychological works, still current at the present time, which bear the word
'empirical' upon their title-pages, but make it a matter of principle to confine themselves to what
they term a 'pure' introspection. They are, for the most part, curious mixtures of rational and
empirical psychology. Sometimes the rational part is restricted to a few pages of metaphysical
discussion of the nature of mind; sometimes- as in the great majority of books of the kind
emanating from the Herbartian School --certain hypotheses of metaphysical origin are put
forward as results of self-observation. It has been well said that if a prize were offered to the
discovery by this whole introspective school of one single undisputed fact, it would be offered in
vain.[8] Nevertheless, the assurance of the Herbartians is incredible. Their compendia appear,
one after another; and the memory of the students who use them is burdened with a mixed
medley of purely imaginary processes. On the other side, the supreme advantage of the
experimental method lies in the fact that it and it alone renders a reliable introspection possible,
and that it therefore increases our ability to deal introspectively with processes not directly
accessible to modification from without. This general significance of the experimental method is
being more and more widely recognised in current psychological investigation; and the definition
of experimental psychology has been correspondingly extended beyond its original limits. We
now understand by 'experimental psychology' not simply those portions of psychology which are
directly accessible to experimentation, but the whole of individual psychology. For all such
psychology employs the experimental method: directly, where its direct use is possible; but in all
other cases indirectly, by availing itself of the general results which the direct employment of the
method has yielded, and of the refinement of psychological observation which this employment
induces.

7
Experimental psychology itself has, it is true, now and again suffered relapse into a metaphysical
treatment of its problems. We recognise the symptoms whenever we find 'physiological
psychology' defined, from the outset, in such a way as to give it a determinate metaphysical
implication. The task now assigned to the science is that of the interpretation of conscious
phenomena by [p. 9] their reference to physiological conditions. Usually, the infection spreads
still farther, and the same view is taken of the problem of psychology at large. As regards
sensations, the elements out of which they are compounded, conscious processes (we are told)
have their specific character, their peculiar constitution; but it is impossible by psychological
means to discover uniformities of connexion among these elements. Hence the only road to a
scientific description or explanation of complex mental experiences lies through the knowledge
of the physiological connexions obtaining among the physiological processes with which the
psychical elements are correlated.[9] On this conception, there is no such thing as psychical, but
only psychical causation, and every causal explanation of mental occurrence must consequently
be couched in physiological terms. It is accordingly termed the theory of 'psychophysical
materialism.' The theory as such is by no means a new thing in the history of philosophy. All
through the eighteenth century it was struggling for mastery with the rival theory of mechanical
materialism, which explained the psychical elements themselves as confused apprehensions of
molecular motions. But it presents a novel feature in its endeavour to press physiological
psychology into the service of the metaphysical hypothesis and thus apparently to remove this
hypothesis from the metaphysical sphere,--so that psychological materialism becomes for its
representatives compatible even with a philosophical idealism of the order of Kant or Fichte.
Since psychology, from this point of view, forms a supplement to physiology, and therefore takes
its place among the natural sciences, it need, as a matter of fact, pay no further regard either to
philosophy or to the mental sciences. That the mental life itself is the problem of psychology,--
this is mere dogma, handed down to us by past ages.[10]Yet after all, the assertion that there is
no such thing as psychical causation, and that all psychical connexions must be referred back to
physical, is at the present day this: it is an assumption which, on its negative side, comes into
conflict with a large number of actually demonstrable psychical connexions, and, on the positive,
raises a comparatively very limited group of experiences to the rank of an universal principle. It
is, we must suppose, a realisation of the inadequacy of the arguments offered in support of
these two fundamental implications that has led certain psychologists, who would otherwise take
the same theoretical position, to divide the problem of psychology, and to recognise the
interconnexions of mental processes as a legitimate object of inquiry, alongside of the
investigation of their dependence upon determinate physiological process within the brain. In the
psychological portion of their works, these writers usually adopt the theory of the 'association of
ideas,' elaborated in the English psychology of the eighteenth century.[11] They adopt it for the
good and sufficient reason that the doctrine of association, from David Hartley (1705-1757) [p.
10] down to Herbert Spencer (1820-1904), has itself for the most part attempted merely a
physiological interpretation of the associative processes.

The materialistic point of view in psychology can claim, at best, only the value of an heuristic
hypothesis. Its justification must, therefore, be sought first of all in its results. But it is apparent
that the diversion of the work of psychology from its proper object, the related manifold of
conscious processes, is precisely calculated to make the experimental method comparatively
barren, so far as concerns psychology itself. And, as a matter of fact, the books upon
physiological psychology that are written from the standpoint of materialism confine themselves

8
almost entirely, when they are not borrowing from the physiology of brain and sense organs, to
the beaten track of the traditional doctrine of association. Ideas are treated, after as before, as if
they were immutable objects, that come and go, form connexions of sequence with one another,
obey in these connexions the well-known laws of habit and practice, and finally, when arranged
in certain groups, yield the not very startling result that they can be brought under the same
logical categories that have proved generally serviceable for the classification of all sorts of
concepts.[12]

Now physiology and psychology, as we said just now, are auxiliary disciplines, and neither can
advance without assistance from the other. Physiology, in its analysis of the physiological
functions of the sense organs, must use the results of subjective observation of sensations; and
psychology, in its turn, needs to know the physiological aspects of sensory function, in order
rightly to appreciate the psychological. Such instances might easily be multiplied. Moreover, in
view of the gaps in our knowledge, physiological and psychological alike, it is inevitable that the
one science will be called upon, time and again, to do duty for the other. Thus, all our current
theories of the physical processes of light excitation are inferences from the psychological
course and character of visual sensations; and we might very well attempt, conversely, to
explain the conditions of practice and habituation, in the mental sphere, from the properties of
nervous substance, as shown in the changes of excitability due to the continued effect of
previous excitations. But one cannot assert, without wilfully closing one's eyes to the actual state
of affairs or taking theories for facts, that the gaps in our knowledge which demand this sort of
extraneous filling are to be found only on the one side, the side of psychology. In which of the
two sciences our knowledge of processes and of the interconnexion of processes is more or less
perfect or imperfect is a question that, we may safely say, hardly admits of an answer. But
however this may be, the assertion that the mental life lacks all causal connexion, and that the
real and primary object of psychology is therefore not the mental life itself but the physical
substrate of that life,--this assertion stands self-condemned. The effects of such teaching upon
psychology cannot but be detrimental. In the first place, it conceals the proper object of
psychological investigation behind facts and hypotheses that are borrowed from physiology.
Secondly and more especially, it recommends the employment of the experimental methods
without the least regard to the psychological point of view, so that for psychology as such their
results are generally valueless. Hence the gravest danger that besets the path of our science
today comes not from the speculative and empirical dogmas of the older schools, but [p. 11]
rather from this materialistic pseudo-science. Antipsychological tendencies can hardly find
clearer expression than in the statement that the psychological interpretation of the mental life
has no relation whatever to the mental life itself, as manifested in history and in society.

Besides this application of the term 'experimental psychology' in the interests of psychological
materialism, we find it used in still another sense, which is widely different from that of our own
definition. It has become customary, more especially in France, to employ the name principally,
if not exclusively, for experiments upon hypnotism and suggestion. At its best, however, this
usage narrows the definition of 'experimental psychology' in a wholly inacceptable way. If we are
to give the title of 'psychological experiment' to each and every operation upon consciousness
that brings about a change of conscious contents, then, naturally, hypnotisation and the
suggestion of ideas must be accounted experiments. The inducing of a morphine narcosis, and
any purposed interference with the course of a dream consciousness, would fall under the same

9
category. But if the principal value of the psychological experiment lies in the fact that it makes
an exact introspection possible, very few of these modifications of consciousness can be termed
true psychological experiments. This does not mean of course, that experiments with suggestion
may not, under favourable circumstances,--in the hands of an experimenter who is guided by
correct psychological principles, and who has at his command reliable and introspectively
trained observers,--yield results of high importance to psychology: so much, indeed, is proved by
Vogt's observations on the analysis of the feelings in the hypnotic state.[13] But in such cases
the conditions necessary to the performance of accurate experiments are, it is plain, peculiarly
difficult of fulfilment; and the great majority of what are called 'hypnotic experiments' either
possess, accordingly, no scientific value at all or lead to the observation of interesting but
isolated facts, whose place in the psychological system is still uncertain.[14]

§2. Survey of the Subject

Physiological psychology is primarily psychology and therefore has for its subject the manifold of
conscious processes, whether as directly experienced by ourselves, or as inferred on the
analogy of our own experiences from objective observation. Hence the order in which it takes up
particular problems will be determined primarily by psychological considerations; the phenomena
of consciousness fall into distinct groups, according to the points of view from which they are
successively regarded. At the same time, any detailed treatment of the relation between the
psychical and physical aspects of vital processes presupposes a digression into anatomy and
physiology such as would naturally be out of place in a purely psychological exposition. While,
then, the following Chapters of this work are arranged in general upon a systematic plan, the
author has not always observed the rule that the reader should be adequately prepared, at each
stage [p. 12] of the discussion, by table contents of preceding Chapters. Its disregard has
enabled him to avoid repetition; and he has acted with the less scruple, in view of the general
understanding of psychology which the rending of a book like the present implies. Thus a critical
review of the results of brain anatomy and brain physiology, with reference to their value for
psychology, presupposes much and various psychological knowledge. Nevertheless, it is
necessary, for other reasons, that the anatomical and physiological considerations should
precede the properly psychological portion of the work. And similar conditions recur, now and
again, even in Chapters that are pre-eminently psychological.[l5]

Combining in this way the demands of theory and the precepts of practical method, we shall in
what follows (1) devote a first Part to the bodily substrate of the mental life. A wealth of new
knowledge is here placed at our disposal by the anatomy and physiology of the central nervous
system, reinforced at various points by pathology and general biology. This mass of material
calls imperatively for examination from the psychological side: more especially since it has
become customary for the sciences concerned in its acquisition to offer all varieties of
psychological interpretation of their facts. Nay, so far have things gone, that we actually find
proposals made for a complete reconstruction of psychology itself, upon an anatomical and
physiological basis! But, if we are seriously to examine these conjectures and hypotheses, we
must, naturally, acquaint ourselves with the present status of the sciences in question. Even
here, however, our presentation of the facts will depart in some measure from the beaten path.
Our aim is psychological: so that we may restrict ourselves, on the one hand, to matters of
general importance, while on the other we must lay special emphasis upon whatever is

10
significant for psychology. Thus it cannot be our task to follow brain anatomy into all the details
which it has brought to light concerning the connexions of fibres within the brain,--into all those
minute points whose interpretation is still altogether uncertain, and whose truth is often and
again called in question. It will only be necessary for us to obtain a general view of he structure
of the central organs and of such principal connexions of these with one another and with the
peripheral organs as have been made out with sufficient certainty. We may then in the light of
reasonably secure principles of nerve physiology and of our psychological knowledge, proceed
to discuss the probable relations of physiological structure and function to the processes of
consciousness.

(2) We shall then, in a second Part, begin our work upon the problem [p. 13] of psychology
proper, with the doctrine of the elements of the mental life. Psychological analysis leaves us with
two such elements, of specifically different character: with sensations, which as the ultimate and
irreducible elements of ideas we may term the objective elements of the mental life, and with
feelings, which accompany these objective elements as their subjective complements, and are
referred not to external things but to the state of consciousness itself. In this sense, therefore,
we call blue, yellow, warm, cold, etc., sensations; pleasantness, unpleasantness, excitement,
depression, etc., feelings. It is important that the terms he kept sharply distinct, in these
assigned meanings, and not used indiscriminately, as they often are in the language of everyday
life, and even in certain psychologies. It is also important that they be reserved strictly for the
psychical elements, and not applied at random both to simple and to complex contents,--a
confusion that is regrettably current in physiology. Thus in what follows we shall not speak of a
manifold of several tones or of a coloured extent as a 'sensation', but as an 'idea'; and when we
come to deal with the formations resulting from a combination of feelings we shall term them
expressly 'complex feelings' or (if the special words that language offers us are in place)
'emotions,' 'volitions,' etc. This terminological distinction cannot of course, tell us of itself
anything whatsoever regarding the mode of origin of such complex formations from the psychical
elements. It does, however, satisfy the imperative requirement that the results of psychological
analysis of complex conscious contents be rendered permanent, when that analysis is
completed, by fitting designations. As for these results themselves, it need hardly be said that
the mental elements are never given directly as contents of consciousness in the
uncompounded state. We may learn here from physiology, which has long recognised the
necessity of abstracting, in its investigations of these products of analysis, from the connexions
in which they occur. Sensations like red, yellow, warm, cold, etc., are considered by
physiologists in this their abstract character, i.e., without regard to the connexions in which, in
the concrete case, they invariably present themselves. To employ the single term 'sensation' as
well for these ultimate and irreducible elements of our ideas as for the surfaces and objects that
we perceive about us is a confusion of thought which works sufficient harm in physiology, and
which the psychologist must once and for all put behind him.

But there is another and a still worse terminological obscurity, common both to physiology and to
psychology, which has its source in the confusion of conscious processes themselves with the
outcome of a inner reflection upon their objective conditions. It is all too common to find
sensations so named only when they are directly aroused by external sensory stimuli; while the
sensations dependent upon any sort of internal condition are termed ideas, [p. 14] and the word
idea itself is at the same time restricted to the contents known as memory images. This

11
confusion is psychologically inexcusable. There is absolutely no reason why a sensation -- blue,
green, yellow, or what not -- should be one thing when it is accompanied simply by an excitation
in the 'visual centre' of the cortex, and another and quite a different thing where this excitation is
itself set up by the operation of some external stimulus. As conscious contents, blue is and
remains blue, and the idea of an object is always a thing ideated in the outside world, whether
the external stimulus or the thing outside of us be really present or not. It is true that the memory
image is, oftentimes, weaker and more transient then the image of direct perception. But this
difference is by no means constant; we may sense in dreams, or in the state of hallucination, as
intensively as we sense under the operation of actual sensory stimuli.[16] Such distinctions are,
therefore, survivals from the older psychology of reflection, in which the various contents of
consciousness acquired significance only as the reflective thought of the philosopher read a
meaning into them. It was an accepted tenet of this psychology that ideas enjoy an immaterial
existence in the mind, while sensation was regarded as something that makes its way into mind
from the outside. Now all this may be right or wrong; but, whether right or wrong, it evidently has
no bearing whatever upon the conscious process as such.

The attitude of physiological psychology to sensations and feelings, considered as psychical

elements, is, naturally, the attitude of psychology at large. At the same time, physiological
psychology has to face a number of problems which do not arise for general psychology:
problems that originate in the peculiar interest which attaches to the relations sustained by these
ultimate elements of the mental life to the physical processes in the nervous system and its
appended organs. Physiology tells us, with ever increasing conviction, that these relations,
especially in the case of sensations, are absolutely uniform; and with an improved understanding
of bodily expression, of affective symptomatology, we are gradually coming to see that the
feelings too have their laws of correlation, no less uniform, if of an entirely different nature. But
this growth of knowledge lays all the heavier charge upon psychology to determine the
significance of the various psychophysical relations. A pure psychology could afford, if needs
must, to pass them by, and might confine itself to a description of the elements and of their direct
interrelations. A physiological psychology, on the other hand, is bound to regard this
psychophysical aspect of the problems of mind as one of its most important objects of
investigation.

(3) The course of our inquiry proceeds naturally from the mental ele-[p. 15] ments to the complex
psychical processes that take shape in consciousness from the connexion of the elements.
These mental formations must be treated in order; and our third Part will be occupied with that
type of complex process to which all others are referred as concomitant processes: with the
items that arise from the connexion of sensations. Since physiological psychology stands
committed to the experimental method, it will here pay most regard to the sense ideas aroused
by external stimuli, these being most easily brought under experimental control. We may
accordingly designate the contents of this section a study of the composition of sense ideas. Our
conclusions will however, apply equally well to ideas that are not aroused by external sensory
stimuli; the two classes of ideas agree in all essential characters, and are no more to be
separated than are the corresponding sensations.

The task of physiological psychology remains the same in the analysis of ideas that it was in the
investigation of sensations: to act as mediator between the neighbouring sciences of physiology

12
and psychology. At the same time, the end in view all through the doctrine of ideas is pre-
eminently psychological; the specifically psychophysical problems, that are of such cardinal
importance for the theory of sensation, now retire modestly into the background. Physiological
psychology still takes account of the physical aspect of the sensory functions involved, but it
hardly does more in this regard than it is bound to do in any psychological inquiry in which it
avails itself of the experimental means placed at its disposal.

(4) The doctrine of sense ideas is followed by a fourth Part, dealing with the analysis of mental
processes that, as complex products of the interconnexion of simple feelings, stand in a relation
to the affective elements analogous to that sustained by ideas to the sensations of which they
are compounded. It must not, of course, be understood that the two sets of formations can, in
reality, be kept altogether separate and distinct. Sensations and feelings are, always and
everywhere, complementary constituents of our mental experiences. Hence the conscious
contents that are compounded of feelings can never occur except together with ideational
contents, and in many cases the affective elements are as powerful to influence sensations and
ideas as these are to influence the feelings. This whole group of subjective experiences; in
which feelings are the determining factors, maybe brought under the title of
Gemuthsbewegungen und Willenshandlungun. Of these, Gemuthsbewegungen is the wider
term, since it covers volitional as well as affective processes. Nevertheless, in view of the
peculiar importance of the phenomena of will, and of the relation which external voluntary
actions bear to other organic movements,--a relation whose psychophysical implications
constitute it a special problem of physiological psychology,--we retain the two words side by side
in the title of our section, and limit the meaning [p. 16] of Gemuthsbewegungen on the one hand
to the emotions, and on the other to a class of affective processes that are frequently bound up
with or pass into emotions, the intellectual feelings.[17]

(5) Having thus investigated sense ideas, emotions and voluntary actions, the complex
processes of the mental life, we pass in a fifth Part to the doctrine of consciousness and of the
interconnexion of mental processes. The results of the two preceding sections now form the
basis of an analysis of consciousness and of the connexions of conscious contents. For all these
conscious connexions contain, as their proximate constituents, ideas and emotion and
consciousness itself is nothing else than a general name for the total sum of processes and their
connexions. So far as our analysis of these connexions is experimental we shall he chiefly
concerned with the arbitrary modification of sense ideas and of their course in consciousness.
When, on the other hand, we come to consider the interconnexions of emotions and voluntary
actions, our principal dependence will be upon the results of analysis of the processes of
consciousness at large.

In these five Parts, then, we confine ourselves to a purely empirical examination of the facts. (6)
A sixth and final Part will treat of the origin and principles of mental development. Here we shall
endeavour to set forth, in brief, the general conclusions that may be drawn from these facts for a
comprehensive theory of the mental life and of its relation to our physical existence. So far, we
have set conscious processes and the processes of the bodily life over against each other,
without attempting any exact definition of either. Now at last, when our survey of their
interrelations is completed, we shall be able to ascribe a definitive meaning to the terms physical
and psychical. And this will help us towards a solution of the well worn problem of 'the interaction

13
of mind and body,' a solution that shall do justice to the present status of our physiological and
psychological knowledge, and shall also meet the requirements of a philosophical criticism of
knowledge itself. Physiological psychology thus ends with those questions with which the
philosophical psychology of an older day was wont to begin,--the questions of the nature of the
mind, and of the relation of consciousness to an external world; and with a characterisation of
the general attitude which psychology is to take up, when it seeks to trace the laws of the mental
life as manifested in history and in society.

§3. Prepsychological Concepts[18]

The human mind is so constituted, that it cannot gather experiences [p. 17] without at the same
time supplying an admixture of its own speculation. The first result of this naive reflection is the
system of concepts which language embodies. Hence, in all departments of human experience,
there are certain concepts that science finds ready made, before it proceeds upon its own proper
business,--results of that primitive reflection which have left its permanent record in the concept-
system of language. 'Heat' and 'light,' e.g., are concepts from the world of external experience,
which had their immediate origin in sense-perception. Modern physics subsumes them both
under the general concept of motion. But it would not be able to do this, if the physicist had not
been willing provisionally to accept the concepts of the common consciousness, and to begin his
inquiries with their investigation. 'Mind,' 'intellect,' 'reason,' 'understanding,' etc., are concepts of
just the same kind, concepts that existed before the advent of any scientific psychology. The fact
that the naive consciousness always and everywhere points to internal experience as a special
source of knowledge, may, therefore, be accepted for the moment as sufficient testimony to the
rights of psychology as science. And this acceptance implies the adoption of the concept of
'mind,' to cover the whole field of internal experience. ' Mind,' will accordingly be the subject, to
which we attribute all the separate facts of internal observation as predicates. The subject itself
is determined wholly and exclusively by its predicates; and the reference of these to a common
substrate must be taken as nothing more than an expression of their reciprocal connexion. In
saying this, we are declining once and for all to read into the concept of 'mind' a meaning that
the naive linguistic consciousness always attaches to it. Mind, in popular thought, is not simply a
subject in the logical sense, but a substance, a real being; and the various 'activities of mind' as
they are termed, are its modes of expression or action. But there is here involved a metaphysical
presupposition, which psychology may possibly be led to honour at the conclusion of her work,
but which she cannot on any account accept, untested, before she has entered upon it.
Moreover, it is not true of this assumption as it was of the discrimination of internal experience at
large, that it is necessary for the starting of the investigation. The words coined by language to
symbolise certain groups of experiences still bear upon them marks which show that, in their
primitive meanings, their stood not merely [p. 18] for separate modes of existence, for
'substances,' in general but actually for personal beings. This personification of substances has
left its most indelible trace in the concept of genus. Now the word-symbols of conceptual ideas
have passed so long from hand to hand in the service of the understanding, that they have
gradually lost all such fanciful reference. There are many cases in which we have seen the end,
not only of the personification of substances, but even of the substantialising of concepts. But we
are not called upon, on that account, to dispense with the use whether of the concepts
themselves or of the words that designate them. We speak of virtue, honour, reason; but our
thought does not translate any one of these concepts into a substance. They have ceased to be

14
metaphysical substances, and have become logical subjects. In the same way, then, we shall
consider mind, for the time being, simply as the logical subject of internal experience. Such a
view follows directly from the mode of concept-formation employed by language, except that it is
freed of all those accretions of crude metaphysics which invariably attach to concepts in their
making by the naive consciousness.

We must take up a precisely similar attitude to other ready-made concepts that denote special
departments or special relations of the internal experience. Thus our language makes a
distinction between 'mind' and 'spirit.' The two concepts carry the same meaning, hut carry it in
different contexts: their correlates in the domain of external experience are 'body' and 'matter.'
The name 'matter' is applied to any object of external experience as it presents itself directly to
our senses, without reference to an inner existence of its own. 'Body' is matter thought of with
reference to such an inner existence. 'Spirit,' in the same way, denotes the internal existence as
considered out of all connexion With an external existence; whereas 'mind,' especially where it is
explicitly opposed to spirit, presupposes this connexion with a corporeal existence, given in
external experience.[19]

While the terms 'mind' and 'spirit' cover the whole field of internal experience, the various 'mental
faculties,' as they are called, designate the special provinces of mind as distinguished by a direct
introspection. Language brings against us an array of concepts like 'sensibility,' 'feeling,'
'reason,' 'understanding,'--a classification of the processes given in internal perception against
which, bound down as we are to the use of these words, we are practically powerless. What we
call do, however, and what science is obliged to do, is to reach an exact definition of the
concepts; and to arrange them upon a systematic plan. It is probable that the mental faculties
stood originally not merely for different parts of the field of internal [p. 19] experience, but for as
many different beings; though the relation of these to the total being, the mind or spirit, was not
conceived of in any very definite way. But the hypostatization of these concepts lies so far back
in the remote past, and the mythological interpretation of nature is so alien to our modes of
thought, that there is no need here to warn the reader against a too great credulity in the matter
of metaphysical substances. Nevertheless, there is one legacy which has come down to modern
science from the mythopoeic age. All the concepts that we mentioned just now have retained a
trace of the mythological concept of force; they are not regarded simply as--what they really are-
-class-designations of certain departments of the inner experience, but are oftentimes taken to
be forces, by whose means the various phenomena are produced. Understanding is looked
upon as the force that enables us to perceive truth; memory as the force which stores up ideas
for future use; and so on. On the other hand, the effects of these different 'forces' manifest
themselves so irregularly that they hardly seem to be forces in the proper sense of the word; and
so the phrase 'mental faculties' came in to remove all objections. A faculty, as its derivation
indicates, is not a force that must operate, necessarily and immutably, but only a force that may
operate. The influence of the mythological concept of force is here as plain as it could well be;
for the prototype of the operation of force as faculty is, obviously, to be found in human action.
The original significance of faculty is that of a being which acts. Here, therefore, in the first
formation of psychological concepts, we have the germ of that confusion of classification with
explanation which is one of the besetting sins of empirical psychology. The general statement
that the mental faculties are class concepts, belonging to descriptive psychology, relieves us of
the necessity of discussing them and their significance at the present stage of our inquiry. As a

15
matter of fact, one can quite well conceive of a natural science of the internal experience in
which sensibility, memory, reason and understanding should be conspicuous by their absence.
For the only things that we are directly cognisant of in internal perception are individual ideas,
feelings, impulses, etc.; and the subsumption of these individual facts under certain general
concepts contributes absolutely nothing toward their explanation.

At the present day, the uselessness of the faculty-concepts is almost universally conceded.
Again, however, there is one point in which they still exercise a widespread influence. Not the
general class-concepts, but the individual facts that, in the old order of things, were subsumed
under them, are now regarded in many quarters as independent phenomena, existing in
isolation. On this view there is, to be sure, no special faculty of ideation or feeling or volition; put
the individual idea, the individual affective process, and the individual voluntary act are looked
upon as inde-[p. 20] pendent processes, connecting with one another and separating from one
another as circumstances determine. Now introspection declares that all these professedly
independent processes through and through interconnected and interdependent. It is evident,
therefore, that their separation involves just the same translation of the products of abstraction
into real things as we have charged to the account of the old doctrine of faculties, - only that in
this case the abstractions come a little nearer to the concrete phenomena. An isolated idea, an
idea that is separable from the processes of feeling and volition, no more exists than does all
isolated mental force of 'understanding.' Necessary as these distinctions are, then, we must still
never forget that they are based upon abstractions--that they do not carry with them any real
separation of objects. Objectively, we can regard the individual mental processes only as
inseparable elements of interconnected wholes.

The argument of the text may be supplemented here by some further critical remarks upon the
two parallel concepts of 'mind' and 'spirit,' and upon the doctrine of mental faculties.

The English language distinguishes spirit from mind; is a second substance-concept, with the
differentia that it is not, as mind is, necessarily bound up, by the mediation of the senses, with a
corporeal existence, but either stands in a merely external connexion with body or is entirely free
of bodily relations The concept of spirit is accordingly used in a two-fold meaning. On the one
hand, it stands for the substrate of all inner experiences which are supposed to be independent
of the activity of the senses; on the other, it denotes a being which has no part or lot at all in
corporeal existence. It is, of course, only in the former of these two meanings that the concept of
spirit comes into psychology. We can, however, see at once that the first signification must
logically pass over into the second. If the connexion of spirit with body is merely external and as
it were accidental there is no reason why spirit should not occur in the form of pure undivided
substance.

Philosophical reflection could not leave the relation of mind and spirit in the obscurity which had
satisfied the needs of the naive consciousness. Are mind and spirit different beings? Is mind a
part of spirit, or spirit a part of mind? The earliest philosophical speculation shows clearly
enough into what perplexity these questions plunged its authors. On the one hand, they are
forced by the interconnexion of the inner experience to postulate a single substance as its
substrate; on the other, they can see no way to escape a separation of the more abstract
spiritual activities from the bodily entanglements of sense-perception. Alongside of the universal

16
dualism of matter and spirit there remains the more restricted antithesis of spirit and mind. And
ancient philosophy never succeeded in wholly overcoming this antithesis,--whether, with Plato, it
tries to get rid of the substantiality of mind by regarding mind as a mixture of matter and
spirit,[20] or whether, with Aristotle, it transfers to spirit the notion that it has abstracted from
mind and so substitutes a coincident [p. 21] form of definition for unity of substance.[21] Modern
spiritualistic philosophy has, in general, followed the path laid down by PLATO, though it affirms
more decidedly than PLATO did the unity of substance in mind and spirit. The result is that all
real discrimination of the two concepts disappears from the scientific vocabulary. If a difference
is made, it is made in one of to ways, Either spirit is taken as the general concept, within which
the individual mind is contained;[22] or spirit is confused with the mental faculties, of which we
shall speak presently, and retained as a general designation for the 'higher' mental faculties or,
specifically, for intelligence or the faculty of knowledge. The second usage is often
accompanied, in the later works, by the inclusion of feeling and desire in the common concept of
'disposition'; so that the mind as a whole divides into intellect and disposition,[23] without any
implication of a separation into distinct substances. Sometimes, again, a mere difference of
degree is made between the two terms mind and spirit, and spirit ascribed to man, while mind
alone is assigned to the animals. Thus the distinction becomes less and less definite, while at
the same time the concept of spirit loses its substantial character. So that, if we are to give the
worth a meaning that shall not anticipate the results of later investigation, we can do no more
than say that spirit, like mind, is the subject of the inner experience, but that in it abstraction is
made from the relations of this subject to a corporeal being. Mind is the subject of the inner
experience as conditioned by its connexion with an external existence; spirit is the same subject
without reference to such connexion. We shall accordingly, speak of spirit and of spiritual
phenomena only when we can afford to neglect those moments of the inner experience which
render it dependent upon our sensuous existence, i.e., upon that side of our existence which is
accessible to external experience. This definition leaves entirely open the question whether spirit
really is independent of sensibility. We can abstract from one or more of the aspects of a
phenomenon without denying that these aspects are actually presented.

It has long been an object with philosophers to reduce the various mental faculties distinguished
by language--sensation, feeling, reason, understanding, desire, imagination, memory, etc.--to
certain more general forms. As early as Plato's Timaeus we find an indication of a tripartite
division of the mind, in accordance with the later discrimination of the three faculties of
knowledge, feeling and desire. Parallel with this threefold division runs another, into the higher
and lower faculties. The former, the immortal reason, corresponds to knowledge; the latter,
sensibility or the perishable part of mind, embraces feeling and desire. Feeling or emotion is
here looked upon as mediating between reason and appetite, just as the true idea mediates
between sensuous appearance and knowledge. But while sensation is expressly referred to the
same part of the mind as desire,[24] the mediating thought (






) and the emotion [p. 22]
appear to stand in similar relation only to the faculty of reason. Hence these attempts at
classification give us the impression two principles of division independently of each other,--the
one based upon observation of a fundamental difference between the phenomena of cognition,
feeling and appetition, and the other upon the recognition or stages in the process of knowledge;
and that his not altogether successful attempt to reduce the two to one came only as an
afterthought. In Aristotle the mind, regarded as the principle of life, divides into nutrition,
sensation, and faculty of thought, corresponding to the inner most important stages in the

17
succession of vital phenomena. It is true that he occasionally introduces other mental faculties in
the course of his discussion; but it is quite clear that he considers these three phenomena as the
most general. Desire, in particular, is subordinated to sensation.[25]

PLATO obtains his tripartite division by ranking the properties of mind in the order of ethical
value; Aristotle obtains his, conformably with his definition of mind, from the three principal
classes of living beings. The plant mind is nutritive only; the animal mind is nutritive and
sensitive; the human mind is nutritive, sensitive and rational. We can hardly doubt that the
classification, with its three separable faculties, was originally suggested by the observation of
the three kinds of living things in nature. But, however different the source from which it springs,
we have only to omit the distinction of nutrition as a specific mental faculty, and we find it
coinciding outright with the Platonic division into sensibility and reason. Hence it cannot itself,
any more than the various later attempts at classification, be regarded as a really new system.

The most influential psychological systematist of modern times, WOLFF, employs both of the
Platonic divisions, side by side, but makes the faculty of feeling subordinate to that of desire.
The consequent dichotomy runs through his whole system. He first of all separates cognition
and desire, and then subdivides each of these into a lower and a higher part. The further
progress is shown in the following table.

I. FACULTY OF KNOWLEDGE

1. Lower Faculty of knowledge.--Sense, Imagination, Poetic faculty, Memory (remembering and

forgetting).

2. Higher Faculty of Knowledge.--Attention and reflection. Understanding.

II. FACULTY OF DESIRE

1. Lower Faculty of Desire.--Pleasantness and unpleasantness, Sensuous desire and sensuous

aversion. Emotions.

2. Higher Faculty of Desire.--Volition (affirmation and negation).Freedom.

This classification has its proximate source in the Leibnizian distinction of ideation and appetition
as the fundamental forces of the monads. It shows a great advance upon previous systems in
not confining the faculty of feeling and desire to emotion and sensuous desire, but giving it the
same range as the faculty of knowledge, so that the old difference in ethical value disappears.
On the other hand, it is obvious that the special faculties grouped under the four main rubrics are
not distinguished upon any systematic principle; their arrangement is purely empirical. The
classification underwent many changes at the hands of WOLFF'S disciples. We frequently find
knowledge and feeling taken as the [p. 23] two principle faculties, or feeling added as
intermediary to knowledge and desire. This last scheme is that adopted by KANT. WOLFF'S
thought, even in the empirical psychology, is guided by his endeavour to reduce all the various
faculties to a single fundamental force, the faculty of ideation; and his rational psychology is
largely devoted to this task. KANT disapproved of any such attempt to obliterate given

18
differences in the mere effort after unification. Nevertheless, he too allows knowledge to
encroach upon the domains of the other two mental forces, in correlating each of them with a
special faculty within the sphere of cognition. But he maintains the original diversity of cognition,
feeling and desire. The faculty of knowledge comprehends the other two only in the sense that it
is the legislative faculty of mind at large. It is the source both of the concepts of nature and of the
concept of freedom which contains the ground of the practical precepts of the will. It also
produces the intermediate teleological judgments and judgments of taste. So we find KANT
saying that understanding, in the narrower sense, legislates for the faculty of knowledge, reason
for the faculty of desire, and judgment for feeling;[26] while understanding, judgment and reason
are elsewhere bracketed together as understanding in the wider sense.[27] On the other side,
KANT accepts the distinction of a lower and a higher faculty of knowledge,--the former
embracing sensibility and the latter understanding,--but rejects the hypothesis that they are
separated by a mere difference of degree. Sensibility is, for him, the receptive, understanding
the active side of knowledge.[28] Hence in his great Critique he opposes sensibility to
understanding. When connected with sensibility, understanding mediates empirical concepts;
alone, it gives us pure notions.[29]

It is evident that there are three principal points to be emphasised in the course of this whole
development. The first is the distinction of the three mental faculties; the second, the tripartite
division of the higher faculty of knowledge; and the third, the relation of this to the three principal
faculties. Th first is, in all essentials, a legacy from the Wolffian psychology: the other two are
peculiar to KANT. Previous philosophy had, in general, defended reason (




) as that activity
of mind which by inference (ratiocinatio) gives account of the grounds of things. The definition
was, however, compatible with various views of the position of reason. Sometimes, just as in
Neoplatonism, reason was subordinated to understanding (



, intellectus); the latter is a
source of immediate knowledge, while the activity of inference implies commerce with the world
of sense. Sometimes, it was ranked above understanding, as the means whereby we penetrate
to the ultimate grounds of things. Sometimes, again it was considered as a special mode of
manifestation of understanding. Illustrations of all three views may be found in the scholastic
philosophy. The cause of this varying estimate of the place of reason is to be sought in the fact
that the term ratio was used in two distinct senses. On the one hand, it meant the ground of a
given consequence of individual truths, the 'reason for'; on the other, the capacity of ratiocinatio,
of inferring individual truths from their grounds of 'reasoning'. First of all, ratio makes its
appearance among the mental faculties, in this latter significance, as faculty of inference; later
on, it appears [p. 24] also as a faculty of insight into the grounds of things. And wherever the
emphasis fell upon this second meaning, reason shone forth as the very organ and instrument of
religious and moral truths, or as a purely metaphysical faculty contradistingished from
understanding, whose concepts could never pass the bounds of outer or inner sense-
experience. A definition which includes both meanings of 'reason' makes it the faculty whereby
we penetrate the interconnexion of universal truths.[30] Now KANT set out from the first of the
three views above mentioned, the view which regards understanding as the faculty of concepts
and reason as the faculty of inference. And he might well be encouraged to attempt, by the help
of logic, to carry out to its conclusion the division of the higher faculty of knowledge which this
view adumbrates, seeing that he had already achieved entire success in a similar undertaking,
his deduction of the categories. He accordingly assumed that, since judgment stands midway
between concept and inference (conclusion), the faculty of judgment stands midway between

19
the faculties of understanding and reason. He had however, in his great Critique, sought to bring
the two aspects of the concept of reason into a more vital relation by his doctrine of the
unconditioned. In the conclusion, reason subsumes a judgment under its general rule. Now it
must proceed, in the same way, to subordinate this rule to a higher condition; and so on, until in
the last resort it arrives at the idea of an unconditioned. This idea, then, in its various forms as
mind, world and God, remained the peculiar property of reason in the narrower sense; while all
concepts and principles a priori, from which reason as faculty of inference derives individual
judgments, became the exclusive property of understanding. So we find reason playing a
curious double part in the Kantian philosophy. As faculty of inference, it is the handmaid of
understanding, charged with the and principles which understanding propounds. As faculty of
transcendent ideas, it ranks high above understanding. Understanding is directed merely upon
the empirical interconnexion of phenomena. If it follow the idea of reason at all, it follows it only
as a regulative principle, which prescribes the course that shall lead to a comprehension of
phenomena into an absolute whole,--something of which understanding itself has no conception.
It is, however, this regulative office of the ideas of reason that gives them their practical value.
For the moral law, in KANT, is not constitutive, but regulative; it does not say how we really act,
but how we ought to act. At the same time, by the imperative form in which it demands
obedience, it proves the truth of the idea of unconditioned freedom of the will.[31] In fine, then,
reason legislates for the faculty of desire, just as understanding legislates for the faculty of
knowledge. For feeling, which stands midway between cognition and desire, there then remains
only the faculty of judgment, which in like manner stands midway between the faculty of
concepts and the faculty of inference.[32] The three fundamental faculties of mind are thus
referred to the three modes of manifestation of the faculty of knowledge distinguished by formal
logic. And we see at once how largely this reference is the product of an artificial schematisation
suggested by the logical forms. This intellectualism has also had its reactive influence upon the
treatment of the mental faculties; KANT pays attention only to the higher expressions of his three
principal faculties. Now it may [p. 25] be doubted whether the totality of phenomena embraced
by the first faculty can properly be summed up in the word 'knowledge.' But, at all events, it is
obvious that the limitation of pleasant and unpleasant feeling to the judgment of aesthetic taste,
and the reference of the faculty of desire to the ideal of the good, are not suited to serve as the
starting-point of a psychological consideration.

HERBART'S criticism of the faculty-theory is principally directed against the form which it had
assumed in the systems of WOLFF and KANT. The heart of his argumentation lies in the two
following objections. (1) The mental faculties are mere possibilities, which add nothing to the
facts of the inner experience. Only the individual facts of this experience, the individual idea and
feeling and what not, can really be predicated of the mind. There is no sensibility before
sensation, no memory before the stock of ideas which it lays up. Hence these concepts, notions
of possibility, cannot be employed for the derivation of the facts.[33] (2) The mental faculties are
class-concepts, obtained by a provisional abstraction from the inner experience, and then raised
to the rank of fundamental forces of the mind and used for the explanation of our internal
processes.[34] Both objections seem to shoot beyond the mark at which they are primarily
aimed; they tell against methods of scientific explanation which have found application in
practically all the natural sciences. The forces of physics, e.g., do not exist apart, by themselves,
but only in the phenomena which we term their effects; and the functional capacities of
physiology--nutrition, contractility, irritability, etc. --are one and all 'empty possibilities.' Again,

20
gravity, heat, assimilation, reproduction, etc., are class-concepts, abstracted from a certain
number of similar phenomena, which have been transformed on just the same analogy as the
class-concepts of the inner experience into forces or faculties, to be employed for the
explanation of the phenomena themselves. Indeed, if we term sensation, thought, etc.,
'manifestations' of mind, the proposition that the mind possesses the 'faculties' of sensing,
thinking, etc., seems to give direct expression to a conceptual construction which comes
naturally to us wherever an object evinces effects that must be ascribed to causes lying within
and not outside of the object. Nor has HERBART any objection to raise against the use of the
concept of force at large. But he makes a distinction between force and faculty. We assume the
action of a force, in all cases where We have learned to look upon a result as inevitable under
given conditions. We speak of a faculty, when the result may just as well not occur as occur.[35]

Objection has been taken to this distinction, on the ground that it presupposes a concept of
faculty which is found only in the most unscientific form of the psychological faculty-theory.[36]
Nevertheless, it must be conceded that the discrimination of the terms is not without
significance. With the development of modern natural science, the concept of force has
gradually assumed the character of a concept of relation. The conditions which it implies are
always reciprocally determinant; it is on their co-operation that the manifestation of force
depends; and the removal of either side of the conditions renders it null and void. Thus the
concept of force is correctly used when, e.g., the tendency to movement, that has its source in
the interrelations of physical bodies, is derived from a force of gravitation, whereby these bodies
determine each the [p. 26] other's position in space. On the other hand, it is an over-hasty
generalisation to refer the phenomena of falling bodies to a force of falling natively inherent in
every physical body. If we thus translate the conditions of a certain set of phenomena, resident
in a given object, into a force of which the object is possessed, and ignore the external
conditions of the observation, we evidently have no criterion for deciding whether a variation in
the effects of this object depends upon a variation in intrinsic or in extrinsic conditions. The result
is confusion: disparate phenomena are brought together, and (what is of more frequent
occurrence) related phenomena rested apart. Many of the forces distinguished by the older
physiology--the forces of procreation, of growth, of regeneration, etc.--are, beyond all question,
nothing more than manifestations of a single force operating under different circumstances. And
the same thing is pretty generally admitted of the final ramifications of the doctrine of mental
faculties,--of the distinction, e.g., between space-memory number-memory, word-memory, etc.
Similarly, the older physics explained the phenomena of gravitation by appeal to a number of
forces: fall by the force of falling, the barometric vacuum by the 'horror vacui,' the motions of the
planets by invisible arms from the sun or by vortices. But, further, the habit of abstraction from
the external conditions of phenomena may easily lead to the erroneous conception of faculty, of
a force that awaits an opportunity to produce its effect: force becomes incarnate in a
mythological being. It would, therefore, be unjust to psychology, were we to accuse her and her
alone of this aberration. Only, she has the one great advantage over the sciences of inorganic
nature, that their work has paved the way for her advance. In their hands, the general concepts
that belong at once to the outer and the inner experience have been purged of the errors natural
to the earlier stages of the development of thought. And along with this advantage goes the
obligation to make us of it to the full.

21
HERBART not only realised the untenability of the faculty-theory; he arrived at the positive
conviction that mental processes must be considered as unitary processes. But he sought to
satisfy the requirement of unity by raising one of the products of current psychological
abstraction above all the rest. He regarded the idea as the real and only contents of the mind.
Nay, he went so far as to declare that the idea, when once it has arisen, is imperishable, while
all the other elements of mind--feelings, emotions, impulses--are merely the resultants of the
momentary interactions of ideas. These opinions, as we shall see later, rest upon no better
foundation than hypothesis, and bring their author, at every point, into conflict with an exact
analysis of experience.[37] For the rest, it is obvious that the reduction of all mental processes to
processes of ideation is a survival from the intellectualism of previous psychological systems.
Nevertheless, HERBART had taken the right path in his endeavor to avoid that atomic
conception of mental processes which simply repeats the mistakes of the old faculty-theory in
less glaring form. Unfortunately. in escaping the one error, he was fated to fall into another. The
fault of the older view is, not that it confuses unreality with reality, but that it substitutes for reality
the products of our own discriminative abstraction.[38]

Footnotes
[1] The word was coined by Fechner; see his Elements der Psychophysik, 1860, i. 8. In this
passage, Fechner defines psychophysics as an "exact science of the functional relations or
relations of dependency between body and mind, or, in more general terms, between the bodily
and mental the physical and psychical worlds"; and his main object in the Elemente is,
accordingly, to establish the laws that govern the interaction of mental and bodily phenomena. It
is clear that we have implied here the metaphysical assumption of a substantial difference
between body and mind; we can hardly conceive, in any other way, of the existence of such a
borderland, with facts and laws of its own. Fechner himself, however, rejected this substantial
difference, for theoretical reasons: so that in strictness he could hardly have raised objection to
such a purely empirical formulation of the problem of psychophysics as is given in the text. Cf.
the concluding Chapter of this work.
[2] KANT, Metaphysische Aufangsgründe d. Naturwissenschaft. In Sämmtliche Werke, ed. by
ROSESKRANZ, V. 310.
[3] Cf. esp. E. ZELLER, Abh. d. Berliner Akad. 1881, Phil.-hist. Cl., Abh. iii.; Sitzungsher. of the
same, 1882, 295 ff.; and my remarks upon the question, Philos. Studien, i. 250, 463 ff.
[4] HEBERT, Psychologie als Wissenschaft neu gegründet auf Erfahrung, Metaphysik u.
Mathematik. In Ges. Werke, ed. by HARTENSTEIN, vols. v., vi.
[5] FECHNER, El. d. Psychophysik, ii. 9ff. An interesting light is thrown upon origination of the
idea of 'mental measurement' in Fechner's mind, and also upon the inspiration that he derived
from Herbart, by the "Kurze Darstellung eines neuen Princips mathematischer Psychologie" in
his Zendavesta, 1851, ii. 373 ff. For a detailed treatment of mental measurement, see Ch. ix.
below.
[6] On the question of method in general, cf. my Beiträge zur Theorie der
Sinneswahrnehmungen, 1862, Einleitung: Ueber die Methoden in der Psychologie; Logik, 2nd
ed., ii. 2, 151 ff.; the essay on the problems of experimental psychology in my Essays, Leipzig,
1885, 127 ff.; the article Selbstbeobachtung u. innere Wahrnehmung, in the Phils. Studien, iv.
292 ff.; and Volkerpsychologie, i. I, 1900, Einleitung.

22
[7] Cf. with this the essay Philosophie u. Wissenschaft, in my Essays, I ff.; and the article Ueber
d. Eintheilung d. Wissenschaften, in the Philos. Studien, v. I ff.
[8] F. A. LANGE, Geschichte des Materialismus, 2te Aufl., ii. 383; History of Materialism, iii.,
1892, 171.
[9] H. MUNSTERBERG. Ueber Aufgaben und Methoden der Psychologie, in Schriften der
Gesellschaft f. psychol. Forshung, i. 111 ff. Practically the same position, though with minor
changes of expression, is taken by the author in his Grundzüge der Psychologie, i., 1900, 382 ff.
[10] MUNSTERBERG. Grundzüge der Psychologie, Vorwort, viii. C. the same author's
Psychology and Life, 1899. This view, of the irrelevancy of psychology to the mental sciences, is
further shared by certain modern philosophers: see the criticism of it in my Einleitung in die
Philosophie, 1901, § 4.
[11] Cf. e.g., T. ZIEHEN, Leitfaden der physiologischen Psychologie, 5te Aufl. 1900, 3 ff.;
Introduction to Physiological Psychology, 1895, 3 ff.
[12] On the doctrine of association. see Part v., below. For a general criticism of psychological
materialism, cf. the articles Ueber psychische Causalität and Ueber die Definition der
Psychologie, in the Philos. Studien, x. 47 ff., xii. 1 ff.
[13] O. Vogt, Die directe psychologie Experimentalmethode in hypnotischen I[unknown
character] wussteseinszuständen. In the Zeitschr. fur Hypnotismus, v., 1897, 7, 180 ff.
[14] For a general discussion of hypnotism, see Part v., below.
[15] In my Grundriss der Psychologie (4te Aufl. 1901; Outlines of Psychology, 1897), in which I
have attempted to give an elementary exposition of psychology so far as possible under the
exclusive guidance of psychological principles, I have adhered more strictly to the systematic
point of view. Hence the Grundriss may be regarded in this connexion both as a supplement and
as introduction to the present work.
[16] For a more extended discussion of these terminological questions see Ch. vii. § I,
below.
[17] Gemüthsbewegungen, as first used above, means "complex affective, affective-volitional
and volitional processes." There is no exact English equivalent. See BALDWIN'S Dict. of Phil.
and Psych. ii. 1902, 680. Willenshandlungen means, of course, voluntary actions, internal and
external.--TRANSLATOR.
[18] In the first four editions of the Physiologische Psychologie, the Introduction consists of two
sections, entitled respectively Aufgabe der physiologischen Psychologie, and Psychologische
Vorbegriffe. In the present, fifth edition, the second of these sections is replaced by an
Uebersicht des Gegenstandes. I here reprint the section on Psychologische Vorbegriffe as it
appeared in 1893. It was, in all probability, omitted mainly for reasons of space. Cf. Preface to
this fifth edition. It will, I think, be found useful by English readers in its present form, although a
good deal of its criticism is implicit in the constructions of the final chapter of the work. I print it
only after much hesitation, and with the express reminder to the reader that the author, for
whatever reason, has not included it in the current edition of his book.--TRANSLATOR.
[19] The German terms for 'body' and 'matter' are Leib and Körper; for 'mind' and 'spirit,' Seele
and Geist. See BALDWIN'S Dict. Of Phil. and Psych., ii. 680.--TRANSLATOR.
[20] Timaeus, 35. JOWETT'S Plato, iii. 453-4.
[21] The Aristotelian definition of mind in general as 'earlier or implicit entelechy (i.e. perfect
realisation) of a natural body possessed potentially of life,' holds also of the
(

















), the spirit as independent of sensibility. Spirit is, however, the reality
of the mind itself, and so can be conceived of as separated from the body; which is not the case

23
with the other parts of mind. De anima, ii. sub fin. WALLACE's trans,. 65; HAMMOND's trans. 44
f.
[22] SO WOLFF, Psychologia rationalis, §§ 643 ff.
[23] Geist and Gemüth.-TRANSLATOR.
[24] Timaeus, 77. Jowett's Plato, iii. 449-50.
[25] De anima, ii. 2, 3. WALLACE'S trans,. 65-77; HAMMOND'S trans., 48-56.
[26] Kritik d. Urtheilskraft, ROSENKRANZ' ed., iv. 14 ff. BERRNARD'S trans., 1892, 13 ff.
[27] Anthropologie, vii. 2, 100 and 104.
[28] Anthropologie, 28.
[29] Kritik d. reinen Vernunft, ii. 31, 55. MULLER'S trans., 1896, 15, 40.
[30] WOLFF, Psychologia empirica, § 483.
[31] Kritik d. prakt. Vernunft, viii. 106.
[32] Kritik d. Urtheilskraft, iv. 15. BERNARD'S trans., 16.
[33] HERBART, Werke, vii. 611.
[34] Werke, v. 214.
[35] Werke, vii. 601.
[36] J. B. MEYER, Kant's Psychologie, 116.
[37] Cf. ch. xix. [of the present edition].
[38] Cf. with this the essay on feeling and idea, in my Essays, 199 ff.

24
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

Part I
The Bodily Substrate of the Mental Life
CHAPTER I
The Organic Evolution of Mental Function

§1. The Criteria of Mind and the Range of the Mental Life

THE mental functions form a part of the phenomena of life. Wherever we observe them, they are
accompanied by the processes of nutrition and reproduction. On the other hand, the general
phenomena of life may be manifested in cases where we have no reason for supposing the
presence of a mind. Hence the first question that arises, in an inquiry concerning the bodily
substrate of mentality, is this: What are the characteristics that justify our attributing mental
functions to a living body, an object in the domain of animate nature?

Here, upon the very threshold of physiological psychology, we are confronted with unusual
difficulties. The distinguishing characteristics of mind are of a subjective sort; we know them only
from the contents of our own consciousness. But the question calls for objective criteria, from
which we shall be able to argue to the presence of a consciousness. Now the only possible
criteria of the kind consist in certain bodily movements, which carry with them an indication of
their origin in psychical processes. But where are we justified in referring the movements of a
living creature to conscious conditions? How uncertain the answer to this question is, especially
when metaphysical prejudice has a part to play in it, may be seen at once by an appeal to
history. Hylozoism inclines to regard every movement, even the fall of a stone, as a mental
action; Cartesian spiritualism recognises no expression of mental life beyond the voluntary
movements of man. These are extreme views. The first is beyond all verification; the second is
correct only upon the one point that the manifestations of our own conscious life must always
furnish the standard of reference in our judgments of similar indications in other creatures.
Hence we must not begin our search for mental function among the lower types of organised
nature, where its modes of expression are least perfect. It is only by working our way
downwards, from man to the animals, that we shall find the point at which mental life begins.

[p. 28] Now, there are a very large number of bodily movements, having their source in our
nervous system, that do not possess the character of conscious actions. Not only are the normal
movements of heart, respiratory muscles, blood vessels and intestines for the most part
unaccompanied by any sort of conscious affection; we find also that the muscles subserving
change of position at the periphery of the body often react to stimuli in a purely mechanical and

25
automatic way. To regard these movement-processes as mental functions would be every whit
as arbitrary as to ascribe sensation to the falling stone. When, however, we rule out all the
movements that may possibly go on without the participation of consciousness, there remains
but one class that bears upon it the constant and unmistakable signs of an expression of the
mental life, -- the class of external voluntary actions. The subjective criterion of the external
voluntary action, as directly given in introspection, is that it is preceded by feelings and ideas
which we take to be the conditions of the movement. Hence a movement that we observe
objectively may also be regarded as dependent on the will if it points to similar mental processes
as its conditions.

But the discovery of this criterion does not by any means remove the practical difficulties of our
diagnosis of mind. It is not possible to distinguish certainly in every case between a purely
mechanical reflex -- or even, in the lowest organisms, a movement due to external physical
causes, such as the imbibition of tumescent bodies, the change of volume from fluctuations of
temperature, etc. -- and a voluntary action. We have to note; in particular, that while there are
characters by which we can argue with absolute confidence to the existence of a voluntary
action, the absence of these characters does not always necessarily imply the absence of such
action, still less the absence of psychical functions at large. Hence all that our inquiry can hope
to accomplish is the determination of the lower limit at which a mental life is demonstrably
present. Whether it does not, in actual fact, begin at a still lower level must remain a matter of
speculation only.

The generally accepted objective criterion of an external voluntary action is the reference of
movement to the universal animal impulses, the nutritive and the sexual. It is only as a result of
sensory excitations that these impulses can lead the animal to a change of place that shows the
marks of a voluntary action; and the special character that prompts us to refer such sensorily
stimulated movements to a process in consciousness is their variability. They do not appear with
mechanical regularity in response to a given external stimulus, but are varied to suit varying
conditions, and brought into connexion with sense-impressions previously secured. Judgment on
the ground of these criteria may, in the individual case, remain doubtful; since all vital processes,
even those that are entirely [p. 29] automatic and unconscious, evince a certain adaptation to
ends, and a certain consequence in their successive stages. But sustained and attentive
observation of living creatures will as a general rule, enable us to decide with certainty whether
any particular manifestation of life is intelligible only from that continuity of internal states which
we name consciousness, or whether it may possibly have arisen in the absence of mind. That
consciousness, in this sense, is an universal possession of living organisms, from man down to
the protozoa, is beyond the reach of doubt. At the lowest levels of this developmental series the
processes of consciousness are, of course, confined within extremely narrow limits, and the will
is determined by the universal organic impulses only in the very simplest way. Nevertheless, the
manifestations of life, even among the lowest protozoa, are explicable only upon the hypothesis
that they possess a mind. Thus the amoeba, which is to be regarded morphologically as a naked
cell (see Fig. 2, p. 33) will sometimes return after a short interval to the starch grains that it has
come upon in the course of its wanderings, and will incept a new portion as nutritive material in
the soft protoplasm of its body.[1] Many of the ciliated infusoria pursue others, which they kill
and devour.[2] These are all phenomena that point towards continuity of mental processes,
though in all probability to a continuity that extends only over a very short space of time. They

26
point also, at all events in the case of the Ciliata, to a variation in the choice of means, for the
satisfaction of the organic impulses, that would be unintelligible as a merely mechanical result of
external influences.

We enter, of course, upon much less certain ground when we ask, further, whether the mental
life really makes its first appearance at that point upon the scale of organised existence at which
we notice the external voluntary action, or whether its beginnings do not reach back to a still
lower level of life. Wherever living protoplasm occurs, it possesses the property of contractility.
Contractile movements arise, sometimes at the instigation of external stimuli but sometimes also
in the absence of any apparent external influence. They resemble the voluntary actions of the
lowest protozoa, and are not explicable in terms of external physical affection, but only as the
results of forces resident in the contractile substance itself.[p. 30] They cease at once with the
cessation of life. We find them evinced both by the protoplasmic contents of young plant-cells
and by the free protoplasm occurring throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Indeed, it
is probably that all elementary organisms, whether they enjoy an independent existence or form
part of a compound organism, possess the property of contractility at least during a certain
period of their development. Consider, e.g., the lymph corpuscles, which are found in the blood
and lymph of animals, and in pus, and which occur as migratory elements in the tissues. They
are not only entirely similar in bodily

configuration to certain of the lowest protozoa, but they also

undergo changes of form which, in outward appearance, are
indistinguishable from the movements of these unicellular
organisms (Fig. 1). Only, the voluntary character of these
movements is beyond the reach of demonstration. It is true
that similar structures -- particularly the colourless blood-
corpuscles of invertebrates -- have been seen to take up
solid substances, and that this action may be interpreted as
an inception of food.[3] It is true, also, that movements in
response to stimulus accompany the exercise of the
digestive functions in certain plants. But in neither case is
there any definite indication of a true impulse, i.e. an impulse
determined by sensation, toward the food-stuff, or of any sort
of psychological middle term between stimulus and
movement.[4] The same thing holds of the movements of the
lower forms of algae, fungi and swarm-spores, produced by a
variable distribution of water and carbon dioxide, or by different kinds of light rays. On the other
hand, the movements of certain bacteria are so suddenly affected by light ad by the gases of
respiration, that they at once suggest an origin in sensations, But, here again, we cannot he sure
that the changes are not simply physical effects, as is undoubtedly the case with the movements
evolved by hygrometric changes in the environment.[5][p. 31]

We must, however, always remember, in passing judgment upon this whole group of
observations, that the demonstration of physical conditions, to which the phenomena of
protoplasmic contraction and of the movement of elementary organisms may be referred, is by
no means incompatible with the hypothesis of concomitant psychical processes. Physiology

27
seeks to derive the processes in our own nervous system from general physical forces, without
considering whether these processes are or are not accompanied by processes of
consciousness. We are bidden to believe, both by theory of knowledge and by the philosophy of
nature, that all manifestations of life, on the physical side, are referable to natural laws of
universal validity. And physiology, acting in accordance with this requirement, has found it
justified in every instance in which she has succeeded in reaching a solution of her problems. It
follows, then, that the existence of mental functions can never be inferred from the physical
nature of organic movements, but only from certain special conditions attending their
performance. On the other hand, observation shows that the chemical and physiological
properties of living protoplasm are essentially the same, whether we can prove that it manifests
a mental life or whether we cannot. This holds, in particular, of the attributes of contractility and
irritability. In physical regard, therefore, protoplasm maintains its identity throughout. If we add to
this the fact that it is impossible to draw a hard and fast line at the point where protoplasmic
movements first begin to take on a psychological character, -- that there is a gradual transition
from the walled-in protoplasm of the plant-cell on through the migratory lymph-corpuscles of
animals and the free-living monera and rhizopods, to the more motile ciliated and mouth-bearing
infusoria -- we cannot resist the conjecture that psychical life and the capacity of giving
expression to it are universally represented in contractile substance.

From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that
the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large. The
question of the origin of mental development thus resolves itself into the question of the origin of
life. Further, if physiology is obliged, by the uniformity of interaction of physical forces throughout
the universe, to accept the postulate that the processes of life have their ultimate basis in the
general properties of matter, psychology finds it no less obligatory to assume, in this same
matter, the universal substrate of natural phenomena, the presence of conditions which attain to
expression as the psychical aspect of vital phenomena. But this latter statement must not
mislead us. The latent life of inorganic matter must not be confused, as hylozoism confuses it,
with real life and actual conscious-[p. 32] ness; nor must it be considered, with materialism, as a
function of matter. The former interpretation is wrong, because it assumes the existence of vital
phenomena at a point where not these phenomena themselves are given, but only the common
ground upon which they rest and whereby they become possible; the second is wrong, because
it posits a one-sided dependence, where in reality we find an interrelation of simultaneously
presented but incommensurable processes. We employ the concept of material substance to
denote the ground of all objective phenomena. Hence it is the office of this concept to make
intelligible all the various form of physical occurrence, including the physical manifestations of
life. Now among these manifestations we find movements which indicate the presence of a
consciousness. Our postulates concerning matter will then, explain the physical causation of
such movements, but can never account for the concomitant psychical functions. To explain
these, we must make appeal to our own consciousness.

We cannot, of course, here at the very outset of our psychology, return any final answer to the
question of the ultimate objective criteria of the mental life. All that we can do, at the present
stage, is to indicate in brief the position to be taken up in psychological practice. It is however,
easy to see that the wide divergence of opinion on the subject is mainly due to the intermixture
of science with philosophy, or to a fixity of judgment that has its source in philosophical theory.

28
Only in this way can we account for the fact that there may still be found, in works upon the
scope of the mental life, views that range between the two extremes current in DESCARTES'
day. One author will assert that the animals, if not without exception, at least as far up the scale
as the higher invertebrates and the lower vertebrates, are mere reflex machines;[6] another
looks upon life and mind as convertible terms, and accordingly endows plants as well as animals
with consciousness.[7] The former view is evidently influenced, to some extent, by the idea that
psychical and physical are antithetical terms. The alternative (physical or psychical) is often
presented as if the one concept necessarily excluded the other, -- as, indeed it did, in the
metaphysical dualism of DESCARTES. But this is misleading. The close interconnection of the
phenomena of the physical life and the processes of consciousness makes the relation 'physical
and psychical' on the face of it, much more probable. We should, as a matter of fact, admit at
once that, e.g., a sensation is a psychical quality, without meaning to deny that it is accompanied
by a physical process in the sense-organ and the sense-centre. And such a coexistence of the
two kinds of vital processes is, in many crises, beyond all dispute. How far it extends, over the
phenomena of life at large, is again a question that, naturally, cannot be answered at the outset
of our psychological investigations. But, at all events, we should be merely obscuring the facts, if
we made our first approach to them with the alternative 'physical or psychical' in our hands. And
the danger of misinter- [p. 33] pretation is, at best, grave enough. Many movements, that may in
all probability be regarded as purely automatic, are, as we said above, purposive in character;
and many of them, again, are self-regulating. It is, therefore, very difficult to draw the line of
division in the concrete case.[8]

We may say, then, that the mechanistic explanation of the movements of the lower animals is
not the outcome of impartial and unprejudiced observation. But the rival theory, which ascribes
mind and consciousness to the plant-world, is in no better case. Fechner, the chief
representative of this theory, himself expressly declares that be derived it from considerations of
general philosophy: he further attributes consciousness to the earth and the other heavenly
bodies, making this cosmic consciousness the whole, of which the individual forms of
consciousness in plant and animal are parts.[9] Hypotheses of this sort have, no doubt, a certain
justification. They emphasise the intrinsic impossibility of the view that mental life may suddenly
appear, at some point of time and space, as a new thing; that we need not seek for its general
conditions in the universal substrate of the vital processes. When, however, we ask how we
should conceive of these conditions, we raise a metaphysical question, -- a question that lies
well beyond the reach of psychology and its empirical problems.

§ 2. The Differentiation of Mental Functions and of their Physical Substrate

The organic cell in the earliest stages of its development, consists either of a naked mass of
protoplasm, contractile throughout its substance, or of a denser and immotile cortex within which
motile protoplasm is
contained.

And the same two forms

are evinced by the lowest
independent organisms in
which we can observe

29
movement-processes indicative of psychical conditions (Fig. 2). The substrate of the elementary
mental functions is here entirely homogeneous, and coextensive with the whole mass of the [p.
34] body. The only sense that is plainly functioning is the sense of touch. An impression made
upon any portion of the contractile protoplasm first of all releases a movement at the place of
direct impact, which may then extend to purposively co-ordinated motion of the entire body. The
beginnings of a differentiation of mental function can, however, be found even in the protozoa,
wherever the cortical layer surrounding be contractile body-substance has developed special
organs of movement, cilia and flagella (Fig. 3). Oftentimes this development goes hand in hand
with a differentiation of the nutritive functions, An [sic] oral aperture and digestive cavity are
found, and in many instances a system of open canals appears, whose fluid contents are kept in
motion by a contractile vessicle. The cilia with which these infusoria are furnished render them
incomparably more motile than the organisms lying at the very lowest point of the organic scale,
the monera and rhizopods, which consist merely of a viscous body-mass. They are, however,
more than organs of locomotion; they function as organs of touch, and sometimes appear to be
sensitive to light as well. The spot of red pigment noticed in many of the infusoria may also have
some connexion with light-sensation; but we have as yet no certain ground for regarding it as a
primitive organ of vision.

In the compound organisms we observe a more radical differentiation of mental function and its
bodily substrate. The metazoan germ-cell divides into a number of cells. These seem to be
originally of the same kind, so that not infrequently all like manifest the primitive contractility of
protoplasm in course of time, however, they become modified in matter and form; the tissues of
the plant and animal body are derived from them and from the products of their growth, and the
structural changes are accompanied by a more and more complete specialisation of function.
The conditions which govern this process of differentiation, to which the whole of organic nature
is subject, are still wrapped in obscurity. Our knowledge halts abruptly at the changes of outward
form in which the internal development finds its expression.

In the plant-world we see the nutritive functions attain such a degree of elaboration that the
organism (and this is true more especially of the higher plants) has, so to say, , no other concern
than to increase its present stock of organic substance. In the animal world, on the other hand,
the process of evolution is characterised by the progressive discrimination of the animal and
vegetative functions, and a consequent differentiation of these two great provinces into their
separate departments. The cell-mass of the yolk, originally homogeneous, divides up first of all
into a peripheral and a central layer of different structural character (Figg. 4 and 5); while the
cleavage cavity gradually widens out to form the future body-cavity.[10][p. 35] At this stage,
sensation and movement appear to reside exclusively in the outer cell-layer, the ectoderm, while
the nutritive functions are discharged by the inner layer or entoderm. At a higher level of
evolution a third

layer of cells, the

mesoderm, forms
between the two. The
initial stages of
development are thus
identical over the whole

30
series of forms from coelenterates to vertebrates, the differentiation of organs beginning always
with the distinction of three germinal layers. The outermost layer is the source of the nervous
system and sense-organs, as well as of the muscular system; the innermost furnishes the
organs of nutrition; and the intermediate layer, the vascular system. In the vertebrates, the
skeleton is also derived from the ectoderm.[11]

This discrimination of organs is accompanied by a differentiation of the elementary constituents

of the tissues. When the separation of ectoderm and entoderm is first accomplished, the cells of
the former discharge the combined function of sensation and movement. The initial step toward
a separation of these two cardinal functions is apparently taken in the hydridae and medusae,
where the ectoderm cells send out contractile processes into the interior of the body. The
sensory and motor functions are here still united in a single cell, but are distributed over different
portions of it (Fig. 6).[12] In the next stage, the properties of sensation and contractility pass to
special and spatially separated cells, while connective elements [p.36] develop, to mediate the
functional interconnexion of the different structures. There thus arises a third class of cells, lying
in the paths of connexion between sensory and muscular cells, and acting probably as organs
for the reception and transmission of stimuli. The sensory cells now become external organs,
devoted to the reception of physical stimuli. At the same time, they undergo a differentiation,
which fits them for excitation by various forms of movement-process in the outside world.
Similarly, the contractile cells become organs for receiving and converting into external
movements the excitations transmitted to them. But the psychical functions par excellence are
discharged by the cells of the third class, the nerve-cells, which are connected by their
processes with both the sensory and the muscular cells, and, as we have said, mediate the
functional interconnexion of the two group's of organs. Hence the simplest scheme of a nervous
system is given with a centrally situated nerve-cell connected on the one hand with a sense-cell
and on the other hand with a contractile muscle-cell both directed towards the external world, but
mediating the one the reception of sense-stimuli and the other the motor reaction upon them.

31
 It is, however, quite certain that this simplest scheme never
actually occurs. As soon as special nerve-cells are formed at all they are formed in numbers,
joined together in longitudinal and transverse series, so that a great many of them are connected
only by way of others of their kind with the peripheral structures. This multiplication of the central
elements means, of course, that the process of differentiation extends to the nerve-cells
themselves. They assume various functions, according to the connexions in which they stand
with one another and with the peripheral organs. Those lying in the neighbourhood of the
terminal organs are employed in functions, auxiliary to the strictly psycho-physical processes,
which run their after course without the participation of consciousness. Others enter into intimate
relation with the mechanisms of nutrition; they sustain and regulate the physiological processes
of secretion and circulation. They thus lose their place among the immediate bodily conditions of
the mental [p. 37] life, and exert only an indirect influence upon mind. This progressive
differentiation of functions and of their substrate within the nervous system finds its expression in
the relative increase of the mass of the nervous elements, and in the elaboration of special
nerve-centres, compact bodies of nerve-cells and their fibrillar processes. We have an instance
of such centres in the ganglia of the invertebrates, which appear at the most various stages of
development, from the comparatively simple nerve-rings of the coelenterates and the lower
worms and molluscs, up to the brain-like ganglionic masses of the anthropods and higher
molluscs (Fig. 7).

Finally, among the vertebrates, the importance of the nerve-centres for the whole organisation of
the animal is shown, from the first, in their relation to the external bodily form and to the
development of the various systems of organs.

32
 Immediately after the
separation of the
formative materials into
the two layers of the
germ-primule, there
appears in the ectoderm
a groove, open above, at
the bottom of which is a
streak of darker tissue.
This is the primitive
streak, whose direction
corresponds with the
future longitudinal axis of
the embryo (Fig. 8).
Presently, the groove
closes and becomes the
neural tube, the primule
of the myel (spinal cord)
and its sheaths.[13] The
anterior portion of this;
tube gives rise, by
expansion, to the primule of the brain. Concomitantly with the
closure of the neural tube begins the differentiation of the
germinating cells into nerve-cells. They increase in size, and
send out runners, which become transformed into the various cell-processes (Fig. 9).[14]

At this point there begins a serial differentiation of function and its physical substrate, whose
investigation will form the subject of the following Chapters. We shall set out with a consideration
of the structural elements of the nervous system in their morphological and chemical characters.
We shall next raise the question of the nature of the processes at work within those elements; in
other words, we shall attack the problem of a physiological mechanics of nervous substance.
This discussion will be followed by a brief description of the structural development of the
nervous centres, with especial reference to the morphology of the human brain. We shall then
be prepared to approach the two main problems that are presented by the co-ordination of
functions in the nervous system. The first of these is the determination of the course of the paths
of nervous conduction, as conditioned by the individual connexions of the nervous elements; and
the second is the problem of the physiological functions of the central parts, -- the last and most
important question for the relation of nervous process to the processes of the psychical life.

Notes
[1] ROMANES, Animal Intelligence, 4th ed., 1886, 18 ff.; Mental Evolution in Animals, 1885, 18,
55; MAX VERWORN, Psychophysiologische Protisten-Studien,1889, 146 ff. VERWORN'S
statement that voluntary actions appear for the first time in the Ciliata, and that all movements
made in response to stimulus by the non-ciliated protozoa, so far as they are not of purely
mechanical or chemical origin, should be interpreted as reflexes, is evidently a result not of

33
observation, but rather of a forgone theoretical conviction that voluntary actions must have
developed out of reflexes. On this theory see Part iv. below.
[2] FAMINZYN, The Mental Life of the Simplest Organisms, 1890 (Russian). Quoted by
BECHTEREW, Bewusstsein und Hirnlocalisation, 1898, 6.
[3] M. SCHULTZE, Das Protoplasma der Rhizopoden, 1863. ENGELMANN, Beiträge zur
Physiologie des Protoplasmas, ii., 1869. VERWORN, Die Bewegung der lebendigen Substanz,
1892, 51 ff.; Allgemeine Physiologie, 1901, 363 ff. (General Physiology, 1899, 146 ff., 527)
[4] DARWIN, Insectivorous Plants, 1875, esp. ch. x. PFEFFER, Pflanzenphysiologie, 2te Aufl.,
1897, 364 ff.
[5] T. W. ENGELMANN, in PFLÜGER'S Archiv. f. d. ges. Physiologie, xxvi. 537; xxix. 415; xxx.
95. PFEFFER, Untersuchungen aus d. botan. Institut zu Tübingen, i. 363, 483; ii. 582. For
further details, see Ch. vii. § 3, below. On the physical causes of proto-plasmic movement,
cf. BÜTSCHLI, Untersuchungen über mikroskopische Schäume und das Protoplasma. 1892,
172.
[6] A. BETHE, Dürfen wir den Ameisen und Bienen psychische Qualitäten zuschreiben? In
PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., 1xx. 1898, 15 ff. Cf. the critical remarks of WASSMANN,
Die psychischen Fähigkeiten der Ameisen, 1899, and Biol. Centralblatt, xviii. 1898, 578.
[7] FECHNER, Nanna oder über das Seelenleben der Pflanzen, 1848; 2nd ed., 1899.
[8] Cf. with this the later discussions of impulsive movement (Part iv.) and of consciousness
(Part v.).
[9] FECHNER, Zendavesta oder über die Dinge des Himmels und des Jenseits, i., 851, 2nd ed.,
1901.
[10] The relations of the various cavities, three or four in number, are in reality much more
complicated. It would be more nearly true to say that, where the change indicated in the text
takes place, the body-cavity gradually replaces the cleavage-cavity. Cf. MINOT, Embryology,
1897, ch. ix. -- TRANSLATOR.
[11] The author gives no references here. The mesoderm is now divided, by the best writers, into
mesothlium, the source of the muscles and mesodermic glands, and mesenchyma, the source of
connective and skeletal tissue. The derivation of the mesenchyma itself is still an open question.
-- TRANSLATOR.
[12] KLEINENBERG, Hydra, eine anatomisch-entwicklungsgeschichtliche Untersuchung 1872,
21 ff. O and R. HERTWIG, Das Nervensystem und die Sinnesorgane der Medusen, 1878, 157.
[The cells from the epithelial layer of Hydra shown in Fig. 6 (KLEINENBERG'S 'neuromuscular'
cells) are now to be regarded as muscle-cells. Later Note, by AUTHOR.]
[13] The myelic furrow is now known to be entirely distinct from the primitive groove. See O.
HERTWIG, Embryology, 79 ff., 125, 416 ff. -- TRANSLATOR.
[14] HIS, Archiv für Anatomie u. Physiologie, Anat. Abth. 1890, 95.

34
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
By Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

CHAPTER II
Structural Elements of the Nervous System

§1. Morphological Elements

THE nervous system is made up of three kinds of morphological elements: (1) cells of peculiar
form and structure, the nerve-cells or ganglion cells; (2) fibrous structures, originating as
outgrowths from the cells, -- the nerve-fibres; and (3) a ground-reticulum, which in places is
finely granular and in places fibrillar, and which consists of the terminal ramifications of the
nerve-fibres and processes of the nerve-cells. To these must be added (4) a sustentacular
substance, fibrous or amorphous in structure, which is regarded as a form of connective
tissue.[1] The nerve-cells, with the fibrillar ground-reticulum that surrounds them, are essential
constituents of all the central parts. In the higher nervous centres, however, they are restricted to
definite areas, which, partly from their rich supply of capillary blood-vessels and partly from the
presence of pigment-granules, collected both in the protoplasm of the cell-bodies and in the
ground-reticulum, possess a darker coloration than the surrounding tissue. This grey substance
contrasts so sharply with the white or myelinic substance that the distribution of cell-groups
through the central organs may readily be followed by the naked eye. The myelinic substance
itself owes its peculiar character mainly to the myelinic sheaths which enclose the nerve-fibres
issuing from the grey substance. The connective tissue cement-substance occurs in three
principal forms. As a soft and for the most part amorphous mass, the neuroglia, it serves to
support the central nerves and cells. In the form of endoneurium and perineurium,[2] a denser
tissue, showing tendon-like fibrillation, it extends among and surrounds the peripheral nerves. As
the primitive sheath of Schwann, a membrane of glassy transparency and great elasticity,
nucleated at intervals, it encases nearly all peripheral and a portion of the central nerve-fibres.
These cement-substances form a sustentacular framework for the nervous elements. They
serve, further, to carry the blood-vessels. And the perineurium [2][p. 40] imparts to the peripheral
nerves, which have no solid wall of bone to protect them, the necessary power of resistance to
mechanical injury.

(a) -- The Nerve-Cells

35
 It is probable that the nerve-cells (Figg.
10-14) are everywhere devoid of a true
cell-cortex. They vary in form from
spherical to irregularly angular, and
differ so extraordinarily in size that
some can hardly be distinguished with
certainty from the minute corpuscles of
the connective tissue, while others are
visible to the naked eye. A clear
nucleus, plainly vesicular in form, and
provided with a large nucleolus, stands
out in sharp contrast to the dully
pigmented protoplasm. In the central
organs the cells are embedded directly
in the soft substance of the supporting
tissue; in the ganglia, they are usually
surrounded with an elastic sheath of
connective tissue, often directly
continuous with the primitive sheath of a nerve-fibre proceeding from them. The nerve-cells are
characterised by their processes, one of which usually passes over directly into a nerve fibre,
while the others ramify, if not immediately, after running a brief course, into fine fibrils. The
former is called the axis-cylinder, nerve-[p. 41] process or neurite; the latter are termed
protoplasmic processes or dendrites. Secondary dendritic processes may also arise, not from
the cell itself, but from its neurite (Fig. 14, c). They are then named collaterals. The two types of
process are shown with special clearness in many of the larger cells of the myel (spinal cord)
and brain of vertebrates.

The nerve-fibres do not form independent elements of the nervous system. They originate, as
embryology teaches us (Fig. 9), in outgrowths from nerve-cells, and they remain throughout in
connexion with the cells whose processes they are. We may accordingly consider the nervous
system in its entirety as a vast conglomerate of nerve-cells, all woven together by fibrillar
runners. Under these conditions, the only processes of the central cells that attain to any
measure of apparent independence, as fibrillar elements, are those entering into connexion with
the peripheral organs. But even the fibrils of the muscular and cutaneous nerves, which in many
cases extend without break over large distances, are really nothing more than cell processes
long drawn out. It is, therefore, the nerve-cell that is the main variable in the nervous system.
Both in number and nature of its processes and in its own internal structure, the cell evinces
characteristic differences, often strongly marked, from one part of the nervous system to
another.[3] When highly magnified, most nerve-cells show, even without treatment by selective
reagents, a fibrillated structure; clusters of granules are set, in scattered masses, between the
meshes of this fibrillar network, and a special network of granules and fibrillae encloses the
nucleus (Fig. 10). The granular deposits are named, from their discoverer, the corpuscles of
Nissl; they are also known as tigroid bodies, or as chromophilous substance. Colour-staining
brings them out with greater clearness, since they have an affinity for the dyes of the histologist,
while the fibrillae and the amorphous ground-substance remain unaffected (Fig. 11). It appears,
further, that these bodies stand in a peculiar relation to the different forms of cell-process; they

36
are assembled in greater numbers at the points of origin of the dendrites, but are entirely absent
from the part of the cell that gives off the neurite or axis-cylinder (Fig. 12, lower right-hand
portion). Finally, besides this network of fibrillae which run their course within the substance of
the cell, and whose continuity with the cell-processes evidences their nervous character, there is
sometimes found a pericellular reticulum, which, basket-like, encloses the whole outer wall of the
cell. Its fibrillae can, in most cases, be traced [p. 42] into the dendrites, so that they too are, in
all probability, to be looked upon as nervous structures (Fig. 13).

Nerve-cells are classified, according to the number of processes they send out, as unipolar,
bipolar and multipolar.

Unipolar cells are, however, always of rare

occurrence; and, where they occur, have
probably arisen secondarily, in course of
growth from the originally bipolar form, by a
fusion of its two processes, -- which, we may
note, divide again immediately after their
emergence from the cell (see Fig. 21, z, p. 50).
The bipolar cell is found more especially in the
peripheral regions, e.g. in the spinal ganglia, in
the retina, and (to some extent) in the ganglia
of the sympathetic system. The great majority
of nerve-cells are, however, multipolar. As a
rule, every such cell gives off a single neurite,
and an indeterminate number of dendrites. The
divergent characters not only of the processes
themselves, but also of the portions of the cell
with which they are connected (Fig. 12) render
it, in the present case, an exceedingly
probable hypothesis, that the difference of structure is paralleled by a corresponding difference
of function. As a matter of fact; the fibrils of the large cells of the ventral cornua of the myel that
pass over into the motor nerves, are without exception neuritic; while the processes that tend
from the same cells towards the higher regions of the myel are dendritic in nature. RAMON Y
CAJAL has accordingly suggested that the dendrites are devoted exclusively to cellipetal, the
neurites to cellifugal conduction.[4] This scheme can, however, hardly he applied to all nerve-
cells, without exception, since there are many cases in which no clear difference between the
various cell-processes can be made out.

37
For the rest, over and above their different manner of origination from the cell body, their shorter
course, and their greater wealth of branches, the dendrites are morphologically distinguishable
from the neurites by their character as 'protoplasmic' processes; their irregular [p. 43] nodosity
(Fig. 14) suggests the pseudopodial processes of the Rhizopoda (Fig. 2). They have also been
observed, under the action of mechanical, chemical or electrical stimulation, to make amoeboid
movements; though it is doubtful
whether these changes are to be
interpreted as vital phenomena, on the
analogy of the contraction of
protoplasm and of muscular tissue, or
whether they are not rather simply the
direct physical and chemical effects of
the stimuli applied.[5]

These differences between the two

kinds of cell-processes are, however,
as we said above, not equally well
marked in all cases. In particular, the
difference in length and character of
course may be comparatively slight, or
may even disappear altogether, the
neurite, like the dendrite, dividing after a
brief period into a large number of
delicate branches. It is also not
uncommon to find cells, especially cells
of small size, whose processes show no distinct sign of difference, of whatever sort. The cells [p.
44] with processes of markedly different form are usually termed, from their discoverer, the cells
of DEITERS (Fig. 12); cells with quickly dividing neurites are known as cells of GOLGI'S type;
and the cells without marked distinction of the processes are called intermediary or intercalary
cells.[6]

38
Finally, the dendrites, like the neurite, evince certain structural differences. Sometimes, as in the
pyramidal cells of the cerebral cortex (Fig. 14) they divide without much complication, their
branches tending in definite directions. Sometimes, again, as in the large PURKINJE cells of the
cerebellar cortex (Fig. 15), their ramifications are exceedingly complex and widely extended.

(b) -- The Nerve-Fibres

We have seen that the nerve-process issuing from the nerve-cell forms the basis of the nerve-
fibre. The main differences in the structure of the nerve-fibres depend upon differences in the
character of the investing [p. 45] substances, which envelope the original neurite as it proceeds
on its way. The constant constituent of a nerve-fibre, as follows at once from its mode of origin,
is the neurite or axis-cylinder that forms the direct continuation of the nerve-process of a cell.
The neurite is enclosed, first of all in the myelinic sheath, a substance which after death breaks
up by a process of decomposition into bulbous masses; later in its course, it becomes
surrounded by a structureless membrane, supplied at intervals with nuclei, -- the primitive sheath
of SCHWANN (Fig. 17). Most of the central nerve-fibres possess a myelinic sheath, but no
primitive sheath; and within the grey
substance the myelinic sheath itself
not seldom disappears. In the
sympathetic system, on the other
hand, the neurite is, as a rule,
enveloped directly by the nucleated
primitive sheath, and lacks the
intervening myelinic substance (Fig.
16, c). (With few exceptions,) the
nerve-fibres of invertebrates evince
this constitution throughout. Lastly,
the terminal branches of the nerves in

39
the peripheral end-organs often break up into arborisation, consisting simply of fine neuritic
fibrils.

The two innermost of the three principal constituents of the nerve-fibre, myelinic sheath and
neurite, possess a composite structure. If we trace a fibre throughout any considerable portion of
its extent, we find that the myelinic substance does not afford a continuous investment of the
neurite. The primitive sheath undergoes constriction at more or less regularly recurring intervals
(nodes of RANVIER), and the [p. 46] myelinic sheath is thus divided up into cylindrical sections,
separated by transverse partitions (Fig. 17). Since each section carries but a single cell-nucleus,
we may suppose that it represents one of the cells of which the sheath is ultimately composed
(Fig, 12). Within this internodal space (bounded by r r in the Fig.) there is, further, according to
some observers, another double sheath, composed of a substance akin to epithelial tissue, and
separating the neuritic thread from the myelinic sheath (hi).[7] While the myelinic sheath is thus
subdivided, the neurite itself runs uninterruptedly front its point of origin to the conclusion of its
course. It is made up, as was first observed by MAX SCHULTZE, of numerous primitive fibrils,
which in many places, and especially where it issues from the nerve-cell, give it a finely striated
appearance.[8] It is probable that these primitive fibrils pass, in the peripheral nerve
terminations, into the dendritic arborisation into which many nerve-fibres are ultimately resolved.

Putting all this together, we may infer that the neuritic thread is the constituent of the nerve-fibre
essential to the conduction of nervous processes; that the myelinic sheath discharges not a
nervous but a nutritive function; and that the remaining investments are merely protecting
structures.[9] The inference is borne out by the fact that the formation of the myelinic sheath
follows at a comparatively long interval, in the development of the nervous system, upon the
appearance of the neuritic thread. At the same time, there can be no doubt of its great
importance. The fibres that are to become myelinic give no clear indication of irritability, or of
functional capacity at large, until myelinisation is complete.[10]

The nerve-processes and the nerve-fibres that proceed from them are, then, extremely important
for the connexion of the nerve-cells with the peripheral appendages of the nervous system, the
sense-organs, glands, muscles, etc. But they
never mediate a direct connexion between
cell and cell. Wherever such connexion
occurs, it appears to be mediated solely by
the contact into which dendrites and
collaterals are brought with one another
throughout the grey substance. This view
finds support in observations made upon the
peripheral terminations of the nerve-fibres.[p.
47]

(c) -- Peripheral Nerve Terminations

The termination of a nerve in the peripheral

organs may take one of two forms. Either the
ends of the neuritic threads divide up into a

40
fascicle or network of finest dendritic fibrils, that terminate freely along the elements of other,
non-nervous tissues; or the neuritic thread passes directly over into a terminal cell situated within
or between the organs. The terminal cell may be an original nerve-cell pushed out towards the
periphery of the body; or it may have acquired this character later on in the course of
development, by the penetration of a nerve fibril into an epithelial cell. The two forms of nerve-
termination occur side by side, in these their characteristic differences, in the different sense-
organs, where they are evidently connected with essential differences in the mode of sensory
excitation. The first form shows most plainly in the terminations of sensory nerves in the skin.
The neurite, as soon as it enters the lowermost epithelial layer of the cutis, breaks up, into a
reticulum of delicate fibrils, whose dendritic branches surround the separate epithelial cells (Fig.
18, A). In some cases, it is true, this arrangement is so modified as to approximate more or less
closely to the second form: there are cutaneous nerve-fibres whose fibrils penetrate the cells of
the epidermis, or pass into or between the cells of the deeper lying connective tissue, and thus
transform these originally non-nervous elements into peculiar sense-organs (touch-cells, end
bulbs, touch-corpuscles, etc.). The nerve-terminations in the organ of hearing also follow, in the
main, this cutaneous type.

The second form of nerve-termination is best

illustrated from the organ of smell. Every olfactory
nerve-fibre enters, in the olfactory mucous
membrane, into a nerve-cell. This cell which lies
between epithelial cells, [p. 48] is drawn out at its
opposite pole, i.e. at the end turned towards the free
sensory surface, into a thread-like continuation (Fig.
18, B). The nerve-terminations in the tongue and in
the retina of the eye follow this second type. In both
organs, the terminal fibrils are connected with
sensory cells. In their case, however, the sensory
cells (taste-cells, retinal rods and cones) appear to
be not true nerve-cells, but epithelial cells, which
have been transformed into sense-cells by their
connexion with nerve-fibres.[11]

The nerve-endings in muscle conform in all essentials to the first of these types. Here too we
observe, in the first place, a more or less elaborate division of the nerve-fibres that run to the
separate elements of the muscular tissue.[12] In the muscles of reptiles, birds and mammals, the
terminal fibrils finally branch out in a peculiar flattened prominence, the end-plate. Most
observers place this structure within the transparent elastic sheath of the muscle-fibre, the
sarcolemma, though some describe it as attached to the outer surface (Fig. 19).[13]

(d) -- The Neurone Theory

The facts which we have now passed in review as regards the nerve-cells, their processes, and
the continuations of these processes into the peripheral organs appended to the nervous
system, have led in recent years to the hypothesis that the conduction of nervous processes is
mediated, in many cases, not -- as was formerly supposed -- by an unbroken continuity of the

41
fibrillar elements, but rather by contact between the arborisations of the fibres of different nerve-
cells. This hypothesis, it is needless to say, ascribes a greatly added importance to the nerve-
cell. According to it, the functions of the nervous system are conditioned upon the spheres of
function of the individual cells, -- the 'cell' in this sense including as an essential constituent the
fibrillar elements issuing from the cell-body. We may therefore regard the nerve-cell together
with its processes as the morphological, and presumably also as the functional unit, to which we
[p. 49] are in the last resort referred for an understanding of the entire nervous system. This unit
of nerve-cell with its dependent territory of fibrillar processes and arborisations, has been
designated, on WALDEYER'S suggestion, a neurone. In the light of the neurone theory, the
whole of the central nervous system, reaching with its appended organs to the extreme
periphery of the body, appears as a system of such units, set side by side or arranged in
ascending series: each unit maintaining a relative independence, from the unbroken continuity of
its parts, and each connected with other similar units only contact-wise, by way of the terminal
arborisations of the fibrils of the individual neurones.[14] Figg. 20 and 21 illustrate this
conception, schematically, for two trains of neurones, a motor and a sensory, which may be
taken as typical of the systems of conduction realised in the nervous system at large. The
hypothetical scheme of the motor neurone train, given in Fig. 20, consists of two neurones, the
one of which (NI), as motor cell (ZI) in the ventral cornu of the myel, is attached directly to a
peripheral muscle-fibre (M), while the second (NII) belongs to a higher nervous centre. The
neurite proceeding from the cell ZII gives off a certain number of collaterals, and finally resolves
into fibrils that come into contact with the dendrites of the cell ZI. This cell in turn sends out a
neurite, whose ramose fibrillar termination stands in contact with the motor end-plate of a cross-
striated muscle-fibre. The hypothetical schema of the sensory neurone train, in Fig. 21, also
shows two neurones: a peripheral, NI, that has its centre in a bipolar spinal-ganglion cell ZI, and
a central neurone, NII, that belongs to a nerve-cell, ZII, lying somewhere in the higher regions of
myel or brain. The neurone NI is connected by contact on the one side, through the terminal
arborisation of its longer, peripherally directed fibre, with the cutaneous region H (cf. p. 47, Fig.
18 A), and on the other, through the dendrites of its second, upward trending process, with the
neurone NII. These bimembral chains are, naturally, to be considered only as the very simplest
schemata of neurone connexion. We must suppose in general that several neurones, now all
lying at the same level and now arranged in ascending order, are united in the nervous centres
to form neurone chains Where nerve-cells have been forced outward, as 'sensory cells,' into the
peripheral organs, it is possible that there, too, similar arrangements may prevail. Indeed, as we
shall see later on, the morphological conditions often point unequivocally to such peripheral
neurone connexions (cf. below, Chs. V., VIII.).

42
Whether the individual cell territories are, always and everywhere, related to one another in the
manner indicated by these diagrams is, we must [p. 50] admit, still an open question. So far, the
neurone theory must be regarded simply as an hypothesis that brings together, in a very happy
way, a large number of the data of current histology. Whether the definition of the neurone in
general, and whether in particular the views of the interconnexion of the neurones promulgated
especially by RAMON Y CAJAL, will prove to be tenable in all cases, cannot now be decided.
Even at the present day, the theory does not want for opponents. Fortunately, the settlement of
these controversies among the morphologists is not of decisive importance for a physiological
understanding of nervous functions.
Physiological interpretation must be based,
first of all, upon the manifestations of function,
and these can be brought, later on, into
relation to the anatomical facts. The opposite
plan, of erecting elaborate physiological -- not
to say psychological -- hypotheses upon purely
anatomical foundations, is, of course, to be
rejected without further argument. From this
point of view, however, it must be conceded
that the idea of neurones, and the view that
this idea [p. 51] suggests of a connexion
between the central elements which is
relatively variable, and in certain
circumstances perhaps determinable by the
exercise of the functions themselves, accords
better with the facts than the older view of an
uninterrupted continuity of the nerve-fibres,
and its dogmatic corollary of isolated
conduction, were able to do. We need appeal
only to the observations on the possibility of
vicarious functioning, and on the substitution of
new conduction-paths for others that have for some reason become impracticable. The
anatomical plan of neurone connexions is evidently more adequate than this older view to the
physiological results which prove that there exists, along with a certain localisation of functions,
a very considerable capacity for adaptation to changed conditions. More than this, -- more than
an ex post facto representation of the course of events, -- the neurone theory, naturally, cannot
give us. Should that theory fall, the acts of vicarious function and of new adaptation would still all
remain as they were, and would still have to be brought somehow into agreement with the
properties of the anatomical substrate of the functions involved.

The morphological differences between the processes of the nerve-cells, that have formed the
point of departure for the development of the neurone theory, were first pointed out by
DEITERS, in his work upon the large cells of the ventral cornua of the myel. GERLACH
discovered the fibrillar structure of the intercellular substance, and HIS the embryological
connexion of nerve-fibres with nerve-cells. GOLGI, KÖLLIKER, NANSEN, W. HIS, G. RETZIUS,
RAMON Y CAJAL and many others have made the nerve-cell a subject of special
investigation.[15]

43
It is but natural that the results obtained should not be always in agreement. GOLGI and
NANSEN supposed that the dendrites are merely nutritive elements; and GOLGI held, further,
that the interlacing fibres of the ground-reticulum anastomose to form a closed system. The
other observers declared for the nervous character of the dendrites, and were unable to confirm
the occurrence of anastomosis in the ground-reticulum. On the side of function, GOLGI
propounded the hypothesis that the neurites pass exclusively into motor nerve-fibres, while the
sensory nerves take their origin from the ground-reticulum. It would follow from this, since
GOLGI did not recognise the nervous nature ot the dendrites, that the connexion between
sensory and motor fibres is mediated not by any sort of nerve-cell, but only by the fibrillar
substance of the ground-reticulum, and there, in all probability, by mere mechanical contact of
the fibres. If on the other hand we admit, as the great majority of observers are now ready to do,
that the dendrites are nervous in character, then we must suppose, as has been shown in
particular by RAMON Y CAJAL, that while all centripetally conducting nerve-fibres first of all
arborise into fibrils in the ground-reticulum, they afterwards avail themselves of the protoplasmic
processes to discharge into nerve-cells. If this hypothesis be sound, the terms 'centripetal' and
'centrifugal' cannot be regarded as identical with 'sensory' and 'motor'; they are referable, in
every case, only to the cells with which the fibres are con-[p. 52]nected. Centripetal, in this
sense, are all conduction-paths that convey excitations to determinate nerve-cells; centrifugal, all
conduction-paths that carry excitations from them. In general, therefore, the peripheral sensory
nerves will belong to a centripetal, and the motor nerves to a centrifugal system. But within the
central conduction-paths, i.e. those that run between different ganglionic systems, there may be
fibres, centrifugal in respect of proximate cell-origin, that possibly possess a sensory character,
and others, centripetal in origin, whose functions may possibly be motor. This view of the
functions of the cell-processes evidently carries with it a relative independence of the territories
of the individual nerve-cells, -- a phase of the subject to which WALDEYER especially has called
attention, and which has led him to introduce the idea of the neurone. Most recent investigators
adopt the neurone theory. At the same time, there has alas been a certain amount of dissent,
based especially upon the oft repeated observation of the continuity of the fibrils within the
nerve-cells.[16] It has even been maintained that the fibrils pursue an unbroken course
throughout the entire nervous system, the nerve-cells included: an hypothesis first put forward
by MAX SCHULTZE, the discoverer of fibrillar cell-structure,[17] and now revived on the ground
of further work upon the same morphological phenomena.[18]

The structural schema, of RAMON Y CAJAL, and the neurone theory that is based upon it, stand
in the forefront of recent neurological investigation. Anatomists have also devoted much
attention to the finer structure of the nerve-cell itself. There have been two remarkable
discoveries in this field, that have aroused especial interest: NISSL'S announcement of the
tussock-like accumulations of granules (Figg. 10, 14),[19] and the observations made in many
quarters on the fibrillar structure of the nerve-cells.[20] Neither of these, it is true, has passed
unchallenged; both the granular masses and the fibrils have been explained as precipitates from
the cell-substance, due to microchemical treatment or to post-mortem coagulation.[21]
Nevertheless, the hypothesis that these structures exist in the living tissue is confirmed br the
fact that they have been observed in fresh preparations, untreated by staining reagents (Fig.
10).[22]

44
NISSL'S corpuscles have further been observed to undergo noteworthy changes under the
action of poisons, like arsenic, or as the effect of intense fatigue or other trophic disturbances.
The tussocks decrease, both in size and in number, so that in many cases they can still be
observed only at certain parts of the cell-body, while the nucleus becomes farther and farther
dis-[p. 53]placed towards the cell-periphery, and finally disappears altogether. These changes
correspond exactly to those observed in inflammatory conditions of the grey substance in the
human brain, and termed homogeneous turgescence of the cells (Fig. 22 A). They suggest the
idea that the tussocks discharge a specific function, intimately related to cell-nutrition. These
structures are, perhaps, to be explained as accumulations of reserve material, to be drawn upon
for functional purposes if this be true, we must probably attribute to them the trophic influence
which the nerve-cell exercises upon the fibres proceedings from it, and which apparently makes
the cell their nutritive as well as their functional centre.[23] This influence is shown by the fact
that those fibres of a transsected nerve which remain connected with the central organ persist
for a long time without change, whereas the fibres of the peripheral portion of the nerve, the part
that is separated from the centre, very
soon show signs of degeneration. First
of all, the myelinic contents of the fibre
divides into clots (Fig. 23 a). Then,
these clots, together with the neuritic
fibrils, break up into granules (b). These
in turn are slowly resorbed (c) until they
altogether disappear: so that, finally,
nothing is left of the nerve but its
connective tissue investments.[24] It is,
however, probable that the appearance
of these degenerative processes is
further hastened by the arrest of
function which naturally follows from the
sectioning of the nerve. This view is confirmed, on the one hand, by the fact that, after a very
long time, the central end of the transsected nerve also becomes atrophied, and on the other by
the observation that nerve-cells, which have been thrown out of function by sectioning of a
nerve-trunk or by injury to the peripheral region supplied by them, gradually shrink up (Fig. 22
B). In the case of young animals especially, this cell-shrinkage sets in comparatively quickly,
after extirpation of the region of nervous diffusion. It has also been observed in man, as a
secondary atrophy of the nerve-centres.[25][p. 54]

Such are the phenomena that occur as after-effects of enhancement or abolition of function in
the nerve-cells and nerve-fibres. The changes observed as the results of stimulation in the
dendritic processes, and interpreted by many observers as immediate manifestations of life, are
of a very much more questionable nature. Amoeboid movements of the dendrites were first
described by RABL-RÜCKHARD. They may possibly be explained as phenomena of imbibition
and coagulation. At any rate, the psychophysical theories of sleep and waking, dissociation of
consciousness, and what not, that certain authors have created upon them, are purely imaginary
psychological constructions, based on an extremely scant and more than doubtful foundation of
physiological observation.[26]

45
 §2. Chemical Constituents

The chemical substances of which the morphological elements of the nervous system are
composed are as yet but imperfectly known. The greater portion of the investing and
sustentacular tissues -- the endoneurium and perineurium, the primitive sheath, and in part the
neuroglia of the nerve-centres -- belong to the class of collogenic and elastic substances. The
only exception is the corneal sheath surrounding the myelin, which is said to consist of a corneal
substance allied to epithelial tissue, and termed neurokeratin.[27] The nerve-mass proper is a
mixture of various substances, several of which resemble the fats in their solubilities, while they
differ widely in chemical constitution. They have been found, not only in nerve-substance, but
also in the corpuscles of blood and lymph, in egg-yolk, in sperma, and to a less degree in many
other tissues. The most important of them is protagon, a highly complex body, to which
LIEBREICH has assigned the empirical formula C116H241N4PO22. This formula is, naturally,
intended merely to give an approximate idea of the extreme complexity of the chemical molecule
of this compound.[28] From protagon are derived lecithin and cerebrin, decomposition-products
which probably occur along side of it in the nerve-substance, and together with it form the myelin
of the myelinic envelope. Lecithin, it is supposed, is not a single body of stable constitution, but
consists of a series of compounds that resemble the compound ethers: substances which in
physical and chemical con-[p. 55]stitution are closely allied to the fats, and in which the radicals
of certain fatty acids, of phosphoric acid and of glycerin (a component of most of the animal fats)
are combined with one another and with a strong amine base, cholin.[29] Lecithin has two
characteristic properties. The large proportion of carbon and hydrogen which it contains gives it
a high heat of combustion; and its complex nature renders it easily decomposable. Cerebrin, if
boiled with acids, yields a sugar and other, unknown, decomposition products, and has
accordingly been referred to the nitrogenous glucosides. Like lecithin, it is in all probability not a
single body, but a mixture of several substances, which have been distinguished as cerebrin,
homocerebrin and encephalin.[30] Lastly, cholesterin, a solid alcohol rich in carbon, which
occurs in almost all the tissues and fluids of the body, plays a not inconsiderable part in the
composition of nervous tissue. Besides these substances, which are all characterised by their
high heat of combustion. Nervous tissue contains substances which are classed with the
proteins, but of whose composition and chemical conduct very little is understood. Finally. it
must be mentioned, as a characteristic difference between the grey substance of the nerve-
centres and the white myelinic substance, that the former gives a weakly acid, the latter an
alkaline or neutral reaction. The acid reaction appears, like that of the muscles, to be due to the
presence of free lactic acid.[31] Some observers have, in fact, maintained that this free acid
increases, as a result of activity, just as it does in muscle.[32] Apart from these differences of
reaction, little is known of the distribution of the various constituents in the various elementary
divisions of nervous tissue. Only so much is certain, that in the peripheral nerve-fibres the
neurite has all the general characteristics of a proteid, while the myelinic sheath evinces those of
the myelins. In the ganglion cells, too, the nucleus would seem, from its microchemical conduct,
to consist of a complex albumin-like substance, while in the protoplasm there is a mixture of
albuminoid materials with protagon and its associates. The same constituents appear, further, to
penetrate in part into the intercellular reticulum.

These facts render it probable that nervous substance is the seat of a chemical synthesis,
whereby the complex nutritive substances carried by the blood are ultimately transformed into

46
compounds of still greater com-[p. 56]plexity, representing (as their high heats of combustion
show) a very considerable amount of potential energy. This view of the chemism of nerve-
substance is attested, first of all, by the appearance of protagon and the lecithins in such
quantity that their production in situ is evidently far more probable than their deposition by the
blood. The parent substances of protagon itself and of the bodies associated with it are to be
sought, we must suppose, in the albumin-like substances of ganglion cell and neurite. There
can, for that matter, be no doubt that the elementary structures of the animal body have the
power of converting simpler proteids into more complex. Apart from the undisputed observation
of synthetic processes within the body,[33] we have further evidence in the fact that substances
containing phosphorus, which closely resemble the albuminates in their composition and
chemical conduct, appear under conditions that definitely suggest their formation within the
organic cell. A compound of this kind, nuclein, appears in particular to form the principal
constituent of the cell-nuclei.[34] Hence we may say, tentatively, that the most important
physiological result of the attempts so far made to penetrate the chemical constitution of the
constituents of the nervous system is this and this only: that the chemism of nerve-substance is
very particularly directed upon the formation of compounds possessing a higher heat of
combustion or a larger store of potential energy, At the same time, the differences in the
properties of the grey and white substance, scanty as they are, point to the conclusion that the
central elements are the principal seat of the chemical processes which mediate the functions of
the nervous system. These results, then, are practically all that we need bear in mind, as the
outcome of chemical investigation of nervous substance up to the present time, when we
approach the problems of the physiological mechanics of the nervous system.

Notes
[1] Connective tissue forms a part of the sustentacular tissue of the nervous system. But the
neuroglia, which forms its larger part, is an ectodermic structure, with close relations to the
neurogenetic tract. See G. A. PIERSOL, Normal Histology, 1893, 79. -- TRANSLATOR.
[2] The text has 'neurilemma' in both instances. This is now a synonym for the primitive sheath. -
- TRANSLATOR.
[3] DEITERS, Untersuchungen über Gehirn u. Rückenmark des Menschen u. der Säugethiere,
1865, 53 f. HIS, Arch. f. Anatomie, Supplementband, 1890, 95 ff. VON LENHOSSEK, Der
feinere Bau des Nervensystems, 2te Aufl. 1895, 36 ff. HELD, Arch. f. Anatomie, 1897, 204;
Suppl. 273. BETHE, Arch. f. mikroskip. Anatomie, 1900, lv., 513. GOLGI, Verhandl. d. anatom.
Gesellschaft auf d. 14 Vers. zu Pavia, 1900; Anat. Anzeiger, xviii., Ergänzungsheft.
[4] RAMON Y CAJAL, Les nouvelles idées sur la structure de systéme nerveux ches l'homme et
chez les vertébrés, 1894.
[5] RABL-RÜCKHARD, Neurol. Centralblatt, 1890, 199. DUVAL, Soc. de Biologie, 1895. Cf.
KÖLLIKER, Verh. d. Würzburger phys-med. Gesellschaft, 1895.
[6] These intermediate cells (intermediäre oder Schaltzellen) appear to correspond to what are
sometimes termed the GOLGI cells of the first type, and the GOLGI cells of the text to the
GOLGI cells of the second type. -- TRANSLATOR.
[7] EWALD and KÜHNE, Verhandl. d. naturhist.-med. Vereins zu Heidelberg, N. F. i. 5. The
presence of this intermediate membrane in the living nerve-fibre is denied by T. W.
ENGELMANN, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxii., 1880, 1 ff.; KÖLLIKER,
Gewebelehre, 6te Aufl., ii., 13.

47
[8] MAX SCHULTZE, in STRICKER'S Gewebelehre, 1871, 108. POWER'S trs., i., 1870, 150.
[9] PIERSOL, Normal Histology. 63 f. -- TRANSLATOR.
[10] See below, Ch. v. § 2.
[11] For a detailed account of the central and peripheral terminations of the sensory nerves, see
Chs. v. vii., below.
[12] PIERSOL, Normal Hisology, 90. -- TRANSLATOR.
[13] KÜHNE, in STRICKER'S Gewebelehre, ii., 1871, 682. POWER'S trs., i., 1870, 210.
SZYMONOWICZ, Lehrbuch d. Histologie, 1901, 306. MACCALLUM'S trs., 1902, 312 ff.
[14] WALDEYER Ueber einige neuere Forschungen im Gebiet der Anatomie des
Centralnervensystems, in the Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1891, nos. 44-48. For the history of
the theory, see M. von LENHOSSEK, Der feinere Bau des Nervensystems, 2te Aufl., 1895, 103
ff.; M. VERWORN, Das Neuron in Anatomie und Physiologie, 1900.
[15] Cf. the bibliographies in M. VON LENHOSSEK, op. cit. 36 ff.; KÖLLIKER, Gewebelehre, 6te
Aufl. ii. 5 ff.
[16] NISSL, Kritische Fragen der Nervenzellenanatomie, in the Biol. Centralblatt, 1896, 1898.
HELD, Arch. f. Anatomie, 1897, 204; Suppl., 273. BETHE, Biol. Centralblatt, 1898, 10. 18.
These authors believe, in general that the neurone theory affords an adequate idea of the earlier
stages in the development of the nervous system; but that, at a later period, the processes of the
individual cells oftentimes grow together, so that the original independence of the cell territories
is not maintained.
[17] MAX SCHULTZE in STRICKER'S Gewebelehre, 1871, 108 ff. POWER'S trs., i. 172.
[18] APATHY, Biol. Centralblatt, 1889 and 1898 (vols, ix. and xviii.). Mittheilungen aus der Zool.
Station zu Neapel, xii. 1897; also in Amer. Journ. of Insanity, lv., 1898, 51 ff.
[19] NISSL, Allg. Zeitschr. f. Psychiatrie, l., 1894.
[20] FLEMING, Arch. f. Mikrosk. Anatomie, xlvi., 1895, 373. LENHOSSEK, ibid., 345.
MÖNCKEBERG and BETHE, ibid., liv., 1899, 135. <{>[21] HELD, op. cit. Sometimes, as was
discovered by BÜTSCHLI (Untersuchungen über mikroskopische Schäume und Protoplasma,
1892) and confirmed by HELD, a honey-combed appearance is presented both by the cell itself
and by its nerve-process. HELD, however, regards this too as a result of coagulation.
[22] J. ARNOLD, Arch. f. mikrosk. Anatomie, lii., 1898, 542.
[23] NISSL, Allg. Zeitschr. f. Psychiatrie, xlviii., 1892. MARINESCO, Arch. f. Physiol., 1899, 89.
VON WENDT, Skandin. Arch. f. Physio., xi., 1902, 372. M. FRIEDMANN, Neurolog. Centralblatt,
1891, 1.
[24] MÖNCKEBERG and BETHE, Arch. f. Mikrosk. Anatomie, liv., 1899, 135.
[25] GUDDEN, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, ii., 693.
[26] DUVAL, Hypothése sur la physiol. des centres nerveux, in the Comptes rendus de la
société de biologie, 1895. SOUKHANOFF, La théorie des neurones, etc., in the Arch. de
neurologie, 1897. QUERTON, Le sommeil hibernal et les modifications des neurones, Institut
Solvay, Bruxelles, 1898.
[27] W. KÜHNE and CHITTENDEN, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, N. F. viii., 1890, 291.
[28] LIEBREICH, Ann. der Chemie u. Pharmacie, cxxxiv., 1865, 29. According to KESSEL and
FREYTAG (Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chemie, xvii., 1893, 431), protagon further contains sulphur in its
molecule. The views of these chemists, with the protagon theory at large, are sharply
controverted by J. L. W. THUDICHUM (Die chemische Constitution des Gehirns des Menschen
und der Thiere, 1901, 44 ff.). We cannot enter here into these differences of opinion. We can

48
pass them over with the less scruple since they are, at present, without significance for the
general relations of the chemism of nerve-substance to the physiological processes.
[29] The constitution of ordinary lecithin, according to DIAKONOW, is C44H90NPO9=distearyl-
glycerin-phosphoric acid + trimethyl-oxethyl-ammonium-hydroxide. According to STRECKER,
other lecithins may be formed in which the radical of stearic acid is replaced by some other fatty
acid radical. See NEUMEISTER, Lehrbuch der physiol. Chemie, 2te Aufl., 1897, 91 ff.
[30] W. MÜLLER (Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm. cv., 1858, 361) has worked oat for cerebrin the
empirical formula, C37H33NO3. On the cerebrin series, cf. PARCUS, Journ. f. prakt. Chemie,
1881, 310; NEUMEISTER, Physiol. Chemie, 2te Aufl. 472.
[31] GSCHEIDLEN, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., viii., 1874, 71.
[32] MOLESCHOTT and BATTESTINI, Arch. de biologie ital., viii., 1887, 90.
[33] E. BAUMANN, Die synthetischen Processe im Thierkörper. Inaugural lecture. Berlin, 1878.

[34] MIESCHER, in HOPPE-SEYLER'S Physiologisch-chemische Untersuchungen, 4, 452;

LUBAVIN, ibid., 463.

49
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
By Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

CHAPTER III

Physiological Mechanics of Nerve-Substance

§1. General Principles and Problems of a Mechanics of Innervation

(a) -- Methods of a Mechanics of Innervation

THE processes that run their course within the elements of the nervous system, the nerve-cells
and nerve-fibres described above, have been studied in two different ways. By the one of these,
investigators have sought to gain a knowledge of the internal by the other of the external
molecular mechanics of nervous substance. The former sets out from an examination of the
physical and chemical properties of the nervous elements, and inquires into the changes which
these properties evince as a result of physiological function, attempting in this manner to
discover the internal forces at work in the nerves and nerve-centres. Inviting as this path may
appear, in its promise directly to reveal the intimate nature of the nervous functions, it still takes
us so short a distance towards its goal that we cannot venture to trust ourselves upon it. Apart
from the scanty results of morphological investigation, mentioned above (p. 53), the study of the
functional changes of the central elements is, as yet, hardly more than a programme. And our
knowledge of the internal processes in the peripheral nerves is also severely limited. We know
that their functioning is attended by electrical and chemical changes, -- the meaning of which is
still obscure: we know little more. The only road that remains open to us, therefore, is the
second, that of an external molecular mechanics. In taking this, we avoid altogether the question
of the special nature of the nervous forces: we set out simply from the proposition that the
processes in the elementary divisions of the nervous system are movement-processes, of some
sort or other, and that their relations to one another and to the forces of external nature are
determined by the mechanical principles valid for motion at large. We thus take up a position
akin, let us say, to that of the general theory of heat in modern physics, where the investigator is
satisfied to begin with the proposition that heat is a mode of motion, from which -- with the aid of
the laws of mechanics -- he derives all the phenomena with systematic completeness. If the
molecular mechanics of the nervous system [p. 58] is to accomplish a like result, it must first of
all reduce the phenomena that form the subject-matter of its inquiries to their lowest terms: it
must investigate the physiological function of the nervous elements, first, under the simplest
possible conditions, and, secondly, under conditions that can be experimentally varied and
controlled. Now any outside affection of the nervous elements, that serves in some way to
arouse or modify their functions, is termed in physiology a stimulus. In using this term, we must,
of course, abstract entirely from the ideas which HALLER'S theory of irritability and other modes
of thought current in the older vitalistic physiology read into it. If we do this, the term retains its

50
usefulness not only in our modern physiology of the nervous system and its auxiliary organs, but
also by extension of meaning in psychology, seeing that all the multiplicity of outside affections
that are embraced by it depend primarily upon a peculiar character of living substance itself, and
may therefore produce identical results.

Stimuli are classified, in terms of the source from which their activity proceeds, as internal and
external. Under internal stimuli are included all stimulatory influences that have their seat in the
tissues and organs surrounding the nervous elements: we may instance, especially, rapid
changes in the quality of the blood and of the fluids of the tissues. Under external stimuli are
included, on the other hand, all the physical and chemical influences exerted upon the organism
by the external world in which it lives. As regards nerve-substance, therefore, all stimuli
whatsoever are to be classed as external. Whether, for instance, a chemical stimulus arises
primarily in the blood in which the nerve-elements are bathed, or makes its way to them from the
environment, is indifferent for the intrinsic character of the process. When, however, we desire to
apply to nervous substance stimuli of a predetermined intensity and duration, we find, as a rule,
that the internal stimuli (in the technical sense) are not available, since they are almost entirely
beyond the range of experimental control. We accordingly have recourse to external stimuli, and
most frequently to electric shocks and currents, which recommend themselves particularly both
by the ease with which they destroy the molecular equilibrium of the nerve-elements, and by the
extreme accuracy with which their mode of application may be regulated. In attempting an
analysis of the processes in the nerve-fibres, we then begin with that peripheral effect of nervous
excitation which is most open to investigation, -- the muscle contraction that follows upon
stimulation of the motor nerves, -- and make this our measure of the internal processes.
Similarly, for an understanding of the changes in the nerve-cells, we employ the simplest
process, amenable to external measurement, that is released in the central organ by the
stimulation of a centrally directed nerve-fibre, -- the reflex contraction. In neither of these cases,
[p. 59] however, does the muscle-contraction afford a direct measure of the processes that run
their course in the corresponding nerve-fibres and at their points of central origin, or of the
changes induced in these processes by any determinate outside influence; of itself, it can never
furnish more than a certain measure of the processes operative in the substance of the muscle
which contracts. As a rule, therefore, every change in the irritability of the nervous elements, to
which we have applied artificial stimulation, may be expected to produce a change in the
phenomena exhibited by the muscle: thus, if the irritability of the motor nerves is diminished, the
muscular contraction will be weaker; if enhanced, it will be stronger. But we shall not be justified
in arguing, conversely, that every change in contraction implies a corresponding change in
nervous excitability. On the contrary, since the contractile substance has its own intrinsic
irritability, which it maintains in face of stimulation whether directly applied or transmitted to it by
the motor nerves, very different stimuli may possibly act upon the nerve, or upon the central
structures connected with it, to release precisely the same processes in the nervous substance
itself, and nevertheless, if the irritability of the contractile substance has changed in the
meantime, may produce quite different effects in muscle: or conversely, may set up different
processes in the nervous substance, while the contractile substance shows the same reaction.
We must, therefore, never lose sight of the fact that the muscular contraction furnishes only an
indirect measure of the processes of nervous excitation. If we are to argue immediately from the
symptoms of altered contractility to the nervous processes, we must be sure that the
observations are made under conditions which guarantee a sufficient constancy in the properties

51
of the muscle experimented upon, or at least make such constancy highly probable. For the rest,
the properties of the contractile substance itself, and the related phenomena of the course of the
muscular contraction, may here be left out of consideration, as their interest is purely
physiological. In no case are we concerned with the muscular contraction save as the changes
which it undergoes possess a symptomatic importance for the nervous processes with which
they are connected.[1]

It is the task of a physiological mechanics of the nervous substance to reduce the phenomena of
nerve-stimulation, so far as they can be traced in the related mechanical phenomena evinced by
muscular tissue, to the universal laws of mechanics. In essaying this problem, it must at the
outset bring its subject-matter into relation with one, especially, of the great laws of mechanics, -
- a law which has proved pre-eminently serviceable [p. 60] in explaining the interrelations of
various forms of movement-process. This is the law of the conservation of work.

(b) -- The Principle of the Conservation of Work

We understand by work, in the most general meaning of the term, any operation that changes
the position of ponderable masses in space. The amount of work done, in a given case, is
accordingly measured by the change of position which it can produce in a weight of determinate
magnitude. Ponderable bodies can be moved from their place by light, heat, electricity,
magnetism. But all these 'natural forces,' as they are called, are simply forms of molecular
motion. It follows, then, that the different modes of molecular motion can do work. The heat of
steam, e.g., consists in movements for the most part rectilinear, but oftentimes interferential of
the steam particles. As soon as the steam does work, -- let us say, by moving the piston of an
engine, -- a corresponding quantum of these movements disappears. This result is commonly
expressed in the phrase, 'A certain quantity of heat has been transformed into an equivalent
quantity of mechanical work.' It would be more accurate to say that a part of the irregular
movements of the steam-particles has been used up, in order to set a larger ponderable mass in
motion. We have, then, merely the transformation of the one form of motion into the other; and
the work done, measured by the product of the moved weight into the distance through which it
is moved, is exactly equal to a sum of lesser amounts of work, which could be measured by the
products of the weights of a number of steam-particles into the distances traversed by them, and
which now, during the performance of the external work, have disappeared. Conversely, when
mechanical work disappears and heat arises in its place, by the friction or compression of
physical bodies, we have the opposite transformation of mechanical work into its equivalent
amount of molecular work. Not that mechanical work (in the ordinary sense of the term) appears
in all cases where heat is latent: the heat is, very commonly, employed simply for the
transposition of the particles of the heated body itself. It is a familiar fact that all bodies -- gases
most of all liquids and solid bodies in less degree -- expand under the influence of heat. Here,
again, molecular work disappears. Just as it is used in the steam-engine to move the piston, so it
is used in this case to alter the distance that separates the molecules. Work done in this way is
termed work of disgregation. It may be transformed back again into molecular work, as the
particles return to their original positions. In general then, molecular work may be transformed
either into mechanical action or into work of disgregation, and both of these in their turn may be
transformed into molecular work. Now the sum of these three forms of work remains unchanged.
This is [p. 61] the, principle of the conservation of work: or, if we choose a name which will

52
permit us, in other contexts, to abstract from that mechanical interpretation of natural processes
to which we here stand committed, the principle of the conservation of energy.

This principle is applicable not only to heat, the most general and most widely diffused form of
motion, but to other forms as well. In every case, it is always just the one term in the chain of the
three interchangeable motions, the character of the molecular work, that is changed. Work of
disgregation and mechanical work can be done, e.g., by electricity as well as by heat. There are,
therefore, various kinds of molecular work; but there is in the last resort only one work of
disgregation, as there is only one form of mechanical work. Disgregation is the name given, in
every instance, to a permanent change of the distances separating the molecules, no matter
what cause has produced it. When we distinguish a simple increase in the volume of a body
from a change of its aggregate condition, and this again from chemical decomposition, or
dissociation, we are really distinguishing nothing more than three degrees of disgregation.
Mechanical work, in the same way, consists always and everywhere in the change of position of
ponderable masses. It should be noted that the different forms of molecular work may also,
under certain circumstances, be transformed into one another. Thus, a certain quantum of
electrical work may give rise, simultaneously, to heat, disgregation and mechanical work.

It is from mechanical work that the idea of work, in the abstract, has been derived. And it is
mechanical work that is selected, from the various forms of work mentioned above, to serve as a
common measure of work at large. The reason is, that mechanical work can be most accurately
measured, and that the only possibility of a comparison of the different forms of work is given
with the reduction of all to one. This measure, now, is applied in the special case by help of the
principle of the conservation of work, which lays it down that a given amount of molecular work
or work of disgregation is equivalent to the mechanical work into which it is transformed or from
which it is generated. In the performance of mechanical work, a ponderable body may be lifted,
against the force of gravity, or moved by its own weight, or accelerated in spite of friction, and so
on. In the latter event, the portion of mechanical work necessary to overcome friction is
transformed into heat. Where the body is lifted, we suppose that the work employed for the lifting
is stored up within it, since this work call be passed on again to other bodies, by a subsequent
fall of the weight from the same height. Disgregation behaves, in this regard, just as the lifted
weight does: a certain quantity of molecular work, mostly in the form of heat, is used up in its
production, and this same quantity must reappear as soon as the disgregation is abolished. But
a lifted weight remains lifted [p. 62] so long as its weight is held in equilibrium by some other
form of work, e.g. by the heat-motion of expanded steam. In the same way, the disgregation of
the molecules of a body persists, so long as their reunion is prevented by some form of internal
work, e.g. by heat-vibrations. Hence, between the moment at which the weight is lifted or the
disgregation of the molecules effected, and the moment at which the work required for these
operations is reproduced by the fall of the weight or the union of the molecules, there may
intervene a static condition, continuing for a longer or shorter time, throughout which just so
much internal work is being done as is necessary for the maintenance of equilibrium, -- so that
no alteration takes place in the existing status, in the position of bodies and their molecules, in
temperature, in electrical distribution. Only at the moment when this state of equilibrium is
disturbed, when the weight falls or the molecules approach one another, do transformations of
work set in again. The mechanical work or work of disgregation is now transformed first of all
into molecular work, usually into heat, and this may in its turn pass over in part into mechanical

53
action or disgregation of molecules; the transformations continuing, until circumstances occur
that favour the reinstatement of the stationary condition. Since, now, there is a certain sum of
work available, in a lifted weight or in disgregated molecules, we may consider every lifted
weight and every disgregation as potential work or work of position. The amount of this potential
work is always precisely the same as the amount of work that was required to effect the lift or the
disgregation, and as the amount of work that may reappear in consequence of fall or of
aggregation. The law of the conservation of work may, accordingly, be expressed in other terms
as follows: the sum of actual and of potential work, of work of position and work of motion,
remains constant. It is clear that this is only a special way of formulating our previous law of the
conservation of the sum of work; for we always mean by work of position a lift or a disgregation
accomplished by expenditure of actual work, and maintained by a stationary condition of tension
or motion. If we could observe the smallest oscillatory movements of the atoms as well as the
motions of bodies and the permanent changes of position that they undergo, the law would hold
of these atomic movements also, that the sun of actual and potential work remains unchanged.
In actual fact, however, where the particles of the mass are in constant motion about
approximately the same positions of equilibrium, matter appears to us to be at rest. We
accordingly term the work done, invisibly to us, in a stationary condition, 'internal' molecular
work, thus distinguishing it from the molecular work which arises when there is a change in the
state of equilibrium as regards temperature, electric distribution, etc., and which we call 'external'
molecular work.[p. 63]

These stationary conditions are continually alternating with changes of state. The stage of nature
is thus occupied, in never-ending succession, with the passage from internal to external and
from external back again to internal molecular work. It will suffice here to give illustrations of the
processes that have the most direct bearing upon our own problem, -- illustrations of
disgregation and its reversal. Differences in aggregate condition depend, it is supposed, upon
different states of molecular motion. The molecules of a gas repel one another, and
consequently continue to move, in rectilinear paths, until such time as they strike the wall of the
containing vessel, or other molecules, from which they rebound. In liquids, the molecules
oscillate about instable, in solids, about stable positions of equilibrium. If, now, we are e.g. to
transform a liquid into a gas, we must increase the work of the molecules. We do this by the
application of heat. So long as only the molecular work of the liquid increases, nothing results
but an increase of its temperature. But if, at the same time, we allow the liquid to expand, then a
part of its molecular work is further transformed into disgregation. Finally, if the application of
heat is continued, and the disgregation carried to the point at which the particles of the liquid
travel beyond the spheres of their mutual attraction, the liquid is suddenly transformed into gas
or steam: it now enters upon a new state of equilibrium, in the production of which a large
amount of molecular work, i.e. of heat, has been consumed. If heat is now withdrawn from the
steam, so that its internal work is diminished, a point will be reached, on the backward path, at
which the average distance between the molecules is sufficiently reduced to bring them once
more within the limits of their mutual attraction. With the supervention of this original position or
equilibrium, molecular work must be done, i.e. heat be liberated, as a result of the renewed
activity of the forces of attraction; and the amount of heat thus disengaged is precisely the same
as that consumed in the first instance.

54
What holds in this case holds, in practically the same way, for the decomposition and
recomposition of chemical compounds. In every substance we can distinguish between the state
of physical and the state of chemical equilibrium. For every molecule, in the physical sense,
consists of a number of chemical molecules or (to use the term applied to the indecomposable
chemical molecule) of a number of atoms. Just, then, as the molecules may exist in different
conditions of motion, varying with the aggregate state of the body in question, so may the atoms
also, according to the character o the chemical compound. Modern chemistry regards all bodies
as compounds; chemically simple bodies are looked upon as compounds of homogeneous
atoms. Hydrogen gas is thus every whit as much a chemical compound as is hydrochloric acid:
in the former, [p. 64] two atoms of hydrogen are compounded together (H.H), in the latter, one
atom of hydrogen is compounded with one of chlorine (H.Cl). Here again, however, what
appears to be matter at rest is in reality only a stationary condition of motion. The atoms in a
chemical compound oscillate, it is supposed, about more or less stable positions of equilibrium.
The character of this motion is, at the same time, strongly influenced by the aggregate condition
of the compound, regarded as a physical body. Thus, in gases and liquids, the state of motion of
the chemical atoms is, as a rule, comparatively free; atoms are occasionally torn from their
connexions, and at once compound again with other atoms that have been similarly released. In
hydrochloric acid, for instance, gaseous or liquid, the average composition of all chemical
molecules is HCl. Nevertheless, separate atoms H and Cl are constantly occurring in the free
state, though they cannot maintain it, but are always compelled at once, by the forces of
chemical attraction, to enter again into combination. From this point of view we gain a
satisfactory explanation of the ready decomposability of gases and liquids in face of heat,
electricity and other chemical compounds.[2]

We find, once more, in the aggregation of chemical molecules, differences analogous to those
which we have noted in the aggregate states of physical bodies. There are relatively stable and
relatively instable chemical compounds. In the former, the forces of attraction, in virtue of which
the particles vibrate about certain determinate positions of equilibrium, are stronger; in the latter,
weaker. These differences of chemical aggregation are, of course, altogether independent of the
physical since the physical molecules are always, to start with, chemical aggregates. Very stable
compounds may accordingly occur in the gaseous state, and very unstable in the aggregate
state of solidity. In general the compounds of homogeneous atoms, the chemically simple
substances, belong to the less stable compounds; most of them, certain of the metals excepted,
decompose fairly easily to form compounds with heterogeneous atoms. The same thing is true,
on the other hand, of extremely complex compounds, which readily break up into simpler. Here
belong most of the 'organic' substances. It follows, then, that stable chemical compounds are to
be found predominantly among the simpler connexions of heterogeneous atoms. Thus, carbonic
acid, water, ammonia, and many of the metallic oxides and inorganic acids are decomposed
only with difficulty. Just, however, as the different aggregate states can be transformed into one
another, so may relatively instable compounds be transformed into stable, and conversely.
There is, as ST. CLAIRE DEVILLE proved, no compound so stable that it cannot be dissociated
by the application of heat in sufficient quantity. Here, as in the change of a liquid into a gas, a
certain amount of the [p. 65] internal work of the heat disappears, transformed into work of
dissociation. When the dissociation is complete, the atoms are in a new state of equilibrium. In
the dissociation of water, e.g., the more stable connection H2O gives place to the less stable
forms H.H and O.O, in which the vibratory condition of the atoms differs from that in the stable

55
compound H2O very much as the vibratory condition of the molecules of steam differs from that
of the molecules of water; that is to say, the atoms in their new, instable connexions will, on the
whole, describe longer paths, and consequently do more internal molecular work. To make up
this deficiency, heat is necessary. The work thus expended upon dissociation is, however, still
present as potential work: for when the new state of equilibrium of the dissociated molecules is
disturbed, they are able to compound again, and the work of dissociation once more makes itself
apparent in the form of heat. The chemical molecules have, at the same time, passed into their
former condition of equilibrium, where the stationary work which they perform in movements
about their positions of equilibrium is diminished by the amount of the internal work released in
the act of composition. We see, then, that the phenomena connected with composition and
dissociation are identical with the phenomena observed in the alternation of aggregate states,
save only that much larger amounts of work are usually required for dissociation than for
disgregation, and that in the former case the exchange between work of position and work of
motion attains proportionately higher values.

(c) -- Application of the Principle of the Conservation of Work to the Vital Processes of the
Nervous System

The tissues of the living organism are the seat of chemical processes which, by their great
regularity of occurrence, furnish a remarkable illustration of the alternations of potential and
actual internal and external work. In the plants, we have a constant dissociation of stable
compounds. Carbonic acid, water, ammonia, the nitric acid and sulphuric acid of the nitrates and
sulphates, are taken up by the plant, and decomposed into less stable compounds -- wood fibre,
starch, sugar, albumins, etc. -- in which a large amount of potential work is stored; at the same
time, oxygen is eliminated. These compounds, produced by the plant, are transformed in the
animal body, by help of atmospheric oxygen (i.e. by a process of combustion), into the more
stable compounds from which the plant had derived them; at the same time, the potential work
stored up in the organic compounds goes over into actual work, partly in the form of heat, partly
in that of external work of the contractile substance. The central station, from which all these
processes of the animal body are directed, is the nervous system. [p. 66] It maintains the
functions that subserve the processes of combustion; it regulates the distribution and radiation of
heat; it determines the activity of the muscles. In many cases, it is true, and especially in cases
of muscular action, the issuance of impulses from the nervous system is itself directed by
external movement-processes, the sense-stimuli. The true source of its functional capacity lies,
however, not in these, but in the chemical compounds of which nerve-mass and contractile
substance are composed, and which are taken over, almost without modification, from the living
laboratory of plant-tissue. These contain the store of potential work, which under the influence of
external stimulation is transformed into actual work.

The compounds of which the nerve-mass consists remain, so long as stimulus-processes do not
intervene to modify them, approximately in that stationary condition which appears to outward
observation as a state of rest. This rest is, however, here, as in all such instances of a stationary
condition, only apparent. The atoms of the complex chemical compounds are in continual
motion; now and again, they travel beyond the sphere of operations of the atoms with which they
have hitherto been combined, and come within that of other atoms, freed like themselves. There
is, therefore, in a liquid so easily decomposable as the nerve-mass, a constant alternation of

56
decomposition and recomposition of chemical compounds, and the mass appears stationary
simply for the reason that, on the average, there are as many processes of the one kind going
on as of the other. In this particular instance, however, we cannot in strictness say even so
much: not even during their period of rest is the state of the nervous elements really constant
and unchanged. With compounds of such complexity, it invariably happens that certain of the
atoms which have been removed from their former sphere of operations do not, in reuniting,
enter into their old connexions, or into connexions of the same order, but combine afresh to form
similar and more stable compound. This process is termed intrinsic decomposition. In the living
organism the disturbances arising from intrinsic decomposition are compensated by the removal
of the products of decomposition, and by the intake of new materials for the renewal of the
constituents of the tissues.

We may, then, consider resting nervous substance as a semisolid mass given in a stationary
condition of motion. In such a mass, there is no release of external work; the work values
produced by the individual atoms cancel one another. This cancellation takes place, in large
measure, within the complex chemical molecules. As the atoms of the molecule oscillate about
their positions of equilibrium, each one of them does a certain work, which, however, is
counteracted by the work of other atoms, and consequently is not perceptible outside the
molecule. This internal [p. 67] molecular work is far more considerable in an instable chemical
compound, owing to the greater freedom of movement possessed by the atoms, than it is in a
stable compound. It is this, therefore, that represents the potential work of the compound. For if
the existing state of equilibrium be disturbed, the relatively instable may pass into a relatively
stable compound; in which event the surplus of internal molecular work contained in the former
is at once transformed into external. To a certain extent, however, the establishment of
equilibrium takes place without the chemical molecule. Where atoms are continually passing
from less stable to more stable connexions, work must appear: where, on the other hand, atoms
are transferred from more stable to less stable connexions, work must correspondingly
disappear: and in both cases it is external molecular work, generally heat, that is produced and
consumed again. We may term the work that appears with the origination of the more stable
compound 'positive' molecular work, and the work that disappears with the formation of the less
stable compound, 'negative' molecular work. The condition of true equilibrium in a
decomposable liquid like the nerve-mass will then be this: that the internal molecular work or
potential work be kept unchanged, by the continual compensation of the existing quantities of
positive and negative external molecular work. Or, to but the same thing in different words: the
internal molecular work must be kept constant by the renewal (through retransformation into
internal molecular work) of all that it loses in external molecular work. What changes, now, are
brought about in this stationary condition of the nerve by the development of the process of
stimulation?

57
 §2. The Course of the Processes of Stimulation in the Nerve-Fibre

(a) -- Course of the Muscular Contraction following Stimulation of the Motor Nerve

The simplest of all the external phenomena that can inform us of the nature of the processes of
stimulation in nerve is the muscular contraction which sets in, and runs its course in time, as a
result of stimulation of a motor nerve.
Fig. 24 shows the course of a
contraction of this kind in the
gastrocnemius of the frog; a lever with
writing-point was attached to the
muscle, and recorded the phases of the contraction directly upon a quickly moving smoked-
glass plate, carried by a heavy pendulum. The conditions under which the tracing was obtained
were made as simple as possible, in order that the course of the contraction might really be
symp-[p. 68]tomatic of the stimulatory process. The muscle carried no weight beyond the light
writing lever, and gave a twitch in response to stimulation. Numerous observations have shown
that the loading of a muscle increases its irritability. Under the present circumstances this
intensifying effect may be regarded as relatively small and the influence that it exerts upon the
various experiments whose results we are to compare, as sufficiently uniform.[3] The vertical
stroke to the left indicates the moment at which the stimulus was applied to the nerve. The
resulting curve, whose axis of abscissas appears by reason of the movement of the pendulum
as an are of a circle, shows that the twitch sets in perceptibly later than the stimulation, and that
the contraction rises at first quickly, then more slowly, to be followed in like manner by a gradual
relaxation. If the stimulus is momentary, the whole twitch is generally completed in 0.08-0.1 sec.
Provided that the nerve is stimulated directly above the muscle, about 0.01 sec. of this time is
lost between the application of stimulus and the beginning of the twitch; this interval is known as
the stage of latent stimulation, or the latent period. The experiment makes it probable that the
movement process in nerve is relatively slow. Since, however, we have not determined how
much of this retardation of the processes is referable to the inertia of the muscular substance,
the result obtained is not of decisive value.

We come closer to the movement in nervous substance itself when we stimulate the nerve at
two different points of its course, the
one remote from the muscle, the other
as near to it as possible, and when the
experiment is so arranged that the
stimulation is timed to occur in both
cases at the same point upon the axis
of abscissas above which the curve of contraction is described. If the two stimuli have the same
intensity, and the nerve is kept in as constant a condition as possible, the resulting curves evince
a twofold difference. In the first place, as HELMHOLTZ discovered, the curve of contraction
given by the more remote stimulus begins later -- has [p. 69] a longer latent period -- than the
other. Secondly, as PFLÜGER first showed, the twitch released higher up the nerve is the
stronger; its curve is higher and also, as the author pointed out, of longer duration. If, therefore,
the experimenter desires to obtain two muscle-curves of the same height, he must apply a
somewhat weaker stimulus to the part of the nerve that is more remote from the muscle. Even

58
then it usually happens, provided the experiment be made on the living animal, that the
corresponding contraction lasts for a little longer time. The two curves will accordingly differ in
the manner indicated in Fig. 25. There is a brief interval between the starting-points of the
contractions, which evidently corresponds to the time which the excitation requires for
propagation from the upper to the lower point of stimulation; and the twitch released higher up,
although in this case it was excited by a weaker stimulus, reaches the axis of abscissas later
than its initial retardation would lead us to expect. We may, then, conclude from these
experiments, first, that the movement-process of stimulation is relatively slow, -- for the frog-
nerve at ordinary summer temperature it averages 26, for the nerves of warm-blooded animals
at normal body temperature 32 m. in the 1 sec., -- and, secondly, that it consists, in all
probability, not in a simple transmission and propagation of the external stimulus movement, but
in a chain of movement-processes released from one point to another within the nerve itself.
This latter inference is borne out, more particularly, by the lengthening of the contractions which
goes with increased distance of the point of stimulation from the muscle. The phenomenon is
altogether constant, and may be observed most strikingly in the uncut nerves of the living
animal.[4]

In order, now, to gain a deeper insight into the course of the phenomena of stimulation, we must
endeavour to inform ourselves of the state of the nerve at each successive moment of the time
following upon stimulation. We may do this, always in terms of the external effects of nervous
activity, by investigating the behaviour of the nerve, at every moment of the period of stimulation,
in face of a second, test-stimulus of constant magnitude.[p. 70] Here, in the case of the simple
muscle-contraction, the properties of the muscular substance itself naturally contribute their
share to the total result. We can, however, eliminate their influence, very much in the same way
that we did in the experiments on the propagation of stimulation. Where the conditions residing
in the muscle remain contact, the observed changes must necessarily depend upon the
processes taking place in the nerve.

(b) -- Excitatory and Inhibitory Processes in Nerve-Stimulation

We must suppose, if we apply the principle of conservation to the processes in the nerve, that
every processes of stimulation produces two opposite effects in the nerve-fibre. The one set of
operations will be directed upon the production of external work (muscular contraction,
development of heat, secretion, stimulation of nerve-cells), and the other upon the recovery of
the work thus liberated. We may term the former the excitatory, and the latter the inhibitory
effects of stimulation. The whole course of the stimulation is then dependent upon the constantly
varying play of excitation and inhibition. In order to demonstrate, by means of our test-stimulus,
which of these processes, excitation or inhibition, has the upper hand, we may employ either of
two different methods. We may work with stimulation-processes of so little intensity that they are
unable of themselves, without the intervention of the test-stimulus, to release any muscular
contraction at all; or we may eliminate the influence of the contraction itself during the time of its
occurrence. We can do this, in cases where we are concerned to demonstrate an increase of
irritability, by overloading the muscle, i.e. by attaching to it so heavy a weight that both the
original twitch and the contraction normally released by the test-stimulus are suppressed, or at
most only a minimal (what is called an 'isometric') twitch remains possible. If now, during the
process of the first stimulation, the test-stimulus nevertheless releases a more than minimal

59
contraction, we have evidence of an increase of the excitatory effects and, in the height of the
muscle-curve, a rough measure of their magnitude. gives an illustration of this procedure. The
stimulation-process here
under investigation was
set up by the closing of a
constant current in the
ascending direction: the
positive electrode, that is,
lay nearer to the muscle,
and the negative farther away from it. The current was closed at the point a. In response to the
stimulation, the muscle (not overloaded) gave the twitch [p. 71] recorded as a'. The load was
now attached, and the muscle-curve reduced by it to the minimal height R. The test-stimulus,
employed to test the state of the nerve in successive phases of the stimulation-process, was the
break shock of an induction-current, applied a short distance below the length of nerve
stimulated by the constant current. So long as the latter was open, the twitch produced by the
shock in the overloaded muscle was also minimal. A series of experiments was then preformed,
in which the nerve of the overloaded muscle was first of all stimulated at a by make of the
constant current, and then again, after a definite period, by application of the test-stimulus. If the
two stimuli were coincident (a), the height of the muscle-curve remained minimal. Where the
test-stimulus came later, the successive times of stimulation b, c, d, e, f, g, gave the contractions
b', c', d', e', f', g'. The course of these curves shows clearly that the stimulated nerve undergoes
a change of state, which manifests itself as an increased irritability. The change begins shortly
after the stimulation a; reaches a maximum that corresponds approximately with the highest
points of the contractions a' and R (e e'); and then gradually decreases again, -- though it
persists, as is shown by the final test g g', for a considerably longer time than the primary twitch
a'.

Where it is not, as in the instance here taken, the excitatory, but the inhibitory effects that have
the upper hand, the method of overloading naturally ceases to be applicable. We can, however,
readily infer the presence of inhibitory influences from the magnitude of the effect produced by
the test-stimulus during the progress of the contraction. If, e.g., the test-stimulus produces no
effect whatever, we can argue with perfect certainty to the preponderance of inhibitions. An
illustration of this state of things is given in Fig. 27. The stimulation process here under
investigation was again set up by the making of an ascending constant current; and the test-
stimulus was, as before, the break shock of an induction-current applied below the portion of
nerve stimulated by the constant current. A and B represent two successive experiments, in
each of which the current was closed at a and the test-stimulus thrown in at b. The primary
object of both experiments was to investigate, first, the effect of the current without the test-
stimulus, and secondly, the effect of the
test-stimulus without preceding closure
of the constant current: this gave the
contractions C and R, which are
precisely alike in A and B. In the next
place, the test-stimulus was applied, at
b, immediately after the closure of the
constant current at a. The results

60
obtained in the experiments A and B were now entirely different. In A, a simple contraction C
was recorded, precisely as if the test-stimulus R had not operated at all (RC=0); in B, the curve
of contraction was at first coincident with C, but, when the time came for the beginning of the
contraction R, rose so far above C that RC is higher than the curves R and C [p. 72] taken
together. From this difference of result we may conclude that in A a strong inhibition persisted
during the progress of the stimulation C, while in B there was either a preponderance of
excitatory effects or no change of irritability at all. To decide between these alternatives, we have
only to overload the muscle, in the manner indicated above, and so to reduce the contractions C
and R to zero or to minimal height. Adopting this method, we find that, as a matter of fact, in
experiment R the excitatory effects had the upper hand. -- Now the difference between the
experimental conditions of A and B was this: that in A the test-stimulus was applied very near
the part of the nerve stimulated by the constant current, while in B it lay nearer the muscle.
Hence the experiments show that, in one and the same process of stimulation, the inhibitory
effects may predominate in one portion of a nerve, and the excitatory in another.[5]

We must not omit to mention the fact that, in all these cases, it depends upon the nature of the
test employed whether the one or the other of the opposed effects, the excitatory or the
inhibitory, is the more clearly demonstrable. Weak stimuli are, without exception, better for the
proof of inhibition, strong stimuli for that of excitation. If, however, we test the same stimulation-
process with weak and strong stimuli alternately, we find in most instances that, during the
greater part of its course, the excitatory and the inhibitory effects are both alike enhanced. At a
phase of the stimulation-process when the effect of weak test-stimuli is wholly suppressed, the
effect of strong stimuli may be increased.[6]

It follows from the above results that, if we desire to gain a quantitative expression of the relation
which the inhibitory effects hear at any given moment to the excitatory, we shall best have
recourse to 'isometric' contractions and to stimuli of moderate intensity, that are, on the whole,[p.
73] equally sensitive to inhibition and to excitation. Experiments made under these conditions
show that tee stimulation-process developing as the result of a momentary stimulus, e.g. of an
electric shock or mechanical concussion, runs its course as follows. At the moment of
stimulation, and for a brief period afterward, the nerve does not react to the weak test-stimulation
at all; the process takes precisely the same form as it would if the stimulus had not acted.[7] If,
therefore, we apply to the same point upon the nerve or to two neighbouring points, first a
stimulus R (Fig. 28), then a stimulus C, and finally the two stimuli R and C together, the curve
RC recorded in the third case is identical with the more intensive of the two single-stimulus
curves R, C: in our illustration, with R (Fig. 28 A). We obtain the same result if we allow a very
brief interval to elapse between the times of stimulation a, b. So soon as this interval becomes
noticeable, however, the combined stimuli provoke a stronger contraction than either of them
gives separately. Even while the time difference is less than the ordinary latent period, it not
uncommonly happens that RC is greater than the sum of R and C: taken together; and the more
nearly minimal the contractions, the greater
does the excess become (Fig. 28 B). This
enhancement of irritability increases up to a
point corresponding roughly with the maximum
of contraction, and then gives place to a
decrease; at the same time, it can be

61
demonstrated for a considerable period after the conclusion of the twitch. Fig. 26 (p. 70 above)
gives a picture of the whole process. We may say, then, in summary, that the course of the
stimulation-process is in general divisible into three stages: the stage of inexcitability: the stage
of increasing, and the final stage of decreasing excitability.

Oftentimes, however, this third stage is interrupted by a brief interval, during which irritability
shows a sudden marked decrease, quickly followed by another increase. The decrease always
coincides with the conclusion of the twitch. It passes so rapidly, that it can be recognised only by
the increase of the latent period of the test-stimulus; and it is of regular occurrence only where
the functional capacity of nerve and muscle is very high. An instance of this transitory inhibition
at the conclusion of the twitch is given in Fig. 29 A. The contraction to the left corresponds to the
stimulation process under investigation; the unlettered twitch to the right is the result of simple
application of the test-stimulus; while RC is the twitch released by the test-stimulus under the
influence of previous stimulation.[p. 74] The curves of A were obtained from a fresh nerve, those
of B from a nerve that had already been subjected to repeated stimulation.[8] In this
phenomenon, the period following the conclusion of the twitch forms a precise parallel to the
latent period preceding contraction. In both these cases, however, it is not impossible that the
result is in some measure due to
conditions residing in the muscle
itself. Thus, the stage of
inexcitability, which appears at
the beginning of stimulation, may
very possibly be attributable to
the fact that the contractile substance requires a certain time to initiate a contraction. In the
same way, the stage of diminished excitability that coincides with the conclusion of the twitch
may be explained by the assumption that opposing influences within the muscle -- already at
work, perhaps, during the rapid progress of the contraction -- now operate in full force.
Nevertheless, the reactive effect in both stages alike must, in all probability, be regarded as a
phenomenon for which nerve and muscle are jointly responsible. This view is borne out by the
fact that the duration of the two stages of inhibition is largely determined by the character of the
stimuli which affect the nerve. If, e.g., we apply a stimulus to a portion of nerve that lies within
the sphere of operation of the anode of a constant current, the duration of the inhibitory stages is
considerably lengthened.

We are now in a position to discuss the relation of the excitatory and inhibitory effects within the
nerve fibre, in abstraction from the properties accruing to the reacting muscle. We may conceive
of them as follows. On the occurrence of stimulation, excitatory and inhibitory effects are
produced simultaneously. At first, the latter are very much the stronger. As time goes on,
however, they increase more slowly, while the excitatory effects advance more quickly.
Oftentimes, these last appear to maintain their ascendancy until the conclusion of the whole
process. If however, the functional capacity of the: nerve is very high, the inhibitory effects may
again acquire the upper hand for a brief period immediately following the conclusion of the
twitch. This fact indicates, at the same time, that the process is not entirely continuous, but that
the rapid result produced in contraction by the excitatory effects is always followed by an
inhibitory reaction. The release of excitation thus resembles a sudden discharge, in [p. 75] which
the available forces are quickly consumed, so that for a short time the opposite effects are in the

62
preponderance. Fig. 30 is an attempt to show this sequence of events in graphic form.
Stimulation occurs at rr'. The curve ab represents the course of the excitatory, the curve cd of
the inhibitory effects, measured by the magnitude of the downward directed (negative) ordinates
of the curve cd. We assume that excitatory and
inhibitory impulses are already present in the
nerve, before the application of stimulus, but
that they are in equilibrium. These pre-existent
impulses we make proportional to the
ordinates xa and xc. The curve of inhibition is
characterised by a rapid rise at its
commencement, the curve of excitation by the
gradual fall at its conclusion. What we term the
functional capacity of a nerve is a function at
once of excitation and of inhibition. The more
functionally capable the nerve, the greater is
the efficacy of both the inhibitory and the
excitatory forces contained within it. In the
exhausted nerve, both alike are diminished, but the inhibitory in higher degree. Here, therefore,
the irritability is enhanced, and the transitory inhibitions at the conclusion of the twitch, which
may perhaps be referred (as indicated by the dotted curve m) to an oscillatory repetition of the
inhibitory process, are no longer observable.

(c) -- After-effects of Stimulation: Practice and Fatigue

Our study of the changes of excitability which take place in a nerve during the process of
stimulation has shown two things: that the effect produced in the nerve disappears not abruptly
but quite gradually, and that it always persists for a noticeable time after the conclusion of the
twitch. We have now to consider another phenomenon, which evidently proceeds from the same
causes. If several stimuli are successively applied at such intervals that each falls within the
period of decline of the stimulation set up by its predecessor, the irritability of the nerve is
increased. Indeed, under favourable conditions this increase may be so considerable that a
weak stimulus, which at first could not provoke any contraction at all finally releases a maximal
contraction. At the same time, the contractions become longer; while the longer after-effect
shows further that the course [p. 76] of the excitation has increased not only in intensity but also
in duration. These phenomena occur both with stimulation by electric shocks and with
instantaneous mechanical stimuli. They are therefore bound up with the stimulation process as
such; although, where electrical stimuli are employed, they undergo modification as a result of
certain processes developed at the two electrodes: these processes, which we shall discuss
presently, are essentially different at anode and cathode.[9] If, on the other hand, we apply the
stimuli in very quick succession, so that the twitch provoked in any given case begins before the
twitch released by the preceding stimulus has run its full course, we obtain the permanent
contraction known by the name of tetanus, and consisting essentially of a summation of the
super-posed twitches.[10] This summation of contractions is here of no further interest to us; we
note simply that the properties of the contractile substance have an important part to play in its
origination. If we abstract from it, we may say that the phenomena of increased excitability in
consequence of preceding stimuli, which we are now considering, are in the main indicative of

63
the behaviour of the nervous substance; the muscle is, in all probability, concerned in their
production only in so far as it resembles nerve in the general character of its irritability. This
conclusion is borne out more especially by the fact that the increase of excitability by stimulation
is independent of the occurrence of contraction. Where the stimulus employed is so weak that it
cannot release any contraction at all or where the muscle is so overloaded that the contraction is
entirely suppressed, the increase of excitability is just as noticeable as it is when the muscle is
allowed to contract. Nay more: since, under these circumstances, the phenomena of fatigue
(which we discuss below) are ruled out, it becomes as a general rule still more noticeable.
Taking the whole group of facts into account, we may therefore designate this increase of
excitability as the elementary phenomenon of the process of practice. For when we speak of
practice, in connexion with the function of nervous organs, we mean precisely that certain
processes of excitation are facilitated: a result that can be produced most directly by an
enhancement of excitability within the nerve-paths which the excitation travels. In saying this, we
must, however, remember that the facts in question are facts of direct practice: that is, we must
abstract from all the effects which practice can produce in other tissues, -- muscles, joints,
tendons, bones, -- but which always make their appearance after a considerable interval'
through these, in their gradual [p. 77] summation, constitute, of course, a very important part of
the phenomena included in the usual definition of practice.

Suppose, however, that we allow the muscle to make the contractions which are the natural
consequence of the stimuli applied to the nerve. We then invariably meet, after a certain lapse of
time, with another phenomenon, which compensates the elementary phenomenon of practice
described just now, and which presently reverses all the features of the picture. This is the
phenomenon of fatigue. We can, therefore, observe both processes, practice and fatigue, in their
simplest typical sequence, by making a muscle do work upon a weight of moderate size, which it
has to lift, and by applying the stimuli at the appropriate intervals, with a brief interlude between
twitch and twitch. Under these conditions, we have, first of all the effects of practice; the
functional capacity of the nerve increases, quickly at the beginning, then more slowly. Then,
from a certain point onwards, the height of lift remains the same, while the duration of the
contraction is quite considerably increased. After a little while, however, the height of lift
decreases, and the contraction is more and more prolonged. Finally, a single stimulus shock
releases a weak but very slow contraction, -- similar to that provoked in the fresh muscle by the
direct application of a constant galvanic current to the muscle-substance or, most markedly, by
the passing of such a current through a muscle whose nervous excitability has been destroyed
by curare poisoning.[11] The general character of these phenomena makes it probable that they
have their principal seat, not in the nerve, but in the muscular substance itself. This hypothesis
is, as a matter of fact, borne out by a number of different observations upon the phenomena of
fatigue, which prove that they constitute, in this regard, a direct antithesis to the elementary
phenomena of practice as described above. The latter can he obtained even when the muscle is
entirely inactive; indeed, it is in such circumstances that they appear at their best. The fatigue
phenomena, on the other hand, refuse to show themselves, so long as means are taken to
prevent the contraction of the muscle during the application of stimuli to the nerve. With a
sufficiently overloaded muscle, e.g., no amount of repeated stimulation win bring ot the signs of
fatigue. If, in this case, a test-stimulus is applied to the nerve before and after the overloading of
the muscle, the resulting contraction is just the same. Similar observations have been made
upon animals temporarily deprived of the use of their muscles by poisons like curare or atropin,

64
which paralyse the terminal apparatus of the motor nerves in muscle, but leave the nerve-trunks
intact. If stimuli are applied to a nerve, during the action of the poison, there is no indication of
nervous fatigue.[12][p. 78]

We must conclude from these results that the elementary phenomena of practice and fatigue are
of radically different origin. The prime condition of the processes of practice is given in the nerve-
substance, which is so constituted as to be very readily changed by stimulation: the change
manifesting itself in a continuously increasing effectiveness of subsequent stimuli. All direct
practice may be referred to this elementary phenomenon. Where it is shown by muscle, we may,
in all probability, ascribe it to the nerves which the muscle contains, or to certain fundamental
properties of contractile substance which nerve and muscle possess in common. With indirect
practice, which appears as the result of actual, more especially of repeated exercise of function,
the case is different. Here, we must admit, muscle plays a leading part: the increase of blood-
supply, due to frequent repetition of contractions, means a more adequate nutrition, and
consequently a higher functional capacity. These indirect effects of practice do not, however,
differ in any essential respect from the changes produced in tendons, joints, bones, -- increased
extensibility of tendons, smoothing of articular surfaces, etc., -- by frequent repetition of the
same movement. They are secondary phenomenon, sharply marked off from the primary by the
fact that they arise only by the mediation of changes in the blood-supply. On the other hand, the
phenomena of fatigue resulting from the performance of mechanical work are as characteristic of
muscle as the phenomena of practice are of nerve: they reside almost exclusively in the muscle-
substance. And a like statement applies, by all analogy, to the other organs appended to the
nervous system, the sense-organs and glands. Nervous substance itself seems to be, in large
measure, exempt from fatigue. To explain this peculiarity, we must assume that it contains
regulatory mechanisms, of a high degree of perfection, whose office is to prevent exhaustion.
We have already spoken of the alternations of excitatory and inhibitory forces, evinced during
the progress even of a simple process of excitation. It is these, then, we may suppose, that
underlie the phenomenon of nervous inexhaustibility, guaranteeing a long period of functional
activity, and protecting the nervous substance against injury of all kinds. At the same time, the
inexhaustibility is, of course, a relative matter. There is good evidence that the effects of nervous
exhaustion, when once it has set in, are all the more permanent, and that recuperation is all the
more difficult. In view of this fact, the comparatively rapid fatigue of the peripheral organs
appears in some sort as a measure of defence; it prevents any destructive consumption of
nervous forces, by throwing the external instruments of nervous activity out of function before
the nerves themselves are affected. [p. 79]

(d) -- Stimulation of Nerve by the Galvanic Current

We must now devote a special paragraph to the stimulation of nerve by the constant galvanic
current. We are trying to gain an idea of the processes in nerve from a consideration of the
course of stimulation-phenomena at large; and the phenomena which accompany this mode of
stimulation will help us to fill in various details of the picture.

In general, the galvanic current affects the nerve by way of excitation, both at make and at
break; but in both cases the processes of stimulation at anode and cathode are markedly
different. With currents of not excessive intensity, the processes that follow directly upon the

65
make of the current in the neighbourhood of the cathode are of the same character as those
occurring after momentary stimulation throughout the whole length of the nerve; the only
difference is that the excitatory and inhibitory effects persist, with diminished intensity, so long as
the current is kept closed, while at the same time the excitatory processes remain constantly in
the ascendant. In the neighbourhood of the anode, on the other hand, inhibitory forces of
considerable intensity make their appearance. They increase, with increasing intensity of
current, far more quickly than the excitatory effects; so that with fairly strong currents, when the
anode lies nearer the muscle, the inhibition there set up prevents the propagation to the muscle
of the excitation beginning at the cathode. The result is that, with increased intensity of the
ascending current, the making contraction very soon decreases again, and presently disappears
altogether. The anodal inhibition begins at the anode as soon as the current is made, and then
diffuses slowly and with gradually diminishing intensity to a considerable distance. Its rate of
travel, varying with the intensity of the current, is not more than 80 to 100 mm. in the 1 sec., --
very much slower than the rate of the excitatory process, which moves with a rapidity of 26 to 32
m. It should be noted, however, that this rate increases markedly with increase in the intensity of
the current, so that the inhibition finally extends into the region of the cathode. If the current is
now broken, the differences present during make disappear, more or less quickly, and at the
same time inhibitory effects gain a temporary ascendency at the cathode; the break-stimulation
thus consists in a process of compensation. It proceeds mainly from the region of the anode,
where the inhibition maintained during make is transformed into excitation, -- the reversal
occurring the more quickly, the stronger the current employed.

The peculiar features of the stimulation-processes released by the constant current may, then,
be stated in summary as follows. The excitatory and inhibitory effects, which with other modes of
stimulation are distributed uniformly throughout the nerve, here vary with the position of the
electrodes: at make, the excitatory forces predominate in the neighbourhood [p. 80] of the
cathode, the inhibitory in the neighbourhood of the anode; at break, a process of compensation
sets in, which for a time exactly reverses the distribution of the two classes of effects.[13]

The phenomena of nervous stimulation are attended by other phenomena besides that of
muscular work. Only the thermal and electrical changes, however, have so far been worked out
in any detail. We may appeal to these to supplement, perhaps in some measure to check, the
conclusions we have drawn from the phenomena of irritability. But we find, as was indicated
above (p. 57) that the tale of results is exceedingly meagre. No one has as yet been able to
demonstrate the occurrence of thermal changes in the nerve itself, in consequence of
stimulation: but this simply means, of course, that the changes are too slight to be taken account
of by our measuring instruments. On the other hand, heat is always set free when work is done
by muscle, while at the same time the relation between development of heat and amount of
mechanical work varies as the principle of the conservation of energy requires, -- increase of
mechanical energy involving decrease of the relative quantity of heat developed. This fact
comes out clearly, if we so arrange an experiment that the muscle shall make maximal
contractions of equal height, while lifting weights of different sizes; the greater the weight to be
raised, the smaller is the amount of heat generated.[14] In contradistinction to these differences
in thermal phenomena, the electrical changes accompanying the process of stimulation in nerve
and muscle have been shown to be alike. In both tissues, the point of excitation always becomes
negatively electrical to any other unstimulated part. These changes cannot, however, be brought

66
at present into any intimate relation with the processes of stimulation; our knowledge of the
chemical conditions upon which they depend is glaringly defective. That a certain relation exists
is shown, however, by their temporal course; the rate of propagation of the current of action in
the nerve-fibre coincides with the rate of propagation of the stimulation-process itself. This
coincidence extends, further, to the transmission of the inhibitory processes set up by the
constant current, as described above; the changes occurring at the anode also travel much more
slowly than those occurring at the cathode. The latter proceed with the same rapidity as the
stimulus-wave at the rate of some 32 m. in the 1 sec.; the anodal wave of inhibition travels, as
BERNSTEIN found, at the rate of only 8 to 9 m. in the 1 sec.[15]

§3. Theory of Nervous Excitation

The molecular state, which our general ideas of the mechanics of complex chemical processes
lead us to predicate of nervous substance, was described above as a state in which there is
constant performance at one and the same time of positive and negative molecular work. The
positive molecular work, so soon as it gains the upper hand, will manifest itself either in
disengagement of heat or in some form of external work, such as muscular con-[p. 81]traction.
The negative molecular work will counteract these positive effects: heat will become latent; the
progress of a muscular contraction will be inhibited. Equilibrium of the two opposed kinds of
molecular work brings about the stationary condition of the nerve, during which there is no
change of temperature and no accomplishment of external work. Hence, whenever we find that
the action of an external stimulus releases a process which gives rise to a muscular contraction,
or, for that matter, simply induces an increased irritability in presence of the test-stimulus, we
may argue to an enhancement of the positive molecular work. Whenever, on the contrary, the
progress of a muscular contraction is arrested, or the reaction to the test-stimulus reduced, we
may be sure that the negative molecular work is in the ascendant. Whether, now, the one or the
other of these effects is produced, whether, that is, the positive or the negative molecular work
gains the upper hand, depends upon circumstances. We are thus led to the general conclusion
that the stimulus shock increases both the positive and the negative molecular work of the
nerve. This means, in terms of our preceding discussions, that the stimulus shock does two
things: it assists the atoms of complex chemical molecules to unite in more stable connexions,
while it also favours the disruption of these compounds and the return of the atoms to less stable
and more complex relations. The restitution of the complex molecules corresponds to the
recuperation of the nerve; the process of combustion, which ends in the formation of more stable
and less readily decomposable compounds, is the source of the work which it performs, but is
also the condition of its exhaustion. The only way in which the stimulus can bring about external
work (muscular contraction the excitation of nerve-cells) is by furthering the positive molecular
work more effectively than the negative. The positive molecular work then becomes the source
of the external work of excitation, which may he transmitted to particular organs, and so still
farther transformed into other modes of work. At the same time, the positive and negative
molecular work must be distributed over the course of stimulation in the sequence determined by
the relation of the excitatory to the inhibitory effects. First of all, that is, there must be a storing-
up of potential work, corresponding to the stage of inexcitability; the stimulus shock releases a
number of molecules from their existing connexion. Thereupon begins a process of combustion,
starting with the freed particles, and extending from them to the readily combustible constituents
of the nerve-mass at large; during this stage a large quantity of potential is transformed into

67
actual work. If the combustion proceeds with great rapidity, it is followed for a short time by a
restitution of the complex molecules (transitory inhibitions; preponderance of negative molecular
work). As a rule, however, there remains at the conclusion of the contraction a surplus of
positive molecular work, which disappears only gradually; we trace it [p. 82] in the enhanced
effect of a second stimulus supervening upon the first. It follows, then, that the same curves
which we employed to illustrate the relations of excitation and inhibition (Fig. 30, p. 75) will serve
here to show the relation of positive to negative molecular work. The equilibrium of the two,
during the state of rest, is indicated by the equality of the initial and terminal ordinates, x a, x c
and x b, x d. We must, however, suppose that the internal condition of the nerve, after the
process of stimulation has run its course, is not in general precisely the same as before: there
will, on the whole, have been more given out in positive work than has been acquired in negative
in potential work. Nevertheless, we must also infer, from the fact of the relative inexhaustibility of
nerve, that this difference is extremely small; so that the equilibrium of forces is re-established in
large measure: and in nerves of high functional capacity probably in full measure, during the
actual progress of the contraction. This tendency to the maintenance of equilibrium between
positive and negative molecular work, between loss of work-equivalents and gain of potential
work, appears to be a specific property of nervous substance, founded in its chemical
constitution and distinguishing it from all other tissues. It is expressed symbolically in Fig. 30,
which shows the molecular processes of stimulation; the upper and lower curves each include
an approximately equal area. This implies that the process of stimulation consists essentially not
in a permanent disturbance of the equilibrium between positive and negative molecular work, but
simply in their different distribution in time during the progress of the stimulation. The nature of
this difference is given at once with the changes of irritability that can be traced from moment to
moment in the figure.

We must, now, not lose sight of the fact that it is never more than a certain position of the total
sum of positive molecular work, set free in the nerve by stimulation, that is transformed into
excitatory effects, or, as we may phrase it, into work of excitation: another portion may become
heat, a third be changed back again into potential (negative) work. Similarly, it is only a portion of
the work of excitation that is employed in the production of external stimulus effects (muscular
contraction or stimulation of nerve-cells); we have seen that there is always an enhancement of
irritability, both during and after the contraction. Hence a supervening stimulus will invariably and
the nerve possessed of a surplus of work of excitation. If no new stimulus shock supervenes,
this surplus in all probability passes over into heat. After the work of excitation has once been
set up, at the point of stimulation, it exerts an influence upon neighbouring parts, where the store
of molecular work is in its turn transformed in part into work of excitation, and so on. But, as we
know, the process released by the momentary stimulus persists for a considerable time. Hence,
while work [p. 83] of excitation is released, new stimulus-impulses are conveyed to the part
affected from the neighbouring parts. We are in this way able to explain the heightening of
excitation observable when different points of the nerve are subjected to stimulation (p. 68).

The main difference between these general stimulation-processes and stimulation by the
constant current is, obviously, to be found in the uneven distribution of the sums of positive and
negative molecular work which obtains in the latter case. While the current is closed, there is
preponderance of negative molecular work in the neighbourhood of the anode, of positive in the
region of the cathode. This difference becomes intelligible, when we remember that the resulting

68
electrolysis must produce internal changes in the nerve-substance. At the positive electrode
electronegative, at the negative electrode electropositive constituents are given off. At both
places, that is, the word of the electric current produces dissociation. The immediate
consequence is, that work must disappear; but as soon as the wandering partial molecules tend
to enter into more stable compounds than those from which they have been separated, the
positive molecular work may begin to increase, that is, a part of the work which has disappeared
may be set free again. The phenomena of stimulation lead us to infer that the first of these
processes takes place regularly in the neighbourhood of the cathode, the second in the region of
the anode. The precise chemical changes involved are as yet unknown to us; but the
phenomena of electrolysis supply an abundance of analogous instances of the interchange of
forces. Thus, in the electrolysis of stannous chloride, we have at the cathode a deposition of tin,
in which the work employed for its separation remains stored as potential work, while at the
anode we obtain chlorine, which at once unites with the stannous chloride to form stannic
chloride, liberating heat in the process. Similar results may appear in all cases where the
products of electrolysis are liable to chemical interaction. At break of a current passing through a
length of nerve, on the other hand, a less well-marked process of electrolytic decomposition sets
in, as a consequence of its polarisation, in a direction opposed to that of the original current.
This, together with the gradual compensation of the chemical differences, occasions the
phenomena of the break-stimulation.

We may say a word, in conclusion, of the relation of the processes whose general mechanism
we have here described to the electrical changes in the stimulated nerve. It is a noteworthy fact
that the current of action which follows upon a momentary stimulation of the nerve reaches its
conclusion, on the average, as early as 0.0006 to 0.0007 sec. after the application of the
stimulus,[16] and therefore falls completely within the period of nervous in-[p. 84]excitability.[17]
It would appear, then, that the variation is connected with the inhibitory forces, or with the
passage of positive into negative molecular work. We must, however, have further information,
as regards the character of this connexion, before we can think of turning the electrical
processes to theoretical account.

The phrases 'positive' and 'negative molecular work' are meant to suggest the general line of
thought followed by the science of mechanical energy or, as we may put it more briefly, by
mechanical energetics. Modern physiologists not infrequently substitute for them the words
'assimilation' and 'dissimilation,' antithetical terms borrowed from the vocabulary of metabolic
phenomena, and thence transferred to that of the general mechanics of the nervous system. It
is, the author hopes, hardly necessary to point out in this place that the words and phrases
employed in the text are not translations back again from the language of physiological
chemistry into that of mechanics; though in such an idea, might possibly arise, in view of the
popularity of the antithesis 'assimilation-dissimilation' at the present time and the variety of
contexts in which it appears. The contrary is true: the phraseology adopted in the text, and
modelled upon that of a general mechanical energetics, was followed in the first edition of this
work (1874) and in the still earlier "Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven" (i., 1871), before
the terms 'assimilation' and 'dissimilation' had begun to play their part in physiology. Its retention
in the present edition is not due to any prejudice on the author's part in favour of the original
form in which his thought was cast, but rather to the objections which he feels may be urged
against the alternative wording. The processes of metabolism which, for want of more precise

69
terms, we name tentatively 'assimilation' and 'dissimilation' are, apart from the effects from which
the names are derived, altogether unknown to us; and the effects themselves are simply that, in
the one case, an existing tissue is reinforced by complex tissue-materials of the same order,
while, in the other, existing tissue-materials are brought to disappearance. We have good
ground for the assumption that, in dissimilation, the decomposition of the complex molecules,
and the combustion-processes resulting from it, have the upper hand; and we may suppose that
in assimilation, conversely, the chemical processes introduced are predominantly synthetic in
character. But when we ask how in detail the interchange of nerve is effected in the two cases,
the reply is that as regards dissimilation very little, and as regards assimilation practically nothing
is known. The various processes involved certainly do not conform to any simple pattern, but
depend upon a series of chemical interactions so complicated that at present we have no means
of tracing them. This complication is vouched for by the fact, now fairly well established for all
such processes, that in dissimilation there is a constant interplay of decomposition and
recomposition; existing chemical connexions are dissolved, and new compounds formed, in
continual interdependence. As a rule, energy is liberated during these dissimilations, in the form
of heat or of mechanical work. But again, we cannot say which phase of the dissimulation
process is responsible for this result; nor do we know if a similar interchange [p. 85] of energy is
necessarily involved in every instance of dissimilation, or if there may not be processes, whose
chemical effects would lead us to class them with the others as dissimilations, bat whose
general and final effect is accompanied by a transformation of energy in the opposite sense. Our
knowledge of the chemism of the metabolic processes is, in the author's opinion, far too
defective to permit of our answering these questions. The theory of assimilation and dissimilation
thus attempts to illuminate the processes in the nervous system by analogies that are more
obscure than the processes themselves; and such a proceeding can hardly inspire confidence. It
is sometimes said that dissimilation is the correlate of fatigue, and assimilation of recuperation.
But to say this is, after all, merely to set in place of certain complex symptoms conditions that
are at least as complex, and far less open to demonstration.[18] Fatigue and recuperation are
symptomatic terms whose meaning is, roughly at any rate, clear to everyone. It is, as we have
seen, highly probable that the metabolic processes which give rise to both groups of symptoms
are extremely complicated. When we consider, therefore, that the words 'assimilation' and
'dissimilation' used to denote these processes are words that have no chemical significance, but
are in the last resort purely teleological concepts, we cannot but suspect that the symptomatic
terms 'fatigue' and 'recuperation' are simply coming back to us in changed form. If we wish to
analyse these latter in detail, there are, as it seems to the author, but two ways open, in the
present state of our knowledge. We may, on the one hand, limit ourselves to the symptoms, but,
while we do this, attempt so far as may be to reduce the phenomena, given in an extremely
complicated syndromes, to their simplest components. We thus discover that every process of
fatigue and recuperation contains two elementary terms, variously interrelate in the particular
case, -- excitation and inhibition. Or, on the other hand, we may attempt to refer the effects in
question to the more general concepts furnished by mechanical energetics. We then arrive at
the notion of positive and negative molecular work, in the sense in which these phrases have
been employed in the text. This restriction of the hypothetical foundations of nerve physiology to
straight forward physical analogies appears to the author to be especially desirable, in view of
the great extension of the rival terms. We find the antithesis of 'assimilation' and 'dissimilation' in
the most diverse contexts, -- in the theory of visual sensations, in the theory of auditory
sensations, applied to all other conceivable physiological and psychophysical phenomena. It

70
almost seems, indeed, as if this pairs of terms is gradually coming to play the part in modern
physiology that was played in SCHELLING'S nature-philosophy, at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, by the phrase "polar opposites," which found application not only to
electricity, magnetism and chemical process, but also to sensibility and irritability, light and
darkness, and many other things besides.

§4. Influence of the Central Parts upon the Processes of Excitation

(a) -- Course of the Reflex Excitation

We begin our investigation of the processes in the central nervous substance by stimulating a
peripheral nerve, and endeavouring to find out how the course of stimulation is altered, if it is
compelled to pass through central [p. 86] elements. The easiest way to perform this experiment
is to avail ourselves of the phenomenon of reflex excitation. We first of all apply an electric shock
of the proper intensity to a motor nerve root, whose connexion with the myel on the one hand
and with its dependent group of muscles on the other is kept intact; and we then stimulate, in the
same way, the central end of some sensory root. The two twitches are recorded by the muscle,
and the experiment is so arranged that the times of stimulation correspond to the same point
upon the axis of abscissas of the two muscle-curves. The differences in appearance and
progress of the two contractions then give us a measure of the influence exerted by the
intercalated central substance.

The first thing that we observe, under these circumstances, is that much stronger stimuli are
required to produce contraction by way of the sensory root. If we make our shocks as nearly
instantaneous as may be, e.g. by using induction-shocks, we shall frequently find it impossible to
release any reflex contraction whatsoever; the currents required are of such intensity that their
employment would bring with it the danger of leakage to the myel.[19] Provided, however, that
the reflex irritability is high enough to permit of our making the experiment, we obtain two curves
which repeat, on a greatly enlarged scale, the same characteristics that distinguish the curves
obtained in a previous experiment by stimulation of a motor nerve at two points unequally distant
from the muscle (cf. Fig. 24, p. 67) The reflex twitch is extraordinarily late in appearing, and is of
much longer duration. Suppose, e.g., that we stimulate a motor and a sensory root which enter
the myel at the same height and on the same side, and that we so regulate the stimuli as to
equalise the heights of the muscle curves; we get the result shown in Fig. 31. The only marked
difference between these
contractions and those
released from different
points upon the motor
nerve is that a stronger
and not a weaker
stimulus must be employed, to bring the reflex contraction to the same height as the other. The
differences in the course of the excitation are, however, in this instance so considerable, that no
increase in the intensity of stimulus is able to change their character. It is true that intensification
of stimulus increases not only the height but also the duration of the contractions, while
decreasing the latent period. But [p. 87] the weakest reflex contractions are always noticeable by
their long duration, and the strongest by the length of their latent period, even when we compare

71
the former with the strongest and the latter with the weakest direct contractions.[20] It is clear,
now, that the time which the stimulation requires to pass from a sensory into a motor root is
given by the interval separating the beginnings of the two contractions, the direct and the reflex.
The nerve-roots are so short, that the portion of this interval taken up by the peripheral
conduction may be considered negligible; and we may accordingly designate the interval as a
whole, the reflex time. To determine it, we must -- since the latent period is dependent upon the
intensity of the stimuli -- have recourse once more, as we did in our measurement of the rate of
propagation in the nerves, to experiments in which the muscle-nerves are of the same height.

This presupposed, we may proceed to investigate the reflex time under various conditions. The
simplest case is shown in Fig. 31, where the stimulation is transferred from a sensory root to a
motor root belonging to the same nerve-trunk: we may term this the case of same-sided reflex
excitation. Next in order comes the propagation of stimulus from a sensory root to a motor root
which leaves the myel at the same height but upon the opposite side: we term this the case of
crossed reflex excitation. In the third place, we may have propagation along the length of the
myel, which we may call the longitudinal conduction of reflexes; as, e.g., in the transference from
the sensory root of a nerve of the arm to the motor root of a nerve of the lower extremities. In no
one of these three cases is the reflex time sensibly dependent upon the intensity of the
excitations. It is, as might have been predicted, relatively shortest for same-sided reflex
excitation, where under normal circumstances it amounts to 0.008 to 0.015 sec. It is, however,
as one would be less likely to expect, relatively greater with crossed than with longitudinal
conduction. Thus, if we compare the crossed with the same-sided reflex, there is an average
difference to the disadvantage of the former of some 0.004 sec. If we then compare the reflex
released in the thigh by stimulation of the root of a sensory nerve of the arm with the same-sided
reflex, the difference between the two times is as a rule somewhat smaller.[21] Since the path
travelled by the stimulation in the latter case is at least six to eight times as long as that
traversed in the former, it is evident that the retardation in crossed conduction is much more
serious than it is in longitudinal conduction. An explanation is, without any doubt, to be found in
the fact that longitudinal conduction (as we shall see presently, in Chapter V., when we come to
discuss the morphology of the myel) is sub-[p. 88]served for the most part by the fibres of the
white substance, while crossed conduction must be mediated almost exclusively by the cell-
reticulum of the grey substance. We have, then, in the results of this set of experiments, a
confirmation of the inference, already suggested as probable by the long duration of the reflex
time, that the central elements offer incomparably more resistance than the nerve-fibres to the
progress of an excitation. The same conclusion may be drawn from the further fact that a
retardation of conduction, amounting on the average to 0.003 sec., occurs in the spinal ganglia
of the frog, and again from the related observation that the sensory nerve roots are more irritable
than the nerve-fibres below the spinal ganglia. It is noteworthy, in connexion with this latter
result, that the ramifications of the sensory nerves in the skin are, in their turn, more easily
excitable than the nerve-branches that run to the skin. Just, then, as there are mechanisms in
the spinal ganglia which diminish the irritability of the incoming nerves, so must there he
mechanisms in the skin which discharge a precisely opposite function. It follows from all this that
the irritability of the nerve-trunks and their branches is reduced to a minimum: a characteristic,
we need hardly say, that is eminently fitted to protect the central organs from the advent of
useless sensory excitations.[22]

72
 (b) -- Enhancement of Reflex Excitability

The temporal relations of reflex conduction have made it appear probable that the central
elements, while on the one hand they offer greater resistance to incoming excitations, are able,
on the other, to develop a greater amount of stored energy. This hypothesis is confirmed by
many other facts. We notice, first of all that in almost every case, where the excitability of the
myel is not enhanced by artificial means,[23] a single, momentary stimulus-shock is unable to
release a reflex contraction. To obtain a response, we must repeat the stimulation; and the
contraction thus set up usually takes on a tetanic character.[24] Within certain limits, the reflex
makes its appearance after the same number of single stimulations, whether these be given in
quick or slow succession. On the other hand, the duration of a [p. 89] reflex tetanus is not
directly dependent upon the duration of the stimulation, as is that of the contraction aroused by
tetanic excitation of the motor-nerve. If the stimulation be of short duration, the tetanus outlasts
it; if it be of longer duration, the tetanus disappears earlier than the stimulation itself.[25] Another
phenomenon, that shows very clearly the differences in excitability between the peripheral and
the central nervous substance, is the following. If we stimulate the motor nerve by induction-
shocks, repeated with not too great rapidity, the corresponding muscle falls, as was first pointed
out by HELMHOLTZ [26] into vibrations of the same frequency. These may be perceived as a
tone, or may be recorded, by means of a fitting instrument, upon a cylinder which rotates with
uniform speed. If, now, we stimulate the myel
in the same way, the muscle again falls into
vibrations, But the frequency of vibration is
considerably diminished. Fig. 32 shows two
curves of vibration obtained from the muscle of
a rabbit by KRONECKER and HALL. With 42
stimuli in the 1 sec., the muscle traced the upper curve when the motor nerve was stimulated,
the lower, when the stimulation was applied to the myel, which had been severed below the
oblongata. [27] Closely connected with this is BAXT'S observation that voluntary movements,
however simple they may be made, always last a considerably longer time than simple
contractions, released by the stimulation of a motor nerve. BAXT found, e.g., in experiments
upon himself, that the index finger of the right hand, moving in response to stimulation by the
induction current, required on the average 0.166 sec., while movement initiated by voluntary
innervation required 0.296 sec.[28]

We can easily see the reason for the greater effect produced upon the myel by frequent
repetition of the stimulus. Every stimulation leaves behind it an enhanced reflex excitability.
Here, again, however, the central substance merely exhibits, on a larger scale, phenomena with
which we are already familiar in the case of the peripheral nerve. On the other hand, there are
certain chemical effects, that are able in some unknown way to produce a similar change of
irritability, which appear to be peculiar to the central nerve-substance. The agents in these
effects are termed 'reflex poisons'; the chief place among them is taken by strychnine, which
brings abort the changes in question with unfailing certainty. Strychnine prob-[p. 90]ably owes its
power in this regard to the circumstance that its effect is limited almost exclusively to the central
substance of the myel; whereas other nerve-poisons set up changes in the peripheral nerves, or
in higher nerve-centres, which may serve, in greater or less degree, to counteract the effect
under discussion.[29]

73
The action of these poisons is, in general, as follows. (1) Much weaker stimuli are sufficient to
release a reflex contraction; indeed, a point is very soon reached, at which the reflex irritability
becomes greater than the irritability of the motor nerve. (2) Even when the stimuli are reduced to
the lowest limit of effectiveness, the contraction is higher and, in particular, of longer duration
than under normal conditions; if time effect of the poison be increased, it passes over into a
tetanic contraction. (3) The beginning of the contraction is more and more delayed; so that the
latent period may have more than twice its ordinary duration. At the same time, the difference in
the length of the latent period with strong and weak stimuli is enormously increased: when the
action of the poison is at
its height, the reflex
tetanus hardly shows any
difference of degree,
whether the weakest or
the strongest stimuli be
applied, but in the former
case sets in with
extraordinary slowness. An illustration of these changes is given in Fig. 33. The curve A was
taken as the action of the poison was beginning; the curves B, when it was at its full height: a
was released by a strong, b, by a weak momentary stimulus: in both cases a direct contraction
has been recorded, for purposes of comparison. There can be no doubt that this lengthening of
the latent period is directly connected with the enhancement of irritability. When the central
substance is modified by the poison, the after-effect of the stimulus is prolonged, so that the
excitation call be released after the initial inhibition has been overcome. The phenomenon is
somewhat like that of the summation of stimulations, only that here the external stimulus is not
repeated. We must, accordingly, suppose that the stimulus brings about a number of successive
stimulations, whose summation presently leads to excitation. This suggests the idea that the
processes of molecular inhibition are not sensibly changed by the alteration of the [p. 91]
nervous substance, but that the positive molecular work is seriously affected. In the normal
state, it returns to the potential form, in whole or in great part, immediately after its liberation; in
the present instance, it appears to be recovered but gradually. We may note that similar, though
weaker, effects are produced on the myel by the action of cold.[30]

(c) -- Inhibitions of Reflexes by Interference of Stimuli

We have spoken so far only of the influences which enhance the excitability of the central
elements. Here, however, just as in the case of the nerve-fibre, the excitatory are paralleled by
inhibitory effects. The fact that first drew attention to these inhibitions is a discovery of old
standing in physiology: the fact that the reflex excitability of the myel is increased after removal
of the brain. SETSCHENOW, starting out from this fact, found that the stimulation of certain
parts of the brain in the frog, -- thalamus, bigemina, medulla, --prevents or delays the
appearance of the reflexes.[31] He was therefore inclined to think that the inhibitory function is
confined to certain definite central parts. Further experiments showed, however, that the same
effect is produced by the stimulation of other sensory nerves, or of the sensory columns of the
myel; [32] so that it became necessary, in terms of SETSCHENOW'S hypothesis, to suppose
that these specific inhibitory centres are distributed over almost the entire cerebrospinal organ.
But if any given sensory excitation may be inhibited by the stimulation of any other sensory

74
element, the sphere of inhibition -- as GOLTZ justly observed [33] becomes coextensive with the
sphere of sensory excitation; and the assumption of specific inhibitory centres falls to the
ground. At the same time, while any possible sort of sensory stimulation, whether it affect other
sensory nerves or sensory central parts, may arrest the progress of a reflex [p. 92] excitation,
the inhibitory effect is not by any means invariably produced; the supervening stimulation may,
on the contrary, enhance the reflex, -- as always happens, of course, when two excitations meet
in some motor fibre, or in a motor central area. Let us term the meeting of two excitations in the
same central territory, quite generally, an interference of stimulations. Then the result of such
interference is dependent upon four things. It depends (1) upon the phase to which the one
excitation has attained when the other begins. If the muscle contraction released by the first
stimulation is still in course, or only just over, when the second arrives, we have as a rule an
enhancement of the stimulus-effect. If, on the other hand, the original stimulation occurred some
time before the application of the second, this latter is more easily inhibited. It depends (2) upon
the intensity of the stimuli. Strong interference-stimuli inhibit a given reflex excitation more easily
than weak; sometimes, indeed, strong stimuli will inhibit the same excitation that weak stimuli
enhance. It depends (3) upon the spatial relation of the nerve-fibres stimulated. Sensory fibres
that enter the myel at the same height and upon the same side, i.e. that belong originally to one
and the same nerve-trunk, effect a much weaker inhibition (or, in other terms, are much more
ready to enhance the excitation) than fibres that come in from different sides or at different
levels. Lastly, it depends (4) upon the state of the central organ. The more completely the
normal functional capacity is preserved, the more certainly, other conditions being favourable,
may one look for inhibition of the reflexes ; the more the functions of the organ have been
impaired by cold, by strychnine or other reflex poison, by loss of nervous force due to fatigue,
malnutrition, etc., the more likely is it that an enhancement of stimulation will take the place of
inhibition. This decrease of inhibition is evidenced, first of all by the fact that stimuli of longer
duration and greater intensity are required to evoke it. It always disappears first with stimulation
of the nerve-fibres belonging to the same root; but in a state of extreme functional incapacity, or
of serious derangement by cold or strychnine, it disappears altogether, so that no inhibitory
symptoms can he observed at all.[34]

It is, perhaps, tempting to think of these inhibitory effects due to an interference of oscillatory
stimulus-motions, analogous to the interference of light and sound vibrations; to conceive, i.e.,
that the stimulus-waves meet together and, in whole or part, cancel one another.[35] Such an
hypothe-[p. 93]sis is, however, wholly unable to explain the simple effacement of excitation that
occurs, e. g., in the ventral nerve-cells of the myel, when the motor fibres issuing from them are
stimulated. Moreover, it gains no support from the known facts of the course of excitation. On
the contrary, the varying results of stimulus-interference indicate, quite clearly, that in the
stimulation of the central elements, as in that of the nerve-fibre, excitatory and inhibitory effects
are released at one and the same time. It is also clear, however, that the phenomena of
inhibition are in this case much more pronounced than they are in the peripheral nerve-fibre. The
special conditions under which the two opposed results of central stimulation are obtained make
it probable, further, that the external effect of inhibition is produced more particularly when the
stimuli are so conducted as to interfere in the same sensory central area; whereas summation of
stimuli seems to occur whenever the excitation travels from different sensory central areas,
simultaneously stimulated, to the same motor elements. In general both of these effects may he
produced, side by side, by the simultaneous stimulation of any different sensory elements, and it

75
will depend upon the special circumstances whether the one or the other of them gains the
upper hand.

(d) -- Chronic Effects of Excitation and Inhibition: Positive and Negative Tonus

If we inquire into the nature of these specific circumstances, we find as the most important, the
connexions in which the various nervous elements stand with one another and with their
appended organs. This conclusion is suggested at once by certain phenomena observed in
nerves and muscles whose functional connexion with their central points of origin has remained
intact. Thus, in the first place, a muscle which is united by its nerve to the central organ is kept
permanently in a certain tension, which ceases at once, as may be observed in the slight
lengthening of the loaded muscle, when the nerve is cut through.[36] This permanent tension in
the state of rest is known as the tonus of a muscle. Its disappearance when the nerve is cut
indicates that it has its ground in a chronic excitation of the nerve, transmitted to the fibre from
the central elements. Its maintenance seems to depend, further, upon the connexions in which
the central elements stand with one another. For the tonic excitation which travels to the skeletal
muscles along the motor nerves of the myel may be abrogated, not only by section of the motor
nerves themselves, but also by section of the sensory roots of the spinal nerves.[37] We must
therefore [p. 94] suppose that a portion of the forces which release the excitation reach the
motor nerve-cells only by way of their connexions with sensory elements; while the related
observation, often made and confirmed, that tonus persists after the severance of such sensory
connexions, points us to the cells of origin of the motor nerve-fibres as a co-ordinate and
independent source of excitatory forces. On the other hand, however, the central elements
appear also under certain conditions, according to the circumstances in which they are placed
by their nearer or more remote connexion with other like elements, to generate, and to transmit
to their peripheral continuations, a surplus of inhibitory forces. Here, e.g., belongs the
observation that increase of tonus in a determinate muscle-group is regularly followed by
decrease of tension in the antagonists: so that increased excitation of the flexor muscles of a
limb brings with it a decrease of excitation in the extensors, and conversely. [38] We may term
this phenomenon that of negative tonicity. It then becomes evident that the two opposing forms
of tonus may be brought into relation with the fundamental phenomena of excitation and
inhibition, which we have seen to be observable, first in the peripheral nerve, and then, on an
enlarged scale, throughout the central organs of the nervous system. We have only to add, what
is shown by all these observations, that the continual shift of government from excitation to
inhibition, and back again, is very largely dependent upon the influences to which the central
elements are subjected, in virtue of their connexion with other like elements and with the
stimulation processes which these latter convey to them.

§5. Theory of Central Innervation

(a) -- General Theory of the Molecular Processes in the Nerve-Cell

The phenomena of central innervation have referred us to the same two classes of opposed
molecular effects that we traced in the process of excitation in the nerve-fibre, The general view
that we were led to take of this latter will, therefore, serve as our point of departure in the present
instance. We begin, accordingly, by postulating for the central substance a stationary condition,

76
similar to that which we assumed in the nerve-fibre; a condition, i.e., in which there is an
equilibrium of positive and negative molecular work. The application of stimulus, here as before,
means an increase in the amount of both forms of work. But everything points to the conclusion
that, in the nerve-cell, there is at first a marked prepon-[p. 95]derance in the increase of the
negative molecular work; so that a momentary stimulus-shock is, as a rule, unable to release
any excitation whatever. If, however, the stimuli are repeated, then, as one follows another, the
amount of negative molecular work is gradually diminished, in proportion to the positive, until at
last this latter attains such dimensions that excitation arises. We may therefore suppose that the
typical process of stimulation in a nerve-cell is analogous to that set up at the anode in a nerve-
fibre by the making of a constant current. Under the action of the stimulus, the processes which
transform more stable into less stable compounds, i.e. which subserve the storage of potential
work, are thrown into increased activity. There is, however, a difference. When the current is
applied to the nerve, its electrolytic action introduces decomposition-processes which do not
normally take place in the nerve-fibre. When, on the other hand, the nerve-cell is stimulated, we
have no right to assume anything more than an enhancement of activity which, under ordinary
circumstances, is directed mainly upon the formation of complex chemical molecules, i.e. upon
the accumulation of potential work. This difference between nerve-fibre and central substance,
whose importance is sufficiently evident, is attested by other physiological considerations. The
nerve-cells are really the laboratories, in which the materials that compose the nerve-mass are
prepared. In the nerve-fibres, these materials are very largely consumed, in consequence of
physiological function, but -- if we abstract from the inadequate and partial restitution which
accompanies decomposition in every case of stimulation -- cannot, obviously, be reformed. For
the fibres, if we separate them from their cells of origin, lose their nervous constituents, and the
renewal of these proceeds always from the central points.[39] Even in the state of functional
inactivity, therefore, the interchange of materials and forces within the nerve-cell is not in perfect
equilibrium. But the balance dips on the one side in the cell, on the other in the fibre.
Characteristic of the nerve is the formation of definite products of combustion, with the
performance of positive work; characteristic of the cell is the production of compounds of high
complexity, in which potential work is stored. It is true that the work done in the animal body, as
a whole, is pre-eminently positive work, the combustion of the complex organic compounds; but
it is altogether wrong to look upon this as the only means for the interchange of forces and
materials within the organism. There are always going on, alongside of the positive work,
reductions, dissolutions of more stable into less stable compounds, with the resulting
accumulation of potential work. The nervous system, in particular, is the scene of great activity in
this regard. The compounds which enter into the formation of nervous substance are, in some
cases; more complex, [p. 96] and possessed of a higher combustion-value, than the nutritive
materials from which they are derived; that is, are compounds in which a large amount of
potential work is stored up.[40] The nerve-cells, the architects of these compounds, are in a
certain sense akin to the plant-cells. These, too, accumulate potential work, which may remain
latent until need arises, and then be transformed back again into actual work. The nerve-cells, in
the same way, are the storehouses in which materials are laid up for future use. And the chief
consumers of these stores are the peripheral nerves and their terminal organs.

Putting all this together, we may gain some idea of the relation obtaining between the central
substance and the nerve-fibres that issue from it. We have, first of all the transmission from cell
to fibre of those molecular motions that we term processes of excitation. But this is by no means

77
all. There is, further, a constant movement of material, in the direction from centre to periphery;
so that the fibre is in continual receipt of substances in which potential work is stored up. Here, it
is plain, we have the explanation of the nutritive influence which the central substance
everywhere exerts upon the nerve-fibres connected with it, and, through their mediation, upon
the organs which they supply. This nutritive function belongs to all nerve-centres and nerve-
fibres, and is intimately connected with the general mechanics of central innervation. The
hypothesis that there is a special class of nerves, specially devoted to trophic functions, seems
therefore to have nothing in its favour. The conditions under which this movement of material
takes place must, however, necessarily react upon the phenomena of irritability and the course
of excitation. Suppose, e.g., that a certain central area has enjoyed a long period of rest, and
has consequently accumulated a large store of potential work. The actual work, sensory or
motor, done in this area itself and in the nerve-fibres connected with it will, in general, be more
intensive and of longer duration than would have been the case under different conditions. It is,
also, not improbable that the movement of material may serve to develope neurodynamic
interaction between adjoining central parts, as a result of which the actual work done at any
given point may be increased by the conveyance of potential work from neighbouring points.[41]
The differences in the response of the nerve-cells to the stimuli conducted to them proves,
further, that every cell is divided into two distinct regions, the one of which resembles in
excitability the peripheral nerve- substance, while the other shows a marked degree of
divergence. We will term the former the peripheral, the latter the central region of the nerve-
cell.[p. 97] The central region, we may suppose, is devoted pre-eminently to the formation of the
complex compounds of which the nervous substance is composed; it is, therefore, the place of
storage of potential work. A stimulus-movement conducted to it simply accelerates the molecular
processes in the direction in which they are already moving, and accordingly disappears without
external effect. It is different with the peripheral region. Here, too, something is done towards the
transformation of actual into potential work. But, besides this, there is already a fairly rapid
consumption of materials, derived in part from the central region, and a consequent production
of work. If a stimulus strikes this peripheral region, its first result is, again, a relatively greater
increase of the negative than of the positive molecular work. But the negative soon sinks back to
its ordinary level, while the positive persists for a considerable time; so that, perhaps after an
unusually long latent period, certainly if the original stimulus is reinforced by new stimulus-
impulses, it is able to produce an excitation. For the rest, here as in the nerve, it is only a portion
of the positive molecular work that passes over into work of excitation, and again only a portion
of this that shows itself in external excitatory effects; another portion may be transformed back
again into negative molecular work, and the work of excitation may be changed, in whole or part,
into other forms of molecular motion. Further, when once excitation has arisen, the accumulated
work of excitation is consumed very rapidly; the process suggests that of explosive
decomposition. At the same time, the greater strength of the inhibition has meant the storage of
a correspondingly greater amount of work of excitation; so that the stimulus-effect, when it
appears, is greater than in the case of nerve-stimulation. In this respect, the irritable region of
the nerve-cell stands to the peripheral nervous system in somewhat the same relation that a
steam-boiler with stiffly working valve bears to a similar boiler whose valve moves easily. The
expansive force of the steam must be made more considerable, in the former case, if the valve
is to be opened; but, when this is done, the steam rushes out with a correspondingly greater
force. It should be added that the peripheral region of the nerve-cell probably evinces a different
conduct in different cases, approaching sometimes more, sometimes less nearly to the character

78
of the peripheral nerve-substance. Thus, the sensory excitations conducted upward by the cells
of the dorsal cornua of the myel are certainly less changed than the reflex excitations which are
mediated as well by the cells of the ventral cornua. These differences may be conditioned upon
the number of central cells which the stimulation has to traverse. But it is also conceivable that
there is a continuous transition from the one to the other of the two cell-regions which we have
named the central and the peripheral and that certain fibrils terminate in middle regions, in which
inhibition is not yet [p. 98] complete, while at the same time difficulties are placed in the path of
the stimulation.

We are now in a position to interpret the peculiar enhancement of reflex excitability produced by
the repetition of stimulus or by the action of poisons. Under these conditions, the positive
molecular work, once liberated, can be retransformed into negative work either not at all or, at
least, less completely than usual. It therefore accumulates, until excitation arises. The effect of
these two modes of interference is, therefore, to prevent the restitution of the nerve-substance,
and so to make it possible for comparatively weak external impulses to set up a rapidly
extending decomposition, in consequence of which the stored forces are soon exhausted.

79
There are still two things to be explained: the phenomenon of the mutual inhibition of excitations
conveyed to the same nerve-cells from different quarters, and the fact that the stimulation can
traverse certain cells only in one direction, and is inhibited so soon as it attempts the other. To
account for them, we must suppose that stimulations which act upon the central region of the
nerve-cell serve to propagate the inhibitory processes (the negative molecular work) there in
progress to the peripheral region; while, conversely, stimulations which act upon the peripheral
region effect a diffusion of the excitatory processes (the positive molecular work) there released
over the central region. The intrinsic probability of this hypothesis is vouched for by the well
known fact that in all chemical processes, in which the state of equilibrium of complex molecules
has once been disturbed, the disturbance is normally transmitted to other molecules. The
explosion of the very smallest quantity of nitrogen chloride is enough to decompose many
pounds of this substance, and a single blazing chip may set a whole forest on fire. There is, it is
true, an apparent difficulty in the case before us: molecular processes of opposite character are
distributed over one and the same mass, according to the direction from which the stimulation
proceeds. We must, however, remember that these processes are constantly in progress, side
by side, in both regions of the cell; and that, as the constant exchange of materials demands,
there is a continuous and gradual transition from the one region to the other. We may again
return to the illustration of the nerve-fibre under the action of the constant current. In the
neighbourhood of the anode there is a preponderance of inhibitory, in that of the cathode a
preponderance of excitatory molecular processes. But it may be demonstrated, by aid of test-
stimuli of varying intensity, that there is increase at the anode not only of the inhibitory but also
of the excitatory processes; while, on the other hand, as the strength of current is increased, the
inhibitory process is propagated to the cathode and beyond (cf. pp. 97 f.). Similarly [p. 99] with
the nerve-cell. Fig. 34 may illustrate, e.g., the behaviour of the cells of the dorsal and ventral
cornua of the myel to incoming and outgoing fibres. M represents a cell of the ventral, S a cell of
the dorsal cornu; c and c' are their central p
and p' their peripheral regions. In the ventral
half of the myel, stimulation can travel only
from m' to m; in the dorsal half, only from s to
s': a stimulus proceeding from m, s' is inhibited
in c, c'. A stimulation passing between S and M
can travel only in the direction from S to M,
and not contrariwise; for a stimulus operating
at m will be arrested in c, and a stimulus
applied at m' may be conducted as far as c',
but cannot go farther. Finally, the reflex
excitation proceeding from s must be inhibited
by a stimulation acting at s', because the
molecular motion of inhibition arising in c'
tends to spread over the peripheral region, and
thus destroys, in whole or part, the excitation
there set up. The morphological facts put it beyond question that the part of the ganglion cell
here designated the central region is the place of origin of the axis-cylinder or neurite, and that
the peripheral region gives rise to the dendrites. The latter region belongs accordingly to the
actual periphery of the ganglion-cell, though it may perhaps also extend some little distance into
the central ground-reticulum.[42]

80
The results which follow from stimulation of peripheral ganglia, such as those of heart, blood-
vessels, intestine, lend themselves readily to the same interpretation. Whether stimulation of the
nerves which run to these ganglia produces excitation or inhibition depends likewise upon their
mode of connexion with the nerve-cells. Thus, the inhibitory fibres of the heart will terminate in
the central the accelerating fibres in the peripheral region of the ganglion-cells of this organ; it is
not necessary to assume the existence of separate apparatus for the two processes. The result
of stimulation can be modified in only one way. The ganglia are, at the same time that they are
stimulated from without, in a state of continuous automatic stimulation, so that the incoming
nerves can do no more than regulate the movements made. For the rest, the nerve-cells, here
as before, show the phenomena of accumulation and summation of stimuli. Intensive excitation
of the inhibitory nerves of the heart will, it is true, [p. 100] arrest the heart-beat after a very short
interval; but stimulations of more moderate intensity can produce this effect only after several
beats have been executed. The phenomenon appears still more plainly in the case of the
accelerating nerves, where several seconds regularly elapse after the beginning of stimulation
before acceleration sets in. On the other hand, the after-effect of the stimulus always persists for
a considerable time after the stimulus itself has ceased to act; the heart returns only gradually to
its original frequency of beat. There is also a further point in which the conditions here evidently
differ somewhat from those obtaining in the skeletal muscles. In all regions of innervation that do
not stand under direct voluntary control, the mechanisms which subserve the production and
accumulation of excitatory and inhibitory effects are to be found, in part, in the muscles
themselves; so that, under these circumstances, the muscle-substance is endowed, within limits,
with the attributes elsewhere reserved for the peripheral and central nerve-substance.[43] In
view of the close relation subsisting in other respects between nervous and contractile
substance, we may perhaps look upon this result as a simple enhancement of the powers
possessed by muscular tissue in its own right, an enhancement due to the independence
attained by the peripheral organs.

We may now turn to the elementary phenomenon of practice which, as will be remembered, is
exhibited by the peripheral nerve-substance. The phenomenon recurs, with modifications
conditioned upon the law of propagation of molecular processes within the ganglion-cell, in the
central substance. Its effects are by no means simple, as may be observed in the following
instances. We find, on the one hand, that co-ordinated movements; whose first performance was
difficult and required continuous voluntary control, gradually become easier and, at last,
altogether in voluntary. We find, again, that functional disturbances, set up by the destruction of
central elements, are gradually compensated, without restitution of these elements themselves.
In the first of these phenomena, we have an increasing facilitation of the excitatory processes in
consequence of their frequent repetition. The second suggests that, under suitable conditions,
the stimulation may strike out new paths within the central substance: we may accordingly
designate this latter effect of practice, in contradistinction to direct practice by repetition of
function, as path-making or canalisation.[44] We are thus led to the following conclusions. First,
when an excitatory process is frequently conducted through a ganglion [p. 101] cell in a given
direction, the cell thereby acquires a prepotent disposition to conduct any future stimulations that
may reach it in the same direction. Secondly, the processes of conduction in the central
substance at large cannot be confined within fixed limits; elements in which, under normal
circumstances, the excitations are annulled by concurrent inhibitions must be able, under the
new conditions of practice introduced by the destruction of former conduction paths, to enter into

81
new functional connexions. Translated into terms of the hypothesis developed above, this would
mean that the frequent repetition of conduction, in a certain direction, so modifies the portion of
the central substance which lies along this particular path that it takes on, more and more
completely, the character normally attaching to the peripheral region. But, as a matter of fact,
this sort of transformation is just what might have been predicted from the general laws of
stimulation. We have seen that, in the peripheral nerve, the inhibitory forces are further and
further reduced, under the action of repeated stimuli; so that at first, before functional capacity is
exhausted, frequent repetition of stimulation means enhancement of irritability. Repetition of
stimulus, that is, always and everywhere brings with it an alteration of the nerve-substance,
which thereby loses the power of exerting the inhibitory influence connected with restoration of
its internal forces. It is to this fact that we must turn for explanation of the principle of practice, in
its special significance for the central functions, noting at the same time that the principle divides
into two less general principles, each of importance for the understanding of these functions, and
each in various ways supplementing the other: the principles of localisation and of vicarious
function. We shall find, when we come to consider the functions of the central organs of the
nervous system, that both alike are indispensable aids to an interpretation of the phenomena.

(b) -- Relation of Nervous to Psychical Processes

These considerations yield, however, another and a more general result important not only for
the physiological but also for the psychological aspect of vital phenomena. We have taken, as a
measure of the effects which the nervous substance can produce within itself and can transmit
to other elements of the body, resembling it in certain general properties, the effects exhibited by
the muscle; and we have done this, partly because the muscular effects are most easily
accessible to observation, partly because they can be subsumed, with the least possible
ambiguity, to metric principles of universal validity. Now we have no right to suppose that the
laws which govern the transference of nervous molecular processes to the contractile substance
are at all different from the laws which regulate [p. 102] their transmission to other substances,
whose properties show them to be related to the nervous elements, -- more especially,
therefore, to the substances that are of peculiar import for the psychical aspect of vital
phenomenon, the elements of the sense-organs. On the contrary, the identity of these laws is a
matter of course. It follows, therefore, that the changes set up by the action of stimulus in the
sensory cells, and in the peripheral and central portions of the nervous system connected with
them -- whether the stimulus be applied from without or arise within the system itself -- consist
always in those forms of positive and negative molecular work whose general laws we have
sought to trace in the symptoms presented by the muscular system. We have seen that all these
forms can readily be brought under the general point of view of the principle of energy; we have
had, as illustrations of them, the decomposition and recomposition of chemical compounds, the
liberation and absorption of heat, the increase and decrease of actual mechanical work. Now the
processes thus analysed remain, always, physical and chemical processes. It is never possible
to arrive, by way of a molecular mechanics, at any sort of psychical quality or process. If, then,
experience teaches us that the molecular processes within our nervous system may have
psychical concomitants, we can only say that we are here in presence of a fact which lies
altogether beyond the cognisance of a molecular mechanics of nerve-substance, and
consequently beyond the cognisance of any strictly physiological inquiry. It would fall within the
scope of physiology only if we were able in some way to interpret the psychical processes

82
themselves as molecular processes, i.e. in the last resort, as modes of motion or as physical
energies. This, however, we cannot do: the attempt fails at once, under whatever guise it may be
made. Psychical processes refuse to submit to any one of our physical measures of energy; and
the physical molecular processes, so far as we are able to follow them, are seen to be
transformed, variously enough, into one another, but never directly into psychical qualities. In
saying this, we do not, of course, reject the idea that psychical processes may be regularly
attended by an interchange of physical forces, which as such forms a proper object of co-
ordinate investigation by the molecular mechanics of the nervous system; nor do we deny, what
would naturally follow, that psychical symptoms may he taken as indicative of definite
physiological molecular processes, and that these in their turn, if it ever happens that we know
more about them, may be taken, under certain circumstances, as indicative of psychical
conditions. But such a relation between the two departments is entirely compatible with their
separate independence, with the impossibility, at any time or by any means, of the reduction of
the one to the other. As a matter of fact, we can no more derive the mechanics of nerve-
substance from the connexions and relations [p. 103] of our sensations and feelings, than we
can derive the latter from molecular processes. We have, then, no choice as to the road which
we shall take in the following Chapters. We must first of all occupy ourselves with the
investigation of the bodily substrate of the mental life as a physiological problem; our task being,
in the main, simply to apply the principles which we have discovered in the general mechanics of
nervous substance to the complex connexions of nervous elements presented in the nervous
system of the animals, and more especially of man. Psychological facts will here be accorded
merely a symptomatic importance, in the sense defined above: we shall depart from this rule
only when the critical discussion of certain hypotheses of psychological character, which have
taken shape within nerve-physiology, requires us to raise the question whether and how far
these hypotheses receive adequate support from the physiological facts themselves. But the
general question, as to the nature of the relations which unite the mechanics of nerve-substance
and of its complex effects in the nervous system, on the one hand, and the phenomena of the
mental life, on the other, -- this question presupposes the analysis of both sets of facts, the
physiological and the psychological: so that its investigation must, naturally, be postponed to the
conclusion of the present work.

Notes

[1] A good summary of the most important facts regarding the mechanical properties of muscle
will be found in TIGERSTEDT'S Lehrbuch der Physiologie, ii., 98, 128 ff. The reader should
compare with this the recent papers of ROLLETT (PFLÜGER'S Arch f. d. ges. Physiol., lxiv. and
lxxi.), SCHENCK (ibid. lxii., lxiii., lxiv., lxv., lxvii., lxxii.) and KAISER (Zeitschr. f. Biologie, xxxiii.,
xxxv., xxxvi., xxxviii.).
[2] CLAUSIUS, Abhandlungen zur mechanischen Wärmetheorie, ii., 1867, 214.
[3] Muscle-curves of this kind are termed, as proposed by A. FICK, 'isotonic' (curves of equal
tension), and distinguished from the 'isometric' curves, described when the muscle is prevented,
by over-loading, from making contractions of any considerable extent (cf. Fig. 26, p. 70). There
is, of course, no such thing as a purely isotonic or purely isometric curve. In the twitch of the
muscle, there must necessarily occur changes of tension, increasing in general with the amount

83
of load, while an absolutely isometric muscle would not describe any curve whatsoever. Curves
may also be obtained under the further condition that the tension increases during contraction,
as when the muscle is made to pull against a spring ('auxotonic' curve), or that it is suddenly
augmented during contraction by the application of a load, and so on. The different properties of
the resulting curves are, however, of interest only for a mechanics of muscle.
[4] Cf. my Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven und Nervencentren, Abth. i., 1871, 177.
The increase of the height of the muscle-curve with the distance of the point of stimulation from
the muscle, first observed by PFLÜGER (Untersuchungen über die Physiologie des
Elektrotonus, 140), has peen referred by many physiologists, following HEIDENHAIN (Studien
des physiol. Instituts zu Breslau, i., 1), to the effect of the section or, where connexion with the
myel is retained to the unequal decay of the nerve-tissue. If this hypothesis be correct, we must
suppose that the excitability of the living nerve is the same at all points along its course. I have,
however, shown, and the observation has been subsequently confirmed by TIEGEL
(PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xiii., 598), that the greater excitability of the parts more
remote from the muscle obtains also in a living animal in which the circulation is maintained. I
found, in particular, that the lengthening of contraction, which I had myself observed to be
connected with increased length of nerve, is especially noticeable in the living nerve. This is, no
doubt, the reason that it was not seen by experimenters who worked only with muscle-nerve
preparations.
[5] Experiments on the superposition of two contractions were first made by HELMHOLTZ
(Monatsber. d. Berliner Akad., 1854, 328). He found in opposition to the results noted above,
that there was never anything more than a simple addition of the contractions. The greater
heightening of the curve of summation has, however, been confirmed by KRONECKER and
STANLEY HALL (Archiv. f. Physiologie, 1879, Supplementband, 19f.). The later experiments of
M. VON FREY (ibid. 1888, 213) and J. VON KRIES (same vol. 537) also agree in all essential
points with my own results.
[6] Mechanik der Nerven, i., 109 ff.
[7] Mechanik der Nerven, i., 63, 100.
[8] Mechanik der Nerven, i., 86, 190, 200.
[9] WUNDT, Arch. f. Anatomie u. Physiologie, 1859, 537; 1861, 781. Untersuchungen zur
Mechanik der Nerven, i., 177 ff.
[10] HELMHOLTZ, Monatsber. d. Berliner Akademie, 1854, 328. These phenomena of
summation are discussed with more accuracy of detail as regards the time-relations of the
component stimuli by J. VON KRIES, in DU BOIS-REYMOND'S Arch. f. Physiologie, 1888, 538.
[11] WUNDT, Arch. f. Anatomie u. Physiologie, 1859, 549.
[12] BOWDITCH, Journal of Physiology, vi., 1887, 133. Arch. f. Physiologie, 1890, 505.
[13] PLÜGER, Untersuchungen über die Physiologie des Elektrotonus, 1859. WUNDT,
Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven, i., 223 ff.
[14] A. FICK, Mechanische Arbeit und Wärmeentwickelung bei der Muskelthätigkeit, 1882.
[15] BERNSTEIN, Monatsber. d. Berliner Akademie, 1880, 186.
[16] According to BERNSTEIN'S investigations, PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., i., 190;
Untersuchungen über den Erregungsvorgang im Nerven- und Muskelsysteme, 1871, 30.
[17] The negative variation of the muscle-current is of somewhat longer duration; it lasts
approximately 0.004 sec. (BERNSTEIN, Untersuchungen, 64.) This time however, also falls
within the limits of the period of inexcitability.
[18] BIEDERMANN, Elektrophysiologie, 1895, 71 ff.

84
[19] It is therefore advisable, in order to induce a reflex excitability that shall suffice for
experimental series of some length, to help things out by minimal doses (0.002 to at most 0.004
mg.) of strychnine. I have convinced myself, by experiments specially directed upon the point,
that minimal quantities of this poison do not affect the temporal course of the reflex contractions.
See Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven und Nervene ntnen, ii., 1876, 9.
[20] Exceptions to this rule may occur, though very rarely, in cases of minimal reflex excitation
and minimal motor stimulation: op. cit., 21.
[21] Op. cit., 14, 30, 37.
[22] Op. cit., 45 f.
[23] Cf. Note 1, p. 86, above.
[24] KRONECKER and STIRLING, Berichte d. k. sächs. Ges. d. Wissensch. zu Leipzig, math.-
phys. Cl., 1874, 372. These observers declare, further, that the reflex twitch is invariably
distinguished from the simple muscle-contraction by its more tetanic character (Arch. f.
Physiologie, 1878, 23). I cannot follow them in this statement. It may evidently be explained by
the fact that KRONECKER and STIRLING did not avail themselves of the minimal doses of
poison referred to above, and were therefore obliged to use stronger stimuli for the excitation of
reflexes. I would not, however, be understood to maintain that any hard and fast line can be
drawn between simple contraction and tetanus at large. On the contrary, the acceleration of the
course of the simple muscle-contraction, in its ascending branch, proves that even in it several
successive excitatory impulses are at work.
[25] BEAUNIS, Rech. expér. sur les conditions de l'activité cérébrale et sur la physiologie des
nerfs, 1884, 106.
[26] HELMHOLTZ, Monatsberichte d. Berliner Akademie, 1864, 307.
[27] KRONECKER and STANLEY HALL, Arch. f. Physiologie, 1879. Supplementband, 12.
Similar observations are recorded by HORSLEY and SCHAEFER (Journ. Of Physiology, vii. 96),
and, on the human subject, by GRIFFITH (ibid., ix. 39).
[28] HELMHOLTZ and BAXT, Monatsber. d. Berliner Akad., 1867, 228; 1870, 184 Experiments
by VON KRIES (Arch. f. Physiol., 1886, Supplementband. 1 ff.) gave like results.
[29] Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven, ii., 64.
[30] Op. cit. 56 f. ROSENTHAL (Monatsber. d. Berliner Akad., 1873, 104; 1875, 419) speaks of a
decrease of the latent period in strychnine tetanus, and BIEDERMANN (Elektrophysiologie,
1895, 501) accepts his statement. I do not understand this result; though with a high degree of
strychnine poisoning, and with stimuli of moderate intensity, the increase of the latent period is
not so pronounced as to be obvious at once, without the aid of some chronometric instrument.
[31] SETSCHENOW, Physiol. Studien über die Hemmungsmechanismen für die Reflexthätigkeit
des Rückenmarks, 1863. SETSCHENOW and PASCHUTIN, Neue Versuche am Hirn und
Rückenmark des Frosches, 1865.
[32] HERZEN, Sur les centres modérateurs de l'action reflexe, 1864, 32. SETSCHENOW, Ueber
die elektrische und chemische Reizungder sensibeln Rückenmarksnerven, 1868, 40.
[33] GOLTZ, Beiträge zur Lehre von den Functionen der Nervencentren des Frosches, 1869, 44,
50. That other parts of the brain, besides those designated by SETSCHENOW, are able to
inhibit reflexes, was demonstrated by GOLTZ in his croak experiment. Frogs whose cerebral
hemispheres have been removed may be made to croak, with almost mechanical certainty, by a
gentle stroking of the skin of the back; while with uninjured animals the same procedure very
frequently fails of its effect. It appears, then, that the cerebral hemispheres also have the power
of inhibiting reflexes (GOLTZ, Op. cit., 41). Experiments made by LANGENDORFF (Arch. f.

85
Physiol., 1877, 133) and BÖTTICHER (Ueber Reflexhemmung, in Sammlung physiol. Abhandl.,
ii. Reihe, Heft 3) show that the same result may be obtained by blinding the animals.
[34] Untersuchungen, etc., ii., 84 ff., 106 ff. Morphine, on the other hand, seems, at a certain
stage of its action, to increase the central inhibitions. For it was found by HEIDENHAIN and
BUBNOFF that the contractions produced in animals by stimulation of the motor areas of the
cerebral cortex were, in the normal state, enhanced, but in morphine narcosis inhibited, by
mechanical stimulation of the skin. See PLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxvi., 137 ff.
[35] E. CYON has turned this idea to account for a theory of the central inhibitions: Bulletin de
l'Acad. de St. Pétersbourg, vii., Decr., 1870. The facts which he adduces in support of it, so far
as they are taken from the phenomena of vascular innervation, have been called in question by
HEIDENHAIN. PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., iv. 551.
[36] BRONDGEEST, Over den Tonus der willekeurigen Spieren, Utrecht, 1860.
[37] CYON, Berichte d. k. sächs, Ges. d. Wiss., math.-phys. Cl., 1865, 86. Cf. on the other side,
G. HEIDENHAIN, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., iv., 1871, 435.
[38] H. E. HERING and SHERRINGTON, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., lxviii., 1897,
222 ff.
[39] Cf. p. 53, above.
[40] Cf. pp. 55 f., above.
[41] Cf. the discussions in Part V. of the abnormal enhancement of excitability in the cerebral
cortex, which presumably underlies certain forms of derangement of consciousness (dream,
hypnosis).
[42] See above, Ch. ii, pp. 42 ff. I may be permitted to remark that this theory of the directions of
central conduction as formulated, on the ground of purely physiological considerations
(Untersuchungen, etc., ii., 1876, 116), long before RAMON Y CAJAL used the morphological
facts to develope his views of the functional significance of the twofold origin of the nerve-fibres.
Cf. also p. 50.
[43] T. W. ENGELMANN, PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., lvi., 1894, 149 ff.
[44] I take this very useful term Bahnung from S. EXNER, who first proposed it (Entwurf einer
physiologischen Erklärung der psychischen Erscheinungen, i., 1894, 76), without meaning
thereby to commit myself in any way to the views and hypotheses put forward by this author. (As
the word 'facilitation' does not fit the present passage, we seem to have no better English term
than 'canalisation.' -- TRANSLATOR.)

86
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
By Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

Posted March 2000

[p. 104] CHAPTER IV

Morphological Development of the Central Organs

§1. General Survey

(a) -- Object of the Following Exposition

In the preceding chapter we have attempted to analyse, in their elementary phenomena, the vital
processes conditioned upon the constitution of the nervous substance. Now in every organism
which stands high enough in the scale of organic life to possess a nervous system at all, the
elementary parts connect to form complicated structures, or organs; and the processes which
we have been studying manifest themselves, accordingly, in co-ordinated activities of greater or
less complexity. As a rule, it is far from easy to refer these complex phenomena to the relatively
simple conditions laid down by a mechanics of nerve-substance that has been worked out from
individual, isolated structures. We must he content to do this in the rough, and as a matter of
general direction. At the same time, the more complicated and difficult the problem, the more
strictly necessary is it, if our analysis of the complex physiological functions is not to go wrong
from the very beginning, to keep constantly in view the general principles which our study of the
simple nerve processes has brought to light. In considering, more especially, those
developmental forms of the nervous system which are of chief importance for psychology, and
which will therefore form the main subject of the following Chapters, -- the nerve-centres of the
higher vertebrates and of man, -- we must remember that the elementary nerve-forces are still at
work, though the manifold connexions of the elementary parts place their effects under
conditions of almost inconceivable complexity. The properties of compound organs can be
understood only in so far as we are able to refer them, at any rate as regards the general point
of view from which they are appraised, to the properties of the elementary structures. The more
firmly the physiology of the nervous system holds to this principle, which is surely beyond the
need of argument, the sooner will it be competent to render service to psychology. On the other
hand, neglect of the rule, combined with the adoption of a haphazard popular psychology, as
manufactured on occasion by anatomists and physiologists for their own [p. 105] private use,
has wrought havoc from the days of GALL and phrenology down to the present time. Great
advances have been made in our knowledge of the morphology of the nervous system and of its
complex physiological functions; GALL himself deserves credit for his investigations in anatomy.
But they have failed to bear fruit for an understanding of the relations of the nervous system to
the processes of the psychical life. Nay, more, under the conditions just mentioned, they have in
this regard oftentimes done more to confuse than to further knowledge.

87
Now an inquiry concerning the bodily substrate of the mental life evidently presupposes, first of
all and before it turns to the properly physiological aspect of its problem, an adequate knowledge
of the morphology of the organs. This is not a merely logical requirement. Apart from the
experiments on nervous elements, isolated so far as possible from their connexions, which fall
within the sphere of the general mechanics of nerve-substance, both the physiological
experiment and the pathological observation which serves to supplement it in various directions
are conditioned upon this anatomical knowledge. When we remember the immense complexity
of the structures involved, we must admit, at the same time, that as instruments of analysis they
are comparatively crude: a limitation that should be steadily borne in mind in any estimate of the
value of such experiments and observations. The first part of the following discussion will, then,
be devoted to a general sketch of the morphology of the central nervous system. This will, of
course, contain nothing that is new to the anatomist and physiologist, to whom the subject is
familiar. On the contrary, it will often fail to make mention of special points that, for the time
being, possess only an anatomical interest. The primary purpose of the exposition is to furnish a
brief account of the structure and function of the nervous system that shall appeal especially to
the psychologist and shall take account of the things that interest him. It has, however, over and
above this, the secondary purpose of showing the anatomist and physiologist themselves how
the familiar facts of structure and function appear when viewed, for the nonce, from the
standpoint of psychology. It is true that this standpoint is not altogether neglected in the
anatomical and physiological text-books. On the contrary, one cannot but admire the courage
with which the anatomists and physiologists, when occasion arises, invade a difficult and (for so
it really is to them) an unknown country. But the psychologist is, all the more for this very reason,
in duty bound to discuss, from the point of view of a scientific psychology, the results obtained
from the observation of microscopical structures, or of animals whose mind has in some way
been impaired by extirpation of particular portions of the brain. He is bound to pass the facts
themselves in critical review, and to estimate their psychological [p. 106] importance, quite apart
from the more or less accidental and arbitrary reflections that are usually appended to the
observational data. Now it would obviously be out of place, for the purposes of a survey specially
intended, as this is, to subserve psychological requirements, to give any such detailed account
of the topography of brain structure as is necessary for anatomy and pathology. We must rather
lay the chief emphasis upon the morphological complexes, upon the organs as such; more
particularly where structural connexions point us to co-ordination of functions. And this need
seems to be most adequately met by a genetic consideration, which seeks to explain the
complex conditions found in the fully developed organs from their origination in simpler forms,
whether these stand lower in the scale of organic life or represent earlier stages of individual
development. We shall, therefore, in this opening Chapter, say what is necessary for our present
purpose of the general differentiation of the substrate of psychical functions in the animal
kingdom. That done, however, we may thenceforth confine ourselves to a detailed consideration
of the morphological development of the central organs in the vertebrates. Here, too, we shall
make use of the lower forms of development chiefly to prepare the way for an understanding of
the structural plan of the human brain.

(b) -- The Neural Tube and the Three Main Divisions of the Brain

The first step in the evolution of the central nervous system of vertebrates is taken, as we have
seen, with that primitive differentiation of the germ where a dark streak of tissue marks the place

88
of the myel, and therefore the longitudinal body-axis of the future organism (Fig. 8, p. 37). The
next stage in the development of this primule of the nervous system occurs when the outer layer
of the germ disc folds on either side of the axis of the primitive streak to form two ridge-like
elevations, containing a groove between them. This, the primitive groove, is the primule of the
future myel. The sides at first grow rapidly upwards, and then bend inwards, so that the groove
closes to form a tube, the neural tube, within which the myel arises by proliferation of the original
formative cells (Fig. 9, p. 37). The primary cavity of the myel persists throughout the vertebrate
series as the longitudinal central canal or myelocele. This is lined with cinerea or grey matter,
which is itself invested with an envelope of alba or white matter; and from this, again, the roots of
the myelic (spinal) nerves issue in a fan-shaped radiation.

The primule of the brain is formed from the anterior end of the neural tube. The rapid growth of
this region leads to the formation of a bladder-like expansion, the primitive brain vesicle, which
soon divides into three compartments, the fore, mid and hind brain-vesicles (Fig. 35). Both the
genetic and the later functional relations of the primary vesicle suggest that this tripartite division,
like the development of the brain at large, is intimately connected with the development of the
three anterior sense-organs. The nervous primule of the olfactory organ grows out directly from
the anterior end of the fore brain; that of the auditory organs from the lateral walls of the hind
brain; while, despite the fact that the eyes would seem to represent product of the growth of the
fore brain, we must, in the light of indisputable physiological facts, look to the mid brain as the
ultimate source of origin of the optic nerves.

Of the three primary brain-divisions: the first and third, the fore and hind brains, undergo the
greatest changes. The anterior

extremity of both soon begins to outstrip the rest in growth,

so that both alike divide into a principal and a secondary
vesicle. The original fore brain now consists of fore brain and
'tween brain, the original hind brain of hind brain and after
brain (Fig. 36). Of the five brain divisions which have thus
arisen from the three primary vesicles, the fore brain or
prosencephalon corresponds to the future cerebral
hemispheres; the 'tween brain or diencephalon becomes the
thalami; the undivided mid brain or mesencephalon
developes into the quadrigemina of man and the animals,
the bigemina or optic lobes of the lower vertebrates; the hind
brain or epencephalon becomes the cerebellum; and the
after brain, or metencephalon, the oblongata. The
diencephalon is to be considered the anterior, and the
metencephalon the posterior stem-vesicle, from which the
prosencephalon and epencephaon have grown out
respectively as secondary vesicles. The structures
developed from the three stem-vesicles (metencephalon,
mesencephalon and diencephalon), -- i.e., the oblongata, the
quadrigemina and the thalami, -- and the fibre-systems that
ascend among them from the myel, are grouped together in

89
the nomenclature of the developed brain as the caudex or brain-stem. The structures of the first
and fourth vesicles, the cerebral hemispheres and cerebellum, are named, in contradistinction to
the brain-stem, the pallium or brain-mantle, since in the more highly organised brains they
envelope the brain-stem as a mantle-like covering.[p. 108]

The three brain vesicles, then, represent expansions of the anterior end of the neural tube. With
the tube itself, they form a

closed system, whose parts intercommunicate

by way of the continuous central cavity, But the
development of the two secondary vesicles
from the first and third primary vesicles brings
other changes with it. The roof of the fore and
hind brains divides up longitudinally; so that
two slit-like apertures appear lying exactly in
the median line of the body, whereby the
cavities of the fore and hind stem-vesicles are
exposed. The anterior roof-slit divides the
prosencephalon into its two hemispheres, and
leaves the diencephalon open above. The
mesencephalon, which does not share the
advance in organisation characteristic of the
rest of the brain, merely divides by a
longitudinal furrow into two halves. The
posterior roof-slit appears at the place where
the neural tube passes over into the brain. The
cerebellum, which grows out directly forwards
from this point, is at first separated into two
entirely distinct halves, but afterwards grows
together again in the median line. The two
roof-openings serve to admit blood-vessels
into the brain-cavities. These ensure the food
supply requisite for further growth and for the simultaneous thickening of the brain-walls by
deposition of nerve-substance from within.

The level of development now attained is practically the level of permanent organisation in the
lowest vertebrates, the fishes and amphibia (Figg. 37, 38). The original prosencephalic vesicle is
here divided, in most cases, into two almost entirely separate halves, the cerebral hemispheres;
the only remaining connexion occurs over a small area of the floor of the vesicle. The anterior
stem-vesicle (diencephalon) is split into two lateral halves, the thalami, which retain connexion at
their base. The cerebellum forms for the most part a narrow unpaired lamella, from which [p.
109] all trace of division has disappeared. In the metencephalon or oblongata., the posterior
roof-slit has formed a rhomboidal depression, on the floor of which the principal mass of the
organ shows in undivided form.

(c) -- The Brain Ventricles and the Differentiation of the Parts of the Brain

90
The division of the brain into five vesicles brings with it a further change: a modification in the
form of the central brain cavities, whose origin as simple expansions of the myelocele we have
already noticed. The brain-cavity divides, in accordance with the

separation of
the brain-
vesicles, at
first into three
and then into
five pockets.
The division of
the
hemispheres
subdivides the
first of these
again into two
symmetrical
halves, the
paraceles or
lateral brain-
ventricles. If,
now, we set
out from these
on a journey
through the
brain-cavities,
we shall traverse them in the following order (Fig. 39).
The two paraceles (h), which as a rule are entirely
separated from each other, open into the cavity of
their stem-vesicle, -- a cleft-like space, bounded
laterally by the thalami, and left roofless by the
anterior roof-slit (z), -- the diacele or third ventricle. This leads directly into the cavity of the
mesencephalon (m). In mammals the mesocele is extraordinarily [p. 110] reduced, so that it
appears only in the form of a narrow canal, the aqueduct of Sylvius,
running below the quadrigemina, and connecting the diacele with
the cavity of the metencephalon. In the birds, the mesocele is more
extensive, sending lateral offshoots into the bigemina
(mesencephalon); and in the lower vertebrates

the bigemina contain quite large cavities, which communicate with

the central cavity. The two derivatives from the third primary vesicle,
epencephalon and metencephalon, have originally each its own
special cavity. But the cerebellum (epencephalon) is now a rounded
vesicle, arching backward over the metencephalon front the point at
which this borders upon the mesencephalon. The mesocele
accordingly divides at its posterior end into two branches, the one of

91
which turns upwards, and leads into the epicele (cavity of the cerebellum), while the other
pursues a straight course into the cavity of the metencephalon or oblongata (Fig. 40). This latter
cavity, the metacele (fourth ventricle [1]) is termed from its rhomboidal form the fossa
rhomboidalis (r in Fig. 39). The metacele is, therefore, not strictly a cavity, but a furrow; the
posterior roof-slit has completely exposed it. It closes posteriorly to pass over into the myelocele.
In mammals the epicele disappears entirely by the filling up of the epencephalic vesicle with
alba. At this stage, then, the paraceles,[p. 111] diacele, Sylvian aqueduct (mesocele) and
metacele represent the whole system of brain-cavities. In the lower vertebrates, we have,
further, the cavities of the thalami as extensions of the diacele; the cavities of the bigemina as
branches of the aqueduct; and the epicele as a tributary of the metacele. In the lower orders of
vertebrates, primary and secondary cavities alike are, as a general rule, more extensive in
proportion to the mass of the brain, -- i.e. approximate more nearly to an embryonic state.
However, the different classes evince wide differences in this regard as between the various
subdivisions of the brain. In the fishes, the cerebral hemispheres and cerebellum are filled with
alba and become solid structures. Their growth is soon arrested, and they consequently attain to
no considerable size. In the amphibia, the paraceles persist, but the cerebellum is

usually solid. When we come to the reptiles and birds, we find a

cerebellum with a spacious epicele; but in all the mammals this
has again

disappeared. In the mammals, too, the lateral cavities of the

mesencephalon (quadrigemina or bigemina) are lost; in all the
lower vertebrates, from the fishes to the birds, they not only
persist but develop prominences of cinerea upon their floor (Fig.
41). Similar growths, the striata, appear in the paraceles of the
avian and mammalian brain.

92
Both in the myel and in the brain (encephalon), the nervous mass is formed by proliferation of
the cells constituting the walls of the original cavities. Many of these cells evince the character of
the formative cells of tissue, and so mediate the secretion of the amorphous intercellular
substance or neuroglia. Others become nerve-cells, and send out runners. In the myel, the
greater part of the fibres radiate out towards the periphery, so that the cinerea is collected about
the myelocele and surrounded by an envelope of alba. In the encephalon this distribution of alba
and cinerea persists, practically unchanged, in the structures developed from the three stem-
vesicles. In the developments from the secondary vesicles, on the other hand, the nerve-cells
retain their position in the walls of the cavities, and the fibres connected with them trend towards
the interior. Hence in the caudex -- the oblongata, the quadrigemina and the thalami -- we have
a layer of cinerea lining the continuations of the myelocele and surrounded by an envelope [p.
112] of alba; in the pallium, a mass of alba invested with a covering of cinerea. The Linerea thus
shows two distinct formations. The one, the entocinerea (tubular grey matter) belongs to myel
and caudex, the other, the ectocinerea (cortical grey matter), to the pallium. The entocinerea of
the encephalon undergoes still further transformation. Even in the highest region of the myel,
various bundles of nerve-fibres from the myelic columns have shifted from their former position
at the periphery of the cenerea, so that this is broken up by masses of alba. In the oblongata,
this process has gone so far that only a comparatively small part of the cinerea holds its original
place as floor of the fossa rhomboidalis, by far the greater portion being separated by the
intercurrence of myelinic fibres into distinct masses. These

collections of entocinerea, invested by alba, are termed nidi

(nuclei). We see, then, that the entocinerea of the myel
undergoes an essential modification as it passes into the
encephalon; it is broken up by the interposition of masses of
alba, and so gives rise to a third formation of grey matter, the
nidal cinerea (nuclear grey, ganglionic grey). This nidal cinerea
lies midway between the entocinerea and the ectocinerea. As
we travel from the central cavity towards the periphery, we come
first of all upon entocinerea, then upon the nidal cinerea, then
again upon alba, and finally upon the ectocinerea.

The series of changes that we have been describing hitherto is

accompanied, in all the vertebrates, by changes in the relative
position of the primitive brain-divisions, as a result of which the
whole brain is bent over ventralward. The various parts of the
caudex are thus brought out of the straight line and set at a
certain angle to one another. The bend or flexure, which in the
lowest classes is but slight, approximates more and more closely to a right angle the higher we
ascend in the vertebrate series (Fig. 36, p. 180). And the form of the brain is further modified by
the disproportionate growth of certain divisions, especially the prosencephalon and
epencephalon, which extend over and conceal the rest. Three flexures of the central nervous
system can thus be distinguished. The first appears at the junction of the myel and oblongata;
the second takes place in the cerebellum; and the third at the level of the mesencephalon (Fig.
42). The extent of these flexures is principally conditioned by the growth of the prosencephalon;
so that degree of curvature runs practically parallel with development of the hemispheres.[2][p.

93
113] In the early stages of the development of the vertebrate brain, the prosencephalon extends
anteriorly beyond the remaining brain-divisions, without covering them. But the more its growth
outstrips the growth of the rest of the brain, the more opposition does the rigid attachment of the
embryo to the germinative vesicle offer to its forward expansion. It must, therefore, grow out
backwards, arching first over the diencephalon, then over the mesencephalon, and finally over
the cerebellum itself. At the same time, it follows the curve of the mesencephalic flexure; its most
posterior portion -- that which covers mesencephalon and epencephalon -- bends upon itself at
an angle. The more vigorous the growth of the hemisphere, the farther does the bent portion of it
extend back again towards its point of departure, or, in other words, the more nearly does the
curve described

about the diencephalon approach to a perfect

circle. In this way a depression (the Sylvian fossa;
s Fig. 42) is formed at the place where the
hemisphere rests upon its stem-vesicle
(diencephalon). In the most highly developed
mammalian brains, the concavity of the curve of
growth is almost entirely obliterated, and the walls
of the fossa draw together, leaving between them
a deep and narrow fissure.

The growth of the prosencephalon over the

caudex is necessarily followed by a modification of
the form of the paraceles. These are originally
spherical cavities, lying within the hemispheric
vesicles. As the prosencephalon grows, they
extend out at first posteriorly, and then, when the
curve of the hemispheric arch begins to close in
upon itself, inferiorly and anteriorly as well. The
central portion of the resulting cavity is termed the
cella; the extensions are the postcornu, precornu
and medicornu of the paracele. While this
transformation is in progress, the outer walls of the
prosocele are growing more rapidly than the inner
or median wall which surrounds the caudex. In this
there is a narrow, [p. 114] originally vertical slit, the
aula or foramen of Monro (a Fig. 23) whereby the
paraceles communicate with the diacele (third
ventricle). Anteriorly to the aula, the hemispheres are held together by a lamella of alba (b-d). As
the prosencephalon arches over the rest of the brain, the aula and its anterior limiting lamella
naturally arch with it. They have, therefore, in the developed brain, the appearance of a vault laid
over the diencephalon. The posterior part of the aula soon closes, and only the extreme anterior
portion of the original cleft remains open; this serves as a channel for vascular processes
passing from the diacele into the paraceles. The lower end of the lamella of white matter, which
forms the anterior boundary of the aula, becomes the precommissure (k); the remaining portion
follows the curve of the hemispheric arch and is the primule of the fornix. Directly above this the

94
hemispheres are united by a strong transverse band of alba, the callosum or great commissure
(g). The portion of the median wall of the hemispheres lying above the callosum forms yet
another arch, running concentrically with the fornix, and separated from the surrounding parts by
a special furrow, f f'. This is the marginal arch, h. Its anterior division becomes the gyrus
fornicatus; the posterior passes into a structure, continuous with the gyrus fornicatus and
extending from the median wall outwards into the paracele, termed the hippocampus (cornu
Ammonis). A more detailed description of these parts, which attain to development only in the
mammalian brain, will be given later.

§2. The Myel in the Higher Vertebrates

The neural tube from which the myel developes is originally a hollow tube, filled with liquid, and
lined along its interior wall with

formative cells. The cells increase and multiply:

some taking on the character of connective tissue-
cells, and furnishing an amorphous intercellular
substance, while others become nerve-cells. The
processes of these last either pass directly into the
fibres of peripheral nerves, or divide and subdivide
to form a terminal reticulum. The main trend of all
fibres is to the periphery of the neural tube, so that
the cellular structures are shifted towards the centre
of the myelic cavity (Fig. 44, and Fig. 9, p. 37
above). The nerve-cells, and the nerves issuing from
them, are arranged, from the first, in accordance
with the bilateral symmetry of the primule of the
vertebrate body, in symmetrical (right and left)
groups. Moreover, the connexion of the nerves with
two different parts of the germ-primule carries with it
the further separation of each group into two
subdivisions. All nerves and fibres that enter into
connexion with the corneal layer, the primule of the
sense-organs and the sensitive investment of the
body, arrange themselves in a dorsal group, in the
near neighbourhood of the germinal structures
dependent upon them.[p. 115] All those nervous
elements, on the other hand, that have relations to
the striated muscles collect in a ventral group,
corresponding to the animal muscle-plate. It results
from this that the cinerea formed by the association
of cells appears to right and left as a dorsal and a
ventral column, surrounded by an envelope of
myelinated fibres or alba. The columns are termed, from their appearance in transverse section,
the dorsal and ventral cornua (horns) of the myel: a special branch of the latter is known as the
lateral cornu. The dorsal and ventral cornua of each side are united at the centre. The nerve-

95
roots issuing from the cornua are arranged, in the same way, in two series: the dorsal or
sensory, and the ventral or motor (Fig. 44, e, f; Fig. 45, HW and VW).

Under these conditions of growth, the myelic cavity at first assumes the form of a rhombus (Fig.
44, cm), drawn out into a ventral and a dorsal cleft. The cavity of the dorsal cleft soon becomes
almost entirely filled; that of the ventral is more plainly

marked, but is closed by nerve-fibres running

from side to side of the myel, and constituting
the white ventral commissure. The
commissure, which originally crosses near the
periphery (Fig. 44 h), gradually reaches a
deeper level (Fig. 45). Behind it, a remnant of
the myelic cavity persists as an extremely
narrow canal, the myelocele or central canal of
the myel, around which the two collections of
cinerea enter into cross-connexion (Fig. 45 A).
The dorsal and ventral sulk (fissure median
post. and ant.) divide the myel into two
symmetrical halves. Each of these is again
subdivided by the outgoing nerve-roots into
three columns (Fig. 45 B). The column of alba
lying between the dorsal sulcus and the cell-
column of the dorsal roots is termed the dorsal
column (hs); that lying between the ventral
sulcus and the cell-column of the ventral roots
the ventral column (vs); and a third column,
ascending between the cell-columns of the
dorsal and ventral roots, the lateral column
(ss). The greater part of the nerve-fibres of
these white columns run their course vertically,
in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the
myel. An ex-[p. 116]ception to the rule is
furnished by the area at the central end of the
ventral sulcus, occupied, as we saw just now,
by the ventral commissure; here the
decussating fibres follow a horizontal or
oblique course; and the same directions are,
naturally, taken for a short distance by the
fibres which constitute the direct continuations
centralward of the incoming nerve-roots. The
grey cornua are of different shapes: the
ventral, particularly in the lumbar region of the
myel, are broader and shorter, the dorsal longer and narrower. The former contain a quantity of
large multipolar ganglion-cells; the latter consist exclusively of smaller cells. A good portion of
the dorsal cornua consists, further, of the nervous ground reticulum and its interpenetrating

96
fibrils. This gives them a peculiarly bright appearance, more especially as they approach the
periphery of the myel: the region is known as the gelatinosa of Rolando. Passing centralward
from this formation we find on either side of the central canal a compact column of alba and
cinerea, Clarke's column (Fig. 45 B),[p. 117] containing a well-marked group of roundish
ganglion-cells, and extending from the end of the cervical region into the lumbar enlargement.
The immediate points of origin of the dorsal roots, within the myel, seem to be less richly
supplied with nerve-cells than those of the ventral; but the difference is compensated later on. A
cluster of large bipolar ganglion-cells is intercalated in the course of the nerve-fibres after they
have left the myel, and forms with them the spiral ganglion of the dorsal roots (e Fig. 44). The
dorsal columns are mot connected, as the ventral are, by white myelinated fibres, but by a grey
commissure, composed of fine fibres running transversely in the mass of cinerea behind the
myelocele (dorsal comm., Fig. 45 A). Similar grey fibres surround the whole of the central canal;
its interior is lined by a single layer of cylindrical epithelium, derived from a small remnant of the
formative cells that originally invested the cavity of the neural tube (Fig. 9, p. 37 above).

So long as the development of the central organs is confined to the formation of the myel, we
find, of course, a certain uniformity dominating the entire bodily organisation. The myel, over its
whole length, simply repeats the same arrangement of elementary parts and the same mode of
origin of nerve-fibres; and the sensory surfaces and motor apparatus that depend upon it must
accordingly show a like uniformity of distribution and structure. Hence we find, as a matter of
fact, that so long as the central nervous system of the embryo consists merely of the neural
tube, no one of the higher sense-organs attains to development. The primules of the sensory
investment of the body and of the locomotor apparatus are distributed uniformly about the
central axis. A single exception occurs at the place where the nerve-mass takes on a stronger
growth, for the supply of the posterior extremities; this is indicated, at an early stage, by an
extension of the primitive groove, the sinus rhomboidalis or future lumbar enlargement. A similar,
but less strongly marked thickening of the neural tube occurs, later on, at the point of departure
of the nerves supplying the anterior extremities, -- the cervical enlargement.[3] This uniformity of
organisation is permanently retained in the lowest vertebrate, Amphioxus lanceolatus, in which
the development of a central nervous system halts at the formation of the neural tube. The organ
of vision, in this brainless vertebrate, consists of simple refracting cells, surrounded by pigment
[4]; the organ of smell, of an unpaired cup-shaped depression at the anterior end of the body;
the presence of an auditory organ has not been demonstrated. We see, then, that the arrest of
development in this case affects just those [p. 118] organs which appear to exercise a
determining influence upon the formation of the higher central parts, the vesicular differentiations
of the myel.

§3. The Oblongata

In the lower vertebrates, the bundles of nerve-fibres take a course that is, to all appearance, but
little different from their course in the myel. The only changes are that the dorsal columns split
apart, disclosing the fossa rhomboidalis (Fig. 37, 38, p. 109);

97
and that the grey cornua, as may be seen in section, have been divided off from the central
cinerea and intercalated in the course of the ventral and dorsal columns. The three columns of
the myel, ventral, lateral and dorsal, can
still be distinguished,

but receive special names. Their fibres

pursue a more tortuous course, and
ganglionic nidi appear among the fibre-
bundles. They thus differ very considerably
from the correspondingly situated myelic
columns; and, indeed, for the most part do
not represent direct continuations of the
myelic structure. The ventral columns are
termed pyramids; their fibres decussate, in
the posterior part of their course, so that
the ventral sulcus is entirely obliterated
(Fig. 46 A; Fig. 47 p). This decussation
seems to be a repetition, on a larger scale,
of the decussation of the ventral columns
of the myel in the ventral commissure. At
their upper end, where they enclose a
ribbon-like stria of cinerea (pyramidal
nidus, inner accessory nucleus of olive;
pyram. nidus, Fig. 46 B), the pyramids are
bounded on either side by the olives (Fig.
46 B; Fig. 47 o). These are well-marked
prominences, which contain in their interior
a large ganglionic nidus, dentate in section
and therefore termed the dentatum (nd).
The vertically ascending fibre-bundles
which enclose the dentate nidus are known
as the capsular columns (finiculi siliquae).

98
The lateral columns (s Figg. 47, 48) grow smaller and smaller [p. 119] from the lower end of the
oblongata upwards, until at about the point where the opening of the fossa rhomboidalis appears
they disappear entirely in the interior. The dorsal columns, on the other hand, increase in
external diameter. In the lower portion of the oblongata, they are divided by a shallow sulcus into
inner and outer columns, the slender and the cuneate funiculi (fg and fc Fig. 48), which at the
lower end of the fossa rhomboidalis carry knob-like prominences, produced by the grey nidi of
the interior (nid. grac. and nid. cun., Fig. 46). Farther upwards, the two funiculi appear to
continue their course in the columns which bound the fossa rhomboidalis to right and left. These
have been termed the restes (restiform bodies: pi Fig. 48). They are the largest columns of the
oblongata, and, like the funiculi just mentioned, contain grey nidi. They are characterised by the
intricate, trellis-like interlacing of their constituent fibres. Anteriorly, the restes pass entirely over
into the alba of the cerebellum forming the inferior cerebellar peduncles. Between them, on the
floor of the fossa rhomboidalis and directly covered by entocinereal matter, are two further tracts,
which appear to represent the continuations of the parts of the myel lying ventrally of the
myelocele, i.e. the ventral cornua and the deeper-lying portions of the ventral columns. These
structures, which extend over the whole floor of the fossa rhomboidalis, and are principally [p.
120] composed of cinerea, are known, from the arching convexity of their form, as the cylindrical
columns (eminentiae teretes, et). Their cinerea is in connexion with most of the grey

nidi of the oblongata, though some of these

are forced out from the median line, and thus
isolated, as a result of the splitting up of the
oblongata by tracts of alba. A further and final
consequence of the changes of structural
conditions which we have been describing is
the formation of an entirely new system of
fibre-groups surrounding the oblongata in a
transverse direction. Some of them enter into
the ventral sulcus and the sulcus separating
the pyramids from the olives; others strike
across the fossa rhomboidalis. The system is
known as the zonal fibre-system (stratum
zonale, fibrae arcuatae, g).

The re-arrangement of parts in the oblongata

leads to a redistribution of the points of origin
of the peripheral nerves. The simple rule of the
myel is no longer obeyed, the nerve-roots are
more or less displaced from their old positions.
It is true that they still form, roughly, two
longitudinal series, a dorsal and a ventral. But
root-fibres that are exclusively motor issue only
from the ventrolateral sulcus (twelfth cranial
nerve, hypoglossal or lingual motor). The
dorsolateral sulcus (or, at any rate, its
immediate neighbourhood) gives rise, on the

99
other hand, both to sensory and to motor fibres. Here begin all the other cranial nerves, with the
exception of the first and second, olfactory and optic, and the third and fourth, the two anterior
oculomotor nerves, whose place of origin lies further forward (cf. Figg. 47, 52).[5][p. 121]

§4. The Cerebellum

At the anterior end of the oblongata, the structural relations of the parts are further, and very
essentially, modified, owing to the outgrowth of the cerebellum from the primule of the third
brain-vesicle (epencephalon). At the lowest stage of its development, the cerebellum varies but
little, in outward form, from its original primule (Figg. 37, 38, p. 109); it consists of a transverse
stria,

bridging over the anterior end of the fossa

rhomboidalis and receiving into its substance the
restis of either side. Anteriorly, it is continued by a
myelinated plate to the mesencephalon (Fig. 40, p.
110); laterally, it gives out tracts of transverse fibres,
which run towards the lower surface of the oblongata,
and decussate with each other and with the vertically
ascending fibre-tracts of the pyramidal and olivary
columns. These connexions remain the same later
on, when the cerebellum has attained its further
development. The bundles that enter it from the
restes are the inferior cerebellar peduncles (crura ad
medullam oblongatam, pi Fig. 18); the myelinated
fibres issuing from it towards the mesencephalon are
the superior cerebellar peduncles (crura ad cerebrum,
ps). These are united by a thin myelinated plate, the
valvula (velum medullare superius, vm), which forms
the roof of the fossa rhomboidalis, and effects a direct
connexion of the cerebellum with the adjoining
anterior brain-division, the mesencephalon or quadrigemina. Finally, the white tracts proceeding
from either side of the cerebellum form the middle cerebellar peduncles (crura ad pontem, pm).
The structure that arises at the brain-basis by the junction of the middle peduncles and their
decussations with the longitudinal myelinated [p. 122] fibres ascending from the oblongata is
known as the pons (pons Varolii, br Fig. 47). It constitutes on the one hand a connecting link in
the longitudinal direction between metencephalon and mesencephalon, and on the other a
connecting link in the horizontal direction between the two lateral halves (pilea) of the
cerebellum. The superior and inferior cerebella-peduncles are clearly visible at the very earliest
stage of cerebellar development. The middle peduncles, on the contrary, do not attain to a
growth that enables us to distinguish the pons as a special structure until the development of the
cerebellum, and especially of the pilea, has advanced a considerable distance. Even in the
birds, their place is supplied by little more than the longitudinal continuations of the ventral and
lateral columns of the oblongata (Fig. 49 B). From the points at which the peduncles enter the
cerebellar

100
mass, above, below and sideward,
myelinated fibres radiate out towards
the periphery of the organ.

The morphological development of the

cerebellum, the posterior section of the
pallium, is completed at a comparatively
early period. In all vertebrates, it is
covered by ectocinerea, clearly
differentiated from the radiation of
myelinated fibres that occupies the
interior; and even in the lowest
vertebrates, the fishes, the cerebellar
cortex divides into a number of layers,
characterised by differences of
coloration. In the cerebellum of the amphibia, we find groups of nerve-cells intercalated in the
course of the myelinated fibres, -- the first traces of ganglionic nidi. In the birds, these increase in
number, while at the same time the layer-formation of the cortex becomes plainer, and an
increase in the mass of the cortical elements is rendered possible by superficial folding (Figg.
40, 49).

The cerebellum undergoes its final stage of structural development in the mammals. Here we
find, first, an unpaired median portion, the surface of which is crossed by transverse folds, and
which has received the descriptive name of vermis; and, secondly, more strongly developed
symmetrical lateral portions, the pilea. In the lowest mammals, it is true, the growth of the vermis
exceeds that of the pilea; but in the higher forms, the pilea grow out about it in all directions (Fig.
50). The development of the pilea is accompanied by a more vigorous growth of the middle
peduncles, which in the lower vertebrates are merely indicated by slender transverse fibre-tracts
to the oblongata. The transverse folds of the ectocinerea increase in number, and show in cross-
section the well known dendritic appearance of the arbor (arbor vitae, av Fig. 50). At the same
time, larger ganglionic nidi appear in the radiation of myelinated fibres within the cerebellar
mass. Thus each pileum contains a dentate nucleus, similar to that of the olives (nucleus
dentatus cerebelli, cn). Other cinereal nidi, analogous in function, are scattered among the alba
of the pons; their cells are intercalated between the decussations of the various fibre-bundles.[p.
123]

§5. The Mesencephalon

The mesencephalon -- the division of the caudex which corresponds to the bigemina (lobi optici)
of the lower vertebrate; and the quadrigemina of mammals (t, n Fig. 48; d Fig. 37) -- contains
two formations of grey matter, entocinerea and nidal cinerea; only the secondary vesicles
develope the ectocinereal pallium. The entocinerea surrounds the Sylvian aqueduct in a layer of

101
moderate thickness; the most anteriorly
situated nerve-nidi (those of the
oculomotor and trochlear nerves and of
the upper root of the trigeminus) are in
connexion with it. Ganglionic nidi are
found scattered through the bigemina
or quadrigemina, and intercalated in the
course of the myelinated fibre-tracts
that pass below the Sylvian aqueduct.
These are paired tracts of alba, united
in the median line, and forming in the
first place continuations of the ventral
and lateral columns of the oblongata.
Anteriorly, they are strengthened by the
addition of longitudinal fibre-tracts,
proceeding from the quadrigemina and
thalami. They are termed, over their
whole extent from oblongata to cerebral
hemispheres, the brain crura (crura
cerebri). The mesencephalic portion of
the crura in the mammalian brain contains two well marked ganglionic nidi, the one of which,
characterised by its dark coloration, is known as the intercalatum (substantia nigra of
Soemmering: sn Fig. 51). It divides the crus of either side into a posterior and exterior portion,
the crusta (basis pedunculi, pes cruris cerebri; f Figg. 47, 51), and an anterior and median
portion, the tegmentum (tegmentum pedunculi; hb Figg. 47, 51). The most anterior extremity of
the median portion, a band of alba which curves anteriorly into a fillet, and directly underlies the
quadrigemina, is termed the lemniscus (ribbon; or laqueus, fillet; sl Fig. 51). A second tegmental
nidus is named from its colour the [p. 124] rubrum (nucleus tegmenti; hb Fig. 56). Dorsal of the
crura lie the quadrigemina (v Fig. 51). Posteriorly, they are connected with the superior
cerebellar peduncles; anteriorly and laterally, they give out myelinated fibres, which in part
mingle with the fibres of the tegmentum, in part pass into the thalami, and in part form the fibres
of origin of the optic nerves. The connexion with thalami and optic nerves is mediated, in the
mammalian brain, by the quadrigeminal brachia (ta Fig. 48). The pregemina are joined by the
prebrachia to the thalami, and the postgemina by the postbrachia to the postgeniculum. In the
space between the pregemina and the posterior extremity of the thalami lies the epiphysis
(conarium, pineal body; z Figg. 48, 51), which Descartes, in the old days, looked upon as the
'seat of the mind.' It is a highly vascular structure, which genetically represents, in all probability,
a rudimentary sense-organ: it is supposed to be the central remnant of a median eye, functional
in the primitive vertebrates. The mammalian quadrigemina are, as we have already seen (p.
111), completely solid. They are connected by a lamina of alba, which posteriorly forms the
direct continuation of the valvula, and anteriorly passes into the postcommissure (cp Fig. 53)
running along the boundary-line of quadrigemina and thalami.

§6. The Diencephalon

102
The diencephalon, or region of the thalami, is smaller than the mesencephalon in all the lower
vertebrates (f Fig. 37, p. 109); in the mammalian brain their relation is reversed (th Figg. 47, 48,
51). In the fishes, however, we have an indication of the change: a paired continuation of the
diencephalon extends posteriorly to the base of the brain, and there appears in the form of two
hemispherical prominences, lying ventrally and somewhat anteriorly of the bigemina (lobi optici).
These are the inferior lobes of the fish-brain (li Fig. 41, p. 111). They enclose a cavity, which
stands in connexion with the diacele, the cleft-like aperture

resulting from the anterior roof-slit and dividing

the diencephalon into the two thalami. At the
place where the inferior lobes meet in the
median line, they are continued into an
unpaired structure, the hypophysis (h Fig. 41),
whose dorsal portion is an evagination of the
diencephalon, while its ventral half is a
remnant of embryonic tissue that originally
belonged to the anterior extremity of the gullet,
and remained in conjunction with the
diencephalon when the base of the cranium
developed. The hypophysis persists in the
higher vertebrates, after the inferior lobes have
entirely disappeared in consequence of the
more vigorous development of the crura (h Fig.
52). The only point at which the ganglionic
substance of the diencephalon appears, in
these [p. 125] forms, is between the divergent
crura, where we find a grey prominence, the
tuber cinereum. This is continued anteriorly in
the direction of the hypophysis, in a funnel-
shaped prolongation, the infundibulum (i Fig.
38; t Fig. 47). The infundibulum contains a
small cavity, communicating dorsally with the
diacele. The entrance of small blood-vessels
into the brain-mass gives the cinerea between
the crura a perforated, sieve-like appearance;
the region is termed the postcribrum (lamina
perforata posterior; pp Figg. 47, 52). In the
mammalian brain, two myelinated prominences, the albicantia (corpora candicantia or
mammillaria; cc), issue ventrally from the floor of the diencephalon. Situated immediately in front
of the anterior line of the pons, they bound the tuber posteriorly, as infundibulum and hypophysis
bound it anteriorly. Their genetic signification is still uncertain.

The diencephalon, like the mesencephalon, contains two formations of grey matter, entocinerea
and nidal cinerea. In the first place, the interior of the diacele is lined with a cinereal layer, which
at the same time invests a thin band of alba, joining the two thalami, and termed the
medicommissure (cm Fig. 51). The entocinerea of the diacele extends ventrally to the brain-[p.

103
126]base, where it is directly continuous with the tuber and infundibulum. Secondly, however, a
number of ganglionic nidi, separated by masses of alba, are scattered throughout the interior of
the thalami (th Fig. 56). Similar nidi may be found in two smaller rounded prominences, which in
mammals form the posterior boundary of the thalami and externally are in connexion with them,
the pregeniculum and postgeniculum (k k' Fig. 48, p. 120). The fibres of origin of the optic nerve
interlace with the fibres of both genicula, and the postgeniculum alsohreceives [sic] the
quadrigeminal postbrachium. The anterior and lateral portions of the thalami show a gentle roof-
slope; posteriorly, the dorsal surface is separated from the ventral by a marginal swelling, the
pulvinar (pv Fig. 47, p. 119)

§7. The Prosencephalon

(a) -- The Brain Cavities and the Surrounding Parts

In the earlier stages of its development, the prosencephalon is a vesicular structure, overlying
the diencephalon. Originally simple, it is later divided by the anterior roof-slit into symmetrical
halves, entirely separate save for the continuity of their floor. At the place where the roof-slit of
the diencephalon is continued into the intercerebral fissure, the diencephalic cavity was

primitively in open communication with the two paraceles. In all the vertebrates (except the
fishes, whose hemispheres are solid structures: p. 111), the vascular trunk that penetrates the

104
cavity of the diencephalon sends out a large number of branches from it into the hemicerebral
vesicles. When the diencephalon becomes so far solid, by growth of the constituent nerve-mass,
that only the diacele (third ventricle) is left, the earlier doors of communication are almost entirely
closed; only two very narrow apertures are left, at the anterior end of the diacele, which permit of
the entrance of blood-vessels into the hemicerebral cavities. These are the portae (foramina of
Monro: mo Fig. 53), the remnants of the original aula (Fig. 43, p. 113). They are separated
anteriorly by a septum of alba, which represents the posterior line of junction of the two
prosencephalic vesicles. The floor of the septum is usually formed of large bundles of
myelinated fibres, transverse in direction, termed the precommissure (ca). In the reptilian, and
still more in the avian and mammalian brains, the hemispheres come to such a growth as to arch
more or less completely over the diencephalon. As a result of this, the paraceles run out
posteriorly, and the thalami, instead of lying behind the hemispheres, as they did at first, form
prominences that project with the greater part of their surface into the paraceles, and show only
their internal faces to the diacele.[p. 127]

The grey matter of the prosencephalon occurs in all three possible formations. As entocinerea, it
covers the walls of the diacele, and therefore, more especially, the inner faces of the thalami and
the cavity of the infundibulum, as well as the whole of the infundibular region; as ganglionic
cinerea, it forms considerable masses, intercalated in the course of the continuations of the
crura below the thalami; and as ectocinerea, it invests the hemicerebral pallium at large. The
position of these collections of grey matter, and their relation to the radiations of myelinated
fibres, are the essential conditions of the structure of the prosencephalon. In all vertebrates,
except the fishes and amphibia, the ganglionic nidi are placed upon the floor of the paraceles.
They there form rounded prominences,[p. 128] from which myelinated fibres radiate out towards
the periphery of the hemispheres.

The lowermost stratum of the floor of the paraceles is, therefore, composed of the continuations
of the ascending and diverging crura. Upon these rest, first of all, the thalami. New tracts of alba
issue from the thalami, and join and reinforce the crural bundles that run forwards and outwards
below them. These
terminal radiations of
the crus, at the anterior
and external border

of each thalamus, are,

again, intermixed with
large ganglionic nidi.
The result is that the
floor of the paracele
rises in a rounded
prominence of
considerable extent,
which forms the anterior
and exterior boundary
of the thalamus. It is
termed the striatum (st

105
Figg. 54, 55). The club-like extremity, lying anteriorly of the thalamus, is called the caput; the
narrower portion, surrounding the thalamus exteriorly, the cauda. Striatum and thalamus
together cover the entire floor of the paracele. The surface of the striatum is invested with a
tolerably thick layer of cinerea, whereas the thalamus (i.e., that portion of its surface which
projects into the paracele) is covered by a lamina of alba. Along the border of thalamus and
striatum lies a narrow hand of alba, the tenia (stria terminalis, strin cornea: sc Fig. 55). The
ganglionic nidi of the striatum appear in the mammalian brain, as three characteristically shaped
masses. The first is directly connected with the grey investment of the striatum; it follows the
arch of the peripheral surface, and so acquires a curving [p. 129] form, which has given it the
name of caudatum (nucleus caudatus: st Fig, 56). It constitutes, with the myelinated masses that
begin their course below it, the striatum in the narrower sense. A second and very considerable
nidus, the lenticula (nucleus lentiformis: lk), lies to the outside of the caudatum. In vertical
section it appears as a triangle, whose apex points towards the internal edge of the striatum,
while its base extends far out into the alba of the hemisphere. The lenticular

cinerea is divided up by intervening myelinated fibres

into three groups, two external and ribbon-shaped,
and one internal and triangular. The third and last
nidus of the striatum lies outward from the lenticula. It,
too, has the form of a narrow ribbon of tissue, and
surrounds the third subdivision of the lenticula. It is
named, from the closeness of its approach to the brain
surface, the rampart or claustrum (nucleus
taeniaeformis: cl). Ventrally from the claustrum, and
near the cortex of the brain-base, lies yet another
small nidus, the amygdala (mk).[6] These ganglionic
nidi of the hemispheres take up many of the
myelinated fibres that spring from the quadrigemina
and thalami; others pass under the striatum and
forwards, without coming into connexion with its
cinerea. Above the nidi, the myelinated bundles
coming up from below radiate out from the whole
extent of the striatum, in the most various directions,
toward the cerebral cortex. The terminal division of the
great longitudinal fibre-tract, that begins in the
columns of [p. 130] the myel, then passes over into
the columns of the oblongata, and thereafter takes its
place among the bundles of the crura, is the corona
(corona radiata; m). The factors which most largely
determine the arrangement of its fibres are those
discussed just now, as concerned in the formation of
the paraceles. Since the vascular plexuses that find
their way into the cavities spread over the entire floor,
the coronal fibres which are to continue the crura

106
cortexward must curve out around the vessels at the periphery, in order to attain their goal.

The terminal division of the prosencephalon consists of the two olfactory bulbs or olfactory gyres
(rhinencephalon). In most fishes, the rhinencephalonis so strongly developed that it not seldom
surpasses in extent all the remaining portions of the prosencephalon. In the higher classes of
vertebrates, and especially in the birds, it decreases in importance; but in the lower mammals it
appears again as a structure of relatively considerable size (cf. Figg. 37, 38, 49, 54). In the
mammalian brain it forms special gyri, which issue from the brain-base and project to a greater
or less degree beyond the frontal portion of the prosencephalon. The olfactory bulbs contain
cavities, the rhinoceles, which communicate with the prosocele (paraceles). In some of the
mammalian orders, viz., in the cetacea and (to a less extent) in the apes and in man, the
rhinencephalon degenerates.[p. 131] The olfactory bulbs lie far back under the frontal regions of
the hemispheres and are connected by a narrow stalk, the olfactory tract, to the middle part of
the brain-base (Fig. 52, p. 125). The area which serves as point of departure for the tract, the
olfactory area, presents a sieve-like appearance due to the incoming of numerous small vessels,
and is consequently termed the precribrum (lamina perforata anterior: sp Figg. 47, 52).

The fuller development of the prosencephalon brings with it a radical transformation of the two
lateral ventricles, the paraceles. This is due, in part, to the growth of the hemicerebral masses
which enclose them, but in part also to the appearance of special

structures which project into the

cavities. As the hemispheric vesicle of
the mammalian brain arches back over
the diencephalon and mesencephalon,
the portion that lies behind the Sylvian
fossa takes a downward turn (Figg. 36,
42, p. 108, 112). The result is that the
paracele possesses two branches, or
cornua, as they are termed: a precornu,
bounded on the outside by the arched
wall of the hemisphere, and a
medicornu (cornu inferius) whose
extremity is drawn out to a point. The
growth of the hemispheric vesicle over
the caudex is accompanied throughout
its progress (as we have already seen:
p. 114 above) by a parallel growth of
the aula (foramen of Monro), the
original means of communication
between prosocele and diacele. As the
aula, then, curves over the caudex, at
first posteriorly and then ventrally, what
was originally its dorsal extremity
coincides with the pointed end of the
medicornu. The part of the aperture that

107
now lies in the anterior wall of the medicornu forms a fissure (the hippocampal fissure, of which
more presently), which is occluded by a vascular plexus from the pia (fh Fig. 56). In fine,
therefore, the primitive aula remains open at beginning and end, but is closed over its middle
portion by myelinated fibres. These belong to the fornix and callosum, structures which we shall
discuss in the following section.

In the brain of the primates (the apes and man), the conformation of the paraceles undergoes
yet another change, due to the large development of the occipital portion of the hemispheres.
The outer wall of each paracele pushes vigorously backwards before it takes the curve
downwards, so that the cavity itself is prolonged in the same direction. We thus have a
postcornu (cp Fig. 51, p. 123) in addition to the precornu and medicornu. The backward growth
of the prosencephalon stops, as it were, with a jerk, to continue forwards and downwards. This
fact is attested both by the outward appearance of the occipital region, and by the shape of the
postcornu, which is drawn out into an even finer point than the medicornu. In the apes, the
postcornu is smaller than it is in man; in other mammals with strongly developed hemispheres,
as e.g. the cetacea, it is no more than a trace or rudiment of what it is later to become.[p. 132]

(b) -- Fornix and Commissural System

At the anterior extremity of the primitive aula, the two hemispheres grow together in the middle
line. The resulting strip of alba is termed the terma (lamina terminalis: bd Fig. 43, p. 113). The
backward curvature of the hemispheres round the transverse axis of the diencephalon naturally
brings with it a corresponding curvature of the terma. Its most ventral and anterior extremity
becomes a band of cross-fibres, connecting the two hemispheres, and known as the
precommissure (k Fig. 43). In its further course it divides into two lateral halves running
longitudinally from before backwards, on either side of the median fissure. We find the first
beginnings of these longitudinal fibre-tracts in the birds, but they do not attain to any high degree
of development until we reach the mammals, where they constitute the fornix. Closely
approximated anteriorly, the columns of the fornix diverge as they pass backwards. The
myelinated fibres of their anterior extremity extend ventrally to the brain-base, where they stand
in connexion with the alba of the albicantia (Fig. 53, p. 127). The fibres of their posterior
extremity are distributed in man and the apes into two bundles, the smaller of which comes to lie
upon the inner wall of the postcornu, and the larger upon the inner wall of the medicornu of the
paracele. The projection thus occasioned in the wall of the postcornu is termed the calcar (pes
hippocampi minor), that in the medicornu, the hippocampus (pes hippocampi major: Fig. 55).
These prominences are, however, constituted in part of other factors, which we shall discuss
later. In the other mammals, which have not developed a postcornu, and which therefore cannot
possess the calcar, the whole mass of fornix-fibres passes over into the hippocampus.[7]

The formation of the fornix appears to stand in intimate relation to that of another transverse
fibre-system whose appearance is even more definitely characteristic of the mammalian brain. In
the monotremes and marsupials, new fibre-tracts are observed to issue from the hippocampus
(cornu ammonis). They run dorsally of the incoming fornix-fibres, and pass above the
diencephalon to the opposite half of the brain, where they terminate, as they began, in the
hippocampus. The transverse commissure that thus arises between the two hippocampi is the
original primule of the callosum. In the non-placental mammals, in which the callosum is this

108
restricted to a mere cross-commissure between the two hippocampi, the precommissure [p. 133]
is very strongly developed, as it is in the birds, though a free space is left between it and the
callosum. In the placental mammals, the hippocampal commissure is reinforced by additional
transverse fibre-tracts, which radiate out into the hemicerebral alba at large. They make their
first appearance at the anterior end of the future callosum, so that the development of the
callosum itself proceeds from before backwards. At the same time, the precommissure
decreases in size, and enters by way of a thin and still transverse lamella of alba (Fig. 53 ca)
into connexion with the anterior extremity of the callosum, the 'beak' or rostrum. This junction of
precommissure and rostrum results in the anterior occlusion of the intercerebral fissure.
Between the broad posterior extremity of the callosum, the splenium, and the dorsal surface of
the cerebellum, there still remains, however, a narrow passage, by which the diacele can
communicate with the surrounding space (the passage is visible in Fig. 53 as the dark space
between epiphysis and splenium). This is continued laterally as a narrow cleft, leading into the
paracele. We have, in it the remnant of the original anterior roof-slit, whereby the vascular
plexuses gain access to the three anterior brain-cavities (p. 114).

In most mammalian brains, the hippocampal commissure persists as a relatively large portion of
the entire callosum (bk Fig. 57 A). Moreover, since the occipital brain is here but little developed,
and the anterior brain-ganglia, the thalami and striata, also decrease very considerably in mass,
the hippocampus is brought forwards to the point of origin of the fornix. The fornix itself
immediately separates on either side into two divisions, the one of which forms the anterior and
the other the posterior boundary of the hippocampus (f and f' Fig. 57 B).[8] It is, however, not
until we reach the higher mammals that we find any considerable development of the fornix.
Between the callosum and the deeper-lying fornicolumns are now spread two thin vertical
lamellae of alba, enclosings a narrow cleft-like cavity. These are the septa (septa pellucida: sp
Fig. 33). Fornix and septa occlude the internal openings of the paraceles; nothing is left but the
beginning of the original aula, just behind the anterior place of origin of the fornicolumns (porta
or foramen of Monro: mo Fig. 53; cf. i Fig. 43, p. 113). Between the lateral halves of the septa is
the cleft-like cavity just mentioned; it communicates posteriorly with the diacele, and is termed
the pseudocele (cavum or ventriculus septi pellucidi). The callosal radiations form the roof and a
portion of the outer wall of the paraceles. As external capsule, they skirt the external margin of
the lenticula. On their way to the cortex, where they terminate, they interlace at all points (the
posterior strands excepted) with the fibres of the corona. The posterior fibres, coming from [p.
134] the hippocampi and their neighbourhood, do not receive any admixture of coronal fibres. In
the lower mammals, they appear simply and solely as the hippocampal commissure (Fig. 57 A);
in the primates, they divide into two parts; an internal, passing over into hippocampus and calcar
(am and vk Fig. 55); and an external, which curves ventrally in front of the coronal fibres running
to the cortex of the occipital lobe (m' Fig. 58), and forms the outer wall of the postcornu of the
paracele. This is termed the tapetum (tp Fig. 51, p. 123).

We have seen that the fornix is the fibre-tract proceeding from the terma (lamina terminalis) of
the aula; and we have followed the course which it takes as the outgrowing hemispheres arch
over the brain-caudex. The same direction is taken by the portion

109
of the hemicerebral wall lying immediately anterior to the terma. There is a difference, however.
The floor of the hemispheres is continuous from the first, and the fornix has, therefore, no
investment of grey matter. This anterior portion, on the other hand, which comes to lie dorsally to
the fornix as the result of the hemispheric curvature, is not included in the original area of
continuity, and is accordingly covered with a layer of cinerea over its median surface. After the
callosum has forced a passage across the brain, it is separated by the callosal fibres from the
fornix, and forms a longitudinal gyre running dorsal to the callosum. It is termed the callosal gyre
(gyrus fornicatus or cingulum: Gf Fig. 53, p. 127).[p. 135]

In certain mammalian brains, where the frontal part of the prosencephalon is but little developed,
while the callosal gyre is large,

110
it can be traced anteriorly from a point
directly behind the base of the olfactory
tract. After curving over the callosum, it
again emerges posteriorly at the brain-
base. Here it passes over into a gyre
lying behind the Sylvian and bounding
the median fissure; the hippocampal
gyre, the outer wall of the hippocampus
(H Fig. 53). Where the callosum begins,
the layer of cinerea ceases; the lower
surface of the callosal gyre, the surface
adjacent to the callosum, consists of
unmixed white matter. The sole
exception is a narrow stria of cinerea,
isolated from the rest of the cortex,
which has persisted in its posterior
portion. This is known as the fasciola (fc
Fig. 59); it lies immediately above the
callosum. The fasciola is free, over its
whole extent, from any admixture of
alba; so that the longitudinal myelinated
fibres upon which it rests are entirely
separated from the remaining white
matter of the callosal [p. 136] gyre.
When the gyre is removed from the
callosum, these fibres, together with the
fasciola which invests their posterior
portion, remain attached to it, they
appear as a myelinated stria, and have
received a special name, tenia tecta or
lateral stria (sl Figg. 58, 59). The
importance of this separation of lateral
stria, and fasciola from the rest of the
myelinated and cortical substance of
the callosal gyre lies in the fact that the
structures remain isolated at the point of transition from callosal to hippocampal gyre.[9] Alba
and cortex of the callosal gyre pass directly over into alba and cortex of the hippocampal. Really,
therefore, the two are but one: the only difference between the parts being that the callosal gyre
is not invested with cinerea over its ventral surface, the surface adjacent to the callosum,
whereas with transition to the hippocampal gyre the cortex spreads out again over the entire
surface of the convolution. Now at the point where the callosal gyre leaves the splenium and
becomes the hippocampal gyre, -- at the point i.e. where the cortex which has previously
invested the inner surface only extends over the ventral as well, -- the lateral stria divides from
the rest of the white matter of the gyre, and appears upon the surface of the gyrus hippocampi.
This means, of course, that the fasciola, which lies just below the lateral stria, must divide from

111
the rest of the cortex; the lateral stria forms a partition between cinerea and cinerea. The result
is that we have, at the point in question, a cortical layer covered by a lamella

of alba, and this again covered by a grey cortex. The

two most superficial layers, lateral stria and fasciola,
are, it must be remembered, strictly limited in area;
they extend only over the hippocampal gyre. Indeed,
they cover only a portion of that; for the white and
grey areas are not coincident. The alba of the lateral
stria is distributed over the entire cortex of the
hippocampal gyre, as an extremely thin reticular layer
of white fibres. This reticular alba is the only white
layer that appears upon the cortical surface of the
hemispheres (sr Fig. 59; cf. also H Fig. 53, p. 127).
The fas-[p. 137]ciola, on the other hand, retains its
ribbon-like form; it covers, not the whole radiation of
the white fibres of the lateral stria, but only a certain
group of them, the group lying in the fissure which
forms the interior boundary of the hippocampal

gyre. From the peculiar toothed

appearance that it has at this part of its course it is known as the fascia
dentata (fd Fig. 59). The fissure which forms the interior boundary of the
hippocampal gyre corresponds to the hippocampal projection into the medi-
cornu of the paracele. The formation of the hippocampus -- to which, as we
have seen, fibres from callosum and fornix contribute -- is thus completed by
contributions from the various regions of the callosal gyre. The white layer
which invests the paracele-surface of the hippocampus is formed by the fibres
of callosum and fornix (Fig. 60). It is followed by a first cinereal layer, the
cortex of the hippocampal gyre (r); externally to that comes a second layer of
alba, the continuation of the lateral stria or the reticular alba (H) distributed
over the cortex of the gyrus hippocampi; and, lastly, beyond that follows a
second cinereal layer, the fascia dentata, the continuation of the fasciola (fd).
This extends, as we have said, only to the fissure which corresponds to the
hippocampal projection. The same fissure forms the inner boundary of the
reticular alba. Along the line at which the alba ceases, the grey matter of the
fascia dentata is continuous with the cortex of the hippocampal gyre; so that
here the two cinereal layers which fill the interior of the hippocampus are
brought into contact. At the precise point where this transition takes place, the internal white
investment of the hippocampus terminates in a free reflected border, the fimbria (fi).

(c) -- The Development of the Outward Conformation of the Brain

We have now passed in review those divisions of the brain which appear in the general course
of neural evolution.

112
 This articulation into parts is paralleled by a
series of changes in outward form, the final
outcome of which is dependent partly upon the
degree of general development to which the
particular brain has attained, and partly upon
the relative growth of the individual parts. In the
lowest vertebrates, the brain has gained but
little upon the simplest embryonic form which is
given with the separation [p. 138] of the
primitive brain-vesicle into its five subdivisions.
The whole range of structural difference is here
practically exhausted by differences in the
relative size of these subdivisions; the only
further determinant of final brain-form is the
development of the olfactory lobe as an
outgrowth from the prosencephalon. A much greater variety of configuration appears as soon as
the pallial structures begin to invest the brain-caudex. The covering of quadrigemina (bigemina)
and cerebellum by cerebral hemispheres and of oblongata by cerebellum, and the degree of
encephalic flexure, bring in their train a long series of structural peculiarities; and the list is still
further swelled by differences in the outward form of the hemispheres, by the development or
lack of development of the cerebellar pilea, by the corresponding appearance or non-
appearance of certain nidal structures (such as the olives) on the oblongata, and by the
development of a pons.

The point where the cerebral hemisphere originally rested upon the brain-caudex is marked, in
all mammalian brains without exception, by the Sylvian fossa (S Fig. 42, p. 112). In the higher
mammals, the edges of the fossa draw together, so
that we

find in its place a deep fissure, the Sylvian fissure

(fissura Sylvii). The fissure usually runs obliquely,
from posterior-dorsal to anterior-ventral; its
divergence from the vertical is determined by the
growth of the occipital brain and its extension over the
posterior parts of the system (Fig. 61). In the highest
mammalian order, that of the primates, the Sylvian
fissure undergoes a final and characteristic
transformation. The frontal and occipital brains here
develope simultaneously and the fossa formed by the
growth of the hemispheres over the caudex
consequently appears, at the very beginning of the
embryonic life, as a roughly outlined triangle, lying
base upward. The edges, above, below and behind,
then grow towards each other, and the fossa closes to
form a Y-shaped fissure (S Fig. 62), dividing into an
anterior and a posterior ramus (s1 and s2. Cf. also Fig.

113
65) The part of the hemisphere that lies between the two rami, and roofs in the original fossa
from above, is termed the [p. 139] operculum (K). If the operculum is turned back, and the floor
of the Sylvian fossa exposed, the underlying hemispheric surface proves to be bulged out and,
like all the rest, divided by fissures into a number of gyres. The brain-region which is concealed
and isolated in this peculiar way is known as the central lobe or island (insula Reilii; Fig. 56 J, p.
130). The two rami of the Sylvian fissure form the customary points of departure for the division
of the hemicerebra of the primate brain into separate regions or lobes. The portion lying
anteriorly of the anterior ramus is termed the frontal lobe (F Fig. 62); the space included between
the rami, the parietal lobe (P); the region behind the Sylvian fissure, the occipital lobe (O); and
the area situated ventrally of it, the temporal lobe (T). These lobes pass into one another, on the
convex surface of the brain, without any sharp line of demarcation.

Not only does the Sylvian fissure divide the surface of the hemispheres at large into a number of
lobes: there are certain other and smaller areas that are marked off from their surroundings by
furrows or fissures. Thus the longitudinal fibre-tract running dorsal to the callosum from before
backwards, and then curving ventrally round the splenium, -- the area with which we have
become familiar as the callosal gyre, -- may be recognised by the presence of definite fissures,
separating it from the surrounding parts (Gf Fig. 53, p. 127). In all mammalian brains, in
particular, we can trace on the median surface of the hemispheres the margin along which the
investment of the inner portion of the callosal gyre is deflected into the medicornu of the
paracele (hippocampal fissure: fh Fig. 56, p. 130); while in most of them the callosal gyre is also
bounded during its course upwards over the callosum, by a longitudinal fissure, the callosal
fissure (sulcus callosomarginalis: C Fig. 53). In the same way, the olfactory lobe or olfactory gyre
at the base of the prosencephalon is almost always set off by an inner and an outer fissure, the
entorhinal and ectorhinal fissures; though in the human brain the two have fused to one (sr Fig.
52, p. 125). [p. 140] All these fissures and furrows are occasioned, then, by the growth of the
hemispheres round their point of application to the diencephalon (Sylvian fissure), by the
occlusion of the external fissure of the medicornu (hippocampal fissure), or by the course of
determinate bundles of myelinated fibres appearing on the ventral and median surface of the
hemispheres (callosal, entorhinal and ectorhinal fissures). Since the structural relations that
condition them are characteristic of the mammals as a class, they form, as soon as they can be
traced at all, entirely constant features of the mammalian brain.

But there are other fissures, less uniform in their course, which give the brain-pallium of the
mammals a variously convoluted appearance. The surface of cerebrum and cerebellum is split
up by them into numerous gyres. The cerebellar gyres are, on the whole, arranged with more
regularity than the cerebral; they form narrow ridges, set vertically upon the underlying alba, and
following for the most part a transverse direction. On the cerebrum, whose folds are not unlike
the convolutions of the intestine, it is often difficult to recognise any definite law of gyre-
formation. The common cause of all these ridges and foldings of the brain-surface is evidently to
be found in the disproportionate growth of the cortex and of the myelinated tracts that radiate
into it. When a body increases in mass, its surface, of course, enlarges less rapidly than its
volume. But the cells of the brain surface have to take up the fibres of the interior alba; and so
surface-extent must be roughly proportional to volume, and this relation must be maintained with
approximate constancy throughout the whole period of development. It is obvious, then, that the
cortex has no way of keeping pace with the increase of alba except by folding. And it is for this

114
reason that, both in the organic series and in the course of individual development, the
convolution of the brain-surface increases with increase of the size of the brain.

The convolution of the cerebellum is found in its simplest form in the birds. The avian cerebellum
has no pilea, and so appears, in dorsal aspect, as an unpaired structure of a more or less
spherical or ovoid form. The surface of this organ us split up into transverse folds, roughly
circular or elliptical in shape, all intersecting in an axis laid transversely through the centre of the
sphere or ovoid: the transverse axis is, therefore, in this case the common axis of convolution for
all gyres visible upon the surface of the cerebellum (Fig. 49 A, p. 121). If we bisect the organ at
right angles to the direction of this axis, we find that the depth of the fissures bounding the
separate prominences varies: the ridges fall into groups of two or three, marked off from one
another by shallow depressions, but divided from the neighbouring groups by deeper fissures
(Fig. 40 B, p. 110). In the mammals, the convolution becomes more complicated; each of the
groups of ridge-like prominences marked off by the deeper fissures contains a large number of
[p. 141] separate gyres. Moreover, it frequently happens that several of these groups are
isolated by dividing fissures, and so form still larger units, lobes. The consequence is that most
of the gyres come to lie in the depth of the larger fissures, and that only the terminal lamellae
appear on the surface. Hence we have in sections the well known representation of a tree, with
its spreading leaves and branches, termed by the older anatomists the arbor vitae (av Fig. 50, p.
121; cf. also W Fig. 53, p. 127) Further, while this fissural differentiation is in progress, the
median portion or vermis of the cerebellum is reinforced by the large, bilaterally symmetrical
pilea. If the arrangement of gyres upon the pilea is fairly regular, as in man, the principal axis of
convolution is again the transverse. The rule is broken, however, along the anterior and posterior
margins, where the gyres gradually change their course to take an oblique or even longitudinal
direction, all alike converging towards the point of attachment of pileum to vermis (Fig. 50). For
the rest, many mammalian cerebella evince a great variety in the course of their gyres, more
especially upon the pilear surfaces, so that no definite law of gyre-formation can be made out.
This is most apt to occur in brains whose cerebellum is richly convoluted. In the human
cerebellum itself there are certain divisions, isolated by important fissures,[10] in which the
course of the gyres diverges more or less widely from the general trend.

An increase by convolution of the superficial extent of the cerebrum is found only in the higher
vertebrate classes. And the brains even of the lowest orders of mammals show, at most, only
the fissures and gyres described above (Sylvian fissure, hippocampal fissure, etc.), which are
due to special causes, distinct from those that produce the remaining ridges and furrows. When
once these latter have appeared, however, they persist in practically the same pattern
throughout the mammalian series, up to and including the primates. The rule is that all fissures
and gyres running from before backwards take a course which is approximately parallel to that of
the median fissure; most of them are also reflected in a curve round the Sylvian fissure (cf. Fig.
61 I, II, III, p. 138). That is to say, the gyres take the same direction that the hemispheres take in
their growth round the brain-caudex, -- the direction from before backwards; and they are
reflected round the point of application to the diencephalon in a curve which repeats the curve of
hemicerebral growth. The degree of curvature is determined by the depth and extent of the
Sylvian fossa or fissure. The number of longitudinal folds which thus appear on the surface of
the cerebrum varies in general, in the various mammalian orders, between two and five. In many
cases, one or another of them forms a junction, at some [p. 142] point of its course, with the

115
neighbouring fold; and very frequently less well marked, secondary folds are formed, making an
angle with the primary. The convolution thus appears as an irregularly meandering system, in
which the general law of direction is more or less obscured. The case is very different with the
formation of folds in the frontal region of the cerebrum. A little anteriorly to the Sylvian fissure,
the longitudinal gyre-tract is replaced, suddenly or gradually, by an approximately transverse
ridging. At the same time, the secondary cross-fissures are often disposed radially about the
Sylvian fissure. In accounting for this mode of fissure-formation in the frontal brain-region, we
must remember that in all mammals, except the cetacea and primates (the orders in which the
olfactory gyres are to some extent degenerate), the callosa1 gyre comes to the surface in the
frontal area, and is separted from the more posterior gyres, at its point of issue, by a transverse
or oblique fissure; anteriorly, it passes directly over into the olfactory gyre, from which it is also
separated, though as a rule less distinctly, by another cross-fissure (Fig. 61, Gf). The point at
which the callosal gyre comes to the surface lies in some instances at a very short distance from
the anterior boundary of the brain. This is the case e.g. in the carnivores, where the gyre is
exceedingly broad, so that it and the olfactory gyre together occupy the entire area elsewhere
taken up by the frontal brain. In other brains, the point of issue lies more posteriorly. The
exposed portion of the callosal gyre is then, as a general rule, longer than it is broad; it merely
fills a narrow space to either side of the anterior part of the intercerebral fissure. The cross-
formation of which we are speaking is not confined, however, to the folds caused by the
protrusion of the callosal and olfactory gyres; all the other fissures of the anterior brain-region
take the same transverse direction. In some cases, the folds that run longitudinally in the
occipital area are deflected anteriorly into a transverse course; in others, the longitudinal furrows
are suddenly interrupted, and replaced by cross-fissures. We have a salient instance of the
former arrangement in the brain of the carnivores (Fig. 61), which is characterised by the
regularity and symmetry of its convolution; while the second type is represented by most of the
other richly convoluted mammalian brains, though here, too, certain of the longitudinal fissures
are not infrequently continued in the transverse direction. There are, as a rule, two principal
fissures of this and crossing the frontal brain, and the number holds, whether the fissures are
completely independent or pass over posteriorly into longitudinal fissures. To these must be
added, further, the posterior limiting fissure of the callosal gyre, and the fissure separating the
callosal and olfactory gyres. There is thus, upon the average, a total of four transverse fissures
in the frontal brain-region.[11][p. 143]

All these folds, longitudinal and transverse alike, are ordinarily visible only on the upper and
outer surface of the hemispheres.

The base of the brain is, in most instances, entirely

occupied by the gyres and fissures previously
described, -- anteriorly, i.e., by the olfactory gyre,
and posteriorly by the hippocampal gyre (ob, H
Fig. 61). If anything else can be seen, it is at most
simply a narrow margin belonging to the outermost
gyres of the brain-surface. Again, the greater
number of brains, when viewed in median section,
show only the callosal gyre and its continuations,
posteriorly into the hippocampal gyre, and

116
anteriorly into the olfactory gyre (Fig. 63); though in certain cases, where these structures are
not prominent -- as in the brains of the cetacea, of the apes and of man -- portions of the
superficial gyre-tracts may also make their appearance. But these brains deviate markedly in
other respects as well from the general law of fissuration evinced by the mammalian brain. In the
cetacea, whose organs of smell, peripheral and central, are completely atrophied, the callosal
gyre does not come to the surface, and no olfactory gyre is present at all. The brain is
extraordinarily broad; and the principal superficial fissures run over its whole length from before
backwards, as they do in the occipital brain-region of the other mammals.

In the primates, the fissuration of the brain follows a special law of evolution, characteristic of the
order. The olfactory gyre, which has dwindled into the olfactory bulb, lies concealed upon the
brain-base. The callosal gyre appears on the surface, but only in the occipital, not in the frontal
region of the brain. As the gyre curves posteriorly round the splenium, on its passage into the
uncus, it sends off a branch to the surface of the occipital lobe. This divides into two lobules, the
cuneus and precuneus (Pr, Cn Fig. 64). The intruding area forms a sort of island, bounded
before and behind by other gyres, from which it is ordinarily divided by fissures. The cuneus and
precuneus are also themselves separated by a deep transverse fissure, the occipital fissure (O).
The same transverse arrangement of gyres and fissures obtains, further, over the entire occipital
portion of the brain, from

the anterior extremity of the main ramus of the

[p. 144] Sylvian fissure (the Sylvian fissure in
the narrower sense) to the extreme posterior
limit of the occipital lobe. Anteriorly, the
principal fissure which runs in the transverse
direction, from above downwards, is the
central fissure (fissure of Rolando: R Fig. 65).
It is bounded before and behind, in the brain of
man and of the higher apes, by two transverse
folds, the precentral and postcentral gyres
(VC, HC Fig. 65). These are separated from
the adjacent parts -- the precentral from the
frontal gyres, and the postcentral gyre from the
precuneus -- by shorter cross-fissures. Finally,
a deep transverse fissure is found at the
posterior limit of the occipital brain. This is the
calcarine fissure, which separates the cuneus
from the gyres extending downward to the
brain-base (O'). We have, then, in all, on the surface of the occipital brain, five well-marked
transverse fissures, three of which belong to the offshoots of the callosal gyre and the adjoining
parts. On the other hand, the fissures and gyres of the frontal and temporal areas -- i.e. of the
region anterior to the presylvian and ventral to the subsylvian fissures -- tend in general to
pursue a longitudinal course, during which they are necessarily reflected in a curve round the
main ramus of the Sylvian fissure. Three of these longitudinal folds can be distinguished in the
frontal, and three in the temporal region; they constitute the three frontal and temporal gyres (F1-
F3, T1-T3), all of which run far enough to be visible at the base of the brain (Fig. 52, p. 125). The

117
three temporal are adjoined posteriorly to the three occipital gyres (O1-O3). In the area of
transition from the occipital to the temporal region, the folds follow a course that lies midway
between the transverse and the longitudinal; so that the three parietal gyres (P1-P3) show a
gradual passage from the one to the other direction. There is no parallel to this in the frontal
region: the three frontal gyres are interrupted suddenly and at right angles by the downward
course of the precentral. The essential difference, then, between the brain of the primates [p.
145] and that of the other mammals lies in the fact that the primates have the transverse fissures
in the occipital, and the longitudinal fissures in the frontal region, whereas most of the other
mammals have these relations exactly reversed. There is a corresponding difference in the
course of the callosal gyre. In the primates, the callosal gyre comes to the surface in the
posterior, in the lower mammals in the anterior region of the brain: a fact which can be brought
out most clearly by the comparison of a primate brain and the brain of another mammal in
median section (Figg. 63, 64). These differences are probably referable to the divergence of the
laws of growth in the two brain-forms. In most mammals, the developing brain has a strong
lateral growth in the occipital region, while the frontal area remains narrow; so that the whole
organ is wedge shaped, tapering from behind forwards. In the brain of the primates, on the
contrary, the growth of the occipital

region is predominantly in the

longitudinal, and the growth of
the frontal region predominantly
in the lateral direction. The organ
thus assumes the form of an
ovoid, whose lateral halves are
closely apposed anteriorly, but
posteriorly gape apart; while the
lesser height of the posterior
portion leaves room for the
growth of the cerebellum
beneath it. Embryology tells us
that the cross-fissures upon the
cerebrum of man (and probably
of the primates at large)
represent the original foldings of
the cortex.[p. 146] According to
ECKER, they begin to form upon the smooth cerebral surface as early as the fifth month,
whereas the first traces of longitudinal fissuration make their appearance in the course of the
seventh month.[12] Four or five of these transverse fissures, disposed radially with more or less
of regularity about the Sylvian fissure, may be traced upon the foetal brain. The most strongly
marked among them becomes the central fissure. In the apes, the central fissure is less
prominent than in man; but this defect is compensated by the greater development of the more
posteriorly situated occipital fissure, which has accordingly been termed the ape-cleft
(Affenspalte).[13] The calcarine fissure, lying still more posteriorly, can hardly been seen at all
on the human brain except in median section (Fig. 53, p. 127, and O', Fig. 65). It is this fissure
whose projection into the postcornu of the paracele forms the calcar of the primate brain (vk Fig.
55, p. 129). In man, it joins the occipital fissure at an acute angle, so that the cuneus shows as a

118
wedge-shaped lobule, apparently isolated from the callosal gyre (Cn Fig 53). In the apes, the
calcarine fissure is shallower, and the connexion of the cuneus with the callosal gyre can
accordingly be seen at once (Fig. 64). But while the portion of the primate brain that lies behind
the central fissure thus developes several well marked cross-fissures, the transverse fissuration
of the anterior half is much less pronounced. In place of it, we find throughout the frontal and
temporal regions the longitudinal fissures and gyres which we have mentioned as appearing at a
later stage of embryonic development. The three longitudinal folds that are distinguishable upon
every primate brain give rise to the three frontal (super-, medi-, sub-) and the three temporal
(super-, medi-, sub-) gyre-tracts (Fig. 65). These, however, do not form (as they do in many of
the other mammals) a, continuous convolution, arching over the Sylvian fissure. On the one
hand, the three frontal gyres are interrupted by the precentral gyre. On the other, only one of the
temporal gyres (the supertemporal) runs a complete course to the postcentral gyre, curving
boldly upwards round main ramus of the Sylvian fissure; the other two are deflected by the
precuneus and cuneus, the two lobules bounded by the other radial fissures of the occipital
brain, and then continued on the parietal brain-surface into the three parietal gyres (P1-P3).
These latter, situated as they are at the meeting point of different gyre systems, show the least
regular course of all: the third parietal gyre (P3), which bounds the posterior extremity of the
Sylvian fissure, has been named from its shape and position the angular gyre. On the median
surface of the brain, the first and second parietal gyres form the boundary of the precuneus and
cuneus (Pr, Cn, Fig. 53, p. 127) which here appear as direct continuations of the callosal gyre
(Gf). On the brain-base, the subtemporal gyre is connected anteriorly with the club-shaped
termination of the hippocampal gyre; posteriorly, it is continuous with the external ramus of an U-
shaped gyre-tract which occupies the base of the occipital brain and whose inner ramus is lost in
the stem of the hippocampal gyre (O Fig. 52, p. 125). The anterior portion of the brain-base is
occupied by the ventral deflections of the three frontal gyres. The medifrontal and subfrontal
become continuous on the margin of the Sylvian fissure (F2, F3, Fig. 52)[14][p. 147]

The law of fissuration of the brain-surface is, in the author's opinion, the resultant effect of two
sets of causes: of the tensions produced by the growth of the brain itself, and of the influence
upon the brain of the enclosing skull- capsule. The former condition may be appealed to in
explanation of the fissures that appear at the earliest period of development. If a surface is to
increase its extent by fold-formation, its ridges will of necessity follow the direction of least
resistance. If the surface is more tensely stretched in the transverse than in the longitudinal
direction, therefore, it will fall into transverse folds, or ridge up about a transverse axis, just like a
damp piece of paper that one holds in the hands and pulls out to right and left. If, on the other
hand, the tension is greater in the longitudinal direction, then the folds will be longitudinal, the
ridges disposed about a longitudinal axis. Suppose, then, that the fissuration is uniform, all the
folds takings a single direction: this will mean that the difference of surface-tension remained
constant over the whole period of growth. Irregularity of folding will mean, on the contrary, that
the line of greatest tension has varied. Now if a structure grows in different directions with
varying rapidity, its surface-tensions must vary in these same directions; and the direction of
greatest tension must lie at right angles to the direction of greatest energy of growth. A growing
structure, i.e., may be regarded as a coherent elastic body, in which the deformation caused by
growth at any given point increases the tension at all other points, the tension reaching its
maximum in the parts where the intrinsic deformation is minimal. The fissuration of the
cerebellum, where the laws of growth and folding are comparatively simple, seems to confirm

119
this principle; and the confirmation is all the more striking, since the position of the organ may be
supposed to exempt it from the influences of the skull-form. The growth Of the cerebellum,
during the entire period of its development, is predominantly in the longitudinal direction. Its
greatest surface-tension must, therefore, lie at right angles, in the transverse direction; and this
is, as a matter of fact, the direction of its fissuration. We should expect, on the same principle,
that the fold-formation of the primate cerebrum would show two stages, corresponding to two
distinct periods of growth: a first, in which the direction of maximal growth is the same for the
whole brain, from before backwards; and a second, in which the energy of growth over the
frontal and temporal regions is greater in the transverse direction. As a matter of fact, a
comparison of embryonic brains at different stages of development shows, at the first glance,
that the ratio of the two principal diameters of the human brain changes very considerably during
the period of structural elaboration. In the first weeks of development, the whole brain is
approximately spherical in form; the longitudinal diameter is but little larger than the greatest
transverse diameter. The line of greatest breadth crosses the brain behind the Sylvian fissure,
or, more correctly, since the temporal lobes are not yet developed, behind the Sylvian fossa. As
the fossa closes to form the fissure, the greatest transverse diameter is shifted anteriorly,
crossing the brain at the point where the temporal lobes grow over the margin of the fissure.
During this whole period, however, the longitudinal diameter of the hemispheres is gaining more
and more upon the cross-diameter; so that as early as the third month the ratio of the two is 1:
0.9, while in the course of the fifth and sixth it has fallen to 1: 0.7. This is the time of formation of
the first permanent fissures, all of which, without exception, take the transverse direction.[p. 148]

During the fifth month, the central, occipital, and calcarine fissures make their appearance; and
in the course of the sixth, the other primary radial fissures are added to their number.[15] From
the end of the sixth month, the laws of brain-growth begin to change. The total form of the brain,
as expressed in the ratio of the longitudinal to the greatest transverse diameter, remains
practically the same; but the growth of the various parts differs widely from the rule that has
previously obtained. If we compare the dorsal aspects of foetal brains, from the sixth to the
seventh month, we remark at once that the region extending posteriorly from the central fissure
is increasing in length and breadth in approximately the same ratio, but that the frontal portion of
the brain is growing more strongly in the transverse than in the longitudinal direction. The
temporal lobe undergoes a similar modification. Even in the foetus of six months, its anterior
extremity extends almost as far as the ventrally deflected margin of the frontal lobe; but it is still
narrow, so that the Sylvian fossa lies wide open. In the following months, the growth of the
temporal lobe is most vigorous in the upward, and comparatively slight in the longitudinal
direction, and, as a result, the fossa closes to form the fissure. Now the changes here sketched
are exactly coincident with the formation of the second system of folds, the longitudinal fissures.
Since the growth of the frontal brain is predominantly a transverse growth, the frontal gyres must
take a predominantly longitudinal direction. And since the most rapid growth of the temporal
lobes is upwards, the folds formed upon them must again run from behind forwards, taking a
curved path round the Sylvian fissure. Not only do the newly formed fissures follow this direction,
over both regions of the brain surface, but some of those that were originally disposed radially
about the Sylvian fissure have their course changed to the longitudinal or arching type. Thus the
central fissure itself assumes an oblique position; and the subfrontal and supertemporal fissures,
whose primules in the sixth month are radial or transverse, have their direction altered, and take
their places in the longitudinal fissure system. The case is different with the portion of the brain-

120
surface that lies between the central fissure and the posterior margin of the occipital lobe. Here
the transverse fissures, while they increase in depth and extent, for the most part retain their
original positions, and only gradually, as they approach the temporal lobe, pass over into a
longitudinal path.[16]

The resistance of the skull-capsule is, necessarily, antagonistic to brain-growth. It is probable,

however, that this influence is exerted only in the latest period of the embryonic life, and for a
time after birth, before the skull has acquired its permanent form. Its principal condition is the
varying rapidity of bone-growth along the various sutures, and the successive closure of these
as growth advances. If the growing brain meets with an external resistance such as would be
offered by the skull, it must evidently fold upon itself; and the direction of the folds will be the
direction of least resistance. Where the skull is of the dolichocephalic form, the course of the
fissures will thus be predominantly longitudinal, and where it is brachycephaiic, predominantly
transverse in direction. As a matter of fact, a connexion of this kind between skull-form and
domi-[p. 149]nant gyre-trend has been made out by L. MEYER [17] and RÜDINGER.[18] But the
actual convolution of a given brain will, of course, always be the resultant of the two sets of
conditions: the intrinsic tension; of growth, and the extrinsic resistances. The former will manifest
themselves most clearly in the course of the original fissures; the latter in the modifications
superinduced upon the original convolution at a later stage of development.

Notes

[1] The 'ventricles' are counted from before backwards, with the mesocele (Sylvian aqueduct)
omitted: two lateral ventricles (paraceles), third ventricle (diacele), fourth ventricle (metacele or
metepicele).
[2] HIS, Die Formentwickelung des menschlichen Vorderhirns. In Abh. d. k. sächs. Ges. d.
Wiss., math.-phys. Cl., xv., 1890, 675.
[3] In birds, the sinus rhomboidalis is not closed by proliferation of the nerve-mass, but remains
permanently open. It thus resembles the fossa rhomboidalis, the continuation of the myelocele in
the oblongata, which persists as an open depression in all vertebrate forms.
[4] Cf. below, Ch. vii. This 3
[5] These are the oculomotor and the trochlear nerves. The third oculomotor nerve, the fifth
cranial or abducent ocular, arises in the most anterior region of the oblongata.
[6] Many anatomists restrict the name striatum to the caudatum alone, i.e., do not extend it to
embrace the lenticula, The claustrum and amygdala must be regarded, from the form of their
cells, not as true ganglionic nidi, but as parts of the cortical cinerea, from which they are
separated by an intercalated lamina of alba.
[7] The question whether the apes have, like man, a postcornu to the paracele and a calcar (pes
hippocampi minor) led to a not very profitable controversy between OWEN, who took the
negative side, and HUXLEY. Cf. HUXLEY, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, 1863, 100,
113. The older writers on the ape-brain figure the postcornu. Cf. e.g. TIEDEMANN, Iconces
cerebri, 1825, 54. OWEN himself, in his later work, describes the rudiment of a postcornu in the
dolphin (Anatomy of Vertebrates, iii. 10). In the anthropoid apes, as HUXLEY has shown, the
calcar exists as well as the postcornu, only at a lower stage of development than in man.

121
[8] In human anatomy, the portion of the callosum which connects the two hippocampi is termed
the psalterium.
[9] The nerves of Lancisi, or striae mediae, belong not to the callosal gyre, but to the callosum
itself. See sm Fig. 58.
[10] Here belong more especially the flocculus (fl Fig. 52, p. 125) a small feather-like outgrowth
from the posterior margin of the middle peduncle (crus ad pontem), and the amygdala or tonsil
(to), an ovoid prominence covering the oblongata between the inferior portion of the vermis and
the pileum of either side.
[11] In the first three editions of this work, the statements of the text are illustrated by cuts of a
series of mammalian brains. See 3rd ed. Fig. 48, p. 86.
[12] ECKER, Archiv f. Anthropologie, iii., 1868, 203. PANSCH, ibid., 227.
[13] The morphological relations of the Affenspalte (fissura perpendicularis externa; Wilder's
pomatic fissure) are, in reality, more complicated than the author here represents them. --
TRANSLATOR.
[14] BISCHOFF, Abhandl. d. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., x., 1868. ECKER, Die Hirnwindungen des
Menschen, 1869. PANSCH, Die Furchen und Wülste am Grosshirn des Menschen, 1879.
FLATAU and JACOBSOHN, Handbuch der Anatomie und vergleichenden Anatomie de
Centralnervensystems der Säugethiere, i., 1899.
[15] ECKER. Archiv f. Anthropologie, iii., 1868, 212. Cf. the cuts of embryonic brains in the first
three editions of this work. 3rd ed., Fig. 52, p. 93.
[16] In the first edition of this work (p. 101), I have cited measurements of embryonic brains,
which serve to confirm the statements of the text.
[17] Centralblatt f. d. medicin. Wiss., 1876, No. 43.
[18] RÜDINGER. Ueber d. Unterschiede d. Grosshirnwindungen nach d. Geschlect beim Fötus
u. Neugeborenen, 1877, 5 ff.

Footnotes

[1] This figure [Fig. 53], with several others, has been printed without change in all editions of the
Physiologische Psychologie. The reader will observe that the line from the abbreviation cb is
carried to what has the general position of the terms (lamita terminalis). The real copula (the
weisse Bodencommissur of the German; Henle's commissara baseos alba) is neither
designated nor even shown in the Fig. It would be waste of space to point out in detail all slips of
this sort. They are, fortunately, irrelevant to the course of the author's argument. But the reader
should be warned that these old figures would not pass muster with modern anatomists. --
TRANSLATOR.

[2] This Figure [Fig. 65] would, perhaps, be more nearly typical if the postcentral fissure were
separated off from the rest of the fissural complex with which the author has connected it. Again,
it is not probable that the calcarine fissure ever appears thus plainly on the lateral surface of the
brain (cf. the author's remarks in the text below); though, indeed, but little is certainly known of
the fissuration of the occipital lobe. -- TRANSLATOR.

122
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
By Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

Posted June 2000

[p. 150] CHAPTER V

Course of the Paths of Nervous Conduction

§ I. General Conditions of Conduction

Our examination of the structural elements of the nervous system led us to conceive of the brain
and myel, together with the nerves issuing from them, as a system of nerve-cells, inter-
connected by their fibrillar runners either directly or through the contact of process with process.
Our recent survey of the morphological development of the central organs lends support to this
conception. We have found a series of cinereal formations which collect the fibres running
centralward from the external organs and mediate their connexion with other, especially with
more centrally situated grey masses. The paths of conduction that begin in the myelic columns
pass upwards first in the crura and then in the corona until they penetrate the cerebral cortex.
There we have the commissures, pointing to the inter-connexion of the central regions of the two
halves of the brain, and the intergyral (arcuate) fibres, indicating the connexion of the various
cortical zones of the same hemisphere. Hence from whichever point of view we consider the
outward conformation of the central organs, we are presently met by the question as to the
course taken by the various paths of nervous conduction. We know, of course, that the cell-
territories stand, by virtue of the cell-processes, in the most manifold relations. We shall
accordingly expect to find that the conduction-paths are nowhere strictly isolated from one
another. We must suppose, in particular, that under altered functional conditions they may
change their relative positions within very wide limits. But we may fully admit such a relative
variability of functional co-ordination as is suggested by the neurone theory, and yet with justice
raise the question of the preferred lines of conduction; -- of the lines which, under normal
circumstances, are chiefly concerned to mediate determinate connexions, on the one hand,
between the central regions themselves, and on the other, between the centre and the
peripheral organs appended to the nervous system. This answered, we may in certain cases
proceed to ask a second question, regarding the auxiliary paths or bypaths which can replace
the regular lines of transmission in particular instances of interrupted conduction or of inhibition
of function.[p. 151]

We distinguish two main kinds of conduction-path, according to the direction in which the
processes of stimulation are transmitted: the centripetal and the centrifugal. In the former, the
stimulation is set up at some point on the periphery of the body, and travels inwards, toward the
central organ. In the latter, it issues from the central organ, and travels toward some region of
the periphery. The physiological effects of a centripetally conducted stimulation, when they come
to consciousness, are termed sensations. Frequently, however, this final effect is not produced;

123
the excitation is reflected into a movement, without having exerted any influence upon
consciousness. Nevertheless, the paths of conduction traversed in such a case are, at least in
part, the same. We therefore give the name of 'sensory' to the centripetal conduction-paths at
large. The physiological effects of centrifugally conducted stimulation are very various: it may
find expression in movements of striated and non-striated muscles, in secretions, in heightened
temperature, and in the excitation of peripheral sense-organs by internal stimuli. In what follows,
we shall, however, confine our attention for the most part to the motor and the centrifugal-
sensory paths, since these are the only parts of the centrifugal conduction-system that call for
consideration in psychology. The muscular movements that result from the direct translation of
sensory stimulation into motor excitation are termed reflex movements; those that have their
proximate source in an internal stimulation within the motor spheres of the central organ we shall
call automatic movements. In the reflex, i.e., centripetal is followed by centrifugal conduction; in
the automatic movement, centrifugal conduction alone is directly involved.[1]

So long as the stimulation-process is confined within the continuity of determinate nerve-fibres;

as occurs e.g. in the peripheral nerves, which often traverse considerable distances, it remains
as a general rule isolated within each particular fibre, and does not spring across to
neighbouring paths. This fact has been expressed in the law of isolated conduction. The law has
usually been regarded as valid not only for the periphery, but for the conduction-paths within the
central organs as well; on the ground that an external impression made upon some precisely
localised part of a sensitive surface evokes a sharply defined sensation, and that a voluntary
impulse directed upon a definite movement produces contraction of a circumscribed group of
muscles. Really, however, these facts prove nothing more than that the processes in the
principal paths are, as a rule and under normal conditions, separate and distinct. It has not been
demonstrated with certainty that the stimulation is strictly confined to a single primitive fibril, even
during the peripheral portion of its course. And in the central parts, any such restriction is entirely
out of the question, as appears both from the general [p. 152] morphological features discussed
in Chapter II., and from the phenomena of vicarious function which we shall speak of presently.
The only principle that can be recognised here is a principle of preferential conduction. There is
in every case a principal path, but this is supplemented by auxiliary or secondary paths.

§ 2. Methods of Investigating the Conduction-Paths

We may avail ourselves of three distinct methods, in our examination of nervous conduction.
Each one of them has certain imperfections, and must therefore be supplemented, where
possible, by the other two. The first method is that of physiological experimentation; the second
is that of anatomical investigation; and the third is that of pathological observation.

(I) Physiological experimentation attempts: to reach conclusions as to the course of the nervous
conduction-paths in two ways: by stimulation-experiments, and by interruptions of conduction
due to a division of the parts. In the former case, we look as a general rule for enhancement, in
the latter for abrogation of function, in the organs connected with the stimulated or divided
tissue. When we come to the investigation of the central paths, however, we find that both
methods alike are attended by unusual difficulties and disadvantages. Even in the most
favourable instances, when the stimulation or transsection has been entirely successful, we
have established but one definite point upon a path of conduction; to ascertain its full extent, we

124
should have to make a large number of similar experiments, from the terminal station in the brain
to the point of issue of the appropriate nerves. Such a task holds out absolutely no hope of
accomplishment, since the isolated stimulation or section of a conduction-path in the interior of
the brain presents insuperable obstacles. There are, therefore, only two problems to which these
methods can be applied with any prospect of success. We may use them to determine the
course of conduction in the simplest of the central organs, the myel, and in the direct
continuations of the myelic columns, the crura; and we may use them to discover the correlation
of definite areas of the brain cortex with definite organs upon the periphery of the body. The
answer to the former question has been attempted, for the most part, by isolated transsection of
the various myelic columns; the answer to the second, by experiments upon the stimulation and
extirpation of definitely limited cortical areas. Even with this limitation, however, it is difficult to
secure valid results. A stimulation will almost inevitably spread from the point of attack to the
surrounding part. This objection applies with especial force to the electric current, almost the
only form of stimulus which fulfils the other requirements of physiological experiment, and a
stimulus which the physiologist is therefore practically compelled to employ. The same thing is
true of the disturbances consequent upon a division of [p. 153] substance. And if one is at last
successful in securing the utmost degree of isolation of experimental interference, there will still
be many cases in which the interpretation of the resulting phenomena is uncertain. The
muscular contraction that follows upon a stimulation may, under certain circumstances, be due
to a direct excitation of motor fibres, just as well as to a reaction upon the sense-impressions.
And the derangements of function that appear as a result of transsections and extirpations
always require a long period of observation before they can be accurately determined. This
means that the certainty of the conclusions is, again, very largely impaired: the disturbances set
up as the direct effect of operation for the most part disappear as time goes on, the explanation
being that the principal path is functionally replaced by the secondary paths of which we spoke
just now.

(2) The gaps left in our knowledge by the physiological experiment are largely filled out by
anatomical investigation. The anatomist has followed two methods in the prosecution of his task:
first, the macroscopic dissection of the hardened organ, and, later, its microscopic reduction to a
series of thin sections. Of late years, the former of these two methods has fallen into disrepute,
on the score that it runs the risk of substituting artificial products of the dissecting scalpel for real
fibre-tracts. Carefully applied, however, it is a valuable means of orientation with regard to
certain of the wider roads of brain-travel; while its critics are inclined, on their side, to
underestimate the danger of error in the interpretation of microscopic appearances. And this
danger is the more serious, the farther we are from the actual attainment of the ideal goal of a
microscopic examination of the central organ, its complete reduction to an infinite series of
sections of accurately known direction. For the rest, microscopical anatomy has been brought in
recent times to a high degree of perfection by the application of the various methods of staining.
The advantage of these is that they permit of the more certain differentiation of nerve-elements
from the other elementary parts, and thus enable us to trace the interconnexion of the nerve-
elements much farther than had before been possible.[2] Anatomical investigation is, further,
very materially supplemented by embryological research. Embryology shows that the formation
of the myelinic sheath in the various fibre-systems of the central organs occurs at different
periods of foetal development, and thus puts it in our power to trace out separately certain paths
of travel that in all likelihood are physiologically interconnected. This method, however, like the

125
others, has its limits: the systems that develope simultaneously may [p. 154] still include
numerous groups of fibres, possessing each a different functional significance.[3]

(3) Pathological observation is equally concerned with functional derangement find with
anatomical change, and so in a certain measure combines the advantages of physiological and
of anatomical investigation. The observations of pathological anatomy have been especially
fruitful for the study of the nervous conduction-paths. Abrogation of function over a determinate
functional area means that the fibres belonging to that area undergo secondary degeneration.
The pathological anatomist can, therefore, appeal to a law very similar to that upon which
embryological investigation is based. Unless there are extrinsic conditions present, which render
an accidental concurrence of the degeneration probable, he can assume that all fibres which
suffer pathological change at one and the same time are functionally related.[4] The observation
of secondary degenerations is of especial value when conjoined with physiological
experimentation. The joint method may follow either of two different paths. On the one hand, a
severance of continuity may be effected at some point in the central or peripheral nervous
system of an animal, and the consequent functional derangement observed. Then, after a
considerable time has elapsed, the paths to which the secondary degeneration extended can be
made out by anatomical means. On the other, a peripheral organ (eye, ear, etc.) may be
extirpated in early life, and the influence observed which the abrogation of determinate functions
exerts upon the development of the central nervous organs.[5] In the former case, the nerve-
fibres evince the successive stages of degeneration represented in Fig. 23, p. 53. In the latter,
the parts of the brain which serve as the centres for the abrogated functions sink in, and
microscopic examination shows their nerve-cells in the various stages of atrophy that lead up, in
the last resort, to complete disappearance (Fig. 22 B, p. 53).

The first extensive collection of material for the investigation of the microscopical structure of the
central organs was furnished by the researches of STILLING. The earliest attempts to construct
a structural schema of the whole cerebrospinal system and its conduction-paths by STILLING'S
method, i.e. by the microscopical examination of sections, date from MEYNERT and LUYS.[6]
MEYNERT, especially, rendered great services to the science; he brought to his re-[p.
155]construction of brain-structure the results of a comprehensive series of original
investigations and a rare power of synthetic imagination. It is true, of course, that the schema of
conduction-paths which he published was largely hypothetical, and that it has already been
proved erroneous in many details. Nevertheless, it formed the point of departure for further
microscopical research; so that most of the later work takes up a definite attitude to MEYNERT'S
structural schema, supplementing or amending. The application of the various methods of
staining, and the consequent differentiation of the nervous elements, have played an important
part in this chapter of scientific enquiry. Embryological investigation depends upon the fact that
the myelinic sheath is formed in the different fibre-systems at different periods of embryonic
development. It is this sheath which is responsible for the coloration of the alba, so that its
appearance is easily recognisable. The signs of secondary degeneration consist on the other
hand, in a gradual transformation of the myelinic sheath. The tissue becomes receptive of
certain colour-stains, like carmine, by which it is unaffected in the normal state. Finally, the
myelinic sheath disappears altogether. At the same time, the nerve-fibres proper (neurites)
change to fibres of connective tissue, interrupted by fat granules. The value of these
degenerative changes for the investigation of conduction-paths lies in the fact that the

126
progressive transformation is always confined within an interconnected fibre-system, and that
the direction which it takes corresponds in all fibres with the direction of conduction (WALLER'S
law); so that the degeneration of motor fibres follows a centrifugal, that of sensory fibres a
centripetal course. Nevertheless, this law of WALLER, like the law of isolated conduction,
appears to be valid only as regards the principal direction of the progress of degeneration. In
cases where the interruption of conduction has persisted for a considerable length of time, and
more particularly in young animals, the deterioration of the fibres is always traceable, to some
extent, in the opposite direction as well. We have, further, besides atrophy of the nerves
separated from their centres, a similar though much slower degeneration of the nerve-cells
which have been thrown out of function by transsection of the neurites issuing from them. This
secondary atrophy of the central elements, the initial symptoms of which are the changes
represented in Fig. 22, p. 53 above, is, again, especially likely to appear in young animals. It
may, however, occur in the human adult, after long persistence of a defect. Thus it has been
observed that loss of the eye is followed by atrophy of the quadrigemina; nay, more, in certain
cases of the kind, a secondary atrophy of certain cerebral gyres has been demonstrated.

§ 3. Conduction in the Nerves and in the Myel

(a) -- Origin and Distribution of the Nerves

The nerve-roots leave the myel in two longitudinal series, a dorsal and a ventral. The dorsal
nerve-roots, as a simple test of function by stimulation or transsection shows, are sensitive: their
mechanical or electrical stimulation produces pain, and their transsection renders the
corresponding cutaneous areas anaesthetic. The ventral nerve-roots are motor: their stimulation
produces muscular contraction, and their transsection muscular [p. 156] disability. The fibres of
the dorsal roots conduct centripetally; if they are transsected, stimulation of the central cut end
will give rise to sensation, but not that of the peripheral. The fibres of the ventral roots conduct
centrifugally; in their case, stimulation of the peripheral cut end will give rise to muscular
contraction, but not that of the central. These facts were first discovered by CHARLES BELL,
and their general statement is accordingly known as ' BELL'S law.' They prove that, at the place
of origin of the nerves, the sensory and motor conduction-paths are entirely separate from each
other. The same thing holds of the cranial nerves, with the addition that here, in most cases, the
separation is not confined to a short distance in the neighbourhood of the place of origin, but
persists either throughout the whole course of the nerves or at least over a considerable portion
of their extent.[7] There can be no doubt that the union of the sensory and motor roots, to form
mixed nerve-trunks, finds its explanation in the spatial distribution of the terminations of the
nerve- fibres. The muscles and the overlying skin are supplied by common nerve-branches.
While, therefore, the two sets of conduction-paths are functionally distinct, a spatial separation
throughout their entire course occurs only in certain cranial nerves, where the terminations are
comparatively near to the points of origin, but the points of origin themselves lie farther apart.
Under these circumstances, a separate course involves simpler space-relations than an initial
union of the sensory and motor fibres, such as we find in the trunks supplying adjacent parts of
the body.

Not only the origin, but also the further peripheral course of the nerves is very largely determined
by the conditions of distribution. Fibres that run to a functionally single muscle-group, or to

127
adjacent parts of the skin, are collected into a single trunk. Hence it does not follow that the
mixed nerve, formed by the junction of ventral and dorsal roots, always proceeds simply and by
the shortest path to its zone of distribution. On the contrary, it frequently happens that there is an
interchange of fibres between nerve and nerve, giving rise to what are called the nerve-
plexuses. In explaining the occurrence of these plexuses, we must remember that the
disposition of the nerve-fibres, as they issue from the central organ, meets the conditions of their
peripheral distribution only in a rough and provisional manner; the arrangement is by no means
perfect, and requires to he supplemented later on. The plexuses are most commonly formed,
therefore. at places where there are parts of the body that need large nerve-trunks, e.g. the two
pairs of limbs. Here it is evidently impossible, from the spatial [p. 157] conditions of their origin,
that the nerves should leave the myel in precisely the order that is demanded by their
subsequent peripheral distribution. But the plexus-formation is not only supplementary; it is,
beyond question, compensative as well. The nerve-fibres that are nearest together as the nerves
leave the central organs are those that are functionally related. Now functional relation does not
always run parallel with spatial distribution. Thus the flexors of the upper and lower leg, e.g., are
functionally related, and act in common; but those of the upper leg lie upon the ventral and those
of the lower upon the dorsal side of the body, and consequently receive their nerves from
different nerve-trunks, the crural and the sciatic respectively. If, then, the nerves for the flexors of
the whole limb are in close proximity at their place of origin, there must he a rearrangement of
fibres in the sacrolumbar plexus, in order that the two trunks may pass off in different directions.
It is probable that the simpler connexions of the root-pairs are principally useful as
supplementary mechanisms, while the more complicated plexus-formations are for the most part
compensatory in function.

When BELL first established the law known by his name, he felt constrained by it to postulate a
specific difference between sensory and motor nerves, -- a difference which found expression in
this fact of the difference in direction of conduction, Physiologists for a long time afterwards gave
in their adhesion to this hypothesis. There was, indeed, a prevailing tendency to refer all
differences of function, e.g. those obtaining between the various sensory nerves, to conic
unknown specific property of the nerve-fibres.[8] Later on, the belief gained ground that the
nerves are simply in different conductors of the processes released in them by stimulation;
though the only argument at first brought forward in support of it was the not very convincing
external analogy of electrical conduction.[9] At the present time, we may say, with better reason,
that BELL'S hypothesis of a specific conductive capacity of sensory and motor nerves is not
tenable. The decisive evidence is drawn from two sources. On the one hand, the general
mechanics of nerve-substance has thrown new light upon the processes of conduction in the
peripheral nerve-fibre (pp. 80 ff. above). On the other, the morphological facts indicate that the
difference in direction of conduction depends upon the mode of connexion of the nerve-fibres at
centre and periphery. Figgs 20 and 27 (p. 50 above) gave a schematic representation of the
structural relations involved in the two cases. Every [p. 158] motor fibre, as we said in describing
them, is the neurite of a nerve-cell; and there is a certain principle of transmission of force which
supposedly holds for all neurites alike. In accordance with this principle, the neurite is able to
take up the stimulation-processes originated within the cell, or carried to it by its dendrites; but
the excitatory processes of which the neurite is itself the sent, though they are conducted to the
cell as a result of the general diffusion that every stimulation-process undergoes in the nerve
fibre, are inhibited in the central substance of the cell (p. 99). The cells of origin of the sensory

128
fibres always lie, on the contrary, outside of the central organ: in the invertebrates, for the most
part at the periphery of the body; in the vertebrates, at any rate outside of the myel proper. Here,
as we know, they form as it were little centres of their own; the spinal ganglia, situated in the
intervertebral foramens. These ganglia are composed throughout of bipolar nerve-cells; that is to
say, each cell sends out two, morphologically identical processes, which probably have the
character of dendrites. In the lower vertebrates, the processes issue at different points -- in the
fishes, at opposite sides -- of the cell. In man, the same conditions obtain in the early stages of
development. As growth proceeds, however, the two processes fuse together at their point of
origin, so that what were at first two distinct and separately originated processes now appear as
the branches of one single process (Fig. 21, p. 50), which nevertheless retains the character of a
protoplasmic process or dendrite. The two processes thus form a single neurone territory (N1),
which divides into two halves. The one lies within the myel, and after giving off numerous
collaterals penetrates with its terminal fibres into a second central neurone territory (N2). The
other is continued in the sensory nerves, and is finally lost either in terminal arborisation among
the epidermal cells, or in special end-organs, adapted for the support of the nerve-ramifications
(H Fig. 21). We may therefore suppose, in agreement with what was said above regarding the
diffusion of excitations carried by the dendrites (p. 42), that, where the peripheral and central
processes issue separately from the cell-body, the process of stimulation is transmitted directly
by the cell. When, as in man, the two processes unite to form one, the passage across, and then
the transmission to higher neurones (N2), may actually take place within the fibre itself. The cell
Z1 seems in this case to be cut out of the line of nervous conduction by a sort of short circuit;
though this, of course, does not diminish its importance as a nutritive centre and storehouse of
force. If, then, we regard the processes of conduction as conditioned in this way by the
properties of the nerve-cells and the mode of termination of their processes within them, the
principle of conduction in a single direction will hold only for the connexions of neurones, not for
the nerves themselves; the stimulation of any nerve, at any point of its course, must, so long as
its continuity [p. 159] is preserved, be followed by the production of a stimulus wave which
spreads out centripetally and centrifugally at one and the same time. But, as a matter of fact,
there is not the slightest reason why we should hesitate to adopt this hypothesis. It is obvious
that, when a sensory nerve is cut across, the excitations carried to the peripheral cut end must
disappear at the periphery without effect, i.e. without arousing any sensation in our mind, just
precisely as the stimuli which act upon the central cut end of a transsected motor nerve are
inhibited in the cell connected with the neurite. In both cases, it is not any property of the nerve-
fibres, but the character of the nerve-cells, that is responsible for the result. We can see, more
especially when we consider the different modes of origin of the cell-processes, that the nerve-
cell is naturally qualified to determine the direction of conduction and to regulate the mode of
transmission from one neurone territory to another. For the rest, we shall presently become
acquainted with facts that speak definitely for a centrifugal conduction of certain sensory
excitations (pp. 182 ff.).

(b) -- Physiology of the Conduction-Paths of the Myel

We have now to investigate the farther course of the nerve-paths that lead into the myel, as they
are continued in the interior of this central organ. We obtain information concerning them, in the
first place, from physiological experiments upon the result of stimulation, and more especially
upon the effect of transsection, of certain portions of the myel. We know that the motor roots

129
enter the ventral, and the sensory roots the dorsal half of the myel. These experiments show that
the principal lines of conduction retain the same arrangement, as they take their course
upwards. The effects of outside interference with the ventral portion of the myel are
predominantly motor; with the dorsal portion, predominantly sensory. At the same time, they
show also that even in the myel the individual fibre-systems are interwoven in the most
complicated fashion. The results of hemisection of the myel, e.g., prove that not all conduction-
paths remain upon the same side of the body upon which the nerve-roots enter the myelic
substance, but that some of them cross over within the myel from right to left and vice versâ. It is
true that the statements of various observers as to the kind and extent of conductive disturbance
after hemisection are not in complete agreement; and it is evident, also, that the relations of
conduction are not identical throughout the animal kingdom. But experiments on animals and
pathological observations on man have put it beyond question that the sensory fibres, at any
rate, always undergo a partial decussation. Hemisection of the myel does not lead to a complete
abrogation of sensation upon either half of the body. The motor paths [p. 160] appear be more
variable in this respect. Experiments on animals again point to a partial decussation, though to
one in which the greater part of the fibres remain upon the same side. Pathological observations,
on the other hand, lead to the conclusion that in the myel of man the motor paths are uncrossed.
We may, in particular, recall the well known fact that in unilateral apoplectic effusions in the
brain, it is always only the one side of the body, viz. the side opposite to the apoplectic area, that
is paralysed. Now there is, as we shall see presently, a complete decussation of the motor paths
in the oblongata. If, then, decussation occurred to any considerable extent in the myel, the one
arrangement would of necessity, so far as it went, compensate the other. We accordingly
conclude that the principal motor path is situated in the ventral portion of the myel. And we are
safe in affirming, similarly, that the principal sensory path lies in the dorsal portion,[sic] In the
animals, it is true, we have a greater number of secondary paths, branching off to other parts of
the myel, than we have in man, but even in the animals, there can be no doubt that the great
majority of the fibres run their course without decussation. Impressions made upon the skin after
hemisection of the myel upon the same side are not sensed, though stronger, painful stimuli will
still evoke a reaction. Finally, in the lateral columns of the myel (m Fig. 66, p. 164) we have a
combination of motor and sensory paths, drawn again for the most part from the fibre-systems of
the same side. If the integrity of these columns be impaired, whether in man or in the animals,
the resulting symptoms are in general of a mixed character.[10]

These experiments upon severance of continuity at various parts of the myel have brought to
light a somewhat complicated interlacement of the fibre-systems. One of the chief factors in the
resulting formation is, undoubtedly, the cinerea which surrounds the myelocele. The presence of
this grey matter also explains the change of irritability brought about in the myelic fibres by
stimulation-experiments. While the peripheral nerves may be readily excited by mechanical or
electrical stimuli, this is so far from being the case with the myelic fibres that many of the earlier
observers declared them to be wholly irresponsive to stimulation.[11] The statement, in its
extreme form, undoubtedly overshoots the mark. Excitation can always be effected by
summation of stimuli, or by help of poisons, like strychnine, which enhance the central irritability.
At the same time, the marked change of behaviour points clearly to the intercalation of grey
matter (cf. p. 86 above). If it be asked in what way this intrusion can materially affect the
processes of conduction, we reply that a path coming in from [p. 161] the periphery will be
brought into connexion, by the cinerea, not with one but with many paths of central conduction.

130
These paths will, it is true, not be all equally permeable. Some will offer more resistance than
others to the passage of excitation: in certain cases inhibitory effects, of the kind with which we
have become familiar as the results of certain modes of connexion of the central elements (p.
99), may destroy or modify excitations already in progress. But there will always be various
secondary paths available, over and above the principal path. The experiments upon severance
of continuity call our attention chiefly to the principal path; but there are several ways --
increased intensity of stimulus, enhancement of irritability, destruction of the principal path -- in
which the secondary paths may be thrown into function. If the white columns are entirely cut
through, at any point upon the myel, so that only a narrow bridge of cinerea remains intact,
sense-impressions and motor impulses may still be transmitted, provided that they are unusually
intensive. And we find, similarly, that the phenomena of disability, which appear on transsection
of a portion of the white columns, disappear again, after a short interval, although the cut has not
healed.[12] The existence of these secondary paths or by-paths is attested, further and more
particularly, by the phenomena of transference from one conduction-path to another,
phenomena which prove the presence of a connecting path between different conduction-paths.
They are of three kinds: the phenomena of concomitant movement, of concomitant sensation,
and of reflex movement. As all alike are of importance fur a right understanding of the functions
of the central organs, especially of the myel, we shall be occupied with them in the following
Chapter. We are interested in them here only in so far as they bear witness to the existence of
determinate conduction-paths, preformed in the myel, but functioning only under certain special
conditions. The place of transference from motor to motor, sensory to sensory, or sensory to
motor paths must be sought, again, in the cinereal structures. Complete severance of the
cinerea, with retention of a portion of the dorsal and ventral columns of white matter, abrogates
the phenomena in question. Transferences within the motor paths, manifesting themselves in
concomitant movements, may be made, without any doubt, either on the same side of the myel
or from the one side to the other. Thus, the innervation of a finger-phalanx is transmitted both to
other fingers of the same hand and, under certain circumstances, to the skin of other parts of the
body. Bilateral concomitant movements of this kind are especially observable in movements of
locomotion and in pantomimic movements. It is clear, on the other hand, that excitatory
innervation within a definite path may be connected with inhibitory co-excitation of the cells of
origin of another motor path. We have an instance of this state of things in the relaxation [p. 162]
of tonus in the extensors that goes with excitation of the flexors of a limb.[13] This illustration,
like that of co-ordinated movements, shows further that co-excitations within the motor paths
may establish themselves as regular functional connexions. Transferences within the sensory
paths seem, contrariwise, to be confined almost exclusively to the same half of the myel. The
concomitant sensations observed after stimulation of some part of the skin are nearly always
referred to cutaneous regions on the same side of the body. They are brought out most clearly
by painful stimuli and by the arousal of tickling: in the latter case, more particularly when the skin
is rendered unusually sensitive by enhancement of irritability. Under these conditions,
stimulation of certain regions of the skin usually evokes sensations in other regions. Certain
sensory parts, e.g. the external auditory meatus and the larynx, are also pre-eminently disposed
for concomitant sensation.[14] We can hardly explain these facts otherwise than by the
hypothesis that, on the one hand, certain preferred paths of connexion exist within the sensory
conduction-paths, and that, on the other, certain sensory areas (larynx, external auditory
meatus) are peculiarly susceptible to co-excitation. As regards the conditions under which
conduction takes place, it is clear that concomitant movements and concomitant sensations both

131
alike depend upon cross-conductions, that may be effected at different heights in the myel, and
that differ only in direction: the motor cross-conductions extending in all directions, while the
sensory, so far as we can tell, are almost exclusively unilateral, and for the most part follow the
direction from below upwards. For the rest, the concomitant sensations and concomitant
movements that have their ground in connexions of the myelic conduction-paths can never be
certainly discriminated from those mediated by transference within the higher centres.

This statement does not apply to transferences of the third kind, reflex connexions of sensory
and motor paths. The myelic reflexes may be observed for themselves alone, after the myel has
been separated from the higher central parts. The conclusion to be drawn from such observation
is that branch-conduction of the reflexes is effected by a large number of conduction-paths, all of
which are closely interconnected. Moderate stimulation of a circumscribed area of the skin is
followed, at a certain mean degree of excitability, by a reflex contraction in the muscle-group,
and in that only, which is supplied by motor roots arising at the same height and on the same [p.
163] side as the stimulated sensory fibres. If stimulus or irritability be increased, the excitation
passes over, first of all, to the motor root fibres that leave the myel at the same height upon the
opposite side of the body. Finally, if the increase be carried still farther, it spreads with growing
intensity first upward and then downward; so that in the last resort it involves the muscles of all
parts of the body which draw their nerve-supply from myel and oblongata. It follows, then, that
every sensory fibre is connected by a branch-conduction of the first order with the motor fibres
arising on the same side and at the same height; by one of the second order, with the fibres
issuing at the same height upon the opposite side; by branch-conductions of the third order, with
the fibres that leave the myel higher up; and, lastly, by branch-conductions of the fourth order,
with those that emerge lower down.[15] This law of the diffusion of reflexes may, however, as we
shall see in the following Chapter, be modified in two
ways: by variation of the place of application of the reflex
stimulus, and by the simultaneous application of other
sensory stimuli (cf. Chap. VI. § 2).

(c) -- Anatomical Results

The conclusions which we have reached by way of

physiological experimentation regarding the course of the
conduction-paths in the myel are in complete agreement
with the morphological facts revealed by histological
examination of this organ. In particular, the arrangement
of the nerve-cells and of the fibre-systems which take
their origin from the cell-processes as shown in
transverse and longitudinal sections, enables us to
understand at once that every principal path is here
accompanied by a large number of secondary paths, and
that the most manifold connexions obtain between one
line of conduction and another. We see, first of all, that
the fibres of the ventral roots enter directly into the large
nerve-cells of the ventral cornua, whose neurites they
form; whereas the fibres of the dorsal roots, after their

132
interruption by the nerve-cells of the spinal ganglia, divide upon entering the myel into ascending
and descending systems, which there give off delicate branches at all points into the cinerea of
the dorsal cornua. Here, therefore, as in the experiments with transsection, the white columns (l,
m, n Fig. 66) appear in the role of principal paths: their ventral portions as motor, their dorsal as
sensory. Secondary paths, for the conduction of unusually intensive excitations, or for the
transferences required by concomitant movements, concomitant sensations and reflexes, can be
mediated in a great variety of ways by the cellular and fibrillar system of the central cinerea (d,
e). The interrelations of these different paths of conduction, and in particular of the two groups
that in functional regard [p. 164] stand farthest apart, the motor and sensory, are then
determined by their mode of connexion with their cells of origin, and with the processes which
these cells give off. We thus find, in the properties of the neurone and its area of distribution as
manifested within the myel, a continuation of the differences that we meet with in the primitive
forms represented in Fig. 20, 21 (p. 50). Fig. 67 shows the various morphological elements in
their natural connexion. Each of the large multipolar cells m of the ventral cornu has direct
control of some peripheral region by means of its neurite n, which does not break up into its
terminal arborisation until it reaches the terminal plate of a muscle-fibre (Fig. 20, p. 50). On the
other side. the dendrites issuing from the same cell run a very short course, to enter at once into
the cinerea of the ventral cornu. The dendritic reticulum stands in direct contact with the terminal
fibrils of the neurite g of another nerve-cell, situated as a rule high up in the brain; so that the
neurones of this motor conduction cover very extensive territories. Indeed, it is probable that in
most instances the entire motor conduction involves only two neurones (N1, and N11, Fig. 20),
the one of which extends from the cell n of the ventral cornu to the periphery of the body, while
the other begins with some one of the fibres that run their course in the ventral or lateral column
(l, m Fig. 66), and ends in a cell of the cerebral cortex. At
the same time, still others of the dendrites belonging to
the cells of the ventral cornua are in contact with the
processes of the small cells s of the dorsal cornua, and
with the small intercalatory or commissural cells c that lie
scattered between ventral and dorsal cornu. In these
latter connections we have, presumably, the substrate of
reflex conduction. The sensory nerve-paths, on the other
hand, follow a very different course. In their [p. 165] case,
the spinal ganglion-cell sp forms the central point of a
neurone territory, the one half of which extends by means
of the peripherally directed processes h to the sensory
termini of the organ of touch (Fig. 21, p. 50), while the
other runs centralward in the central process f, which
divides in the dorsal portion of the myel into ascending
and descending branches (a, d). Both of these branches
give off numerous collaterals, whose terminal
ramifications stand in contact with the small cells of
commissure and dorsal cornu. They themselves are
finally resolved into fibrillar reticula, connected by contact
with the dendrites of cells lying farther up and lower down.
These structural relations seem to warrant the inference
that the collaterals correspond to the various secondary

133
paths by which transference, and especially reflex transference, is effected, and that the
ascending and descending fibres constitute the principal path. The principal path of sensory
conduction is, however, markedly different front the meter. As a general rule, there are several
breaks in the line; the path consists of a number of neurone chains, arranged one above
another. And this means, again, that the conditions of conduction in the principal path are less
sharply distinguished from those in the secondary paths that begin in the collaterals. The whole
morphological plan of the system of sensory conduction thus suggests a co-ordination of parts
that is at once less strict and more widely variable than is the case on the motor side.

We have spoken so far only of the general properties of the myelic conductors, properties
accruing to all nerve-fibres whose mode of origin [p. 166] and connexions conform to a certain
type. In the higher regions of the myel, other conditions are at work, paving the way for that
differentiation of the conduction-paths which characterises the higher central regions. Even as
low down as the thoracic portion of the myel, certain funicles divide off from the three principal
columns already named, the ventral, lateral, and dorsal columns (l, m, n Fig. 66). The principal
paths, sensory and motor, that run their course within the length of the myel, are thus split up
into several separate tracts. The significance of these new funicles can best be understood from
their embryological connexions and from the course of the degenerations observed in
pathological cases (pp. 154 f.). It can be shown, by both lines of
evidence, that the motor division of the lateral columns ascends
uncrossed in their dorsal half, in a funicle which, as seen in
cross-sections, encroaches from the outside upon the cinerea of
the dorsal cornu. Higher up, it passes over into the pyramids of
the oblongata, and is accordingly known as the path of the
pyramidal lateral column (Fig. 68). In the same way, the
innermost division of the motor ventral columns, the part
bordering directly upon the ventral sulcus, ascends uncrossed to
the oblongata, where it too passes over into the pryamids [sic]. It
is termed the path of the pyramidal ventral column, and is the
only division of the pyramidal tracts to remain uncrossed in the
oblongata. Of the more peripherally situated funicles of the
ventral column, some take a straight course upwards, while
others enter the ventral commissure and cross to the opposite
side of the body. The division of the lateral column which
overlies the pyramidal lateral column, at the periphery of the
myel, is an uncrossed and, to judge from the conditions of its
origin, a sensory path: it branches off to the cerebellum by way
of the postpeduncles, and is termed the path of the cerebellar lateral column. The dorsal
columns, which are exclusively sensory in function, and therefore receive from below the great
majority of the fibres that enter the dorsal roots, divide in the cervical region into two funicles: the
slender funicles or columns of Goll (fun. graciles), and the more outlying cuneate funicles (fun.
cuneati, Fig. 68).[16][p. 167]

134
 § 4. Paths of Conduction in Oblongata and Cerebellum

(a) -- General Characteristics of these Paths

Oblongata and cerebellum, the parts of the brain stem that correspond developmentally to after
brain and hind brain (p. 108), together with the pons that unites them, form in the brain of the
higher mammals and of man a connected system of conduction paths. The system, as may be
gathered from the general trend of the fibre-tracts that pass across it or decussate within it, is of
importance in three principal directions. In the first place, this region furnishes the passage-way
for the continuation of the sensory and motor conduction paths that come up from the myel.
Secondly, it originates new nerves: the great majority of the crania nerves spring from separate
grey nidi in the oblongata: and, in doing this, repeats, though in much more complicated fashion,
the structural patterns which we have traced, in their comparatively simple form, in the lower
central organ. Thirdly, it contains a great variety of connecting paths, them selves for the most
part interrupted by deposits of nerve cells, between the various paths that lead across or arise
within it; while, further, in the fibre tracts that run from the main conducting trunk to the
cerebellum and back again, it possesses a secondary conduction path of very considerable
extent that is interpolated in the course of the principal conduction path. It will be understood
that, under these conditions, the lines of travel in the region we are now to consider, as well as in
the adjoining regions of mid brain and 'tween brain, are extraordinarily complicated. A complete
explication of them, in the present state of our knowledge, is altogether out of the question. But
more than this: it is impossible, as things are, to put a physiological or psychological
interpretation upon many of the structural features that have already been made out. The
functional significance of some of the most prominent conduction paths, as e.g. the entire
intercalatory system that runs to the cerebellum, is still wrapped in obscurity. Hence, in most
cases, the tracing out of the fibre systems is a matter solely of anatomical interest. In
physiological regard it is useful, at the best, merely as illustrating the extreme complexity of the
conditions which here determine conduction. We shall therefore refer, in what follows, only to
certain selected instances, adapted to give a general picture of the course of the paths of
conduction in the gross; and we shall enter into some detail only in those cases which appear to
be of importance for the physiological and psychophysical relations of the central processes. On
the score of method, we must say also that the physiological expedient of isolating the paths by
transsection of individual fibre tracts, which did good service in giving us the general bearings of
the paths of conduction in the myel, can hardly come into consideration here,[p. 168] more
especially in our study of the conditions of conduction in the hind and mid brain regions.
Experiments of the kind are recorded not infrequently in the older physiology. The course of the
paths is, however, too complicated and their origin too uncertain, to admit of any but an
ambiguous result. The most that the method can give us is a point of view from which to
appreciate the gross function of the organs or of certain of their parts; and we shall accordingly
say nothing of the observations made by it until we reach the next Chapter. We may add that the
method which has proved most fruitful for the problem of direction of conduction, apart from
direct morphological analysis of the continuity of the individual fibre tracts, is the tracing of the
course of degeneration in fibres separated from their centres of origin.

(b) -- Continuations of the Motor and Sensory Paths

135
The simplest problem presented by our preset enquiry is that of the further course of the paths of
motor and sensory conduction that come up from the myel. The two methods just mentioned
furnish us with a fairly satisfactory solution, at any rate as regards the motor paths. The principal
continuation of the main path of motor conduction that runs upward in the lateral and ventral
columns of the myel is, as we already know: the pyramidal path (Fig. 68, p. 166; cf. Fig. 46, p.
118). The course of this path in detail has been made out, with some degree of completeness,
by help of the descending degeneration which appears in it after destruction of its terminations in
the brain. It is the continuation of that division of the motor principal path which lies in the myel in
the dorsal portion of the lateral columns and along the inner margin of the ventral columns (Fig.
68 B). The branch of this path that belongs to the ventral columns decussates in the cervical
region of the myel. Now the larger branch, from the lateral columns, also undergoes a complete
decussation, clearly visible on the external surface of the oblongata (p, Fig. 47, p. 119). The
central continuation of the path then runs to the cerebral cortex, without interruption by cinerea,
Fig. 69 gives a schematic representation of the course of these paths, the longest and so far the
best known of all lines of central conduction. After they have
traversed the pons, the fibres of the pyramidal path enter the
crusta (f, Fig. 56, p. 130) between lenticula and thalamus, and
then trend upwards in the space between lenticula and
caudatum to pass into the corona, where their principal branches
constitute the fibre-masses that terminate in the region of the
central gyrus and the surrounding area (VC, HC, Fig, 65, p.
145).[17] The path is thus fairly well defined. Part of it, as is
proved by the paralyses following lesion of the pyramids [p. 169]
and their continuation in the crus, undoubtedly subserves the
conduction of voluntary impulses. In the animal kingdom, the
pyramidal path affords a better measure than any other of the
fibre systems collected in the brain stem of the general
development of the higher central organs. In the lower
vertebrates, the pyramids are altogether wanting. In the birds,
they are but little developed. They steadily increase in
importance in the mammalian series, up to man; while at the
same time the tract from the lateral columns, which passes to
the opposite side of the body in the pyramidal decussation,
grows constantly larger as compared with the tract from the
ventral columns, which decussates in the myel. A branch of the
motor path which is forced inward by the pyramids, and which
remains intact after removal of the pyramidal fibres, may be
traced in part to the mesencephalon. It consists mainly of
divisions of the ventral columns (mf, Fig. 70). Finally, certain of these remains of the ventral
columns are collected in the interior of the rounded prominences to form the dorsolongitudinal
bundle (hl, Fig. 72), which in its further course through the pons makes connexions with the
pontal nidi and more especially, as it appears, with centres of origin of the oculomotor nerves
and with the cerebellum.[18] We may accordingly suppose that these branches of motor
conduction which run to the mesencephalon serve to mediate co-excitations in that region. The
connexions of the dorsolongitudinal bundle, in particular, seem to point to connexions of the

136
motor innervation of the eye and of the skeletal muscles, such as are involved in locomotion and
in the orientation of the body in space.[p. 170]

The course of the sensory path through the oblongata has not been made out as fully as that of
the motor. The main reason for this defect in our knowledge lies in the difference of structure to
which we referred above. It is characteristic of sensory conduction in the myel that the path does
not pass upward in unbroken continuity, but consists of a chain of neurones. This structural
complexity is not only continued but increased in the oblongata, where large numbers of cells,
grouped together to form separate nidi, are interposed in the line of conduction. We may
suppose that these nidi serve for the most part as transmitting stations -- points at which a path,
whose course has so far been single, splits up into several branches that diverge in different
directions. The main divisions of the sensory path pass in this way, within the oblongata, first of
all into the grey masses deposited in the slender and cuneate columns (Fig. 68, A, and Fig. 46,
p. 118). Further on, the sensory path continues in a bundle lying close under the pyramids (l,
Fig. 70), which appears on the ventral surface of the oblongata directly above the pyramidal
decussation (p, Fig. 47, p. 119) here in its turn suffers decussation, and then passes on in the
lemniscus of the crus, a structure lying in the enter and upper portion of the tegmentum. The
lemniscal decussation (formerly known as the superior pyramidal decussation) thus forms yet
another continuation of the decussations of myelic fibres which begin within the myel itself. Other
sensory fibres (ci, Fig. 70), down from the dorsal columns, pass into the tegmentum proper,
which thus brings together portions of the motor (mf) and of the sensory path. All these sensory
fibres terminate in the grey masses of the region of the quadrigemina and thalami, from which,
finally, further continuations of the sensory path proceed to the cerebral cortex.

(c) -- The Regions of Origin of the Cranial Nerves and the Nidi of Cinerea in the Oblongata

The general sketch of the course of the sensory and motor paths, given in the preceding
paragraphs, makes matters much simpler than they really are. There are two facts, not yet
mentioned, that are chiefly responsible for the complications actually found. The one of these
consists in the origination of a large number of new sensory and motor paths, which are derived
front the cranial nerves, and in their further course either join the paths formed by the myelic
nerves or strike out special lines of their own, the other, in the appearance of large groups of
central nerve cells, which serve either as transmitting stations for the conductions comings up to
the cerebrum from below, or as junctions for the important branch-conduction to the cerebellum,
here opened for travel. The difficult questions concerning the origin of the cranial nerves,
questions that have not yet in every case received their final answer, are of interest for
psychology [p. 171] only in so far as they involve that of the paths followed by the sensory
nerves. Since these belong in large part to the mesencephalic region, we may postpone their
consideration until later. It will suffice for our present purpose to refer to Fig. 72 (p. 176), as an
illustration of the conditions of origin of the

137
cerebral nerves at large. The Figure shows how the funicles of origin of these nerves spring from
isolated grey masses, the nerve nidi; how they then again and again strike across the
longitudinal fibre tracts; and how they finally follow the general trend of the ascending paths.
Most of the fibres of origin, however, enter into still further connexions most with other nidal
structures scattered throughout the oblongata. This statement applies in particular to the fibres
of the oculomotor nervous system, to which we return below, when we come to discuss the
conduction paths of the sense of sight, and to the mixed nerves, among which the
pneumogastric, trigeminus and facialis are of especial importance by reason of their manifold
functional relations. The nidi just mentioned are, we may conjecture, centres of excitation and
transmission for the great functions regulated from the oblongata, -- heart beat, movements of
respiration and articulation, mimetic movements. Our knowledge of the mechanics of innervation
in these cases is, however, still very incomplete.[19][p. 172]

We turn now to the grey nidi of this region of the brain. We have already mentioned the nidi of
the dorsal columns, interposed directly in the sensory path. Very much more complicated are the
functions of the largest nidi of the oblongata, the olives (Fig. 46 B, Fig. 47, pp. 118 f.) whose
principal office seems to be the giving off of branch-conductions. On the one hand, the neurites
of the cells give rise to a fibre system, the further course of which is uncertain: it is supposed to
connect partly with the cerebellum, partly with the lateral columns of the myel. On the other
hand, the dentata give rise to two fibre systems. The first of these covers the outer surface of the
olivary nidus, in the form of zonal fibres (g Fig. 48, p. 120), and then bends round into the restes
and their continuations, the cerebellar peduncles (cr Fig. 70). The second issues from the
interior of the nidus and crosses the median line, to decussate with the corresponding fibre-
masses of the opposite side. Other fibres from the olives enter the longitudinal fibre tract that lies
between them, and then run within the pons to the lemniscus of the crus (l Fig. 70); they thus
appear to join the sensory principal path to the cerebrum. Putting the facts together, we may say
that the olives are structures which stand in intimate relation with the branching off of conduction

138
paths towards the cerebellum Another ganglionic nidus, lying higher up -- in man concealed by
the pons, in the lower mammals projecting on its posterior border -- the trapezium or superior
olive, forms, as we shall see presently, a nodal point of great importance in the conduction of the
acoustic nerve.

(d) -- Paths of Conduction in Pons and Cerebellum

The conduction paths that branch off from the oblongata to the cerebellum, and there turn back
again to join the caudex in its course through the pons, bear a striking external resemblance to a
shunt interposed in the main current of an electrical conduction. And it seems, as a matter of
fact, that this obvious comparison fairly represents the actual relations of the nerve paths, as
they are shown schematically in Fig. 71. The sensory and motor principal paths, just described,
have also been included in this diagram, in order that the reader may obtain a rough idea of their
relation to the branch path leading to the cerebellum. The mammalian cerebellum contains, as
we have already said, two formations of cinerea: the one appearing in the ganglionic nidi, the
other in the cortical layer investing the entire surface of the organ (pp. 121 f.). Our present
knowledge of the relations between the fibres that enter into and issue from the cerebellum and
these grey masses may be summarised as follows (cf. Fig. 48, p. 120). The fibres of the restes
are deflected round the dentatum, more especially over its anterior margin. They do not appear
to connect with the cinerea of the nidus, but radiate from its upper surface towards the cortex,
where [p. 173] they terminate and are lost. From the cortex itself comes a system of transverse
fibres; which cut across the more longitudinal radiations of the restes, and draw together in stout
fascicles to form the medipeduncles (brachia of the pons). The interior of the dentata gives rise,
further, to the funicles which pass into the prepeduncles (crura ad cerebrum). And, finally, there
is a connexion between the dentata and the cerebellar cortex. This path, together with the
radiation of the restis and the medipeduncle, occupies the outer division of the alba, while the
innermost portion is constituted by the prepeduncle. It is therefore probable that all the fibres
running through the postpeduncles of the cerebellum from the oblongata have their termination
in the cortex. The cortex itself gives rise to two fibre systems: the one passes directly over into
the medipeduncles, the other appears first of all to connect the cortex with the dentatum, which
then gives off the vertically ascending fibres of the prepeduncles. These run upwards, with the
continuations of the myelic columns, converging as they proceed; just anteriorly to the upper end
of the pons they reach the middle line, and undergo decussation. Besides the two divisions of
this system of ascending fibres, we find, lastly, further radiations, whose fibres subserve the
interconnexion of more or less remote cortical areas. Some of the longer lines cross from the
one, side to the other in the vermis.

The further course of the paths leading from the cerebellum to the cerebrum is as follows. The
path which is continued in the medipeduncles appears, first of all, to terminate in grey masses in
the anterior region of the pons. From these masses arise new, vertically ascending fibre, some
of which can be traced to the anterior brain ganglia, the lenticula and striatum, while others
proceed directly to the anterior regions of the cerebral cortex. The fibres collected in the
prepeduncles find their proximate termination in the rubrum of the lemniscus (hb Fig. 56, p. 130).
A small number of the fibres issuing from this point probably enter the thalami; but the greater
portion pass to the internal capsule of the lenticula, and thence in the corona to the cerebral
cortex, ending in the regions posterior to the central gyre, and more especially in the precuneus.

139
The valvula (vm Fig. 48, p. 120), which joins the prepeduncles at the beginning of their course,
serves in all probability to supplement the connexions of the cerebellum with the brain ganglia,
by mediating a conduction to the quadrigemina.

We must believe, in view of these results of anatomical investigation, that the concurrence of
conduction paths in the cerebellum is extremely complicated. Let us consider these paths as a
branch conduction, interposed in the course of the direct conduction from myel to cerebrum as
mediated by oblongata and pons. We have two divisions, a lower and an upper. The lower
division of the branch conduction carries sensory fibres from [p. 174] the dorsal and ventral
columns (olivary path of the dorsal columns, and cerebellar path of the lateral columns), which
connect the myel with the cerebellum; and motor funicles, which branch within the pons to enter
the restes. The upper division makes two principal connexions, by way of the medipeduncles:
the one with the cerebral cortex direct, the other with the anterior brain ganglia (lenticula and
striatum). At the same time, there is a connexion, mediated by prepeduncles and valvula, with
the posterior brain ganglia (thalami and quadrigemina). The most extensive of these
conductions, that to the cerebral cortex effected by the medipeduncles, radiates out to all parts
of this organ, but is principally directed forwards to the frontal brain and the adjacent regions.

The schema given in Fig. 71 shows the main features

of this conduction system. The reader will recognise,
first of all, the pyramidal path, with its crossed branch
from the lateral and its uncrossed branch from the
ventral columns, running directly between myel and
cerebral cortex (p1p2, p). He will next notice the other
motor paths, derived from the ventral columns, and
interrupted in the mesencephalic region by masses of
cinerea. Some of these paths are continued in a new
neurone chain, and extend to the cerebral cortex;
other fibres of the same system probably terminate in
the mesencephalic region itself (vv'). A considerable
division of the sensory path (gg') drawn from the
dorsal columns, passes in the lemniscal decussation
(k2) to the opposite side: part of it is lost in the [p.
175] grey masses of the pons, part continues in fibre
tracts which, interrupted by grey nidi, run to the
anterior brain regions and so finally to the cortex.
There is also an uncrossed sensory path (cc), derived
from the dorsal and lateral columns, which passes
into the tegmentum of the crus and finds its proximate
terminus in the tegmental grey nidi. Another path, also
sensory in origin, is the uncrossed branch conduction
(cs) carried to the cerebellum from the restes in the
postpeduncles; it terminates in the cerebellar cortex,
for the most part in the vermis. Finally, there is a
crossed conduction (f), issuing from the grey nidi of the olives, which, unlike the former, enters
into the nidal structures (N) of the cerebellum. These are all incoming paths. The outgoing lines,

140
leading to the cerebrum, are two in number: the prepeduncles, which start from the cerebellar
nidus, and may be traced partly into the prosencephalic ganglia, partly to the cerebral cortex (e');
and the fibres of the medipeduncles (bb'), which run direct from the cerebellar cortex to the
cerebrum. These latter enter, first, into the grey nidi of the pons, and are by them brought into
connexion, in some measure, with the brain ganglia, but most extensively with the cerebral
cortex, and in that principally with the frontal region. The system is completed by the paths of
connexion between nidal structures and cortex (rr) which belong exclusively to the cerebellum.

The general relations of these incoming and outgoing paths suggest that the cerebellum brings
into connexion with one another conductions of different functional significance, This inference
finds further support in the peculiar structure of the cerebellar cortex. The characteristic
constituents of this region are, as we saw above (Fig. 15, p. 44) the cells of PURKINJE, easily
distinguished by their large size and the manifold
arborisation and reticulation of their protoplasmic
processes. If, now, the cerebellar cortex serves to
connect fibres of different function, sensory and motor, as
is suggested by the relations of the incoming and
outgoing paths, it is clear that we may look upon these
cells of PURKINJE as elementary centres of connexion
between functionally different fibre elements. We should
then have to assume, on the analogy of the large cells in
the ventral cornua of the myel, that the dendrites mediate
centripetal, the neurites centrifugal conductions: in other
words, that the chief office of the former is to take up the
excitations carried in the postpeduncles, while the latter
collect to form the paths of conduction that continue in
the medipeduncles to the cerebrum and there, as it
appears, are chiefly connected with the centres of
innervation of the prosencephalon.

The pons is chiefly important as receiving the paths to be

carried up from cerebellum to cerebrum, and associating
them to the vertical ascending fibres of the crus. Its
development in the animal kingdom thus keeps even
pace with the development of all these paths of
conduction, and [p. 176] especially of the pyramids and
medipeduncles. The fibres that cross over from the one
side to the other in the median line of the pons (at R Fig.
72) are decussating fibres belonging in part to the direct
continuations of the myelic columns through the pons, in
part to the medipeduncles of the cerebellum. The
decussation of these latter has been established by
pathological observations: atrophy of a cerebral lobe is
ordinarily attended or followed by a wasting away of
the opposite half of the cerebellum. The fibres of the
medipeduncles, probably without exception, pass through

141
internodes of grey matter before they are deflected into the vertical paths; and small grey nidi
are also strewn in the path of the directly ascending prepeduncles (ba Fig. 72). These presently
decussate, and come to art end in the rubrum of the tegmentum. In this way, by collection of the
myelic columns that come up from below, and of the continuations from the cerebellum that join
them front above and from the side, there forms within the pons that entire fibre tract which
connects the lower-lying nerve centres with the structures of the cerebrum, -- the crus. At the
same time, the pons is broken root bundles of certain cranial nerves, which take their origin
higher up. The nidi of origin of these nerves are situated partly upon the cinereal floor of the
highest portion of the fossa rhomboidalis (metacele), partly in the neighbourhood of the Sylvian
aqueduct (mesocele), which forms a continuation of the central canal.[p. 177]

As a result of its cleavage by cinerea and by the cross fibres of the medipeduncles, the crus
divides into two parts, distinguishable in the gross anatomy of the brain, and known as crusta
and tegmentum. A third division, the lemniscus, belongs to the tegmentum so far as regards the
direction of its course, but in all other respects is clearly differentiated from it. Neither of the two
principal parts constitutes a complete functional unit; on the contrary, each of them includes
conduction paths of very diverse character. Nevertheless, the twofold division of the crus seems
to represent a first, even if a rough classification of the numerous paths of conduction to the
cerebrum. Thus the inferior portion or crusta (p--p' Fig. 72) is principally made up of the
continuations of pyramidi, remains of the dorsal columns, and medipeduncles. Its outermost
portion carries that continuation of the dorsal columns which passes in the lemniscal
decussation to the opposite side of the body (k2 Fig. 71). The intercalatum (substantia nigra of
SÖMMERING: Sn Fig. 73) is a ganglionic nidus, belonging to the conduction paths of the crusta,
which separates crusta from tegmentum. The portion of the crus which lies above the
intercalatum, the tegmentum (v'--hl Fig. 72), is at first composed of the remains of the lateral and
dorsal columns, and of a part of the remains of the ventral columns. In its further course, beyond
the point at which the rubrum appears in cross sections of the tegmentum (R Fig. 73), these are
reinforced by the prepeduncles (mf, hi, cr Fig. 70). Finally, the lemniscus, which we have
recognised as a separate subdivision of the tegmentum (sl--sl' Fig. 72), also carries fibres from
the dorsal columns, as well as fibres from the ventral columns and the cerebellum. Taking the
origin of all these tracts into consideration, we may designate the crusta as that part of the crus
which, so far as it derives directly from the myel, is especially devoted to the conveyance of
motor paths; the tegmentum and lemniscus are of mixed, and mainly, as it seems, of sensory
origin. At every point, however, these direct continuations of the myelic systems are augmented
by intercentral paths, the conductions from the cerebellum. In this way, as may be seen from
Fig. 72, which shows a cross section taken approximately through the middle of the organ, the
structure of the pons becomes extraordinarily complex. We may add that it contains, crowded
together in a comparatively small space, the whole number of conduction paths, many of which
in their later course are widely divergent. It is, therefore, a remarkable coincidence that, besides
the epiphysis, which is not a nervous centre at all (see p, 124, above), the pons should have
been regarded with especial favour by the metaphysical psychology of past times as the
probable 'seat of the mind.' HERBART himself accepts this view. If, on the contrary, one were
asked to lay one's finger upon a part of the brain that by its complexity of structure and the
number of elements it compresses into a small space [p. 178] should illustrate the composite
character of the physical substrate of the mental life, and therewith show the absurdity of any
attempt to discover a simple seat of mind, one could hardly hope to make a happier choice.

142
 5. Cerebral Ganglia and Conduction Paths of the Higher Sensory Nerves

(a) -- The Cerebral Ganglia

If we look at the series of cerebral ganglia, we see at once that those of mesencephalon and
diencephalon, the quadrigemina and the thalami, serve as intermediate stations on the line of
conduction: peripherally, they receive sensory and motor fibres; centralwards, they stand in
connexion with the cerebral cortex. They lie, as their function requires, directly upon the
crura, whose fibre masses partly run
beneath them straight to the
prosencephalon, partly curve upwards
to enter into the grey nidi of the ganglia.
There is a difference, however: the
thalamus takes up comparatively few
fibres from below, and sends out very
considerable bundles to the cerebral
cortex; the quadrigemina do just the
reverse. Both ganglia, as we shall see
in detail later, are of especial
importance as nodal points in the optic
conduction. Fig. 73 shows a section
taken through the middle region of this
whole area, and will assist in some
degree towards an understanding of the structural relations.

The position of the prosencephalic ganglia, the striata with their two subdivisions, caudatum and
lenticula, is more obscure. The incoming and outgoing fibres tell us but little of their function.
Both divisions receive fibres front the periphery, derived for the most part from the diencephalic
and mesencephalic ganglia. The crural fibres, on the other hand, pass below and between the
prosencephalic ganglia, without entering them (Fig. 74). The grey masses of the ganglia send no
further reinforcements [p. 179] to the coronal radiation. It would appear, then, that these
structures are terminal stations of conduction, analogous to the cerebral cortex, and not
intermediate stations like the thalami and quadrigemina.[20]

(b) -- Conduction Paths of the Nerves of Taste and Smell

An important place is filled in the system of conductions that falls within the region we are now
considering (prosencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon) by the paths of the sensory
nerves. Fortunately, these are among the conductions that have so far been most fully
investigated, and whose functional significance is at the same time relatively easiest of
interpretation. In view

143
of their great importance for psychology, we shall, therefore, depict their principal features in
some little detail. We begin with the conduction paths of the nerves of taste and smell; putting
these together not so much because the peripheral sense organs are closely related, both in
spatial position and in function, as rather because the two lines of conduction may in a certain
sense be regarded as prototypes of the much more complicated conditions that obtain in the
cases of sight and hearing. The [p. 180] gustatory path approaches very closely to the type
familiar to us in the sensory paths of the general sense. When the conducting fibres have left the
central organ, they pass only once more, and then in the near neighbourhood of the centre,
through bipolar

144
cells, analogous to the cells of the spinal ganglia; they then break up at the periphery of the
organ in a reticulum, which is distributed between non-nervous epithelial elements. The olfactory
path, on the other hand, is a pronounced instance of the second type of sensory conduction,
characterised by the outward displacement of central nerve cells to the peripheral organ, which
accordingly represents, in all essential particulars, a portion of the central organ: cf. above, p.
47.

145
There is, however, a further point, in which the path of the gustatory nerves differs from those of
the other nerves of special sense. The gustatory fibres, in consequence, we may suppose, of
their distribution over a functional area of some considerable extent, run their course in two
distinct nerve trunks: those destined for the anterior portion of this area in the lingualis (L Fig.
75), and those intended for the posterior portion in the glosso-[p. 181]pharyngeus (G). This
division appears, however, to be simply external. Both of the gustatory nerve paths take their
origin from the same masses of nidal cinerea on the floor of the metacele. At first, however, the
gustatory fibres that run to the anterior portion of the tongue join the facialis, at the genu of which
(F) they pass through the cells of a small special ganglion. Thenceforward they are continued in
the chorda tympani (Ch) side by side with the lingual branch of the trigeminus. The
glossopharyngeus, on the other hand, which supplies the posterior portion of the tongue, passes
through its own ganglion. At the
periphery, as we shall see when we
come to consider the peripheral sense
apparatus the two nerves break up into
terminal fibrils, which end in and among
the taste breakers, without, as it
appears, coming into contact with other
than epithelial terminal structures. The
course of the fibres, as shown
synoptically in Fig. 75, accordingly
corresponds in all details with a general
sensory conduction, such as is
represented in Figg. 21 and 67 (pp. 50,
165) for the myelic nerves: the ganglia
VII. and IX. may be regarded as
analogues of the spinal ganglia.

The paths of the olfactory nerves follow

a radically different course. Their point
of origin lies furthest forward of all the
sensory nerves, so that they border
directly upon certain cortical regions of
the cerebrum. This is the reason that
the olfactorius, from the outset, is not a single nerve, but appears in the form of numerous
delicate threads, which issue direct from a part of the brain that belongs to the cortex, the
olfactory bulb (Fig. 52, p. 125). Conduction begins at the periphery in the cells of [p. 182] the
olfactory mucous membrane (A Fig. 76), which are set between epithelial cells, and have
themselves the character of nerve cells that send their neurites centralward. These neurites, in
their course to the olfactory bulb, break up into delicate fibrils, which for the most part come into
contact with the dendrites of small nerve cells: the two sets of processes together forming a
compact ball of tissue (a, b). Each of these cells, in its turn, sends out a principal process, which
passes into one of the large nerve cells of the bulb (C). Here we must place the proximate
cortical station of the olfactory path. The dendrites issuing laterally from the cell bodies
represent, in all probability, ramose secondary conductions; while the main path of centripetal
conduction is continued, in the direction of the arrows, in the neurites, which leave the cell upon

146
the opposite side, and pass into the olfactory tract. This, the principal path, accordingly extends
over a peripheral and a central neurone territory. There is, now, a second group of central
olfactory cells which, if we may judge from their connexions and the direction of their processes,
are probably to be regarded as nodal points of a system of centrifugal conduction. These cells
(D) send out a single peripherally directed neurite, which breaks up within the glomeruli in a
delicate reticulum of terminal fibrils (c). The olfactory path thus shows a marked divergence from
the type of sensory conduction represented by the cutaneous nerves. The peripheral organ itself
appears as a peripherally situated portion of the cerebral cortex, and the olfactory fibres, by a
natural consequence, resemble central rather than peripheral nerve fibres. Another novel feature
is introduced in the probable existence of a secondary path of centrifugal conduction,. And,
lastly, we must note the central connexion of the olfactory region; of the two sides by the
precommissure (ca Fig. 53, p. 127). The connexion is presumably to be interpreted as an
olfactory decussation, by which the centripetal paths are carried to the opposite hemisphere, and
the neurones D c are also enabled to mediate co-excitation, in the centrifugal direction, of the
peripheral cells A of the opposite side of the body.

(c) -- Conduction Paths of the Acoustic Nerve

In man and the higher vertebrates, the cochlea of the auditory organ is, in all probability, the only
part of the labyrinth of the ear that subserves auditory sensation. If we may judge from the
character of the cochlear nerve terminations, the peripheral starting-point of the acoustic
conduction conforms in all respects to the conduction type represented by the cutaneous nerves.
The terminal fibrils of the acusticus extend among the epithelial and connective tissue structures
of the basilar membrane (cf. Ch. VIII., § 4, below), and then, in the auditory canal of the cochlea
(S Fig. 77) traverse groups of bipolar ganglion cells (g) which resemble the cells of the spinal
ganglia [p. 183] and are termed in common the spiral ganglion. The cells of this ganglion, which
accordingly corresponds to an outlying spinal ganglion, give off neurites which run centralward,
and finally break up into

147
terminal arborisations within various accumulations of cinerea, more especially in two large nidi
in the region of the metacele, with the processes of whose cells they are thus brought in contact.
The nidi in question are a somewhat smaller anterior nidus, the anterior acoustic nidus (V A) and
a larger posterior nidus, the tuberculum acusticum (Ta). Both of these ganglia send off a small
number of fibres, which pass upwards on the same side (uf), and a larger number, which ascend
on the opposite side of the body (kf). The [p. 184] former run partly to the postgemina, and
partly, having joined the lemniscus, direct to the cerebral cortex direct to the cerebral cortex.
There is also, in all probability a branch path from the tuberculum acusticum, which proceeds
with the postpeduncles to the cerebellum (Cb). The great majority of the fibre tracts issuing from
the two nidal masses cross, however, to the opposite side, either directly or by way of the
superior olives (Ol); in each of which the conduction is transferred to new neurone territories.
After decussation, they continue in the same direction as the uncrossed fibres: some to the
postgemina (UV), some in the lemniscus to the acoustic area of the cerebral cortex (H). Still
other neurites (r'r'), which take their origin from cells in the superior olives, follow a shorter road,
running crossed or uncrossed, to nidi of motor nerves. This latter path must accordingly be
regarded as a reflex path. The branch conduction to the postgemina is continued, with
interruption by their cell masses, to the pregemina (OV), from which again a centrifugal fibre
system (rr) runs to motor nidi, and more especially to the nidi of the oculomotor nerves. It would
seem, therefore, that this quadrigeminal path is also, in part, a reflex path; though the

148
quadrigemina serve at the same time as a transmitting station, from which a further centripetal
conduction is continued to the anterior brain ganglia. To the sensory conductions already
described must be added, finally, a path between the same cell stations in the quadrigemina
(OV, UV) and the acoustic nidi (VA, Ta), which, if we may judge from the peripheral direction of
its neurites, conducts in the opposite direction to that marked in the Figure, and world therefore
represent a centrifugal path. Like the centripetal path which it accompanies, it consists of a large
number of crossed and a small number of uncrossed fibres. It is indicated by the downward
pointing arrows. We thus have, in summary, the following paths of conduction: (1) the primary
path, conforming in type to the path of the spinal nerves, which runs from the peripheral end-
fibres of the acoustic nerve to the ganglion spirale (the equivalent of a spinal ganglion) and
thence to the acoustic nidi (VA, Ta) in the oblongata; (2) the principal centripetal path, beginning
in these nidi, which divides into a smaller uncrossed and a larger crossed bundle and runs, with
interruption by the superior olives or by other masses of nidal cinerea, to the cerebral cortex; (3)
a branch path, beginning in the same nidi of the oblongata, which also divides into crossed and
uncrossed portions, and runs to the quadrigemina and thence in all probability to the anterior
brain ganglia; (4) reflex paths, which lead across to motor nidi as low as the superior olives and
as high as the pregemina, and which include, more particularly the paths of the oculomotor
nerves and of the facial muscles concerned in the movements of speech; (5) a branch path to
the cerebellum, which again begins in the primary acoustic nidi; and, finally, (6) a centrifugal
sensory [p. 185] path, which issues from the quadrigeminal nidi, and is associated in its
peripheral course with the corresponding centripetal path.[21]

This list shows us how extraordinarily complex is the network of relations into which the auditory
organ is brought by its central paths. Apart from its twofold crossed and uncrossed connexion
with the cerebral cortex, the following facts should be noted as of especial significance. First,
there is a reflex path connecting the acoustic centres with the points of origin of muscular
nerves, and among them with the centres for the movements of articulation and for the
movements of the eyes, which latter are extremely important in the spatial orientation of the
body. Secondly, we find that the conduction system, like that of the olfactory nerve, includes
centrifugal paths, whose office is, perhaps, to transmit the excitations of the auditory organ of the
opposite side, or other sensory excitations that find their nodal points in the mesencephalic
region, in the form of concomitant sensation.

We remark, in conclusion, that the acoustic nerve proper, which comes from the cochlea, is
connected over a part of its peripheral course with the nerve that comes from the vestibule and
canals. This, the vestibular nerve, is a branch of the eighth cranial, and is commonly accounted,
like the cochlear, to the acoustic nerve. In its central course, however, it appears to follow a
different road. It passes through special nidal structures, and finally, as its secondary
degenerations prove, terminates in separate areas of the cerebral cortex. [22]

(d) -- Conduction Paths of the Optic Nerve

The principal difference between the optic and acoustic conductions is that the optic surface
itself, like the olfactory surface, is an outlying portion of the central organ, displaced to the
periphery of the body. It is natural, therefore, that the optic fibres too, when they emerge from
the retina, should at once appear, as by far the great majority of them do, in the character of

149
central nerve fibres. The cells that give visual sensation its specific quality, the rods and cones
(S and Z Fig. 78) -- usually termed, on this account, visual cells -- are sensory epithelia which,
like the gustatory cells, are connected only by contact with the terminal fibrils of the optic
conduction. In the retinal layers that cover them are several strata of nerve cells, easily divisible
by their marked differences of form into two main groups: the large multipolar ganglion cells (G2),
which my be regarded, from the relations of their neurites and dendrites, as proximate points of
departure for the optic conduction running centripetally from the retina to the brain; and bipolar
ganglion cells (G1) to which may be added stellate intercalary cells, found far forward in the
neighbourhood of [p. 186] the elements S and Z, and not represented in the Figure. These last
two classes constitute together a neurone territory, intervening between the last termina: fibrils of
the peripheral optic conduction and the large ganglion
cells (G2), which may be considered as the extreme
peripheral member of the centripetal optic conduction.
Between its limits we find, further, terminal
arborisations of neurites (e), derived not from cells of
the retina itself but from more central regions, --
probably from the pregemina, since these, as we shall
see in a moment, form important nodal points in the
optic conduction at large. There is thus a further point
of resemblance between the outlying central area
represented in the retina and the olfactory surface:
here as there, the structural relations indicate the
existence of a centrifugal secondary path, running
alongside of the centripetal running alongside of the
centripetal principle path.[23][p. 187]

The fibres collected in the optic nerve conduct, then,

for the most part centripetally; though there is, in all
probability, a small admixture of centrifugal
conductors. Following its course, we come upon the
decussation of the optic nerve, the chiasma, where a
distribution is made of the optic fibres, to the paths
running further towards the central organ, that is
obviously of extreme importance for the co-operation
of the two eyes in binocular vision. It is instructive, in
this regard, to trace the phylogenetic stages through
which the mode of distribution in the human chiasma
has gradually been attained. In the lower vertebrates,
up to the birds, there is a complete decussation of the
paths, the right half of the brain receiving only the left
optic path, and conversely. In the mammalian series,
from the lower orders onwards, direct paths play a
larger and larger part alongside of the crossed fibres;
until finally, in man, the distribution has become practically equal; so that the one (the temporal)
half of the retina passes into the optic tract of the opposite side, and the other (the nasal) into the
tract of the same side.[24] We owe our knowledge of this fact less to direct anatomical

150
investigation, which finds great difficulty in the tracing of the detailed course of the optic nerve,
than to pathological observations of the partial loss of sight resulting from destruction of the
visual centre of one hemisphere or from the pressure of tumours upon the optic tract of one side.
The main results of these observations are brought together, in schematic form, in Fig. 79. It will
be seen that the corresponding halves of retina and optic nerve are cross-hatched in the same
direction. The temporal halves of both retinas have a crossed (tt), the nasal halves a direct path
(nn). Before decussation, the crossed path lies on the outside, the uncrossed on the inside of the
optic nerve; after decussation, the crossed changes to the inside, the uncrossed to the outside of
the optic tract. In contradistinction to the retinal halves which thus receive only a one-sided
representation in the brain, the central area of the visual surface, or macula lutea, where the
retinal elements are set most thickly, is favoured with a bilateral representation. Destruction of
the central optic fibres of one side is accordingly followed by half-blindness (hemianopsia) or
limitation of the field of vision to one-half of each retina (hemiopia), with the exception of the area
of direct vision around the fixation point, which becomes blind only when the central disturbance
affects both sides of the brain.[25] We return later (pp. 229 ff.) to the relations which this peculiar
mode of distribution sustains to the function of vision.

The conduction of the optic tract of either half of the brain is thus composed of temporal paths
from the opposite retina, nasal paths from the [p. 188] retina of the same side, and macular
paths from both retinas. It divides again, on both sides -- as is shown schematically in Fig. 78,
where abstraction is made from the decussations which we have just been discussing -- into

two paths: the one of which runs first of all to the pregenicula (AK), while the other passes to the
pregemina (OV). The two paths, appear to have no connexion with each other, despite the
proximity of quadrigemina and genicula (see Fig. 48, p. 120). In the same way, the optic path to
the pregeminum runs direct to this through the prebrachia, without coming into contact with the
postgeminum. The first of these two paths, that which travels to the pregeniculum, forms the
direct optic radiation (ss) to the cortex or the occipital lobe. It passes over, in the grey nidi of the

151
pregeminum, into a new neurone territory, whose neurites break up into terminal fibrils in the
brain cortex. On the other hand, the large pyramidal cells of the cortex send out neurites, which
apparently join the coronal [p. 189] fibres that enter the pregemina, and thus constitute a
centrifugal conduction extending to that point (c'f'), The pregemina themselves, which contain
terminal arborisations of fibres, first beginnings of neurites from ganglion cells, and various forms
of intercalary cells, and which send out fibres both to the peripheral sense organ and to the nidi
of the oculomotor nerves, appear accordingly as intermediary stations of great complexity, while,
on the one side, they receive the central conduction coining from the brain cortex, they serve, on
the other, towards the periphery, as points of departure for sensory and motor fibres, -- the
sensory paths conducting in part centripetally to them, and in part centrifugally away from them.
If, then, we abstract from the facts of decussation, described above, we may say that the fibres
of the optic tract make up the following paths: (1) the centripetal sensory principal path (ss),
which in the large multipolar ganglion cells of the retina (G2) receives the excitations pouring in
from the periphery; has an intermediary station, again interrupted by ganglion cells, in the
pregeniculum (AK); and finally reaches the cerebral cortex in the optic radiation of the corona:
(2) a centripetal sensory mesencephalic path (cp), which runs to the pregemina; here, in its turn,
enters a new neurone territory; an finally, as it would appear, passes into the centrifugal paths
(rr) that go to the nidi of the oculomotor nerves -- the whole path cprr thus representing a reflex
path, which connects retina and oculomotor nerves in the mesencephalon: and lastly: (3) a path
which, if we may judge from the mode of connexion of its elements, conducts centrifugally, and
which divides into two parts: a central branch c'f', running front optic cortex mesencephalon, and
terminating in the pregemina; and a peripheral branch cf, beginning in the pregemina and [p.
190] ending, as we saw above, in the retina. In view of all these connexions we can readily
understand that reactions to light impressions can be released in the mesencephalon, without
any participation of the principal path: released as reflexes to the oculomotor system, by way of
the transferences effected in the quadrigemina, and as reflexes to other muscles of the body, by
way of the other connexions. The paths which, from the direction of their neurone connexions,
must in all probability be regarded as centrifugal conductors may be supposed to serve, on the
one hand, as the vehicle of direct reactions of central excitations to the nervous structures at the
periphery, and, on the other, as lines of transmission, by help of which excitations in the one
retina mediate centrally coexcitations of the other.[26]

6. Paths of Motor and Sensory Conduction to the Cerebral Cortex

(a) -- General Methods for the Demonstration of the Cortical Centres

We have now traced, as accurately as may be, the course of the fibre systems that run to the
cerebral cortex, whether directly from the crura, or indirectly from the cerebellum and the brain
ganglia. We have made use, in this enquiry, both of the results of anatomical investigation and of
the degenerations set up by severance of the fibres from their centres of function. But we have
not been able to say anything at all definite of the final distribution of the central fibre systems in
the cortex itself. As a matter of fact, there are still certain mazes of interlacing fibres to which
anatomists have not yet found the clue; and our two methods fail us, when we seek to determine
by their aid the precise relations in which the various regions of the cerebral cortex stand to the
deeper lying nerve centres and to the peripheral parts of the body. We therefore ask assistance
at this point from two other sources, physiological experiment and pathological observation. The

152
former supplies us with a certain correlation, in the animal brain, between definite cortical areas
and the various motor and sensory functions of the peripheral organs. The latter attempts the
same problem for the human brain, by a comparison of the functional derangements recorded
during life with the results of post-mortem examination. The conclusions drawn from experiments
on animals may be transferred to man only, of course, in so far as they answer the general
question [p. 191] of the representation of the bodily organs in the cerebral cortex. When we
attempt to map out, on the human brain, the terminal areas of the various paths of conduction,
we have to rely solely upon pathological observations. These possess the further advantage that
they allow us to make more certain tests of the behaviour of sensation than do the experiments,
upon animals. On the other hand, they have the disadvantage that circumscribed lesions of the
cortex and pallium are of comparatively rare occurrence, so that the collection of data proceeds
but slowly.

Experiments on animals fall into two main classes: stimulation experiments and abrogation
experiments. Under the latter heading, we include all experiments which are intended to
abrogate, temporarily or permanently, the function of some cortical area. In stimulation
experiments, the symptoms to be observed are phenomena of movement, twitches or
contractures in the muscles; abrogation experiments bring about abrogation or disturbance of
movements or sensations. Both forms of experiment are of value for the definition of the terminal
areas of the motor paths; for the sensory areas, we must have recourse in most cases to
abrogation experiments. There are, however, many regions of the cerebral cortex which form the
terminal areas of intercentral paths from the cerebellum and brain ganglia, paths which are
connected only in a very complicated and roundabout way with the lines of sensory or motor
conduction, or with both. We shall, therefore, expect a priori that not every experimental or
pathological change, induced over a limited area, will be followed by noticeable symptoms; and
that, even where such symptoms appear, they will not, as a rule, consist in simple phenomena of
irritability and disability such as arise from the excitation or transsection of a peripheral nerve.
This expectation is amply confirmed by experience. At many points, stimulation may be applied
without producing any symptoms whatsoever. Where it does produce a result, the muscular
excitations often have the character of co-ordinated movements. The symptoms of abrogation,
on the other hand, are for the most part simple disturbances of movement or impairments of
sense perception; it occurs but seldom, and in general only where the lesion is of considerable
extent, that there is complete abrogation of function, sensory or motor. It is well, therefore, in
speaking of experiments upon the cerebral cortex, to use expressions, that in some way indicate
this ambiguity of result. We shall accordingly distinguish between centromotor cortical areas,
whose stimulation produces movements of certain muscles or muscle groups, and whose
extirpation is followed by a derangement of these movements, and centrosensory areas, whose
removal brings in its train symptoms of loss or defect upon the sensory side.[27] These terms
must [p. 192] not, however, be interpreted at the present stage of the enquiry as implying any
hypothesis whether of the significance of the phenomena of stimulation and abrogation or of the
function of the cortical areas to which they are applied. The only question to be discussed here
is that of the termination of the paths of conduction in the cerebral cortex; and all that we require
to know, in order to answer it, is the functional relation obtaining between the various regions of
the cortex and the peripheral organs. How these functional relations are to be conceived, and in
what manner the different cortical areas co-operate with one another and with the lower central
parts, -- these are questions that we do not yet need to consider. There is, however, one point,

153
so important for the right understanding of the conditions of conduction that it should, perhaps,
be expressly mentioned in this place; a point that follows directly from the extreme complexity of
interrelation which we have found to prevail in the central parts. It is this: that, for anything we
know, there may exist several centromotor areas for one and the same movement, and several
centrosensory areas for one and the same sense organ; and that there may quite well be parts
of the cortex which unite in themselves centromotor and centrosensory functions. Suppose,
then, that we are able to demonstrate certain results of stimulation and abrogation. They will
simply indicate that the particular area of the cortex stands in some sort of relation with the
conduction paths of the corresponding muscular or sensory region. The nature of the relation
can be conjectured only after a comprehensive survey has been made of the whole body of
central functions. All questions of this kind must, therefore, be postponed until the following
Chapter.

The extreme complication of the course of the conduction paths, and the unusually complex
conditions that govern the central functions, in face of which the formation of a critical judgment
becomes a matter of serious difficulty, make us realise all the more keenly the comparative
crudeness and inadequacy of all, even the most careful, experimental methods. In stimulation
experiments, it is never possible to confine the stimulus effect within such narrow limits as is
desirable, if we are to establish the relations of conduction obtaining between distinct cortical
areas. Moreover, the central substance, as we have seen, has its own peculiar laws of
excitability, which make negative results practically worthless as data from which to draw
conclusions. Physiologists are therefore inclining more and more to attribute the higher value to
abrogation experiments. But here, again [p. 193] there are difficulties, as regards both the
performance of the experiments and the interpretation of their results. The shock given by the
operation to the whole central organ is usually so violent, that the immediate symptoms cannot
be referred to any definite cause; they may be due to functional disturbance in parts of the brain
widely remote from the point of injury. Hence almost all observers have gradually been led to
agree that the animals must be kept alive for a considerable period of time, and that only the
later, and more especially the chronic symptoms may be made the basis of inference. Even so,
however, various sources of error are still possible. Thus, as GOLTZ pointed out, inhibitory
influences may continue to be exerted, either upon the entire central organ or upon distant
regions, particularly if but a short interval has elapsed after the operation. Or, if a longer time has
passed, the injured part may have been functionally replaced by other cortical areas: numerous
pathological observations on man have put the efficacy of such vicarious function beyond the
reach of doubt. Or, finally, as LUCIANI remarked, the cortical lesion may, on the contrary, set up
a secondary degeneration of deeper lying brain centres, so that the abrogation of functions may
be extended far beyond its original scope. In view of these difficulties, which mean that the
experimental result may be obscured by sources of error of the most various kinds and of
opposed directions, it is obvious that conclusions in which we are to place any measure of
confidence, must be drawn without exception from a large number of accordant observations,
made with due regard to all the factors that might affect the issue. And when these precautions
have been taken, it is still inevitable that the conclusions, in many cases, attain to nothing higher
than a certain degree of probability. In particular, they will as a general rule fail to carry
conviction, until they are confirmed by pathological observations upon the human subject.

(b) -- Motor and Sensory Cortical Centres in the Brain of the Dog

154
Centromotor areas in the cerebral cortex may easily be demonstrated, as HITZIG and FRITSCH
were the first to show, by experiments with electrical or mechanical stimuli. The simplicity of the
structural plan of the carnivore brain (Fig. 61, p. 138) makes it comparatively easy to rediscover
the irritable points, when they have once been found. In Fig. 80 there are marked upon the brain
of the dog the principal points about which the statements of the different observers are in
general agreement.[28] Besides these superficial areas, there appear to be other cortical regions
in the same neighbourhood, lying concealed in the depth of the crucial fissure, which [p. 194] are
mechanically excitable: their exact localisation is, however, impossible, owing to their inacessible
[sic] position.[29] The motor areas are all situated over the anterior portion of the brain, between
the olfactory gyre and the Sylvian fissure. With stimuli of moderate intensity, the effect of
stimulation is produced on the opposite side; bilateral symptoms are observed only in the case
of movements in which there is a regular functional connexion of the two halves of the body, e.
g. in ocular movements, movements of chewing, etc.
With stronger stimuli, the effect is confined as a rule to
the muscles of the same side of the body. The stimulable
areas are seldom more than a few millimetres in extent,
and excitation of points lying between them is, if the
stimuli are weak, unaccompanied by any visible effect. If
the stimulus is made more intensive, or is frequently
repeated, contractions may, it is true, be set up from
these originally indifferent points; but it is possible that
such results are due to diffusion of currents (in electrical
stimulation) or to an enhancement of excitability brought
about by the preceding stimulation. There can, indeed, be
no doubt that repetition of stimulus is able to induce this
enhancement for it is often found that, under such
conditions, the excitation spreads to other motor areas,
so that the animal is finally thrown into general spasms,
the phenomena of what is called cortical epilepsy.[30] For
the rest, the contractions set up by cortical stimulation are
always distinguished from those released by electrical
stimulation of the coronal fibres by a much longer
duration of their latent period, the expression of that
retardation of the stimulation processes which is of
universal occurrence in the central elements.[31]

The phenomena of abrogation, observed after extirpation

of definite portions of the cerebral cortex of the dog, differ
in two respects from the [p. 195] results of the
experiments with stimulation. In the first place, they show that the removal of a stimulable area is
usually followed by disturbances of movement in other groups of muscles, which were not
excited by stimulation of the same area. Thus, extirpation of the area d in Fig. 80 is likely to
produce paralytic symptoms in the fore leg as well as paralysis of the hind leg, and, conversely,
extirpation of the area c is attended by a partial paralysis of the hind leg; again, destruction of
the centres of neck and trunk aa' involves both the extremities; and so on. At the same time, the
paralysis of the stimulable areas is always more complete than that of the areas sympathetically

155
affected. In the second place, the extirpation of parts of the cortex that are irresponsive to
stimulation may also give rise to phenomena
of paralysis; and this statement holds
not only of points of the cortex lying between
the stimulable areas, within the zone of
excitability, but also of more remote regions.
It can thus be demonstrated that the entire
anterior portion of the parietal lobe, and
even the superior portion of the temporal
region as well, are in the dog centromotor in
function. Only the occipital and the larger,
inferior portion of the temporal region can be
removed without producing symptoms of
abrogation on the motor side. Fig. 81 gives a
graphic representation of these facts. The sphere of centromotor abrogation is dotted over; the
size and number of the points in any given area indicate the intensity of the phenomena of
abrogation appearing (always on the opposite side of the body) after extirpation of that particular
zone.[32] The character of these disturbances, and more especially the regularity with which
definite muscle groups are affected by the extirpation of definite parts of the cortex, render it
improbable that the results obtained from non-stimulable areas are the outcome of transitory
inhibitions, propagated as simple sequelæ of the operation from the point of injury to other,
uninjured parts. We may more reasonably explain the differences between the phenomena of
stimulation and those of abrogation [p. 196] by supposing that the excitable zones stand in
closer relation to the peripheral conduction paths than do the others, whose centromotor
influence can be demonstrated only by way of the inhibition of function which follows upon their
removal. For the rest, it is a significant fact for the theory of these phenomena of centromotor
abrogation that they do not consist by any means in complete muscular paralyses. In general,
there is inhibition of voluntary movement only: the muscles involved will still contract reflexwise
upon stimulation of the appropriate points upon the skin, and may be thrown into sympathetic
activity by the movement of other muscle groups. Further, all symptoms of abrogation, save
where very considerable portions of the cortical investment of both hemispheres have been
removed, are impermanent and transitory; the animals will, as a rule, behave, after the lapse of
days or months, in a perfectly normal way, and the restoration occurs the more quickly, the
smaller the extent of the cortical area destroyed.[33]

The demonstration of the centrosensory areas, if it is to be accurate and reliable, must, as we

said above, be undertaken by help of the phenomena of abrogation. This limitation of method,
and more especially the uncertainty which attaches to sensory symptoms, place serious
obstacles in the path of investigation. There are, however, two points in which the disturbances
of sensation set up by extirpations of the cortex in the dog appear to resemble the motor
paralyses which we have already passed under review. First, the cortical regions correlated with
the various sense departments are, evidently, not well-marked and circumscribed; they always
cover large areas of the brain surface, and even seem to overlap. Secondly: the disturbances,
here as before, do not consist in any permanent abrogation of function. If the injury is restricted
to a comparatively small area, they may be entirely compensated. If it affects a larger portion of
the cortex, there will, it is true, be permanent sensory derangements, but they will express

156
themselves rather in an incorrect apprehension of sense impressions than in absolute
insensitivity to stimulus. Thus, dogs whose visual centre has been entirely removed will still
avoid obstructions, and others, whose auditory centre has been extirpated, will react to sudden
sound impressions, although they can no longer recognise familiar objects or the words of their
master. They take a piece of white paper, laid in their path, for an obstacle which they must go
round; or confuse bits of cork with pieces of meat, if the two have been mixed together.[34] All
these phenomena indicate that the functions of perception have in such [p. 197] cases been
abrogated or disturbed, but that the removal of the centrosensory areas is by no means and in
no sense the equivalent of destruction of the peripheral sense organs. There is, further, one
respect in which the terminations of the sensory conduction paths differ from those of the motor:
while the derangements of movement point to
a total decussation of the motor nerves, the
disturbances of sensation, or at least of the
special senses, are bilateral, and accordingly
suggest that the fibres of the sensory paths
undergo only a partial decussation in their
course from periphery to centre. Figg. 82, 83
and 84 show roughly the extent of the visual,
auditory and olfactory areas in the cortex of the
dog, as determined by the method of
abrogation. The frequency of the dots
indicates, again, the relative intensity of the
disturbances which follow upon extirpation of
the area in question; the black dots correspond
to crossed, the hatched dots to uncrossed
abrogation symptoms. We notice that the
visual centre is situated for the most part in the
occipital lobe, though less marked
disturbances may [p. 198] caused from a part
of the parietal lobe and probably also from the
hippocampus; the temporal lobe, on the other
hand, is practically exempt. The auditory area
has its centre in the temporal lobe, from which
it appears to extend over a portion of the
parietal lobe, as well as the callosal gyre and
the hippocampus. The olfactory area has its
principal centre in the olfactory gyre. Besides
this, it seems to occupy the uncus and the
hippocampus, while its share in the parietal
region is but small. In the visual and auditory
spheres, the crossed fibres have an undoubted
preponderance; in the olfactory area, the
uncrossed appear to be in the majority. The gustatory area cannot be made out with certainty: it
probably lies on the two opposite surfaces of the intercerebral fissure in the anterior region of the
parietal lobe.[35] On the other hand the area whose extirpation affects the sense of touch and
the sensations of movement -- the two cannot be distinguished in this group of symptoms --

157
occupies a broad space on the convex surface of the brain. It has its centre, in the brain of the
dog, in the anterior parietal region and extends from that over the whole frontal portion, and
downwards and backwards to the margins of the temporal and occipital lobes. The
centrosensory area for the sense of touch has, that is, precisely the same extent as the
centromotor area for the general muscular system of the body; it can accordingly be illustrated
from Fig. 81, which we have already employed in our previous discussion. This coincidence
suggests the hypothesis that a distribution into smaller, overlapping centres for the various parts
of the body will obtain in the case of sensations as we have found it to obtain in the case of
movements. For the rest, the phenomena of abrogation which make their appearance after
removal of the touch sphere run precisely parallel to the disturbances of the special senses
described above: the permanent symptom is always the derangement of perception, and never
the insensitivity sometimes observed as the direct consequence of operation.

(c) -- Motor and Sensory Cortical Areas in the Monkey

The brain of the monkey so closely resembles the brain of man (cf. Fig. 64, p. 144), that the
discovery of its cortical centres is a matter of peculiar interest. It was therefore natural that the
attempt should be made, soon after the establishment of the centromotor points on the brain of
the dog, to determine the corresponding points on that of the monkey. Experiments were carried
out by HITZIG [36] and FERRIER,[37] who found, in agreement with the course of the pyramidal
paths, that the stimulable centres lie for the most part in the region of the two central gyres,
whence [p. 199] they extend as far as the superior portion of the subfrontal and medifrontal
gyres. More exact determinations of the points were then made in further investigations by
HORSLEY and SCHÄFER,[38] and by HORSLEY and BEEVOR.[39] Fig. 85 gives the results
obtained by the two latter writers on a Bonnet Monkey (Macasus). They show in general that the
cortical centres for the trunk and the hind limbs lie principally on the superior surface; those for
the fore limbs somewhat lower down; and lastly, those for the muscles of face,

158
larynx and eyes still lower, towards the Sylvian fissure; while the centres for movements of head
and eyes are situated forwards from the main centromotor area, the two central gyres, in the
region of the frontal brain. It was further found in these observations, as it had been found in the
corresponding experiments on the dog, that weak electrical stimulation simply produces
movements of a circumscribed muscle group upon the opposite side of the body, whereas a
somewhat more intensive stimulation evokes movements on the same side as well,[p. 200]
together, more particularly, with concomitant movements of other, functionally co-ordinated
muscle groups upon the opposite side. Thus, stimulation of the cortical centre for the shoulder is
very apt to affect, besides the shoulder itself, the muscles of the arm and fingers; or conversely,
stimulation of the finger centres will set up, besides movements of the fingers, movements of the
upper and lower arm; and so on. On the brain of the orangutan, whose structural development
brings it still nearer the human brain, HORSLEY and BEEVOR found an arrangement of
centromotor points that precisely parallels that found in the macacus. The only difference is, that
they are more clearly separated by small inexcitable areas. In all cases, the regions lying beyond
the parts specified, i.e., in particular, the anterior portion of the frontal brain and the temporal and
occipital lobes, proved to be inexcitable on the motor side.

These results of stimulation are, on the whole, borne out by the results of extirpation of various
regions of the cortex, if we allow for the greater margin of uncertainty which the abrogation
method always leaves (p. 191). It is noteworthy, also, that the disturbances are apparently less

159
quickly compensated in the more highly organised brain of the monkey than they are in the dog,
so that the symptoms of abrogation and stimulation are here more nearly in accord.
Nevertheless, according to the observations of HORSLEY and SCHÄFER, it is impossible to
induce an approximately complete paralysis upon the opposite side of the body, even in the
interval immediately following the operation, unless the whole centromotor zone is extirpated. If
the area of injury is more limited, the muscles involved show only a weakening, not a total
abrogation of movement.

The determination of the centrosensory centres is, again, far less certain; the interpretation of
the symptoms presents very much greater difficulties. Hence for the brain of the monkey, as for
that of the dog, the results may he regarded as reliable and assured only in so far as they refer
to the general delimitation of the various sense departments. With this proviso, we may conclude
from the experiments of HERMANN MUNK, with which those of other observers agree on these
essential points, that the cortical surface of the occipital brain constitutes the visual centre, and
that of the temporal lobe the auditory centre. The area for touch, taken as inclusive of all the
organic sensations, coincides in position with the centromotor regions for the same parts of the
body, i.e. is situated in the neighbourhood of the two central gyres and of the superfrontal
gyre.[40]

We have, in the above discussion, left the question of the nature of the cortical functions
untouched, save in so far as it is connected with the problem of the termination of the paths of
conduction in the cerebral cortex. The [p. 201] question cannot come up for consideration in its
own right until the following Chapter, when we review the central functions in their entirety. Even
with this limitation, however, the experiments upon the terminations of the conduction paths still
leave room for differences of interpretation. At the same time, physiologists are on the road to an
agreement: it cannot be disputed that the ideas of the moderate party, ideas which compromise
between the hypothesis of a strictly circumscribed localisation, on the one hand, and the denial
of any local differences whatsoever, on the other, have gradually gained the upper hand. It is
this middle course that we have followed on the whole, in the preceding paragraphs. It may be
that the lines of the various motor areas will, in the future, be drawn somewhat more closely or
somewhat more widely; but the fundamental assumption that the functional areas extend from
definite and narrowly circumscribed centres, and that at the same time they frequently overlap
one another, has established itself more and more firmly, as the most probable view, in the
minds of impartial observers. GOLTZ has protested with great energy against the hypothesis of
sharply defined localisations. His work has done a great deal, both by its positive contents and
by the stimulus it has given to other investigators, to clear up our ideas upon the subject.[41] But
the results which GOLTZ has obtained in his later papers do not differ in any essential respect
from those of most other observers; and he himself has now come to accept a certain
dissimilarity of central representation, which in its general features resembles the account given
above. Cf. also Ch. VI , pp. 281 ff. below.

More serious are the differences of opinion regarding the functional significance of the various
regions of what is called the sensory sphere. As regards the position of the centrosensory areas,
Munk has concluded, on the basis of numerous experiments with dogs and monkeys, that we
must distinguish between cortical areas in which the fibres of the sensory nerves directly
terminate, and areas in which sensations are raised to the rank of perceptions. The phenomena

160
which make their appearance after destruction of the former, he names, in the case of the two
higher senses, cortical blindness and cortical deafness; the disturbances which result from
extirpation of the centres of the second order, he terms mental blindness and mental deafness.
According to Munk, the visual centre in the dog includes the portion of the brain lying posteriorly
to the Sylvian fissure, and covered by the parietal bones; in the monkey, the whole surface of
the occipital lobe (A Figg. 86, 87). This visual centre is then subdivided into a central area (A'
Fig. 86), and a peripheral area, which surrounds the central on all sides (A). The centre is
supposed, on the one hand, to correspond to the spot of dearest vision of the dye of the
opposite side, and, on the other, to contain the elements in which memory images are
deposited. Its destruction accordingly means loss of clear vision and, at the same time, of a
correct apprehension of sensations. The peripheral portion, A, according to the same author, is
on the contrary merely a retinal centre. Every point within it is correlated with corresponding
points upon the two retinas, each half of the brain representing the same-sided halves of the
retinas of the two eyes. Hence, if one occipital lobe is extirpated, the animal becomes
hemianopic; it is blind to all the images which fall upon the same-sided halves of its retinas.
Further, in dogs the correlation is symmetrical. The central visual area of [p. 202] each
hemisphere corresponds to the smaller, lateral division of the retina of the same side, and to the
larger, median division of that of the opposite side; so that, e.g., extirpation of the central visual
area of the right hemisphere produces blindness over the extreme edge of the right retina, and

161
over the whole surface of the left retina with the exception of its extreme edge. This distribution
accords, as will be seen at once, with that which has already been shown to exist in the
mesencephalon in consequence of the partial decussations in the chiasma.[42] MUNK found,
also, that these results of extirpation were con-[p. 203]firmed by experiments with local electrical
stimulation, which regularly induced movements of the eyes, interpreted by him as movements
of fixation due to visual sensations. Thus, stimulation of the posterior portion of the visual centre
causes the eye to turn upwards; stimulation of the anterior portion causes it to turn downwards;
while stimulation of the central area A' leaves the eye unaffected or, at most, occasions slight
movements of convergence. It thus appears that stimulation of the posterior portion of the visual
centre is the equivalent of stimulation of the lower half of the retina, that of the anterior portion
the equivalent of stimulation of the upper half of the retina, and that of the middle portion A' the
equivalent of stimulation of the fovea centralis: for every light-excitation in indirect vision
produces a movement, whereby a correspondingly situated objective light-stimulus is transferred
to the centre of the retina.[43] Similar eye movements were also observed by E. A. SCHÄFER
as a result of stimulation of a particular point in the tactual area of the cerebral cortex; and

162
BAGINSKY found that stimulation of the auditory area of the dog aroused movements of the
ears and, sometimes, of the eyes.[44] Movements of this kind, following upon stimulation of
central sensory surfaces, may be interpreted in two ways. We may regard them as reflexes,
released in the nidi of the motor nerves or in the mesencephalic centres; or we may look upon
them as stimulus movements, running their course in the paths which subserve the conduction
of voluntary movements. The latter view finds support in the fact that there exist in the
mesencephalic centres special organs of reflex transmission, whose function is left wholly
unimpaired by removal of the brain cortex. The visual centre is bounded, below and on the
outside, by the central apparatus of the sense of hearing. The area, whose extirpation in the dog
is followed, according to MUNK, by abrogation of auditory sensations, occupies the lateral
border of the parietal and the entire temporal lobe; in the monkey, it is confined to the temporal
region, which in the primates is more strongly developed (B). Destruction of a limited area B'
lying at the centre of this larger area (Fig. 86, II.), with retention of the surrounding parts, is said
to abrogate only the perception of articulate sounds, i.e. to occasion mental deafness; while
removal of the whole region B induces total deafness. A similar distinction between the different
functional areas is carried through by MUNK for the centres of the sense of touch. Thus, the
ocular sensations of touch and movement are referred by him to a region which forms the direct
anterior boundary of the visual centre (F); and the cutaneous centre for the region of the ear is
situated in the same way with regard to the auditory centre. We then have, anteriorly, the other
central areas of the general sense of touch, placed one after another in the order: fore leg, hind
leg, head (C, D, E), the series ending with neck and trunk (H, J). These regions, in agreement
with the results of other observers, coincide with those described above as the centromotor
areas for the same parts of the body. The relation of the two is shown on the right half of the
dorsal aspect of the brain of the dog represented in Fig. 86, I., to which the motor areas of Fig.
80 (p. 194) have been transferred.

MUNK'S statements, and more especially those that relate to the distinction between direct
sensory centres and what he calls mental centres, have, however, been challenged from many
quarters. The physiological and psycho-[p. 204]logical assumptions which underlie this division
of functions are hazardous in the extreme. That apart, there are two principal points in which
MUNK'S conclusions are negatived by the facts as otherwise ascertained. In the first place, it is
evidently incorrect to assert that the removal of any cortical area of the animal brain is followed
by total blindness or absolute insensitivity to sound stimuli. There are many observations which
show that rabbits, and even dogs, will react appropriately to impressions of light and sound after
removal of the entire cerebral cortex. They avoid obstacles placed in their path, perform complex
expressive movements, and so on.[45] In the second place, the symptoms consequent upon
lesions of the cortex correspond in all cases to what MUNK terms mental blindness and
deafness; they are, as GOLTZ puts it, symptoms of cerebral weakness. The removal of a cortical
area is never the equivalent of destruction of the peripheral organ, or of a part of it.[46] LUCIANI
conjectures, further, that the more profound sensory disturbances noticed by MUNK some time
after the operation may perhaps be due to a propagation of descending degeneration to the
lower centres of the thalami and quadrigemina. Only the relations of definite parts of the visual
centre to definite regions of the binocular held of vision have found confirmation in the
experiments of other observers:[47] a result which, as we shall see below, is also in agreement
with the defects of the field of vision observed in man, after partial destruction of the visual
cortex.

163
 (d) -- Motor and Sensory Cortical Centres in Man

The disturbances observed in man, as a result of lesion of the cerebral cortex, may take the form
either of stimulation phenomena or of symptoms of abrogation. The former, which appear
sometimes as epileptiform contractions, sometimes as hallucinatory excitations, hardly come
into account for the question of localisation of functions, since they rarely accompany local and
circumscribed injury of the cortex. We have, therefore, to rely upon the symptoms of abrogation;
and these are the more valuable, the more limited the range of function which they involve.
Nevertheless, it requires great care to separate them from the affections of surrounding parts,
which are seldom absent at the beginning of the disturbance, and from the phenomena of
restitution of function, which make their appearance after the lapse of time.[48] The observations
which have been brought together, with due regard to these precautions, lead to results, more
especially as regards the centromotor areas of the human cortex, which agree in their principal
features with the experimental results obtained on the brain of the monkey. This will be seen at
once from a comparison of Figg. 88 and 85 [p. 205] (p. 199), the former of which gives a schema
of the localisation areas in man, based on pathological observations, while the latter shows the
centromotor points of the brain of Macacus. It is evident that, in the cortex of man as in that of
the monkey, the areas whose lesion produces motor paralysis are grouped in a

comparatively small region of the cortex, viz., in the two central gyres and the adjoining superior
divisions of the three frontal gyres. Here, as before, that is, they lie within the region which
corresponds to the pyramidal path. The centres for trunk and lower limbs, situated in the highest
part of the central gyres, extend further into the portions of these gyres that bound the

164
intercerebral fissure.[49] On the other hand, destruction of the cortex of the temporal and
occipital lobes, or of the anterior portion of the frontal lobes, occasions no impairment of bodily
movement. The paralyses appear always on the opposite side of the body, and consist in
abrogation or derangement of the voluntary [p. 206] movements, to which may be added, later
on, contractures due to the action of muscles not affected by the lesion.[50] It is clear, from the
relative positions of the centres, as shown in Fig. 88, that on the one hand paralyses of arm and
leg, and, on the other, paralyses of arm and face may very easily occur together, but that leg
and face cannot well be involved while the arm remains free: a conclusion that is fully borne out
by pathological observation.

The phenomena of abrogation observed in pathological cases of partial destruction of the cortex
inform us, further, of the position of the principal centrosensory areas in the human brain. First
and foremost, the central terminations of the optic paths,

constituting what is called the visual centre, have been definitively localised in the cortex of the
occipital lobe. The visual centre covers the whole inner surface of this lobe, and includes as well
a narrow marginal zone on its outer surface (Figg. 89, 90). The phenomena indicate, at the
same time, that each half of the brain is correlated with the nasal half of the opposite and the
temporal half of the same-sided retina, in accordance with the decussations of the optic fibres in
the chiasma mentioned above (Fig. 79, p. 188). Further evidence is given in support of this
arrangement by cases in which a partial atrophy of both halves of the occipital brain has been
observed after a long-standing blindness of the one eye, and by others in which a partial
degeneration [p. 207] of the pregeminum and geniculum of the opposite side has followed upon
destruction of the one occipital lobe.[51] The course of the degenerated fibres in the latter
instance shows, in accordance with the anatomical facts, that all the optic fibres pass through
these mesencephalic ganglia before they reach the central visual areas.[52] The main difference
between visual disturbances of this kind and those due to peripheral causes, e.g. destruction of
a retina, lies in the fact that they always affect both eyes. In still other cases, lesions of the same

165
cortical area give rise to symptoms that speak yet more decisively for the central character of the
derangement: sensitivity to light may remain intact, at all points of the field of vision,

while the discrimination of colours, or the apprehension of forms, or the perception of the third
dimension is seriously impaired. In some such cases, however, it is found that other parts of the
brain, more especially the frontal and parietal lobes, are involved; occasionally, indeed, the seat
of injury resides in these alone, while the posterior portions of the cerebral cortex are left
comparatively unaffected.[53] We may therefore suppose that symptoms [p. 208] of the kind are
always to be referred to disturbances of a more complex order, implicating more than one region
of the brain. A like judgment must, undoubtedly, he passed upon the word-blindness which we
consider in the following Chapter. It must always be remembered, in a discussion of these
phenomena, that the formation of visual ideas is an extremely complicated process, not confined
to the region of the direct terminations of the optic paths, but involving; the co-operation of
numerous other cortical areas as well.[54]

A similar complication obtains in the case of the auditory area of the human cortex. Pathological
affection of the terminal areas of the acoustic nerve is shown, primarily, by abrogation or
impairment of the power of hearing; but this is invariably accompanied by a profound
modification of the faculty of speech. The connexion of the two is not surprising, since the motor
and sensory areas of the sense of hearing lie side by side in the cortex (see Fig. 88, and Figg.
89, 90), and may therefore easily be involved in the same lesion. There is, however, a further
factor that introduces a peculiar complication into the phenomena: in all affections of what we
suppose to be the cortical terminations of the acoustic nerve, derangement of the direct motor
and sensory terminals is, apparently, always accompanied by disturbances of connective paths
or centres. Hence, most of the derangements of the faculty of speech -- those ordinarily
distinguished by their symptoms as aphasia, word-deafness, agraphia, word blindness, etc. --
are of extremely complex character. And we must accordingly assume that, besides the direct
auditory centre, there are always involved other central areas which, like the corresponding
motor centre, lie in its near neighbourhood. We shall recur to the probable conditions of these

166
derangements of speech in our consideration of the complex functions of the central organ (Ch.
VII.). As regards the boundaries of the direct auditory centre, we cannot speak with complete
assurance; its connexion with other central areas, which co-operate in the auditory functions,
leave a margin of uncertainty. There can, however, be no doubt that the principal terminus of the
acoustic path (Fig. 89) is the posterior section of the supertemporal gyre (T1 Fig. 88), the part
that borders the end of the Sylvian fissure. That is, this region lies directly opposite to the motor
areas of the subfrontal gyre, which are brought into activity in the movements of speech (Fig.
88).[55]

The demonstration of the centres for the fibres of the gustatory and olfactory nerves presents
considerable difficulty, though for other reasons.[p. 209] The method of abrogation here fails us:
the ambiguity of the symptoms, whether in man or in the animals, renders it practically
impossible to determine the effects of cortical lesion. In this instance, therefore, we must still rely
entirely upon the results of direct anatomical investigation of the course of the conduction paths.
These results indicate that the olfactory area occupies the space marked in Fig. 90 by small
open circles; i.e., that it extends on the one hand over a narrow strip on the posterior margin of
the frontal lobe and over the callosal gyre, and on the other over the superior and inner margin
of the temporal lobe, adjoining the posterior extremity of the callosal gyre. The parts in question,
and especially the callosal gyre, are, as we know, much more strongly developed in certain
animal brains, e.g. in the carnivores (Fig. 63, p. 143); so that the area of distribution accords with
the relatively low development of the sense of smell in man. The taste area is supposed to lie
somewhere in the neighbourhood of this olfactory centre. So far, however, it has not been
definitely localised, either by anatomical or by functional methods.[56]

We return to safer ground when we seek to determine the central areas for the sensations of the
general sense, i.e. more particularly for tactual and common sensations. Numerous observations
go to show, in agreement with the results of operation on animals, that the centrosensory
regions of the sense of touch coincide with the centromotor regions for the same parts of the
body. Disturbances of tactual and muscular sensation are found to follow upon injury to the
posterior portion of the three frontal gyres, the two central gyres, the paracentral gyre, and the
parietal and subparietal gyres; i.e. to the whole region indicated in Figg. 89 and 90. The
reference of special areas to the different parts of the body, and the separation of touch from
common sensation, are matters of less certainty. On the former point, we can only say that,
despite the general coincidence of the sensory and motor regions, it is still possible that the two
kinds of centres are not wholly identical, but simply bound together by a close relationship of
structure and function. On the latter, we have a few observations that point to a central
differentiation of internal and external tactual sensations. Cases occur in which the sensation of
movement is abrogated, while cutaneous sensation and motor innervation remain intact; and
these isolated disturbances of articular and muscular sensations seem to be induced more
especially by affections of the parietal and subparietal gyres.[57] But, after all has been said, the
results so far obtained with regard to the localisations of the general sense leave us still in doubt
upon many [p. 210] points of detail. In particular, all statements concerning the relation of these
centrosensory cortical areas to the centromotor must be regarded, at present, as altogether
hypothetical. They rest, not upon reliable observations, but for the most part upon some
foregone psychological or physiological assumption.

167
If, in conclusion, we compare the whole group of results derived from pathological observation of
the relations of the cerebral cortex to the several conduction systems with the outcome of the
experiments made upon animals, we see at once that, where the facts are at all securely
established, there is a large measure of agreement between the two methods. Thus, the position
assigned to the centromotor areas in man and the animals is practically the same. In particular,
the motor points of the central gyres are arranged in a similar order upon the human and
monkey cortex. The same thing holds of the localisation of visual excitations in the occipital lobe.
In the acoustic area, it is true, we find differences. The development in man of the cortical region
connected with speech is offset, in most of the animals, by the greater bulk of the olfactory
centres. There is thus a more pronounced dissimilarity in the structure of the anterior portion of
the brain, and a consequent lack of correspondence of the cortical areas. According to the
observations of FERRIER, MUNK and LUCIANI, the auditory centre of the dog, e.g., is forced,
by the development of the olfactory gyre, relatively far back, into the posterior part of the
temporal lobe. This apart, however, the auditory area appears, to all intents and purposes, to
occupy an analogous position in the human and animal brain. And the same statement may be
made, finally, with still greater confidence, of the cortical areas for tactual and common
sensations, whose localisation refers us, in all cases, to regions which either coincide or interfere
with the corresponding centromotor areas. So far, then, there is a general agreement between
the results. The only difference of any considerable moment is that the derangements of function
resulting from cortical lesions are as a rule more serious in man than they are in the animals.
And this difference itself has only a relative significance, since it appears in the same way
between various classes of animals, e.g. between dog and rabbit, or still more markedly
between monkey and dog. It would seem, then, that the phenomena in point are simply
illustrations of the general fact that the subcortical centres have a higher value, as centres of
independent function, the lower the organisation of the brain to which they belong.[58] Lastly,
having allowed this difference its due weight, we have again to say that the character of the
disturbances produced by local lesions of the cortex is the same for man and for the animals, in
so far as the derangement never amounts to an absolute abrogation of function, and is therefore
by no [p. 211] means equivalent to the interruption of a peripheral conduction path. The nearest
approach to such a result is given in the paralyses which follow upon destruction of the
centromotor zones. Even these, however, are definitely distinguished by the possibility of
comparatively rapid restoration of function.

We have made mention, in the preceding paragraphs, of all the areas of the human cortex that
can lay claim, chiefly on the ground of pathological observations, to be considered as the termini
of motor and sensory conduction paths. The motor area, shown in Fig. 88, and the visual centre
of the occipital lobe were the earliest of these 'cortical centres' to be discovered, and are at the
present day the two whose lines can be most sharply drawn. Much more precarious, for the
reasons given in the text, is the status of the acoustic area: and this despite the fact that the
derangements of speech, which stand in intimate connexion with it, have been under
observation for a long period of time.[59] Finally, the correlation of the central gyres and the
adjoining region (as mapped out in Figg. 89 and 90) with the sensations of the general sense
(external and internal sensations of touch, pain, and organic sensations) may be regarded as
sufficiently well established. The localisation was first suggested by TÜRCK, who noticed that
lesions of these coronal fibres and of the crural fibres in the region of the capsula of the lenticula
produced unilateral sensory disability.[60] In these cases, and still more in cases of destruction

168
of the central gyres themselves, the symptoms are, however, invariably complicated by the
simultaneous appearance of motor paralysis in the corresponding regions of the body. For the
rest, the hemianæsthetic disturbances are usually distinguished from such hemiplegic
accompaniments by their more irregular character; they may be confined to certain factors of the
general sensitivity -- muscular sensations, pain, sensations of temperature, etc. -- or they may
be combined with other sensory disturbances in the departments of special sense, and more
especially with amblyopia.[61]

All these sensations of the general sense, sensations derived from the organ of external touch,
as well as from joints, muscles, tendons and other bodily organs, have been grouped together
by certain authors under the indefinite name of 'bodily feeling.' In accordance with this usage,
the area ascribed to the general sense in Figg. 89 and 90 was termed by H. MUNK the 'area for
bodily feeling.' The title has become current; and its employment is generally connected with
various psychological hypotheses, which play an important part in the interpretation of the
centromotor symptoms induced by lesions of this region. Thus, SCHIFF propounded the
theory,[62] which has been accepted by MEYNERT,[63] H. MUNK,[64] and many other
anatomists and pathologists, that the centromotor innervations are direct concomitants of the
ideas of the respective movements. This means that the cortical region assigned to the 'area for
bodily feeling' is to be regarded as a sensory centre, analogous to [p. 212] the centre of sight or
hearing. The volitional process is then explained as a reflex transference, occurring, possibly, in
the cortex itself, or, perhaps, in deeper-lying parts. This aspect of the theory is rendered
especially plausible by the belief that 'will' is nothing else than an 'idea of movement,' and that
consequently the 'cortical function' underlying voluntary action consists simply and solely in the
excitation of a movement idea, i.e. in a sensory process. Now the assumption that 'will' is
equivalent to idea of movement is, of course, a purely psychological hypothesis; it can be
demonstrated or refuted, not by anatomical and physiological facts, but only by a psychological
analysis of the voluntary processes themselves. Hence we cannot enter upon its examination in
this place, though we shall take it up in due course. The physiological investigation of the
conduction paths is properly concerned with the single question, whether the cortical areas
under discussion are exclusively centrosensory in function, or whether they also evince
centromotor symptoms. If the question is put in this way, and we repeat that this is the sole way
in which, from the physiological standpoint, it can be put, then the only answer possible, in the
light of the observations, is the answer given in the text. But it need hardly be said that that
answer gives us no warrant for speaking of a 'localisation of the will' in the brain cortex. To do so
would be as absurd as to say, e.g., that the subfrontal gyre and its surroundings parts are the
seat of the 'faculty of speech.' The removal of a screw may stop a clock; but no one will be found
to assert that the screw is what keeps the clockwork going. The will in abstracto is not a real
process at all, hut a general concept, gained by abstraction from a large number of concrete
facts. And the concrete individual volition, which alone has actual existence, is itself a complex
process, made up in every case of numerous sensations and feelings. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that it involves a number of different physiological processes. The hypothesis that a
complex function, like speech or volition, is conditioned solely upon certain individual elements
may accordingly be pronounced a priori as improbable in the extreme. Resides, all that follows
from the observations is that those parts of the brain cortex which we claim as centromotor
contain transmitting stations, which are indispensable for the transference of voluntary impulses
to the motor nerve paths: the anatomical facts making it further probable that the regions in

169
question contain the proximate stations of transmission from brain cortex to central conduction
paths.[65]

There is one other fact that we may mention, in conclusion, as of importance for the
psychogenetic interrelations of the different sense departments. According to the investigations
of FLECHSIG, the fibre systems that radiate from the mesencephalon to the various cortical
centres obtain their myelinic sheath at very different stages of embryonic (partly also of
postembryonic) development, and therefore, we may suppose, assume the functions of
conduction at these same intervals. In man, the fibres that ascend to the tactual centre from the
sensory dorsal columns of the myel, together with a few others that enter the optic radiation, are
the earliest of the coronal bundles to attain to full development. They are followed, at a
somewhat later period, by fibres which in part supplement this pre-existing system, and in part
trend towards the olfactory and visual centres. The myelinisation of the fibre system of the
acoustic path is completed last of all, to some extent after birth. At the same [p. 213]
time, it does not appear that the animal series presents any thorough-going parallelism in this
regard; the investigations of EDINGER prove that the olfactory radiation is developed very early
in the lower vertebrates, while in man it belongs to the systems of later development.[66] And in
the human brain, this general course of development divides into a large number of separate
stages, each corresponding to the completion of some smaller fibre system. FLECHSIG himself
has thus been led to distinguish no less than forty fibre tracts, running in developmental
succession to definite regions of the cortex. He finds, in general, that the conduction paths of the
'association centres,' discussed in the following Section, are the latest to reach maturity.[67] It
should be said, further, that FLECHSIG'S statements have been called in question from many
quarters. Some authorities altogether reject the idea that the myelinic sheath developes system
by system; others at least dispute the regularity of the development.[68] Moreover, it cannot be
denied that the greater the number of the cortical centres that we are called upon to distinguish
by the order of their completion in time, the smaller becomes the probability that each single
centre possesses a peculiar functional significance. Nevertheless, the general result is
noteworthy, that the conduction paths whose cortical centres receive special elaboration in the
human brain are apparently also the latest to attain to individual development.[69]

§ 7. Association Systems of the Cerebral Cortex

The whole group of fibres that pass upwards in the myel and, reinforced by additions from the
posterior brain ganglia and the cerebellum, finally radiate into the corona of the cerebral cortex,
is ordinarily termed the projection system of the central organs. The name was first employed by
MEYNERT, and is intended to suggest the idea that the system in question represents the
various peripheral organs in determinate regions of the cerebral cortex. In metaphorical
language, the periphery is 'projected' upon the brain surface. The fibre masses of this projection
system, some of which enter the coronal radiations as direct continuations of the crura, while
others are derived from the mesencephalic ganglia, quadrigemina and thalami, and yet others
issue from the cerebellum, are crossed at every point of their path to the cerebral cortex by
foreign fibre masses, which connect various regions of the cortex with one another. This second
group is known (the term was again coined by MEYNERT) as the association system of the
cerebral cortex.[69] Both names, as employed here, have, of course, a purely anatomical
significance. The projection system has nothing at all to do with what, e.g., is called in

170
physiological optics the outward 'projection' of the retinal image, and the association system,
similarly,[p. 214] has nothing to do with the psychological 'association of ideas.' The point must
be sharply emphasised, because, as a matter of fact, confusions of this sort, due to obscurity in
psychological thinking, have often played -- nay, continue to play -- a part in discussions in which
the terms are employed. Now, as regards the projection system, the anatomical facts are
sufficient to prove that, if it represents a sort of projection of the peripheral sensory surfaces
upon the brain cortex, it can at best be accredited with but a partial performance of this duty.
For, on the one hand, the various sensitive areas of the bodily periphery appear, in most cases,
to be connected at the same time with several points upon the cortex; and, on the other, the
different fibre systems which terminate in a given area of the cortex may correspond to distinct
external organs. All this means that the projection system is at least as deeply concerned with
the central connexion of the bodily organs as it is with that central representation of them from
which it takes its name. As regards the association system, there is not the slightest reason for
bringing it into any kind of connexion with the associative processes of psychology. The only
hypothesis that we have the right to make about it, on the score of function, is that its fibres
serve in some manner to effect the functional unity of separate cortical areas.

The association system like the projection system, may

be divided into various component systems, distinguished
in this case partly by the direction of connexion, partly by
the distance separating; the connected regions of the
cortex. We thus obtain the following subordinate systems
of association fibres:

(1) The system of transverse commissures. This is

principally composed of the callosum or great
commissure, but is supplemented as regards the
temporal lobes by a portion of the precommissure, which
also contains the decussation of the olfactorius fibres
(Fig. 91; cf. above, p. 132, and Fig. 53, p. 127). The
callosum represents a strongly developed cross-
connexion; its fibre masses connect not only symmetrical,
but also, to some extent, asymmetrically situated cortical
regions of the two hemispheres. The callosal fibres cut
across the coronal radiations at all points except in the
occipital region, where the two sets of fibres separate into
[p. 215] distinct bundles (m', Fig. 58, p. 135; cf. also Fig.
57, p. 134). The connexion effected by the callosum
between symmetrical parts of the cortex is fullest, as might be conjectured from its marked
increase of size in transverse section as we proceed from before backwards, for the cortex of
the occipital region. This is why a defective development of the callosum, as observed in cases
of microcephaly, is accompanied by a marked atrophy of the occipital lobes.

(2) The system of longitudinal connective fibres (Fig. 92). This system takes an opposite,
direction to the foregoing; its fibres connect remote cortical areas of the same hemisphere.
Dissection of the brain reveals several compact bundles of this kind,

171
devoted more especially to the connexion of the frontal with the temporal lobe (uncinate and
arcuate fascicles) and of this latter with the extremity of the occipital lobe (longitudinal fascicle).

(3) The system of intergyral fibres (fibræ propriæ, Fig. 92). This system serves to connect
adjoining cortical areas. The fibres are for the most part deflected round the depressions of alba
formed by the cerebral fissures (cf. also fa, Fig 58, p. 135).

The association systems that thus connect the various regions of the [p. 216] cerebral cortex
may be again divided into three classes, according to their mode of origin and termination. They
may (1) connect different areas of the projection system, i.e. centromotor or centrosensory
regions, with one another. They may further (2) connect determinate areas of the projection
system with other areas, in which no projection fibres directly terminate. Finally, (3) it is probable
that in certain parts of the cortex associative fibres of different origin run their course together; so
that these areas are connected with the projection system only indirectly, by way of the
association fibres that issue from them and terminate in other cortical regions. Areas of this sort,
which must be regarded exclusively as terminal stations of association fibres, have been termed
by FLECHSIG 'association centres.'[70] They occupy, according to this investigator, practically
the whole region of the cerebral cortex which is not taken up by the sensory centres: i.e., in the
human brain, the parts which are left unmarked in Figg. 89 and 90. If, then, we consider every
continuous surface of this sort as a separate central area, we shall have to distinguish three
association centres: an anterior or frontal centre, which covers the larger part of the frontal brain;
a middle or insular centre, which extends over the cortex of the insula and its immediate
neighbourhood; and a posterior, parietotemporal centre, of wide dimensions, taking in a
considerable portion of the parietal and temporal lobes. Between these association centres and
the projection centres there lie, still according to Flechsig, intermediary areas and marginal

172
zones, in which projection fibres, either intermixed with the others or grouped in distinct bundles,
terminate along with the association fibres. The validity of this distinction of special centres,
wholly deprived of direct connexion with the projection system, is disputed by many authorities;
and the statements made with regard to the boundary lines and dimensions of the fields in
question, and more especially with regard to the extent of the marginal zones and mixed areas,
are open to doubt on many points. Nevertheless, it appears to be an established fact that certain
areas of the human cortex are supplied for the most part by association fibres, and that these
are, in general, the areas whose destruction shows itself not so much in direct centromotor or
centrosensory symptoms as in more complicated anomalies of function. On the other hand, it
must not, of course, be forgotten that the 'direct' motor and sensory centres themselves cannot
possibly be regarded as simply projections of the peripheral organs upon the brain surface. The
symptoms of abrogation are decisive: the disturbances set up are of a complicated nature, and
their compensation may later be effected, within wide limits, by vicarious functioning of other
parts. This result is in harmony with the further fact that there is no region of the brain surface [p.
217] that does not receive association fibres as well as projection fibres: indeed, it is probable
that the former constitute the large majority of the coronal fibres in all parts of the human brain.
On this count, therefore, it would seem that the search for specific differences is altogether in
vain. But if any and every derangement of function due to central interference, in whatever part
of the brain it may occur, is of a more or less complicated character, it follows that there can be
no question of contrast or antithesis as between the functions of the various areas. The
difference is always a difference of degree; we have to do, in the particular case, with a closer
and more direct or with a remoter and more indirect relation between a given cortical area and
certain peripheral functions. This fact should be kept in mind, further, in all attempts to put a
functional value upon the different distribution and relative dimensions of the projection and
association centres. It has been found, e.g., that the association centres, together with the main
bundles of association fibres that run between the different parts of the brain (Figg. 91, 92),
attain very much larger dimensions in the human than in the animal brain: in many cases,
indeed, their presence in the animal cortex cannot be demonstrated at all. This statement holds
more particularly of the frontal association centre, whose high degree of development
determines in large measure the peculiar conformation of the primate, and more particularly of
the human brain. Finally, it is worth remark that the cortical area which contains the most
extensive representation of peripheral organs, the region in the neighbourhood of the central
gyres correlated with bodily movements, the sense of touch and organic sensations, also
evinces the most extensive connexions with the association centres.

The existence of 'association centres,' as defined by FLECHSIG, has in recent years been the
subject of animated discussion among the students of brain anatomy and brain pathology.
RAMON Y CAJAL, EDINGER and HITZIG (the latter with certain reservations) declared
themselves in favour of the hypothesis; while DÉJERINE, VON MONAKOW, SIEMERLING, O.
VOGT and others pronounced the distinction altogether impracticable.[71] There are no cortical
areas, say these authorities, to which projection fibres cannot be traced; just as there are, by
general admission, none which are not supplied with association fibres. The question as such is,
of course, a question in anatomy pure and simple. We can here do no more than point out that
its settlement can hardly be of such importance, from the physiological point of view, as it might,
perhaps, appear to us from the anatomical. The occurrence of cortical areas which, in all
probability, are connected with peripheral organs only indirectly, by way of the conduction paths

173
that lead to other centres, may, no doubt, be con-[p. 218]sidered as evidence on the one hand of
the extremely complicated structure of the particular brain, and, on the other, of the peculiarly
complex function of these areas themselves. But the conditions do not, surely, warrant us in
ascribing to them a specific function, and setting them off, as 'psychical centres,' from the
'projection' or 'sensory centres.' As a matter of fact, there is nothing to indicate that the structure
of the cerebral cortex conforms to any such simple design as that certain parts shall be, so to
say, reflections of the peripheral organs, while others shall be reserved as centres of a higher
order, serving to bring the direct centres into mutual connexion. On the contrary, it is an
essential characteristic of every part of the central organ that it brings together elements which,
while spatially separate at the periphery, nevertheless co-operate for the unitary discharge of
function. In the case before us, it is first of all the lower central parts, and then, in the last resort,
the whole body of the cerebral cortex, that mediate connexions of this kind. What is called the
'visual centre,' e.g., is by no means a repetition of the retinal surface within the cortex. The retina
itself is, as we know, nothing else than a part of the cortex that has been displaced far forwards;
so that, in this instance, the central duplication would really be a piece of quite needless self-
indulgence on the part of Nature. It is because the visual centre contains, along with the
conduction paths that connect it with the retina, other paths, whereby it is able to connect the
retinal excitations with further functional areas, e.g. the motor, concerned in the act of vision, -- it
is for this reason that the visual centre is a true 'centre,' and not a mere duplicate of the
peripheral organ. If, now, there are portions of the cerebral cortex whose elements stand in no
sort of direct connexion with the conduction paths that run to the periphery, then we must simply
say that these areas are possessed, in an unusually high degree, of an attribute which
determines the character of the central organ at large, and which must therefore be predicated in
some measure of all the other areas, whose connexions with the periphery are more or less
direct. To speak of a number of 'psychical centres,' one must have made assumptions that are
equally impossible whether from the standpoint of physiology or of psychology. There is, in
reality, but one psychical centre; and that is the brain as a whole, with all its organs. For in any at
all complicated psychical process, these organs are brought into action, if not all together, at any
rate over so wide a range and in such various quarters as to forbid the delimitation of special
psychical centres within the functional whole.

§ 8. Structure of the Cerebral Cortex

The investigation of the fibre systems by physiological experiment, by pathological observation,

and by anatomical dissection comes to a natural end at the point where these systems pass
over into the cerebral cortex itself. If we wish to inquire further regarding their mode of
termination within the cortex, and more particularly regarding the mutual relations of the different
parts of the projection and association systems that run to one and the same cortical area, we
must gather up the results of the histological examination of the structure of the cerebral cortex.
Now our knowledge of this extraordinarily complicated formation has, it is true, not advanced so
far that we can establish, beyond the reach of doubt, the [p. 219] terminations of all

174
the various paths of conduction that have been traced to it. Nevertheless, there is a certain body
of fact that may, without [p. 220] hesitation, be turned to account for the physiological and
psychological appreciation of the individual conducting systems.

We notice, first of all, that in certain structural outlines the cerebral cortex shows uniformity of
design over its whole extent. It consists throughout of several strata of nerve cells. In the human
cortex we can distinguish, according to the size, direction and position of the cells, eight or nine
distinct layers. The order in which these strata are arranged is, on the whole, the same for all

175
regions, though their relative thickness and the number of the elements characteristic of each
layer differ very considerably from part to part. Figg. 93 and 94 show the structural relations
obtaining in two typical cases. Fig. 93 gives a microscopical transsection through the postcentral
gyre, i.e. through a part of the centromotor region of the cerebral cortex; Fig. 94 gives a similar
section through the occipital cortex of the human brain. In these, as in all other sections, from
whatever part of the brain they may be taken, the outermost and innermost layers are practically
identical in constitution: they are characterised by spindle-shaped cells, in the former set
crosswise in a fibrillar reticulum whose general trend is in the horizontal direction, and in the
latter placed lengthwise among longitudinally directed fibre masses. There are, on the other
hand, well-marked differences in the depth of the layers of large and small pyramidal cells, and
of those composed of large and small stellate cells. In the centromotor regions, the pyramidal
cells form the great majority of all the cell elements. This may be clearly seen in the section from
the postcentral gyre shown in Fig. 93, whose formation lies midway between that of the typical
'motor' and the typical 'association' cortex (superfrontal, subtemporal, etc. gyres); but it is still
more apparent in the precentral gyre, where the pyramidal cells ('giant' cells) are especially large
and extend far down into the seventh layer of spindle and triangular cells. In the visual cortex, on
the contrary, the pyramidal cells, and particularly those of the larger class, are greatly reduced
both in bulk and in range of distribution, while there are large accumulations of stellate cells, that
send out dendrites in all directions (4 and 5, Fig. 94).

These differences in the representation of characteristic cell forms are paralleled by differences
in the arrangement of the cortical fibre systems. Where the pyramidal cells are the prevailing
type, the fibres in general take a longitudinal course, ascending vertically from the alba to the
cerebral surface. A large number of these longitudinal fibres issue directly from the pyramidal
cells: the neurites of the larger cells (A Fig. 95), in particular, are continued without break to the
myelic columns. We have, then, in these longitudinal
fibres of the centromotor region, the direct point of
departure of the pyramidal path. All the other processes
of the pyramidal cells are dendritic in character. The
stoutest of them leaves the [p. 221] cell body on the side
opposite to the neurite and runs, still longitudinally, to the
periphery of the cortex, where it is broken up in the
nervous reticulum of the outermost layer. We thus have,
in all probability, a direct centrifugal conduction, as
indicated by the arrows in the Fig., beginnings in the
peripheral layer of the cortex and continuing through the
pyramidal cells into the motor paths. This system is,
however, cut across by other longitudinal fibres, some of
which issue from smaller cells whose neurite runs a brief
course and then splits up into terminal fibrils, while others
ascend in more connected fashion from the alba, and
again break up in the fibrillar reticulum of the outermost
cortical layer. The former (B) constitute, it is supposed,
links in the association system, which, as we know, sends
fibres to every cortical area; the latter (D) are probably
centripetal neurites of deeper lying cells, situated in the

176
mesencephalon. Putting these facts together, we may describe the structure of the motor cortex
as follows. (1) Its most characteristic constituent is the centrifugal path (A), mediated by the
pyramidal cells. It contains further (2) a centripetal fibre system (D), probably connected with the
path (A) in the nervous reticulum of the outermost cortical layer, and representing the terminal
sphere of a neurone territory which belongs to deeper lying portions of the brain; and (3) an
association path (B) mediated by intercalary cells, which, like the other two, takes in general a
longitudinal course and discharges into the fibrillar reticulum of the outermost layer. The
direction of conduction in this path is indeterminate; it may possibly vary with the direction of the
incoming excitations. Finally, we must mention (4) the plexus of stellate cells, which, while it
plays but a small part in the centromotor regions, is never entirely wanting. This, if we may judge
by the character that attaches to it in the occipital cortex, is to be regarded as the [p. 222]
terminal station of paths of sensory conduction. Its position in the motor cortex is, as we have
said, comparatively insignificant. It may be distinguished from the other constituents by its
plexiform structure, the fibres running in all possible directions. The presence in the centromotor
region of a formation which is characteristic of the sensory centres, may, perhaps, be taken to
mean that this region is sensory too, as well as motor. Such an interpretation would be in
accordance with the fact that physiological experiment and pathological observation place the
centre for the general sense in this part of the
cortex.

We now turn, by way of contrast, to the 'visual'

cortex, as a typical illustration of a pre-
eminently sensory region. We are at once
struck by the marked difference in the course
of the fibres. Plexiform formations, with fibres
running in all directions -- horizontally,
therefore, as well as vertically and obliquely --
are very strongly preponderant, while the
longitudinal fibre masses characteristic of the
terminal areas of the pyramidal paths find but
scanty representation (Fig. 96). These
plexuses, C, are constituted of the large and
small stellate cells, sending out processes in
all directions, which appear conspicuously in
the section of Fig. 94; in all probability, they
consist simply of interlocking neurones, of
relatively limited range. The characteristic
systems of the motor area also appear, only in
lesser numbers, in the visual cortex; just as the
formations which we connect with the sensory
functions are present, in some degree,
throughout the centromotor region. We notice,
in particular, the longitudinal centrifugal fibres, connected with the pyramidal cells (A). There are,
[p. 223] further, the centripetal fibres, ascending to the cortex from deeper lying cell groups; and,
lastly, the supposed association fibres with their intercalary cells (B). We must accordingly infer
that the visual cortex discharges centromotor, as well as centrosensory functions. The muscles

177
that can be innervated from it are, we may suppose, more especially the muscles of the eye,
though it is possible that other motor organs, correlated with the ocular muscles, are also under
its control. H. MUNK has observed movements of the eyes, in animals, as a result of stimulation
of the visual cortex.[72]

Such are the differences that obtain between the two main types of cortical structure, the
sensory and the motor. Minor differences are found in the various parts of the motor cortex, and
again between the visual area and the other predominantly sensory regions. The former have
already been discussed. As regards the latter, we notice that in the olfactory cortex of man the
pyramidal cells are even rarer than in the visual; the smaller pyramidal cells are altogether
wanting. The auditory cortex is characterised, on the other hand, by its great wealth of stellate
cells and by the extent of its sensory fibrillar reticula. In the 'association cortex,' finally, these
plexuses become less conspicuous, and the granular layers, containing for the most part
intercalary cells of varying form, play the leading part.

Putting all this together, we may sum up as follows the general outcome of investigation into the
structural peculiarities of the cerebral cortex. Not only are the essential morphological elements
the same, for all divisions of the cortex, but their general arrangement also presents no really
significant differences. At the same time, there are several layers which, with their characteristic
elements, attain to very different degrees of development according to the special functions of
the various parts of the cortex. Two kinds of cellular elements, in particular, with the
arrangement of fibrillar processes that goes with them, appear to be of symptomatic importance
in this regard: the pyramidal cells, with their longitudinally directed fibres, and the stellate cells,
with their fibrillar reticula, -- the former characteristic of the centromotor regions, and therefore,
we may suppose, serving in the main as points of departure of the great centrifugal conduction
paths; the latter characteristic of the sensory regions, and therefore, in all probability, serving in
the main as terminal stations of paths of centripetal conduction. To these we must apparently
add, as a third characteristic constituent, varying greatly in extent of development, certain [p.
224] cells with limited neurone territory, set longitudinally and connected with longitudinal fibre
systems, which may perhaps be looked upon as the substrate of the 'association' paths. Lastly,
in all regions of the cortex, the outermost layer with its reticular fibre arborisations seems to form
a meeting-place, in which conduction paths of the most various kinds come into contact with one
another. The question whether the different regions of the cerebral cortex possess a specifically
different structure, which may at the same time serve as the basis for the discrimination of
functions, or whether their constitution is, in essential features, the same throughout, has often
been under discussion in recent years. MEYNERT, in his epoch-making studies of the human
cortex, declared himself for uniformity of structure;[73] and he has been followed by GOLGI [74]
and KÖLLIKER.[75] Other investigators, and more especially RAMON Y CAJAL,[76] to whom
we are at the present time most deeply indebted for our knowledge of the structural conditions
here prevailing, uphold the hypothesis of specific differences. This divergence of opinion seems,
however, when closely examined, to be much less radical than its phrasing indicates; it hinges,
apparently, upon the different interpretation put by the parties to the controversy upon the term
'specific,' as applied to structural peculiarities. RAMON Y CAJAL'S enquiries have themselves
furnished conclusive proof of the extraordinary degree of similarity obtaining in the structure of
the various regions, and have shown that the differences are in every case merely relative
differences in the number of particular elements and in the development of the layers. Nay more:

178
since they have made it probable that the different centromotor, sensory and 'associative'
functions are bound up with definite cell and fibre systems which, as a general rule, are found in
all parts of the cerebral cortex, and that these functions are in the main conditioned simply upon
differences in direction of conduction, which in their turn depend upon differences in mode of
connexion with peripheral organs and with other cortical areas, they have really done away with
any possibility of the correlation of specific elementary substrates with the 'specific' functions of
the various departments of the cortex. They rather force us to the conclusion that the different
modes of cortical activity are founded not upon the specific character of the structural elements,
but solely upon their different modes of connexion. Nevertheless, as we shall see in what
follows, modern brain anatomy presents us with the very curious spectacle of a science that
holds with extreme tenacity to the hypothesis of specific functions, while its own results are
constantly rendering this hypothesis less and less practicable, and indeed, if the evidence of
structural relations is to count at all, bear striking testimony against the specific nature of the
elementary nervous functions.[p. 225]

§ 9. General Principles of the Processes of Central Conduction

(a) -- The Principle of Manifold Representation

It is almost inevitable that the student who is tracing the course of the conduction paths, and
their concurrence and interrelation in the various divisions of the central organs, should be led
into hypotheses concerning the functions of these different parts. Hence it is not surprising to
find that, as a matter of fact, physiological conclusions have often been based upon anatomical
data. The value of such inferences must, of course, always remain problematical, seeing that
they always need to be supplemented by direct physiological analysis of the functions
themselves. At the same time, it is evident that we may look to the conditions of conduction to
indicate points of departure for functional analysis. They will, at any rate, warrant us in ruling out
certain ideas, from the outset, as inadmissible, and in accepting others as more or less probable;
and they will do this altogether apart from any functional reference or physiological knowledge.
Thus, in view of the complicated character of the acoustic conduction, as represented in Fig. 77
(p. 183), it will be granted without hesitation that an hypothesis which should explain the process
of tonal perception as due merely to sympathetic vibrations of some sort of graded nervous
structures within the brain must be pronounced wholly improbable. In the same way, the idea
that the act of spatial vision is effected by a direct projection of the retinal image upon elements
of the visual centre, arranged in mosaic on the analogy of the rods and cones of the retina, could
hardly be reconciled either with our knowledge of the relations of the optic conduction to other,
and more especially to motor paths, or with the observations made upon the structure of the
visual cortex. In this sense, then, the argument from anatomy to physiology forms a useful
preparation for the considerations of the following Chapter. Now that we have concluded our
discussion of the conduction paths which are of particular importance for the psychological
functions of the nerve centres, we may, accordingly, pause to point out the main lines of
interpretation suggested by the general results of the preceding enquiry, and to attempt their
formulation in certain laws or principles.

We head our list with the principle of manifold representation. This first and most general
principle was formulated long since by MEYNERT, himself the first to make a systematic study

179
of the microscopical structure of the brain. It declares that, as a general rule, every region of the
bodily periphery which is controlled by the central organ has not one but several means of
representation at the centre. In other words, if we have recourse to the analogy of a mirror and
its images -- an analogy, however, which, as we shall soon see, cannot really be carried through
-- it says that every [p. 226] sense organ and every organ of movement, together with every
least part of such an organ, every sensory or motor element, is reflected not once only, but
several times, in the central organ. Every muscle, e.g., has its proximate representation in the
myel, from which (under the right conditions) it may be stimulated, or its excitation inhibited,
without the interference of higher central parts. It is then represented a second time in the
regions of the mesencephalon, the quadrigemina or thalami; and again, a third time, in the
centromotor regions of the cerebral cortex. Finally, we must assume that it is indirectly
represented in the parts of the cerebellum, and in the association centres, with which these
regions stand in connexion. Now it is by no means necessary that the whole group of central
representatives shall co-operate in every discharge of function by the peripheral elements. On
the contrary, there can be no doubt that the lower centres are often able to exercise an influence
upon the peripheral organs, in which the higher representations are not involved at all. When,
however, the peripheral effect is the result of activity in the higher neurones, the excitation,
under ordinary circumstances, is either mediated directly by lower centres, or at least arouses
concomitant excitations in them. In this sense, therefore, the principle of manifold representation
appears as an immediate consequence of the complex nature of all central functions. At the
same time, it shows that there is an ascending progression in the co-operation of the various
central representatives of one and the same peripheral region, and thus leads at once to the
following second principle.

(b) -- Principle of the Ascending Complication of Conduction Paths

The central organs of the higher vertebrates are, very evidently, subject to a law of ascending
complication. The number of branch paths, and therefore of the relations mediated by them
between centres which, while functionally distinct, are still somehow interrelated by the needs of
the organism, increases rapidly as we pass from below upwards. In the myel, the main lines of
conduction are brought together compactly in the peripheral nerves; and the connection between
principal path and secondary paths is of a comparatively simple and limited character. In the
oblongata and the mesencephalon, these connexions begin to show a considerable increase,
both in number and complexity. In the mesencephalic portion of the acoustic and optic paths, for
instance, we find that the connexions with motor and with other sensory centres, which in the
myel were arranged on a relatively simple pattern, are repeated in a very much more elaborate
and complicated form. This ascending progression of conductive connexions reaches its final
term in the cerebral cortex. Every part of the cortex, however diverse its proximate connexions
and however distinct [p. 227] its proper function, is the meeting-place of conductive systems of
the most varied kinds; so that what we term a 'visual' centre, e.g., always possesses something
of the 'motor,' and something even of the 'associative,' along with its sensory character. It is,
therefore, a corollary from this law of increasing complexity of representation in the ascending
direction, as bearing more particularly upon the functions of the cortex, that every cortical area in
the brain of man and of the higher animals is, in all probability, itself the seat of a manifold
representation. Every portion of the visual cortex, that is, will contain, besides the representation
of a part of the peripheral retina, further representations of motor areas connected with the

180
function of sight and, possibly, of other, functionally related sensory areas; and finally, in all
likelihood, indirect representations, mediated by the association fibres, of more remote functional
centres that are again in some way concerned in the act of vision. Hence the idea that a sensory
centre is, in essentials, nothing more than a central projection of the peripheral sensory surface,
-- the visual centre, e.g., a projection of the retina, the auditory centre a projection of the
'resonance apparatus' of the labyrinth, -- even if it were admissible on physiological and
psychological grounds, could hardly be held in face of the grave objections arising from the
anatomical facts.

This principle of increasing differentiation in the ascending direction enables us to explain a

further fact, suggested by the results of the gross anatomy of the brain, but brought out with
especial clearness by histological examination of the conduction paths and by the phenomena of
function that we describe in the following Chapter. This is the fact that many, perhaps most of
the functions which in man and the higher mammals are finally integrated and co-ordinated in
the cerebral cortex, appear in the lower vertebrates to be completely centralised in the
mesencephalic ganglia: so, more especially, certain sensory functions, such as sight and
hearing. Even in the lower mammalian orders, e.g. the rodents, the cortical representations of
these organs do not attain anything like the extent and the functional importance that they
possess in man. That is to say, the central organ provides itself with new representations, only in
proportion as a more complicated co-ordination of functional units becomes necessary. When
this happens, there is a relative reduction of the existing central stations in the same degree.
This accounts for the comparative insignificance of the mesencephalic region in the brain of the
higher animals and of man.

(c) -- The Principle of the Differentiation of Directions of Conduction

At this point the question naturally arises, whether or not the investigation of nervous conduction
has furnished any evidence of specific differences [p. 228] in the functions of the central
elements and of their conductive processes. We answer it by saying that one, and only one such
difference may probably be inferred from the anatomical and physiological relations of the
conduction paths. This is the difference in direction of conduction, connected with the twofold
mode of origin of the nervous processes, which was first suggested from the anatomical side by
RAMON Y CAJAL, and which receives confirmation from certain elementary facts of nerve
mechanics (p. 99). In the older physiology, the establishment of determinate directions of
conduction was ascribed to the nerves themselves, though it could hardly be brought into
intelligible connexion with the properties of the nerve fibre. We are now able to refer it to a
peculiar process of differentiation in the nerve cell. The explanation has been given above, in
Ch. III. Every cell, as we there set forth, is the seat of excitatory and inhibitory processes, which
under the influence of this differentiation are distributed in different proportions to definite cell
regions. Originating in this way, however, the principle of different directions of conduction can
hardly be looked upon as a law of universal validity. It is rather a principle of development,
entirely compatible with the persistence of an undifferentiated condition in certain of the central
elements. We have, as a matter of fact, found this condition to obtain in various types of cells, in
which the twofold mode of origin of the conduction paths is neither anatomically proved nor
physiologically probable. And it is noteworthy that these cells always occur in situations where
the functional requirements do not include a differentiation of the directions of conduction, or

181
rather -- for this is really the more correct expression -- where there is no demand for inhibitions
of an excitation that has come in from a given direction. Thus, the differentiation is more or less
doubtful in many cells of the sensory system, from those of the spinal ganglia onwards; and
there are many intercalary cells, some lying within the central organs, some displaced far
outwards in peripheral sense organs, which physiologically give no ground whatever for the
assumption of a definite direction of conduction, and morphologically offer no sign of a twofold
mode of origin of their processes. Cf. above, pp. 158 f.

The differentiation of the directions of conduction is, then, the result of a process of
differentiation peculiar to the nerve cell, and apparently connected with an especial modification
of the cell structure. It is, at the same time, the sole form of functional difference that the
investigation of the conduction paths has brought to light; and, we must add, the sole form that a
simple determination of these paths can ever reveal to the investigator. For the enquiry has, of
course, its definite limits. It can tell us where, between what terminal stations, and (under
favourable conditions) in which directions the processes are conducted; but it cannot [p. 229] tell
us anything of the nature of the processes themselves. Nevertheless, it is a point of importance
for the physiology of the central functions that, apart from this differentiation of the directions of
conduction, no qualitative differences in the central elements can be demonstrated by
morphological methods or inferred from the mechanics of innervation.

(d) -- The Principle of the Central Colligation of Remote Functional Areas.

Theory of Decussations

We have yet to mention a circumstance from which, in very many cases, the principle of the
manifold representation of peripheral areas undoubtedly derives its peculiar significance: the fact
that bodily organs which lie more or less widely apart, but yet function in common, are
oftentimes brought into spatial as well as into functional connexion in their central
representations. This means, of course, that the integration of functions may be mediated with
the least possible circuity by conduction paths running directly between the central stations.
Thus, the nerve paths that are brought into action in the locomotor movements of man and the
animals issue from the myel at very different levels. But there are several places in the central
organ (mesencephalon and cerebral cortex) where the centres for these movements lie close
together; so that a suitable co-ordination can be effected, for voluntary as for involuntary, purely
reflex movements, along well-trodden paths of cross connexion between neighbouring centres.
In the same way, the intimate relation that obtains between the rhythm of auditory ideas and the
rhythm of bodily movements becomes intelligible when we remember the number and variety of
the connexions, at comparatively short distance, between the acoustic and the motor centres. It
would seem, then, to be one of the most important features of conduction within the central
organ at large that it serves, literally, to centralise: it unites the various functional areas, and thus
renders possible an unitary regulation of functions that are separated in space but belong
together in the service of the organism. And this means, further, that all the separate functions
distinguished by us, since they are known solely in this their centralised form, must in reality
themselves consist of an union of many functions, distributed over different, in many cases over
widely remote peripheral organs. We may, therefore, reject without discussion any such view of
the conductive connexions of the central organ as maintains, e.g., that there is a central act of
vision, independent of motor innervations and of the mutual relations of different retinal

182
elements: for the central organ of vision is not a mere projection of the retina upon the cerebral
surface, but an extremely complicated structure, in which all the partial functions concerned in
the visual function find representation. And we may reject, similarly, any theory that pro-[p.
230]poses to isolate the rhythmical form of successive auditory impressions, as a form of
excitation peculiar to the auditory centre, and thus to separate it from the associated motor
impulses. Every psychophysical function that falls under our observation is already, in point of
fact, a centralised function, i.e. a synergic co-operation of a number of peripheral functions.
What the retina or the peripheral auditory organ could contribute of itself to the formation of our
perceptions, we do not know, and we can never find out: for the functions of eye and ear and of
all other organs come under our observation always and only in this centralised form, i.e. as
related to the activities of other functional areas.

183
Among these combinations of remote peripheral organs for unitarily centralised, synergic
functions, a place of special importance is taken by the connexions dependent upon decussation
of the paths of conduction. In their case, the separation and rearrangement of the paths are
carried, by their passage to the opposite half of the brain, to the highest conceivable point; and,
as a result of this, the functional significance of such central rearrangement is shown with the
greatest possible clearness. Among the decussations themselves, that of the optic nerve, which
appears in well-marked developmental sequence through the whole animal kingdom, shows the
most obvious relations to the visual function. Where the compound eye occurs in its earliest
stages of development, as in the facetted eyes of the insects, the retinal image forms a rough
mosaic whose spatial arrangement -- since every facet represents a relatively independent
dioptrical structure -- corresponds to that of the external object; what is above and below, right
and left, in the object has precisely the same position in its image. Such an eye, therefore, if it
has a muscular apparatus at its disposal, does not move about a point of rotation situated within
itself, but is seated upon a movable stalk, i.e. turns (like a tactual organ) about a point lying
behind it in the body of the animal. Under these conditions, it does not appear that the optic
paths undergo any appreciable decussation; indeed, it is characteristic of the invertebrates at
large that the great majority of the nerve paths remain upon the same side of the body. When,
on the other hand, we turn to the lowest vertebrates, we are met at once by a complete reversal
of the picture; the optic paths are now entirely crossed, so that the retina of the right eye is
represented exclusively in the left, that of the left eye in the right half of the brain. RAMON Y
CAJAL conjectures, with great acumen, that this arrangement may serve to compensate the
inversion of the retinal image effected by the dioptrical apparatus of the vertebrate eye: he
reminds us that the eyes of the lower vertebrates are, as a general rule, set laterally in the head,
and that they accordingly cannot furnish a common image of the objects seen, although their two
images may supplement each other in the sense
that the one eye sees parts [p. 231] of an extended
object which remain invisible to the other. The
hypothesis also furnishes an explanation of the
fact that the decussation changes from total to
partial in proportion as the eyes, placed in front of
the head, acquire a common field of vision, -- as
they do in many of the higher mammals, and more
especially in man. RAMON Y CAJAL, however,
bases his interpretation of these facts upon the
assumption that the retinal image is directly
projected upon the visual cortex. Suppose, e.g.,
that the eyes are so situated, laterally, that the
right eye images precisely the half ab, the left the
half bc of the object abc (Fig. 97) It follows at once,
from the fact of inversion, that the two retinal half-
images
ß and ß
are out of their right positions:
for if we regard ß
as the direct continuation of

ß, ß should be joined to ß, and not
to
. If,
now, the optic fibres undergo a total decussation,
this incongruity will disappear in the projection on
the central visual surface: the two halves of the

184
image can be put together as half-images in just the same relation that they sustain in the
external object (
'ß', ß'
').

RAMON Y CAJAL believes that the decussation of the optic nerves, thus necessitated by the
optical construction of the eye, has formed the point of departure for all the further decussations
of conduction paths; that it was followed, first of all, by the crossing of the motor paths of the
ocular muscles, and then by that of the other, sensory and motor paths, correlated with
these.[77] The hypothesis is ingenious in the extreme; and it is entirely probable that optic
decussation and binocular synergy are closely interrelated. Nevertheless, the theory cannot be
carried through in its present form. It is based upon assumptions that conflict not only with
everything else that we know of the nature of the act of vision, but also, in the last resort, with
everything that we know of the character and course [p. 232] of the conduction paths and of their
terminations in the brain cortex. The retina itself is, as we have remarked above, a part of the
central organ that has been pushed outwards to the periphery. It is, then, first and foremost,
somewhat surprising that the disorientation of the image on the retina should be of no
consequence, and its derangement on the cortex seriously disturbing. Those who hold such a
view evidently rest it upon the belief that consciousness resides directly in the cortex, and there
takes cognisance of an image of the external world, which must therefore, at this point, exactly
repeat the real position of the external objects. That certain difficulties arise from the presence of
the cortical gyres is admitted by RAMON Y CAJAL himself. To meet them, the further hypothesis
must be made, that the disorientation of the images produced in each individual brain by the
convolution of its outer surface is compensated by a remarkably accurate adaptation in the
distribution of the crossed fibres. But then there is still another difficulty. If the image on the
central visual surface corresponds exactly to the spatial properties of its object, then we must
expect not only that the asymmetry arising from inversion of the image is binocularly
compensated by the decussations in the chiasma, but also that, in each separate eye, there is
an analogous compensation with regard to the vertical dimension. What in the retinal image is
above, must in the visual centre be below, and conversely. The right and left decussation of the
optic fibres would then be accompanied, in every optic nerve, by a second, vertical decussation.
But this has not been demonstrated. Even in cases of what is called cortical hemianopsia in
man, its existence has never been suspected. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that this
cortical hemianopsia is much more obscure in its symptoms than the hemianopsia observed in
cases of interruption of the fibres in the optic tract and thalami; minor defects, in particular, may
pass without symptoms of any kind, or may be connected simply with a diminution, not with
complete abrogation of sensitivity to light.[78] This, however, is just the opposite of what we
should expect, if an undisturbed reproduction in the visual cortex of the space relations of the
object were the one thing necessary for the act of vision. Moreover, we must remember that
there is a very much simpler and more plausible explanation of the fact that eve see objects
upright, despite the optical inversion of their images, than would be given with this hypothesis of
a vertical decussation. Wherever the visual organ has become a dioptrical apparatus, involving
inversion of the image, the point of ocular rotation lies, not behind the eye in the body of the
animal, as it does in the stalked eyes of the invertebrates, but in a point d within the eye itself
(Fig. 98). Hence, when the central point of
vision in the yellow spot moves in the retinal
image from below upwards [p. 233] in the
direction
ß, the external point of fixation in the

185
object moves from above downwards, in the direction a b. That is to say, the displacement of the
point of rotation to the interior of the eye brings with it a direct compensation of the inversion of
the image. For we estimate the space relations of objects in terms of the position and movement
of the line of fixation before the point of rotation, not behind it, and not either in terms of the
retinal image -- whose position is really just as little known to us as are the space relations of the
hypothetical image in the visual centre: and of that we do not even know whether or not it exists
at all. Intrinsically, it is, without any question, far more probable that we should assume in place
of such an image a system of excitations, corresponding to the various sensory, motor and
associative functions simultaneously concerned in the act of vision.

This compensation of the inversion of the retinal image by the motor mechanism of the single
eye evidently furnishes the nearest analogy for the reciprocal orientation of the right and left
retinal images as it occurs in binocular vision. Here, too, we must suppose, the motor
mechanism has not adapted itself, after the event, to the relation obtaining between the two
hypothetical images in the visual centre, but has from the first exercised a determining influence
as regards orientation within the common field of vision. Now for the visual organ with laterally
placed eyes, the fundamental characteristic of the field of vision is that it consists of two entirely
different halves; in the ideal form of such an organ, the separate fields will just meet in the
middle line. Vision of this sort may fitly be termed, with RAMON Y CAJAL, 'panoramic' (as
opposed to 'stereoscopic') vision. It covers a wide range; but it mediates only a superficial
image, and gives no direct idea of the third dimension. Further, a correct orientation of the two
halves of the panoramic image is possible only if an object that travels continuously from the one
half of the field of vision to the other shows no discontinuity in its movement; and this condition,
again, is fulfilled only if similarly situated eye muscles are symmetrically innervated as the
movement continues. If the object has been followed, e.g. by the line of regard of the right eye in
Fig. 97 from a to b,, then the movement must be carried on, without interruption, from b to c, by
innervation of the line of regard of the left eye; that is to say, the innervation of the left rectus
internus, whose direction of pull is indicated by [p. 234] the dotted line i2, must be so co-
ordinated with the innervation of the right rectus internus, i1, that it promptly relieves its
predecessor, to give way in its own turn to the innervation of the left externus, e2. Now there is,
as we have said, no ground for supposing that the visual centre is the scene of any kind of
pictorial projection, even remotely resembling that which we have on the retina. It is, however,
not improbable that the mechanisms of release, by means of which sensory are transformed into
motor impulses, are here arranged in a certain symmetry: in such a way, that is, that if e.g. the
road to the rectus internus is thrown open in the visual cortex of the right hemisphere at a
definite point e', it must in the left hemisphere be thrown open at a point e'', functionally co-
ordinated with e' and lying symmetrically with it to the median plane. This arrangement will,
naturally, come about by process of development. Let us take, as the first term of the series, a
state of affairs where the eyes of the two sides stand in no sort of functional relation to each
other: the condition seems, as a general rule, to be actually realised, e. g. in the visual organs of
the invertebrates. Here, we must imagine, these mechanisms of release, like all the other central
elements, will in each optic ganglion be arranged symmetrically to the median plane: whatever
lies farthest to the right on the right-hand side of the body will do the same on the left side, and
conversely. Suppose, again, that the development is carried a step further, and that the eyes are
to co-operate for a panoramic vision of the kind described above. The symmetrical arrangement
would now be insufficient; it would prevent the regular sequence of the movements of the two

186
eyes, required for an adequate apprehension of objects. The arrangement in the visual centre of
the hypothetical mechanisms of release is, of course, unknown to us, apart from the probability
of their symmetry with reference to the median plane; fortunately, it is also, for our present
question, a matter of indifference. We will assume, for simplicity's sake, that the points of release
lie inwards for the interni and outwards for the externi. Then, if the object is followed in fixation
from a to c, the externus e1, will first be innervated from a central point e'. As the internus i1,
comes into action, the central innervation will move from e' to i'. Next, upon the entrance of the
object into the visual field of the left eye, it will pass without interruption to i2, i'', and thence,
finally, to e2, e''. If there were no decussation, the central point of release corresponding to a
point upon the nasal half of the retina would, on the contrary, lie inwards, and the point of
release corresponding to a point upon the temporal half lie outwards, on both sides of the
median line. The arrangement of the points, from right to left, would then be i' e' e'' i'', and the
innervation would first of all travel on the right, from within outwards, and then shoot across to
the left visual centre, to execute a similar movement there. We must add that the [p. 235]
arrangement which controls movement naturally determines as well the localisation of the
resting eyes; so that bc is seen as the direct continuation of ab. The reason, once more, is not
that this is the order in which images of the separate points are projected upon the brain, but that
it is the order in which there is congruity of the sensory and motor functions that work together in
every instance of spatial perception. Presumably, therefore, the total decussation of the visual
organ with panoramic function does not represent an arrangement which was first found good on
the sensory side and later extended to the motor. It must rather be regarded as an arrangement
which, from the outset, applies to both sensory and motor areas, and which mediates their co-
operation.

We are, then, justified in positing an organisation

that extends over the entire sensorimotor system
and is determined by the necessary co-ordination
of particular sensory and motor points. The
hypothesis has the further advantage that it, and it
alone, can adequately explain the obvious
connexion between the change from total to partial
decussation of the optic fibres, on the one hand,
and the passage from panoramic to stereoscopic
vision on the other. Suppose that we have reached
the stage at which the eyes are set so far forward
that their fields partially overlap, to form a common
field of vision, embracing the same objects. The
conditions are now very different from those
obtaining in panoramic vision. The synergy of the
eye movements, in so far as it is controlled by the
nearer objects in the common field of vision, is no
longer laterally symmetrical, no longer such, i.e.,
that right corresponds to right and left to left upon
the two sides, but has become medianly
symmetrical, so that those points are homologous
that lie on either side at the same distance from

187
the median plane. Stated directly in terms of eye movement, this means that the synergy in
panoramic vision is that of parallel, in stereoscopic vision that [p. 236] of convergent movement
of the lines of sight. The difference will be clear at once from a comparison of Fig. 99 with Fig.
97. In Fig. 97 where we have a representation of the limiting case in which the two fields of the
laterally placed eyes pass into each other without break, the point of contact b is the sole point
seen in common by both halves of the visual organ. If the object is given the direction in the third
dimension indicated in Fig. 99, only this one point upon it remains visible to the two eyes. For the
visual organ with a common field of vision (Fig. 99) the case is different. Here the object, despite
its position in the third dimension, remains entirely visible to both eyes; the image

upon each
retina corresponds to that side of it which, as it recedes in space, is turned towards the eye in
question. Along with this change in scope of vision goes, further, a change in the conditions
under which the eyes must move in order to bring all parts of the object upon the yellow spot.
The movements are not touched off successively, as in the previous instance, -- the left eye
taking up the movement at the point where the excursion of the right eye reaches its limit, -- but
have become simultaneous: right and left eye range over the object, from a to c and back again
from c to a, both at once. And the muscles co-ordinated for the purposes of these movements
are muscles placed symmetrically not as regards external space, but as regards the median
plane of the body and, consequently, as regards each separate eye: internus and internus,
externus and externus. This means, once more, that there is a radical change in the conditions
under which the movements are touched off centrally by light stimuli. The farther inward, towards
the median plane, a retinal point lies in either eye, the farther out, in the third dimension of
space, lies the corresponding point of the object situated in the common field of vision. If,
therefore, a point is stimulated upon the nasal halves of the two retinas, the interni are brought
into action at i' and i'', and a movement is produced by symmetrical increase of convergence in
the direction ca. If, on the other hand, a retinal point is stimulated on both sides that
approximates to the near limit of the field of vision, the binocular organ will traverse the object
with symmetrically decreasing convergence; the two externi are brought into synergic action at e'
and e''. Recurring to our hypothesis that the elements in the central organs are arranged upon a
principle of median symmetry, we may say, therefore, that the requirements of symmetrical
convergence will be fulfilled if the mechanisms for the release of motor impulses by light stimuli
are distributed symmetrically to the median plane in the visual centre of the same side. Since
distant points in space correspond to retinal points that lie nasalward, and near points in space
to retinal points that lie temporalward, the arrangement of the mechanisms of release will be in
conformity with the medianly symmetrical disposition of the parts of the brain if the musculi [p.
237] interni are represented in the brain, too, on the inside, nearer the median plane, and the
musculi externi on the outside. Let us assume that this arrangement actually holds. Then the
inversion of the image, due to the dioptrical structure of the eye, is precisely the position that will
satisfy the needs of stereoscopic vision and of the mechanism of convergence. It is, accordingly,
a condition of the adaptation of the visual organs to these needs that the optic paths remain
uncrossed for the whole extent of the common field subserving stereoscopic vision. But the
common field is only a part of the total field of vision. In man himself and in the animals with a
like visual endowment each eye has, besides, its own particular field, represented by the inner
portions of the retinas, and governed, of course, by the conditions of panoramic vision and the
special laws of eye movement that they bring in their train. Here, then, the two visual organs are
laterally symmetrical, and the necessary decussation of the optic paths -- and, with them, of their
centromotor releases -- is effected on the pattern of Fig. 97. In this sense, therefore, the partial

188
decussation of the optic paths gives an accurate picture of the state of affairs resulting on the
one hand from the co-operation of the two eyes in binocular vision and on the other from the
coordination of their independent functions. We may add that, in all probability, the decussation
in the chiasma possesses this functional significance not only for the terminations of the optic
paths in the visual cortex, which we have had primarily in mind in the foregoing discussion, but
also for the terminations in the mesencephalic region. According to the plan of the opticus
conduction laid down in Fig. 78 (p. 186), the two centres are similarly disposed in the essential
matter of sensorimotor connexions.

There are many other instances of the decussation of conduction paths, recurring at all levels
from the myel upward. In no case, however, is the functional interpretation of the phenomenon
as obvious as it is in that of the opticus crossing. Nevertheless, we have no right to conclude that
all the other decussations are simple consequences of this transposition of the optic fibres. On
the contrary, the same synergy that is apparent here obtains also for the other organs of sense
and of movement, and more particularly for the relations between sensory excitation and motor
reaction, and may therefore lead independently at any point to analogous results -- though the
results, once produced, may very well reinforce and support one another. This relative
independence of the different decussations is further suggested by the fact that in the lower
vertebrates, where the optic decussation is total, other decussations, as e.g. that of the motor
paths of the skeletal muscles, are much less complete than they are in man. Moreover, in all the
vertebrates up to man, the myel evidently retains the character of a central area in which the
conduction paths remain for [p. 238] the most part upon the same side of the body, whereas the
oblongata shows at once a large number of partial decussations, due to the correspondingly
large number of motor functions of bilaterally symmetrical nature -- movements of respiration, of
mastication, of swallowing; mimetic movements -- that have their centres in this region. Similar
decussations occur also in the olfactory and acoustic areas, where they are again, in all
probability, connected with motor synergies.

There is, finally, a further circumstance, affecting those cerebral areas which, as seats of the
more complex functions, receive association paths from various sensory and motor centres, that
presumably stands in intimate relation to the phenomenon of decussation: the circumstance that
certain centres, which exist potentially in both hemispheres, are preponderantly developed upon
one side. This applies especially to the 'speech centre,' which we discuss in the following
Chapter. In the great majority of cases, the speech centre has its principal seat in certain frontal
and temporal areas of the left hemisphere. Since this left side, in consequence of the
decussations of the motor paths, contains the centres for the motor innervation of the right half
of the body, we may suppose that the arrangement is connected with the disproportionate
development of the muscular system on the right and, more particularly, with the right-
handedness of the ordinary man. The latter phenomena may themselves be referred partly to
the character of human movements, which involve a preference for the one side, and partly to
the asymmetrical position of other bodily organs, especially the heart.

The study of the conduction paths has been dominated, up to the present time, by the view,
natural to the adherents of a strict localisation theory, that every bodily organ must find its
representation at some point of the brain cortex. The other and at least equally tenable idea, that
all parts of the brain and, very especially, all parts of the brain cortex are intended to mediate the

189
interconnexion of different conduction paths, has, in consequence, been forced unduly into the
background. The strict localisation theory, as held by H. MUNK and by other physiologists and
pathologists, assumes that the surface of the brain is made up of a number of sensory centres,
which are in reality simple reflections or copies of the peripheral sensory surfaces; so that e.g.
every point upon the retina has a corresponding point in the visual cortex. Secondarily, it is true,
recourse is had to the subsidiary hypothesis (mentioned above, pp. 201 ff.) that the immediate
neighbourhood of these direct sensory centres is taken up with special ideational centres, to
which the direct sensory impressions are in some way transferred: this hypothesis is to explain
the origination of memory ideas. The point of view persists, practically unchanged, in
FLECHSIG'S and RAMON Y CAJAL'S theory of specific 'association' centres. For it appears to
be the opinion of these authorities that, if the more complicated functions are thus handed over
to independent centres, the sensory centres proper are for that very reason all the more securely
established in their character as direct reflections of the bodily periphery. As a matter of fact,
however, this view is [p. 239] sufficiently refuted, even apart from the complex nature of the
disturbances consequent upon cortical lesion, by MEYNERT'S principle of manifold
representation. It is unjust to what is by far the most important aspect of central organisation, the
combination into an unitary resultant of component functions that are oftentimes separate at the
periphery. GOLTZ has been, from the first, its earnest opponent; and in so far as it leaves
altogether out of account the true character of the central functions, his opposition is justified. On
the other hand, he and his school have plainly gone too far in denying localisation of function
outright. Localisation, in a certain sense, is a direct corollary from the fact that centralisation is
never universal, but is always confined primarily to the integration of a limited number of
components. Within these limits, the course and distribution of the conduction paths point,
without any question, towards a certain localisation, though they and, in the last resort, the
structure of the cerebral cortex itself, point not less clearly to an interconnexion of functions at all
parts of the organ. If we look at the facts as a whole, we may safely say -- while abstracting
entirely from functional derangements, whose interpretation is oftentimes doubtful -- that modern
brain anatomy has furnished overwhelming proof that the older idea of the brain cortex, as a
reflection or copy of the totality of the peripheral organs, supplemented at most by a few special
areas reserved for higher psychical needs, is altogether untenable.

The problem of the decussation of conduction paths, in the strict sense of the term, is less
difficult of solution than that of the unilateral representation of function, such as has been
demonstrated, in particular, for the functions involved in speech. Originally, it would seem, the
function in these cases was symmetrically disposed upon both halves of the brain, but practice
has for some reason been predominantly unilateral, and the one half has consequently gained
the ascendancy. It is natural to connect this difference of development with the right-handedness
of the majority of mankind. And the connexion is sustained by the fact that, in various instances,
derangements of speech have been observed in left-handed persons as a result of apoplectic
effusions in the right half of the brain.[79] Now it is not difficult to explain this relation, if we once
accept the possibility of unilateral development. In civilised man, who is right-handed, writing is a
function of the right hand; and the associations that colligate the various speech functions are so
many and so varied that the unilateral development of writing alone might bring with it a
corresponding unilateral localisation of the related factors. But since men write, as a rule, with
the right hand, and are in general more practised in the mechanical control of the right hand than
of the left, the left half of the brain must, by reason of the decussation of the motor conduction

190
paths, receive a larger measure of practice than the right. This practice will, of course, be shared
by the speech centre. The numerous instances of restoration of the speech functions, with
persistence of the central lesion, may then be referred, along with all the other possible forms of
vicarious function, to the substitution under special conditions of the right for the left half of the
brain. We have a similar substitution in the case of the external organs: a patient who is
paralysed on the right side is able, by practice, to use his left hand for actions previously
performed by the right, e.g. for writing; and the change of habit at the periphery naturally carries
with it a new course of practice at the centre. But when all this is granted, the initial question still
calls for answer; the question why the right-hand side of [p. 240] the body should ever have
been preferred at all. In seeking to answer it, we must bear in mind that most mechanical
functions, to a certain extent even that of walking, make a heavier demand upon the one side of
the body than upon the other; and that, under this condition, the right side is naturally marked
out for special favours by the general asymmetry in the position of the organs of nutrition in the
higher animals. Here again, the plan of arrangement is, as we all know, governed by the close
interdependence of the individual organs. The placing of the liver on the right means that the
great reservoirs of venous blood also lie on the right, so that the arterial system is necessarily
relegated to the left. In the rare cases in which this disposition is reversed (cases of what is
called situs transversus viscerum), it is the rule that all the asymmetrical organs are involved in
the rearrangement of parts. Now the central organs that stand in greatest need of protection are
the circulatory organs. Consequently, most mammals in combat with their enemies are apt to put
their right side in the forefront of the battle; and this habit must react favourably, by way of
stronger development, upon the muscles of the right side of the body. In man, the upright
position brings with it a special need for the protection of the central organs of circulation, and at
the same time helps to render this protection easy and efficient. On the other hand, it is probable
that the left-handed situation of the circulatory organs has furthered the development of the left-
hand side of the brain.[80] Since, then, the more developed half of the brain must correspond to
the more developed half of the body, it is on the whole intelligible that the peripheral paths of the
right side should in the main be represented in the left half of the central organ, and those of the
left side in the right. On this assumption, it is possible that the decussation of the pyramidal
paths in man and the mammals may itself be a simple consequence of the asymmetrical
practice imposed by outside conditions upon the bodily organs and their central representatives.

Notes

[1] Cf. the general discussion of reflex excitations in Chap. iii., pp. 85 ff. above.

[2] The most fruitful of these methods may find mention here. They are: GOLGI'S method of
impregnation by a metal, and more particularly by silver; and the methods of staining by
haematoxylin and methylene blue, introduced respectively by WEIGERT and EHRLICH. For
details regarding these and other methods, see OBERSTEINER, Anleitung beim Studium des
Baues der nervösen Centralorgane, 3te Aufl., 1896, 7 ff., and EDINGER, Vorlesungen über den
Bau der nervösen Centralorgane, 6te Aufl., 1900, 3 ff.

191
[3] FLECHSIG, Die Leitungsbahnen im Gehirn und Rückemark des Menschen, 1876. C. VOGT,
Etude sur la myélisation des hémisphéres cérébraux, 1900. Cf. §§ 5, 6, below.

[4] L. TÜRCK, Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad., nth. math.-naturw. Cl., vi., 1851, 288; xi. 1853, 93.
CHARCOT, Ueber die Localisationen der Gehirnkrankheiten, trs. FETZER, i., 1878, 159 (Lecons
sur les localisations dans les maladies du cerveau, 1875); FLECHSIG, Ueber
Systemerkrankungen im Rückenmark, 1878.

[5] GUDDEN, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, ii., 1870, 693. FOREL, ibid., xviii., 1887, 162. VON
MONAKOW, ibid., xxvii., 1895, I, 386.

[6] MEYNERT, art. Gehirn in STRICKER'S Gewebelehre, 1871, 694 ff. (Buck's trans., 650 ff.);
Psychiatrie, Pt. I. 1884. LUYS, Recherches sur le systéme nerveux cérébro-spinal, 1865. The
Brain and its Functions, 1877 and later (Internat. Sci. Series).

[7] The olfactory, optic and acoustic nerves are purely sensory: the oculomotor, trochlear and
abducent ocular, the facial and the hypoglossal are purely motor; and the trigeminal,
glossopharyngeal and pneumogastric and accessory resemble the myelic nerves, i.e. become
mixed at a short distance from their place of origin. The sensory root of these latter has a
ganglion, which is wanting in the sensory nerves proper.

[8] C. BELL, An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, 1811; An Exposition of the Natural System
of Nerves, 1824; The Nervous System of the Human Body, 1830.

[9] This analogy appears quite clearly as early as JOHANNES MÜLLER. Cf. his Lehrbuch d.
Physiol., 4te Aufl., i., 1844, 623. MÜLLER, however, leaves the question undecided. The first
physiologist who expressed the decided opinion that the function of the nerves is determined
solely by the organs with which they are connected was, as MÜLLER tells us, J. W. ARNOLD.

[10] LUDWIG and WOROSCHILOFF, Ber. d. sächs. Ges. d. Wiss., math.-phys. Cl., 1874, 296.
MOTT, Philos. Transact., clxxxiii. 1892, I.

[11] VAN DEEN, in MOLESCHOTT'S Untersuchungen zur Naturlehre des Menschen, vi., 1859,
279. SCHIFF, Lehrbuch der Physiol., 1858, i. 238. PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxviii.;
xxix. 537 ff.; xxx. 199 ff.

[12] LUDWIG and WOROSCHILOFF, op. cit., 297.

[13] H. E. HERING and C. S. SHERRINGTON, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., lxiii.

1897, 222. Cf. p. 93, above.

[14] Concomitant sensations with pain stimuli are described by KOWALEWSKY (trans. from the
Russian in HOFFMANN and SCHWALBE, Jahresber. f. Physiol., 1884. 26); 'conjugate'
sensations, with arousal of tickling, by E. STRANSKY (Wiener klin. Rundshau, 1901, os. 24-26).
In my own experience, the larynx and the external auditory meatus are especially liable to
concomitant sensations.

192
[15] PFLÜGER, Die sensorischen Functionen des Rückenmarks, 1853, 67 ff.

[16] FLECHSIG, Ueber Systemerkrankungen im Rückenmark, 30 ff. BECTHEREW, Die

Leitungsbahnen im Gehirn und Rückenmark, 1899, 17 ff.

[17] CHARCOT, Leçons sur les localisations, etc., 145 ff. FLECHSIG, Ueber
Systemerkrankungen, 42 ff. EDINGER, Vorlesungen, 6te Aufl., 86, 358

[18] EDINGER, op. cit., 317. RAMON Y CAJAL, Beitrag zum Studium der Medulla oblongata,
1896, 52 ff.

[19] Cf. RAMON Y CAJAL, Medulla oblongata, 43, 122 ff. EDINGER, op. cit., 86 ff.

[20] EDINGER, op. cit., 272. BECHTEREW, Leitungsbahnen im Gehirn und Rückenmark, 439.

[21] This exposition follows HELD, Arch. f. Anatomie, 1893, 201 ff.

[22] BECHTEREV, Die Leitungsbahnen, 169 ff.

[23] For a detailed account of the terminal nervous apparatus of the retina, cf. below, Ch. VIII §
4.

[24] RAMON Y CAJAL, Die Structur des chiasma opticum. Trans. J. BRESLER. 1899.

[25] GUDDEN, Arch. f. Opthalmologie, xxv., I. VON MONAKOW, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, xxiii., 1892,
619; xxiv., 229. GILLET and VIALET, Les centres cévébraux de la vision, 1893.

[26] MONAKOW, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, xx., 1889, 714 ff. BECHTEREW, Die Leitungsbahnen, 199
ff. RAMON Y CAJAL, Les nouvellas idées sur la structure du systèmenerveux, 1894; Studien
über die Hirnrinde des Menschen, i. Die Sehrinde, I 00. Besides the reflex path rr to the nidi of
the oculomotor nerves, there is another, which mediates the reaction of the pupil to light
stimulation. Its course has not yet been fully made out; but it seems to be altogether divergent
from the other, since the pupillary reaction is not abrogated by destruction either of the
pregemina or of the genicula. Cf. BECHTEREW, op. cit., 215.

[27] I avoid the use of the simpler terms 'motor' and 'sensory,' in order to indicate -- from the
outset, the essential difference that obtains between the conditions of conduction here and in the
peripheral nerves. The other terms in current use, 'psychomotor' and 'psychosensory,' seem to
me to be objectionable, for the reason that they suggest a participation of consciousness or of
mental functions which, to say the least, is hypothetical. It must also be remembered that there
are many central parts besides the cerebral cortex, e.g. the brain ganglia, that are also endowed
in certain measure with the properties under discussion.

[28] FRITSCH and HITZIG, Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol., 1870, 300 ff. HITZIG, Untersuchungen
über das Gehirn, 1874, 42 ff. FERRIER, The Functions of the Brain, 2nd ed., 1886.

193
[29] LUCIAN, Arch. ital. de biologie, ix., 268.

[30] FRANCK, Les centres motrices du cerveau, 1887.

[31] FRANCK and PITRES, Arch. de physiol., 1885, 7, 149. BUBNOFF and HEIDENHAIN,
Pflüger's Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxvi., 137.

[32] LUCIANI and SEPPILLI, Die Functionslocalisation auf der Grosshirnrinde, 289 ff, (Le
localizzazioni funzionali del cervello, 1885). HITZIG, Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, 1886, 663.

[33] On this point, cf. in particular GOLTZ, Ueber die Verrichtungen des Grosshirns, 1881, 36.
119 ff.

[34] GOLTZ, PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxvi., 170 ff.; xxxiv., 487 ff. LUCIANI and
SEPPILLI, op. cit. (German), 50 ff.

[35] SCHITSCHERBACK, Physiol. Centralblatt, v., 1891, 289 ff.

[36] HITZIG, Untersuchungen über das Gehirn, 126 ff.

[37] FERRIER, The Functions of the Brain, 1886, 235 ff.

[38] SCHÄFER, Beiträge zur Physiologie. C. LUDWIG gewidmet, 1887, 269 ff.

[39] HORSLEY and BEEVOR, Philos. Transactions. 1890, clxxix., 205; clxxxi., 129.

[40] H. MUNK, Ueber die Functionen der Grosshirnrinde, 2te Aufl., 1890. Berichte der Berliner
Akademie. 1892, 679; 1893, 759; 1895, 564; 1896, 1131; 1899, 936.

[41] Ueber die Verrichtungen des Grosshirns, Abth. i.-vii. In PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d ges. Physiol.,
1876-1892.

[42] Cf. p. 188, above.

[43] On the relation of eye movement and retinal sensation, see below, Ch. XIV § 2.

[44] E. A. SCHÄFER. Proc. of the Royal Soc., 1887, 408. BAGINSKY, Arch. f. Physiol., 1891,
227 ff.

[45] CHRISTIANI. Zur Physiologie des Gehirns. 1885, 31 ff. GOLTZ, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d.
ges. Physiol., li., 570 ff.

[46] GOLTZ, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxxiv., 459, 487 ff. CHRISTIANI, op. cit.,
138 ff.

194
[47] FERRIER, in Brain, 1881, 456; 1884, 139. LOEB, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol.,
xxxiv., 88ff. LUCIANI and SEPPILLI, op. cit. (German), 145.

[48] For the criteria to be applied, cf. NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik der Gehirnkrankheiten,
Einleitung.

[49] NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 438 ff. H. DE BOYER, Études cliniques sur les lésions
corticales, 1879. EXNER, Untersuchungen über die Localisation der Functionen in der
Grosshirnrinde des Menschen, 1881. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 1897, 282 ff.

[50] FERRIER, Localisation der Hirnkrankungen, 12 ff. (Localisation of Cerebral Disease, 1878).
NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 549. VON MONAKOW, Gehirn. pathologie, 376 ff.

[51] NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 389. LUCIANI and SEPPILLI, op. cit. (German), 167 ff.
VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 445 ff.

[52] VON MONAKOW, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, xxiv., 229 ff. Cf. also the conditions found to obtain in
the brain of LAURA BRIDGMAN, a deaf-mute, who became blind in early childhood. It may be
remarked, further, that the whole development of this brain suggests an elaborate system of
vicarious functioning, especially in the sensory region. DONALDSON, Amer. Journal of Psych.,
iii., 1890, 293; iv., 1892. 503 ff.

[53] Cf. the cases described by FÜRSTNER (Arch. f. Psychiatrie, viii., 162; ix., 90) and
REINHARD (ibid., 147), and by VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 468 ff.

[54] Cf. the following Chapter, and the account of visual ideas given in Ch. XIV.

[55] WERNICKE, Der aphasische Symptomencomplex, 1874. KAHLER and PICK, Beiträge zur
Pathologie und pathologischen Anatomie des Centralnervensystems, 1879, 24, 182. LUCIANI
and SEPPILLI, op. cit. (German). 217 ff. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 506 ff.

[56] FLECHSIG, Gehirn und Seele, 2te Aufl., 1896, 61; Die Localisation der geistigen Vorgänge,
1896, 34.

[57] EXNER, op. cit., 63 ff. LUCIANI and SEPPILLI, op. cit. (German), 321 ff. On disturbances of
the sensations of movement, consult further NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 465 ff. VON
MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 362 ff.

[58] On this point see below, Ch. VI., §§ 5 and 6.

[59] See below, Ch. VI., § 7.

[60] CHARCOT, Leçons sur les localisations, etc. (Vorlesungen über die Localisation der
Gehirnkrankheiten, 120 ff.). NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 581 f.

[61] VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 364 ff.

195
[62] Arch. f. experimentelle Pathologie, iii., 1874, 171.

[63] MEYNERT, Psychiatrie, 1884, 145.

[64] Arch. f. Physiol., 1878, 171; Ueber die Functionen der Grosshirnrinde, 44.

[65] Cf. with this WUNDT, Zur Frage der Localisation der Grosshirnrinde, in Philos. Studien, vi.,
1891 1 ff.

[66] FLECHSIG, Die Localisation der geistigeVorgänge, 13 ff. EDINGER, Vorlesungen, 6te Aufl.,
161 ff.

[67] FLECHSIG, Neurol. Centralblatt, 1898, no. 21.

[68] Cf. DÉJERINE, Zeitsch. f. Hypnotismus, v., 1897, 343; O. VOGT, ibid., 347 ; SIEMERLING,
Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, xxxv., 1900, 1033. See also p. 217, below.

[69] MEYNERT, in STRICKNER'S Gewebelehre, 117 (POWER'S translation, ii., 481 f.);
Psychiatrie, 40.

[70] FLECHSIG, Gehirn und Seele, 2te Aufl., 1896; Neurol. Centralblatt, 1898, no. 21.

[71] RAMON Y CAJAL, Die Structur des chiasma opticum, 56. EDINGER, Vorlesungen, 6te
Aufl., 228. HITZIG, Les centres de projection et d'association, Rapport lu au xiii. Congrès
internat. de Med. à Paris, Le Nevraxe, i., 1900 (criticism by FLECHSIG, ibid., ii., and reply by
HITZIG, 1900). VON MONAKOW, Monatsschrift f. Psychiatrie. viii., 1900, 405. O. VOGT, Journ.
de physiol. at pathol. gén., 1900, 525. See above, p. 213.

[72] RAMON Y CAJAL, Studien über die Hirnrinde des Menschen. German trans, by BRESLER.
Heft 1: Die Sehrinde; Heft 2: Die Bewegungsrinde, 1900. Comparative Study of the Sensory
Areas of the Human Cortex, in Decennial Volume of the Clark University, 1899, 311 ff.

[73] MEYNERT, Vierteljahrsschrift f. Psychiatrie, i., 91, 198; ii., 88. Also in STRICKER'S
Gewebelehre, ii., 704 ff. (POWER'S trans., ii. 381.)

[74] GOLGI, Sulla fina anatomia degli organi centrali, 1886.

[75] KÖLLIKER, Gewebelehre, 6te Aufl., ii., 809 ff.

[76] RAMON Y CAJAL, Studien über die Hirnrinde des Menschen, Heft i., 5 ff. Cf. also
FLECHSIG, Die Localisation der geistigen Vorgänge, 82 ff.

[77] RAMON Y CAJAL, Die Structur des chiasma opticum, 22 ff.

[78] VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 450.

196
[79] OGLE, Medico-chirurgical Transactions, liv., 1871, 279.

[80] According to GRATIOLET, the frontal gyres develope more rapidly on the left than on the
right; in the occipital brain, the reverse order appears to obtain (Anatomie comparée
dusystèmenerveux, ii., 242). GRATIOLET'S results are, however, questioned by ECKER (Arch.
f. Anthroplogie, iii., 215). W. BRAUNE (Arch. f. Anatomie, 1891, 253) has also failed to find
confirmation of OGLE'S statement that the left hemisphere is, almost without exception, heavier
than the right. On the other hand, it is a fact easily verified that, in all primates, the fissures are
more asymmetrically arranged in the anterior than they are in the posterior part of the brain.
Moreover, the left frontal gyres, according to BROCA, are usually more complicated than the
right. These observations accord with those made by BROCA and P. BERT upon the differences
in temperature found in man at different parts of the head; the left half of the frontal region is on
the average warmer than the right, and the frontal region as a whole warmer than the occipital
(P. BERT, Soc. de biologie, 19 Janv., 1879).

Footnotes

[1] It should be said, with regard to Fig. 79, that the schema there given simply shows the relative
positions of the optic fibres in the nerve and optic tract, with reference to the various parts of the retina, as
they are to be inferred from the investigations of HENSCHEN (Brain, 1893). VIALET (Les centres de la
vision, 1893) and others. The central arrangement of the fibres corresponds to this peripheral schema only
in so far as the bundles proceeding from the macula lutea, find representation in the occipital cortex of
both hemispheres. Cf. the account of the whole matter in BECHTEREW, Die Leitungsbahnen im Gehirn
und Rückenmark, 209 ff. On the other hand, the definitive position of the lateral and median bundles in the
cortical centres is, as we show below (pp. 206, 235) for the most part the precise opposite of their position
in these proximate conduction paths; experiments on animals and pathological observations on man prove
that the lateral portions of the retina are represented on the same, the median on the opposite side of the
brain. In seeking to explain this fact, we must bear in mind that the proximate termination of the optic
paths lies in the mesencephalic centres of the genicula, and that it is accordingly from this point that the
final assignment of fibres to the cortex is made. In view of the complexity of the relations involved, and of
the somewhat ambiguous symptoms which follow from injury to the cortex, many investigators, like
HENSCHEN, and, to some extent, VON MONAKOW, have recently taken the position that the
connexion of the various parts of the retina with the cortical centres at large has not yet been finally
settled; and HENSCHEN is further inclined to restrict the visual centre to a limited area within the
calcarine fissure (O' Fig. 65, p. 145), instead of allowing it the fairly extended region in the occipital
cortex (Fig. 89, p. 206) to which it is usually referred. VON MONAKOW, however, while admitting that
he is in doubt as regards the definitive correlation of retina and cortex, does not hesitate to express his
conviction that the central representation of the various parts of the retina is, in any event, based upon
their relation to the centres of ocular movement (Ergebnisse der Physiol., 1 Jahrg., 1902, 2 Abth., 600).
This statement is, as the reader will see, in full agreement with what is said below (pp. 229 ff.) of the
theory of decussations in general, and of the decussations of the optic paths in particular, as against the
simple copy-theory of RAMON Y CAJAL. -- Later note by AUTHOR.

197
 Principles of Physiological Psychology
By Wilhelm Wundt (1902)
Translated by Edward Bradford Titchener (1904)

Posted June 2000

[p. 241] CHAPTER VI

The Physiological Function of the Central Parts

§ 1. Methods of Functional Analysis

EVEN if we knew the course and the interconnexions of all the paths of nervous conduction,
there would still be one thing needful for an understanding of the physiological function of the
central parts: a knowledge of the influence exerted upon the processes of innervation by the
central substance. And there is but one possible way of determining this influence: we must
attempt to ascertain the function of the central parts by means of direct observation.

Under this limitation, two roads are open to the investigator who would gain an insight into the
complicated functions of the nerve centres. He can arrange the phenomena in order of their
physiological significance; or, accepting the lines of division drawn by the anatomists, he can
examine into the separate function of each individual central region. It is obvious that the former
of these procedures is to be preferred: not only because it lays the chief emphasis upon the
physiological point of view, but also because, when the investigation of the conduction paths is
over and done with, a doubt must still remain whether every one of the principal parts
distinguished by anatomy represents a similarly well-defined functional area. In the present state
of our knowledge, however, it is impossible to carry out the physiological programme with any
sort of completeness. The method can be applied, with any hope of success, only to the two
lowest central organs, myel and oblongata, where the phenomena may be referred without
exception to two basal physiological functions, reflex and automatic excitations: the latter
oftentimes deriving directly from nutritive influences exercised by the blood. We may well
suppose that these same two basal functions are the source of the physiological activities of the
higher central parts. At the same time, the interrelation of the phenomena is here so
complicated, and their interpretation in many cases so uncertain, that it seems wiser, for the
present, to examine each individual central area for itself with a view of discovering its
physiological properties. We shall, accordingly, preface our enquiry by a general discussion of
reflex and automatic action, in the course of which we shall have opportunity fully to consider the
functions of the lower central regions; and we shall [p. 242] then proceed to investigate the brain
and its parts in regular sequence from below upwards. We may, however, omit structures which,
like pons, crura and corona, are intended in the main simply for the conduction of processes of
innervation, and have therefore been sufficiently dealt with in the preceding Chapter.

The methods employed in the, functional examination of the central organs are, in general, the
same as those which find application in the study of the conduction paths, save that anatomical

198
investigation, which there holds the first place, must naturally play a merely subordinate part now
that we are concerned with the activities of the organs. We shall ask assistance, where possible
in combination, from physiological experiment and from pathological observation; and we shall
pay attention, under both headings, to symptoms of stimulation and symptoms of abrogation.
The special conditions of the phenomena are such that stimulation experiments must for the
most part be employed in the general study of the reflexes and of automatic excitations, whereas
the functional analysis of the various departments of the brain must rely almost exclusively upon
symptoms of abrogation.

§ 2. Reflex Functions

(a) -- Spinal Reflexes

The simplest mode of central function, and the mode that still approximates most nearly to a
simple conduction of processes of stimulation, is the reflex movement. In so far as the reflex
process is a special form of conduction, we have discussed it in the preceding Chapter. But it is
more; it is a form of conduction modified in various ways by the influence of the central
substance. In the first place, the reflexes are not, like the processes of stimulation, conducted in
both directions in the nerve fibres, but only in the one direction, from sensory to motor path: a
fact which, as we explained above, is in all probability connected with the twofold mode of origin
of the nervous processes in the motor cells.[1] Secondly, the reflexes clearly show, in their
dependence upon the stimuli that release them, the effects of the peculiar conditions of
excitability obtaining in the grey substance. Stimuli that are weak and of brief duration fail, as a
rule, to evoke a reflex movement: but the movement, once it appears, may far surpass in
intensity and duration the direct muscular contraction set up by the same stimulus. Lastly, the
central character of these processes is evinced by the dependence of the reflex centres upon
other central areas with which they stand in connexion. Thus, it has been observed that the
reflex excitability of the myel is enhanced by removal of the brain.[p. 243] It appears, therefore,
that inhibitory influences are continually proceeding from the higher central organs, and lessen
the irritability of the lower lying reflex centres. These are, in general, still more strongly inhibited
if other sensory central parts, with which they are connected, are stimulated along with them.
The reflex, e.g., released by excitation of a sensory myelic root or of its peripheral radiation is
inhibited by simultaneous stimulation of the dorsal myelic columns, of quadrigemina and thalami,
of another sensory root, or finally of peripheral organs within which sensory nerves are
distributed. It is not improbable that the influence of the cerebral hemispheres belongs to the
same group of phenomena; for this too proceeds, in all likelihood, from the terminations of the
sensory conduction paths in the cortex. It has been observed that the inhibition of reflexes in
mammals is especially strong if stimuli are applied directly to the centrosensory areas of the
cerebral cortex.[2] The mechanism of reflex inhibition would thus appear to be the same
throughout: reflexes are inhibited, when the sensory cells that should transfer their excitation to
motor cells are simultaneously excited with a certain degree of intensity from other sensory
areas. This inhibitory effect is, however, limited to the condition that the areas whose
stimulations interfere lie at a sufficient distance from one another in space. If adjacent sensory
parts, or the nerve paths corresponding to them, are stimulated, the result resembles that of
summation of stimulations within the same sensory area: that is to say, the interference gives
rise not to inhibition but to intensification of the excitatory processes. Lastly, reflex excitations

199
may also suffer inhibition from central elements interpolated in their own proper path. This is the
interpretation of the fact that stimuli applied to the cutaneous radiations of the sensory nerves
are more effective than stimuli applied to the nerve trunks, and that contrariwise the nerve roots
become more irritable after their passage through the spinal ganglion. We must suppose, that is,
that the subdivision of fibres in the sense organ serves, on the one hand, to increase irritability,
and that, on the other, the excitation which arrives at a spinal ganglion cell there undergoes a
certain inhibition: a combination of circumstances which, naturally, brings it about that the nerve
trunk possesses a relative minimum of reflex excitability.[3] The general lines to be followed, in
an attempt to explain all these phenomena, are laid down by the principles of nerve mechanics
that govern the reciprocal relations of excitatory and inhibitory effects, and by that morphological
differentiation of the central elements which, in all probability, runs parallel with them.[4][p. 244]

There are, further, many phenomena which show, still in accordance with the general principles
of nervous activity, that the individual reflex excitation aroused by a sensory stimulus does not
by any means come upon the scene as interrupting a state of absolute non-excitation in the
nervous elements. On the contrary, the state which we term the 'state of rest' is really a state of
oscillation -- as a rule, of oscillation about a certain position of equilibrium -- in which the
excitatory and inhibitory forces counteract one another. It is a state in which, on the average,
there is a slight preponderance of permanent excitation, though this may be transformed, under
special conditions, and more particularly under the influence of antagonistic effects, into a
preponderance of permanent inhibition. In this way, the single transient reflex process is
superinduced upon a reflex tonus, whose effects become apparent whenever there is
interruption of the sensory paths in which the permanent innervation of reflex excitation is
conducted. Thus, transsection of the sensory roots of an extremity is followed, in animals, by an
atonic, quasi-paralytic state, which however neither abrogates the influence of voluntary
impulses upon the atonic muscles nor prevents their action by way of concomitant
movements.[5] As regards intensity and distribution, these tonic reflex excitations appear,
further, to stand under the regulative influence of all the manifold conditions imposed upon the
organs by the nature of their functions. Reflex stimuli, which release transient reflex movements,
may accordingly produce radically different results, according to the state of the pre-existing
tonus and of the relative distribution of excitatory and inhibitory forces. Thus SHERRINGTON
found, in observations upon animals whose myel was cut through in the cervical region, that
extensor reflexes appeared if the leg was in the position of flexion, and flexor reflexes, if it was
extended. We may also appeal to this influence of the variable conditions of permanent tonic
excitation upon the individual reflex movement for explanation of the fact that the law of diffusion
of reflexes with increasing intensity of stimulus (discussed above, p 162) admits of exception;
the general and relatively constant conditions of reflex conduction are cut across by the more
variable influences arising from the reciprocal regulation of sensations and movements.[6]

(b) -- Metencephalic (Oblongata) and Mesencephalic Reflexes

The reflexes that have their seat in the oblongata are, in general, of a more complicated
character than the spinal reflexes. This organ is, in particular, the seat of a number of compound
reflexes, which play an important part in various physiological functions. We may mention the [p.
245] movements of inspiration and expiration, with the closely related processes of coughing,
sneezing, vomiting; the muscular changes involved in the act of swallowing; the mimetic

200
movements; vascular innervation and the movements of the heart. Many of these reflexes stand
in an intimate relation of interdependence, as is indicated by the fact that their peripheral paths
are oftentimes laid down in the same nerve trunks. Some of the above-named processes, such
as the movements of respiration and the heart beat, result from a plurality of causes, and
therefore continue after interruption of the reflex paths; in such cases, the reflex is but one of
several determinants, and its influence is correspondingly restricted. Others, again, like the
movements of swallowing, appear to be pure reflexes; they are abrogated by interruption of the
sensory conduction to the reflex centre, even though the motor conduction to the muscles
governing the movement have been left intact. All these reflexes alike, however, differ from the
spinal reflexes on the point that, as a general rule, their sensory stimuli pass at once to a large
number of motor paths. Many of them are essentially bilateral, and do not require the action of
strong stimuli for their extension from the one to the other side of the body. Thus the respiratory
movements, which are released by excitation of the pulmonary radiation of the tenth cranial
nerve, involve motor roots that issue on both sides from the oblongata and from the cervical and
thoracic portions of the myel. These movements furnish, at the same time, an illustration of a
self-regulating reflex, which contains within it the impulse to continued rhythmical repetition.
While the collapse of the lungs in expiration serves reflexly to start the movement of inspiration,
their distention with inspiration serves conversely to excite the muscles of expiration. If the reflex
impulse given to the expiratory muscles in inspiration is too weak to bring them into active
exercise, it simply inhibits the antagonistic inspiratory muscles. This is the case in ordinary quiet
breathing, in which inspiration alone, and not expiration, is connected with active muscular
exertion. In the movements of swallowing, the regular sequence is apparently maintained by a
different mode of self-regulation. The act of swallowing consists of movements of the larynx,
pharynx and oesophagus: movements that succeed one another in regular order, on the
application of a stimulus to the mucous membrane of the soft palate. The succession of
movements in this instance is, perhaps, regulated in the way that stimulation of the soft palate
releases, first of all, simply the movement of the palatal muscles, and that this in turn acts as a
stimulus for the reflex elevation of the larynx and contraction of the pharyngeal muscles. In fine,
then, it is probable that all these oblongata reflexes, whose detailed description belongs, of
course, to physiology, are characterised by the combination of movements for the attainment of
definite effects, -- the manner of combination being determined, oftentimes, by a [p. 246]
mechanism of self-regulation, itself conditioned upon the reciprocal relation of a number of reflex
mechanisms. A second noteworthy property of these reflexes is the following. The motor path of
a given reflex movement sometimes stands in connexion with a second sensory path, from
which, accordingly, the same movement may be aroused. Secondary sensory paths of this kind
are connected, in particular, with the respiratory centres, so that the combined activity of the
muscles of respiration becomes available for other purposes than those of inflation and emptying
of the lungs. There is, e.g., a connexion of the sensory nerves of larynx and oesophageal
mucous membrane (i.e. of the superior and, in part, of the inferior laryngeal nerves), and of the
branches of the fifth cranial nerve distributed to the nose, with the centre of expiration.
Stimulation of these sensory areas produces, first, inhibition of inspiration and then violent
expiration. The latter is, however, preceded by a strong inspiration, the immediate consequence
of the establishment of inhibition, due to the persistence of the influence of automatic excitation
which we discuss below. Coughing and sneezing are, accordingly, reflexes of expiration; but
they are not excited from the sensory area of pulmonary radiation of the vagus, from which the
impulse to expiration ordinarily proceeds. They are distinguished by the fact that stimulation of

201
the nasal branches of the trigeminus arouses not only the respiratory muscles but also the motor
nerve of the face, the facialis, to reflex activity. The sneezing reflex consequently affords a direct
transition to the mimetic reflexes of laughing, crying, sobbing, etc., in which again the muscles of
the face unite in conjoint function with the muscles of respiration.[7] Further: the secondary
sensory path from the expiratory centre to the mucous membrane of the air passages is
paralleled by a similar path from the inspiratory centre to the cutaneous investment of the body.
We are thus able to account for the movements of inspiration produced by intensive stimulation,
especially cold stimulation, of the cutaneous surface.

It may, then, be taken as a matter of common occurrence that in the oblongata a given motor
reflex path is connected with a number of different sensory paths. But more than this: one and
the same sensory path may enter into connexion, conversely, with several reflex centres, so that
its stimulation arouses coincidently various kinds of reflex movements. Here belong, e.g., the
mimetic reflexes, mentioned above, in which movements of respiration are combined with facial
movements. A similar arrangement of connexions is in part responsible for the interaction of
respiratory movements and heart beat. The heart is supplied by two sorts of nerve paths, which
affect the sequence of beats in opposite ways: accelerating nerves,[p. 247] which increase the
rapidity of heart beat, and inhibitory nerves, which diminish it, or bring the organ to a complete
standstill. Both may be reflexly excited; but the centre for the accelerating fibres is intimately
connected with certain sensory paths that run to the heart in the spinal nerves for the last
cervical and first thoracic ganglion of the sympathetic; and the centre for the inhibitory fibres with
others, that take their course for the most part in the cardiac branches of the vagus. Hence
stimulation of the great majority of sensory nerves, and in particular of the cutaneous, laryngeal
and intestinal nerves, produces inhibition, and stimulation of the sensory fibres that enter the
muscles produces acceleration of the heart beat: this latter fact explains the increased action of
the heart that accompanies general muscular exertion. Similar results follow from the
movements of the lungs: their inflation accelerates, their collapse reduces the frequency of heart
beat. The respiratory movements are therefore regularly accompanied by fluctuations of the
pulse, whose rapidity increases in inspiration and decreases in expiration. On the whole, that is,
the movement of the blood is accelerated by enhancement of the movements of respiration.
Again, we find the same kind of interaction between the reflex connexions of cardiac and
vascular innervation. The vessels are governed, like the heart, by motor and inhibitory nerves,
both of which may be reflexly excited. Stimulation of most of the sensory nerves releases the
motor reflex, i.e., acts upon the nerve fibres which constrict the small arterial blood vessels and
thus produce an increase of blood pressure in the larger arteries, and which are therefore
termed presser fibres. The only exception to this action is in the vessels of the part of the skin to
which the stimulus is applied: these vessels usually dilate, either immediately or after a brief
stage of constriction, and thus occasion the hyperæmia and redness of the stimulated parts.
There are, however, various sensory areas which stand, conversely, in direct reflex connexion
with the inhibitory or depressor fibres of the blood vessels, and whose stimulation leads
accordingly to a widespread dilatation of the smaller vessels. Here belong, in particular, certain
fibres of the vagus, which radiate within the heart itself and form its sensory nerve supply: fibres
which, in all probability, are exclusively devoted to this reflexly mediated interaction between
cardiac and vascular innervation. For their stimulation must be effected, in the normal course of
physiological function, by increased action of the heart; this, in turn, is produced by increase of
blood pressure and of the amount of blood contained in the arterial system; and this, once more,

202
can be compensated only by a dilatation of the small arteries, which permits the outflow of the
blood into the veins, and thus at the same time reduces the arterial blood pressure. We see, in
fine, that all these reflexes of the oblongata stand in relations of interdependence, such that the
functions discharged by this central organ mutually regulate and [p. 248] support one another.
An intensive cold stimulus applied to the surface of the skin produces, reflexly, a spasm of
inspiration and an arrest of heart beat. But the danger which thus threatens the life of the
organism is avoided, since the expansion of the lungs serves, again reflexly, to excite expiration
and acceleration of cardiac movement; while at the same time the stimulation of the skin brings
about, by way of yet another reflex, a constriction of the smaller arteries, and so prevents any
excessive emptying of the arrested heart. In many of these cases, as in a certain number of the
reflexes proceeding from the myel, the central transmissions have simply a regulatory
significance. The peripheral organs are the seat of direct innervation effects, due perhaps to
special ganglion cells lying within them, perhaps to the excitomotor properties of the muscle
fibres themselves; and the addition of the system of spinal and oblongata reflexes can do no
more than modify these effects by way of excitation or of inhibition.[8]

In all probability it is the nerve nidi of the oblongata, with their intercurrent central fibres, that we
must consider as the principal reflex centres of this organ. The complicated character of the
metencephalic reflexes appears to find its sufficient explanation in the anatomical conditions of
these nerve nidi. They are, upon the whole, more strictly isolated than are the centres of origin of
the spinal nerves. But, as an offset, certain nidi are closely connected by special central fibres
both with one another and with continuations of the myelic columns. These two facts, taken
together, explain the relative independence and singleness of aim of the oblongata reflexes.
Myelic fibres are involved in these reflexes to a very considerable extent; and it is therefore
probable that they are brought together, first of all, in some cinereal formation, and only after
leaving this enter into connexion with the nerve nidi to which they are assigned. Thus, the
respiratory motor fibres are, perhaps, collected in a special ganglionic nidus, which stands in
connexion with the nidus of the vagus nerve. We may fairly suppose that this significance
attaches to several of the grey masses scattered in the reticular substance. On the other hand, it
is not probable that movements so complicated as the mimetic movements, or the movements of
respiration and swallowing, possess each a single ganglionic nidus as their special reflex centre.
Apart from the fact that centres of this sort, for complicated reflexes, have never been
demonstrated, their existence is negatived by the nature of the movements themselves. The
respiratory movements, e.g., evidently require us to posit two reflex centres, the one for
inspiration, the other for expiration. Various mimetic reflexes, like laughing and crying, can he
much more easily explained on [p. 249] the assumption of a reflex connexion, joining certain
sensory paths at one and the same time with the respiratory centres and with determinate parts
of the nidus of the facialis, than on that of an especial auxiliary ganglion, serving directly to
initiate the above complex group of movements. In the same way, the movements of swallowing
must be derived, like the respiratory movements, from the principle of self-regulation; we must
suppose that the first movement of the entire process gives, as it is made, the reflex stimulus to
the second, this the stimulus to the next following, and so on.

Of the four 'specific' sensory stimuli, two only are concerned, to any great extent, in the arousal
of reflexes by way of sensory nerves: impressions of taste, and light stimuli. The former stand in
reflex relation to the mimetic movements of expression; to reflexes, i.e., some of which (as we

203
remarked above) readily combine with reflex respiratory movements, and thus lead us to infer a
close connexion of the corresponding reflex centres. Light stimuli regularly evoke a twofold reflex
response: first, closure of the eyelid, with a direction of the two eyes inward and upward, and
secondly contraction of the pupil. Both reflexes are bilateral, though with weak excitations the
movement is more pronounced upon the stimulated side. The reflexes released by way of the
auditory and olfactory nerves appear in the neighbourhood of the external sense organs; if the
stimuli are extensive, appropriate movements of the head may also be induced. In man, the
proximate auditory reflexes are for the most part confined to contractions of the tenser tympani,
which presumably accompany every sound stimulation: but in many animals reflex movements
of the external ear are clearly observable.

If the stimulus is extensive, or the degree of irritability unusually high, the sphere of reflex activity
may be extended beyond the limits of the direct reflex connexions. This phenomenon of diffusion
is more definite and uniform for the cranial than it is for the spinal nerves. In the case of the optic
nerve, e.g., the reflex to the muscles that move the eye-ball is connected, in extensive
stimulation, with contraction of the corresponding muscles for movement of the head; and the
facialis reflex to the orbicularis palpebrarum may be accompanied by concomitant movements of
the othes mimetic muscles of the face. Reflexes touched off from the gustatory nerve fibres may
cover a wider territory; they are apt to involve, not only the facial nerves, but the vagus centre as
well. Stimulation of the sensory nerves of respiration is confined, as a rule, within the limits of its
original reflex area. The strongest excitation of the central trunks of the pulmonary branch of the
vagus has no reflex effect beyond the tetanus of inspiration. The reflex connexions of the
expiratory fibres are more far-reaching. Stimulation of the sensory laryngeal nerves, and
especially of their peripheral ends, is [p. 250] likely to involve the muscles of the face and of the
upper extremity. But the fullest and most extended reflex relations are those of the trigeminus,
the largest of the sensory cranial nerves. Stimulation of the trigeminus affects, first of all, its own
motor root, which supplies the masseter muscles; and passes from this to the nerves of the face,
the respiratory nerves, and finally to the whole muscular system of the body. There are two
evident reasons for this range of reflex effect. First and generally, the trigeminus controls the
largest sensory surface of all the sensory nerves, so that its nerve nidi also occupy a wide area,
and opportunity is thus given for manifold connexions with motor centres of origin. Secondly and
particularly, the position of its nidi is favourable. The superior nidi are situated, above the
oblongata proper, in the pons; i.e. in the organ in which the ascending columns of alba are
grouped together, by the interpolation of cinerea, to form the various bundles of the crus. We
see, therefore, why it is that lesion of the oblongata and pons in the neighbourhood of the nidi of
the fifth cranial nerve is followed by general reflex spasms. The result need not, of course, be
attributed solely to these nidi: the stimulation in such cases may affect other sensory roots of the
oblongata as well.[9]

(c) -- Purposiveness of the Reflexes. Extent of Reflex Phenomena

The reflex phenomena bear upon them the mark of purposiveness. As regards the oblongata
reflexes, this characteristic appears at once from the above description of their conditions and of
their orderly co-operation. But the spinal reflexes also show, for the most part, a certain degree
of the same quality. Thus, if a stimulus be applied to the skin, the animal makes a movement of
arm or leg that is obviously directed upon the removal of the stimulus. If the reflex becomes

204
stronger, the arm or leg of the opposite side will make a similar movement, or the animal will
jump away, apparently to escape the action of the stimulus. Only when the movements take on a
convulsive character, as they do with extremely intensive stimuli or in states of unusual
excitability, do they lose this expression of purposiveness. These facts have suggested the
question whether the reflexes may properly he regarded as mechanical consequences of
stimulation and of its diffusion in the central organ, or whether they are actions of a psychical
kind, and as such presuppose, like voluntary movements, a certain amount of consciousness.
Worded in this way, however, the question is evidently misleading. There can be no doubt that
the arrangements in the central organ can produce purposive results with mechanical necessity;
we have the same phenomenon in any perfected form of self-regulating machinery. Moreover,
the oblongata reflexes are highly purposive, and nevertheless [p. 251] dependent upon definite
mechanical conditions Again, there is no reason whatever why a sensory stimulus should not
release a reflex movement and arouse a sensation or idea at one and the same time: so that we
cannot take the absence of all conscious process as the direct criterion of a reflex movement.
On the other hand, the definition of the reflex would, it is true, be indefinitely extended, and the
term would cover practically the whole range of organic movement, were we to apply it to any
and every movement released in the central organ by the action of sensory stimuli. Suppose,
e.g., that I make a voluntary movement, in order to grasp some object that I see before me. this,
which is indubitably an act of will, still falls under the general heading of a movement released by
sensory stimulation. It lacks, however, and conspicuously lacks, an attribute which is specifically
characteristic of the reflex; the attribute, indeed, that first gave rise to the distinction between
reflex and voluntary action, and without which the distinction loses all meaning. A movement
mediated in the central organ by way of response to sensory stimulation, if it is to be
denominated a reflex movement, may not bear upon it the marks of psychical causation; i.e., the
idea aroused by the stimulus may not constitute, for the agent's own consciousness, the motive
to the external movement. My involuntary reaction to a sensed stimulation of the skin is,
therefore, a reflex, so long as the sensation remains a mere accidental concomitant of the
movement, so long, that is, as the movement would be made in precisely the same way without
such a concomitant sensation. On the other hand, reaction is not a reflex, if I voluntarily put out
my hand to seize the stimulating object that is pressing upon the skin; for in this instance the
movement is conditioned, for the agent, upon the conscious process. In the individual case it
may, naturally, be difficult to decide, especially if the observations are made from the outside,
whether a given movement is or is not a reflex. But this practical difficulty does not justify our
setting aside altogether the criterion that distinguishes the reflexes from other forms of action,
and leaving out of account the fact that, while related by their purposiveness to psychically
conditioned movements, they differ from them, clearly and definitely, in the lack of conscious
intermediaries. It is precisely this criterion that makes the reflexes an easily distinguishable and
characteristic class of organic movements. We may also mention a further aspect of reflex
action, closely connected with the criterion just discussed, though naturally of less universal
application: the fact that reflexes follow immediately upon the operation of sensory stimuli, while
psychically conditioned movements admit of a longer or shorter interval between stimulus and
movement. What holds of this holds also of other objective characteristics, as e.g. that of the
possibility of choice between different means. Such criteria are not always applicable: partly,
because [p. 252] the characteristics do not attach at all generally to psychically mediated
movements, but partly, too, because the purposive nature of the reflexes leaves a certain
amount of room for difference of interpretation.

205
If we admit that these criteria are adequate to the empirical delimitation of the reflexes, as a
readily distinguishable group of organic movements, we must also accept the conclusion that the
central reflex area, in man and in the higher animals that resemble him, probably does not
extend higher up than the mesencephalic region. In all cases where a sensory stimulus is
conducted to the cerebral cortex, and there for the first time transformed into a motor impulse,
the central transference appears, without exception, to involve the interpolation of
psychophysical intermediaries; so that the action is presented to the agent's own consciousness
as psychically conditioned. Many authors, it is true, speak of 'cortical reflexes' as of an
established fact. But they are using the term reflex in a wider sense, in which any and every
movement that results from sensory stimulation is denominated a reflex, whether psychical
intermediaries are brought into play or not. From this point of view, the voluntary action is
sometimes defined as a 'cortical reflex.' It is clear that such an expression deprives the word
'reflex' of all special significance. It is also clear that the retention of the term in its stricter
meaning is extremely important; for the origin of a class of movements that are at once purely
physiological and yet purposive in character is a real and distinct problem. We cannot, of course,
enter upon this question of origin at the present time; we can answer it only when we come to
examine the various forms of animal movements. We may, however, point out, in view of the
following discussion of the functions of the different central regions, that what holds of man in
this connexion does not necessarily hold of the animals. We may lay it down as a general
proposition that, in man, the centre at which the idea of the reflex gives way to the idea of the
psychically conditioned action is the cerebral cortex. But the law is not universally valid; not even
valid for all the vertebrates. It is a result of that progressive centralisation in the ascending
direction, of which we have spoken in the preceding Chapter, that the mesencephalic areas
which, in man, function simply and solely as reflex centres, appear in the lower vertebrates still
to be centres for psychically conditioned movements. Indeed, the facts suggest that in the lowest
vertebrates, where the cerebrum as a whole is of very minor importance, even the oblongata
and the myel may possibly, up to a certain point, mediate movements of this psychical kind.
Lower yet, in the invertebrates, they may proceed from any one of the peripheral ganglia; and in
the protozoa they evidently have their seat in the general sensorimotor protoplasmic substance
of the body. The centralisation of the psychical functions in the brain, that is, goes pari passu
with their decen-[p. 253]tralisation in the bodily organs; and this decentralisation corresponds to
an extension of the reflex functions. Hence, in the lowest animals, all movements possess the
character, not -- as is sometimes maintained in the interest of certain ingrained dogmas -- of
reflexes, but rather of psychically conditioned movements.[10]

§ 3. Automatic Excitations

(a) -- Automatic Excitations in Myel and Oblongata

The phenomena of 'automatic function' are in so far parallel to the phenomena of reflex action
that they are processes of a purely physiological character, and accordingly have nothing in
common with processes which, like voluntary actions, recollections, etc., present themselves to
us in direct experience as 'psychically conditioned.' In this purely physiological sense, the
automatic functions are therefore nearly allied to the reflexes. But they differ from them in the
point that the automatic stimulation processes take their origin in the nerve centres themselves,
and are not released by a stimulus conducted to the centre from without. As a general rule, the

206
motor areas that evince reflex phenomena are also susceptible of automatic excitation. The
results of these automatic stimulations need not be muscular movements, or inhibitions of
particular movements, but may also take the form of sensations. Hence it is not always easy to
discriminate them from reflex excitations, or from the direct effects of external stimuli. For all our
senses are continually affected by weak stimuli, which have their ground in the structural
conditions of the sense organs themselves, and, so far as the sensory centres are concerned,
these weak excitations, such e.g. as are aroused by the pressure exerted in the eye upon the
retina, in the labyrinth of the ear upon the sensitive membranes, are, of course, the equivalent of
stimulation from the outside. If we rule out cases of this kind; it appears that the sole source of
automatic excitation is to be looked for in sudden changes in the chemical constitution of the
nervous substance, caused for the most part by alteration of the blood.

As regards the myel, the effects of automatic excitation are shown most clearly by the muscles
of certain organs of the nutritive system: e.g. the circular muscles of the blood vessels, whose
lumen becomes enlarged after transsection of the myel,[11] and the sphincter muscles of
bladder and intestine, where similar results have been observed.[12] The tonic excitations of the
skeletal muscles appear, on the other hand, to be exclusively reflex in character (cf. p. 93,
above), since transsection of the muscle nerves produces [p. 254] no change in muscular
tension, apart from the concomitant twitch and its elastic after-effects.[13] Automatic excitations
seem, however, to occur, alongside of reflex excitations, in the peripheral organs that are
separated from the central organs proper and provided with independent centres, e.g. in the
heart and intestinal muscles (cf. p. 248, above).

The automatic excitations that proceed from the oblongata are of especial importance. Here, too,
the reflex centres appear, without exception, to be automatic centres as well. The movements
that arise in them are consequently continued, after the sensory portion of the reflex path has
been interrupted. Here belong the movements of respiration and heart beat, and the innervation
of the blood vessels. All of these processes are connected with two centres, distinct not only in
function but also in locality: the respiratory movements with centres of inspiration and expiration,
the cardiac movements with centres for acceleration and inhibition of the heart beat, the vascular
innervation with centres for constriction and dilatation of the blood vessels. Under such
circumstances it seems to be the rule that the one centre acts reflexly while the other combines
automatic with reflex functions, or even gives the preference to automatic stimuli: so the
inspiratory centre in the case of respiratory movements, the centre for inhibition of heart beat in
that of cardiac movements, and the centre for vaso-constriction in that of vascular innervation. It
may be that the position of these nerve nidi, and the way in which their blood supply is
distributed, render them especially liable to automatic excitations. The normal physiological
stimulus to the production of such excitations is, in all probability, that state of the blood which is
induced by arrest of breathing or, indeed, by any circumstance that prevents the elimination of
the oxidised constituents of the tissues. The presence in the dyspnoeic blood of oxidation
products in general, whether of the final product of combustion, carbonic acid, or of lower stages
of oxidation as yet unnamed, appears accordingly to constitute it a source of nervous
stimulation. The accumulation of these materials excites the inspiratory centre: an inspiration is
made, which causes the lungs to distend and thus, in its turn, serves reflexly to excite the centre
of expiration (p. 245). This automatic stimulation completes the circle of self-regulating functions,
whereby the process of respiration is kept in perpetual activity. The first impulse is given by the

207
change in the constitution of the blood: this acts as an internal stimulus to excite inspiration. The
beginning once made, the further periodic course of the whole process continues of its own
accord. The expiratory reflex excited by distention of the lung is followed, as the organ collapses,
by the inspiratory reflex and at the same time, in consequence of the renewed accumulation [p.
255] of products of oxidation, by renewed automatic stimulation of the inspiratory centre.

We may suppose that the same changes in the composition of the blood condition the automatic
innervation of the inhibitory centre for the heart and of the presser centre for the blood vessels. It
is ordinarily assumed that the excitations in these two cases are not, as they are in the case of
respiration; subject to a rhythmical rise and fall, in consequence of the self-regulation of the
process of stimulation, but hold throughout to a uniform level of intensity. This is inferred from
the facts that severance of the inhibitory nerves of the heart, the vagus trunks, produces a
persistent acceleration of the heart beat, and that severance of the vascular nerves effects a
permanent dilatation of the small arteries. But these facts are not incompatible with the theory
that the automatic excitation in both cases oscillates between certain upper and lower limits.
There are, in reality, numerous phenomena that tell in favour of such a theory: e.g., the alternate
constrictions and dilatations that may be observed in the arteries, and that usually disappear
after transsection of the nerves; or the connexion between rapidity of pulse and respiration, a
connexion which, as we have seen, depends in part upon the changes of volume in the lung and
is therefore explicable in reflex terms, but in part also suggests a different origin, seeing that a
long-continued arrest of breathing, whether it occur in the position of inspiration or in that of
expiration, arrests the heart as well. Moreover, in death by suffocation we always find, besides
intensive excitation of the inspiratory muscles, constriction of the blood-vessels and inhibition of
the heart beat. We may accordingly conjecture that the automatic excitation of all these
oblongata centres depends upon analogous changes in the constitution of the blood. The
observed differences may very well have their ground in the relations of the peripheral nerve
terminations; for the inspiratory centre stands in connexion with ordinary motor nerves, whereas
heart and blood vessels are characterised by the independence of their peripheral innervations.
The heart continues to pulsate, though with change of rhythm when separated from all nerves
whatsoever; and the vascular wall remains capable, under the same conditions, of alternate
constrictions and dilatations. The causes which determine these peripheral excitations are, in all
probability, similar to those which regulate the respiratory innervation in the myel and, like the
latter, are compounded of automatic and reflex processes while the rhythmical function of the
heart and the equilibrium between excitation and inhibition in the vessels are also maintained by
some self-regulative mechanism. That is to say, the innervations of lungs, heart and blood
vessels are, probably, in so far related to one another that the automatic excitations from which
they spring may be referred to one and the same source of origin. The centres for these [p. 256]
movements appear to offer especially favourable conditions for the action of the internal stimuli;
for no other central area reacts so sensitively to fluctuations in the composition of the blood. In
other quarters of the central nervous system, we may suppose, the influence of the blood
becomes effective only if the blood supply has been modified from these centres of respiratory,
cardiac and vascular innervation, and the changes thus set up form a source of central
stimulation. Thus, excitations of the vascular centre, which inhibit the circulation of blood in the
brain, are probably, in many instances, the cause of general muscular convulsions. Under such
circumstances, the external symptoms are, for the most part, initiated in the pons; sometimes,
perhaps, in a more anteriorly situated motor brain-region.[14] The dyspnoeic blood may,

208
however, occasion muscular convulsions of the same kind, though less widely diffused, by
stimulation of the myel.[15]

(b) -- Automatic Excitations in the Brain Cortex

Of the parts lying beyond the pons, the centrosensory and centromotor regions of the brain
cortex seem to be the principal centres from which, under the appropriate conditions, automatic
excitations may proceed. In their case, however, we are never in presence of purely automatic
processes, in the physiological sense defined above. The relations of the cerebral cortex to the
psychical functions are such that the automatic excitations are connected, in every instance, with
conscious processes, -- processes that may: in general, be subsumed under the rubric of
psychical association, and that refer us to psychophysical conditions of a very complicated kind.
Nevertheless, the part played by automatic stimulation is far from unimportant. It serves to
modify the excitability of the cerebral cortex; and the state of cortical excitability largely
determines the appearance and course of these psychophysical processes. Among its results,
we must mention, in the first place, those phenomena of stimulation that may almost be termed
the normal accompaniments of sleep. They show themselves usually, and oftentimes
exclusively, as sensory excitations. So arises the customary, sensory form of the dream, in
which automatic enhancement of excitability in the sensory centres produces -- always,
probably, under the influence of external sense stimuli -- ideas of hallucinatory character.
Sometimes motor excitations are also involved: muscular movements occur, ordinarily in the
mechanisms of speech, more rarely in the locomotor apparatus, and combine with the
phenomena of sensory excitation to form a more or less coherent series of ideas and actions. In
all these phenomena, sensory and motor alike, the automatic change of excitability is simply [p.
257] the foundation, upon which the complex psychophysical conditions of the dream
consciousness and its outward manifestations are built up. The point of departure of these
central changes, which follow the oncoming of sleep, is again to be sought, most probably, in the
innervation centres of the oblongata. MOSSO has shown, by observation of cases in which a
portion of the skull had been removed, that at the moment of falling asleep the flow of blood to
the brain is reduced; and, further, that the supply may, in most instances, be temporarily
increased by the application of external sense stimuli, even if these are too weak to arouse the
sleeper.[16] The general reduction of the blood flow is, in all probability, the cause of the marked
diminution in the excitability of the brain centres, and of the corresponding obscuration of
consciousness, that characterise the approach of sleep. Very soon, however, this inhibition of
the central functions spreads still further, involving to a certain extent the centres of respiration
and heart beat; so that the phenomena of dyspnoea not infrequently make their appearance
during sleep. The enhanced excitability of particular central elements of the brain cortex,
vouched for by the phantasms of dreaming, may accordingly be ascribed to the direct excitatory
influence upon the cortex of the dyspnoeic modification of the blood. It is also possible, in view of
the reciprocal relations sustained by the various central areas, that stimulations accidentally set
up in a given region of the cortex will produce the more intensive result, the greater the degree
of latent excitation in the adjacent parts.[17]

Similar excitations of the cerebral cortex may occur in the waking state; but they are then
invariably the result of pathological changes. Here, again, investigation frequently refers us to an
abnormal state of the circulation as their ultimate condition. The abnormality may be of local

209
origin, proceeding from the vessels of the meninges or of the brain itself. Local lesions, in
particular, set up in the neighbourhood of the sensory centres, are ordinarily attended by
corresponding hallucinations. These, however, may also be due to general disturbances of
circulation, which appear sometimes as the consequence, sometimes as the cause of psychical
derangement;[18] for changes in the innervation of heart and vessels are frequently observed in
cases of mental disease.[19] Now all the chronic forms of insanity are connected with more or
less serious modifications of [p. 258] the brain cortex; and diffuse affections of the vascular
membrane with which the cortex is invested are the most frequent causes of acute psychical
disorder. But the phenomena of stimulation accompanying such disorder closely resemble those
that normally appear in sleep. They belong, as the latter also belong, partly to the sensory, partly
to the motor sphere. The sensory excitation manifests itself in sensations and ideas of the
different senses, oftentimes equal in intensity to those that can be caused by external
impressions, and therefore indistinguishable from them. These hallucinations are accompanied
by changes in the subjective sensations, muscular and organic, upon which the affective
disposition largely depends. Motor stimulations show themselves in the form of imperative
actions, which are likely to impress the observer by their unwonted energy. Here too, however,
as in dreams and dream movements, the enhancement of excitability due to automatic
stimulation is combined with further psychophysical processes, which are responsible for the
specific contents of the phenomena.[20]

§ 4. Functions of the Mesencephalon and Diencephalon

(a) -- Functions of the Mesencephalon and Diencephalon in the Lower Vertebrates

It is evident from mere inspection, and without recourse to histological methods, that the
mesencephalic and diencephalic region, which in man and the higher mammals, more especially
in the nearly related primates, cannot compare with the mass of the overarching cerebral
hemispheres, forms in the lower vertebrates the most highly developed part of the central organ.
Even in the birds and the lower mammals, where the prosencephalon has already attained a
considerable size, its relative development is still greater than that of the superior parts (cf. Fig.
54, p. 128). These salient facts of the gross anatomy of the brain are paralleled throughout by
functional differences; so that it is far more dangerous in the case of mesencephalon and
diencephalon than it is in that of myel and oblongata to argue from symptoms observed in the
lower animals to the organisation of the higher, and in particular of man. Yet another difficulty in
the way of a functional analysis of this region, whether in the animals or in man, lies in the
circumstance that experimental interference and pathological disturbance rarely affect a definite
and definitely circumscribed area, but are apt to spread to adjacent parts, -- experimental
interference, more especially, involving the crural and coronal fibres that pass upward below and
between the thalami and quadrigemina. Hence most of the results of the earlier [p. 259]
experiments upon the transsection of these centres leave us uncertain whether the motor
derangements observed were really the consequence of the destruction of the parts themselves,
or not rather of the interruption of the neighbouring conduction paths.[21] Indeed, the whole
method was at fault. The symptoms of stimulation and abrogation do good service in the
investigation of conduction paths, and especially of their beginnings in the myel and of their
terminations in the cerebral cortex. But in the present case, where the separation of the parts
under examination from their surroundings presents extreme difficulty, they can hardly be

210
employed with any prospect of success. As the stimulus method is here, for obvious reasons,
practically out of the question, physiology has accordingly come more and more to substitute for
the direct an indirect form of the method of abrogation. Instead of asking what functions remain
intact after removal of the mesencephalic and diencephalic centres which he has under
investigation, the modern physiologist inverts the question, and asks what functions are still left
when all the prosencephalic parts that lie above and beyond them have been cut away. He then
makes a series of similar observations upon animals of the same species in which the entire
central organ has been removed with the exception of oblongata and myel; and, by recording the
difference of result in the two cases, is able to reach a conclusion with regard to the functional
significance of the intermediate central region. This method was employed long since by
FLOURENS upon birds, -- though employed, at first, rather with a view to the determination of
the importance of the prosencephalon itself, whose extirpation it involved.[22] It was then
applied, systematically, by GOLTZ, in work upon the frog;[23] and has been used by
CHRISTIANI [24] and, still more recently by GOLTZ [25] again for mammals, and finally by J.
STEINER [26] for vertebrates of all classes. It evidently guarantees a somewhat more reliable
result, if not for each individual centre included in the mesencephalic and diencephalic region, at
least for this region as a whole.

The observations taken on the lines here laid down prove that the functional importance of the
mesencephalic and diencephalic centres through-[p. 260] out the vertebrate series keeps
practically even pace with the development of the parts as revealed by gross anatomy. This
development is not uniform for the two regions: in the lower orders, the mesencephalon
(bigemina or optic lobes) has the preponderance, and the diencephalon (thalamus) is relatively
insignificant. Thus, in the entire class of the fishes, with the exception of Amphioxus lanceolatus
which stops short at the myel, the mesencephalon appears as the dominant central organ. So
long as it remains uninjured, the essential psychical functions are hardly modified. In particular,
the animals react quite normally to optical and tactual impressions, and move spontaneously
and appropriately. Smell alone is abrogated: the olfactory nerves are, naturally, removed with
extirpation of the prosencephalon: and the inception of nourishment, in so far as it is governed
by impressions of smell, may in consequence be more or less seriously deranged.[27] Passing
to the amphibia, we find at once a marked difference of behaviour in animals whose cerebrum
has been removed. One function is, unquestionably, retained by them, and must therefore
depend for its effectiveness upon the integrity of the mesencephalon: the function of
progression, and the regulation of co-ordinated movements of the whole body. The decerebrised
frog sits upright, like the uninjured animal; if made to change its place by the action of cutaneous
stimuli, it avoids obstacles laid in its path; and so on. It presents but a single abnormality: that, at
first, it neither moves nor takes food of its own accord.[28] At the same time, its behaviour shows
two noteworthy features. On the one hand, the functional separation of mesencephalon and
diencephalon is becoming clearer; on the other hand, we observe the influence of practice upon
the formation of new habits. If the diencephalon is intact, the frog, as SCHRADER remarked,
slowly recovers: it begins to catch flies again of its own accord, and continues to improve until at
last it is altogether indistinguishable from a normal animal.[29] A bird deprived of the
prosencephalon behaves in very much the same way. It, too, as FLOURENS observed many
years ago, at first remains motionless: it stands upright, breathes regularly, swallows if it is fed,
and reacts to stimuli by co-ordinated movements of flight; but it makes no movements of its own
initiative. Here again, however, there is a gradual change of behaviour, if the animal is kept alive

211
for any length of time: it makes restless movements from side to side, avoids obstacles as it
moves, and so forth.[30] CHRISTIANI, who was the first to make observations on mammals,
found that the rabbit, after removal of all the parts of the brain anterior to the mesencephalon
and diencephalon, is similarly capable of reacting appropriately to light stimuli, of avoiding [p.
261] obstacles when stimulated to movements of escape, and of occasionally executing what
appear to be spontaneous movements.[31] Finally, a still more thorough-going restoration of
function was seen by GOLTZ, in the case of dogs that he had kept alive for a considerable
period of time after complete extirpation of the cerebrum.[32] As usual, the animals were entirely
passive in the interval immediately following the operation: only the vegetative functions (heart
beat, breathing, movements of swallowing upon the introduction of food into the gullet) went on
without disturbance from the beginning. The progress of time brought with it, however, a much
more complete recovery of active function; and at last the animals moved about in an almost
normal manner, reacted to tactual stimuli by barking, got on their feet again if they had fallen
down, alternated between sleep and waking, and could be aroused from sleep by sound stimuli.
Smell had, it is true, been entirely abrogated with the extirpation of the olfactorius; nevertheless,
the dogs fed of their own accord when food was held against their muzzles. Bad-tasting morsels
they spat out again. On the other hand, there was never any expression of pleasurable feeling,
of attachment, and never any act that could be interpreted as a sign of personal recognition.
These were permanently lost.

From these results we must conclude that the mesencephalic and diencephalic region plays a
very considerable part in the whole vertebrate series up to the carnivores. It contains a group of
important central stations for the colligation of sense impressions with their appropriate
movements, -- stations which, like the reflex mechanisms of the myel, continue to function after
their severance from the higher central parts. But more than this: its integrity is the condition of
the integrity of the simpler psychical functions. The mental loss that the animal suffers by
operation is twofold. It loses, on the one hand, the functions connected with determinate sensory
nerves that are involved in the lesion caused by removal of the prosencephalon: so the reactions
to smell impressions. It loses, on the other hand, the functions which presuppose a manifold
connexion of present impressions with past experiences: so the recognition of persons, the
feelings of attraction and repulsion, of joy, etc. Some authors, it is true, disregarding the results
obtained from decerebrised dogs, and relying on observations made upon anencephalic
monsters, localised the feelings and emotions, in man as well as in animals, in the
mesencephalic and diencephalic region. But they are guilty of an obvious error in reasoning.
They ascribe the response to gustatory stimuli -- mimetic reflexes, which in these pathological
cases are left intact -- to concomitant feelings. It is, of course, no more allowable to argue in this
way than it would be to interpret any other reflex movement,[p. 262] on account of its apparent
purposiveness, as of necessity a conscious and voluntary action.

We see, then, that these middle brain regions are, for the animals in general, something more
than centres of complicated reflexes. In the light of the phenomena described above, we must
consider them also as centres for the simpler psychically conditioned functions. A more detailed
comparison shows, now, that as regards the time of their appearance these phenomena present
very striking differences. In the lowest vertebrates, the fishes, removal of the prosencephalon
produces no marked change of any kind in the psychical behaviour of the animals. At a
somewhat higher level, in amphibia, reptiles and birds, there is, at first, an interruption of the

212
psychical functions; and those that remain intact, since there is no trace of any lasting after-
effect and but very slight indication of adaptation to new conditions, might if needs were be
interpreted as complicated reflexes. It is, however, evident that in course of time the animal
makes a fairly complete functional recovery. The same picture, only with its lines more strongly
drawn, may stand, finally, for the mammal. The lapse of psychical functions after the operation is
here more pronounced; a longer period is required for recovery; the permanent mental defect is
more clearly observable. Nevertheless, the injury is compensated within wide limits. If we are
rightly to interpret these phenomena, we must of course remember that all the functions which
are permanently lost in the higher mammals -- recognition, expressions of pleasure and
attachment -- do not exist at all in the, lower animals. Now this gradual return of the expressions
of mental life, in animals endowed with a fairly well developed prosencephalon, admits, if looked
at simply by itself, of two explanations. It may be that the operation gives rise to some sort of
inhibitory effects, perhaps conditioned upon the injury to the parts, which must be gradually
overcome; or it may be that the uninjured remnant of the brain gradually takes on a share of the
functions discharged in the normal organism by the prosencephalon. According as we incline to
the one or the other of these interpretations, will our estimate of the functional significance of the
mesencenphalic and diencephalic regions vary. If we accept the former, these parts will be
responsible, throughout the vertebrate series up to the carnivores, for a very considerable
proportion of the functions of the brain at large; the animal's recovery will mean, for them, simply
a restoration of their original rights. If we accept the latter, their functional activity after recovery
will be abnormally increased, because partly vicarious. Now it cannot be denied that there are
many facts which tell in favour of the effect of operation, as at least a joint factor in the general
result. Radical interferences by operation, and especially interferences with the central organs,
are known to affect the functions for a certain period of time. Still, it is [p. 263] hardly probable
that the effect of operation is the determining factor in the case before us. The contrast between
the proximate effects of the loss and the subsequent state of the animal is too striking and too
uniform. Besides, there would be nothing to explain the graduation of phenomena in the animal
kingdom: the fact, e.g., that in the frog -- to say nothing of the mammals -- a considerable period
of time elapses before complete compensation is observable, whereas in the fishes recovery
sets in at once. And lastly, there are numerous phenomena, drawn from all kinds of sources,
which prone that injury or loss to the central parts, whether in man or in the animals, may within
very wide limits be offset by the vicarious functioning of uninjured organs. We shall see presently
that this law of functional substitution is indispensable, if we are to explain the reciprocal
relations of the various cerebral areas. It is, then, only natural, in the absence of evidence to the
contrary, that we should posit its validity in the present instance for the interrelations of the
various parts of the brain. We may add that the general possibility of such vicarious function is
inherent in the nature of the quadrigemina and thalami, as intermediate stations upon the direct
lines of conduction between the peripheral organs and the cerebral cortex, -- stations in which all
the sensory paths, and a large proportion of the motor, are interrupted by the interrelation of
neurone chains. Putting all these facts together, we arrive at the following genetic conclusions,
as a general point of view from which the various phenomena observable in the vertebrate
series may be classified and explained. At the lowest stages of brain development, the
mesencephalic and diencephalic region -- especially the former, since the diencephalon is as yet
comparatively insignificant -- appears as the principal central organ. Subordinate to this, on the
one side, are oblongata and myel. Adjoining it, on the other, as an appendicular structure, is the
prosencephalon; originally, we must suppose, an outcome of the separate development of the

213
olfactorius. As we proceed upwards through the vertebrate series, further representations of the
conduction paths brought together in the bigemina gradually make their appearance, as superior
centres, in the prosencephalon. In proportion as the latter advances, the mesencephalon and
the diencephalon -- the latter conditioned in its own development upon the formation of the
prosencephalon -- take on the function of intermediate centres, where excitations from the
periphery touch off complicated reflexes, and excitations from the prosencephalon evoke
reactions depending upon a more extended colligation of impressions. Nevertheless, the
possibility remains, up to the higher stages of development, that on the removal of the superior
regulatory mechanisms the lower centres may gradually recover some measure of the autonomy
of which at a lower level they were in complete possession. Hence it may well happen that in the
normal interplay of the central organs, -- so long, that is, as they stand [p. 264] under the
dominance of the prosencephalic region, -- these parts of the brain may have no other function
than that of complex reflex centres; but that in the absence of the higher regulatory organs they
may once more assume the character of independent centres, whose co-operation involves the
appearance of psychical functions.

We conclude, therefore, that this part of the brain possesses, under all circumstances, the
importance of a centre whose office it is to bring into connexion the principal organs of sense
and of movement. Such a view of its functions is, upon the whole, confirmed by the symptoms
which ordinarily follow upon its direct removal or impairment. The most striking of these, upon
the sensory side, is the blindness which, in mammals, in accordance with the course of the
opticus paths, is correlated in particular with the pregemina, including the pregeniculum.
Disturbances of movement appear, on the other hand, provided that the lesion does not extend
beyond the quadrigemina, to be confined, at least in the mammals, to the muscles of the eyes;
the general muscular system of the body is unaffected.[33] If, however, the diencephalon is
injured, the general motor derangement is very pronounced. It consists, where the injury is
unilateral, in peculiar imperative movements, in which the animal, instead of going straight
forwards, turns round in a circle. These circus movements (Reitbahnbewegung, mouvement de
manège) are also observed after injury to other parts of the brain, more especially the crura and
the cerebellar hemispheres, and after unilateral extirpation of the semicircular canals of the
internal ear. In the lower vertebrates, e.g. the frog, the circus movements are invariably made
towards the uninjured side. In the invertebrates, too, the principal ganglia behave, in this matter
of motor disturbance and its direction, in precisely the same way as the mesencephalon of the
lower vertebrates.[34] In the mammals, on the other hand, the rule is that movement is directed
towards the injured side, if the anterior portion of the thalamus has been divided, towards the
uninjured side, if the section has been made in its posterior portion. Abnormalities have also
been observed in the tonicity of the muscles of the body, so that the animal when at rest is not
extended, but bends upon itself, the direction of curvature corresponding to that of the circus
movements.[35] These movements may take on various forms, according to the special
conditions of the injury: they may appear as rolling movements about the longitudinal axis of the
body, as 'clock hand' movements, or finally as circus movements proper. They are, we may
suppose, occasioned in all cases by an asymmetrical innervation, which however may itself be
due to a number of causes: to unilateral increase [p. 265] or decrease of motor innervation, or to
the asymmetrical release of reflex movements connected with disturbances of sensitivity. Which
of these conditions, or what combination of them, is actually at work cannot, at present, be
certainly determined.

214
The operation never fails to set up this motor derangement. In the higher mammals, we find,
further, symptoms of abrogation or diminution of cutaneous sensitivity upon the uninjured side of
the body. Such symptoms are always ambiguous, and the results are correspondingly
doubtful.[36] On the whole, however, if we look at the phenomena in their entirety, and take into
consideration at the same time the defects observed shortly after removal of the prosencephalon
and the known facts regarding the course of the conduction paths, we may conclude that the
mesencephalic and diencephalic region constitutes, in all the higher vertebrates, an important
intermediate station on the road front the deeper lying centres to the prosencephalon; a station
for the release, on the one hand, of compound reflexes, more especially of reflexes to visual and
auditory stimuli, in which the prosencephalon is not concerned; and, on the other, of centrifugal
excitations from the cerebrum, whose components are here co-ordinated in such a way as best
to subserve the needs of the organism. In view of the anatomical relations and of the results of
experiments with partial extirpation, it is probable that the postgemina represent, in the main,
intermediate stations for the acoustic area; the pregemina and pregenicula similar stations for
the sense of sight; and the thalami proper stations for the extensive area of the sense of touch.
We thus have, in this whole region, a group of nodal points for the function of all the sense
departments (with the exception of smell) and of the movements correlated with them. It follows
that the mesencephalon and diencephalon, in proportion to their degree of development as
compared with that of the prosencephalon, are able between them, after the lapse of the
prosencephalic functions, to undertake in their own right the unitary regulation of the processes
of the animal life; although certain functions, conditioned exclusively upon the cerebrum, are of
course permanently lost. This physiological status implies a concomitant development of
psychical processes: the persistence of impressions of sense for a certain time after the
cessation of stimulus, the formation of complex perceptions, mediated by associative processes,
and the conduct of movements in accordance with impressions received in the more remote
past. In other words, centres that originally subserved reflex action and the transmission of
impulses have, under pressure of novel conditions, become transformed into independent
centres of direction. They are still centres [p. 266] of the second order; but their lesser functional
value, as compared with the higher centres whose substitutes they are, depends essentially
upon the degree of development attained by these higher centres themselves.

For a long time, the physiology of the mesencephalic and diencephalic region suffered from a
misconception. It was insistently held that the functions of these parts were not only analogous,
but in the main actually equivalent throughout the vertebrate kingdom; so that, in particular, what
held of the animals must also hold of man. The older method, of experiments with direct
abrogation, was not competent to remove this error. The necessary change of view has been
brought about, gradually, by extirpation experiments on the prosencephalon itself; experiments
which, as we remarked above, have really attained in this way a different purpose from that upon
which they were originally directed. Physiologists, from FLOURENS to GOLTZ, made these
experiments with the primary intention of deriving from the resulting symptoms of abrogation a
more exact knowledge of the function of the prosencephalon. But it became more and more
evident -- especially, as it happened, in the course of investigations pursued by GOLTZ and his
pupils -- that this direct end could be accomplished but very imperfectly, if at all, on account of
the direct and indirect consequences that follow the operations, and that make the comparison
of the injured with the normal animal anything rather than a problem in simple subtraction. At the
same time, it became evident that all such experiments yield most important information

215
regarding the functions of which the uninjured brain remnant is capable. Extirpation experiments
are, therefore, still valued by the modern investigator, but they are valued for a different reason.
They are not expected to reveal anything of moment concerning the functions of the parts
destroyed, but rather to illustrate the possible functions of those that are left intact. It need,
however, hardly be said, after the discussion in the text, that these functions are not to be
identified forthright with those discharged by the same parts in the normal interplay of the
organs. In this connexion, the differences that we find throughout the animal kingdom, the very
differences that were formerly overlooked, are of great significance. First and foremost, the
differences between the various vertebrate classes, but secondarily and within certain limits --
despite the radically divergent position of the central organs, from the genetic point of view -- the
differences among the invertebrates as well, have in many instances shed light upon the far
more complicated conditions obtaining in the brains of the higher mammals. The impulse to such
comparison came in the first instance from morphology. On the side of physiology, it is the
especial merit of J. STEINER to have shown, by his experiments on fishes and on the frog,
supplemented by later work on reptiles and invertebrates, how extremely variable is the role
assigned to the mesencephalon in the vertebrate series. Setting out from the spinal functions of
Amphioxus, which, as we know, has no other central organ than the myel, STEINER has,
further, attempted a general theory of the mesencephalic functions at large. But here,
unfortunately, his foundation is uncertain, and the structure erected upon it still less secure. In
the annelids, he says, the individual metameres and the corresponding terms in the series of
ventral ganglia are all equivalent, so that any portion of the worm is, in its own right, just as
capable of movement and, apparently, of sensation, as is the whole animal. Amphioxus is, now,
to be regarded in the same way: its myel consists simply of a series of [p. 267] equivalent terms,
not subordinated to any higher centre. Then, at the next stage, represented by the primitive fish,
the shark, and at stages of progressive advance, represented by the other fishes, the myel is
brought under the central superintendence of the mesencephalon, which henceforth remains,
throughout the vertebrate series, the real directing centre: the prosencephalon is to be
considered as merely supplementary. It is true that, in the mammals, the prosencephalon attains
a marked preponderance; nevertheless, the mesencephalon and diencephalon contain the
centres for the regulation of the whole system of bodily movements, and therefore still hold the
part of the central organ proper. In this sense, STEINER defines a 'brain' as "the universal
centre of movement, in connexion with the functions of at least one of the higher sensory
nerves." The criterion of an 'universal centre of movement' consists, for him, in the occurrence of
unilateral forced movements after injury to the one side of the organ. If, then, there is no part of
the central organs at which these circus movements can be released, there cannot either be any
unitary centre of direction within the nervous system; the entire central organ must consist of a
number of equivalent metameres.[37] Now it is plain that the point of departure for all these
theoretical considerations is furnished by the annelids. The bodily segments of these animals
appear, when divided off, to represent independent vital units, every whit as capable of
continued spontaneous movement as was the original, uninjured worm. The annelids, moreover,
do not execute circus movements after removal of the dorsal ganglion of the one side. But the
only inference that can be drawn from the latter fact is, surely, this: that the occurrence of forced
movements is, in all probability, not an universal criterion of the presence of a directing centre
from which lower centres are controlled. And further: we have no right to assume the complete
functional independence and equivalence of all the terms in the series of ventral ganglia, unless
the individual segments move just as independently while they are still connected with the total

216
annelid body as they do after their separation. This, however, is not the case; in the uninjured
animal all the metameres move in exact co-ordination with one another. We must, therefore,
conclude that the whole chain of ganglia normally functions as an unitary system, of which, if we
may judge from the anatomical relations, the dorsal ganglion is the directive centre. In just the
same way the myel in Amphioxus is apparently controlled by its most anterior portion as in some
sort the equivalent of the brain of the craniota (see p. 252 above). The word 'brain' is, in the first
instance, an expression taken over by science from popular parlance, and on that account is, as
ordinarily employed, extremely difficult of definition. If we are, nevertheless, to make the attempt,
and are not to break with the general application of the term, we must say that the vertebrate
brain is not a separate central organ, but rather the complex of all those central organs which
share in the direction of the animal functions. In this sense, oblongata, mesencephalon and
diencephalon, prosencephalon and cerebellum have equal claims to the name. If, on the other
hand, we are to restrict the term 'brain' specifically to the central parts that are able in their own
right to maintain the animal life -- though perhaps on a reduced footing -- after the removal of the
rest, then the oblongata still has, at any rate, as good a claim as the mesencephalon and
diencephalon. The point is that the brain, taken as a whole, is not a centre, but a complex of
centres, and of centres so related to one another that, if one of [p. 268] them is lost, a portion of
its functions can, as a general rule, be taken over by another.

Experiments on completely decerebrised animals, especially the higher mammals, are of

extreme importance, not only for the functions of the mesencephalic and diencephalic region,
but also for the more general question of the functional representation of higher by lower
centres. We therefore append here a somewhat detailed account of the phenomena observed
by GOLTZ in the decerebrised dog that, of all operated on by him, longest survived the
operation.[38] The animal was deprived of its left hemisphere in two experiments, performed on
the 27th of June and the 13th of November, 1889; the entire right hemisphere was removed on
the 17th of June, 1890. It was killed, with a view to post mortem examination, on the 31st of
December, 1891. The general result of the autopsy was confirmatory; the cerebral hemispheres
had been completely done away with, in part directly by the operations, in part indirectly by
subsequent softening of the tissue. The animal had thus lived for more than eighteen months
after the final operation. Immediately afterwards, it had been entirely motionless; but the capacity
of spontaneous movement returned as early as the third day. The dog moved to and fro in the
room, and was able to avoid obstacles laid in its way, without having first run against them.
Placed on a smooth floor, it would slip up, but recover itself at once and of its own accord. If its
toes were forced into an unnatural position, it corrected the displacement immediately as it
began to walk, and stepped with the sole of the foot in the normal way. It lifted its leg, without
falling in, from a hole that had been prepared for the purpose of the experiment. It once
sustained an accidental injury to one hind paw, and thereafter, until the wound was healed, held
up the injured leg in walking, precisely as a normal dog would do. The sense of touch was
blunted; but the animal reacted to tactual stimuli of some intensity, though the localisation of the
point stimulated remained, it is true, fairly uncertain. If, e.g., the left hind foot were seized, it
would snap to the left, but generally in the air, without reaching the hand that held it. The
auditory sensitivity was also greatly reduced; nevertheless, the animal could be aroused from
sleep by intensive sound impressions. Gustatory stimuli were sensed. Meat dipped in milk and
held before its mouth was seized and chewed up; meat dipped in a solution of quinine was
taken, but spat out again, with wry movements of the mouth. The sense of smell was, of course,

217
entirely abrogated: the olfactory nerves had been destroyed in the operations. At first, therefore,
the dog took nourishment only when food was placed in its mouth. Later on, it became
accustomed to seize and gulp down bits of meat, and to drink milk, as soon as its muzzle was
brought in contact with them. It ate and drank of the solid and liquid food thus offered until its
appetite was satisfied; it would then lie down and go to sleep. The functions of the sense of sight
were shown -- in addition to the avoidance of obstacles, mentioned above -- in the reaction of
the pupils to light stimuli. On the other hand, the animal was wholly insensitive to threatening
gestures and movements, and to other animals presented for its notice. Consistently with this
behaviour, it remained till its last day dull and apathetic. There was no question of any real
'cognition' and 'recognition' of the objects about it. The only expressions of feeling were snarling
and biting when intensive stimulation was applied to the skin, and a tendency to restlessness
under the influence of hunger. Nevertheless, the avoidance of [p. 269] obstacles shows an
adaptation of movement to the varying conditions of sense impressions; and the same fact is
brought out still more clearly in the following experiment. Two long boards were put together to
form a blind passage-way, about twice as long as the animal itself, and so narrow that it could
not turn round. When the dog was introduced into this passage-way, it first walked to the farther
end, and ran against the wall. For some time, it reared up vainly against this obstacle; but
presently it began to back out, and finally, by this crablike movement, reached the open. Of all
experiments on decerebrised animals, this is, without doubt, the experiment whose result seems
to approach most nearly to what is termed an 'expression of intelligence.' Nevertheless, it is plain
that in this case, as in the others, the adaptation of the reacting movements to the sensory
stimuli are still confined within limits where it is out of place to speak of any real 'reflection' -- of a
choice between different possibilities. The symptoms themselves, considered solely by
themselves, might, naturally, be interpreted as voluntary actions. But it is another question
whether the whole context in which the phenomena appeared permits of such an interpretation.
And this question must, surely, be answered in the negative, for the same reason that we
decline, e.g., to ascribe the avoidance of obstacles to a true 'cognition' of the objects, -- the
cognition in this instance being disproved by other symptoms. If, however, we rule out
expressions of intelligence and voluntary actions, in the strict meanings of those terms, this
attitude must not, of course, be construed as a denial that the actions of the decerebrised animal
are, in part, conscious processes. On the contrary, it must be regarded as, at the least,
extremely probable that they may be interpreted as conscious and, in this sense, not merely as
purely mechanical reflexes. We cannot, however, enter upon this question with any fulness until
we come to our psychological discussion of the idea of 'consciousness' (cf. Part V., Ch. xviii.,
below).

(b) -- Functions of the Mesencephalon and Diencephalon in Man

In man, and indeed in all the other primates, who in this regard stand upon practically the same
level as man, the preponderance of the prosencephalon, which becomes the more marked the
higher we ascend in the vertebrate series, has reached a limit where the centres of mid brain
and 'tween brain retain least of their original relative independence. This statement is justified
both by the relations of the conduction paths and by the nature of the disturbances produced by
pathological defects. We cannot, it is true, -- and the reasons are obvious, -- expect to find
human cases that shall reproduce the conditions of total extirpation of the prosencephalon, with
permanent retention of function in the middle brain regions. But in cases of restricted lesion of

218
the quadrigemina and thalami, it would seem that a restitution of functions by way of vicarious
representation in co-ordinated or superior parts may occur very extensively in the human brain.
At the same time, the close connexion of the pregemina with the visual functions is evidenced by
the derangement of ocular movements that accompanies injury to these parts; while
disturbances of visual sensitivity in man appear, for the most part, only when the geniculum is
involved. In individual cases -- and the [p. 270] result accords with what we know of the course
of the conduction paths -- auditory disturbances have been observed after injury to the
postgemina. Lesions of the thalami, as might, again, be expected from the anatomical facts and
from the results of experiments on animals, are followed by anæsthesia or by motor
disturbances or by both combined. Sometimes, it is true, affections of the thalami run their
course without any sign of disturbance whatsoever:[39] a fact that testifies to the wide range of
vicarious functioning possible, in this particular instance, within the human brain, and that
constitutes a marked quantitative difference between man and the animals, in which the
phenomena of abrogation are much more intensive. A second and still more striking difference is
this: that the symptoms which in experiments on animals, from the fishes up to the mammals,
are set up with the greatest uniformity by unilateral lesions of this area -- the imperative circular
movements -- are represented in man, at the best, only by such reduced and vestigial forms as a
permanent deflection of the eyes or an unilateral execution of mimetic movements.[40] The
determining factors in this result are apparently two: on the one hand, the voluntary suppression
of the symptoms, and, on the other, the greater scope of the automatic regulations and
functional substitutions that, in the human brain, counteract the disturbances in question. Both
factors indicate that, while the basal functions of this region of the human brain correspond to
those discharged by the same region throughout the animal series, still its relative importance,
as compared with the superior centres, has now become less. Compound reflex centres for the
principal sense departments, sight, hearing and touch; and comprehensive regulatory centres for
the motor excitations issuing from the higher parts of the brain: these the mesencephalon and
diencephalon have remained. But other regulatory mechanisms, and the independent processes
of release within the prosencephalon, have increased in importance alongside of them: so that
their assumption in man of such psychical function as has been observed to persist in the dog
alter removal of the prosencephalic parts can hardly be regarded as probable.

(c) -- Striatum and Lenticula

Striatum and lenticula belong, morphologically, to the prosencephalon (pp. 128 f.). But little is
known of their function. They appear, however, to be cortical areas, sunk into the substance of
the hemisphere, and specifically correlated with the mesencephalic and diencephalic ganglia.
This view is suggested by the extent of their fibre connexions, more especially with the thalami
(Fig. 74, p. 179). It is borne out, further, by the phenomena observed in experiments on animals,
and in cases of lesion in [p. 271] man, in which these structures are involved. The phenomena
consist always of paralytic symptoms or, when excitatory influences are at work, of exaggeration
of movement. Here again, however, and particularly in the case of man, the phenomena of
abrogation are most pronounced when the lesion has been rapidly produced: slow growing
tumours may, under certain circumstances, run their course without giving rise to any symptom
whatever. NOTHNAGEL found, further, that mechanical or chemical stimulation of the striatum
of the rabbit occasioned hurried running movements.[41] MAGENDIE observed the same result
after complete removal of the striatum.[42] Anæsthesia, on the contrary, does not appear to be a

219
consequence of injury to these structures.[43] For the rest, the intensive disturbances that
ordinarily follow upon sudden lesions of the striatum are not beyond suspicion; they may be due
to implication of the pyramidal paths ascending in the capsula to the cerebral cortex. Besides
these relations to the mid brain and 'tween brain, the anatomical facts indicate a further
connexion with the cerebellum. As a matter of fact, atrophy of the striatum, and especially of the
lenticula, has been observed in cases of congenital failure of the cerebellum.[44]

§ 5. Functions of the Cerebellum

The functions of the cerebellum form one of the most obscure chapters in the physiology of the
central organs. The obscurity is intelligible, when we remember the extensive connexions of the
cerebellum with numerous other central arts, -- with the oblongata, with the mesencephalon and
diencephalon, and above all with the cerebral cortex. For, on the one hand, these connexions
make it difficult to determine whether destruction of the other brain centres involves abrogation
of the corresponding cerebellar functions. And, on the other, we are left equally in doubt whether
the disturbances observed in cases of lesion or defect of the cerebellum are not due, in part at
least, to the indirect implication of other parts of the brain with which it stands in connexion. To
these is added the further difficulty, that the cerebellar derangements appear to be peculiarly
easy of compensation by the enhancement or substitution of function in other central parts. We
have, therefore, as many reasons to overestimate as we have to underestimate the importance
of this organ; and our uncertainty is not a little increased by the ambiguity of symptoms, which
characterises all the phenomena of central abrogation, but is especially marked in this particular
case.[p. 272]

These symptoms themselves consist, for the most part, in motor disturbances. Complete
extirpation of the cerebellum in animals renders all movements vacillating and uncertain,
staggering or tremulous, though the influence of the will upon the individual muscle groups is not
destroyed. Transsection of various parts of the cerebellum, as well as of the cerebellar
peduncles, -- whose radiations are, for that matter, involved in all deep-going injuries to the
organ, -- is ordinarily followed by unilateral motor derangement. If the section passes through the
most anterior portion of the vermis, the animals fall forwards; in spontaneous movements, the
body is bent over anteriorly, always ready to fall and fall again. If it passes through the posterior
portion of the vermis, the body is bent backwards, and there is a tendency to backward
movements. If the one pileum is injured or removed, the animal falls towards the opposite side,
owing to unilateral contraction of the corresponding muscles; violent movements of rotation
about the long axis of the body are apt to follow. There occur also, at the moment of operation,
convulsive movements of the eyes, usually succeeded by a permanent detection. These
abrogation symptoms agree, upon the whole, with the phenomena of stimulation observed with
electrical excitation of various parts of the cerebellar cortex. Both alike are, without exception,
same-sided, in contradistinction to the consequences of cerebral injury, which appear upon the
opposite side of the body. The stimulation phenomena consist in spasmodic movements of the
head, the vertebral column, and the eyes.[45]

As regards man, clinical experience is in accord with the results of the observations on animals.
Motor disturbances are, again, the most constant symptom. They consist, chiefly, in an uncertain
and vacillating gait, sometimes also in similar movements of the head and eyes. The arms

220
appear to be less seriously involved; and it is but seldom that we observe, in man, those violent
rotatory movements that, in the animals, accompany unilateral lesions of the pilea or the
medipeduncles. For the rest, the motor disturbances in man are most intensive when the vermis
is the seat of injury; while affections of the pileum of either side, especially if the change is
merely local, may run their course without symptoms of any kind. Serious derangement occurs,
seemingly, only with complete functional disability of the pilea, or in the rare cases of atrophy of
the entire organ. Under such circumstances, however, the symptoms are not confined to motor
dis-[p. 273]turbances; they become exceedingly complicated, and interpretation is
correspondingly difficult.[46] Disturbances of cutaneous sensibility do not appear to result from
affections that remain limited to the cerebellum, not even from total atrophy of the organ.[47] On
the other hand, a characteristic subjective symptom, more frequently connected with disease of
the human cerebellum than with other central disorders, is the dizziness that accompanies the
motor disturbances. It is therefore probable that the attacks of dizziness induced in the healthy
subject by the passage of a strong galvanic current through the occiput are due, in part at least,
to its influence upon the cerebellum.[48] And for the same reason we may suspect that this
organ is involved in the dizziness produced by certain toxic agencies.[49] Now there are, in
general, two conditions under which the phenomena of dizziness may be manifested: first, the
functional derangement of certain peripheral sensory apparatus, whose impressions mediate the
arousal of sensations that generate the idea of the static equilibrium of the body during rest and
motion; and, secondly, such functional disorders of central areas as are in any way calculated to
alter the normal relation subsisting between sense impressions and movements or ideas of
movement. We shall presently become familiar with a sensory apparatus of the former kind in
the ampullæ and canals of the labyrinth of the ear.[50] On the other hand, we appear to have in
the cerebellum not the sole, but certainly the most frequent central seat of symptoms of
dizziness. When we remember how near together are the labyrinth of the ear and this central
organ, we can readily understand that the two forms of disturbance of equilibrium are difficult to
discriminate. Besides, we have every reason to believe that they are functionally connected: the
vestibular nerve, that supplies the vestibule and canals with sensory fibres, sends a large
number of representatives to the cerebellum.[51] These relations to the vestibular division of the
labyrinth are, perhaps, our best means of accounting for the influence of the cerebellum [p. 274]
upon bodily movements. We know that all the other sense departments, and more especially
those that mediate our spatial apprehension of sensory impressions, the senses of sight and
touch, find abundant representation in it. And we find that where dizziness is set up by the action
of definitely demonstrable subjective or objective causes, these may ordinarily be traced back to
one general condition: disturbance of the normal correlation of sense impressions and bodily
movements. Again, however, this disturbance may, in the individual case, be brought about,
centrally and peripherally, in a great variety of ways. A man may be made dizzy by walking on
the ice, if he is not accustomed to it. The uncertainty of vision that goes with amblyopia or
strabismus, or that may he induced in a normal-sighted person by covering the one eye, is not
infrequently attended by dizziness. The symptoms are still more evident in the walking
movements of patients whose tactual sensations are dulled or destroyed by a degeneration of
the dorsal columns of the myel. In such cases, the resistance of the ground is not sensed in the
accustomed way: the patients lose their equilibrium; they stagger, and try to save themselves
from a fall by balancing with the arms.[52] These phenomena show, at the same time, the
indispensableness of the co-ordination of sense impression and movement for the correct
execution not only of involuntary, but also of voluntary movements. In the latter, too, it is as a

221
rule only the end to be attained that is clearly conscious; the means whereby this end is reached
are entrusted to the automatic working of a motor mechanism, where movement interlocks with
movement in the right order and to the right purpose. Each separate act in a compound
voluntary action reveals, accordingly a precise adaptation to the impressions that we receive
from our own body and from external objects. But since the voluntary action is directed
exclusively upon the end to he attained, the sense impressions that regulate the movements do
not, ordinarily, take any part in the idea of movement. Even the sudden lapse of the regulatory
impression is, in most instances, perceived only indirectly, by way of the consequent motor
disturbance and the subjective phenomena dependent upon it.

Disturbances of movement due to central causes may now, in general, be brought about in four
different ways. They may (1) be paralytic phenomena, i.e. they may be occasioned by a partial
abrogation of voluntary movements. They may (2) appear as purely anæsthesic symptoms.
They may (3) consist of disturbances of motor co-ordination. Or they may (4) result from
disturbance of the normal relation obtaining between sensations and the movements depending
upon them. The first of these possibilities is ruled out at once, since paralytic symptoms do not
occur after removal [p. 275] of the cerebellum or of separate parts of it; besides, dizziness is
never observed in the train of purely motor disabilities. The second seems to promise better.
Indeed, it has to a certain extent found acceptance; some authors have conjectured that the
cerebellum is an organ of what is termed the 'muscular sense.'[53] But this view can hardly be
reconciled with the fact that in cases of atrophy of the cerebellum in man, and after total
extirpation of the organ in animals, the capacity of active movements of locomotion is still
retained; the movements may be vacillating and uncertain, but they nevertheless allow us to
posit a certain degree of sensation in the locomotor muscles. The abrogation of other sensations
is equally out of the question. The third interpretation of the cerebellum, as centre of motor co-
ordination, was first put forward by FLOURENS,[54] whose views have held their own, down to
the most recent times, among physiologists and clinicians. But, first, this definition is too
indeterminate to characterise the specific form of co-ordination mediated by the cerebellum.
There is no single central motor area, from the myel upwards, that is not the seat of some sort of
motor co-ordination. Secondly, the phenomena of dizziness also tell against FLOURENS'
interpretation. They indicate that some kind of sensory disturbance is always involved along with
the motor. We are thus forced to the conclusion that the fourth of the above hypotheses is the
most probable: the hypothesis that inhibition of function in the cerebellum interferes with the
action of those sensory impressions that exercise a direct regulatory influence upon the motor
innervation proceeding from the cerebrum.

The acceptance of this hypothesis removes various difficulties. Thus, we can explain at once
how it comes about that the disturbances produced by lesions of the cerebellum resemble the
symptoms due to partial anæsthesia, and yet differ from them on the important point that
abrogation of sensations never makes its appearance among the cerebellar phenomena. Where
all conscious sensations persist, the only impressions that can be supposed to lapse are those
that act upon movement directly and without previous translation into conscious sensations.
Voluntary movements as such are as little affected as sensations; even after complete
destruction of the cerebellum, the will retains its right of control over each individual muscle. This
explains, again, how it is that the disturbances set up by injury to the cerebellum may gradually
be compensated. Compensation takes place in this way, that the movements are regulated

222
afresh by the conscious sensations that persist unimpaired. But a certain clumsiness and
uncertainty never disappear. It is evident, as one watches, that the [p. 276] movements must
always proceed from a sort of reflection. The immediacy and certainty of movement shown by
the uninjured animal are either lost or, if they may in some measure be regained, must be
acquired slowly and gradually, as the result of a long continued course of renewed practice.
Here too, therefore, the principle of the manifold representation of the bodily organs in the brain
is seen in opposition. The cerebellum appears to be intended for the direct regulation of
voluntary movements by sense impressions. If this hypothesis be correct, it will, accordingly, be
the central organ in which the bodily movements incited from the cerebrum are brought into
harmony with the position of the animal body in space. This conception agrees sufficiently well
with our anatomical knowledge of the course of the lines of conduction, incoming and outgoing.
In the postpeduncles the cerebellum receives a representation of the general sensory path,
reinforced, in all probability, by fibres from the optic nerve and the most anterior sensory cranial
nerves which run in the valvula and the prepeduncles. Its connexion anteriorly is effected by the
prepeduncles and medipeduncles, by which it is united partly to the anterior brain ganglia, partly
to the most diverse regions of the cerebral cortex.[55] Finally, the extensive representations of
the auditory nerve in the cerebellum (Fig. 77, p. 183) may be brought under the same point of
view. For if the cerebellum deflects at all that sensory secondary path whose office it is to
conduct impressions that influence voluntary movement directly, and not indirectly, by way of
conscious sensations, then we shall certainly expect to find that this same path contains a
representation of the eighth cranial nerve. The acusticus is precisely the sensory nerve that
gives certain objective sense impressions a specific relation to movement; our movements adapt
themselves involuntarily, in a corresponding rhythm, to rhythmical impressions of sound.

The question of the functions of the cerebellum cannot be answered, at the present time, with
any degree of finality. The one point upon which physiologists are fairly unanimous is that this
organ is set off in relative independence, anatomically and functionally, from the other parts of
the central organ, and more especially from the cerebrum: so that no single function -- in
particular, therefore, neither sensation nor movement -- is wholly abrogated even after its
complete elimination, though profound derangements are produced in the co-ordinations of
function. But this very fact of relative independence, which in man and the higher animals must
be connected with a position of high functional importance, -- a position attested, in any case, by
the structure and volume [p. 277] of the organ -- renders the exact determination of the nature of
the 'co-ordinations' or 'regulations' effected by the cerebellum a matter of extreme difficulty; and
it is not altogether surprising that a good many of the physiologies are still satisfied to stop short
at these indefinite terms, -- terms that apply more or less to every central organ, and are
therefore tolerably non-committal in the particular case. This position has been attacked, and
rightly attacked, by LUCIANI. Aiming from the first at a definiteness of statement that should
match the preceding indefiniteness, LUCIANI undertook to analyse the phenomena, so far as
possible, along all their various lines, and thus to refer them to distinct groups of symptoms. He
has thus been led to distinguish three principal symptoms of abrogation, which he regards as
characteristic of cerebellar lesions: asthenia, atony, and astasia. The movements lack their
normal energy (asthenia); the tonus of the muscles is lowered (atony); and the movements are
uncertain and incoherent (astasia).[56] It has been objected, with some justice, to this
characterisation, that the symptoms which it discriminates are, in part at least, closely
interconnected: atonia and asthenia, e.g., always occur together.[57] But if the three terms are

223
considered simply as collective expressions for certain partial states, they may be accepted as
really denoting the essential features of the cerebellar symptoms. For the interpretation of the
phenomena, however, the emphasis must fall, without any question, upon that member of the
triad which is at once the most characteristic and also, unfortunately, the most complicated,
upon 'astasia.' LUCIANI seems here, in some measure, to have missed the true perspective; he
lays most weight upon the first two symptoms, -- which, no doubt, admit of a simpler
interpretation -- asthenia and atony. As a result of this mistake, he is inclined to regard the
cerebellum as primarily an apparatus for the production of nervous force, an 'auxiliary' or
'intensificatory system' for the whole cerebrospinal organ, which is not the seat of any specific or
peculiar functions, but reinforces the functional activity of the entire nervous system. In support
of this view, he adduces the trophic disturbances that appear, in course of time, more especially
after complete extirpation of the cerebellum, and that ordinarily take the form of muscular
atrophy, cutaneous inflammations, decubitus, etc. Now these disturbances, as well as the
striking lack of motor energy that perhaps stands in a certain relation to them, are
unquestionably very important symptoms. But the possibility still remains that the 'atony' and
'astasia' of movement are interconnected phenomena, in which a part is played by the influence
of sensory impressions. We saw, when we were discussing the myel, that the phenomena of
tonus are straitly conditioned upon the continued effect of such impressions (p. 93). And trophic
disturbances, of the kind observed after extirpation of the cerebellum, appear in all cases of
permanent derangement of innervation; they result from the disability of sensory as well as of
motor nerves; and they appear always to involve the co-operation of direct trophic influences,
exerted by the nerve centres, and of indirect, which have their source in the abrogation of
functions. LUCIANI lays special stress upon the fact, established by his observations, that dogs
whose cerebellum has been destroyed are still able, when thrown into the water, to make the
normal movements of swimming. But this experiment merely confirms, in a very complete way,
the fact that all cutaneous impressions can be sensed, and all locomotor movements voluntarily
[p. 278] performed, without assistance from the cerebellum. Swimming is precisely the form of
movement that may, under certain circumstances, bring into action a continuous voluntary
regulation, compensating any inco-ordinations that have arisen involuntarily, for the reason that
an intermission of movement means in its case the danger of drowning. The animal that
constantly staggers as it attempts to walk or run is, in swimming, compelled at every movement
to maintain itself above water by a maximal effort of will.

The view here taken of the cerebellar functions is in all essential points the same as that
developed by the author in the first edition of this work.[58] It finds striking confirmation in the
statements made by KAHLER and PICK, from the pathological standpoint, concerning the
relation of other forms of 'ataxia,' as it is termed, to the cerebellar symptoms.[59] HITZIG, too, in
his interpretation of cerebellar dizziness, seems to take up a very similar position.[60] In any
attempt at explanation of this symptom, and, indeed, of the abrogation phenomena at large,
especial attention must, in the author's opinion, be paid to the two facts brought out just now:
that, in the case of voluntary impulses proceeding from the cerebrum, the individual terms in the
series of purposive co-ordinations and regulations of the movements always succeed one
another, under ordinary conditions, in independence of the will, i.e. automatically; and that they
must always, on the other hand, take their direction from the sensory impressions received by
the organism.

224
The impressions conveyed to the central organs may, according to circumstances, be clearly or
obscurely conscious, -- may, in many instances, fail to come to consciousness at all. But, at any
rate, it is not in consciousness that they are transformed into the motor impulses whose direction
they determine. From this point of view we might, perhaps, characterise the cerebellum outright
as an auxiliary organ which relieves the cerebrum of a large number of secondary functions:
functions that were originally practised under the continuous control of the will, and that in
consequence can always be partially resumed by the cerebrum itself. As for the first stage of
practice, it may have occurred here, as in many other cases, either in the course of the individual
lifetime or in the previous life history of the species, which has left its permanent traces, if
anywhere, certainly in the organisation of the central parts. To ascribe to the cerebellum itself
any share in conscious functions, or to endow it, as some have done, with a separate
consciousness of the second order, a 'subconsciousness' is, as in the light of these arguments it
seems to the author, entirely unwarranted. For the fact before us is that the cerebellum has
developed into a centre of sensorimotor regulation, and that in the course of this development
the individual co-ordinations of the separate acts of movement with the impressions of sense, all
purposive and all subordinate to the ultimate end of the voluntary action, have gradually been
withdrawn from consciousness. And there is, upon the whole, only one way in which this process
can be envisaged we must suppose that, under the influence of definitely directed cerebral
innervations, there has developed a central mechanism, automatic in unction, whose office it is
to transmit the first, and only the first, discharging impulses to an auxiliary centre; end that this
auxiliary centre is endowed with self-regulating apparatus, again [p. 279] automatic in function,
which adapt each several movement to the sense impressions coming in at the particular
moment. These impressions may, of course, either come to consciousness by the way or remain
unconscious: the former, if the conditions favour their special conduction to the sensory centre,
the latter, if they are against it, or if the conduction is somewhere inhibited: for the self-
regulations as such the matter is indifferent. On the other hand, it may very well happen, as a
consequence of the direct conveyance of sensations to the cerebrum and of its response to
them, that disturbances in the cerebellar mechanism of the sensorimotor self-regulations are
presently compensated. Such compensation will, in particular, always be possible where the
lesions are simply partial, so that a new course of practice may be entered upon and novel co-
ordinations established. Where, on the contrary, the entire cerebellum is thrown out, a large draft
upon the cerebral functions will suffice to hold the disturbances in check and so to mitigate the
symptoms: but we can, it is true, expect nothing more.

We suppose, then, that these self-regulations of the voluntary movements are in some way
mediated by the cerebellum. If, now, we are asked to give an account of them in detail, me must
reply that the question is very difficult to answer, all the more since there is still much obscurity
surrounding the directions and terminations of the conduction paths that meet within the organ.
The anatomical relations suggest, and we may accept the suggestion as a provisional
hypothesis, that the cerebellum, on the one hand, receives centripetal paths, derived from every
sensitive portion of the body, and, on the other, sends out intracentral (as regards the organ
itself, centrifugal) paths to every centromotor region of the cerebral cortex. We may imagine,
accordingly, that the sensory components functioning in a movement, more especially
sensations of touch and movement, are in the cerebellum united into a single resultant; and that
this is then conducted onwards to the cerebral cortex, and makes connexion with the
centromotor processes of discharge which are there in course. Thus, the regular sequence of

225
walking movements is at every stage dependent upon the condition that the sensory
impressions produced at each step by the movement itself are repeated in uniform succession.
Suppose, now, that such a rhythmical sequence is summated to form a resultant which connects
automatically with the voluntary impulses; and suppose that it remains unchanged so long as its
components persist without change, while it varies at once when and as its components vary.
We should then have, physiologically, a mechanism of self-regulation which at one and the
same time reinforces and relieves the centromotor functions of the cerebral centres; and we
should be able, psychologically, to explain by appeal to it the automatic, unconscious character
of these self-regulations of our movements, which still leaves room for voluntary corrections and
novel courses of practice.[61]

Over and above its influence upon the bodily movements, -- of whose reality there can be no
doubt, however various may be the interpretations put upon it, -- the cerebellum has at times
been accredited with functions of an entirely different order. Thus, the disturbances of
intelligence observed in cases where the organ is lacking, combined perhaps with the
anatomical fact that in the medipeduncles the cerebellum has extensive connexions with the
prosencephalon, has persuaded several authors to attribute to it a share in what are called [p.
280] the 'intellectual' functions. Apart, however, from these isolated observations, which may
very probably be explained by concomitant affections of other parts of the brain, the hypothesis
has no facts that are at all definite to support it. The view held by GALL and his pupils, that the
cerebellum stands in relation to the sexual functions, is hardly held by any physiologist at the
present day. The uncritical way in which GALL himself, and still more the phrenologists who
followed him, -- COMBE, for instance, -- heaped together quotations from older authors, records
of cases that had not been properly investigated, and observations in which the suspicion of self-
delusion forces itself irresistibly upon the reader, -- the whole forming a mass of evidential matter
that should be impressive solely by its bulk, -- would of itself forbid our deviating any attention to
their writings, even if we did not find upon every page the mark of inveterate prepossession.[62]
It should be mentioned, on the other side, that, now and again, observers who cannot be
accused of any similar prejudice, men like R. WAGNER [63] and LUSSANA,[64] have regarded
as possible this relation of the cerebellum to the sexual functions; though their standpoint, in
making this admission, has generally been that the phrenological hypothesis cannot be certainly
refuted. But this negative instance does not, of course, furnish any valid argument; and the
general uncertainty of our knowledge of the organ necessarily implies that conjectures regarding
its functions, of whatever nature they may be, cannot easily be met by apodeictic proof of the
contrary. This does not mean, however, that they have become anything more than mere
conjectures.[65] Moreover, the argument from the indemonstrability of the opposite can be
rebutted, in the present case, by a sufficient number of positive instances, both experimental and
pathological. LUCIANI was able entirely to extirpate the cerebellum in dogs without producing a
disturbance of the sexual impulse; in many cases he observed an actual enhancement of the
sexual phenomena.[66] The statistics of cerebellar tumours in man have, also, failed to yield the
slightest confirmation of the phrenologists' view.[67] Finally, the symptomatology of cerebellar
affections, so far as it is given objectively, on the ground of observations, affords no hint of
sexual reference.[68]

§ 6. Functions of the Cerebral Hemispheres

226
 (a) -- Phenomena of Abrogation after Partial Destruction of the Prosencephalon

Our knowledge of the functions of mesencephalon and diencephalon is, it will be remembered,
mainly derived from observations of the psychophysical activities left intact after removal of the
prosencephalon (pp. 259 ff.). These same observations may, of course, be turned to account for
a [p. 281] theory of the functions of the cerebral hemispheres themselves. Indeed, the results
have, as a matter of fact, been applied more often to this than to the former purpose. It is clear,
however, that the positive judgment of the persistence of certain activities is more definite and
reliable than the negative judgment of their disappearance. Moreover, the prosencephalon is,
obviously, far more seriously affected than are the lower lying brain centres by the indirect
consequences of operation: whether these are the immediate disturbances produced by the
diffusion of excitatory or inhibitory effects, or phenomena of a more gradual growth, changes
wrought by compensation and substitution. In view of these facts, the symptoms of abrogation
observed with defects of certain parts of the cerebral hemispheres cannot be accepted, without
further examination, as the basis of inference regarding the functions of the parts in question.
Physiological experiment and pathological observation show, both alike, that local lesions of the
cerebrum are not necessarily followed by perceptible alteration of functions. If any extensive
portion of the tissue is removed the animals appear heavy and stupid: but this change, too,
disappears with time, very rapidly in the lower vertebrates, gradually in the higher, and if some
small remnant of the cerebrum has been left uninjured may seemingly, as high up as the
carnivores, give place to a complete restoration of functional capacity. A pigeon, from whose
brain considerable masses of the cerebral lobes have been removed, is, after the lapse of days
or weeks, indistinguishable from a normal animal. In rabbits, and still more in dogs, the mental
dullness and general motor inertia are more evident than in birds. In man himself, textural
changes of limited extent, if they are of gradual growth, sometimes run their course without
external symptom. More extensive injuries, however, are, it is true, always accompanied in man
by chronic disturbance of voluntary movement, of sense, or of the psychical functions.[69]

These abrogation phenomena and their compensations are of peculiar interest when the injuries
from which they result are of definite character and considerable extent. Large portions of the
brain substance may be lost, and the animal, notwithstanding, make a complete functional
recovery. Thus GOLTZ found that dogs which he had deprived of the whole of one cerebral
hemisphere conducted themselves, some months after the operation, in very much the same
way as if they were normal animals.[70] There was a reduction of the cutaneous sensitivity on
the opposite side; and when the animal was free to choose between the movements of its
extremities, it preferred as a rule to use the muscles of the same side. The per-[p. 281]ceptions
of sight and hearing had also become uncertain, though they were by no means destroyed.[71]
GOLTZ afterwards made experiments, with like result, upon a monkey (Rhesus), which was
almost entirely deprived of one hemisphere.[72] Where a considerable portion of both
hemispheres is removed, the symptoms of disturbance are more acute, and at the same time
take a definite direction. Thus, dogs deprived of both frontal lobes gave marked indications of
motor derangement. The movements were awkward and clumsy, though the capacity of
movement was not abrogated. There was no change of sensation. Extirpation of the two
occipital lobes, on the other hand, produced disturbances of vision, which appeared, however, to
consist less in an abrogation of sensitivity to light than in a serious impairment of the perceptual
functions (cf. p. 196 above). In both cases, whether the frontal or the occipital lobes were

227
removed, the intelligence of the animals also seemed to be somewhat diminished, though it was
never wholly destroyed. As a general rule, emotive symptoms of like and dislike were still
manifested: in this respect, therefore, there is a radical difference between these animals and
the dog whose cerebrum was removed entire (cf. pp. 261, 268). At the same time, there were
signs of emotive disturbance, which varied characteristically according as the frontal or occipital
lobes were removed: in the former case, the animals appeared unusually irritable, -- a fact that
may, perhaps, be brought into connexion with the coincident symptoms of hyperæsthesia; in the
latter, they became apathetic, probably in consequence of their partial anæsthesia; quarrelsome
dogs were rendered, to all appearance, good-tempered, though it is true that they were also
uninterested.[73]

The disturbances observed in man as the result of extensive cerebral deficiency appear, on the
whole, to resemble these set up by operation in animals. This is true, more especially, of cases
in which the one half of the cerebrum is wholly destroyed. Several instances are on record, in
the literature of pathology, in which this condition was induced by external injury or by changes
due to disease, and the patient nevertheless lived on for some period of time. Under such
circumstances, the opposite side of the body was, of course, completely paralysed, owing to the
decussation of the conduction paths. The intellectual functions, on the other hand, showed, so
the report declares, no noticeable alteration. The only points signalised are incapacity for mental
exertion, and an unusually rapid onset of mental fatigue.[74] Unfortunately, however, in no one
of these cases, which all belong to the older medical literature, was the patient subjected to any
[p. 283] accurate functional examination: so that we can draw from them simply the general
conclusion that there occurs in man a partial compensation of the disturbances, similar to that
observed in the corresponding experiments on animals. The abrogation symptoms that appear
when the anterior or posterior portion of the cerebrum is wanting are also, it would seem, in
agreement with the results of experiments on animals, both in psychical regard and with respect
to the derangement of motor and sensory capacity. At the same time, the disturbances in this
case are of a much more complicated kind, and their psychological analysis is accordingly too
defective to allow of any certainty of inference. All the more prominent, on this account, is the
position of certain territories of the cerebral cortex, which are connected with definite
psychophysical activities of a compound order. These we shall discuss presently with some
fullness: they are the only instances in which, in the present state of our knowledge, detailed
functional analysis is possible.[75]

All these observations, which refer to the consequence of more or less extensive cerebral
lesions, are, it is clear, of but comparatively slight importance for an appreciation of the functions
whether of the hemispheres as a whole or of particular regions of the cerebrum. Their chief
interest really lies in the evidence which they supply of the existence of very complete
arrangements for the compensation of the disturbances. We have seen that, in the lower
vertebrates, and even in many of the mammals, such compensation is rendered possible, after
removal of the entire prosencephalon, by the vicarious function of diencephalon and
mesencephalon, which thus become autonomous centres of greatly increased activity. Within
the cerebral hemispheres themselves, however, the possibility of substitution evidently goes
much further. Under favourable conditions, more or less complete adjustment may be made,
even in the human brain, to quite considerable defects. At the same time, we must accept the
corollary that the definitive phenomena of abrogation, in cases of partial lesion of the cerebral

228
hemispheres, may be turned to theoretical account only with the greatest reserve, and that our
study of the separate functional departments of the cerebrum must be based rather upon the
transitory than upon the chronic disturbances that follow in the train of cortical lesions. This point
will appear more clearly when we undertake the special analysis of the functions of vision and
speech.

(b) -- Phenomena of Abrogation after Total Loss of the Cerebral Hemispheres

The phenomena of abrogation that result from the loss of certain parts of the cerebrum are, as
we have seen, of doubtful significance; the in-[p. 284]fluences of compensation are incalculable.
On the other hand, the symptoms that follow upon total loss of the prosencephalon have a
definitive value, save only in the case of those animals in which this defect also can be
concealed by the vicarious functioning of mesencephalon and diencephalon. Unfortunately,
however, the effect of the operation is so extremely complex that here, again, the symptoms of
chronic abrogation admit only of very general and, therefore, indefinite conclusions. In the first
place, the psychophysical activities which continue after removal of the prosencephalon do not
afford a safe basis for judgment, since it remains uncertain whether and how far they themselves
owe their origin to some compensation of functions. But more than this: it is exceedingly difficult,
indeed, in many cases it is impossible, to distinguish between complicated reflexes, that take
place without any accompaniment of conscious sensations, and reactions that occur at the
incentive of sensations and sense perceptions. Hence the investigator can never obtain more
than a negative result. The functions that are permanently abrogated by removal of the
prosencephalon are, in all probability, conditioned exclusively upon its integrity. But the activities
that are temporarily deranged, and presently restored again, must remain of doubtful
significance, since there is no means of determining the extent of possible compensations. Now
we saw that birds, rabbits, and even dogs are not only capable, in the decerebrised state, of
purposive reaction to tactual and visual stimuli, but also adapt their movements, like normal
animals, to external impressions. They avoid obstacles, they recover their equilibrium by
balancing, etc.; nay more, they apparently execute spontaneous movements, -- they run to and
fro, seize and swallow the food that is offered them, and respond by expressions of pain to
intensive sensory stimuli. That is to say, they appear to be in full possession of the sensory and
motor functions. On the other hand, they give no signs of intelligence, and never express joy or
any other of the complex emotions. Moreover, their spontaneous movements are more uniform
and restricted than those of an uninjured animal (See above, p. 262). In a word, these final
abrogation phenomena lead us to the general, and, we must also admit, indefinite conclusion
that the intelligence, the higher affective processes, and the compound voluntary actions are
conditioned upon the integrity of the cerebral hemispheres. We term this result indefinite, first,
because the psychological terms that enter into the functional determination require a more
exact psychological definition before any precise meaning can he attached to them, and
secondly because it is clear, even without any such definition, that an absolute delimitation of the
intelligence and the complex affective and volitional processes, as contrasted with the lower
processes of the same kind that may possibly continue after the removal of the prosencephalon,
is a matter of extreme difficulty. In any event, however, the [p. 285] distinction, so far as it is
practicable at all, must also be left over for the detailed psychological analysis of the processes
involved.[76]

229
 (c) -- Results from Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology

The general conclusion to be drawn from the abrogation phenomena, that the physiological
function of the cerebral hemispheres stands in intimate relation to the intellectual activities and to
the complex affective and volitional processes, is, upon the whole, confirmed by the results of
comparative anatomy, evolutionary biology and anthropology. Comparative anatomy shows that
the mass of the cerebral lobes, and more especially their superficial ridging by fissures and
gyres, increase with increasing

intelligence of the animal. This law is, however, limited by the condition that both factors, mass
and superficial folding, depend primarily upon the size of the body. In the largest animals the,
hemispheres are absolutely, in the smallest, relatively larger, i.e., larger as compared with the
weight of the whole body; and the ridging, as is natural from the relative decrease of surface with
increasing volume of an organ, increases with the size of the brain: in all very large animals,
therefore, the brain shows an abundance of fissures.[77] The physical organisation is another
factor of great [p. 286] importance. Of the terrestrial mammals, the insectivores have the least
convoluted, the herbivores the most richly convoluted brain, and the carnivores stand midway;
the marine mammals, although they are carnivorous, surpass the herbivores in the number of
their brain gyres. It thus comes about that there are, after all, only two connexions in which the
law quoted above has any claim to validity. It is valid if we take the widest possible comparative
survey of the development of the brain in the vertebrate kingdom; and it is valid if we confine our
comparison within the narrowest possible limits, and look at animals of related organisation and
similar bodily size. Only in the latter case, again, can the result properly be termed striking. If we
compare, e.g., the brains of different breeds of dogs, or the brains of man and of the man-like
apes, there can be no doubt that the more intelligent breeds or species possess the larger and
more highly convoluted hemispheres. By far the most significant of these differences is that
between man and the other primates The average brain weight of males of Teutonic descent
between the ages of thirty and forty may be set at 1,424 grammes, and that of females of the
same race and age at 1,273 grammes; the brain of a full-grown orang-utan amounted, e. g., only
to 79.7 grammes. Still greater is the discrepancy if we consider, not the weight of the brain, but

230
its superficial development, conditioned upon the number of gyres. Thus H. WAGNER gives for
man a surface of 2,106 to 1,877, for an orang-utan a surface of 535.5 sq. cm.[78] the lower
races of man the brain has also been found, as a rule, to be both smaller and less
convoluted.[79] And numerous observations go to show that, within the same race and
nationality, eminently gifted individuals possess large and richly convoluted hemispheres.[80]
Figg. 100 and 101 illustrate this point in two especially striking cases. Fig. 100 is the dorsal view
of the brain of a simple artisan of moderate, but not subnormal mental capacity; Fig. 101 is the
corresponding view of the brain of the famous mathematician, C. Fr. GAUSS.[81][p. 287]

(d) -- The Hypotheses of Localisation and their Opponents. The Old and the New Phrenologies

These obvious differences in the superficial configuration of the cerebral hemispheres naturally
suggest the hypothesis that the general connexion between brain development and mental
endowment, which appears in them, is paralleled by specific relations between the relative
development of various parts of the brain surface and definite directions of mental capacity. This
hypothesis, which in itself is entirely justified, forms the point of departure of the system of
'phrenology' founded by FRANZ JOSEPH GALL. Unfortunately, however, the physiological and
psychological premisses upon which GALL worked out his ideas are untenable, and the
observations themselves and the conclusions drawn from them betray lack of accuracy and
scientific caution. GALL regarded the mental functions as the business of a number of internal
senses, to each of which, on the analogy of the external senses, be attributed a special organ.
Nearly all of these internal sense organs he localised on the outer surface of the brain, assuming
a parallelism of skull-form and brain-form which, as can easily be demonstrated, does not obtain,
at any rate to the extent required. GALL distinguished twenty seven 'internal senses,' in naming
which he makes use at need of the expressions sense, instinct, talent, and even memory: we
find, e.g., sense of place, sense of language, sense of colour, instinct of propagation, instinct of
self-defence, poetic talent, esprit caustique, esprit métaphysique, memory of things, memory of
words, sense of facts, sense of comparison, etc. It is useless to repeat the statements of the
phrenologists regarding these localisations. It may, however, be mentioned that in one case --
and the fact shows that he possessed some gift of observation -- GALL made a lucky hit: he
localised his 'sense of language' in a region of the cerebral cortex approximately corresponding
to the area whose lesions, as we shall see later on, have been proved in modern times to
constitute the most frequent cause of the syndrome of 'aphasia.' Indeed, the discovery of the
seat of aphasia is directly traceable to GALL'S suggestion, as has been expressly acknowledged
by BOUILLAUD, to whom it is due.[82] At the same time, we must not forget that even in this
instance, where a pronouncement of GALL'S has received a certain measure of confirmation
from the facts, there is really an essential difference between what was actually discovered, viz.,
the anatomical seat of central derangements of speech, and the phrenological 'organ of
language.' The two can, in truth, be identified only if we force a phrenological interpretation upon
the phenomena of [p. 288] aphasia, which in the light of actual analysis they will not fear. Cf.
below, § 7b.

When physiology first took the field against the phrenological doctrine of localisation, it was itself
but poorly armed for the combat. It was inclined to lay a disproportionate weight upon the
indefinite or equivocal results of extirpation experiments on animals. It was easily influenced by
false analogies, and did not hesitate to accept psychological theories that at bottom were no less

231
questionable than the 'internal senses' of the phrenologists. Thus FLOURENS, whose views
long held undisputed sway in physiology, insisted strenuously upon the unity and indivisibility of
the cerebral functions, and argued from it that their organ must be similarly indivisible. This
opinion was largely determined by the analogy of other, unitarily functioning organs. Cerebellum,
oblongata and myel were each endowed by FLOURENS with an independent and specific
function, discharged by the organ as a whole. In the same way, the mass of the cerebral
hemispheres stood for him upon a single physiological level, like the substance of a secreting
gland, e.g. the kidney. He found confirmation of this view in the observations on the results of
partial and total extirpation of the prosencephalon in animals that we have discussed above: for
these experiments show, in general, that partial removal of the cerebral lobes simply weakens
the mental functions, as a whole, and does not, as on the hypothesis of a localisation of
functions might be expected, abrogate certain activities and leave the rest unimpaired; while
total extirpation of the cerebrum completely destroys all spontaneous expressions of the mental
life, i.e., as FLOURENS phrased it, all 'intelligence and will.'[83]

This doctrine, of the specifically psychical function of the prosencephalon and of the indivisibility
of that function, presently became untenable. It was overthrown partly by the pathological
observations on the consequences of local lesion in man, partly by the growth of knowledge
regarding the structure of the brain and the course of the conduction paths. Its place was taken
by the modern theories of localisation, which to a certain extent attempt a rapprochement with
the doctrine of phrenology. At the same time, they mark a twofold advance beyond GALL and
his disciples. First, on the side of physiology, GALL'S 'mental organs' are replaced by the idea of
the separate 'centres,' correlated with peripheral spheres of function that are, upon the whole,
definite and clearly distinguishable -- the sense organs, the various muscular territories, etc. This
change of view is evidently a reactive effect of the advance in knowledge of the anatomy of the
conduction paths. Secondly, on the side of psychology, such monstrous terms as sense of facts,
reverence, philoprogenitiveness, or -- to take instance of another sort -- sense of language,
poetic talent, etc., are banished from [p. 289] the list of localisations, and the terms 'sensation
and idea,' terms which, as the framers of the theories believed, represent the two fundamental
forms of psychical process, and retained in their stead. 'Sensation' means, in this connexion, any
conscious reaction evoked by external sensory stimuli, while 'idea' includes, in accordance with
the nomenclature of the older psychology, all kinds of 'memory image.' >From these general
premisses, the doctrine of localisation or, as its close relations to the older phrenological theories
justify us in calling it, 'modern phrenology' has developed in two directions. In both forms, it is
based upon the assumption that the cerebral cortex is divided up into a number of sensory
centres, in which the excitations brought in along the sensory conduction paths release the
specific sensations. The centromotor regions are counted among these sensory centres, on the
further assumption that a voluntary action may be adequately defined as the connexion of some
reflex, arising either in lower centres or in the cortex itself, with a concomitant sensation of touch
or movement. As we leave this common ground of general theory, however, opinions begin to
diverge. The one form of the doctrine of localisation asserts that the centres of sensation and
idea are strictly connected, so that every sensory centre covers both processes, and the entire
cortical surface is therefore essentially composed simply of a number of adjacent sensory
centres. The distinction of sensational and ideational functions within each centre is then
conditioned solely upon the action of determinate -- functionally, not morphologically
discriminable -- elements. It thus becomes necessary to posit the existence of two sorts of

232
cortical cells: sensation cells and idea cells. The former are supposed to receive peripheral
excitations by direct conduction; the latter take up excitations proceeding from the sensation
cells, and thereby acquire the capacity of renewing these excitations, -- a process that, for
brevity's sake, has also been termed the 'deposition' of ideas in the specific memory cells. This
form of localisation theory, which we may call the 'pure sense-centre theory,' was first worked
out by MEYNERT on a morphological basis, and has since been employed by H. MUNK for the
interpretation of his experiments on animals. It is widely current at the present day, both in
physiology and in pathology,. The second form of the localisation doctrine differs from the first
mainly by its assertion that the central areas which subserve the colligation of sensations, and
therefore also the retention of ideas, the centres, in fact, which underlie the complex psychical
functions at large, are spatially separate from the sensory centres, though connected with them
by manifold systems of association fibres. It accordingly gives this second order of centres,
whose office it is to colligate the various sense departments, the special name of 'association
centres'; and we may therefore designate the second form of the localisation theory, briefly, as
the 'theory of association centres.' According to this view, [p. 290] the essential activity of the
cerebrum consists in the function of the association centres, while the sensory centres serve, on
the whole, simply to take up the sense impressions, in the order in which they affect the
peripheral organs, and to raise them to consciousness by their projection upon determinate
cerebral surfaces. The expression 'association centre,' is used, in this connexion, both in a
physiological and in a psychological sense: physiologically, it is the 'association fibres,'
characteristic of these centres as such, that are connected only indirectly, viz., by way of the
sensory centres with which they are correlated, with the periphery of the body; psychologically,
these association centres are looked upon as the substrate of the associative processes upon
which, as the psychology of association teaches, and as our theorists believe, all the higher
psychical functions depend. This second form of the localisation doctrine is, unquestionably,
superior to the first, in that it leaves a somewhat freer scope to hypotheses of, the origin of the
more complex psychical processes; the schematic antithesis of sensation cells and idea cells,
which naturally leads to a corresponding and correspondingly untenable classification of the
psychical processes themselves, is replaced by the broader antithesis of direct sensory
excitations and associations. At the same time, however, the idea of association and of the
association centre is left very indefinite. It is, in the last resort, bound down to the belief that
cortical areas which stand in exclusive connexion with association fibre systems are the vehicle
of the more complex psychical activities; so that, from the functional point of view, the
expression 'psychical centres' would really be the more correct. But such a term shows very
plainly that the second form of the localisation doctrine brings us perilously near, once more, to
the doctrines of the older phrenology; and that, if it does not run altogether on the old lines, this
is principally due to the praiseworthy caution of its representatives, who have so far refrained
from correlating the different cortical areas of the association theory with complex psychical
activities or endowments of a definite kind.

These modern hypotheses of localisation, like the old-time phrenology of GALL, have not been
allowed to pass unchallenged from the side of physiological observation. GOLTZ and his pupils,
in particular, have disputed the strict localisation of the psychical functions, on the ground of the
defects observed after partial extirpations of the cortex. In opposition to the theory of sharply
circumscribed sensory centres, these investigators insist upon the complex character of the
disturbances following from local lesions, and upon the general reduction of the intellectual

233
functions after partial removal of the cerebral lobes. They thus come back to a view which
resembles that of FLOURENS: they emphasise the necessity of the co-operation of the different
cortical regions in the psychical functions, though they have given up the hypothesis of the
functional equivalence of all the parts of the cere-[p. 291]brum, as untenable in the present state
of our anatomical and physiological knowledge.

If, now, we attempt an appreciation of these different theories, standing opposed to one another
in the doctrine of the cerebral functions, we must, of course, try to do justice to all the
departments of experience that our judgment involves: to anatomy and pathology, that is, not
less than to physiology and psychology: and we must be the more careful, since the quarrels
between the older and newer localisation theories and their opponents have evidently been due,
in no small measure, to the all too common tendency to rely, exclusively and onesidedly, either
upon the anatomical facts or upon the results of experiments with animals. In both events, we
may add, psychology has usually been regarded as an unclaimed territory, with which either side
might deal as seemed best to it. We will ourselves, therefore, begin by setting psychology in the
foreground, though we shall, as was said just now, attempt an impartial treatment of the other
sciences also. >From the psychological point of view, then, the sense-centre theory must be
pronounced untenable; neither of its constituent hypotheses can be accepted. In the first place,
the 'sensory centres,' as is clear from the results of psychophysical analysis of the functions of
perception and from pathological observations on man, are not simple repetitions of the
peripheral sensory surfaces, but are in the strictest sense of the word 'centres,' that is, areas in
which the different peripheral functions concerned in the activities of sense are centralised.
Thus, the visual centres bring together the functions of visual sensation, of energy and synergy
of movement in the visual organs, of the relations of these processes to the visual reflexes that
run their course in lower centres, and so on. The sensory centres would not be centres at all, but
superfluous duplications of the peripheral organs, if they possessed no other significance than
that of repeating the excitations touched off at the periphery. In this regard the view embodied in
the sense-centre theory is the result partly of an inadequate and prejudiced reading of the
anatomy of the conduction paths, partly of a wrong interpretation of the experiments on animals,
which, as we know, are pre-eminently ambiguous upon the point at issue. In the second place,
the theory opposes 'sense cells' to 'idea cells'; excitations are supposed to flow from the former
to the latter, and there to be deposited in the form of memory images. It thus transforms a wholly
inadmissible psychological distinction into an equally inadmissible physiological hypothesis. The
idea that sensations and ideas are absolutely distinct conscious contents belongs to the older
spiritualistic psychology, which taught that 'ideas,' as contradistinguished from the sensations
evoked by physical stimuli, are purely mental processes, the prerogative of the mind itself. This
spiritualistic distinction is, of course, a pure product of metaphysical speculation, and [p. 292]
survives at the present time only in a psychology of reflexion that has turned its back once and
for all upon the facts of psychical experience. No truly psychological observer will be found to
assert to-day that ideas exist independently of sensations, or that the sensations which enter
into our ideas differ in any other way than by their intensity, duration, and fragmentary character
from the sensations aroused by external sensory stimuli.[84] This distinction, derived as we have
said from the spiritualistic psychology, and then clothed about with the garb of materialism,
stands in actual fact upon the same level, in psychology as would, in anatomy, the dictum of
some present day philosopher that the mind has its seat in the epiphysis.

234
As compared with the sense-centre theory, the theory of association centres has certain
indisputable advantages. It has dissolved the unnatural alliance with the ideas of metaphysical
psychology, and has attempted instead to enter into relations with the psychology of association,
which agrees better with our modern conceptions. But, on the one hand, it still holds to the
erroneous view that the 'sensory centres ' are central repetitions of the peripheral sensory
surfaces, which latter must be projected upon the brain cortex solely that they may be brought
into touch with the consciousness which resides there; and, on the other, it confuses in a very
dangerous way the purely anatomical idea of 'association fibres,' that connect different regions
of the cerebral cortex with one another, and the psychological idea of association. We are
forbidden to suppose that the association fibres are, so to say, the vehicles for the production of
associations of ideas, by the simple fact that the commonest and most important associations
are those obtaining between the sensation elements of one and the same sense department.
Hence the paths that run between different sensory centres could, at most, be taken as the
conjectural substrate only of what are called 'complications,' i.e. of associations between
disparate ideational elements. But if the idea of 'association fibres,' understood in this restricted
sense, would possess a fairly definite meaning, the same thing can hardly be said of the idea of
an 'association centre.' Are we to imagine that the association fibres running between the
various sensory centres are inadequate to mediate complications, and that the independent
function of an organ that receives association fibres, and association fibres alone, is further
necessary to their production? This is the obvious meaning to be put upon the term 'association
centre'; but it is scarcely the meaning that really attaches to it. It seems rather that the theory is
here influenced by reminiscence of the psychology of association, very much as the sense-
centre theory, in its distinction between sensations and ideas, is dominated by the old
spiritualistic view of mind. The psychology of association seeks, as we know, to derive concepts,
judgments, complex intellectual and affective processes all and sundry,[p. 293] from
associations of ideas. And the theory of association centres is evidently inspired, in the last
resort, by the idea that the various complex psychical products are originated in these centres, --
always, of course, with the closest co-operation of the sensory centres with which they are
connected by association fibres. Here, then, we have a justification for the expression 'psychical
centres.' The further the distinction of such centres is carried, however, the more nearly do we
approach to the 'internal senses' of the older phrenology. For the psychical functions ascribed to
them must, naturally, become more special, and therefore more complicated, in proportion as
they themselves increase in number.

This extreme subdivision of the psychical functions is opposed by the anti-localisation school of
modern experimental physiologists. Its representatives are undoubtedly right in insisting upon
the multiplicity of relations in which these functions stand, and in affirming, as a consequence,
that we cannot speak of sensory centres, in the sense of a definitely circumscribed repetition of
the peripheral sensory surfaces, or of psychical centres, in the sense of circumscribed seats of
separate mental activities. Indeed, as the hypothesis of the functional equivalence of all parts of
the prosencephalon has gradually fallen into disrepute, -- an hypothesis, it will be remembered,
which derives in the first instance from FLOURENS, and was revived in the early stages of
reaction, -- this principle of functional interaction has come to be our most valuable guide in the
psychophysical analysis of the cerebral functions. The new anti-phrenological movement, like its
predecessor, sets out from the results of experiments on animals. These abrogation experiments
are, however, hardly qualified to lead up to any exact formulation of the principle: their outcome

235
is indefinite and ambiguous, and they are seriously complicated by the effects of vicarious
functioning, whose influence is in most cases greatly underestimated. What we rather need is,
evidently, an analysis of the individual central functions, in the light of observations of
pathological defects, carefully collected and compared. Hence instead of asking: What are the
consequences of the lack of a given cortical area, and what functions are accordingly to be
ascribed to it? we must now raise the question: What central changes do we find, when a given
function (language, the act of vision, etc.) is deranged, and what is the nature of the parallelism
between the functional and anatomical disturbances? The great advance that modern pathology,
in particular, has made in this field may be attributed, without hesitation, to the fact that it has
been forced, by the nature of its problems, to give up the first form of enquiry for the second.
And the significance of the advance, for our knowledge of the central functions, lies in the further
fact that the first form directs the attention onesidedly, from the very beginning, to a fixed and
definite central area, while the second points at once to connexions with other areas and, in
general,[p. 294] emphasises the principle of functional analysis as against the former centre of
interest, the correlation of determinate functions with determinate parts of the brain. This change
of standpoint means a breaking down of the barriers, not only between the different regions of
the cerebral hemispheres, but eve, to a certain extent, between the prosencephalon and the
posterior brain divisions (more especially the diencephalon and mesencephalon) as well. For the
complex functions prove, as a rule, to be functions in which all these departments of the brain
are variously involved; so that it is about as sensible to localise a complex function in a restricted
area of the cerebral cortex as it would be to throw the sole responsiblity for the movements of
walking upon the knee joint, because they cannot be duly performed if that joint is ankylosed. In
fine, the analysis of the complex functions themselves comes up as a further problem, whose
solution will effectively supplement, at the same time that it transcends, the physiology of the
central hemispheres. The solution, as things are, must, it is true, remain imperfect; there are but
few functions, at the present time, that admit at all of this sort of analysis. Of those that do, the
chief are the central act of vision, the functions of speech, and the processes of apperception.

The problem of the localisation of the psychical functions begins with the great anatomists of the
sixteenth century. Among them, VASALIUS was especially instrumental in spreading the opinion
that the brain is the seat of the mental activities. For a long time, however, the old doctrine of
ARISTOTLE and GALEN, that made the heart the general centre of sensation, held its own
alongside of the newer teaching. DESCARTES was the first to regard the brain as an organ
subserving the interaction between mind and body. It is with DESCARTES, consequently, that a
question arises which was destined thenceforth to play a great part in the discussions of
physiologists and philosophers: the question of the seat of the mind. DESCARTES himself, in
answering it, made the curious mistake of selecting the epiphysis, a structure which is probably
a vestige of the old parietal eye of the vertebrates, and does not properly belong to the brain at
all.[85] At the same time, increasing efforts were made, especially in the anatomy and
physiology of the eighteenth century, to ascertain the significance of the various parts of the
brain. Interpretations were based, as a rule, upon the results of anatomical dissection, though
the psychological ideas prevailing at the moment were also of some influence. Thus, at a later
time, the mental faculties of WOLFF'S school, perception, memory, imagination, etc., were
commonly chosen for localisation, -- which was arbitrary and, of course, very differently worked
out by different authors.[86] It is the service of HALLER, in particular, to have paved the way for
a less artificial view, holding closely to the data of physiological observation. The reform is

236
intimately connected with his doctrine of irritability, whose chief significance lay in the fact that it
referred the capacities of sensation and movement to different kinds of tissue; the former to the
nerves, the latter to the muscles and other contractile elements.[87][p. 295] The source of these
capacities HALLER finds in the brain. This organ is connected with the mind and the psychical
functions only in so far as it is the sensorium commune, or the place where all activities of sense
are exercised and whence all muscular movements take their origin. The sensorium extends
over the whole substance of cerebrum and cerebellum.[88] It is therefore certain that every
nerve receives its physiological properties from a definite central region; that. i.e., as is also
attested by pathological observation, sight, hearing, taste, etc., have their seat somewhere in the
brain. At the same time, the conditions of origin of the nerves seem to show that this seat is not
sharply circumscribed, but as a general rule is spread over a considerable area of the brain.[89]
To the commissural fibres HALLER assigns the function of mediating the vicarious function of
sound for diseased parts. He deduces the inexcitability of the brain substance from the fact that
the nerve fibres lose their sensitivity, in proportion as they split up within it into finer and finer
branches.[90]

The position thus won was never lost by physiology. Nevertheless, the endeavours after a
physiological localisation of the mental faculties were constantly renewed, the usual starting
point, now as before,, being furnished by anatomy. The views of the reactionaries were
systematised by GALL, and in this form long continued to exert an influence upon the science.
GALL, it should be remembered, did much real service in his investigations of the structure of
the brain.[91] The phrenology [92] which he founded proceeds upon the assumption that the
brain consists of internal organs, analogous to the external organs of sense. As the latter
mediate our perception of the outer world, so do the former mediate what may be called a
perception of the inner man. The individual capacities localised in the brain were, accordingly,
also termed 'internal' senses. GALL distinguished twenty-seven; his pupil SPURZHEIM
increased the number to thirty-five.[93] The mental faculties that are ordinarily recognised, such
as understanding, reason, will, etc., have no place in the phrenological list. These fundamental
forces of the mind are, in GALL'S opinion, not localised, but are uniformly operative in the
function of all the cerebral organs, and even in that of the external organs of sense. Every one of
these organs is, therefore, as he puts it, an "individual intelligence."[94] His main argument for
the analogy of the 'internal senses' with the external sense organs is derived from anatomical
investigations; as every sensory nerve is a bundle of nerve fibres, so is the whole brain a
collection of nerve bundles.[95] When, now, GALL and his followers came to put these theories
into practice, they substituted 'skull' for 'brain': the form of the skull was to yield up information
regarding the development of the individual organs. And this means, of course, that they
intended, so far as possible, to localise the organs on the surface of the brain. Here, then, at the
very outset, is evidence of a tendency to adapt observation [p. 296] to preconceived opinions: a
tendency that crops up again in all the special investigations, and robs their 'results' of any sort
of value. This apart, however, the monstrosity of the psychological and physiological ideas that
underlie the teaching of phrenology marks a long step backward from the more enlightened
position occupied by HALLER. The great Swiss already has an inkling of the true principle, that
the peripheral organs of the body must in some way be represented and brought into mutual
connexion in the central organs. The phrenologists make the brain an independent group of
organs, for which they posit specific energies of the most complicated kind.

237
The fact remains that in one of his localisations, that of the 'sense of language,' GALL hit upon
the right path, and in spite of all his errors, this fact has led certain authors in modern times, not
only to seek a just recognition of his services to anatomy, -- which are undeniable, -- but also to
attempt in some sort a rehabilitation of his phrenological doctrines.[96] It must, however, be
remembered, on the other side, that even as regards the syndrome of aphasia the expression
"organ of the sense of language" is inadmissible. We can imagine, if we are called upon to do
so, that the conduction paths concerned in the function of speech run their course in these
particular regions of the brain. We cannot possibly imagine, from what we know either of the
brain or of the psychical processes, that a definitely circumscribed brain area is the seat of
linguistic endowment, in the same sort of way that eye and ear are organs or the reception of
light and sound stimuli, or the pyramidal paths lines of motor conduction. And even so, the
faculty of speech is one of the comparatively simple 'internal' senses. How, then, are we to
conceive of the mechanism by which the fear of God, philoprogenitiveness, the sense of facts,
the impulse of self-preservation, and things like these are localised somewhere in the brain?
Granted that GALL was, in his day and generation, one of the highest authorities on brain
morphology: this honour is his, and is not to be taken from him. The phrenological system,
nevertheless, is and remains a scientific aberration, the joint product -- like its predecessor, the
physiognomics of LAVATER - -of charlatanism and unreasoning caprice. For this disease there
is no remedy. Hence it is a questionable experiment to rehabilitate any other of the 'mental
organs' that GALL pretends to have discovered, as P. J. MÖBIUS has undertaken to do in the
interests of the 'organ of mathematical ability.'[97] Looked at as it stands, 'mathematical talent'
comes perilously near the psychological monstrosity of GALL'S other localisations. But besides,
the unusually marked development of the superior external orbital angle, which MÖBIUS has
found confirmed in the case of three hundred mathematicians, admits of two different
interpretations. In the first place, it may be -- and this is, perhaps, the more probable hypothesis
-- a reactive effect of the mimetic tension of the muscles of the forehead, observable in profound
thought, upon the bony skeleton of the face. Or again, it may be due to the fact that, in all highly
developed brains alike, the frontal lobes are characterised by their mass and the number of their
fissures, quite apart from the question whether or not the intellectual endowment of their owners
takes the precise direction of a talent for mathematics. In other words: it must first be shown that
the protuberance under discussion is not to be discovered in highly developed brains of poets,
philosophers, philo-[p. 297]logians, etc., who at the same time were conspicuously lacking in
mathematical ability. So far, this proof is not forthcoming. But suppose that it were given: what
would follow? Certainly not, that there was a mathematical organ, in the sense of the
phrenologists, but at best this: that we were in presence of a fact, which for the time being we
could not explain, and which had about as much value for science as the law that most great
men possess unusually large skulls. The principal opponents of the phrenology of GALL and his
followers, in the first half of the nineteenth century, were the French experimental physiologists,
MAGENDIE and FLOURENS.[98] The views which these investigators developed of the
significance of the central organs plainly represent a reaction against the phrenological
doctrines. In MAGENDIE this spirit shows itself in the strict congruity of theory with observed
facts.[99] FLOURENS had the more decisive influence upon the physiological ideas of the
following period. His researches extended to the oblongata, quadrigemina, cerebellum and
cerebrum. The first of these he determined as the centre for cardiac and respiratory movements:
the quadrigemina as central organs for the sense of sight; the cerebellum as the centre of
conduction of voluntary movements, and the cerebral lobes as the seat of intelligence and

238
will.[100] He found, however, that different parts behaved differently, as regards the functions
dependent on them. The central properties of the oblongata are confined within a small area, his
noeud vital, destruction of which means instantaneous death. The higher central regions, on the
other hand, discharge the functions assigned to them uniformly throughout their entire
substance. This conclusion is an inference from the fact that the disturbances set up by partial
removal of the cerebral lobes, cerebellum or quadrigemina, are gradually compensated as time
goes on. It follows, therefore, that the smallest fragment of these organs can function for the
whole. In his view of the cerebral hemispheres as the properly psychical centres, FLOURENS
was evidently influenced, at the same time, by the traditions of the Cartesian philosophy.
DESCARTES had emphasised the indivisibility of the psychical functions, more especially of the
intelligence and will, and had on this very account demanded an unitary 'seat of mind.' As
DESCARTES' choice of the epiphysis could not be sustained, in the face of more recent
experience, FLOURENS substituted for it the total mass of the cerebral hemispheres.
FLOURENS doctrines thus came, in virtue of their spiritualistic prominence, into sharp conflict
with the more materialistically coloured ideas of the phrenologists: a circumstance that was not
without import for the issue of the struggle.

Their acceptance in scientific circles was, however, chiefly due to he fact that they gave a fairly
accurate representation of the observational data in experiments on animals. It was not realised
that the same psychological difficulties attach to them as to the phrenological theory of organs.
Nevertheless, intelligence and will are also complex capacities. That they should have their seat
in any the least fragment of the cerebral lobes is, after all, just as difficult of comprehension as
that memory for languages, sense of place, etc., should [p. 298] be somewhere localised.
Moreover, it remains an open question what significance is to be ascribed to the separate parts
distinguished by anatomical dissection of the cerebral hemispheres, if they are throughout as
uniform in functional regard as, say, the liver.

So it came about, even before the dawn of the new era of localisation, that the anatomists,
where they ventured at all upon speculation concerning the significance of the different parts of
the brain, were apt to recur, urged doubtless by arguments derived from their own science, to
the idea of localisation of particular mental capacities.[101] And as, in course of time, the
connexion of anatomical, physiological and pathological observations became more intricate, the
views introduced into physiology by FLOURENS gradually lost their hold upon men's minds. The
determining factors in the change of opinion were two: first, the investigations into the
elementary structure of the central organs, and, secondly, the physiological and pathological
experiences regarding the localisation of certain sensory functions and motor effects. Epoch-
making, in the latter connexion, was the renewal of interest by BROCA in the observations made
long since by BOUILLAUD on the anatomical substrate of aphasia.[102] Still, a certain
contradiction remained between these results and the consequences of partial removal of the
hemispheres by FLOURENS' method. The permanent symptoms produced by the latter
operation consisted, not in the abrogation of particular functions, but in the weakening of all: a
fact verified in the most recent times by GOLTZ.[103] So, in the controversy carried on
principally between H. MUNK and GOLTZ, we have repeated, in modern terms and within the
limits of experimental physiology itself, the older issue between FLOURENS and the
phrenologists. But the new phrenological view, as represented by the 'sense-centre theory' and
the 'theory of psychical centres' discussed in the text, is indefinitely better fitted to make terms

239
with science than was the old phrenology; and the newer antiphrenologists, in the same way,
have given up their original and impossible assumption of the functional equivalence of the
different parts of the brain, and lay increasing emphasis upon the principle of regional interaction
in the various complex functions. This principle, now, taken together with the manifold
phenomena of substitutive and auxiliary function, leads inevitably to the idea of a relative
localisation of functions. We say 'relative' for two reasons: first, because it is never the complex
functions themselves, but only their elements, that are localised; and, secondly, because these
elementary functions may also suffer all sorts of shifts and changes as a result of the processes
of vicarious function.

§ 7. Illustrations of the Psychophysical Analysis of Complex Cerebral Functions

(a) -- The Visual Centres

Of all the sensory nerve conductions, it is those of the acusticus and opticus, shown schematiclly
in Fig. 77 and 78 (pp. 183, 186),that, by the complicated course of their paths and the number of
central areas which these [p. 299] paths unite, make the most insistent demand for physiological
analysis. In the case of audition, however, we have not the data necessary for the functional
interpretation of the various areas involved in the nervous conduction. The connexions with
certain sensorimotor and regulatory centres, in particular, -- centres like the pregemina,
cerebellum, etc., -- can, in the present state of our knowledge, be referred only quite generally to
the interactions between auditory impressions and rhythmical movements. The central
mechanism of these movements themselves is still wrapped in so much obscurity that the
general notion of interaction cannot be replaced by any more definite ideas. In the case of vision,
the conditions are more favourable: not so much, perhaps, because the investigation of its
anatomical substrate has been brought to greater completion, as because the physiological and
psychological analysis of the functions as such has been carried further.

Anatomically and physiologically, the act of vision is, in the first instance, characterised by the
fact -- unparalleled, save in the one instance of olfactory sensations -- that it is, from the very
beginning, in some sort a central process. The retina, as we have seen, represents a brain area
displaced to the periphery of the body. Hence it is by no means to be regarded as a simple
receiving apparatus for external light stimuli, but rather as an organ of complicated structure,
containing not only nerve terminations, but also manifold ganglionic formations that mediate
connexion with other and higher nerve centres. The single elementary process that, in a certain
sense, reaches its conclusion in this peripheral organ is, we must suppose, that transformation
of the external light vibrations into some kind of photochemical process, the physical correlate of
which we find in the sensations of light and colour. In all probability, the vehicles of this
transformation are the specific sensory cells of the retina, the rods and cones (s, z Fig. 78).[104]

It is at this point that the process of vision proper begins. The photochemical changes have
simply prepared the way for it, by impressing their peculiar qualitative differentia upon the
excitations conveyed along the opticus paths. The process of vision itself is compounded from
the manifold connexions into which these primary optical excitations enter, and by which they
obtain their concrete contents. This latter always carries with it a number of secondary
excitations, which are the principal factors in giving the particular optical stimulus its relations to

240
other sensations, and thus mediating the localisation and spatial arrangement of light
impressions. It is clear that the scheme of a simple and direct connexion between every point
upon the retina and a corresponding point in the visual centre of the occipital cortex -- a schema
still to be found here and there in the physiologies -- is not able to satisfy these conditions. How
inadequate it is will be [p. 300] seen at once from a consideration of Fig. 78 (p. 186), although
the Figure does no more than indicate the course of the simplest conduction paths those that
admit of relatively certain interpretation, and altogether omits such others as the pupillary reflex,
which plays an important part in adaptation to brightness, and the branch conduction to the
cerebellum, the function of which has not yet been definitely determined. The nearest approach
to the original simple schema seems to be made by the direct optic radiation ss. But even this
path is interrupted, as it passes through the thalamic region (AK), by nodal points, at which, in all
probability, connexions are also made with other paths. Further: as we said above (pp. 188, 230
ff.), the decussation of the optic nerves occasions a partial transposition of the paths of the right
and left sides: the rearrangement is adapted to the functions of binocular vision, but at the same
time suggests a relation to the centrifugal motor innervations proceeding from the occipital
cortex. This relation is also attested by the structure of the visual cortex (p. 219), and by the
probable existence of centrifugal conductions issuing from it (c'f' Fig. 78). Again, a second main
conduction of the opticus paths, which, if we may judge from the position of the chiasma, is
undoubtedly involved in the same plan of decussation that includes the principal path, leads to
the mesencephalic region, where it enters, in the pregeminum (OV) into two connexions. The
first of these is a reflex connexion to the nidi of the oculomotor nerves (rr). It is, probably, at once
same-sided and crossed, according to the way in which the fibres are distributed in the chiasma,
and the conditions laid down by the requirements of binocular (panoramic or stereoscopic)
vision. The second is a sensory connexion; for the supposedly centrifugal terminations of the
opticus in the retina (e f) also take their origin from the mesencephalic region. The excitations
carried by this path may be brought in either along the centripetal path cp that ends in the same
region of the brain, or along the higher centrifugal path c'f' that reaches it from the visual centre.
The functional arrangements warrant the conjecture that, in both cases, the paths will take a
crossed course; for it is but natural to regard the centrifugal system cf, c'f' as the substrate of the
coexcitations, which can also be demonstrated psychologically as concomitant sensations, and
which in all probability have a part to play in the functions of binocular vision. In view of the
motor synergies which these functions engage, and of their dependence upon the sensory
excitations of the visual centre, the central portion c'f' of this centrifugal path will presumably
make connexion, not only with its sensory continuation cf, but also with the motor path rr, so that
the regulation of ocular movements by light impressions can be effected in two ways: the reflex,
by direct release from cp, and the centromotor, by the excitations brought up from the visual
cortex in c'f'.

Now we must, of course, assume, as a general rule, that every excitation [p. 301] of the
peripheral organ of vision, whatever point it may strike, will discharge at one and the same time
into all the different paths of conduction opening up before it, provided always that none of these
paths have been rendered impassable by interruptions of conduction. In the entire complex of
organs that thus work together in the particular act of vision, the retina on the one side and the
visual centre of the occipital cortex on the other constitute the two principal centres. Their
functions are in some sort antithetical. The retina, lying farthest out towards the periphery, plays
the leading part in the origination of sensations; the visual cortex, lying farthest in towards the

241
centre, plays this part in the final combination of the separate functional components of the act of
vision. The transformation of light vibrations into photochemical processes, which takes place in
the elements of the retina, is at any rate indispensable for the first origination of light sensations:
for observations made on the congenitally blind prove that the brain cannot mediate such
sensations unless the retina has previously been in function. On the other hand, the visual
functions, once originated, may persist after removal of the external sense organ; the victim of
accidental blindness, despite the atrophy of his optic nerves, if he originally possessed any vivid
sense of colour at all, sees coloured memory images and, more especially, can enjoy a wealth of
colour in his dreams. We must accordingly suppose that the excitatory processes in the central
apparatus, particularly in those of the occipital visual centre, come in course of time, through the
influence which they exert upon the processes of external stimulation, themselves to resemble
those processes. The change is an illustration of the great adapt ability of the central nervous
substance to the varying conditions of excitation, vouched for by many other facts. This capacity
for adaptation is, indeed, evidenced by the central process of vision in two different ways:
intensively, in the change just mentioned, and extensively, in the manifold functional
substitutions that follow the loss of particular central parts. Apart from minor phenomena of this
kind, which appear in cases of central lesion and are probably to be referred to the vicarious
function of neighbouring parts of the same brain area, e.g. of particular divisions of the visual
cortex, one for another, we have here to consider two principal substitutions, again of very
different character, that occur between the two main departments of the optic conduction, the
mesencephalic and prosencephalic regions. Both of these regions bring together sensory and
motor conductions that belong to the same peripheral organs; so that, in the nature of the case,
loss of either centre is compatible with the retention of certain essential visual functions, and a
new course of practice may partially make good the defect. Observation, as we saw above,
proves that these possibilities are realised. The visual centre in the mesencephalon is able, in
particular, to discharge the most essential of the visual functions, independently of the [p. 302]
visual centre in the occipital cortex (pp. 260 ff.). True, the defects that remain, even with the
utmost extent of vicarious activity, demonstrate at the same time that under normal
circumstances the act of vision is a complex function, conditioned upon the co-operation of all
these centres, whose several functions are themselves of a complex nature. In this analysis of
the central functions of vision, we have still left out of account two principal factors, whose
significance cannot at the present time be estimated in any sort of detail, though a rough guess
may be made at their meaning. The first consists of the relations to the motor regulatory
mechanisms situated in the cerebellum; the second of the connexions mediated by the
association systems of the cerebral cortex both with other sensory centres and with yet more
central brain regions, which are not directly correlated with definite sense departments, but
themselves contain the junctions of various sensory and motor conduction paths. Now we
cannot conceive of an optical excitation that does not, to some degree, release at any rate a
certain proportion of these manifold excitations. Hence we might conclude without hesitation,
merely from the morphological relations of the optic conduction and the physiological analysis of
its processes, that the simplest act of vision is, physiologically, an occurrence of great
complexity, even if we were not constrained to posit this complication of conditions by our
psychological analysis of the visual processes.[105]

(b) -- The Speech Centres

242
The name 'speech region' is ordinarily applied to a cortical area, lesions of which, whether they
affect larger or smaller portions of its substance, are attended by disturbances of the functions of
speech, without setting up at the same time other psychical disturbances, especially those of
what is termed 'the intelligence,' of any noticeable kind. Where the intelligence is affected, there
is always good reason to refer its impairment to more extensive changes involving other cortical
areas. Psychical disturbances of this sort, due to diffuse cerebral disorder, may be accompanied
by derangement of speech, or even by complete abrogation of the speech functions, without
direct injury to the speech centre itself. In such cases, the disturbances of speech are evidently
secondary symptoms. Hence the only phenomena that are important for the relations of speech
to definite cortical areas are those observed when the seat of injury is strictly confined to the
speech centre proper. This region, in contradistinction to the sensory centres, whose
representation in the brain cortex is without exception bilateral, has the peculiarity that its
development is exclusively unilateral. Since the majority of mankind are right-handed, it is
situated, as a result of the decussation [p. 303] of the conduction paths, upon the left
hemisphere. The corresponding cortical area of the opposite side is not employed for any other
function. Under normal circumstances it serves, we may suppose, though for the most part to a
very limited extent, as an auxiliary to the principal speech centre. If, however, the function of the
latter is abrogated, it enters under stress of the new conditions upon a special course of practice,
and gradually takes the place of the lost organ. This appears, at any rate, to be the only way in
which we can explain the restoration of function observed in cases where the speech centre of
the left side has been destroyed over a wide extent of the cerebral surface.

According to pathological observations of the phenomena that result from its partial abrogation,
the entire speech region divides into several sub-regions or 'speech centres,' as they are called,
each of which would seem to preside over a definite phase of

the total functions of speech. The first of these to be discovered, owing to the striking character
of the symptoms produced by its injury, was the 'motor speech centre.' It occupies the posterior
third of the subfrontal gyre (BROCA'S convolution: M Fig. 102). Destruction of this area and of
its subcortical fibres gives rise to the phenomena of 'motor' or 'atactic aphasia,' which consists,
according to the extent of the lesion, either in complete abrogation of the movements of speech,
or simply in the abrogation or impairment of determinate articulations: the voluntary innervation

243
of the muscles of speech is left intact. Of the remaining centres, we can distinguish most clearly
the 'sensory' or 'acoustic speech centre,' by the characteristic form of the symptoms which
accompany its lesions. It occupies the supertemporal gyre, more [p. 304] especially its posterior
portion (about two-thirds of its whole extent: A Fig. 102); though this area cannot be sharply
separated from the general auditory centre (WERNICKE'S centre) which lies in the same
neighbourhood. Destruction of the sensory speech centre gives rise to the phenomena of
'sensory' or 'amnestic aphasia'; words and phrases can, for the most part, be perfectly
articulated, read or repeated from dictation; but the patient has lost the power of clothing his
ideas in the corresponding phrases, and in extreme cases is able to hear but not to understand
what is said to him, i.e., to associate a meaning contents to the sound of the words. This
condition has been termed 'word deafness.' The disturbances again extend, according to the
extent of the injury, either to the patient's whole vocabulary or only to certain of its constituents:
the latter more especially in the minor degrees of 'amnesia,' which may range through all
possible gradations to the condition of ordinary weakness of memory. Thus, sometimes it is
merely certain classes of words, particularly proper names and names of objects, or in more
severe cases all words whatsoever, with the exception of the particles and interjections most
commonly employed, that are forgotten. It is therefore customary to distinguish total and partial
amnesia. A special sub-form of partial amnesia is found, finally, in what is called 'paraphasia,'
the symptoms of which, however, usually show a tendency to pass over into the syndrome of
atactic aphasia. In its amnestic form paraphasia consists in the substitution of another, wrong
word for the word required; in its atactic form, it consists in the substitution of certain sounds for
others, so that the word is wrongly pronounced.

Somewhat less assured is the localisation of two further functions, functions that do not
necessarily belong to speech in the stricter sense of the word, but that are intimately connected
with it: the functions of writing, which, as a predominantly motor activity, connects with the
articulation of sounds, and the functions of reading, which, as a more sensory process, connects
in the first instance with the auditory perception of words. It has often been observed that
abrogation of the movements of writing, with retention of the capacity of voluntary contraction of
the muscles concerned, may be produced by lesion of a cortical area lying directly above the
motor centre and belonging to the medifrontal gyre (S Fig. 102). This syndrome has been
termed 'agraphia.' It seldom occurs, apparently, in pure form, but either accompanies motor
aphasia or is connected with disturbances of the other voluntary movements of hand and
fingers. A comparison with the position of the general motor centres (Fig. 88, p. 205) shows,
also, that these and the centres for the special functions of speech and writing are either entirely
coincident or, where that is not the case, directly apposed. As regards reading, we find that the
relation of the optic to the acoustic speech centre corresponds to a certain extent with that of the
writing centre [p. 305] to the centre for articulation. It appears, from numerous observations, that
the optic speech centre belongs to a region of the subparietal and the second occipital gyres
(the 'angular gyre': O Fig. 102) situated between the general centre for vision and the acoustic
speech centre. Destruction of this region produces the peculiar syndrome of 'alexia' or 'word
blindness': words can be spoken, and can also be heard, understood and remembered; but their
written or printed symbols are not understood: they appear as meaningless pictures: although in
other respects the visual functions remain unimpaired. All these disturbances, now, can not only
occur in the most various combinations, with each component developed in a different degree,
but may also be accompanied by further central disorders; so that it is but seldom that the

244
syndromes of the typical forms of aphasia are seen pure, and unmixed with other phenomena.
At the same time, the lesions of the different regions themselves produce somewhat divergent
effects, according as the cortex proper or the subcortical parts are more seriously affected.
Hence it is customary to distinguish cortical and subcortical disturbances. The latter are also
termed intercortical or conductive disturbances, on the assumption that, while the cortical lesions
involve the speech centres themselves, the subcortical injuries interrupt the connexions
mediated between different centres by association fibres.[106]

These manifold gradations and combinations must here be followed out in some little detail,
though only in so far as they furnish the necessary data for an appreciation of the
psychophysical aspect of the phenomena, and afford an insight into the peculiar significance of
that category of complex 'centres' to which the speech centres belong. An especial interest
attaches, in this regard, to the connexions in which the typical cases of 'sensory' and 'motor'
aphasia come under observation, and to the phenomena of mutual assistance and gradual
recovery that follow in their train. The association paths anatomically demonstrable at all points
between the centres marked out in Fig. 102 naturally suggest themselves as the substrate of
these connexions. Since, however, nothing more can at present be learned from the anatomical
maps than the general possibility of this synergy of the different centres, pathologists are
accustomed, in order to explain the connexions in individual cases, to base their discussions
upon a geometrical scheme, in which the centres themselves are represented by circles, and the
paths of conduction to and between them by single lines of connexion joining the circles. A
simple schema of this kind is shown, e.g., in Fig 103. It adopts, in all essential features, the
arrangement suggested by LICHTHEIM.[107] The little circles M and S (A) denote the primary,
motor [p. 306] and sensory-acoustic, speech centres; E and O are the secondary centres co-
ordinated with them, E that of the movements of writing, O that of visual word-pictures. Besides
these centres, however, all schematic representations of this sort are compelled to introduce a
'concept centre,' C, and lines of connexion running to it from the primary speech centres M and
S (A), in order to indicate the relations with the ideational or conceptual contents of the words. It
is obvious that this centre C, together with
the name attached to it, is in reality only an
indefinite expression for the manifold
relations in which the various speech
centres must stand with all the cortical
areas that can claim a share in the
origination of the ideational and affective
contents of the constituents of speech. In
what follows, we shall, for brevity's sake,
include this contents under the single term
'meaning contents': an expression which, in
the present instance, recommends itself by
its very indefiniteness. It need, again,
hardly be pointed out that such a meaning
contents cannot possibly be conditioned
upon any sharply circumscribed central
area, but presupposes the combined
activity of variously constituted groups of

245
sensory centres and of many other of the regions that belong to the indeterminate category of
'association centres.' The circle C, therefore, can stand here simply as the indefinite symbol of
these manifold relations. This presupposed, the schema first of all explains the occurrence of
two general forms of speech derangement. Abrogation of particular functions will occur,
Whenever certain of the speech centres themselves, M, S (A), E, etc., are destroyed in whole or
in part; interruption of conduction or, in psychological language, abrogation of the associations
normally subsisting between the various phases of the speech function will occur, when the
connexions between the centres are broken, e.g. at 3, 6, 10, etc. In the latter event, the
phenomena will take on a different form according to the direction in which the processes are
conducted or, in other words, the associations made. It is, however, generally assumed that the
conductions may [p. 307] take any direction as between the centres themselves, and that only
the peripheral lines running to the two principal centres M and S convey their impulses towards a
predetermined goal. The centre S receives its excitations centripetally from the direct auditory
centres and, by way of these, from the peripheral organs of audition. The centre M gives out
centrifugal impulses, first of all to the direct motor centres of the brain cortex, and then, from
these again -- probably with the co-operation of the co-ordinating and regulatory centres of
diencephalon, mesencephalon and cerebellum -- to the organs of articulation. So far, the
directions of conduction are opposed. These articulatory movements are, however,
accompanied by sensations, sensations of extreme importance for the uninterrupted flow of
articulate speech; and we must accordingly posit, as their substrate, the existence of other,
centripetal excitations, issuing from the motor organs. The conditions are indicated in Fig. 103 by
the two arrows at 4.

From a plan of the speech centres and their connexions, such as is given by this Fig., we can
read off without difficulty the different forms of speech derangement and their possible
combinations. Thus, destruction of M will produce the syndrome of motor, destruction of S that of
sensory aphasia; lesion of E will mean agraphia, lesion of O word-blindness. The schema also
shows the more complex symptoms that may result from interruptions of conduction. Suppose,
e.g., that connexion is broken at 3 between M and S. Words and phrases will still be heard; and,
provided that the conduction from S to C is unimpaired, will be rightly understood. Further, if the
conduction between C and M is intact, they may also, in contradistinction to the symptoms of
cortical motor aphasia, be spontaneously uttered, with their right meaning upon them. On the
other hand, heard words cannot be repeated, or can be repeated only with difficulty, -- perhaps
through the mediation of the idea centre, C, -- because the requisite association path between M
and S, the path which is supposed to run in the alba of the insula, is now out of function. Similar
consequences follow from an interruption of conduction between M and E, S and O, O and E. A
break at 12, e.g., would mean that the writing of words to dictation has become impossible,
though printed or written words can still be copied from sight, provided that the conduction O E
remains uninjured; etc., etc.

Adequate, however, as this schema appears to be, for an understanding of the manifold forms of
possible derangement, it nevertheless fails in two respects to do justice to the facts. In the first
place, it represents certain disturbances as probable, even as necessary, which in reality do not
occur at all, or, if they occur, do so only with very considerable limitations and modifications. In
the second place, it leaves a large number of phenomena -- more particularly the qualitative
peculiarities of the disturbances, and the compensations due to interaction of the different

246
functions -- alto-[p. 308]gether unexplained.[108] On the former count, it may suffice here to
mention the most striking example of incongruity between the anatomical plan and the actual
functional conditions. According to the Fig., there may be interruptions of conduction between S
and M that will prevent the translation of the heard into the spoken word, while the patient's
apprehension of the meaning of words and power of spontaneous word formation remain
unimpaired. But phenomena of this nature do not occur at all, in a pure form; the symptoms
usually ascribed to the disturbance in question are paraphasic, and appear to be of more
complex origin.[109] The incongruity thus facts is evidently due to an erroneous assumption
which underlies the construction of the Fig., -- erroneous, because it disregards the actual
psychological association of the speech functions: the assumption, namely, that the central
areas C, whose activity is necessary for the origination of the meaning contents of a verbal idea,
are connected in the same way both with the motor and with the sensory speech centres.
Viewed in the light of the normal phenomena of speech associations, this assumption is wholly
inadmissible. On the contrary, the possibility of a movement of articulation is so intricately
associated with the acoustic word symbol, and the acoustic word symbol itself so frequently
precedes articulation as a constituent of the total word complication, that the association may be
much more probably referred to the indirect path C S M than to the direct connexion C M. But if
the indirect road is really followed, then the syndrome to be expected after interruption of
conduction at 3 will, of course, be entirely different: spontaneous articulation and the translation
of the heard into the spoken word must always suffer together. And if this conclusion, again, is
not borne out in all cases, the result simply proves that in the preparation of the schema
functional moments of such weight and importance have been left out of account that we may
well doubt whether constructions of the mind can serve any useful purpose.

That these functional moments exert a real influence is shown with especial clearness in two
groups of phenomena, whose whole character forbids the relegation of the aphasic symptoms,
whatever they may be, to any rigid scheme of localisation. The first group consists in certain
qualitative peculiarities, which attach to pathological amnesia in general precisely as they do to
the normal lapse of verbal memory in advanced age. They find expression in the law that those
words disappear most readily from memory which are associated in consciousness with
concrete sensible ideas. The amnesic symptom that sets in most easily, and that is therefore the
first to [p. 309] appear in old age, is, accordingly, forgetfulness of proper names. Next in order
come the ideas of concrete objects: chair, house, table, etc. Somewhat more durable are the
concrete verbs: go, stand, cut, strike, etc.; still more the abstract ideas, nominal and verbal:
virtue, love, hate, have, be, become, etc. Finally, as most permanent of all, come interjectory
words and the abstract particles: but, for, and, because, etc.[110] It is surely evident that no
anatomical schema, however complicated its construction, can do justice to this sequence of
phenomena. On the other hand, the order of impairment is explained at once by the associations
in which verbal ideas are uniformly involved in consciousness. The more directly a verbal idea
evokes a determinate object idea, the greater the converse possibility that the object idea itself
represent the word in our thought. We are perfectly able to remember our acquaintances without
at the same time reproducing their names. Concrete object ideas, like chair, house, table, may
also come to consciousness immediately, without the words that denote them. But abstract
ideas call be thought only by help of the corresponding words; and of these, again, the particles
that are oftenest used naturally have the advantage. We are thus able, without difficulty, to
explain the phenomena of progressive amnesia, in functional regard, from the psychological

247
associations, on the one side, and the general effects of functional practice, on the other. Now
these phenomena too have, of course, their physiological substrate. Only, the substrate cannot
be conceived as in any way stable, given with fixed centres and their connexions, but must be
thought of as labile, developing by function itself and continually changing as function changes.

We are led to this conclusion yet more directly by the second of our two groups of phenomena:
the symptoms of auxiliary and vicarious function that regularly follow in the train of speech
disturbances, and that point again to the universal validity of associations and their gradual
establishment by practice. What is called amnestic aphasia still furnishes the most striking
illustrations; it shows the phenomena of associative compensation in extraordinary variety. Thus,
we not infrequently find that the word for an object is not directly at the patient's disposal, but
that it is immediately remembered if other verbal ideas, that often occur in connexion with it, are
intentionally reproduced. In one case, which has become classical, the patient, who suffered
from an almost total amnesia induced by an injury to the head, was always able to discover the
forgotten words by writing them down. Further, if he were required to name the attributes of an
object, he failed to do so, both when the object itself was named and when the attributes in
question were exhibited to him in other objects, but succeeded, after some improvement in his
condition had set in, if he saw the object before [p. 310] him.[111] Cases of this kind, which
cannot be included in any rigid schema of localisation, are referred by certain authorities to a
'functional aphasia,' and thus distinguished from the typical forms of cortical and subcortical
aphasia. In reality, however, instances of associative compensation are extremely common. We
may unhesitatingly assume that if the phenomena are not recorded, and more especially if they
are not recorded with minor degrees of derangement, this is merely because they have not been
observed or not explicitly verified. All the aphasic disturbances are, indeed, at once functional
and anatomical: and the functional disorder does not exclude structural defect as such, but only
that rigid localisation which is presupposed in the schematisations of the centres and their
connexions. The error that has crept in is the error of inversion. The anatomical conditions have
been first laid down, and the functional symptoms that came under observation have then been
assigned, as accurately as might be, to determinate cortical areas. But the first requirement
evidently is that we analyse the functions themselves, and only then turn to consider how, in the
light of this analysis, the anatomical conditions are to be envisaged.

If we take our stand upon this principle, we must necessarily begin by examining these
psychological facts front which the associative relations may be ascertained that hold between
the individual constituents of a verbal idea or between the different word ideas themselves. For
the sake of brevity, these associative relations may he termed, in their entirety, the psychological
structure of verbal ideas. We may, further, limit our enquiry to the constitution of consciousness
that characterises the adult members of a civilised community, where the artificial development
of the capacities of reading and writing has been superinduced by practice upon the natural
function of speech. Proceeding on this basis to our task of a general appreciation of these
activities, and of the disturbances which occur amongst them, we note, first of all, that every
complete verbal idea is a complicative association of three constituents: the phonetic utterance,
L; the script form, S; and the meaning contents, B. Each of these is, in turn, made up of two,
more intimately compounded elements, Thus, the phonetic utterance, L, is composed of auditory
idea (a) and articulatory sensation (m). The script form S is composed of visual idea (o) and
movement sensations of writing (m'): these latter, we may suppose, corresponding originally to

248
the pantomimic movements with which primitive man accompanies his talk, and then translated
by civilisation later on into the specific form of writing [p. 311] movements. Lastly, the meaning
contents B may be analysed, in general, into an ideational component (v), and a feeling (g)
dependent both upon this and upon the whole configuration of consciousness, but more
especially upon its relations to other contents, past and present. Not only B, however, but the
other constituents of the verbal idea, L and S, as well, are associatively connected in the most
various ways with further meaning contents and word ideas; so that a given combination L S B
never really occurs by itself alone, but always as a formation only relatively isolable from a more
or less complicated tissue of associations. Now all the phenomena of speech, and all its
disturbances also, indicate that these associations with other verbal and ideational contents vary
within wide limits from case to case. But they indicate, further, that the different constituents of
one and the same verbal idea may be associated in very different degrees of intimacy: this
altogether apart from the fact that the vivacity and activity of these constituents must vary very
considerably with the constitution of the individual consciousness with the stage of practice
attained, and with the specific conditions under which the ideas are formed. Thus, there are
individuals who are but obscurely aware, in ordinary speech, of the elements o, or m, m', of the
complex L (a m) S (o m') B (v g); the auditory impression of the word dominates in
consciousness. There are others, for whom m is especially prominent; and yet others, for whom
even o is constantly noticeable. In reading, o naturally stands in the foreground of
consciousness. It is, however, so closely associated with the terms a m that these may always
be perceived, more or less clearly, along with it. We find the most complete representation of all
three constituents in the process of writing to dictation, where a directly arouses m, m' and o. In
this instance, just because the word constituents proper force themselves all together upon
consciousness, the meaning contents v g may very easily be relegated to entire obscurity; it is a
common experience that writing to dictation slips more readily than any other form of speech
function, more readily even than repeating from dictation, into a meaningless routine. The
degree of intimacy of the association between the meaning elements v g is further conditioned,
as we remarked above when discussing the phenomena of partial amnesia, upon the logical and
grammatical value of the verbal ideas. It is owing to the influence of this factor that, in abstract
word forms, the ideational constituent v entirely disappears behind the word elements proper, a
and o, and only the affective element g remains. We shall treat later of this 'conceptual feeling';
here we have simply to note that it is firmly associated to the word constituents L S.[112]

Finally, there are two further phenomena, connected with this variation [p. 312] in the intimacy of
associative combinations, that require a special mention. They bring out, in a striking way, the
quite extraordinary variety of tendency and disposition exhibited by the speech functions in the
individual case. The first is this: that the closeness of any particular association, of the group
here under discussion, depends not only upon the connected elements themselves, but also
upon the direction of their connexion. It is but rarely that a speech association is of
approximately equal strength on both sides. The principal instance of the kind is the connexion
between the two components of the first term L of the complete verbal idea; here, under normal
conditions, the auditory impression a is as powerful in arousing the tendency to articulatory
movement m as the movement is to evoke the auditory idea. The same sort of reciprocal
influence appears to be exerted, though on the whole with somewhat less of constancy, by the
auditory word idea a and the feeling g which attaches to the meaning idea. A heard word first of
all arouses a feeling of its meaning, before the meaning itself has come clearly to

249
consciousness. This order of events obtains more especially in the case of unfamiliar or entirely
unknown words; oftentimes, indeed, the whole process stops short with the arousal of the
conceptual feeling. But we also observe, conversely, that in cases where the word that
expresses a particular idea is for the moment beyond reach, in cases i.e. where we are "trying to
think of" a word, a strong associative influence is exercised by the feeling accompanying the
idea; so that it is clearly the association g a, and not (or, at any rate, only in a much slighter
degree) the association v a, that is primarily responsible for the success of the act of
recollection. In direct antithesis to these associations, in which the strength of the connexion is
approximately the same for both sides, are those in which the one direction has a decisive
advantage over the other. Here belongs, e. g., the association between o and m, where the
direction o m represents a much stronger associative tendency than the direction m o, -- the
script form arouses the movement of articulation, but this has very little power to call up the
script form; or the association between m and m', where the movements of writing easily arouse
the articulatory sensations of the organs of speech, but these require special conditions if they
are to touch off the movements; and so on.

As a rule, then, the speech association runs more smoothly in the one direction than in the other.
The second complicating condition is this. There is a continual fluctuation, not only in the
strength of the connexions at large, but also and more particularly in the preponderance of the
one or the other direction under the influence of practice. The effects of practice are seen most
clearly in cases where some change has been produced in the normal intensity of the individual
constituents of the idea, or where certain associations have lost their efficacy. In deaf-mutism,
e.g., the elements am [p. 313] are entirely wanting; This loss is compensated by the
development of the elements o m' and of the two-way association between them: m', at the
same time, appears in its original character as component of a mimetic movement. If the patient
learns to speak, the connexion o m develops as a two-way association of the most pronounced
type, and completely replaces the normal connexion a m; and so on.

We may now attempt, in the light of the preceding paragraphs, to construct a plan of the whole
number of associations that obtain between the elements of the complete word idea. Let the
elements be denoted by the symbols, a, m, o, m', v, g; the associations between them by
connecting lines; the direction of the associations by arrows; and their relative stability by the
thickness of the lines. The ordinary course of the associations, within a complete word idea, will
then be represented, in general

250
terms, by the schema shown in Fig. 104. The effects of other word ideas, past or present, are
indicated by the symbols v', g', and the interrupted lines proceeding from them.[113] This
schema, it must be remembered, is not a stable structure; it varies from individual to individual,
and from time to time. And the associations that enter into it are themselves variable processes,
largely dependent, in particular, upon foregone associations and all sorts of other psychical
conditions.

We began this discussion with a review of the 'speech centres.' From the point of view to which
we have now attained by our functional analysis of verbal ideas, these centres, mapped out in
Fig. 102 in accordance with pathological observations of the lesions underlying disturbances of
speech, naturally acquire a very different significance from that assigned them in the plan of
localisation and conduction laid down in Fig. 103. For it is clear that the constituents a, m, o, m'
of a word idea can be brought into settled relation with definite brain areas only on condition that
the associations between them may be regarded as relatively stable connexions. There [p. 313]
are, however, two reasons why they may not be so regarded. In the first place, both the intimacy
and the direction of the associations are throughout dependent upon individual practice. In the
second place, the formation of at least one set of associations, those that include the terms o
and m', cannot be explained save as the outcome of a development which is conditioned upon a
certain level of civilisation, and which therefore began late in the history of the race. We might
accordingly expect to find, as in fact we do, that these associations are subject to especially
large individual variations. But variability in the conduction paths necessarily brings with it a
certain degree of variability in the centres themselves: a conclusion which we need not hesitate
to accept, since it is borne out, from another side, by the phenomena of restitution of function. In
fine, then, the expression 'speech centre' cannot, under any circumstances, designate a central
organ, in the sense in which this term is ordinarily employed, -- an organ that presides,
exclusively or even preponderantly, over a determinate group of functions. It can mean nothing
more than an area which contains the most important nodal points of those conductions whose
co-operation is indispensable for functions of this particular kind. In other words, the significance
of the centres is rather that they comprise the points of connexion than that they include the
points of departure of the elementary processes concerned in a certain complex activity. Such a
conception harmonises very well with the idea suggested by the effects of practice and of
restoration of function: the idea that it is not the centres but, in a certain sense, the functions that
are the original things. The functions make their centres, and are constantly modifying them in
accordance with the variable conditions of function itself. Hence the localisation of the functions
is not stable, but labile; the boundaries of the functional areas are not fixed, but changing, --
subject to the functional influences that modify the conditions of conduction, and with them the
actual conduction paths. So it comes about that functional analysis of the very phenomena
which first inspired the modern doctrine of strict localisations, the phenomena of derangement of
speech, has at every stage thrown the intrinsic impossibility of this doctrine into clear relief. Such
a result, however, is, after all, but the natural consequence of the extreme complexity of the
speech functions, and of that many-sidedness and variability of the psychophysical conditions
which they are peculiarly fitted to bring into open view. Understood in this way, it is also a result
that must be generalised. What holds of the speech centres holds, in reality, of the 'sensory
centres' as well, despite the fact that, even to-day, they are ordinarily interpreted as simple
central projection surfaces. They, too, are 'association centres,' in the sense that they contain
nodal points which serve to centralise the functions, but centralise them by bringing into

251
connexion all the different partial functions, sensations, movements, reflexes, synergies of
sensations [p. 315] and movements, that work together in the functional whole, -- the connexions
still admitting of continual adaptation to external conditions.

(c) -- The Apperception Centre

There is an extensive region of the human brain that appears, so far as sensory and motor
symptoms are concerned, to be comparatively indifferent whether to external stimulation or to
internal change: the portion of the frontal lobes that lies anteriorly to the anterior margin of the
motor zone (Fig. 88, p. 205). Pathological observations show that injuries to this region,
sometimes involving the loss of considerable masses of the brain substance. have failed to
produce any derangement whatsoever of the motor and sensory functions.[114] As a rule,
however, the observers report, with equal definiteness, a permanent disturbance of the mental
attributes and faculties. In a famous American case, e.g., a pointed iron rod, one and a half
inches in diameter, was driven through the head by the explosion of a blast, entering at the
angle of the left lower jaw and emerging near the anterior extremity of the sagittal suture. The
patient, who lived twelve and a half years after the accident, gave no indication of disturbance of
sensation and voluntary movement, but suffered a complete change of character and activities.
"He combines the animal passions of a man with the intellectual activities of a child," so writes
the attending physician.[115] In other cases, decay of memory, inability to concentrate the
attention, entire loss of will-power, etc., are quoted as characteristic symptoms.[116] These
results agree with the observation that the pathological degenerations of brain tissue which
accompany the decay of intelligence and will in cases of paralytic dementia usually have their
seat in the frontal lobes,[117] and with the general law that intellectual development keeps even
pace throughout the animal kingdom with the development of the prosencephalon.[118] It is also
said that highly developed human brains are often characterised by an especially abundant
formation of secondary gyres and fissures in the frontal lobes.[119] It can hardly be maintained,
however, that in these cases there is any marked difference between the frontal and the other,
e.g.. the parietal and occipital regions.[120][p. 316]

On the ground of these facts, it has been suggested by various investigators, among others by
MEYNERT, HITZIG, FERRIER and FLECHSIG, that the frontal brain stands in intimate relation
to the functions of the 'intelligence.' Now 'intelligence' is an exceedingly complex and indefinite
term. If, as we have seen, the act of vision and the different functions concerned in speech are
connected with 'centres' only in a very limited sense, it is, of course, impossible to conceive of a
localisation of the intellectual functions, or to connect them with a specific 'organ of intelligence.'
The utmost that we can say is that that this particular region of the cortex may contain certain
nodal points of conductions, whose abrogation produces disturbances of an intrinsically
elementary character, but manifesting themselves, in the complexity of functional co-operation,
as impairment of the 'intelligence' and derangement of the compound feelings. On the
anatomical side, the abundant connexions mediated by association fibres between the frontal
brain and other brain regions, furnish a distinct support to the view that the frontal lobes contain
nodal points of especial importance for the interrelation of the central functional areas. And the
objection that lesions of the frontal brain have occasionally been observed to pass without
permanent moral or intellectual injury is not decisive:[121] for local lesions in general are the
more easily compensated, by vicarious function of other parts, the more numerous and varied

252
are the connexions of the elements; and this condition is, on the whole, more adequately met by
the cortical areas occupied by the 'association centres' than it is by the direct sensory and motor
centres. Hence these negative results, in cases of local injury, are far outweighed by the fact, as
stated by the brain pathologists, that "lesions of any extent at all are never observed to occur in
this region without causing the most serious intellectual defects."[122]

Let us now attempt, so far as may be possible, to analyse the complex phenomena, grouped
together under the indefinite rubric of 'intelligence,' into their elementary processes. These
processes must be such as can be connected with a clear and simple psychological idea; and
this must, in its turn, be capable of correlation with a correspondingly simple physiological idea.
We find what we require in the elementary idea of the apperception of a mental contents, e.g. of
a sensation. What apperception means in detail we shall show later on:[123] here we
understand by it a psychological process in which, on the objective side, a certain contents
becomes clear in consciousness and, on the subjective, certain feelings arise which, as referred
to any given contents, we ordinarily term the state of 'attention.' Now the objective component of
this complex process, the 'clarification'[p. 317] of a contents, is surely suggestive in the highest
degree of determinate physiological concomitants. Just as, e.g., when a sensation grows
stronger or weaker, there is a parallel increase or decrease of the physiological processes of
excitation in particular nervous elements, so must we suppose that, when sensations or other
conscious contents grow, as we have put it, clearer or more obscure, these changes are
conditioned upon some sort of physiological substrate. And it is evident that this substrate may
very well consist of certain simple processes, consistent with the general principles of nerve
mechanics; whereas the idea of 'intelligence' is altogether so complicated that the search for any
kind of definite or limited physical substrate would, in its case, be entirely hopeless.

It might, at first thought, be supposed that the elementary process of apperception which
appears in its simplest form when a sensation becomes clearer, consists, on the physiological
side, merely in an increase of the nervous excitation that runs parallel with the sensation; and
that the physiological change, when the sensation becomes more obscure, is a corresponding
decrease of the same concomitant excitation. But to say that a sensation 'grows clearer' or
'grows more obscure,' is, in reality, a very different thing from saying that it 'increases' or
'decreases in intensity.' To speak relatively, a weak sensation may be clearly, and an intensive
sensation obscurely apperceived. And a little introspection suffices to show that a sensation, in
growing stronger or weaker, alters its own intrinsic character; while, if it grows clearer or more
obscure, the change is primarily a change in its relation to other conscious contents. A particular
impression is always apprehended as 'clearer' in contrast to other impressions which, as
compared with it, appear obscure. These facts suggest that the substrate of the simple
apperception process may be sought in inhibitory processes which, by the very fact that they
arrest other concomitant excitations, secure an advantage for the particular excitations not
inhibited. If we postulate an inhibitory process of this kind, we are able to explain how it is that
apperception as such does not consist in an intensification of the sensation contents. And if we
assume, further, that the inhibitory influence, in this special case, is not exerted directly upon
certain excitations in progress within the sensory centres, but rather upon the conduction of the
elicitations to the higher centres in which the sensory contents are combined to form complex
resultants, we avoid doing violence to the obverse fact that the conscious contents obscured by
inhibition do not on that account lose in intensity. The arousal of the inhibition, since on the

253
psychological side it is ordinarily dependent upon particular conscious contents, past and
present, must be physiologically conceived as analogous to that of the reflex inhibitions
occurring in various forms in the lower nerve centres. There is, however, a difference. The
inhibitory effects are liberated, here [p. 318] as elsewhere, by certain excitations that are
conducted to the centre; but their liberation is at the same time influenced by that incalculable
manifold of conditions which, for the most part, we can merely group together under the
indefinite name of the current disposition of consciousness, as determined by past experience
and the circumstances of the time.

We thus regard apperception as the one elementary process indispensable to any sort of
'manifestation of intelligence' and, indeed, to the higher mental functions at large. The
considerations put forward above with respect to its physiological substrate are, of course,
hypothetical. We have fewer data in this case even than we had for our discussions of the
functions of the visual and speech centres, and we are accordingly thrown back upon conjecture
and tentative hypothesis. These must be based, almost exclusively, upon the results of a
psychological analysis of the functions. Except for the meagre analogy of reflex inhibition,
physiology furnishes us with nothing more than the general principles of nerve mechanics.
Nevertheless, it is worth while to attempt a schematic representation of our theory; we can at
least show the general possibility of a physiological interpretation of the complex phenomena in
question. Such a representation is given in Fig.
105. We assume that the central area of
apperception AC stands in connexion with a
twofold system of conduction paths: the one
centripetal, ss', hh', that brings up sensory
excitations from the primary sensory centres;
and the other centrifugal, la, gf, etc., that
carries, conversely, to subordinate centres the
inhibitory impulses proceeding from AC. We
then have, according as these impulses are
transmitted to sensory or motor centres, either
the apperception of sensations or the
excitation of voluntary movements. In the
former case, it is other sensations, in the latter
other motor impulses, aroused by internal or
external stimuli, that are forced into the
background. It is plain that the transmission
here assumed presents a certain analogy to
the reflex process, and particularly to the reflex
inhibitions. At the same time, the way in which
apperception depends upon the sensory
excitations coming in at the moment marks a
wide divergence from the schema of the reflex
mechanism. In the reflex, we find the motor
excitation or inhibition following of necessity
from the action of the sensory stimuli; in
apperception and voluntary movement, we can

254
speak simply of a [p. 319] regulative influence of the excitations in progress, -- the implication
being that a large number of intermediate terms, which our methods cannot reach, exert a
determining influence upon the final result. The physiological character of these intermediaries is
wholly unknown to us. We can only infer, from psychological experience, that definite
dispositions take shape in every brain, as the consequence of generic and individual
development, and determine the excitatory processes that run parallel with the act of
apperception. If, then, we refer the apperceptive acts to a particular physiological substrate, we
can do so only on the condition that we endow the central area in question with connexions to
the other central parts, in virtue of which the excitations released in it are dependent upon these
dispositions. Hence the centrifugal paths that issue from the apperception organ AC and serve
to conduct the inhibitory excitations must, in general, take two directions: a centrifugal sensory
and a centrifugal motor. In both directions they are connected, both directly and indirectly, by
way of intermediate centres that represent nodal points of conduction for certain complex
functions, with the direct sensory centres (SC, HC) and the motor centres (MC). The part of
intermediary is played, within the centrifugal sensory path, by certain intermediate sensory
centres (O and A); within the motor path, by analogous motor centres of complex character (B
and L). The term 'centre' is here used, of course, only in the relative sense defined above, in the
discussion of the visual and speech centres. We found, e. g., that the speech centres were not
to be regarded as independent sources of the functions ordinarily ascribed to them, but simply
as indispensable intermediaries in the mechanism of speech associations and apperceptions;
and the same conclusion holds here. The physiological significance of these centres may be
roughly illustrated in this way. We will suppose that various sensations, belonging to the domain
of speech, have arisen in the sense centres proper, SC and HC. The corresponding excitations
are at once combined, in the intermediate sensory centres O and A, into an unitary excitation
process; whereupon the apperceptive inhibition can operate to render this, or the primary
excitations in progress in the centres SG and HC, clearer or more obscure. The processes in O
and A will thus have the significance of resultants, which correspond to the functional unification
of the two associatively connected elements, phonetic utterance and script form. These
resultants must not, we need hardly repeat, be regarded as traces, stamped indelibly upon
certain cells, but rather as transitory processes of extremely complex character, embracing a
large variety of elements, -- processes akin to the stimulation processes in the peripheral sense
organs, and to other processes in the central nerve substance, all of which leave a disposition to
their renewal behind them. A like function must be assigned to the intermediate motor centres B
and P in which an act of apperception releases (by the paths g f r s,



) a determinate motor
excitation, corresponding to the sensory excitations brought up from SC and HC (by ss', hh'), or
from O and A (by ek,

); or else an unmediated activity on the part of the two elements,
phonetic utterance and script form, releases (by the paths e f,

) the corresponding motor
impulses, without interference from the apperception centre, i.e. by way of a direct reflex
excitation. These impulses are then, in all cases, carried (by the paths f r s,


) to the general
motor centres MC, whence they are transmitted along the further nerve conduction to the
muscles.

In the hypothetical schema of Fig. 105, the paths that lead towards AC between subordinate
centres are represented by [p. 320] uninterrupted, the centrifugal paths that lead away from AC
by interrupted lines, and the direction of conduction is further indicated by arrows. Besides the
direct motor centres MC, and besides the auditory and visual centres SC, HC, chosen as the

255
chief representatives of the sensory centres, the schema includes, as examples of more
complex central areas, the four 'speech centres' mapped out in Fig. 102. Suppose, now, that a
series of impressions is carried by the optic nerve S to the visual centre SC: we have, taking
only the principal cases, the following possibilities. (1) The impressions are not conducted
farther. Then the sensations remain in the state of mere perception or indistinct apprehension.
(2) An individual impression a is apperceptively enhanced by inhibition of the impressions b c d:
the inhibition is released by way of ss' and hh', and conducted to the centre SC by the path la.
We then have perception of b c d and apperception of a. (3) Besides the apperception of the
impression a, there is a conduction by way of O to the centre A. Here a resultant is released,
which produces in the auditory centre HC (by way of e

) the verbal idea
corresponding to
the visual image a. At the same time, by means of inhibitions released in the centres A and SC
along the paths

and

, the resulting word idea and the phonetic utterance are apperceived.
(4) The processes described under (3) combine with (a) a conduction of the resultants from A by
way of L to MC (along

and


): involuntarily pronunciation of the word designating an
apperceived idea; (b) a conduction from AC by way of L to MC (along

and


): intentional
pronunciation of the word in question; (c) a conduction from HC by way of A to O, and from O
again by way of SC to certain other elements, not shown in the Figure: involuntary association of
the word idea to the script form. (5) If the original impression a is the script form of a word, we
have the following possibilities: (a) direct apperception, again, by means of an inhibition la; (b)
conduction from SC to O, and apperceptive inhibitions along the paths la and ke: apperception
of a word whose meaning is familiar; (c) conduction from SC to O, and from O by way of A to
HC, with the fourfold apperceptive inhibition la, ke,

and

: apperception of a visual and of
the corresponding auditory word idea (the ordinary process in reading); and so on. For the rest,
this Figure, too, necessarily leaves out of account all those moments that, in the nature of the
case, cannot be given a place in any pure conduction schema: so, more particularly, the
intimacy and direction of the associations, specially indicated in Fig. 104 for the functions of
speech; the influences of practice and of vicarious function, which are constantly at work to
change the face of the phenomena; and finally the influences, wholly rebellious, like the last, to
any attempt at schematic representation, which are exerted, psychologically by the configuration
of consciousness, physiologically by the general state of the nervous dispositions, upon the
associations and apperceptions in progress at any given time.

§ 8. General Principles of the Central Functions

(a) -- The Principle of Connexion of Elements

THE principle of the connexion of elements may be understood in an anatomical, a

physiological, and a psychological sense. It may therefore be formulated in three different ways,
each one of them individual, in [p. 321] contents and meaning, but each one again, in all
probability, closely related to the others.

Anatomically regarded, the nervous system is an unitary complex of numerous elements; and
every one of these morphological elements stands in more or less close connexion with others.
This fact of interrelation is expressed in the very structure of the essential elements, the nerve
cells. Not only are the connexions mediated, in general, by the cell processes, but the character
of these processes, as dendrites and neurite, oftentimes indicates the direction in which the

256
proximate connexions are made. It is the merit of the neurone theory to have shown how this
principle of the connexion of elements is exhibited in the morphological relations of the central
nervous system. And the merit would remain, even if the theory, in its present form, should
ultimately prove untenable.

Physiologically, the principle of the connexion of elements implies that every physiological
activity, which is open to our observation and analysis, is composed of a large number of
elementary functions, the nature of which we may, under favourable circumstances, be able to
infer, but which we can never completely isolate from the given complex activity. In particular,
e.g., the physiological process underlying however simple a sensation or muscular contraction is
a complex process, involving the activities of many elementary parts. This may be seen at once
from its physiological analysis in a given case, whether the analysis be applied directly to the
group of actual functions, or whether it be performed inferentially by a study of the connexions of
the elements concerned in them. Our discussions of the act of vision and of the functions of
speech hear witness, in both directions, to this physiological significance of the principle of
elementary connexions.

Lastly, there is a psychological, as well as an anatomical and physiological, formulation of the

principle. It means, psychologically, that the simplest psychical contents discoverable by
analysis of the facts of consciousness always presuppose, as their physiological substrate,
complex nerve processes, the result of the co-operation of many elementary parts. This
complexity of the physical conditions of elementary psychical facts manifests itself in two ways:
first, in psychological observation itself, in so far as the psychical elements, simple sensations or
simple feelings, are always products of psychological abstraction, and never actually occur
except in connexions (a simple colour sensation, e.g., is given as a coloured object in space,
and so on: and secondly, in the physiological fact that no psychical process can be imagined,
however simple it may be, which does not require for its origination a large number of
functionally connected elementary parts. Thus, in the arousal of a sensation of light or tone we
have not only the action of stimulus upon the peripheral structures, but also and invariably the
processes of nervous conduction, the excitations of central elements in the mesencephalic [p.
322] region, and finally certain processes in the cortical centres. If the sensory excitation is of
central origin, as is sometimes the case, -- e.g. in memory images, -- then, conversely, it is first
co-ordinate centres and then peripheral regions that are involved in it. Hence every conscious
contents, though it be as in these instances quite simple, conceived of in isolation from its
connexions, and therefore, psychologically, insusceptible of further analysis, is always,
physiologically considered, a complicated formation made up of various nerve processes spread
over a large number of elementary parts.

(b) -- The Principle of Original Indifference of Functions

The principle of the connexion of elements, in its anatomical and physiological signification,
cannot but suggest the hypothesis that, wherever the physiological functions of the central
elements have acquired a specific colouring, -- recognisable psychologically, say, in the peculiar
quality of a sensation, or physiologically in the release of a muscular contraction or the
origination of a secretory or other chemical process, -- this specific character of their activity is
conditioned not upon the elements themselves, but upon their connexions. The connexions to

257
which we must thus ascribe a determining influence upon the development of specific functions
are, however, not so much the connexions of the nervous elements with one another, as rather
their connexions, first, with the organs and tissue elements that directly subserve the functions
themselves, and secondly, with the external stimuli by which the organs and elements are
adequately excited. As regards sensation, in particular, which in virtue of its psychological
significance is the most important of all specific functions, the determining factors cannot be
found in the specific energy of any set of nerve fibres or nerve cells, but only in the physical
action of the stimuli upon the sense organs and its immediate consequences, viz., certain
changes in the sensory elements that serve to transmit the stimulation to the sensory nerves. It
is a matter of indifference, for the present argument, whether these elements are themselves
nervous in character, as they are in the olfactory mucous membrane and perhaps in the retina of
the eye, or whether they simply represent epithelial appendages to the nervous system, as they
do in the organs of touch and audition. But if, now, the specific activity of the nervous elements
that belong to a particular sense department is the result of development, if it has been acquired
under pressure of the external conditions of life, then the hypothesis of an original indifference of
function follows of itself. And this principle, once formulated, immediately suggests the further
hypothesis that the functional indifference will have persisted in all cases in which special
conditions have not been at work to produce specific differences. There are, as a matter of fact,
two phenomena which make it extremely probable that such functional indifference has
persisted in a high degree [p. 323] among the central elements. The first is this: that a fairly long
continuance of the function of the peripheral organs is required, if the sensations of the
corresponding sense department are to appear in consciousness. Those who are born blind or
deaf, and even those who have lost the sense of sight or hearing in early childhood, lack the
sensation qualities of light and sound. And these sensation qualities are evidently wanting at a
time when the atrophic degeneration of the central sensory elements, which results where the
functions have been abrogated for a considerable period, cannot yet have set in.[124] The
second phenomenon is this: that the functional disturbances occasioned by central lesions may
be compensated without disappearance of the lesions themselves, i.e. under conditions that
force us to assume a vicarious functioning on the part of other elements. But this clearly
presupposes that, under stress of the conditions of life: the elements may take on novel
functions of a special kind. In such cases, we are able to trace the rise of specific functions
during the lifetime of the individual. We are, of course, bound to suppose that the conditions of
the principal functional differentiations have been operative during the evolution of the race. Still,
the facts just cited prove that we inherit nothing more definite than certain dispositions, which are
given with the connexions of the nervous elements; and that the development of specific
functions demands the actual discharge of these functions, and is therefore altogether
dependent upon the direct action of the vital stimuli during the course of the individual life. This
dependence of the elementary nervous processes upon external impressions must now be
localised, primarily, in the nervous elements that come into closest contact with the sensory
stimuli, i.e. in those situated at the periphery; it may be looked for far less probably in the more
central regions, where, as we have said, substitution and exchange of functions play a leading
part. Since, therefore, the immediate contents of consciousness always find expression in the
elementary qualities originating in direct connexion with the peripheral functions, everything
favours the view that the activities of the higher central elements consist solely in the effects
which they produce by the combination and, under certain circumstances, by the inhibition of the
excitations conveyed to them.

258
It follows, then, that the principle of the indifference of elementary functions admits, like its
predecessor, of an anatomical, a physiological, and a psychological derivation. Anatomically, it is
supported by the essential identity of structure that we find throughout the elements of the
nervous system. The neurones differ both in form and in extent. But striking as these variations
may sometimes be, the structural differences that they exhibit are, at most, such as indicate
merely a difference in direction of conduction; and even these are apparently confined to the
more highly dif-[p. 324]ferentiated nerve cells (pp. 42 f.). Physiologically, the principle of
indifference of function is attested by the uniform character of the forces that reside in the
nervous elements. The two mutually supplementary forms of energy that we designated, from
their mechanical effects, excitation and inhibition, or positive and negative molecular work (pp.
60, 80), appear throughout as the simple substrate of nervous function. It is true that, in working
out the fundamental ideas of a physiological mechanics of the nervous system, we allowed
ourselves to be guided, in the first instance, by the phenomena of muscle, i.e. of the mechanical
structures appended to that system. At the same time, these peripheral phenomena came into
consideration only in their symptomatic significance. We expressed the facts in a certain way, at
the instance of external conditions. But, mode of expression apart, we have every reason to
assume the essential identity of the nervous processes. Lastly, the principle derives its principal
support, on the psychological side, from the fact that the specific differences in the sensory
contents of consciousness, if they are of an elementary nature, may always be resolved into
qualities of sensation and feeling that depend upon the functions of peripheral elements. In so
far, therefore, as the central nervous system is concerned in the higher psychical processes, it
must be occupied, not with the origination of new specific qualities, but solely with the indefinitely
complex interrelation of these sensory elements of our mental life.

(c) -- The Principle of Practice and Adaptation

'Practice,' in the ordinary acceptation of the term, consists in the perfecting of a function by its
repeated performance. Hence the principle of practice, as applied to the functions of the nervous
system, signifies that every central element, whether considered by itself or regarded as co-
operating in some especial way, determined by the conditions of life, with other like elements,
becomes better and better fitted to discharge or to share in the discharge of a particular function,
the more frequently it has been called to its service by pressure of external conditions. We are
already familiar with the elementary phenomenon of practice, in the increase of excitability by
stimulation (p. 75). This elementary phenomenon is common to all elements of the nervous
system: it may be demonstrated even in the isolated nerve, though it is observed at its best, and
its after-effects are: more persistent, in the connected neurones and neurone chains. We thus
have every reason to look upon it as responsible for the marked changes that are continually
taking place, as the result of function, in the nervous apparatus and their appended organs:
changes that, especially if we extend them beyond individual to generic development, represent
the organs themselves as, in large measure, the products of their functions.[p. 325] The obverse
of the practice processes is seen, on the other hand, in the decrease and ultimate abrogation of
functions which, as the result of functional inactivity, is at the same time connected with
degeneration and waste of their morphological substrate (p. 53).

The effect of practice need not be limited to the quantitative enhancement of a given function. It
may lead up to new combinations of elementary processes, by which the qualitative value of a

259
complex function is altered, and the function itself, in accordance with the general character of
practice, moulded into more complete correspondence with existing conditions. Under these
circumstances, the process of practice is termed 'adaptation.' Adaptation, that is, can never be
anything else than a result of elementary practice processes. At the same time, it is a more
complex process, since it consists, by its very nature, in a number of concomitant practice
courses, which culminate, definitely and purposively, in a single combined result. This complex
character of adaptation makes it possible, further, that increase of practice in a given direction
may coincide with decrease of practice in another, or that certain elements may be gaining in
practice while other elements, alongside of them, are losing. Change in the conditions of life may
thus render certain nerve paths more practicable, and others impassable. And the same shift of
function that appears here, in the closure and improvement of conduction paths, may occur over
whole regions of nerve cells. Hence the adaptations of chief significance for the nervous
functions are those in which newly practised elements take the place of others, whose activity
has been suspended under stress, internal or external, of adverse conditions. In view of their
great importance for the central processes we may group the resulting phenomena under a
special principle of vicarious function.

(d) -- The Principle of Vicarious Function

Whenever it occurs, whether in the central nervous system or in other physiological

departments, the phenomenon of vicarious function is simply a special case of practice and
adaptation. In the present context, it may be termed a limiting case, in the sense that it extends
to functions which the elements involved have never before been directly called upon to
discharge, though they must, of course, have carried within them the latent possibility of their
new offices. Habituation to the requirements of vicarious function may, as the preceding
argument has shown, be brought about in two ways. On the one hand, elements and complexes
of elements which, up to a certain time, performed only some part of a composite function, may
afterwards, owing to the functional disability of the elements correlated with the remaining
phases of the function, take upon them the duties of the whole. On the other hand, a certain
group of elements may be compelled, [p. 326] by the incapacity of other elements with which
they are in some way spatially co-ordinated, to play a part that is altogether strange to them. We
may denominate the first of these cases a substitution by extension of the area of function, and
the second a substitution by aquisition of novel functions. The first form is conditioned upon the
original functional interdependence of departments of the nervous system that may be widely
remote from one another; the second is conditioned, conversely, upon the spatial connexion of
elements between which no original functional relation can be demonstrated. This spatial
connexion may itself consist either in the immediate proximity of neurones lying upon the same
side of the brain, or in the union of distant areas by association fibres. In the latter case,
substitution occurs most often between the symmetrically situated cortical areas of the two
cerebral hemispheres, and is mediated by the association systems that run from the one half of
the brain to the other. This statement applies, e.g., in all probability, to the functional areas of the
speech centres, whose development is usually unilateral (see above, p. 238).

The first of these two forms of substitution, that by extension of function, appears in general as a
gradual compensation of the disturbances due to the partial impairment of a functional area of
some magnitude, by way of enhancement of activity in other areas which, from the first, took

260
their share in the same total function. These compensations may proceed from the higher
centres, which, in favourable circumstances, almost entirely annul the disturbances produced by
lesions in the lower; or may, contrariwise, be the work of the lower centres, which to a certain
extent, though never completely, make good the loss sustained by the cessation of activity in the
higher. Instances of compensation of the former kind, resulting from vicarious function on the
part of superior centres, are not uncommon; we have them, e.g., in the gradual disappearance of
the disturbances in cases of injury to the cerebellum, or of lesion of the diencephalic and
mesencephalic region. An example of the second kind is the partial recovery of functions,
normally conditioned upon the co-operation of certain cortical centres, by an enhanced
compensating activity in the diencephalic and mesencephalic centres, such as may be observed
more particularly in decerebrised animals (pp. 259 ff.). For both forms of substitution, the
principle of connexion of elements is, besides that of practice and adaptation, of primary
importance. None of these compensations would be possible, if the central function were not
always divided into a number of partial functions, in each of which there is co-operation of all the
factors necessary to the function as a whole; so that the higher central area contains the
fundamental constituents required for the activity of the lower, and the lower in its turn those
required for the function of the higher. Thus, to all appearances, we have repeated in the visual
cortex, only on a [p. 327] higher plane and in more complicated form, the same relations of
sensory and motor conditions that characterise the mesencephalic portion of the visual centres
(cf. Fig. 78, p. 185). This is the reason that disturbances arising in the latter may be
compensated from the visual cortex, and that, conversely, even cortical defects may, to a certain
extent, be made good by the mesencephalic centres. At the same time, these compensations
are, on the whole, the less likely to occur, in the case of simple functions, the nearer the lesions
approach to the periphery; and are the less complete, in the case of complex functions, the
higher the functional centre that is the seat of the disturbance. Interruption of the sensory
nervous conductions in the myel and in the peripheral nerves is altogether beyond the reach of
compensation by vicarious function. And, on the other hand, the disturbances of sense
perception and of its associative connexions that are caused by destruction of cortical areas can
never be more than imperfectly compensated by habituation of the lower centres.

The case stands very differently with those other forms of vicarious function which have their
source in the spatial connexion, whether direct or mediated by association fibres, of the nervous
elements. Here, the newly habituated parts apparently acquire wholly new functions. Under
these circumstances, it is natural to suppose that the areas concerned are such as, before their
assumption of the vicarious function, discharged no duties whatsoever. Indeed, there are many
authors who take this assumption for granted, -- connecting it, for the most part, with hypotheses
regarding the complex functions of the elements themselves, -- and who accordingly consider
the cerebral cortex, in particular, as a functional department that contains within it a large
number of reserve elements, intrinsically functionless, and provided simply as substitutes for
elements that may have become defective. Now the fringe of teleological ideas that surrounds
this notion of 'functional reserves' would alone make us hesitate to accept it. But, that apart, the
hypothesis runs counter to the fact that functionless elements always evince a gradual
degeneration and decay (Fig. 22, p. 53). Suppose, e.g., that the 'speech centres' of the right
hemisphere were entirely functionless: it would then be impossible to understand why they do
not become altogether atrophied in the course of a long individual life, still more in that of many
generations. This difficulty disappears if, as the principle of the connexion of elements requires,

261
we hold to the opinion that every complex function presupposes an intricate co-operation of
central elements and their connecting conductions. But then we cannot fail to see that there is
another hypothesis, indefinitely more probable than that which we have just been discussing: the
hypothesis, namely, that, here too, the elements destined to vicarious duty have always had a
certain, only a comparatively unimportant share [p. 328] in the normal function; and that the
substitution consequently consists, again, simply in an enhancement of activities, along lines
already familiar to the elements in their normal state. Looked at from this point of view, the
appearance of aphasia after destruction of the speech centres of the left side would not imply
that the speech functions had their exclusive seat in this left hemisphere, or, as has sometimes
been suggested by those who support the hypothesis of word localisation, that only certain
subordinate word forms, e.g. the interjections, are localised on the right. It is much more
reasonable to suppose that the co-operation of neurone territories, where it is so extraordinarily
complicated as it must be in a function of the complexity of speech, involves wide-spread areas
in both halves of the brain; though, as a matter of fact, the areas of the left hemisphere are
normally the more practised, and their destruction accordingly produces specially obvious
defects. The larger practice of the motor organs on the right as compared with those on the left
hand side of the body furnishes an admirable parallel to this functional habituation. Genetically, it
is, in all probability, related to the unequal development of the speech centres; and factually, it
repeats that inequality point by point. For the organs on the right hand side of the body are the
more practised, but they are not the sole vehicles of function; and just because they are not, is
substitution by new habituations possible.

(e) -- The Principle of Relative Localisation

There can be no doubt that, in a certain sense, the central functions, like those of the peripheral
organs, are spatially distinct. But there can also be no doubt that the central organ, as its names
implies, represents in contradistinction to the peripheral organs a centralisation and thus, at the
same time, an unification of functions; so that any absolute localisation of function, which should
confine each separate activity within fixed limits, is a priori impossible, as it is also unsupported
by the facts of observation. In the peripheral organs, where the demands of external function
have produced diversity of structure, the principle of division of labour is strictly observed, and
the localisation of function follows in the train of its observance. In the centres of the nervous
system, the principle is broken through in two different ways. On the one hand, every central
function divides, and divides the more definitely the higher its place in the ascending series of
activities, into a number of subordinate and auxiliary functions, which of themselves embrace
wide and, in part, widely remote areas of the central nervous system. On the other, the
processes of practice, adaptation and vicarious function show that the spatial centralisation of a
function is not fixed, but dependent upon its exercise, and upon the conditions under which this
exercise is placed, so that any rigid spatial limitation is out of the ques-[p. 329]tion. The name of
'visual centre,' e.g., is by no means to be restricted to the region of the occipital brain known as
the 'visual cortex.' The. nodal points of the optic conduction in the lower nerve centres have
good right to share in the title, seeing that they are not only constantly involved in the normal
functions of vision, but are also able, to a certain extent, to do substitute duty for the functions of
the higher region. Since, therefore, the principle of vicarious function, like the principle of
practice and adaptation, implies a dependence upon external and internal conditions which allow
the elementary functions a certain freedom of exchange, the localisation of the central functions

262
at large cannot be looked upon as anything more than relative, i.e. dependent in this way upon
the functional conditions of the time, and varying with their variation. The principle of localisation
thus stands in the closest relation to the principles of the connexion of elements and of the
original indifference of function. For without the connexion of elements that is required by every,
even the simplest form of central activity, and without an original and, in the case of many
central elements, a permanent functional indifference, there could be no shift of the limits of a
function with change in its conditions. In fine, then, the principle of relative localisation gathers
up and includes all the preceding principles, as its necessary presuppositions; while an absolute
localisation of the central functions, such as is oftentimes assumed, comes into direct conflict
with every one of them.

The five principles laid down in the text have gained ground but very slowly in the development
of the theory of the central functions; and even at the present day they have failed, in many
instances, to overcome the opposing views. Their progress was hindered, from the outset, by
the authority of scientific tradition; in some measure, more particularly in the domain of
anatomical and physiological research, it is so hindered still. Rightly to appreciate this
resistance, we must remember that each one of them was obliged, before it could gain
acceptance for itself, to oust a diametrically opposite opinion. These five dogmatic
preconceptions had practical possession of the field; and the advance of modern nerve
physiology has consisted in their gradual refutation, point for point, under compulsion by the
facts.

(1) In opposition to the principle of the connexion of elements many physiologists, even now,
prefer to posit an autonomy of the elements. Their assumption is, not that all contents of
consciousness, even the simplest, presuppose complex functions in which numerous
physiological elements take part, but contrariwise that these physiological elements, the nerve
cells, can mediate extremely complex psychical functions. Thus, a single nerve cell may,
according to circumstances, be the vehicle of a sensation or of a compound idea, a concept. The
hypothesis is very seriously intended: its supporters have been at the pains to estimate the
number of ideas that, on emergency, may be lodged in an individual consciousness, by counting
the number of cells in the cerebral cortex.[125] Some-[p. 330]times, it is true, an attempt is made
to mitigate its crudity by the remark that it is merely 'provisional' and 'tentative.' But even in this
modified form it lacks all justification. For a provisional hypothesis is of use only so long as it
groups the known facts together in a formula that can further the progress of investigation. If, on
the other hand, the hypothesis points us to a road that undoubtedly leads in a direction
diametrically opposed to the truth, then it has become nothing else than a pernicious prejudice.

(2) In opposition to the principle of indifference of function it is generally held, at the present
time, that the law of specific energy, as it is termed, represents an especially valuable asset of
modern nerve and sense physiology. Nevertheless, the history of the law shows a gradual
regression. It slowly withdrew from the elements where advancing investigation had proved it to
be untenable, to other elements whose functional attributes were less thoroughly worked out;
and it has finally intrenched itself in those whose real differences of structure and function
warrant the assumption of distinct modes of activity. First of all, a specific function was attributed
to the nerve fibres. Then, as physiologists gradually became accustomed to consider the nerves
as relatively indifferent conductors of the nervous processes, the nerve cells were selected as

263
the vehicles of the specific functions. To-day, when the uniform character of these central
elements also is impressing itself more and more strongly upon the investigator, we may
confidently predict that the specific function will continue on its travels until it ultimately comes to
rest in the peripheral sensory elements. Here it may, with a certain conditional propriety, be
allowed to remain; whereas the central elements come into account only indirectly, in so far, i.e.,
as the influences of practice and adaptation play a part among them.[126]

The law of specific energy still holds its own in current scientific thought. More headway has
been made against the dogmas that stand out in contrast and opposition to the principles of
practice and adaptation and of vicarious function: the hypotheses (3) of the originality and (4) of
the immutability of functional attributes. Neither possesses any present power in nerve
physiology, save as it is properly a logical consequence of the strict interpretation of the law of
specific energy. The numerous facts that bear witness to the influences of practice, adaptation
and vicarious function will not be deprived of their rights. But this merely aggravates the division
in modern physiological theory, and shows that it cannot maintain itself for any length of time.
The same intrinsic unsoundness appears (5) in the hypothesis of an absolute localisation, which
still persists in opposition to the principle of a merely relative localisation. It is the connexion of
this hypothesis with those of specific energy and of the more or less complex character of the
function of the nervous elements that constitutes the logical foundation of the phrenological
edifice. And the constantly recurring tendency to a revival of phrenology in some modified form,
adapted to the conceptions of current anatomy, physiology and psychology, is therefore an
evidence not only of the extreme vitality of these dogmas, but also of their internal connexion.
Indeed, if we grant the specific energy of the elementary functions, we have at the same time
admitted their originality, their constancy, their complex character and their absolute localisation.
Conversely, all these assumptions fall to the ground, as soon as we recognise the just claims of
practice and adaptation. For then we must grant the possibility, within certain limits, [p. 331] of
vicarious function; and from this admission follow, in the last resort, a merely relative localisation
of functions and, as regards the elements, an original indifference, which by the great majority of
the central elements has in all probability been retained as a permanent possession. The five
principles discussed above thus form an interdependent whole, no less than the five antagonistic
dogmas of the older nerve physiology. That a view of the central functions which accords with
the general status of our physiological and psychological knowledge should meet, even to-day,
with serious opposition is, perhaps, sufficiently explained, first, by this very interdependence of
the traditional doctrines, in which each assumption serves to support the rest; again, by the
simple formulation of the older theories, as compared with the larger demands made by the new
upon the physiological and psychological analysis of the phenomena; and, lastly, by the natural
longevity of ingrained prejudice. To suppose that the specific contents of a sensation is given of
itself with the existence of a central element; or that the act of vision is completed with the
'projection' of the retinal image upon a central sensory surface; or that 'memory for words,'
'intelligence,' and what not, that figure in popular psychology as simple and undivided concepts,
are localised as simply in sharply circumscribed regions of the brain: to suppose all this is,
naturally, very much easier than it is to work out the conclusions that follow from the five
principles enunciated in the text. But apart from the objection that these various suppositions run
counter to the facts, they are once and for all impossible, for the reason that they rest upon a
wholly untenable psychology, upon erroneous physiological ideas, and, in the last instance,
upon an antiquated conception of the structure of the nervous system. If, therefore, the

264
anatomists are still to be found to-day among the most zealous champions of the phrenological
view, they have really atoned for this fault in advance, by contributing the most valuable
materials from which others may construct a tried and tested theory of the central functions.

Notes
[1] See above, pp. 43, 99.
[2] H. E. HERING and SHERRINGTON, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., lxviii., 1897,
222.
[3] See above, p. 88.
[4] See above, Ch. iii., pp. 80, 94, ff.
[5] MOTT and SHERRINGTON, Proc. of the Royal Soc., lvii., 1895, 481: C. BASTIAN, ibid., lvii.,
89.
[6] SHERRINGTON, in THOMPSON YATES' Labor. Reports, i., 45, 175.
[7] These and the other mimetic reflexes are of great psychological importance, and are
accordingly discussed under the hearting of expressive movements in Part IV., Ch. xvii.
[8] For the relative autonomy of the cardiac movements, see especially T. W. ENGELMANN. in
PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., lvi., 1894, 149; for the autonomous functions of the
movements that fall within the sphere of the spinal reflexes, see GOLTZ and EWALD. ibid.. lxiii.,
1897, 362.
[9] NOTHNAGEL, in VIRCHOW'S Archiv., xliv., 4. BINSWANGER, Arch. f. Psychiatr., xix., 759.
[10] See above. Ch. i., pp. 29 ff., and below, Chs. xvii., xviii., on Will and Consciousness.
[11] GOLTZ and FREUSBERG, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xiii. 1876. 460.
[12] MASIUS, Bulletin de l'académia de Belge, xxiv., xxv., 1867, 1868.
[13] HEIDENHAIN, Physiol. Studien, 1856, 9. WUNDT, Lehre von der Muskelbewegung, 1858,
51 f.
[14] KUSSMAUL and TENNER, in MOLESCHOTT'S Untersuchungen zur Naturlehre des
Moonstone, iii., 1857, 77.
[15] LUCHSINGER, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xiv., 1877, 383.
[16] MOSSO, Ueber den Kreislauf des Blutes im menschlichen Gehirn, 1881, 74 ff.
[17] Cf. with this the discussion of the psychology of dreams. Part V., Ch. xx. The excitatory
influence of the dypnoeic blood, mentioned in the text, is confirmed by the fact that other forms
of automatic or reflex stimulation -- dyspnoeic spasms, epileptiform twitches, and the like -- are
especially apt to occur during sleep.
[18] WERNICKE, Lehrbuch d. Geirnkrankheiten, ii., 10. KRAEPELIN, Psychiatrie, 6te Aufl., i.,
54.
[19] WOLFF, Allg. Zeitschr. f. Psychiatrie, xxvi., 273. ZIEHEN, Sphygmographische
Untersuchungen bei Geisteskranken, 1887.
[20] For this psychological aspect of mental derangement, and for an account of sleep and of
similar states (hypnotism), see Part v., Ch. xx.
[21] Here belong more particularly the experiments of LONGET (Anatomie et physiologie du
système nerveux, 1842; German trans. by HEIN, i., 385); SCHIFF (Lehrbuch d. Physiol., i., 342);
VULPIAN (Physiol. du système nerveux, 658), and others. These experiments will always retain
a place of honour in the history of the experimental physiology of the central organs. But, from
the modern point of view, they must be pronounced antiquated; if only for the reason that they
attempt to ascertain the functions of the parts by a purely symptomatic method, from the

265
phenomena of abrogation and stimulation, without regard to morphological relations and the
course of the conduction paths.
[22] FLOURENS, Recherches expér. sur les fonctions du système nerveux, 2nd ed., 1842.
[23] GOLTZ, Beitrage zur Lehre von den Functionen der Nervencentren des Frosches, 1869.
[24] CHRISTIANI, Zur Physiologie des Gehirns, 1885.
[25] GOLTZ, Der Hund ohne Grosshirn, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., li., 1892, 570.
[26] J. STEINER, Die Functionen des Centralnervensystems, Abth. 1-4, 1885-1900.
[27] J. STEINER, Die Functionen des Centralnervensystems, ii., 211 ff.
[28] GOLTZ, Die Functionen der Nervencentren des Frosches, 65.
[29] SCHRADER, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xli., 1887, 75.
[30] SCHRADER, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xliv., 1888, 175.
[31] CHRISTIANI, Zur Physiologie des Gehirns, 25.
[32] GOLTZ, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., li., 570 ff.
[36] FERRIER, Functions of the Brain, 1886, 412. NOTHNAGEL was unable to discover any
marked symptoms whatsoever, even after extensive lesions of the thalami. See VIRCHOW'S
Archiv. lviii., 429 and lxii., 203.
[33] BECHTEREW, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxxiii., 413.
[34] STEINER, Die Functionen des Centralnervensystems, iii., 79 ff.
[35] SCHIFF, Lehrbuch d. Physiol., ii., 343.
[37] STEINER, op. cit., ii., 106; iii., 126; iv., 54 ff.
[38] GOLTZ, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., li., 520 ff.
[39] NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 204 ff. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 586 ff.
[40] WERNICKE, Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten, i., 370.
[41] NORTHNAGEL, in VIRCHOW'S Archiv, lvii., 209.
[42] MAGENDE,[sic] Leçons sur les fonctions du système nerveux, i., 280. Cf. also SCHIFF
Lehrbuch d. Physiol., i., 340.
[43] NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 262 ff. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 584.
[44] FLECHSIG, Plan des menschl. Gehirns, 41.
[45] LUCIANI, Il cerveletto, nuovi studi, 1891, 49. The results of these experimental
investigations, the most detailed made upon the cerebellum, serve in general to confirm the
statements of NOTHNAGEL (VIRCHOW'S Archiv, lxviii., 33), FERRIER (Functions Of the Brain,
174), and BECHTEREW (PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges Physiol., xxxix., 362), as well as the older
observations of SCHIFF (Lehrbuch d. Physiol., i., 353). The only point upon which there is some
divergence of opinion concerns the direction of the imperative movements set up by unilateral
transsections. The differences are probably due to the fact that the cerebellar peduncles were
cut at different places.
[46] LUCIANI, op. cit. 32. LADAME, Hirngeschwülste, 93. WERNICKE, Gehirnkrankheiten, iii.,
353. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 624.
[47] In a case in which the cerebellum and pons were entirely lacking, voluntary movements
were possible, but there was pronounced muscular weakness; the patient frequently fell, and her
intelligence was extremely defective (LONGET, Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux, i.,
764). Observations by KIRCHHOFF, on certain cases of atrophy and sclerosis of the
cerebellum, confirm this account upon all essential points (Archiv f. Psychiatrie, xii., 647 ff). In a
case of HITZIG'S, where, it is true, atrophy was only partial, the intelligence was affected, but
there was no disturbance of movement. HITZIG himself supposes that the symptoms indicate a
large measure of vicarious functioning, especially by parts of the cerebrum (ibid., xv., 266 ff.).

266
[48] PURKINJE, in KUST'S Magazin d. Heilkunde, xxiii., 1827, 297. HITZIG, Das Gehirn, 196 ff.
Der Schwindel, 1898 (off-printed from NOTHNAGEL'S Pathologie, ix.), 36 ff.
[49] FLOURENS, LUSSANA and RENZI also observed effusion of blood in the cerebellum as a
result of intensive alcoholic poisoning; see RENZI in SCHMIDT'S Jahrbuch, cxxiv., 158.
[50] See Part III., Ch. xiii.
[51] BECHTEREW, Die Leitungsbahnen im Gehirn und Rückenmark, 361.
[52] VON LEYDEN and GOLDSCHEIDER. Die Erkrankungen des Rückenmarks. In
NOTHNAGEL'S Handbuch d. Pathologie, x., 149.
[53] LUSSANA, Journal de la physiol., v., 418; vi. 169. LUSSANA and LEMOIGNE, Fisiologia dei
centri nervosi, 1871, ii., 219.
[54] FLOURENS, Recherches expérimentales, 2nd ed., 28.
[55] In view of the close connexion of the olives with the conduction paths of the cerebellum (see
pp. 170 ff.), it is readily intelligible that injury to these centres should produce motor disturbances
akin to those set up by injury to the cerebellum itself. Such disturbances have, as a matter of
fact, been observed by BECHTEREW (PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxx., 257).
BECHTEREW found, further, that similar disturbances of equilibrium uniformly result from injury
to the walls of the diacele (ibid., xxxi., 479).
[56] LUCIANI, Il cerveletto, Germ. trans., 282.
[57] FERRIER, in Brain, xvii., 1894, 1 ff.
[58] Edition of 1874, 220.
[59] KAHLER and PICK, Beiträge zur Pathol. u. pathol. Anat. d. Centralnervensystems, 1879.
58.
[60] HITZIG, Der Schwindel, 42 ff.
[61] Cf. the discussion of the voluntary actions. Part IV., Ch. xvii.
[62] GALL, Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux, iii., 1818, 85. COMBE, On the
functions of the cerebellum, 1838.
[63] R. WAGNER, Göttinger Nachrichten, 1860, 32.
[64] LUSSANA. Journal de la physiologie, v., 140.
[65] On phrenology in general, see below, § 6.
[66] LUCIANI, Il cerveletto, Germ. trans., 198. Cf. also FERRIER, Functions of the Brain, 178.
[67] LADAME, Hirngeschwülste, 99.
[68] Cf e.g., NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik, 78 ff. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 635
ff.
[69] LADAE. Hirngeschwülste, 186 f. NOTHNAGEL, Topische Diagnostik der Gehirnkrankheiten,
435 ff. VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 376 ff.
[70] GOLTZ, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xlii., 1886, 484.
[71] LOEB, in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xxxiv., 1884, 67.
[72] GOLTZ, ibid., lvi., 1899, 411.
[73] GOLTZ, ibid., xxxiv., 1884, 450; xlii., 1888, 439.
[74] LONGET, Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux, Germ. trans. by HEIN, i., 539 ff.
[75] Cf. the discussions of the centres of vision, speech and apperception, § 7, below.
[76] See below, Parts IV., V.
[77] LEURET and GRATIOLET, Anatomie comparée du système nerveux, ii., 290. OWEN,
Anatomy of Vertebrates, iii.
[78] HUSCHKE, Schädel, Hirn und Seele, 60. H. WAGNER, Massbestimmungen der Oberfläche
des grossen Gehirns, 1864, 33.

267
[79] TIEDEMAN, Das Hirn des Negers mit dem des Europäers und Orang-Utangs verglichen.
1837. BROCA, Mémoires d'anthropologie, 1871, 191.
[80] GALL and SPURZHEIM, Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux, ii., 251.
[81] R. WAGNER, to whom we owe these reproductions, and those of certain other brains of
eminent men (Dirichlet, C. Fr. Hermann, etc.), was himself somewhat hesitant about drawing this
conclusion (Göttinger gel. Anz., 1860, 65; Vorstudien zu einer wissenshaftl. Morphologie und
Physiologie des Gehirns, 1860, 33). C. VOGT, however, justly remarks that it follows, without
any question, from WAGNER'S own figures, if we select from them the illustrations that really
apply to individuals of acknowledged mental pre-eminence. See also BROCA, Mémoires
d'anthropologie, 155. For the rest, it need not be pointed out that, here as elsewhere, the
concurrent factors of race, height, age, sex, must be taken into consideration. A normal
Hottentot brain in the skull of an European would, as GRATIOLET observed, spell idiocy.
[82] BOUILAUD, Recherches cliniques propres à demontrer que la perte de la parole
correspode à la lésion des lobules antérieures du cerveau et à confirmer l'opinion de M. GALL
etc. In Arch. gén. de méd., viii., 1825.
[83] FLOURENS, Recherches expér. sur les fonctions du système nerveux, 2nd ed. 1842.
[84] See Ch. vii. below.
[85] DESCARTES, Les passions de l'ame, I. See above, p. 124.
[86] See the list in HALLER, Elementa physiologioe, iv., 1762, 397.
[87] See the historical critique of the doctrine of irritability in the author's Lehre von der
Muskelbewegung, 1858, 155.
[88] Elem. physiol., iv., 395.
[89] Ibid., 397.
[90] "Hypothesin esse video et fateor," he cautiously adds. Ibid., 399.
[91] GALL and SPURZHEIM, Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux, i., 1810. Cf. also the
same authors' Recherches sur le système nerveux, etc., 1809 (contains the memoir presented
to the French Institute and the report of the Commissioners). GALL'S two main services to brain
anatomy are his introduction of the method of dissection from below upwards, and his
demonstration of the universally fibrous character of the alba.
[92] GALL'S system is set forth in detail in vols. ii.-iv. of the Anatomie et physiologie.
[93] COMBE, System of Phrenology. 1825 (Germ. trans. by HIRSCHFELD, 1833, 101 f.).
[94] Anat. et physiol., iv., 341.
[95] Ibid., i., 271; ii., 372.
[96] P. J. MÖBIUS, Franz Joseph Gall, in SCHMIDT'S Jahrbuch d. Medicin, cclxii., 1899, 260.
[97] P. J. MÖBIUS, Ueber die Anlage zur Mathematik: mit 51 Bildnissen, 1900.
[98] A criticism of the teachings of phrenology from the standpoint of comparative anatomy is to
be found in LEURET, Anatomie comparée du système nerveux, i.; a criticism based upon the
writer's physiological experiments, in FLOURENS' Examen de la phrenologie, 1842.
[99] MAGENDIE, Leçons sur les fonctions du système nerveux. 1839.
[100] FLOURENS, Recherches expér. sur les fonctions du système nerveux, 2nd ed. 1842.
[101] Cf., e.g., BURDACH, Vom Bau und Leben des Gehirns, iii. ARNOLD, Physiologie, i., 836.
HUSCHKE, Schädel, Hirn und Seele, 174.
[102] BROCA. Sur la siège de la facult du language, 1861.
[103] Cf. especially his discussions in PFLÜGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., xx., 1879, 10 ff.
[104] Cf. Part II., Ch. viii.
[105] See below, Part III., Ch. xiv., on visual ideas.

268
[106] WERNICKE, Der aphasische Symptomencomplex, 1874.
[107] LICHTHEIM, Brain, a Journal of Neurology, vii., 1885, 437. A still simpler plan, including
merely the motor and sensory centres, was suggested by WERNICKE (op. cit.); it forms the
basis of LICHTHEIM'S schema, and is represented in Fig. 103 by the unbroken lines. A plan
resembling LICHTHEIM'S, and factually accordant with it, but somewhat more complicated in
outward appearance, had been drawn some years earlier by KUSSMAUL: Die Störungen der
Sprache, 1877, 183.
[108] Cf. with this discussion the critical remarks in my Völkerpsychologie, i., 1, 1900, 495 ff.
[109] S. FREUD, Zur Auffassung der Aphasien, 1891. STÖRRING, Vorlesungen über
Psychopathologie, 1900, 127 ff.
[110] KUSSMAUL, Störungen der Sprache, 163 f.
[111] GRASHEY'S case, Archiv f. Psychiatrie, xvi., 694 ff. This case, which is one of great
interest, has been further investigated by R. SOMMER (Zeits. f. Psych. U. Physiol. d.
Sinnesorgane, ii., 143) and G. WOLFF (ibid., xv., 1 ff.). Cf. the detailed discussion in my
Völkerpsychologie, i., 1, 1900. 502 ff., and in STÖRRING, Vorlesungen über Psychopathologie,
132 ff. A survey of the very extensive modern literature on aphasia and amnesia is given by O.
VOGT, Zeits. f. Hypnotismus, vi., 1897, 215, 266 ff. Cf. also PICK, Arch. f. Psychiatrie, xxviii., 1
ff., and C. BASTIAN, Aphasia and Other Speech Defects, 1898.
[112] Cf. the fuller psychological discussion of the processes of association in Part V., Ch. xix.
below.
[113] This schema is taken from my Völkerpsychologie, i., 1. 1900, 519 ff. (section on the
psychical structure of word ideas). The reader is referred to this passage for further explanation
the Figure.
[114] Cf. the cases collected by CHARCOT and PITRES (Revue mensuelle. Nov., 1877),
FERRIER (Localisation of Cerebral Disease, 1878), and DE BOYER (Études cliniques, 40, 54);
also BIANCHI, in Brain, xviii., 1895, 497.
[115] The report is printed by FERRIER, op. cit.
[116] Cf. DE BOYER, 45, obs. iv.; 55, obs. xxvii. VON MONAKOW. Gehirnpathologie, 491 ff.
The latter author
reports a similar case from the Zurich clinic, and cites other analogous observations of
JASTROWITZ.
[117] MEYNERT, Vierteljahrsschrift f. Psychiatrie, 1867, 166.
[118] FLATAU and JACOBSOHN, Handbuch d. Anat. u. vergl. Anat. d. Centralnervensystems d.
Säugethiere, i., 536 ff. MARCHAND, Die Morphologie des Stirnlappens, in Arbeiten des pathol.
Instituts zu Marburg, ii., 1893.
[119] H. WAGNER, op. cit.
[120] The reader may refer, for purposes of comparison, to the figures of the brains of GAUSS
and of an individual of moderate intelligence, Figg. 100, 101, p. 285, above.
[121] ZIEHEN, Leitfaden der physiol. Psychologie. 5te Aufl., 195; Introduction to Physiological
Psychology, 1895, 231.
[122] VON MONAKOW, Gehirnpathologie, 492.
[123] Part IV., Ch. xvii.; Part V., Ch. xviii.
[124] See p. 53 above; and cf. Part II., ch. viii., below.
[125] MEYNERT, Vierteljahrsschrift f. Psychiatrie, i., 1867, 80. H. MUNK, Ueber die Functionen
der Grosshirnrinde, Einleitung, 9.

269
[126] For the limitations to be put upon the law of specific energy in its application to the
peripheral sensory elements, cf. below Part III., ch. viii., § 4.

270