Zoonomia Volume I Part 2

6. The organs of sense, like the moving muscles, are liable to become benumbed, or less sensible, from compression. Thus, if any person on a light day looks on a white wall, he may perceive the ramifications of the optic artery, at every pulsation of it, represented by darker branches on the white wall; which is evidently owing to its compressing the retina during the diastole of the artery. Savage Nosolog.

7. The organs of sense and the moving muscles are alike liable to be affected with palsy, as in the gutta serena, and in some cases of deafness; and one side of the face has sometimes lost its power of sensation, but retained its power of motion; other parts of the body have lost their motions but retained their sensation, as in the common hemiplagia; and in other instances both these powers have perished together.

8. In some convulsive diseases a delirium or insanity supervenes, and the convulsions cease; and conversely the convulsions shall supervene, and the delirium cease. Of this I have been a witness many times in a day in the paroxysms of violent epilepsies; which evinces that one kind of delirium is a convulsion of the organs of sense, and that our ideas are the motions of these organs: the subsequent cases will ill.u.s.trate this observation.

Miss G----, a fair young lady, with light eyes and hair, was seized with most violent convulsions of her limbs, with outrageous hiccough, and most vehement efforts to vomit: after near an hour was elapsed this tragedy ceased, and a calm talkative delirium supervened for about another hour; and these relieved each other at intervals during the greatest part of three or four days. After having carefully considered this disease, I thought the convulsions of her ideas less dangerous than those of her muscles; and having in vain attempted to make any opiate continue in her stomach, an ounce of laudanum was rubbed along the spine of her back, and a dram of it was used as an enema; by this medicine a kind of drunken delirium was continued many hours; and when it ceased the convulsions did not return; and the lady continued well many years, except some lighter relapses, which were relieved in the same manner.

Miss H----, an accomplished young lady, with light eyes and hair, was seized with convulsions of her limbs, with hiccough, and efforts to vomit, more violent than words can express; these continued near an hour, and were succeeded with a cataleptic spasm of one arm, with the hand applied to her head; and after about twenty minutes these spasms ceased, and a talkative reverie supervened for near an other hour, from which no violence, which it was proper to use, could awaken her. These periods of convulsions, first of the muscles, and then of the ideas, returned twice a day for several weeks; and were at length removed by great doses of opium, after a great variety of other medicines and applications had been in vain experienced. This lady was subject to frequent relapses, once or twice a year for many years, and was as frequently relieved by the same method.

Miss W----, an elegant young lady, with black eyes and hair, had sometimes a violent pain of her side, at other times a most painful strangury, which were every day succeeded by delirium; which gave a temporary relief to the painful spasms. After the vain exhibition of variety of medicines and applications by different physicians, for more than a twelvemonth, she was directed to take some doses of opium, which were gradually increased, by which a drunken delirium was kept up for a day or two, and the pains prevented from returning. A flesh diet, with a little wine or beer, instead of the low regimen she had previously used, in a few weeks completely established her health; which, except a few relapses, has continued for many years.

9. Lastly, as we advance in life all the parts of the body become more rigid, and are rendered less susceptible of new habits of motion, though they retain those that were before established. This is sensibly observed by those who apply themselves late in life to music, fencing, or any of the mechanic arts. In the same manner many elderly people retain the ideas they had learned early in life, but find great difficulty in acquiring new trains of memory; insomuch that in extreme old age we frequently see a forgetfulness of the business of yesterday, and at the same time a circ.u.mstantial remembrance of the amus.e.m.e.nts of their youth; till at length the ideas of recollection and activity of the body gradually cease together,--such is the condition of humanity!--and nothing remains but the vital motions and sensations.

VI. 1. In opposition to this doctrine of the production of our ideas, it may be asked, if some of our ideas, like other animal motions, are voluntary, why can we not invent new ones, that have not been received by perception? The answer will be better understood after having perused the succeeding section, where it will be explained, that the muscular motions likewise are originally excited by the stimulus of bodies external to the moving organ; and that the will has only the power of repeating the motions thus excited.

2. Another objector may ask, Can the motion of an organ of sense resemble an odour or a colour? To which I can only answer, that it has not been demonstrated that any of our ideas resemble the objects that excite them; it has generally been believed that they do not; but this shall be discussed at large in Sect. XIV.

3. There is another objection that at first view would seem less easy to surmount. After the amputation, of a foot or a finger, it has frequently happened, that an injury being offered to the stump of the amputated limb, whether from cold air, too great pressure, or other accidents, the patient has complained, of a sensation of pain in the foot or finger, that was cut off. Does not this evince that all our ideas are excited in the brain, and not in the organs of sense? This objection is answered, by observing that our ideas of the shape, place, and solidity of our limbs, are acquired by our organs of touch and of sight, which are situated in our fingers and eyes, and not by any sensations in the limb itself.

In this case the pain or sensation, which formerly has arisen in the foot or toes, and been propagated along the nerves to the central part of the sensorium, was at the same time accompanied with a visible idea of the shape and place, and with a tangible idea of the solidity of the affected limb: now when these nerves are afterwards affected by any injury done to the remaining stump with a similar degree or kind of pain, the ideas of the shape, place, or solidity of the lost limb, return by a.s.sociation; as these ideas belong to the organs of sight and touch, on which they were first excited.

4. If you wonder what organs of sense can be excited into motion, when you call up the ideas of wisdom or benevolence, which Mr. Locke has termed abstracted ideas; I ask you by what organs of sense you first became acquainted with these ideas? And the answer will be reciprocal; for it is certain that all our ideas were originally acquired by our organs of sense; for whatever excites our perception must be external to the organ that perceives it, and we have no other inlets to knowledge but by our perceptions: as will be further explained in Section XIV. and XV. on the Productions and Cla.s.ses of Ideas.

VII. If our recollection or imagination be not a repet.i.tion of animal movements, I ask, in my turn, What is it? You tell me it consists of images or pictures of things. Where is this extensive canvas hung up? or where are the numerous receptacles in which those are deposited? or to what else in the animal system have they any similitude?

That pleasing picture of objects, represented in miniature on the retina of the eye, seems to have given rise to this illusive oratory! It was forgot that this representation belongs rather to the laws of light, than to those of life; and may with equal elegance be seen in the camera obscura as in the eye; and that the picture vanishes for ever, when the object is withdrawn.

SECT. IV.

LAWS OF ANIMAL CAUSATION.

I. The fibres, which const.i.tute the muscles and organs of sense, possess a power of contraction. The circ.u.mstances attending the exertion of this power of CONTRACTION const.i.tute the laws of animal motion, as the circ.u.mstances attending the exertion of the power of ATTRACTION const.i.tute the laws of motion of inanimate matter.

II. The spirit of animation is the immediate cause of the contraction of animal fibres, it resides in the brain and nerves, and is liable to general or partial diminution or acc.u.mulation.

III. The stimulus of bodies external to the moving organ is the remote cause of the original contractions of animal fibres.

IV. A certain quant.i.ty of stimulus produces irritation, which is an exertion of the spirit of animation exciting the fibres into contraction.

V. A certain quant.i.ty of contraction of animal fibres, if it be perceived at all, produces pleasure; a greater or less quant.i.ty of contraction, if it be perceived at all, produces pain; these const.i.tute sensation.

VI. A certain quant.i.ty of sensation produces desire or aversion; these const.i.tute volition.

VII. All animal motions which have occurred at the same time, or in immediate succession, become so connected, that when one of them is reproduced, the other has a tendency to accompany or succeed it. When fibrous contractions succeed or accompany other fibrous contractions, the connection is termed a.s.sociation; when fibrous contractions succeed sensorial motions, the connexion is termed causation; when fibrous and sensorial motions reciprocally introduce each other, it is termed catenation of animal motions. All these connections are said to be produced by habit, that is, by frequent repet.i.tion. These laws of animal causation will be evinced by numerous facts, which occur in our daily exertions; and will afterwards be employed to explain the more recondite phaenomena of the production, growth, diseases, and decay of the animal system.

SECT. V.

OF THE FOUR FACULTIES OR MOTIONS OF THE SENSORIUM.

1. _Four sensorial powers._ 2. _Irritation, sensation, volition, a.s.sociation defined._ 3. _Sensorial motions distinguished from fibrous motions._

1. The spirit of animation has four different modes of action, or in other words the animal sensorium possesses four different faculties, which are occasionally exerted, and cause all the contractions of the fibrous parts of the body. These are the faculty of causing fibrous contractions in consequence of the irritations excited by external bodies, in consequence of the sensations of pleasure or pain, in consequence of volition, and in consequence of the a.s.sociations of fibrous contractions with other fibrous contractions, which precede or accompany them.

These four faculties of the sensorium during their inactive state are termed irritability, sensibility, voluntarity, and a.s.sociability; in their active state they are termed as above, irritation, sensation, volition, a.s.sociation.

2. IRRITATION is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequence of the appulses of external bodies.

SENSATION is an exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it, _beginning_ at some of those extreme parts of it, which reside in the muscles or organs of sense.

VOLITION is an exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it, _terminating_ in some of those extreme parts of it, which reside in the muscles or organs of sense.

a.s.sOCIATION is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequence of some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions.

3. These four faculties of the animal sensorium may at the time of their exertions be termed motions without impropriety of language; for we cannot pa.s.s from a state of insensibility or inaction to a state of sensibility or of exertion without some change of the sensorium, and every change includes motion. We shall therefore sometimes term the above described faculties _sensorial motions_ to distinguish them from _fibrous motions_; which latter expression includes the motions of the muscles and organs of sense.

The active motions of the fibres, whether those of the muscles or organs of sense, are probably simple contractions; the fibres being again elongated by antagonist muscles, by circulating fluids, or sometimes by elastic ligaments, as in the necks of quadrupeds. The sensorial motions, which const.i.tute the sensations of pleasure or pain, and which const.i.tute volition, and which cause the fibrous contractions in consequence of irritation or of a.s.sociation, are not here supposed to be fluctuations or refluctuations of the spirit of animation; nor are they supposed to be vibrations or revibrations, nor condensations or equilibrations of it; but to be changes or motions of it peculiar to life.

SECT. VI.

OF THE FOUR CLa.s.sES OF FIBROUS MOTIONS.

I. _Origin of fibrous contractions._ II. _Distribution of them into four cla.s.ses, irritative motions, sensitive motions, voluntary motions, and a.s.sociate motions, defined._

I. All the fibrous contractions of animal bodies originate from the sensorium, and resolve themselves into four cla.s.ses, correspondent with the four powers or motions of the sensorium above described, and from which they have their causation.

1. These fibrous contractions were originally caused by the irritations excited by objects, which are external to the moving organ. As the pulsations of the heart are owing to the irritations excited by the stimulus of the blood; and the ideas of perception are owing to the irritations excited by external bodies.

2. But as painful or pleasurable sensations frequently accompanied those irritations, by habit these fibrous contractions became causeable by the sensations, and the irritations ceased to be necessary to their production.

As the secretion of tears in grief is caused by the sensation of pain; and the ideas of imagination, as in dreams or delirium, are excited by the pleasure or pain, with which they were formerly accompanied.

3. But as the efforts of the will frequently accompanied these painful or pleasureable sensations, by habit the fibrous contractions became causable by volition; and both the irritations and sensations ceased to be necessary to their production. As the deliberate locomotions of the body, and the ideas of recollection, as when we will to repeat the alphabet backwards.

4. But as many of these fibrous contractions frequently accompanied other fibrous contractions, by habit they became causable by their a.s.sociations with them; and the irritations, sensations, and volition, ceased to be necessary to their production. As the actions of the muscles of the lower limbs in fencing are a.s.sociated with those of the arms; and the ideas of suggestion are a.s.sociated with other ideas, which precede or accompany them; as in repeating carelessly the alphabet in its usual order after having began it.

II. We shall give the following names to these four cla.s.ses of fibrous motions, and subjoin their definitions.

1. Irritative motions. That exertion or change of the sensorium, which is caused by the appulses of external bodies, either simply subsides, or is succeeded by sensation, or it produces fibrous motions; it is termed irritation, and irritative motions are those contractions of the muscular fibres, or of the organs of sense, that are immediately consequent to this exertion or change of the sensorium.

2. Sensitive motions. That exertion or change of the sensorium, which const.i.tutes pleasure or pain, either simply subsides, or is succeeded by volition, or it produces fibrous motions; it is termed sensation, and the sensitive motions are those contractions of the muscular fibres, or of the organs of sense, that are immediately consequent to this exertion or change of the sensorium.

3. Voluntary motions. That exertion or change of the sensorium, which const.i.tutes desire or aversion, either simply subsides, or is succeeded by fibrous motions; it is then termed volition, and voluntary motions are those contractions of the muscular fibres, or of the organs of sense, that are immediately consequent to this exertion or change of the sensorium.