The elementary properties of nerve-tissue on which the brain-functions depend are far from being satisfactorily made out. The scheme that suggests itself in the first instance to the mind, because it is so obvious, is certainly false: I mean the notion that each cell stands for an idea or part of an idea, and that the ideas are associated or 'bound into bundles' (to use a phrase of Locke's) by the fibres. If we make a symbolic1 diagram on a blackboard, of the laws of association between ideas, we are inevitably2 led to draw circles, or closed figures of some kind, and to connect them by lines. When we hear that the nerve-centres contain cells which send off fibres, we say that Nature has realized our diagram for us, and that the mechanical substratum of thought is plain. In some way, it is true, our diagram must be realized in the brain; but surely in no such visible and palpable way as we at first suppose. An enormous number of the cellular4 bodies in the hemispheres are fibreless. Where fibres are sent off they soon divide into untraceable ramifications5; and nowwhere do we see a simple coarse anatomical connection, like a line on the blackboard, between two cells. Too much anatomy6 has been found to order for theoretic purposes, even by the anatomists; and the popular-science notions of cells and fibres are almost wholly wide of the truth. Let us therefore relegate7 the subject of the intimate workings of the brain to the physiology8 of the future, save in respect to a few points of which a word must now be said. And first of [sic]
The Summation of Stimuli
[sic] in the same nerve-tract11. This is a property extremely important for the understanding of a great many phenomena12 of the neural13, and consequently of the mental, life; and it behooves14 us to gain a clear conception of what it means before we proceed any farther.
The law is this, that a stimulus15 which would be inadequate16 by itself to excite a nerve-centre to effective discharge may, by acting17 with one or more other stimuli (equally ineffectual by themselves alone) bring the discharge about. The natural way to consider this is as a summation of tensions which at last overcome a resistance. The first of them produce a 'latent excitement' or a 'heightened irritability18'-the phrase is immaterial so far as practical consequences go; the last is the straw which breaks the camel's back. Where the neural process is one that has consciousness for its accompaniment, the final explosion would in all cases seem to involve a vivid state of feeling of a more or less substantive19 kind. But there is no ground for supposing that the tensions whilst yet submaximal or outwardly ineffective, may not also have a share in determining the total consciousness present in the individual at the time. In later chapters we shall see abundant reason to suppose that they do have such a share, and that without their contribution the fringe of relations which is at every moment a vital ingredient of the mind's object, would not come to consciousness at all.
The subject belongs too much to physiology for the evidence to be cited in detail in these pages. I will throw into a note a few references for such readers as may be interested in following it out, and simply say that the direct electrical irritation20 of the cortical centres sufficiently21 proves the point. For it was found by the earliest experimenters here that whereas it takes an exceedingly strong current to produce any movement when a single induction-shock is used, a rapid succession of induction-shocks ('faradization') will produce movements when the current is comparatively weak. A single quotation22 from an excellent investigation23 will exhibit this law under further aspects:
"If we continue to stimulate24 the cortex at short intervals25 with the strength of current which produces the minimal27 muscular contraction28 [of the dog's digital extensor muscle], the amount of contraction gradually increases till it reaches the maximum. Each earlier stimulation29 leaves thus an effect behind it, which increases the efficacy of the following one. In this summation of the stimuli. . . . the following points may be noted31: 1) Single stimuli entirely32 inefficacious when alone may become efficacious by sufficiently rapid reiteration33. If the current used is very much less than that which provokes the first beginning of contraction, a very large number of successive shocks may be needed before the movement appears-20, 50, once 106 shocks were needed. 2) The summation takes place easily in proportion to the shortness of the interval26 between the stimuli. A current too weak to give effective summation when its shocks are 3 seconds apart will be capable of so doing when the interval is shortened to 1 second. 3) Not only electrical irritation leaves a modification34 which goes to swell35 the following stimulus, but every sort of irritant which can produce a contraction does so. If in any way a reflex contraction of the muscle experimented on has been produced, or if it is contracted spontaneously by the animal (as not unfrequently happens 'by sympathy,' during a deep inspiration), it is found that an electrical stimulus, until then inoperative, operates energetically if immediately applied37."
Furthermore:
"In a certain stage of the morphia-narcosis an ineffectively weak shock will become powerfully effective, if, immediately before its appli- cation to the motor centre, the skin of certain parts of the body is exposed to gentle tactile38 stimulation. . . . If, having ascertained39 the subminimal strength of current and convinced one's self repeatedly of its inefficacy, we draw our hand a single time lightly over the skin of the paw whose cortical centre is the object of stimulation, we find the current at once strongly effective. The increase of irritability lasts some seconds before it disappears. Sometimes the effect of a single light stroking of the paw is only sufficient to make the previously41 ineffectual current produce a very weak contraction. Repeating the tactile stimulation will then, as a rule, increase the contraction's extent."
We constantly use the summation of stimuli in our practical appeals. If a car-horse balks42, the final way of starting him is by applying a number of customary incitements at once. If the driver uses reins43 and voice, if one bystander pulls at his head, another lashes44 his hind30 quarters, and the conductor rings the bell, and the dismounted passengers shove the car, all at the same moment, his obstinacy45 generally yields, and he goes on his way rejoicing. If we are striving to remember a lost name or fact, we think of as many 'cues' as possible, so that by their joint46 action they may recall what no one of them can recall alone. The sight of a dead prey47 will often not stimulate a beast to pursuit, but if the sight of movement be added to that of form, pursuit occurs. "Brücke noted that his brainless hen, which made no attempt to peck at the grain under her very eyes, began pecking if the grain were thrown on the ground with force, so as to produce a rattling48 sound." "Dr. Allen Thomson hatched out some chickens on a carpet, where he kept them for several days. They showed no inclination49 to scrape, . . . but when Dr. Thomson sprinkled a little gravel50 on the carpet, . . . the chickens immediately began their scraping movements." A strange person, and darkness, are both of them stimuli to fear and mistrust in dogs (and for the matter of that, in men). Neither circum- stance alone may awaken51 outward manifestations52, but together, i.e. when the stange man is met in the dark, the dog will be excited to violent defiance53. Street-hawkers well know the efficacy of summation, for they arrange themselves in a line upon the sidewalk, and the passer often buys from the last one of them, through the effect of the reiterated54 solicitation55, what he refused to buy from the first in the row. Aphasia56 shows many examples of summation. A patient who cannot name an object simply shown him, will name it if he touches as well as sees it, etc.
Instances of summation might be multiplied indefinetely, but it is hardly worth while to forestall57 subsequent chapters. Those on Instinct, the Stream of Thought, Attention, Discrimination, Association, Memory, Aesthetics58, and Will, will contain numerous exemplifications of the reach of the principle in the purely59 psychological field.
Reaction-Time.
One of the lines of experimental investigation most diligently60 followed of late years is that of the ascertainment61 of the time occupied by nervous events. Helmholtz led off by discovering the rapidity of the current in the sciatic nerve of the frog. But the methods he used were soon applied to the sensory62 nerves and the centres, and the results caused much popular scientific admiration63 when described as measurements of the 'velocity64 of thought.' The phrase 'quick as thought' had from time immemorial signified all that was wonderful and elusive65 of determination in the line of speed; and the way in which Science laid her doomful hand upon this mystery reminded people of the day when Franklin first 'eripuit coelo fulmen,' foreshadowing the region of a newer and colder race of gods. We shall take up the various operations measured, each in the chapter to which it more naturally pertains66. I may say, however, immediately, that the phrase 'velocity of thought' is misleading, for it is by no means clear in any of the cases what particular act of thought occurs during the time which is measured. 'Velocity of nerve-action' is liable to the same criticism, for in most cases we do not know what particular nerve-processes occur. What the times in question really represent is the total duration of certain reactions upon stimuli. Certain of the conditions of the reaction are prepared beforehand; they consist in the assumption of those motor and sensory tensions which we name the expectant state. Just what happens during the actual time occupied by the reaction (in other words, just what is added to the pre-existent tensions to produce the actual discharge) is not made out at present, either from the neural or from the mental point of view.
The method is essentially67 the same is all these investigations68. A signal of some sort is communicated to the subject, and at the same instant records itself on a time-registering apparatus69. The subject then makes a muscular movement of some sort, which is the 'reaction,' and which also records itself automatically. The time found to have elapsed between the two records is the total time of that observation. The time-registering instruments are of various types.
One type is that of the revolving70 drum covered with smoked paper, on which one electric pen traces a line which the signal breaks and the 'reaction' draws again; whilst another electric pen (connected with a pendulum71 or a rod of metal vibrating at a known rate) traces alongside of the former line a 'time-line' of which each undulation or link stands for a certain fraction of a second, and against which the break in the reaction-line can be measured. Compare Fig3.21, where the line is broken by the signal at the first arrow, and continued again by the reaction at the second. Ludwig's Kymograph, Marey's Chronograph are good examples of this type of instrument.
Another type of instrument is represented by the stopwatch, of which the most perfect from is Hipp's Chronoscope. The hand on the dial measures intervals as short as 1/1000 of a second. The signal (by an appropriate electric connection) starts it; the reaction stops it; and by reading off its initial and terminal positions we have immediately and with no farther trouble the time we seek.
A still simpler instrument, though one not very satisfactory in its working, is the 'psychodometer' of Exner & Obersteiner, of which I picture a modification devised by my colleague Professor H.P. Bowditch, which works very well.
The manner in which the signal and reaction are connected with the chronographic apparatus varies indefinitely in different experiments. Every new problem requires some new electric or mechanical disposition72 of apparatus.
The least complicated time-measurement is that known as simple reaction-time, in which there is but one possible signal and one possible movement, and both are known in advance. The movement is generally the closing of an electric key with the hand. The foot, the jaw74, the lips, even the eyelid75, have been in turn made organs of reaction, and the apparatus has been modified accordingly. The time usually elapsing between stimulus and movement lies between one and three tenths of a second, varying according to circumstances which will be mentioned anon.
The subject of experiment, whenever the reactions are short and regular, is in a state of extreme tension, and feels, when the signal comes, as if it started the reaction, by a sort of fatality76, and as if no psychic77 process of perception or volition78 had a chance to intervene. The whole succession is so rapid that perception seems to be retrospective, and the time-order of events to be read off in memory rather than known at the moment. This at least is my own personal experience in the matter, and with it I find others to agree. The question is, What happens inside of us, either in brain or mind? and to answer that we must analyze79 just what processes the reaction involves. It is evident that some time is lost in each of the following stages:
1. The stimulus excites the peripheral80 sense-organ adequately for a current to pass into the sensory nerve;
2. The sensory nerve is traversed;
3. The transformation81 (or reflection) of the sensory into a motor current occurs in the centres;
4. The spinal82 cord and motor nerve are traversed;
5. The motor current excites the muscle to the contracting point.
Time is also lost, of course, outside the muscle, in the joints83, skin, etc., and between the parts of the apparatus; and when the stimulus which serves as signal is applied to the skin of the trunk or limbs, time is lost in the sensorial conduction through the spinal cord.
The stage marked 3 is the only one that interests us here. The other stages answer to purely physiological84 processes, but stage 3 is psycho-physical; that is, it is a higher-central process, and has probably some sort of consciousness accompanying it. What sort?
Wundt has little difficulty in deciding that it is consciousness of a quite elaborate kind. He distinguishes between two stages in the conscious reception of an impression, calling one perception, and the other apperception, and likening the one to the mere85 entrance of an object into the periphery86 of the field of vision, and the other to its coming to occupy the focus or point of view. Inattentive awareness87 of an object, and attention to it, are, it seems to me, equivalents for perception and apperception, as Wundt uses the words. To these two forms of awareness of the impression Wundt adds the conscious volition to react, gives to the trio the name of 'psycho-physical' processes, and assumes that they actually follow upon each other in the succession in which they have been named. So at least I understand him. The simplest way to determine the time taken up by this psycho-physical stage No. 3 would be to determine separately the duration of the several purely physical processes, 1, 2, 4, and 5, and to subtract them from the total reaction-time. Such attempts have been made. But the data for calculation are too inaccurate88 for use, and, as Wundt himself admits, the precise duration of stage 3 must at present be left enveloped89 with that of the other processes, in the total reaction-time.
My own belief is that no such succession of conscious feelings as Wundt describes takes place during stage 3. It is a process of central excitement and discharge, with which doubtless some feeling coexists, but what feeling we cannot tell, because it is so fugitive90 and so immediately eclipsed by the more substantive and enduring memory of the impression as it came in, and of the executed movement of response. Feeling of the impression, attention to it, thought of the reaction, volition to react, would, undoubtedly91, all be links of the process under other conditions, and would lead to the same reaction-after an indefinitely longer time. But these other conditions are not those of the experiments we are discussing; and it is mythological92 psychology93 (of which we shall see many later examples) to conclude that because two mental processes lead to the same result they must be similar in their inward subjective94 constitution. The feeling of stage 3 is certainly no articulate perception. It can be nothing but the mere sense of a reflex discharge. The reaction whose time is measured is, in short, a reflex action pure and simple, and not a psychic act. A foregoing psychic condition is, it is true, a prerequisite95 for this reflex action. The preparation of the attention and volition; the expectation of the signal and the readiness of the hand to move, the instant it shall come; the nervous tension in which the subject waits, are all conditions of the formation in him for the time being of a new path or arc of reflex discharge. The tract from the sense-organ which receives the stimulus, into the motor centre which discharges the reaction, is already tingling96 with premonitory innervation, is raised to such a pitch of heightened irritability by the expectant attention, that the signal is instantaneously sufficient to cause the overflow97. No other tract of the nervous system is, at the moment, in this hair-trigger condition. The consequences is that one sometimes responds to a wrong signal, especially if it be an impression of the same kind with the signal we expect. But if by chance we are tired, or the signal is unexpectedly weak, and we do not react instantly, but only after an express perception that the signal has come, and an express volition, the time becomes quite disproportionately long (a second or more, according to Exner ), and we feel that the process is in nature altogether different.
In fact, the reaction-time experiments are a case to which we can immediately apply what we have just learned about the summation of stimuli. 'Expectant attention' is but the subjective name for what objectively is a partial stimulation of a certain pathway, the pathway from the 'centre' for the signal to that for the discharge. In Chapter XI we shall see that all attention involves excitement from within of the tract concerned in feeling the objects to which attention is given. The tract here is the excito-motor arc about to be traversed. The signal is but the spark from without which touches off a train already laid. The performance, under these conditions, exactly resembles any reflex action. The only difference is that whilst, in the ordinarily so-called reflex acts, the reflex arc is a permanent result of organic growth, it is here a transient result of previous cerebral98 conditions.
I am happy to say that since the preeceding paragraphs (and the notes thereto appertaining) were written, Wundt has himself become converted to the view which I defend. He now admits that in the shortest reactions "there is neither apperception nor will, but that they are merely brain-reflexes due to practice." The means of his conversion99 are certain experiments performed in his laboratory by Herr L. Lange, who was led to distinguish between two ways of setting the attention in reacting on a signal, and who found that they gave very different time-results. In the 'extreme sensorial' way, as Lange calls it, of reacting, one keeps one's mind as intent as possible upon the expected signal, and 'purposely avoids' thinking of the movement to be executed; in the 'extreme muscular' way one 'does not think at all' of the signal, but stands as ready as possible for the movement. The muscular reactions are much shorter than the sensorial ones, the average difference being in the neighborhood of a tenth of a second. Wundt accordingly calls them 'shortened reactions' and, with Lange, admits them to be mere reflexes; whilst the sensorial reactions he calls 'complete,' and holds to his original conception as far as they are concerned. The facts, however, do not seem to me to warrant even this amount of fidelity100 to the original Wundtian position. When we begin to react in the 'extreme sensorial' way, Lange says that we get times so very long that they must be rejected from the count as non-typical. "Only after the reacter has succeeded by repeated and conscientious101 practice in bringing about an extremely precise co-ordination of his voluntary impulse with his sense-impression do we get times which can be regarded as typical sensorial reaction-times." Now it seems to me that these excessive and 'untypical' times are probably the real 'complete times,' the only ones in which distinct processes of actual perception and volition occur (see above, pp.88-9). The typical sensorial time which is attained102 by practice is probably another sort of reflex, less perfect than the reflexes prepared by straining one's attention towards the movement. The times are much more variable in the sensorial way than in the muscular. The several muscular reactions differ little from each other. Only in them does the phenomenon occur of reacting on a false signal, or of reacting before the signal. Times intermediate between these two types occur according as the attention fails to turn itself exclusively to one of the extremes. It is obvious that Herr Lange's distinction between the two types of reaction is a highly important one, and that the 'extreme muscular method,' giving both the shortest times and the most constant ones, ought to be aimed at in all comparative investigations. Herr Lange's own muscular time averaged 0".123; his sensorial time, 0".230.
These reaction-time experiments are then in no sense measurements of the swiftness of thought. Only when we complicate73 them is there a chance for anything like an intellectual operation to occur. They may be complicated in various ways. The reaction may be withheld103 until the signal has consciously awakened104 a distinct idea (Wundt's discrimination-time, association-time) and then performed. Or there may be a variety of possible signals, each with a different reaction assigned to it, and the reacter may be uncertain which one he is about to receive. The reaction would then hardly seem to occur without a preliminary recognition and choice. We shall see, however, in the appropriate chapters, that the discrimination and choice involved in such a reaction are widely different from the intellectual operations of which we are ordinarily conscious under those names. Meanwhile the simple reaction-time remains105 as the starting point of all these superinduced complications. It is the fundamental physiological constant in all time-measurements. As such, its own variations have an interest, and must be briefly106 passed in review.
The reaction-time varies with the individual and his age. An individual may have it particularly long in respect of signals of one sense (Buccola, p.147), but not of others. Old and uncultivated people have it long (nearly a second, in an old pauper107 observed by Exner, Pflüger's Archiv, VII. 612-4). Children have it long (half a second, Herzen in Buccola, p.152).
Practice shortens it to a quantity which is for each individual a minimum beyond which no farther reduction can be made. The aforesaid old pauper's time was, after much practice, reduced to 0.1866 sec. (loc. cit. p.626).
Fatigue108 lengthens110 it.
Concentration of attention shortens it. Details will be given in the chapter on Attention.
The nature of the signal makes it vary. Wundt writes:
"I found that the reaction-time for impressions on the skin with electric stimulus is less than for true touch-sensations, as the following averages show:
| Average | Average Variation | |
| Sound | 0.167 sec. | 0.0221 sec. |
| Light | 0.222 sec. | 0.0219 sec. |
| Electric skin-sensation | 0.201 sec. | 0.0115 sec. |
| Touch-sensation | 0.213 sec. | 0.0134 sec. |
" I here bring together the averages which have been obtained by some other observers:
| Hirsch. | Hankel. | Exner. | |
| Sound | 0.149 | 0.1505 | 0.1360 |
| Light | 0.200 | 0.2246 | 0.1506 |
| Skin-sensation | 0.182 | 0.1546 | 0.1337" |
Thermic reactions have been lately measured by A. Goldscheider and by Vintschgau (1887), who find them slower than reactions from touch. That from heat especially is very slow, more so than from cold, the differences (according to Goldscheider) depending on the nerve-terminations in the skin.
Gustatory reactions were measured by Vintschgau. They differed according to the substances used, running up to half a second as a maximum when identification took place. The mere perception of the presence of the substance on the tongue varied111 from 0".159 to 0".219 (Pflüger's Archiv, XIV.529).
Olfactory112 reactions have been studied by Vintschgau, Buccola, and Beaunis. They are slow, averaging about half a second (cf. Beaunis, Recherches exp. sur l'Activité Cérébrale, 1884, p.49 ff.)
It will be observed that sound is more promptly113 reacted on than either sight or touch. Taste and smell are slower than either. One individual, who reacted to touch upon the tip of the tongue in 0".125, took 0".993 to react upon the taste of quinine applied to the same spot. In another, upon the base of the tongue, the reaction to touch being 0".141, that to sugar was 0".552 (Vintschgau, quoted by Buccola, p.103). Buccola found the reaction to odors to vary from 0".334 to 0".681, according to the perfume used and the individual.
The intensity114 of the signal makes a difference. The intenser the stimulus the shorter the time. Herzen (Grundlinien einer allgem. Psychophysiologie, p.101) compared the reaction from a corn on the toe with that from the skin of the hand of the same subject. The two places were stimulated115 simultaneously116, and the subject tried to react simultaneously with both hand and foot, but the foot always went quickest. When the sound skin of the foot was touched instead of the corn, it was the hand which always reacted first. Wundt tries to show that when the signal is made barely perceptible, the time is probably the same in all the senses, namely about 0.332" (Physiol. Psych., 2d ed., II. 224).
Where the signal is of touch, the place to which it is applied makes a difference in the resultant reaction-time. G.S. Hall and V. Kries found (Archiv f. Anat. u. Physiol., 1879) that when the finger-tip was the place the reaction was shorter than when the middle of the upper arm was used, in spite of the greater length of nerve-trunk to be traversed in the latter case. This discovery invalidates the measurements of the rapidity of transmission of the current in human nerves, for they are all based on the method of comparing reaction-times from places near the root and near the extremity117 of a limb. The same observers found that signals seen by the periphery of the retina gave longer times than the same signals seen by direct vision.
The season makes a difference, the time being some hun- dredths of a second shorter on cold winter days (Vintschgau apud Exner, Hermann's Hdbh., p.270).
Intoxicants alter the time. Coffee and tea appear to shorten it. Small doses of wine and alcohol first shorten and then lengthen109 it; but the shortening stage tends to disappear if a large dose be given immediately. This, at least, is the report of two German observers. Dr. J. W. Warren, whose observations are more thorough than any previous ones, could find no very decided118 effects from ordinary doses (Journal of Physiology, VIII. 311). Morphia lengthens the time. Amyl-nitrite lengthens it, but after the inhalation it may fall to less than the normal. Ether and chloroform lengthen it (for authorities, etc., see Buccola, p.189).
Certain diseased states naturally lengthen the time.
The hypnotic trance has no constant effect, sometimes shortening and sometimes lengthening119 it (Hall, Mind, VIII. 170; James, Proc. Am. Soc. for Psych. Research, 246).
The time taken to inhibit120 a movement (e.g. to cease contraction of jaw-muscles) seems to be about the same as to produce one (Gad, Archiv f.(Anat.u.) Physiol., 1887, 468; Orchansky, ibid., 1889, 1885).
An immense amount of work has been done on reaction-time, of which I have cited but a small part. It is a sort of work which appeals particularly to patient and exact minds, and they have not failed to profit by the opportunity.
Cerebral Blood-Supply.
The next point to occupy our attention is the changes of circulation which accompany cerebral activity.
All parts of the cortex, when electrically excited, produce alterations121 both of respiration123 and circulation. The blood-pressure rises, as a rule, all over the body, no matter where the cortical irritation is applied, though the motor zone is the most sensitive region for the purpose. Elsewhere the current must be strong enough for an epileptic attack to be produced. Slowing and quickening of the heart are also observed, and are independent of the vaso-constrictive phenomenon. Mosso, using his ingenious 'plethysmo- graph' as an indicator124, discovered that the blood-supply to the arms diminished during intellectual activity, and found furthermore that the arterial tension (as shown by the sphygmograph) was increased in these members (see Fig.23).
So slight an emotion as that produced by the entrance of Professor Ludwig into the laboratory was instantly followed by a shrinkage of the arms. The brain itself is an excessively vascular125 organ, a sponge full of blood, in fact; and another of Mosso's inventions showed that when less blood went to the arms, more went to the head. The subject to be observed lay on a delicately balanced table which could tip downward either at the head or at the foot if the weight of either end were increased. The moment emotional or intellectual activity began in the subject, down went the balance at the head-end, in consequence of the redistribution of blood in his system. But the best proof of the immediate36 afflux of blood to the brain during mental activity is due to Mosso's observations on three persons whose brain had been laid bare by lesion of the skull126. By means of apparatus described in his book, this physiologist127 was enabled to let the brain-pulse record itself directly by a tracing. The intra-cranial blood-pressure rose immediately whenever the subject was spoken to, or when he began to think actively128, as in solving a problem in mental arithmetic. Mosso gives in his work a large number of reproductions of tracings which show the instantaneity of the change of blood-supply, whenever the mental activity was quickened by any cause whatever, intellectual or emotional. He relates of his female subject that one day whilst tracing her brain-pulse he observed a sudden rise with no apparent outer or inner cause. She however confessed to him afterwards that at that moment she had caught sight of a skull on top of a piece of furniture in the room, and that this had given her a slight emotion.
The fluctuations129 of the blood-supply to the brain were independent of respiratory changes, and followed the quickening of mental activity almost immediately. We must suppose a very delicate adjustment whereby the circulation follows the needs of the cerebral activity. Blood very likely may rush to each region of the cortex according as it is most active, but of this we know nothing. I need hardly say that the activity of the nervous matter is the primary phenomenon, and the afflux of blood its secondary consequence. Many popular writers talk as if it were the other way about, and as if mental activity were due to the afflux of blood. But, as Professor H.N. Martin has well said, "that belief has no physiological foundation whatever; it is even directly opposed to all that we know of cell life." A chronic130 pathological congestion131 may, it is true, have secondary consequences, but the primary congestions which we have been considering follow the activity of the brain-cells by an adaptive reflex vaso-motor mechanism132 doubtless as elaborate as that which harmonizes blood-supply with cell-action in any muscle or gland133. Of the changes in the cerebral circulation during sleep, I will speak in the chapter which treats of that subject.
Cerebral Thermometry.
Brain-activity seems accompanied by a local disengagement of heat. The earliest careful work in this direction was by Dr. J.S. Lombard in 1867. Dr. Lombard's latest results include the records of over 60,000 observations. He noted the changes in delicate thermometers and electric piles placed against the scalp in human beings, and found that any intellectual effort, such as computing134, composing, reciting poetry silently or aloud, and especially that emotional excitement such as an anger fit, caused a general rise of temperature, which rarely exceeded a degree Fahrenheit135. The rise was in most cases more marked in the middle region of the head than elsewhere. Strange to say, it was greater in reciting poetry silently than in reciting it aloud. Dr. Lombard's explanation is that "in internal recitation an additional portion of energy, which in recitation aloud, was converted into nervous and muscular force, now appears as heat." I should suggest rather, if we must have a theory, that the surplus of heat in recitation to one's self is due to inhibitory processes which are absent when we recite aloud. In the chapter on the Will we shall see that the simple central process is to speak when we think; to think silently involves a check in addition. In 1870 the indefatigable136 Schiff took up the subject, experimenting on live dogs and chickens, plunging137 thermo-electric needles into the substance of their brain, to eliminate possible errors from vascular changes in the skin when the thermometers were placed upon the scalp. After habituation was established, he tested the animals with various sensations, tactile, optic, olfactory, and auditory. He found very regularly an immediate deflection of the galvanometer, indicating an abrupt138 alteration122 of the intra-cerebral temperature. When, for instance, he presented an empty roll of paper to the nose of his dog as it lay motionless, there was a small deflection, but when a piece of meat was in the paper the deflection was much greater. Schiff concluded from these and other experiments that sensorial activity heats the brain-tissue, but he did not try to localize the increment139 of heat beyond finding that it was in both hemispheres, whatever might be the sensation applied. Dr. R.W. Amidon in 1880 made a farther step forward, in localizing the heat produced by voluntary muscular contractions140. Applying a number of delicate surface-thermometers simultaneously against the scalp, he found that when different muscles of the body were made to contract vigorously for ten minutes or more, different regions of the scalp rose in temperature, that the regions were well focalized, and that the rise of temperature was often considerably141 over a Fahrenheit degree. As a result of his investigations he gives a diagram in which numbered regions represent the centres of highest temperature for the various special movements which were investigated. To a large extent they correspond to the centres for the same movements assigned by Ferrier and others on other grounds; only they cover more of the skull.
Phosphorus and Thought.Chemical action must of course accompany brain-activity. But little definite is known of its exact nature. Cholesterin and creatin are both excrementitious products, and are both found in the brain. The subject belongs to chemistry rather than to psychology, and I only mention it here for the sake of saying a word about a wide-spread popular error about brain-activity and phosphorus. 'Ohne Phosphor, kein Gedanke,' was a noted war-cry of the 'materialists' during the excitement on that subject which filled Germany in the '60s. The brain, like every other organ of the body, contains phosphorus, and a score of other chemicals besides. Why the phosphorus should be picked out as its essence, no one knows. It would be equally true to say 'Ohne Wasser kein Gedanke,' or 'Ohne Kochsalz kein Gedanke'; for thought would stop as quickly if the brain should dry up or lose its NaCl as if it lost its phosphorus. In America the phosphorus-delusion has twined itself round a saying quoted (rightly or wrongly) from Professor L. Agassiz, to the effect that fishermen are more intelligent than farmers because they eat so much fish, which contains so much phosphorus. All the facts may be doubted.
The only straight way to ascertain40 the importance of phosphorus to thought would be to find whether more is excreted by the brain during mental activity than during rest. Unfortunately we cannot do this directly, but can only gauge142 the amount of PO5 in the urine, which represents other organs as well as the brain, and this procedure, as Dr. Edes says, is like measuring the rise of water at the mouth of the Mississippi to tell where there has been a thunder-storm in Minnesota. It has been adopted, however, by a variety of observers, some of whom found the phosphates in the urine diminished, whilst others found them increased, by intellectual work. On the whole, it is impossible to trace any constant relation. In maniacal143 excitement less phosphorus than usual seems to be excreted. More is excreted during sleep. There are differences between the alkaline and earthy phosphates into which I will not enter, as my only aim is to show that the popular way of looking at the matter has no exact foundation. The fact that phosphorous-preparations may do good in nervous exhaustion144 proves nothing as to the part played by phosphorus in mental activity. Like iron, arsenic145, and other remedies it is a stimulant146 or tonic147, of whose intimate workings in the system we know absolutely nothing, and which moreover does good in an extremely small number of the cases in which it is prescribed.
The phosphorous-philosophers have often compared thought to a secretion148. "The brain secretes149 thought, as the kidneys secrete150 urine, or as the liver secretes bile," are phrases which one sometimes hears. The lame151 analogy need hardly be pointed152 out. The materials which the brain pours into the blood (cholesterin, creatin, xanthin, or whatever they may be) are the analogues153 of the urine and the bile, being in fact real material excreta. As far as these matters go, the brain is a ductless gland. But we know of nothing connected with liver-and kidney-activity which can be in the remotest degree compared with the stream of thought that accompanies the brain's material secretions154.
There remains another feature of general brain-physiology, and indeed for psychological purposes the most important feature of all. I refer to the aptitude155 of the brain for acquiring habits. But I will treat of that in a chapter by itself.
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symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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fig
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| n.无花果(树) | |
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cellular
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| adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的 | |
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ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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relegate
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| v.使降级，流放，移交，委任 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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summation
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| n.总和；最后辩论 | |
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stimuli
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| n.刺激（物） | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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neural
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| adj.神经的，神经系统的 | |
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behooves
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| n.利益，好处( behoof的名词复数 )v.适宜( behoove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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substantive
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| adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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minimal
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| adj.尽可能少的，最小的 | |
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contraction
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| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
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stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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reiteration
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| n. 重覆, 反覆, 重说 | |
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modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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tactile
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| adj.触觉的，有触觉的，能触知的 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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balks
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的第三人称单数 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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solicitation
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| n.诱惑；揽货；恳切地要求；游说 | |
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aphasia
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| n.失语症 | |
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forestall
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| vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止 | |
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aesthetics
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| n.(尤指艺术方面之)美学，审美学 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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ascertainment
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| n.探查，发现，确认 | |
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sensory
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| adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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pertains
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| 关于( pertain的第三人称单数 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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complicate
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| vt.使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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fatality
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| n.不幸，灾祸，天命 | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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peripheral
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| adj.周边的，外围的 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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spinal
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| adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的 | |
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joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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periphery
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| n.(圆体的)外面；周围 | |
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awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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inaccurate
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| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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mythological
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| adj.神话的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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prerequisite
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| n.先决条件；adj.作为前提的，必备的 | |
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tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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overflow
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| v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出 | |
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cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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lengthens
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的第三人称单数 ) | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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olfactory
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| adj.嗅觉的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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inhibit
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| vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制 | |
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alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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indicator
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| n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器 | |
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vascular
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| adj.血管的，脉管的 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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physiologist
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| n.生理学家 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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congestion
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| n.阻塞，消化不良 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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gland
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| n.腺体，(机)密封压盖，填料盖 | |
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computing
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| n.计算 | |
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Fahrenheit
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| n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的) | |
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indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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increment
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| n.增值，增价；提薪，增加工资 | |
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contractions
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| n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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arsenic
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| n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的 | |
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stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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secretion
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| n.分泌 | |
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secretes
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的第三人称单数 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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analogues
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| 相似物( analogue的名词复数 )； 类似物； 类比； 同源词 | |
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secretions
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| n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 ) | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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