The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.Lewes, George Henry
Philosophy
The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.
Lewes, George Henry
Mind and body; Psychophysiology
98. Although analysis distinguishes the two elements of the
neuro-muscular system, assigning separate properties to the separate
tissues, an interpretation of the phenomena demands a synthesis, so
that a movement is to be conceived as always involving Sensibility,
and a sensation as always involving Motility.[126] In like manner,
although analysis distinguishes the various organs of the body,
assigning separate functions to each, our interpretation demands their
synthesis into an organism; and we have thus to explain how the _whole_
has different _parts_, and how these different parts are brought into
unity. Embryology helps us to complete the fragmentary indications of
Anatomy and Physiology.
99. Take a newly laid egg, weigh it carefully, then hatch it, and when
the chick emerges, weigh both chick and shell: you will find that
there has been no increase of weight. The semifluid contents have
become transformed into bones, muscles, nerves, tendons, feathers,
beak, and claws, all without increase of substance. There has been
_differentiation_ of structure, nothing else. Oxygen has passed into
it from without; carbonic acid has passed out of it. The molecular
agitation of heat has been required for the rearrangements of the
substance. Without oxygen there would have been no development. Without
heat there would have been none. Had the shell been varnished, so as to
prevent the due exchange of oxygen and carbonic acid, no chick would
have been evolved. Had only one part of the shell been varnished, the
embryo would have been deformed.
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