Part 4

In these regions of the cerebral medulla, especially in the highest, VIEUSSENS considered that the soul’s activity had its seat: with the help of ›spiritus animalis› the soul here had an opportunity of receiving the sensory impressions, and in the fine and finest nerve fibres there were here formed sensory images, conceptions, (Op. cit. p. 129), here the memory images were preserved, (Op. cit. p. 135), and here the faculty of judgment had its seat, (Op. cit. p. 137), etc.

In these regions, especially in the highest, the will also had its seat and origin, and at its command the ›spiritus animalis› streamed out through the nerves, thus conveying the impulses to motion to the various muscles of the body. (Op. cit. pp. 122, 123, 188, _et seqq._).

For SWEDENBORG, who had arrived at certainty with regard to the seat of the soul’s activity in the cerebral cortex, and not in the cerebral medulla!, and who through MALPIGHI and others had been led to see that _the fibres of the cerebral medulla_ were _continuations of the processes of the cortical elements_,—for SWEDENBORG it naturally lay very near at hand to _follow the fibres of the three regions of_ VIEUSSENS _out to the cortical substance_ on the surface of the brain; and so SWEDENBORG has his _three cortical lobes_! And to them, especially to the highest, he could now attribute the source of the soul’s life.

When VIEUSSENS followed the nerve tracts of the corpora striata and capsula interna downwards, he found:

that the _fibres of the uppermost region_ led down to the _posterior region of the spinal cord_; (›ad posticam spinalis medullæ regionem›);[77]

that the _fibres of the middle region_, which were especially coarse and traversed the capsula interna and pons, forming thick tracts, could be clearly followed down into the _anterior portion of the spinal cord, (›in anticam spinalis medullæ partem›)_, where they came into connection with the anterior origins of the spinal nerves, (›ad antica nervorum spinalium principia›), also paying, on their passing through the medulla oblongata, ›necessary tribute›, (›necessarium vectigal›), as it is expressed, to certain of its nerves;[78]——See the figure 4!——

that the _fibres of the lowest region_ were distributed to certain _nerves, which proceed from the medulla oblongata_, and to _some of the anterior origins of the spinal nerves_ (›quædam illius pars ad quosdam e Medulla oblongata prodeuntes, altera vero ad antica nervorum spinalium principia›).[79]

In SWEDENBORG’s time it was, however, known that the muscles which produce the movements of the head and face receive their nerves just from the medulla oblongata and the uppermost part of the spinal cord; and it therefore lay near at hand for SWEDENBORG, when he saw that paralyses arose when certain cortical regions were destroyed, to draw the conclusion, that the muscles and movements which belong to the _face and head_, depend more immediately upon the _lowest_ region of the third lobe of the cerebral cortex.

And as it was also known that the muscles of the thorax and abdomen receive their nerves from the superior portion of the spinal cord, whither just the tracts of coarse fibres from the middle region of the brain could be followed, (see figure 4), so SWEDENBORG could likewise draw the conclusion from this that the muscles and movements which belong to the _thorax and abdomen_ depend more immediately upon the _middle_ region or lobe.

It might now appear tempting to continue the conclusion by connecting the remaining highest lobe and the lower extremity. But probably SWEDENBORG did not consider that he had sufficient ground for this. The description by VIEUSSENS did not here furnish any suitable guidance, for it was possible that the coarse fibres of the middle region continued so far down into the spinal cord that they could innervate not only the muscles of the abdomen but also those of the lower extremity. For this reason SWEDENBORG refrains from localizing exactly the centre of motion of the lower extremity and contents himself with stating in general terms only that this centre might lie above that of the abdomen. He therefore says: ›the order seems to be so disposed that——the muscles and actions, which are in the _ultimates_ of the body, or in the soles of the feet, depend more immediately upon _the highest parts (of the brain)_›, whereas concerning the thorax and abdomen he says that they depend upon the middle _lobe_, and of the head that it depends upon the third _lobe_. (›The Brain›, No. 68). I believe that this is the reason why SWEDENBORG’s doctrine of localizations as concerns the motor centre of the lower extremity is expressed in such vague terms.

From a comparison of these descriptions by SWEDENBORG and VIEUSSENS we have found that there are such considerable similarities between them that they in many respects agree point for point. And it therefore seems to me rather probable that SWEDENBORG derived his conception of the more detailed localization of the soul’s activity from the descriptions of VIEUSSENS.

THE ›CEREBELLULAR THEORY›.

But SWEDENBORG was not satisfied with knowing only that the psychical functions arise within certain regions of the cortex of the large anterior region of the cerebrum: but he continued his search for their inmost origin, and thus he came to the conviction that the _psychical processes in reality result from the joint work which is performed by the minute cortical elements_, which SWEDENBORG called ›_Sphaerulae_› or ›_Cerebellula_›, that is, the same bodies which we now call the _cortical nerve-cells_. These were the units of which the brain was in reality composed and out of which its actual esse was derived. (See ›The Brain›, No. 34). It was to these ›Cerebellula› that the sensory impressions went, and in these they were perceived and brought to consciousness; it was in these that conceptions, thoughts, judgments, conclusions, came into being. (Œc. R. A. II., No. 191, and ›The Brain›, No. 98). And this was possible because there were as many kinds of ›Cerebellula› as there were kinds of sensory impressions, and that these ›Cerebellula› were connected together into groups with different subdivisions. (Œc. R. A. II., No. 193; VII., chap. XX.). It was also from the ›Cerebellula› of the cortex that the determinations and impulses to the various movements of the body emanated. (›The Brain›, No. 99). And this was possible because the ›Cerebellula› cohered each with its own nerve-fibril, which in their turn innervated the muscle fibre, and that the ›Cerebellula› were _arranged into groups, these into greater groups, these into convolutions (gyri)_, etc., corresponding to muscle fibres, muscles, groups of muscles, etc. (Œc. R. A. II., Nos. 146, 156, and ›The Brain›, No. 99). And it is in this connection that SWEDENBORG _refers to experiments on animals by which it might be shown which gyre or part of convolution it is, which answers to this or that muscle in the body_.[80]

How SWEDENBORG was able to come to this modern conception ought not to be so exceedingly difficult to understand if we summarize what was already known at that time about these cortical elements and add thereto the conclusions as to the functions of the cortex to which SWEDENBORG had already come.

In SWEDENBORG’s time the conception of HIPPOCRATES of the brain as a gland was still generally received. In this one had, however, as MALPIGHI says, ›since the time of PICCOLOMINEUS› learned to distinguish between an outer, greyish layer, ›cerebral cortex›, and an inner, more pure white mass, the ›cerebral medulla›.[81]

Through the microscopic investigations of LEEUWENHOEK (1632-1723) it had further been discovered that the substance of the brain (especially of the cortex) contained, besides a great mass of blood-vessels and very fine fibres, _a numberless mass of_ peculiar _small bodies_ of varying size, by him called ›globuli›, connected with the vessels and fibres. (See Œc. R. A. II., Nos. 71-75, 112, etc.).

MALPIGHI, (1628-1694), had closely examined these ›globuli› and described them as small oval or polygonal ›glands›, which were closely surrounded by blood-vessels, and in _their inner central ends sent forth processes forming vessel-like fibres which continued into the cerebral medulla_.[82]

As these fibres or vessels formed small clusters, the little glands hanging on their extreme ends, like ›dates on their stems›, as MALPIGHI expresses it, thus formed _small groups_.

Within these groups the cortical elements were, however, _well isolated from each other_ by clefts, which indeed sometimes were very small, but could nevertheless be plainly demonstrated with the aid of colouring matter.[83]

The cortical elements taken together formed the winding groups which on the surface of the brain gave rise to the so called gyres.[84]

The profusion of blood-vessels, as was said, LEEUWENHOEK and MALPIGHI had already described as being very great, but RUYSCH (1638-1731) had afterwards by his famous vascular injections found it to be so great that he would not call the cortex a glandular but actually a ›vascular› tissue. (Œc. R. A., II., No. 86). Because of the enormous wealth of blood-vessels there was thus carried to the cortical substance, especially to the little follicles, a plenteous quantity of blood, and from this, according to the opinion of that day, the most subtile components of the blood could pass to the cortical elements and thereby be transformed into ›spiritus animalis›. And finally, the Italians BELLINI, (1643-1704), and ZAMBECCARI had shown by their analyses that the juice of the brain possessed a highly subtile composition, above all a great volatility and lightness, and was exceedingly mobile. (See Œc. R. A. II., Nos. 88, 96, 119). All this SWEDENBORG has himself quoted in his works.

On the basis of these and some other anatomical and physiological data, in conjunction with a number of clinical and experimental observations, SWEDENBORG, as we have before seen, came to the conclusion that it is in the _cortex_ that the soul’s activity comes into being; but at the same time he concluded that, strictly speaking, the cortical elements were the real work-shops. For he reasoned in the following manner: When the sensory impressions enter the brain, they certainly proceed no further than to the _›Sphaerulae› of the cortex, since these constitute the beginnings of the nerve and medullary fibres_: were they to go further, for instance to the small arteries which surround the cortical elements, or to the membranes of the brain, then they would overstep the boundary, as he says, and leave the actual centre and go out to the more peripheral parts.[85]

SWEDENBORG consequently here followed the same line of thought as his predecessors. DESCARTES supposed that the nerves originated from the wall of the central ventricle of the brain and therefore located the images of sensory impressions, etc., there. VIEUSSENS and others thought that the nerves originate from the centrum ovale, and thus he placed the psychic activity there. And SWEDENBORG now proceeded in a similar manner when he attributed the psycho-sensory operations to the ›Cerebellula›. And what other parts of the cortex were better fitted to perform the demanding and ever-shifting psychical labour than the ›Cerebellula›, to which the life-giving powers of the blood were so plentifully admitted, and in which, according to the testimony of many, the highly subtile nervous fluid was created, whose office it was to communicate the rapid and shifting utterances of the soul’s life!

SWEDENBORG’s predecessors had thought that the distinctions between the sensory impressions depended partly upon what kind of nerve was affected, and VIEUSSENS had located the images of perception and memory in the nerve-tubes in the centrum ovale, which had the finest caliber. What, then, was more natural than that SWEDENBORG should now locate these images in the ›Cerebellula› of the cortex? For what substance of the cortex was better fitted, a more suitable medium to comprehend and distinguish the innumerable shades of the impressions than these myriads of ›Cerebellula›—of different sizes, forms and consistency, etc., which were connected each with its own special nerve-fibril and so well distinguished from their neighbors! And at the same time they were connected with the other ›Cerebellula› into groups of different kinds, by which the psychical elaboration of the impressions was made possible.

On similar grounds SWEDENBORG supposed that the psycho-motor labour was performed by the ›Cerebellula›, from which the nerves derived their origin. And here we may recall that VIEUSSENS had already _connected certain groups of nerves with certain bundles of medullary fibres_, and that MALPIGHI had shown how _bundles of fibres of the cerebral medulla corresponded to smaller and larger groups of cortical elements_, each one of which, hanging by its fibre, formed the different _gyres of the brain_. If we consider this, then we can easily understand how SWEDENBORG, with his view of the cortex, could divine the correspondence between the components of the convolutions and the muscles.

It is interesting to here follow him in his line of thought and to see how well he understood how to combine his anatomical and clinical experiences: With the magnifying glass one can see how the nerve-fibres spring forth from the cortical substance like a brook from its source; if now the cortical substance be injured (as in the case of certain brain diseases, and which one may clearly see upon autopsy), then the injury is spread through the nerves connected with the cortex and at last all the way down to the muscles, and that, he thought, explained the motor disturbances.[86] And further ... when one or several of the ›Cerebellula› of the cortex are destroyed, then the damage is spread more immediately only to their proper nerves and muscles.[87]

In this manner did SWEDENBORG synthesize his anatomical, pathological-anatomical and clinical experiences and extracted from them his conclusions, and by them he arrived at essentially the same conception, as our times, of the principles of the nervous system, its cellular structure. He did not indeed employ the same nomenclature for the nerve-cells and their long processes, as we do; but the matter itself: the nature of the nerve-cells as elementary organs of the nervous system, the intimate connection between the nerve and its cell-body, indeed even its dependence upon it in regard to nourishment, etc., he was able to clearly grasp in this way,—and this more than a century before our modern theory of these relationships, the ›neurone-theory› saw the light.

CONCLUDING SUMMARY.

I hereby conclude my presentation of the grounds upon which SWEDENBORG appears to have founded his doctrine of the cerebral cortex as the seat of the soul’s activity.

I. It has here been my endeavour to show, that his _first_ general statement that the centres of the psychical functions are to be found in the cortex was a conclusion, which he derived from three premises, secured in different ways:

The _1st_ premise was a conclusion drawn from the clinical observations, post mortem discoveries and results obtained from experiments on animals, which he had collected from literature;

The _2nd_ premise was a summing up of the comparatively recent discoveries in microscopic cerebral anatomy, and

The _3rd_ was an hypothesis, concerning the continuous connection between the cortical elements and the fibres of the cerebral medulla, by which an easy communication was established between those elements and the distributions of the nerves in the various parts of the body. In his conclusions from these premises SWEDENBORG had some guidance in preceding authors, who placed at least the sensory function in a certain connection with the cortical substance.

II. His second statements, his essential _doctrine of localization_, showed in many points a great agreement with that presented by VIEUSSENS, but also contained important differences, which partly rested upon the conclusion to which SWEDENBORG had previously come, concerning the importance of the cortex for the psychic life, partly depended upon the new point of view concerning the correspondence of the cerebral regions to those of the body, to which he had arrived in his work supported by clinical results. The _detailed_ doctrine of localizations seems to have been constructed with the assistance of VIEUSSENS’ detailed statements concerning the connection of the nerves with the various regions of the cerebral medulla.

III. His third statement, his—so to speak, ›_Cerebellular theory_›, that the ›Cerebellula› were the units of which the brain was in reality composed, and that the function of the cortex was essentially the summing up of the activity of the ›Cerebellula›, and that the ›Cerebellula› were connected with one another into various kinds of groups, corresponding to the various kinds of perceptions and to the different movements of the body, etc., this was grounded in part upon the discoveries of Malpighi and others and their detailed descriptions of the structure and situation of the cortical elements and their connection with each other, in part upon SWEDENBORG’s clinical experiences and his own previously drawn conclusions, which be further followed up.

The first two statements have in our time been embraced with the liveliest interest and essentially corroborated. And as concerns the third, the same applies in part; but how great the validity of this statement is, it is for the future to decide.

Consequently SWEDENBORG arrived at almost the same result as that to which our own day has attained, although in a partly different manner. Our times have had the assistance of exact methods of investigation and of a most highly developed technique. In SWEDENBORG’s time the research method of microscopical anatomy and experimental physiology were yet in their cradle; and the two branches of science, medicine and pathology, which afterwards with the greatest interest have taken part in the investigation of the function of the cortex, had then hardly as yet turned their attention thither. As to how SWEDENBORG nevertheless succeeded in winning such rich and beautiful results in this field, and how well he employed the widely spread literature in question, I have attempted to show in this my presentation by tracing his path through the folios of the old authors and indicating the places where he gathered the material for his doctrinal structure and the premises for his conclusions. Finally, however, it should be emphasized that, when SWEDENBORG collected his facts from the many separated fields of literature, he found them not at all presented in the large works as important ›chief subjects›, or even as lying plainly at hand. No, he was often, so to say, obliged to dig out his material from a chaos of erroneous observations, false interpretations and curious conceptions; and afterwards he had to still further sift and elaborate it, before he could draw his conclusions out of it.

In view of all this one must say that it was in truth a _work of genius_ to search out of such a chaos the guiding threads which were concealed within it, and that, in spite of their imperfection in many points, nevertheless to be able to find so much of the truth!

NOTES.

[1] See the treatise of ANDERS RETZIUS on: ›The Origin and Development of Anatomy in the Scandinavian North›, which he delivered as an address on the occasion of his leaving the presidency of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on April 9th, 1845. See also GUSTAF RETZIUS: Preface to ›EMANUEL SWEDENBORG’s Scientific Works›, edit. by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Vol. I., 1907, p. V., _et seqq._, and ALFRED H. STROH, M. A.: ›Some testimonies concerning SWEDENBORG, the Scientist›, Stockholm 1909, p. 10.

[2] In an address before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at Stockholm in connection with a reference to SWEDENBORG’s work: ›De Cerebro›, which had just appeared in the English translation by DR. RUDOLF TAFEL; See GUSTAF RETZIUS: Op. cit. p. VI. and ALFRED H. STROH: Op. cit. p. 11.

[3] See an address of MAX NEUBURGER concerning ›Swedenborg’s Beziehungen zur Gehirnphysiologie›, delivered before the ›Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte›, Hamburg, 1901.

[4] See the article by C. G. SANTESSON concerning SWEDENBORG in ›Nordisk Tidskrift›, 1904, No. 5.

[5] See an address of GUSTAF RETZIUS as president of the ›Versammlung der Anatomischen Gesellschaft›, Heidelberg, 1903; and also his preface to the edition of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG’s Scientific Works, which the Royal Academy of Sciences began to publish in 1907; and the references by the same author to SWEDENBORG’s statements concerning the anatomy and physiology of the brain in the Croonian lecture delivered by him in London, in the year 1908.

[6] See the address of J. J. BERZELIUS at the meeting of Scandinavian Natural Scientists in 1842 concerning: ›The rise of the Scandinavian shore above the level of the surrounding ocean› etc., quoted from ALFRED H. STROH: Op. cit. p. 6.

[7] See the address of A. E. NORDENSKIÖLD before the Royal Academy of Sciences on March 26th, 1888, quoted from A. H. STROH: Op. cit. p. 6.

[8] See A. G. NATHORST’s introduction to the edition of SWEDENBORG’s Scientific Works of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Vol. I., 1907.

[9] See ›Vierteljahrschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft›, Part 14, 1879, quoted from A. H. STROH: Op. cit. p. 8.

[10] See S. ARRHENIUS’ introduction to the edition of SWEDENBORG’s Scientific Works of the R. Acad. of Sciences, Vol. II., 1908.

[11] See GUSTAF RETZIUS: Preface to ›E. SWEDENBORG’s Scientific Works›, edit. by the R. Acad. of Sciences, Vol. I., 1907, p. V. _et seqq._

[12] EMANUEL SWEDENBORG was born at Stockholm, January 29th, 1688; matriculated at the University of Uppsala and ›Västmanlands-Dala-nation›, 1699; Diss. cum consensu Fac. Philos. publico examini submissa, Upsaliæ, 1. Junii, 1709; appointed assessor extraordinary in the Royal College of Mines, 1716; ordinary assessor in the same College, 1724; retired from the assessorship, 1747; died in London, March 29th, 1772. His name was SWEDBERG until the year 1719, when he was ennobled and his name changed to SWEDENBORG.

[13] Epistola Eman: Swedbergii ad Ericum Benzelium, Londini, Oct., 1710. See EMANUEL SWEDENBORG: Opera quædam aut inedita aut obsoleta de rebus naturalibus, nunc edita sub auspiciis Regiæ Academiæ Scientiarum Suecicæ, I. Geologica et Epistolæ, Edit. ALFRED H. STROH, Holmiæ, 1907, p. 206 _et seqq._

[14] Epist. Em. Sw. ad E. Benz., London, April, 1711, see Op. cit. p. 208 _et seqq._

[15] Epist. Em. Sw. ad E. Benz., London, Augusti, 1712, see Op. cit. p. 218 _et seqq._

[16] Epist. Em. Sw. ad E. Benz., Paris, Augusti, 1713, see Op. cit. p. 222 _et seqq._

[17] Epist. Em. Sw. ad E. Benz., Rostock, September, 1714, see. Op. cit. p. 224 _et seqq._

[18] Suggestions for a Flying Machine by EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, translated from the original Swedish by HUGO LJ. ODHNER and CARL TH. ODHNER, published by the Swedenborg Scientific Association, Philadelphia, Pa., 1910.

[19] Dædalus Hyperboreus, Eller Några Nya Mathematiska och Physicaliska Försök och Anmerckningar: Som Wälborne Herr Assessor Polhammar och Andre Sinrike i Swerige Hafwa giordt Och Nu tijd efter annan til almen nytta lemna. Printed in Uppsala (and Skara), 1716-1718. Preface by EM. SVEDBERG, Stockholm, Dec. 23rd, 1715.

[20] ›Förslag til wart Mynts och Måls Indelning, så at Rekningen kan lettas och alt Bråk afskaffas›. Stockholm, Kongl. Boktryckeriet, 1719, 8 pp. 4:o. See ALFRED H. STROH and GRETA EKELÖF: Chronological list of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, dedicated to the Swedenborg Society by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Uppsala and Stockholm, 1910, pp. 17 and 19.