How to Care for the Insane: A Manual for NursesGranger, William D.
Science
How to Care for the Insane: A Manual for Nurses
Granger, William D.
Psychiatric nursing
We know there is something we call mind, because we know something of its
way of working, or its faculties. What mind is we do not know, but we know
it is not matter, because matter is something that occupies space, and has
qualities that do not belong to mind. We say of mind, it reasons,
remembers, or wills; of matter, that it is hard or soft, or cold or
elastic, or that it has color; speaking always of the faculties of mind or
what it does, and of the qualities of matter, or what it is. We do not
know what matter is, only how it appears to us; we know it is not mind
because mind is something spiritual, and possessed of faculties or powers
that do not belong to matter.
_Mind and Matter_ are the only forms of existence of which we have any
knowledge.
We speak of matter as inorganic--that is, without life, as iron, water,
oxygen; and as organic, or matter plus something we call life. Life
appears in two forms, namely, vegetable and animal. The lowest forms of
animal life have no nervous system, but as we ascend in the scale the
nervous system appears, and becomes more and more complete.
Man possesses the most perfect nervous system, has the most perfect
brain, and also an intelligence far above that of any other animal, and is
endowed with some mental faculties that belong to him alone. The brain may
be said to be the organ of the mind, but we do not know what is the true
relation between them; that is, how the brain is acted upon by the mind,
or how the action of the mind affects the brain. Brain is matter, and very
solid matter as well, mind is immaterial, or spiritual, and the exact
connection between something material and something spiritual has never
been made out and never will be.
Some say the brain makes mind a good deal as liver makes bile, or the
glands of the mouth make saliva, or the cells of the brain make motor
impulses, and if the brain does not act there is no mind made; so much
cell action, so much memory, reason, or will produced. But how, it is
immediately asked, is something material to make something immaterial?
Others say that mind is something, and has an existence of its own, and,
though spiritual, acts upon its organ, the brain, and by so doing, we are
conscious that we see, reason, remember, and will. But how, it is
immediately asked, does something immaterial act upon something material?
We do not know, and we probably never shall know. This intimate connection
between mind and matter exists during life only; it begins with life and
ends with life.
We must then come back to the starting-point--there are two forms of
existence, mind and matter. We do not know what either really is, but only
the faculties or working of our minds, and the qualities or appearance of
matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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