Surgeon General for the US Army during the Civil War and the first American physician to dedicate himself entirely to the field of neurology (1828–1900). AMS, two lightly-lined pages, 8 x 11.25, entitled “The Perceptions and Their Arrangements,” signed below the title, “By William A. Hammond, M.D.” A simple overview of the senses, likely originally written as a part of a lecture. In part: “The perceptions are those mental faculties whose office it is to bring us into relation with external objects. For the exercise of perception the brain is placed in intimate connection with certain organs, called organs or the special senses, which serves the purpose of receiving impressions from the various objects which surround us. Thus there is an optical apparatus: the eye is so constructed that images of things toward which it is turned are formed upon a portion of it called the retina. This is…transmitted to a certain part of the brain and there it is ‘perceived’ by the individual…Like reasoning is applicable to the other senses—hearing, smell, taste, and touch…Without perceptions it would be impossible for us to have ideas. Ideas are not born without us; they are formed from the impressions which reach us from without; and if there were no such impressions there would be no knowledge and consequently no ideas. How, for instance, could a person form a conception of a ball, its shape, color consistence, if he could not see it, or hear it roll, or touch it with some part of his body? How could he know so elementary a fact as one and one make two if he could not see or touch two separate objects, hear two distinct sounds, smell two different odors or taste two diverse flavors? Imagine a person without a single organ!” In fine condition, with two horizontal folds, light scattered toning and soiling, trivial chipping to the bottom edge, and a few ink and pencil editorial corrections throughout. RRAuction COA.
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