Sometimes infants are born which are so deficient mentally as
to be idiots, and an examination of the brain in such a case reveals
certain correlated defects in physical organization. These and similar
facts form the basis for the dictum that the development and evolution of
the brain mean the growth and evolution of human intellect.
The further question as to the nature of the connection is interesting,
but it relates to matters of far less consequence to the naturalist than
the central fact of the invariable relation which does exist. Throughout
the centuries many philosophers and naturalists of numerous peoples have
endeavored to explain the connection in question in ways that have been
largely determined by the changing states of knowledge of various periods,
as well as by differences in individual temperament. Three general
conceptions have been developed: first, that the material and mental
phenomena _interact_; second, that they are _parallel_; and third, that
they are _one_.
According to the first view, the individual thoughts and feelings forming
elements in the chain of consecutive consciousness are affected by the
events in the material physiology of the brain as a physical structure;
the latter in turn react upon the psychical or mental elements.
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