Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (smart ebook reader .txt) 📕

Over From The Unconsciousness Of Sleep To The Consciousness Of Waking

Movements Further Illustrates The Complete Distinction Between The Two

Cerebral Functions.

If Memory,  Then,  Be Not Part Of Consciousness,  What Is Its Nature? There

Is A Law Governing Nervous Actions Both In Health And Disease Which Is

Known As That Of Habitual Action. The Curious Reflex Movements Made By

The Frog When Acid Is Put Upon Its Foot,  As Detailed In My Last Paper,

Were Explained By This Law. The Spinal Cord,  After Having Frequently

Performed A Certain Act Under The Stimulus Of Conscious Sensation,

Becomes So Accustomed To Perform That Act That It Does It When The

Oft-Felt Peripheral Impulse Comes Again To It,  Although The Cerebral

Functions And Consciousness Are Suspended. A Nerve-Centre,  Even Of The

Lowest Kind,  Once Moulded By Repeated Acts,  Retains Their

Impression--I.E. Remembers Them. Learning To Walk Is,  As Was Shown In

The Last Paper,  Training The Memory Of The Lower Nerve-Centres At The

Base Of The Brain Until At Last They Direct The Movements Of Walking

Without Aid From Consciousness. The Musician Studies A Piece Of Music.

At First The Notes Are Struck In Obedience To A Conscious Act Of The

Will Founded Upon A Conscious Recognition Of The Printed Type. By And By

The Piece Is So Well Known That It Is Played Even When The Attention Is

Directed To Some Other Subject; That Is,  The Act Of Playing Has Been

Repeated Until The Lower Nerve-Centres,  Which Preside Over The Movements

Of The Fingers During The Playing,  Have Been So Impressed That When Once

The Impulses Are Started They Flow On Uninterruptedly Until The Whole

Set Has Been Gone Through And The Piece Of Music Is Finished. This Is

The Result Of Memory Of The Lower Nerve-Centres. At First,  The Child

Reads Only By A Distinct Conscious Effort Of Memory,  Recalling Painfully

Each Word. After A Time The Words Become So Impressed Upon The Lower

Nerve-Centres That We May Read On When Our Attention Is Directed To Some

Other Thing. Thus,  Often We Read Aloud And Are Unconscious Of What We

Have Read,  Precisely As The Compositor Habitually Sets Up Pages Of

Manuscript Without The Faintest Idea Of What It Is All About. This Law

Of Habitual Action Applies Not Only To The Lower Nerve-Centres In Their

Healthy Condition,  But With Equal Force In disease. It Is Notorious That

One Of The Great Difficulties In The Cure Of Epilepsy Is The Habit Which

Is Acquired By The Nerve-Centres Of Having At Intervals Attacks Of

Convulsive Discharge Of Nerve-Force. Some Years Since I Saw In

Consultation A Case Which Well Illustrates This Point. A Boy Was Struck

In The Head With A Brick,  And Dropped Unconscious. On Coming To Be Was

Seized With An Epileptic Convulsion. These Convulsions Continually

Recurred For Many Months Before I Saw Him. He Never Went Two Hours

Without Them,  And Had Usually From Thirty To Forty A Day--Some,  It Is

True,  Very Slight,  But Others Very Severe. Medicines Had No Influence

Over Him,  And With The Idea That There Might Be A Point Of Irritation In

The Wound Itself Causing The Epilepsy,  The Scar Was Taken Out. The

Result Was That The Seizures Were The Same Day Reduced Very Much In

Frequency,  And In a Short Time Became Amenable To Treatment,  So That

Finally Complete Recovery Occurred. He Had,  However,  Probably Fifty

Convulsions In all After The Removal Of The Scar Before This Result Was

Achieved. Undoubtedly,  In This Case The Point Of Irritation Was Removed

By The Operation. The Cause Of The Convulsions Having Been Taken Away,

They Should Have Stopped At Once. But Here The Law Of Habitual Action

Asserted Itself,  And It Was Necessary To Overcome The Remembrance Of The

Disease By The Nerve-Centres. It Is Plain That The Higher Nerve-Centre

Remembers The Idea Or Fact Because It Is Impressed By Ideas And Facts,

Precisely As The Lower Spinal Nerve-Centres In The Frog Remember

Irritations And Movements Which Have Impressed Them. The Faculty Of

Memory Resides In all Nerve-Centres: The Nature Of That Which Is

Remembered Depends Upon The Function Of The Individual Centre. A

Nerve-Cell Which Thinks Remembers Thought--A Nerve-Cell Which Causes

Motion Remembers Motion.

The So-Called Cases Of Double Consciousness Are Perfectly Simple In

Their Explanation When The True Nature Of Memory Is Borne In Mind. In

These Cases The Subject Seems To Lead A Double Life. The Attacks Usually

Come On Suddenly. In The First Attack All Memory Of The Past Is Lost.

The Person Is As An Untaught Child,  And Is Forced To Begin Re-Education.

In Some Of These Cases This Second Education Has Gone On For Weeks,  And

Advanced Perhaps Beyond The Stage Of Reading,  When Suddenly The Patient

Passes Back To His Original Condition,  Losing Now All Memory Of Events

Which Had Occurred And All The Knowledge Acquired In What May Be Called

His Second State,  But Regaining All That He Had Originally Possessed.

Weeks Or Months Afterward The Second State Reoccurs,  The Individual Now

Forgetting All Memory Of The First Or Natural Condition. It Is Usually

Found That Events Happening And Knowledge Acquired During The First

Attack Of What We Have Called The Second State Are Remembered In

Subsequent Returns,  So That The Second Education Can Be Taken Up At The

Point At Which It Was Lost,  And Progress Be Made. This Alternation Of

Conditions Has In Some Instances Gone On For Years,  The Patient Living,

As It Were,  Two Lives At Broken Intervals. This Condition,  Usually

Called Double Consciousness,  Is Not Double Consciousness At All,  But,  If

The Term May Be Allowed,  Double Memory. It Is Evidently Allied In Its

Nature To The Loss Of The Sense Of Personal Identity. Certain Phenomena

Of Remembrance Seen Frequently In exhausting Diseases,  And Especially In

Old Age,  Show The Permanence Of Impressions Made Upon The Higher

Nerve-Centres,  And Are Also Very Similar In Their Nature To This

So-Called Double Consciousness. Not Long Since A Very Aged Lady Of

Philadelphia,  Who Was At The Point Of Death,  Began To Talk In an Unknown

Tongue,  Soon Losing Entirely Her Power Of Expressing Herself In english.

No One Could For A Time Make Out The Language She Was Speaking,  But It

Was Finally Found To Be Portuguese; And In Tracing The History Of The

Octogenarian It Was Discovered That Until Four Or Five Years Of Age She

Had Been Brought Up In Rio Janeiro,  Where Portuguese Is Spoken. There Is

Little Difference Between The Nature Of Such A Case And That Of The

So-Called Double Consciousness,  Both Involving The Forgetting Of That

Which Has Been Known For Years.

There Is A Curious Mental Condition Sometimes Produced By Large Doses Of

Hasheesh Which Might Be Termed Double Consciousness More Correctly Than

The State To Which The Name Is Usually Applied. I Once Took An Enormous

Dose Of This Substance. After Suffering From A Series Of Symptoms Which

It Is Not Necessary Here To Detail,  I Was Seized With A Horrible

Undefined Fear,  As Of Impending Death,  And Began At The Same Time To

Have Marked Periods When All Connection Seemed To Be Severed Between The

External World And Myself. During These Periods I Was Unconscious In So

Far That I Was Oblivious Of All External Objects,  But On Coming Out Of

One It Was Not A Blank,  Dreamless Void Upon Which I Looked Back,  A Mere

Empty Space,  But Rather A Period Of Active But Aimless Life,  Full,  Not

Of Connected Thought,  But Of Disjointed Images. The Mind,  Freed From The

Ordinary Laws Of Association,  Passed,  As It Were,  With Lightning-Like

Rapidity From One Idea To Another. The Duration Of These Attacks Was But

A Few Seconds,  But To Me They Seemed Endless. Although I Was Perfectly

Conscious During The Intermissions Between The Paroxysms,  All Power Of

Measuring Time Was Lost: Seconds Appeared To Be Hours--Minutes Grew To

Days--Hours Stretched Out To Infinity. I Would Look At My Watch,  And

Then After An Hour Or Two,  As I Thought,  Would Look Again And Find That

Scarcely A Minute Had Elapsed. The Minute-Hand Appeared Motionless,  As

Though Graven In The Face Itself: The Laggard Second-Hand Moved So

Slowly That It Seemed A Hopeless Task To Watch It During Its Whole

Infinite Round Of A Minute,  And I Always Gave Up In despair Before The

Sixty Seconds Had Elapsed. When My Mind Was Most Lucid There Was A

Distinct Duplex Action In Regard To The Duration Of Time. I Would Think

To Myself,  "It Has Been So Long Since A Certain Event!"--An Hour,  For

Example,  Since The Doctor Was Summoned--But Reason Would Say,  "No,  It

Has Been Only A Few Minutes: Your Thoughts And Feelings Are Caused By

The Hasheesh." Nevertheless,  I Was Not Able To Shake Off,  Even For A

Moment,  This Sense Of The Almost Indefinite Prolongation Of Time.

Gradually The Periods Of Unconsciousness Became Longer And More

Frequent,  And The Oppressive Feeling Of Impending Death More Intense. It

Was Like A Horrible Nightmare: Each Successive Paroxysm Was Felt To Be

The Longest I Had Suffered. As I Came Out Of It A Voice Seemed

Constantly Saying,  "You Are Getting Worse; Your Paroxysms Are Growing

Longer And Deeper; They Will Overmaster You; You Will Die." A Sense Of

Personal Antagonism Between My Will-Power And Myself,  As Affected By The

Drug,  Grew Very Strong. I Felt As Though My Only Chance Was To Struggle

Against These Paroxysms--That I Must Constantly Arouse Myself By An

Effort Of Will; And That Effort Was Made With Infinite Toil And Pain. It

Seemed To Me As If Some Evil Spirit Had The Control Of The Whole Of Me

Except The Will,  And Was In determined Conflict With That,  The Last

Citadel Of My Being. Once Or Twice During A Paroxysm I Felt Myself

Mounting Upward,  Expanding,  Dilating,  Dissolving Into The Wide Confines

Of Space,  Overwhelmed By A Horrible,  Unutterable Despair. Then By A

Tremendous Effort I Seemed To Break Loose And To Start Up With The

Shuddering Thought,  "Next Time You Will Not Be Able To Throw This Off;

And What Then?" The Sense Of Double Consciousness Which I Had To Some

Extent Is Often,  Under The Action Of Hasheesh,  Much More Distinct. I

Have Known Patients To Whom It Seemed That They Themselves Sitting Upon

The Chair Were In continual Conversation With A Second Self Standing In

Front Of Them. The Explanation Of This Curious Condition Is A Difficult

One. It Is Possible That The Two Sides Of The Brain,  Which Are

Accustomed In Health To Work As