Abstract
An anatomist as such has no affair with the analysis of mental processes. My professional work consists in attempts to understand the structural relations of the several parts of the central nervous system; to give, what is very far from complete as yet, an account of the mechanism by which thought is produced; not to explain its mode of working. Still it is impossible for any one who is constantly occupied in the study of the Brain to avoid speculating as to the way in which it does its work. Feeling, emotion, though all the manifold phenomena of mind-life are but the products of the brain's activity; how far does a study of the apparatus in which they are produced help us to classify these phenomena? How far does a subjective analysis of the phenomena help us to understand the Construction of the Machine? Wide as is the gap between the tissue which lies upon the stage of the microscope and the functions of which, when alive, that tissue was the seat, the anatomist who is constantly occupied in the study of the nervous system cannot refrain from attempting to answer the question: "How does it do its work?" Fastening facts as steps upon the face of the knowable, we attempt to climb as far as they will carry us in order that we may take a wider survey of the unknowable, we attempt to climb as far as they will carry us in order that we may take a wider survey of the unknowable. No two thinkers assign to their data the same value, or use them in the same way; nor have we any means of deciding who has climbed the highest or sees the farthest. The views which I wish to lay before you to-night are merely the reflections of an anatomist as to the functions of the tissue at which he works, not the analysis by the psychologist of metaphysician of the phenomena of mental action. Nevertheless, this paper must to a certain extent treat of its subject from both sides. Looking up from the microscope the anatomist asks himself: "What is the work which the brain has to do?" Attempting to picture it in action he turns from the fabric to the machine, from the machine to the fabric, in his efforts to realise the relation between the two.