Subjective and objective symptoms : a preliminary lecture delivered at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia / by C.G. Raue.

  • Raue, C. G. (Charles Godlove), 1820-1896.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Subjective and objective symptoms : a preliminary lecture delivered at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia / by C.G. Raue. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    11/28
    So much is certain : if it cannot be reached by external ele- ments because they are wanting, I must try to get at it by something internal. What could that be ? Remember that consciousness grows out of a union of exter- nal elements with corresponding primal faculties. Now, if ex- ternal elements hit and set into new motion their similar aggre- gates, why should not also primal faculties, as the first consti- tuent basis of consciousness, have the same capability ? Just in the same way as these faculties combine with external ele- ments, so do they also combine with already formed units, and excite them into new motion or consciousness; and then we have a voluntary excitation into consciousness. There are two ways then, in which unconscious aggregates are set into motion: 1. By means of external elements ; as, according to the law of attraction of like to like, they hit upon the already formed similar aggregates, producing an involuntary excitation into consciousness. 2. By means of primal faculties or internal elements ; as they seek and, by a voluntary act, excite those aggregates, which we wish to remember. Now arises the question: How do acre-rebates, once excited into consciousness, become unconscious OB O ' ' again ? I suppose the axiom—no effect without a cause—ob- tains in this as in every other case. Where there is motion, there must be a moving element, and if this element is taken away, motion ceases. If now, as we have seen, consciousness in its transitory state is nothing but motion of previously formed aggregates, caused either by external or internal elements, it is clear that this mo- tion must cease, as soon as these moving elements cease to flow to them; the excitement ceases, and the aggregate, recently excited, now becomes motionless; id est, unconscious. Thus the flood of our thought, coming and going, moves on, even in dreams, in accordance with unchangeable laws. I come now to speak of a third form of consciousness, the consciousness which ive have of our mental developments, or self- perception.