"The Seat of Sense is the Brain, whose Nervous Dispensations are the Intermediate Bodies between it and the Organs, on which the External Objects act."
— Cowper [Cooper], William (1666/7-1710)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Oxford
Publisher
Printed at the Theater for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford
Date
1698
Metaphor
"The Seat of Sense is the Brain, whose Nervous Dispensations are the Intermediate Bodies between it and the Organs, on which the External Objects act."
Metaphor in Context
From the Natural, we pass to the Animal Functions: That the Brain and Nervous System are the Common Medium of Sense and Motion is uncontested; but the manner how the Impressions are convey'd from the External Organs to the Sedes Animae, and Vice-versa from thence to the Organ, and how a Material Substance can affect and be affected by an Immaterial, is Obscure and scarce to be conceiv'd. Wherefore waving all Precarious Hypotheses, I shall confine my self to the Description of such Phaenomena as are Matters of Fact, and undeniable, and leave the Reader at Liberty to erect what System he pleases. The Seat of Sense is the Brain, whose Nervous Dispensations are the Intermediate Bodies between it and the Organs, on which the External Objects act. When the Impression is made by the Object, and receiv'd into the Organ of Sense, it is convey'd from thence with the same Type or Character, by an Agitation of its Nervous Expansions and their continued Trunks, to the common Sensory: This is common to Men and Brutes, and is by Des Cartes made the First Degree of Sensation: The Second is the Perception of the Soul attending that Motion, which immediately follows the former Degree, by reason of the intimate Connexion of the Soul to the Sensorium Commune. The Third comprehends all those Judgments which we form by the Occasion of those Motions: Hence it follows, all Corporeal Objects are only Perceivable by us, in as much as they affect the Nerves expanded, in such and such Organs. This is the general Idea of Sensation so far as can be explain'd without Engaging in particular Schemes.
(The Introduction)
(The Introduction)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in EEBO
Citation
William Cowper, The Anatomy of Humane Bodies With Figures Drawn After the Life by Some of the Best Masters in Europe and Curiously Engraven in One Hundred and Fourteen Copper Plates: Illustrated With Large Explications Containing Many New Anatomical Discoveries and Chirurgical Observations: to Which Is Added an Introduction Explaining the Animal Oeconomy: With a Copious Index (Oxford: Printed at the Theater for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1698). <Link to EEBO>
Date of Entry
09/22/2013
