Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
If we now turn from the comparative study of psychic life in different
animals to the question of the organs of this function, we receive the
answer that in all the higher animals they are always bound up with
certain groups of cells, the ganglionic cells or neurona that compose
the nervous system. All scientists without exception are agreed that
the central nervous system is the organ of psychic life in the animal,
and it is possible to prove this experimentally at any moment. When we
partially or wholly destroy the central nervous system, we extinguish
in the same proportion, partially or wholly, the "soul" or psychic
activity of the animal. We have, therefore, to examine the features of
the psychic organ in man. The reader already knows the incontestable
answer to this question. Man's psychic organ is, in structure and
origin, just the same organ as in all the other Vertebrates. It
originates in the shape of a simple medullary tube from the outer
membrane of the embryo--the skin-sense layer. The simple cerebral
vesicle that is formed by the expansion of the head-part of this
medullary tube divides by transverse constrictions into five, and
these pass through more or less the same stages of construction in the
human embryo as in the rest of the mammals. As these are undoubtedly
of a common origin, their brain and spinal cord must also have a
common origin.
Physiology teaches us further, on the ground of observation and
experiment, that the relation of the "soul" to its organ, the brain
and spinal cord, is just the same in man as in the other mammals. The
one cannot act at all without the other; it is just as much bound up
with it as muscular movement is with the muscles. It can only develop
in connection with it. If we are evolutionists at all, and grant the
causal connection of ontogenesis and phylogenesis, we are forced to
admit this thesis: The human soul or psyche, as a function of the
medullary tube, has developed along with it; and just as brain and
spinal cord now develop from the simple medullary tube in every human
individual, so the human mind or the psychic life of the whole human
race has been gradually evolved from the lower vertebrate soul. Just
as to-day the intricate structure of the brain proceeds step by step
from the same rudiment in every human individual--the same five
cerebral vesicles--as in all the other Craniotes; so the human soul
has been gradually developed in the course of millions of years from a
long series of craniote-souls. Finally, just as to-day in every human
embryo the various parts of the brain differentiate after the special
type of the ape-brain, so the human psyche has proceeded historically
from the ape-soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account