THE SEAT OF THE SOUL.
In a work entitled v Fon;e and Matter," being empiro-philosophicul studies intelligibly rendered by Dr Louis Buchner, of Hesse-Darmstadt, the following remark by Professor Erdmann, of Halle, is introduced in a chapter on ihe scat of the t-nul : " The theory that the soul has its seat in the brain, must lead to the msul' that, when the body is separated from the heud, the .soul should continue to exist." Dr buchner sa\s this " would undoubtedly be the ease if we were able, in an artificial manner, to supply the brain with a continued stream of blnod necessary for its nourish". out, integii.y, and action. This,'' he Rays, " has been fully verified by the experiments of physiologists. For inKtsince,un decapitating an animal, say a doj; or rabbi c, tlie severed head gradually loses its excitability, the eye- : lids are closeil, the eyes rigid, the nostrils immovable. Now, if at thai moment blood of a bright red, and deprived of its fibrous matter, be mii jtcted into the arteries of the brain, the previously lifeless head reanimates; the
eyelids open, the nostrils expand, warmth and sensibility return, tho eyes revive, look at the bystanders and move in their sockets. If the animal be called by its name, the eyes turn in the direction whence the sound came. These signs of returning life last as long as the injection is continued, and vanish and reappear as the operation is suspended or recommenced. These experiments have not yet been tried on human heads severed from their bodies, but we may safely assume that the same results would follow. But Brown Sequard, to whom especially we are indebted for these investigations, made the attempt on a human arm recently cut oIY, though already cold and insensible. In a few moments, warmth, sensibility, contraction of the muscles, in fact, all tho normal activities returned, and M. Browu-Sequard was enabled to repeat the experiment with the same success, until sheer fatigue compelled him to desist.
THE SEAT OF THE SOUL.
Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3175, 17 April 1871, Page 3
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