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
dependent on its relation to other parts, do we gain any larger insight
by crediting these parts with desires or “dreams” of a future result
which their union will effect? That which is true in this conception of
legislative Ideas is that when the parts come together there is mutual
reaction, and the resultant of the whole is something very unlike
the mere addition of the items, just as water is very unlike oxygen
or hydrogen; further, the connexus of the whole impresses a peculiar
direction on the development of the parts, and the law of Epigenesis
necessitates a serial development, which may easily be interpreted as
due to a preordained plan.
113. In a word, this conception of Type only adds a new name to the
old difficulty, adding mist to darkness. The law of Epigenesis,
which is simply the expression of the material process determined by
the polarity of molecules, explains as much of the phenomena as is
explicable. A lost limb is replaced by the very processes, and through
the same progressive stages as those which originally produced it. We
have a demonstration of its not being reformed according to any Idea
or Type which exists apart from the immanent properties of the organic
molecules, in the fact that it is not reformed at once, but by gradual
evolution; the mass of cells at the stump are cells of embryonic
character, cells such as those which originally “crystallized” into
muscles, nerves, vessels, and integument, and each cell passes through
all its ordinary stages of development. It is to be remembered that so
intimately dependent is the result on the determining conditions, that
any external influence which disturbs the normal course of development
will either produce an anomaly, or frustrate the formation of a new
limb altogether. One of my tritons bit off the leg of his female;[56]
the leg which replaced it was much malformed, and curled over the back
so as to be useless; was this according to the Idea? I cut it off, and
examined it; all the bones were present, but the humerus was twisted,
and of small size. In a few weeks a new leg was developed, and this
leg was normal. If the Idea, as a ruling power, determined the growth
of this third leg, what determined the second, which was malformed?
Are we to suppose that in normal growth the Idea prevails, in abnormal
the conditions? That it is the polarity of the molecules which at
each moment determines the group those molecules will assume, is well
seen in the experiment of Lavalle mentioned by Bronn.[57] He showed
that if when an octohedral crystal is forming, an angle be cut away,
so as to produce an artificial surface, a similar surface is produced
spontaneously on the corresponding angle, whereas all the other angles
are sharply defined. “Valentin,” says Mr. Darwin, “injured the caudal
extremity of an embryo, and three days afterwards it produced rudiments
of a double pelvis, and of double hind limbs. Hunter and others have
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