the present, goes for the saying; and it rests with the scientific men of the New Church to give it to the world. To review it, however, is the task of the present series of articles, which we at once confess must follow the lines of mere transcription rather than of strict criticism, but which we hope will serve to rouse a careful if not sympathetic study of the riches of the work itself. Of the eminent services of Dr. Tafel, to whom the extrication of the manuscript from present neglect is due, and to whose learning, industry, and research large confirmations of Swedenborg's theories and discoveries from modern authors have been obtained, we shall have something to say in the sequel. Dealing first with the introduction to the work:

INTRODUCTION.

Swedenborg states the principles on which he proceeds. Assuming the soul's existence, he carries its influences downwards as the former, mover, and predisposer of every effect ultimate and intermediate in the body; it controls, co-ordinates, subordinates, and harmonizes all and every part, and so organizes and fashions those intermediates and ultimates on the human plane, that the leasts are like the organs they form, and the purposes they subserve. The soul thus inflows the whole from first principles, through causes to effects, and receives back again by a reflux the universal particulars in orderly series and degrees. Moreover, the body with its organs and effects becomes the type or transcript in particular and general of the ideas of the soul. So that knowing the soul, you can infer the nature of the body and its uses; and investigating the body, you can rise to a knowledge of the nature of the indwelling and animating soul, and even open the door to a perception of the universe above it.

Analyzing his work as defining itself into three spheres, viz. that of principles, that of causes, and that of effects, he leaves the latter-by which he means the body with its viscera, locomotive apparatus, and organs of sensation-and says that the present study is to regard the two first only. These two are found in the nervous system, the highest, or sphere of principle, which is properly represented in the cortical substance or investing grey matter of the brain; and the middle, or sphere of causes, which is represented in all the nervous masses beneath this. He first, however, gives a short picture of the corporeal, or sphere of effects, dividing the bodily structures into those of sense and motion, the former to carry the perception of the external world to the soul, the latter to execute its mandates. He shows how these parts of the bodily structure are ministered to and supported by another, the heart with its vessels and contained blood; and VOL. II. NO. XIII.—JANUARY 1883.

C

how this blood originates and is elaborated from food by another set of bodily structures, the viscera of the abdomen and chest.

Alluding next to the second, or sphere of causes, he defines it as comprised in the connected nervous masses, contained in the cranium and bony spine, which becoming split up into separate nerves, escape through openings in this bony investment and spread to their special or general destinations in the corporeal sphere below. He implies how these nerves at their points of distribution receive the impressions from without and carry them up to and through the nervous masses, and how by similar channels these masses, as the efficient causes of motion, transmit nervous force downwards in execution of the mandates of the will. All this, however, is under the governance of the third or highest sphere, the sphere of principles or ends.

And now looking broadly at this second sphere, the sphere of causes, in its several parts constituting the cerebrum, and distinguished only from the convolutions, he infers its possession of a function of which the physiologists of the present day doubt the existence, or at least ignore in the form presented by Swedenborg. It is the working up into a certain lymph, or kind of purer blood, the animal spirit, which is conceived, elaborated, and produced in the cortical substance, "and which lymph together with the chyle produces the red blood of the body," thus this sphere becomes the intermediate and efficient cause of the blood. He then enumerates certain parts of the cerebrum and its appendages which are specially engaged in this work, and the minute consideration of which takes up a considerable portion of the volume.

Viewing again the sphere of causes as a whole, he divides it into three parts: (a) the cerebrum, or organ of voluntary motion; (b) the cerebellum, or organ of involuntary motion; and (c) the medulla oblongata with its dependent spinal cord, which partakes of both functions, voluntary as well as involuntary, besides having a function special to itself.

Coming to the highest sphere, the sphere of principles, resident in the cortical or investing substance of the brain, he implies its formation to consist in a multitude of cells in which terminate and from which spring forth the nervous fibrils, which in their aggregate constitute the mass of the cerebrum, medulla, and nerves. In this cellular investment the bodily organs and senses find their principles and termini; here ends reside, which, shaping themselves into causes, are determined downwards for termination in effects.

Here also in these cells, or so-called glands, it is concluded there exists certain spheres constituting the seat of life, the sanctuary or holy of holies, the soul, which animates its universe

around and beneath. This is the part which can alone be said to live. This highest or celestial sphere, having itself three degrees, can only be seen in the general or universal sense, and this general perception is solely to be attained by an analysis and comprehension of the structures beneath it, and therefore to the study of these the work proceeds to address itself.

CHAPTER I.

In this chapter the author takes up the cerebrum, its fabric motion, and function in general, first quoting the older and more recent authorities for its anatomy and motion, and then instituting a series of analyses under the heads (a) to (g) of the Cerebrum, its Fabric, its Motions, its Functions in General, the Soul, the Chain and Bond of Uses, and a Summary, and appending to these certain general considerations.

Of the older authors Winslow gives the most intelligible view of all the parts of the brain and spinal cord. Only by reproducing these quotations could justice be done to the transcription. The work itself therefore must be consulted to obtain an adequate conception of the encephalic structure and arrangement, and until the promised plates of this work are published the reader would do well to consult those of any recognised anatomical author. It is only needful to state here the facts that the cerebrum, or brain proper, is distinguished from the cerebellum, or lesser brain, by a membranous septum of dura mater; that it, the cerebrum, consists of two lateral halves occupying the great mass of the cranium, each of which is divided into lobes; that it has an outer superficial or cortical layer of grey cellular nervous matter, extensively convoluted or twisted upon itself; and an inner medullary or whitish fibrous mass, the fibres of which generally converge towards and constitute (within the cavity of the cranium) the medulla oblongata (and along the cavity of the spinal column), the medulla spinalis or spinal cord. The medulla oblongata, however, in its beginnings and course possesses a number of protuberances, also containing grey or vesicular nervous matter, which are severally called the corpora striata, thalami optici, corpora quadrigemina, etc. Like the two hemispheres of the brain, so the whole length of the medulla oblongata is dual. The two halves of the cerebrum are, however, connected beneath by a plane of white tubular nervous matter called the corpus callosum, and the protuberances of the medulla oblongata are likewise connected by bands of nervous fibre passing between them. Moreover, the cerebellum, or lesser brain, is connected with the medulla oblongata and the cerebrum by similar bands of fibres, and thus all the nervous masses

contained in the cranium, while distinct in themselves, are intimately connected by commissures. The modern authors Cruveilhier and Quain carry the differentiation of the parts of the cerebrum yet further, and describe those parts more minutely. The brain as a whole is maintained in its position, protected, supported, and nourished by a series of coverings or meninges; the dura mater, which lines the inner surface of the cranium, and sends septa between the hemispheres of the cerebrum, and between the cerebrum and cerebellum; and the pia mater and arachnoid, which invest the whole nervous structure, passing over and dipping deeply into the sulci of the cerebral convolutions: the dura mater being for protection, division, and support; the pia mater furnishing the blood supply; and the arachnoid effusing a serous fluid which moistens the universal surface, and permits the uninjured motion of the whole structures. Those special portions and dependencies of the cerebrum whose functions enter into the great arguments of our author are taken up one by one as the work proceeds, and need not be mentioned here. While the motion of the brain, consisting of a systole and diastole, or contraction and expansion, was generally admitted by the older anatomists by whom it had been proven to exist, yet they attributed it to the pulsations of the heart through the blood-vessels upon the pulpy cerebral mass. Swedenborg, as we shall see, attributes it to an entirely different cause. Proceeding to his analysis of the structure and functions of the organ, he first recapitulates the form and arrangement of the cerebrum with its white and grey matter, and the sources of its blood supply, also the reservoirs and conduits of the latter in the various sinuses of the dura mater. Its proper termini are pointed out in par. 30 of the work, and then proceeding onwards, he describes the connection of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord. This medulla commences in the rounded protuberances of the corpora striata and thalami optici, which serve, as one of their uses, for the transmission of sensation and motion from the body to the convolutions and vice versa. The connection between the cerebellum and cerebrum is also pointed out, as well as that of the cerebellum with the medulla oblongata, by the restiform tract of nervous fibres.

These fibres from the lesser brain join those of the cerebrum in constituting the spinal column, and through it influencing the senses and bodily organs. In par. 33, under the head of Fabric of the Cerebrum, Swedenborg shows how, from the form and position of the brain, its various parts produce certain determinations and interactions; determinations from the greater to the less, and the less to the least. These determinations have definite centres with their axes and poles, which are

inferred from the obvious divisions of the hemispheres, lobes, and convolutions, as these are defined by the attachments of the dura and pia maters, and the arachnoid membrane. The general determinations of the masses, while they influence the lesser and least parts, are themselves influenced by and have respect to the very least cells and spherules, so that "there prevails a sublime and wonderful order and mutual respect in all things, from the least singulars to their generals, and again from these to the most general."

In Section C Swedenborg definitely takes up the motion of the brain, and differing from the ancient anatomists, who conceived the brain and its humours to be quiescent, and from some of the older authors, who ascribed its motions to the heart's pulsations, he asserts this motion to be peculiarly its own, and its systole and diastole to be synchronous with that of the lungs; and he styles the motion "the animation and respiration of the cerebrum." This. motion, while common to the cerebrum, affects the medulla, and must of necessity be communicated to every vesicle, fibre, and fluid in the cerebral cavity; nay, also reaches to the bones of the cranium, influencing the membranes, the ventricles, the spaces, and sulci of the convolutions, and every cell and fibre of its structure. The distance of the cerebral surface from the dura mater, the muscular character of that membrane, the impression of the convolutions upon the cranial bones, evidence a perpetual motion. The lymph or halitus of the arachnoid alternately spreads over the convolutions, retreats into its sulci, moves around its cells and between its fibres, by virtue thereof. And even the arterial and venous currents within their several vessels are subject to its influence. The centres, poles, and axes indicate also a spiral fluxion and contortion, comparable to that of the sidereal heavens themselves, and give the brain the highest and most perfect form. This alternate motion finds illustration even in cerebral diseases and their sequela which interfere with that motion, and which retard and decrease the cerebral functions, even to the extinction of life. The fact of the perfect organization of every part of the brain necessitates a given space in which each and all its parts shall act; wherefore the life of the leasts implies also an activity of their individual function, which is impossible without a corresponding motion. Thus the individual motion of the parts gives the power of motion to the whole and vice versa. This general motion is more perfect in early life and lessens as age advances. The motion of the brain is simultaneous and not successive, and is the more perfect in consequence of its spiral nature. This of the cerebrum as a whole: but its parts are capable of individual motion in addition; thus, of one hemisphere alone,