This is certain, that it is in the head, since the head is the seat
where the understanding thinks, and the will intends; and in front in
the face of the head are man's five sensories, receiving life from the
soul alone which resides in the head; but in what particular part of the
head the soul has its more immediate residence, I dare not take upon me
to say; yet I agree with those who fix its abode in the three ventricles
of the brain, sometimes inclining to the opinion of those who fix it in
the _corpora striata_ therein, sometimes to theirs who fix it in the
medullary substance of each brain, sometimes to theirs who fix it in the
cortical substance, and sometimes to theirs who fix it in the _dura
mater_; for arguments, and those too of weight, have not been wanting in
the support of each of these opinions. The arguments in favor of the
three ventricles of the brain have been, that those ventricles are the
recipients of the animal spirits and of all the lymphs of the brain: the
arguments in favor of the _corpora striata_ have been, that these bodies
constitute the marrow, through which the nerves are emitted, and by
which each brain is continued into the spine; and from the spine and the
marrow there is an emanation of fibres serving for the contexture of the
whole body: the arguments in favor of the medullary substance of each
brain have been, that this substance is a collection and congeries of
all the fibres, which are the rudiments or beginnings of the whole man:
the arguments in favor of the cortical substance have been, that in that
substance are contained the prime and ultimate ends, and consequently
the principles of all the fibres, and thereby of all the senses and
motions: the arguments in favor of the _dura mater_ have been, that it
is the common covering of each brain, and hence by some kind of
continuous principle extends itself over the heart and the viscera of
the body.
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