The Brain as an Organ of Mind

Abstract

WITHOUT preface or other proposition than that suggested by the title of his book, Dr. Bastian commences to deal with his subject, by an inquiry into the Uses and Origin and the Structure of a Nervous System. His motive, as expressed farther on, in giving such a wide scope to himself in his method of exposition was to ascertain whether the general similarity in structure of the nervous system in the lower animals as compared with that of man, “carried with it a general similarity in mode of action.” To all those who, like Dr. Bastian, look upon mental phenomena from the evolutionary aspect—aiming as they do at reducing psychology to a more or less transcendental branch of physiology—this, if not a necessary, seems at least to be a favourite plan; Such readers as require to be initiated into the earliest mysteries of zoology and physiology must find this method a useful one, inasmuch as by submitting themselves to the guidance of an accomplished and trustworthy guide such as Dr. Bastian, they are led with ease and interest through a field of attractive information to the consideration of the main problem which the author keeps continually in view. To the author himself, however, the method is one which is not free from disadvantages. It leads him, for instance, at the very beginning of his task into the most hypothetical region of evolutionism, namely; that which has it do with the commencement of divergences from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous in structure and function; and so affords to sceptics and even to others who may have a stronger predisposition to accept his views, an opportunity of assigning to his argument a weakness which is inherent not in the argument itself but in the present state of a rapidly-progressing branch of science, of which he has submitted a sketch for the guidance of his readers. When Dr. Bastian, for instance, discusses the method in which muscular tissue may be produced by recurring contractions, his language is necessarily so hypothetical that his readers may incline to think that a work which commences in such a nebulous form can scarcely end in the satisfactory exposition of a new philosophy. It is a pity that false conclusions should be suggested by sentences which have no direct or essential connection with the author's argument.

The Brain as an Organ of Mind.

By H. Charlton Bastian. International Scientific Series. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., 1880.)