Page images
PDF
EPUB

210

APPENDIX.

BEYOND quoting occasionally from Watson and others on the subject of morbid habits, I have not thought it necessary to introduce into the text any reference to what contemporary writers may have said on Unconscious Memory in Disease. I shall here give the two or three more important statements on the subject which are known to me.

66

Hartmann, in his 'Philosophy of the Unconscious' (English translation by Mr. W. C. Coupland), has an interesting chapter on The Unconscious in the Healing Power of Nature" (i, 123–144), wherein he applies the principles of his philosophy to the restoration of lost parts, inflammation and repair of soft parts and of bone, adaptations of structure in disease, vicarious functions, and a variety of other pathological phenomena, including those of fever, diathesis and infection. The healing power he regards as a purposeful expression of unconscious Will and Idea." I have already (in the first chapter) remarked on the fact that the Philosophy of the Unconscious is built upon unconscious Will, and that it takes no account of unconscious Memory. Hartmann's pathological chapter, accordingly, is hardly at any point in contact with my essay, and I shall not enter upon a criticism of it.

66

The only reference to medicine in Hering's essay on 'Memory as a General Function of Organised Matter,' is as follows (p. 13):-" For the memory or reproductive power of the socalled sympathetic nervous system is no less ample than that of the brain and spinal cord, and a large part of the skill of the physician depends upon making a wise use of its help.” Referring to Hartmann, he says :- 'From the physical point of view, unconscious and material are the same; and the

Physiology of the Unconscious is no Philosophy of the Unconscious."

Although the 'Lectures on General and Experimental Pathology,' by Stricker (Wien, 1878-83), contain, in the metaphysical chapters, certain references to the unconscious and to memory, there is no attempt to treat of organic memory, or of its illustrations among the morbid phenomena of the body. Speaking of Hartmann's 'Philosophy of the Unconscious,' he says:-"For the investigation of nature such considerations are unfruitful” (p. 464).

The most direct, and, in fact, the only important statement of the part played by unconscious memory in some diseases is to be found in Rindfleisch's recent book, 'Die Elemente der Pathologie' (Leipzig, 1883), a work of remarkable originality and spirit, as well as of excellent style, which may now be read in English. I have already quoted in the text (p. 73) one passage from it relating to the storing up of unconscious nervous impressions or excitations. In a later part of his exposition he returns to the subject as follows (1. c., p. 226):

66

There is another peculiarity of all 'nervous' symptoms which may be set beside the two that we had occasion to speak of before, namely, the periodicity and the disproportion between cause and effect. This is the tendency of a state of excitation to repeat itself after it has been experienced several times, the practice or habit of it, and, closely associated therewith, the dissociation' of a group of symptoms from their exciting cause, their elevation to independence as a disease in their own right, and, lastly, the heredity of that disease.

"If we were to add to assimilation and irritability another fundamental property of all living matter, it would have to be the property of memory, of retentiveness (Gedächtniss, Erinnerung). Every movement that the protoplasm makes for a second time is more easily made the second time than the first. I cannot purpose to myself here to discuss this principle in all its bearings, a principle which plays so prominent a part in the Darwinian theory. It must suffice to say that for my present purpose, and as concerns the individual, it is only the memory-power of the central nervous system that comes into account. The fine network of fibres in the grey

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

substance is to be regarded as the anatomical basis which adapts itself, in its more delicate formations, to the increasing rapidity of movements until at length it repeats them of itself upon the slightest impetus. The smoother the road the easier rolls the carriage. At last it comes to this, that the movement which has been especially well practised may seem to occur of itself, because the minimal incitement which sets it off escapes our notice. When this degree of detachment of the phenomenon from the cause comes about, it constitutes a 'habit' of the nervous system, a habit which we rightly designate an 'evil habit' if it involve a morbid process of sensation or of movement. It has become a persisting function of the central nervous system, settling the more firmly the oftener it returns. Thus recurring in one outbreak after another, it constitutes an independent disease; we have to do with a neurosis."

This definition of a neurosis ("self-existent memory of a disordered reflex," as I have named it, Art. "Pathology," 'Encycl. Brit.,' § 12) agrees on the whole with that which Dr. Allbutt has introduced into the preface of his 'Lectures on Visceral Neuroses' (Lond., 1884): "Nervous reactions so imposing and distressing as to conceal the original seat of the disturbance and to establish a secondary malady out of all proportion to the mode of its initiation."

Several interesting illustrations of "pathological habit are given by Mr. Hutchinson in his 'Pedigree of Disease,' Lond., 1884 (see especially with reference to diathesis, p. 101). M. Ribot's essay on the 'Diseases of Memory' ("International Scientific Series ") deals with memory as ordinarily understood in psychology.

PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

[blocks in formation]

For full list of works in Medicine and Surgery published by H. K. Lewis see complete Catalogue sent post free on application.

SIR WILLIAM AITKEN, KNT., M.D., F.R.S.
Professor of Pathology in the Army Medical School.

ON THE ANIMAL ALKALOIDS, THE PTOMAINES,
LEUCOMAINES, AND EXTRACTIVES IN THEIR
PATHOLOGICAL RELATIONS. Second edition, crown 8vo,
[Now ready.

3s. 6d.

H. RADCLIFFE CROCKER, M.D. LOND., B.S., F.R.C.P.
Physician, Skin Department, University College Hospital.

DISEASES OF THE SKIN: THEIR DESCRIPTION,

PATHOLOGY, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT. With Illustrations, 8vo, 21S.

ANGEL MONEY, M.D., F.R.C.P.

Assistant Physician to University College Hospital, and to the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street.

THE

STUDENT'S TEXTBOOK OF THE PRACTICE
OF MEDICINE. Fcap. 8vo, 6s. 6d.

LOUIS C. PARKES, M.D., D.P.H. LOND. UNIV.

Assistant Professor of Hygiene, University College, London; Fellow and Member of the Board of Examiners of the Sanitary Institute; Assistant Examiner in Hygiene, Science and Art Department South Kensington.

HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Second Edition. With Illustrations, crown 8vo, gs. [Now ready.

Lewis's Practical Series.]

HENRY R. SWANZY, A.M., M.B., F.R.C.S.I. Examiner in Ophthalmic Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Surgeon to the National Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dublin, etc. A HANDBOOK OF DISEASES OF THE EYE AND THEIR TREATMENT. Third Edition, Illustrated with Wood Engravings, Colour Tests, etc., large post 8vo, Ios. 6d. 1000-10/90.

E. CRESSWELL BABER, M.B. LOND.

Surgeon to the Brighton and Sussex Throat and Ear Dispensary.

A WITH REMARKS

GUIDE TO THE EXAMINATION OF THE NOSE ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES OF THE NASAL CAVITIES. With Illustrations, small 8vo, 5s. 6d.

JAMES B. BALL, M.D. (LOND.), M.R.C.P.

Physician to the Department for Diseases of the Throat and Nose, and Senior
Assistant Physician, West London Hospital.
HANDBOOK OF DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND
NASO-PHARYNX. With Illustrations, large post 8vo,
[Now ready.

A

6s.

G. GRANVILLE BANTOCK, M.D., F.R.C.S. EDIN.
Surgeon to the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children.

I.

RUPTURE OF THE FEMALE PERINEUM. Second

Edition, with Illustrations, 8vo, 3s. 6d.

[blocks in formation]

ASHLEY W. BARRETT, M.B. LOND., M.R.C.S., L.D.S.E. Dental Surgeon to, and Lecturer on Dental Surgery in the Medical School of, the London Hospital.

DENTAL SURGERY FOR

TIONERS AND STUDENTS OF MEDICINE.

MEDICAL PRACTI

Second [Now ready.

edition, with Illustrations, cr. 8vo, 3s. 6d.

Lewis's Practical Series.]

FANCOURT BARNES, M.D., M.R.C.P.

Physician to the Chelsea Hospital; Obstetric Physician to the Great
Northern Hospital, &c.

A GERMAN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY OF WORDS
AND TERMS USED IN MEDICINE AND ITS
COGNATE SCIENCES. Square 12mo, Roxburgh binding, 9s.

H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.
Examiner in Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians; Physician to
University College Hospital, etc.

PARALYSES: CEREBRAL, BULBAR, AND SPI-
NAL. A Manual of Diagnosis for Students and Practi-

tioners. With numerous Illustrations, 8vo, 12s. 6d.

2

« PreviousContinue »