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"Nay, while, in man, the brain is the principal seat of the soul, where it most eminently displays its powers; it seems to exist so equally through the whole bodies of insects, as that its power or influence scarce appears more remarkable in one part than another: and hence it is, that, in such creatures, the several parts of the body live much longer after being separated from each other, than they do in man and the other animals more nearly resembling him, where the soul seems chiefly to act on the different parts by means of their connexion with the brain and spinal marrow; or, at least, where the cutting off such connexion, soon renders the parts unfit to be any more acted upon by it."

— Whytt, Robert (1714-1766)

Author

Whytt, Robert (1714-1766)

Work Title

An Essay on the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals

Place of Publication

Edinburgh

Publisher

Printed by Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill

Date

1751

Metaphor

"Nay, while, in man, the brain is the principal seat of the soul, where it most eminently displays its powers; it seems to exist so equally through the whole bodies of insects, as that its power or influence scarce appears more remarkable in one part than another: and hence it is, that, in such creatures, the several parts of the body live much longer after being separated from each other, than they do in man and the other animals more nearly resembling him, where the soul seems chiefly to act on the different parts by means of their connexion with the brain and spinal marrow; or, at least, where the cutting off such connexion, soon renders the parts unfit to be any more acted upon by it."

Metaphor in Context

As the schoolmen supposed the Deity to exist in every ubi, but not in anyplace, which, as a learned and acute writer has well observed, is to say, in Latin, that he exists every where, but in English, no where; so they imagined the soul of man not to occupy space, but to exist in an indivisible point. Yet, whoever considers the structure and phœnomena of the animal frame, will soon be convinced that the soul is not confined to an indivisible point, but must be present at one and the same time, if not in all the parts of the body, yet, at least, where-ever the nerves have their origin; i.e. it must be, at least, diffused along a great part of the brain and spinal marrow. Nay, while, in man, the brain is the principal seat of the soul, where it most eminently displays its powers; it seems to exist so equally through the whole bodies of insects, as that its power or influence scarce appears more remarkable in one part than another: and hence it is, that, in such creatures, the several parts of the body live much longer after being separated from each other, than they do in man and the other animals more nearly resembling him, where the soul seems chiefly to act on the different parts by means of their connexion with the brain and spinal marrow; or, at least, where the cutting off such connexion, soon renders the parts unfit to be any more acted upon by it. The amphibious animals seem to hold the middle place, between man and the insect tribe, as to the diffusion of the soul through the body, and its power of moving the various parts independently of the brain.
(Sect. XIII, pp. 380-1)