Memory and its Diseases [pp. 100-111]

1882.] MEMo~Y AiVD ITS DISEASES. 105
through repeated action a greater aptitude for reproducing sound,
an organized capacity, etc., all of which would.leave the accomplished player out of sight and out of the question. This view is
not meant as opposing the notion of an inner change wrought in
a nerve-cell by repeated function, but as showing the absurdity
of endowing the cell with the sole and supreme control over the
mental acts with which it is connected just because of such a
change. The mind, in the case alleged, stands towards the nervecells as the player towards the violin, with this difference: that
memory is a vital act and supposes a vital change in the nervous
system. But since all comparisons are lame, we neither can nor
do we intend to establish a complete similarity between the two
cases; it is sufficient that the comparison hold good so far as it
is intended to apply.
So far we have considered the mind as an agent which obtains more and more control over the organ it employs, and,
as a consequence, performs its functions with ever-increasing
facility, rapidity, and effectiveness. Let us now consider what
takes place in the nerve-cell as a consequence of such repeated action. Though the microscope has revealed no organic
change wrought through function, the facts of memory strongly indicate it, and such change we call conservation and reproduction taken in connection with a mental act. M. Ribot excludes mental act because he finds the nerve.change sufficient to
account for all without invoking an additional agent. This is
a mere assumption, or rather partakes of the nature of a negative proof. His means of investigation reveal to him in the
memorative process nothing more than a series of nerve-changes,
and he infers that nothing more is present. Let us illustrate the
reasoning by a rude comparison. A piece of machinery, when
first set in operation, works imperfectly: journals become heated,
the piston-rod fits too tightly in the cylinder, etc. By degrees
adjustment of all the parts takes place and perfect smoothness of
movement ensues. Repetition of action is certainly the cause of
this desirable result, but nobody would call that repetition the
cause of the energy manifested by the machine. The machine
might well be considered as endowed with memory did the
steam (the motor power) possess intelligence whereby it might
know on the repetition of each movement that the parts concerned therein had been called into operation previously. The
act of memory, then, as performed by the mind may be explained,
conformably with facts of physiology, in the following manner:
The will commands an action whereof the mind is at first pain