Index

Abrams, M. H.: The Mirror and the Lamp, 25

Adair, James: Essays on Fashionable Diseases, 251

Addison, Joseph, 140–41, 185, 272n14. See also Spectator

agnosticism, 132, 239, 247, 267n1

Aït-Touati, Frederique, 27, 28

alembic, comparison of brain/mind to, 49–50, 51, 59, 101, 107, 225, 250

anatomy. See dissections; “mock dissection”

animal electricity, discovery of, 252

animal spirits: Addison and, 141, 185; age and experience attributed to, 57–58; biochemical process producing, 48–55; Blackmore and, 235; Boswell and, 221, 223–27, 236, 280n9; Cavendish and, 73, 169; debate over and critiques of animal-spirits physiology, 40, 193–94, 197–98, 252, 275n5; defined, 4; delivering commands from brain or pineal gland, 22, 26, 36, 41, 43, 56–57, 73, 75, 153, 154, 161, 166–69, 206; epistemological gap and, 10, 53, 63, 66, 196–97; Fielding (Henry) and, 199–200; Fielding (Sarah) and, 200; history of use in medical texts, 48, 192, 193, 197, 260n14; Hobbes and, 68; Hume and, 142; hypochondria and, 235; invisibility of, 223; Kinneir and, 194–96, 199, 223; liquor and, 110; Locke and, 111, 135, 138, 185, 268n8, 271n39; madness and, 60–61, 137; mirror to human counterpart’s mental state, 18, 45–46, 52–53, 57–58, 62, 187, 210; ontological strength and weakness of, 50–52; in optic nerves, 123; persisting in mid-eighteenth-century literature, 8, 33, 66, 183–84, 192–93, 199–201, 262n82; personification of, 35–36, 38, 69, 128, 137, 184, 188, 194, 198, 203, 277n44; Prior and, 166, 168–69; Purcell and, 235; as soldiers of the mind, 26, 30, 36, 56–58, 65, 73, 153; Sterne and, 182–91, 193–203, 275n15, 276n21, 277n44; Swift and, 67–69, 184, 262n95, 263n98; as thinking things, 46, 60, 61, 64, 73, 76, 128; vitalism replacing, 14, 33, 183–84, 203–12, 215–16, 235, 252, 274nn1–2, 275n5; Willis and, 35–36, 38, 40–48, 60, 68, 153, 193, 253, 260n20, 264n10; of women, 7. See also mechanistic paradigm

anthropomorphism: Cavendish’s rejection of, 80, 88, 94–96, 98, 264n7; Helmont and, 86–87, 89, 98; Sterne and, 279n72; Willis and, 69, 98

Arbuthnot, John, 143, 154; Three Hours after Marriage (with Gay and Pope), 7. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus

Aristotle, 156, 166, 167

associationism, 139–42, 185, 268n11, 275n9

atomism, 214, 263n5, 264n12

Ayers, Michael, 270n35

Barker, Jane: “A Farewell to Poetry, with a Long Digression on Anatomy,” 1–6, 8–11; scientific writings as basis for poetry of, 2–6, 15

Bassiri, Nima, 207

Battestin, Martin, 279n72

Beaumont, John, 66

Beau’s brain dissection. See Spectator

Bender, John, 27

Bennett, Maxwell, 252

Bentley, Richard: Matter and Motion Cannot Think, 53

Berkeley, Bishop (George), 178–79, 274n39

Blackmore, Richard: A Treatise of the Spleen and Vapours, 233

Blair, Hugh, 257n47

body-as-machine metaphor, 194, 197

body-mind interplay. See mind-body relationship

Boerhaave, Herman, 198

Bordeu, Theophile de, 207, 277–78n57

Boswell, James, 33–34, 219–51; animal spirits and, 221, 223–27, 236, 280n9; belonging to circle of hypochondriacs, 231–32; compared to Mandeville, 245, 247; comparing mind and brain to a watch and its casing, 221, 247–50, 283n89; confusing subjective states of mind with accounts of bodily causes, 222–25; depression of, 219, 222, 225; drunkenness followed by later regret by, 281n38; figurative language, use of, 221, 229–30, 236, 243–51, 280n14; honesty in admitting to uncertainty in ascertaining his sensibility, 226–28; hypochondria of, 33–34, 219–32, 243, 246, 280n26, 280–81nn28–29; identifying with Monro’s story about hypochondriac, 231–32; on interplay of fantasy and physiology in hypochondria, 34, 251; investigating state of his own nervous system, 219–20, 223–26, 228–29; language’s inability to express his feelings, 227, 281n32; Locke and, 228, 246, 248, 250, 283n89; meetings with Madame de Froment, 231; on memory, 245–47, 282n77; nervous fictions in, 220–21; relaxed nerves and, 222, 280n16; skepticism of, 228–30, 229, 232–33, 236, 239, 243, 245, 281n38; vibrating nerves and, 221, 223, 225–26, 236, 280n9, 280n16. Writings by: Holland Journal, 228–29; “The Hypochondriack” (London Magazine series of essays), 219, 244, 247, 248

Boyle, Robert, 16, 58, 96, 117, 266n52

brain: analogy to alembic or machinery, 49–50, 51, 59, 101, 107, 153, 225, 250, 262n95; analogy to beehives or swarm of bees, 59, 69, 72, 207; analogy to castle, kingdom, home, or state, 8, 9, 11, 20, 26, 72, 109, 153, 162, 165, 249–50; analogy to musical strings and musical instruments, 1, 26, 33, 103, 139, 197–99, 203–5, 235, 258n64; analogy to storehouse or cabinet, 26, 32, 59, 72, 91, 107, 110–11, 115, 126–31, 207, 225, 245, 247, 250, 258n64, 270nn30–31; analogy to tool or agency interacting with the world, 9–10, 20, 31, 33, 73–74, 95–101, 108, 112, 115, 129, 204, 211–12; analogy to watch and its casing, 221, 247–50, 283n89; anatomy in late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 16, 55, 256n18; Cavendish’s range of analogies for, 31, 72; command role in body, 8, 93, 97, 161, 166–69, 206, 209; contemporary knowledge of neurons, 252; God’s brain, 104–6; microcosms in, 7, 8, 9, 28, 73, 153–54, 160, 184, 206; mirroring mental qualities to which it gives rise, 18, 45–46, 62, 153, 164; as node in sympathetic system, 207; personification of, 8, 9, 20, 107, 257n47; soul operating even when cut off from, 207; in vitalist system, 203–12; Willis explaining, 13, 15, 49–50. See also animal spirits; mechanistic paradigm; nervous system; pineal gland; vitalism

Brooke, Henry: Universal Beauty, 65

Broughton, John, 53–54

Brown, Marshall, 277n44

Burton, Robert, 192

Byrom, John, 178

Cartesian theater, 22–25; Cavendish and, 75, 83–84; Cheyne’s image of how nerves function and, 198; Dennett’s designation of, 22; Locke and, 128; madness and, 260n30; Newton and, 104; in Newton-Clarke-Leibniz debate, 214, 217; vitalism’s rejection of, 208; Willis and, 41

Caruth, Cathy, 133

Castle, Terry, 272n12

Cavendish, Margaret, 30–31, 71–107; animal spirits and, 73, 169; anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism rejected by, 80, 88, 94–96, 98, 264n7; aware of lack of acceptance for her views, 84, 265n35; on brain as kingdom or parliament, 26, 72, 76, 95–96, 264n16; on brain as tool or agency interacting with world, 9, 20, 31, 73–74, 95–101, 108, 129, 211; Cheyne and, 103; chicken-and-egg example used by, 90; clouds compared to brain by, 101–2; compared to Sterne, 20, 184, 211; contemporary critics on, 74, 263n6; critical of figurative language (nervous fictions) of her contemporaries, 26, 73, 84–94, 252, 263n5; Descartes and, 31, 75–76, 82, 84, 92, 102, 264nn10–11; empiricism critiqued by, 85–86, 89–94, 117, 263n6, 266n48, 266n52; figurative language used by, 9, 20, 31, 72, 73, 94–102, 263n4, 266–67n65, 267n68; Helmont and, 73, 85–89, 92, 94, 98; “hermaphroditical” writing and, 91; Hobbes and, 264n19; on homunculi, 73, 80, 94; hybrid nature of writing mixing philosophy and literature, 74, 263n6; on ice skaters and her recall of them, 71–72, 73; on independence or hierarchy of bodily organs, 82–83, 98–100, 264n16; influence of, 103–7; microscopy and dissection critiqued by, 84–85, 89–91, 117, 144; natural philosophy and, 73, 75, 85, 103, 263–64n7; nervous system as conceived by, 75–84; Newton and, 103–7; as panpsychist materialist, 31, 74–75, 78–82, 84, 89, 100, 104, 263n5, 263–64n7, 264n9, 264n19; on pineal gland’s role, 76–77, 81, 92–93, 95, 264n11; on senses and, in particular, eyes’ role, 82–84, 98, 100–101; on states of matter (dull, sensitive, and rational), 78–82; tenor/vehicle language of, 96–97, 100–102, 267n68; on thinking things in body, 73, 76, 80, 84, 89, 95, 98–99, 104; vitalist system and, 101, 103, 263n5, 263n7, 264n12; Willis and, 31, 72–75, 92, 98, 102, 263n5. Writings by: “The Animall Parliament” (prose coda), 76; The Blazing World, 263n6; Grounds of Natural Philosophy, 76–77; Natures Picture, 264n17; Philosophicall Fancies, 100–101; Poems, and Fancies, 76; The Worlds Olio, 98

cerebellum, 12, 43, 55, 145, 176, 189

cerebrum, 12, 25, 145, 151, 176, 182, 185

Chadwick, Joseph, 279n72

Chandler, James, 279n72

Cheyne, George: on animal spirits, 194; Cavendish and, 103; describing brain as musical instrument, 197–98, 205, 235, 258n64; on hypochondria, 226, 237; Willis and, 36

Chico, Tita, 27, 272n10

Clarke, Samuel, 105–7, 214–17

cognitive neuroscience, 17, 29, 112

consciousness, 72, 75, 82, 97–98, 145, 203, 222–23, 258n49, 269n28

Coquet’s heart dissection. See Spectator

corpus callosum, 41, 145–46, 260n17

cortex, 56, 145

Coward, William, 66

Curteis, Thomas, 65–66

Daniel, Gabriel: A Voyage to the World of Cartesius, 178

Dennett, Daniel, 22, 253, 257n38, 257n46, 258n48. See also Cartesian theater

depression. See melancholy or depression

Descartes, René: on ability to think, 141, 260n21; animal spirits and, 21, 23, 35–36, 40, 68; Cavendish at odds with, 31, 75–76, 82, 84, 92, 102, 264nn10–11; Daniel’s satire on, 178; Drury-Lane Journal essay on, 179; dualism of, 21–24, 40, 264n19; figurative language, use of, 21–25; on indivisibility of mind, 23–24; Locke and, 32, 122, 128–29; Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus and, 273n23; mind’s location in brain and, 166; nervous fictions and, 21–25; on pineal gland’s central role in nervous system, 21–23, 75, 153, 164, 258n57; sight explained by, 122, 123, 132; Willis and, 35, 40–41, 260n21, 264n10. Writings by: Meditations on First Philosophy, 22–23; Treatise of Man, 261n43. See also Cartesian theater

Dewhurst, Kenneth, 116, 268n15

Diderot, Denis: D’Alembert’s Dream, 208, 213, 278n61, 279n72

dissections: Cavendish on, 84–85, 89–91, 117, 144; debate over use and abuse of, 144–46, 271n4; Hume on, 142; Locke on, 110–11, 124, 144–45, 149–50; “mock dissection,” 32, 143–81, 271n2; natural philosophy and, 32, 143–45; Swift’s A Tale of a Tub on, 149–50; Willis and, 12–13, 27, 32, 36–37, 39, 40, 55, 63, 73, 144, 145, 176, 256n18. See also “mock dissection”

Donne, John, 192

“Double-Life Legend.” See Ryle, Gilbert

Dreyfus, Hubert, 265n34

Drury-Lane Journal, 179–80

dualism: Descartes and, 21–24, 40, 264n19; Helmont and, 85; Kinneir and, 196; Willis and, 40–42, 70

Dussinger, John A., 279n72

Ellison, Katherine, 282n77

empiricism: anatomists and, 13; Cavendish’s critique of, 85–86, 89–94, 117, 263n6, 266n48, 266n52; literary and imaginative techniques used in, 26–28, 58; “mock dissectors” and, 158–59, 162–63, 170–71, 272n10, 273n25

enactive (extended) mind, 20, 258n48, 258n50

Enlightenment literary texts, 29, 48, 258n50

epileptic fits, 43, 45

epistemological gap: animal spirits and, 53, 63, 66, 196–97; Cavendish and, 264n12; Kinneir and, 196. See also mind-body relationship

feminine vs. masculine activities, 91

Festa, Lynn, 278n69

Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones, 199–200

Fielding, Sarah, 199–200; History of the Countess of Dellwyn, 200

figurative language: advantages of using, 20, 58; for animal spirits, 26, 30, 35–36, 38, 45, 56–58, 65, 69, 73, 128, 137, 153, 184, 188, 193–201, 203, 277n44; Barker’s poetry using scientific writings as basis for, 2–6; body-as-a-machine metaphor, 194, 197; Bordeu’s use of, 207; Boswell’s use of, 221, 229–30, 236, 243–51, 280n14; Cavendish’s use of, 9, 20, 31, 72–74, 94–102, 263n4, 266–67n65, 267n68; Descartes’s use of, 21–25; empiricism employing techniques of, 26–28, 58; evolution of medical paradigm and, 243, 253; Helmont’s use of, 88–89; Kinneir on misinterpreted metaphors, 199; Leibniz-Clarke debate and, 214–17; Locke’s use of, 9, 32, 110–11, 114–15, 119, 124, 126–31, 136–38, 268n5; Mandeville’s use of, 240–42, 243; mock dissectors using, 9, 146–47, 149, 155, 160, 162–65, 273n28; in natural philosophy, 20–28, 39, 183–84; in nervous fictions, 8–9, 11, 20, 25–26; for neurons, 252–53; Newton’s use of, 105–7; reductive metaphors, use of, 160, 162–64, 180; Sterne’s use of, 9, 20, 184, 192, 203, 204, 209, 214–16; throughout seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writing, 8, 20–26, 29–30, 40, 63, 65, 243; Willis’s use of, 27, 30–39, 44, 45, 48, 50, 55–63, 66, 72–73, 252, 259n13. See also brain for specific analogies; personification

Finch, Anne: “Of Spleen” (poem), 232–33, 234, 281n45

Flemyng, Malcolm, 145; The Nature of Nervous Fluid, 198

fluids: Cavendish and, 95; dissection revealing, 152; experiments of late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries disproving, 194; Flemyng and, 198; hypochondria and, 221; internal cerebral fluids fueling nervous system, 11, 53, 59; personification of, 46, 168; in Swift’s satires, 67; Willis and, 39, 46, 75. See also animal spirits

Fox, Christopher, 273n24

Frank, Robert G., 261n47

Frasca-Spada, Marina, 141

Frye, Northrop, 271n3

Galen, 2, 14, 48, 156, 161, 237–38

Gallagher, Catherine, 264n16

Galvani, Luigi, 252

Garth, Samuel: The Dispensary, 16

Gay, John, 7, 139; Three Hours after Marriage (with Pope and Arbuthnot), 7. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus

Goclenius, Rudolphis, 106

God: Cavendish and, 264n9; Leibniz-Clarke debate on, 214; Locke and, 267n1; Newton and, 104–6, 214

Goodhue, Elizabeth K., 279n72

Goss, Erin, 272n8

“great sensorium of the world,” 20, 105–7, 184, 213–18

Habinek, Lianne: Subtle Knot, 29–30, 74, 95–96, 255n17, 258n50, 263–64n7, 266–67n65

Hacker, P. M. S., 252

Hartley, David, 103, 139–40, 198, 206, 274n2

Harvey, William, 2–5, 13

Haywood, Eliza: animal-spirits physiology in novels of, 64, 199; British Recluse, 64; compared to Willis, 65; Female Spectator, 6–7, 11; The Injured Husband, 64; Lasselia, 64

Helmont, J. B. van, 73, 85–89, 92, 94, 98

Hilton, Phillip, 239, 282n64, 282n74

Hippocrates, 2, 14, 156–57

Hobbes, Thomas: animal spirits and, 68, 69; Cavendish and, 264n19, 266n52; Leviathan, 61, 70; as materialist, 68, 264n19; Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus and, 273n23; Swift’s invocation of, 70

Hole, Matthew, 53

homunculus fallacy, 18, 257n44, 257n47; Cavendish and, 73, 80, 94; Locke and, 137; Ryle and, 18–19; Sterne and, 185–93, 275n10; Willis and, 38. See also personification

Hume, David, 140–42; nervous fictions of, 142; Treatise of Human Nature, 140, 141

Hutcheson, Francis, 139

Hutto, Daniel, 281n33

Huygens, Christiaan, 117

hyperbole. See “mock dissection”; satire

hypochondria, 33–34, 207–8, 214, 219–51, 268n16, 279n1, 280n10; Blackmore’s medical text on, 233–34; confusing subjective states of mind with accounts of bodily causes, 222–23; exposing hypochondriac’s fantasies as fantasies, 33, 242–43; figurative language and, 221–22; Finch’s poem “Of Spleen” describing physician Lower’s disease as, 232–33, 234, 281n45; glimpse into mind of hypochondriac, 222–32, 280n27; honesty of hypochondriac in admitting to uncertainty in ascertaining his sensibility, 226–28; hyperacute powers of sensibility of hypochondriacs, 226; interplay of fantasy and physiology in, 34, 251; Mandeville on, 237; melancholy and, 219, 279n1, 280n10; Monro’s story about hypochondriac, 231–32; of physicians, 232–42; skepticism of, 228–30. See also Boswell, James

hysteria, 43–46, 279n1

imagination: Addison and, 141; Cavendish and, 266n58; dissection revealing seat of, 152, 176; Sterne and, 203; Willis and, 53, 59

Ingram, Allan, 247

innatism, 125–26

it-narratives related to “mock dissections,” 180–81

Johnson, Barbara, 258n47

Johnstone, Charles: Chrysal, 6–7, 11, 180

Jost, Jacob Sider, 280n20

Keller, Eve, 266n48

Kinneir, David: A New Essay on the Nerves, 194–96, 199, 223

Knox, Vicesimus, 226

Kramnick, Jonathan: Actions and Objects from Hobbes to Richardson, 29, 80, 258n50, 270–71n39

La Mettrie, J. O.: Man a Machine, 70

Lamb, Jonathan, 274n2

Lawrence, Christopher, 278n63

Leibniz, Gottfried, 15–16, 63, 70, 105–7, 214–17

Levine, Joseph, 269n24

Lewis, Jayne, 27

Locke, John, 31–32, 108–42; as agnostic, 132, 267n1; animal spirits and, 111, 135, 138, 268n8, 271n39; association of ideas and, 139–42, 185, 268n11, 275n9; on blank slate (tabula rasa), 126, 270n30, 270n32; Boswell and, 228, 246, 248, 250, 283n89; on chain of cause and effect, 120, 121–22; on consciousness, 125, 269n28; Descartes and, 32, 122, 128–29; dissections, criticism of, 110–11, 124, 144–45, 149–50; on drugs’ effect on humans, 118–19; on education and habit as sources of madness, 135–36, 137; empiricism of, 112, 117, 136, 269n23; on epistemology and knowledge, 32, 120, 130–32, 243, 270n32; figurative language, use of, 9, 32, 110–11, 114–15, 119, 124, 126–31, 136–38, 268n5; on first-person experience as essential to understanding, 32, 110–11, 124, 133, 136, 270n28; God and, 267n1; influence of, 139–42; innatist doctrine, critique of, 125–26; madness and, 32, 111, 131–38, 268n11, 270nn35–36; mental cabinet as figure used by, 32, 110–11, 115, 126–31, 270nn30–31; mind-matter relationship and, 109, 110, 114, 119, 121, 132, 138; natural history method employed and natural philosophy rejected by, 112–13, 124; on need for definitions, 109–10, 268n2; nervous fiction of, 137–38; on nervous system as tool or agency interacting with world in, 9, 108, 112, 115, 129; on neurophysiology of sight, 122–23, 201; neuroscientific rivals critiqued by, 32–33, 108–9, 116–24, 128, 137, 138, 252; on power of introspection and subjective experience, 125–26, 133, 136; on primary vs. secondary qualities, 31, 119–23, 269n27; Scriblerians and, 273n24; Sterne and, 185, 201, 275n9; Sydenham’s influence on, 116–18, 135–36, 268n15, 269n19; Willis and, 32, 116, 121, 128–29, 261n58; wrongly classified as materialist, 112, 268n7. Writings by: “Anatomia,” 117–18, 150, 269n19; Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 31, 98, 109–18, 124–39, 141, 275n9

love, 18, 36, 61–65, 69, 171

Loveridge, Mark, 279n72

Lower, Richard, 232–33, 281n45

Lucretius, 171, 173, 175

madness: education and habit as sources of, 135–36, 137; Locke and, 32, 111, 131–38, 268n11, 270nn35–36; Swift and, 67; Willis and, 43, 58, 59, 60–61, 137, 260n30

Malebranche, Nicholas, 270n35

Mandeville, Bernard, 222, 237, 243, 245, 247, 251, 252, 272n7, 282n70; Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases, 237–42, 282n54

manifest image. See scientific image vs. manifest image

Manning, Susan, 281n38

materialists: Cavendish as panpsychist materialist, 31, 74–75, 78–82, 84, 89, 100, 104, 263n5, 263–64n7, 264n9, 264n19; eliminative materialists, 256n35; Hobbes as, 68, 264n19; Locke wrongly classified as, 112, 268n7

McMaster, Juliet, 276n16

mechanistic paradigm: Cavendish’s disagreement with, 73, 75, 103; Sterne’s satire of, 193–203; synecdoches of, 210; transition from, 14, 33, 183–84, 203–12, 215–16, 235, 252, 274nn1–2, 275n5; vitalism’s differences from, 215; vitalism’s similarities to, 14, 212; Willis and anatomists of seventeenth century, role in, 13. See also dissections; Willis, Thomas

medulla oblongata, 12, 14, 56

melancholy or depression, 61, 66, 116, 200, 219, 222, 225, 279n1, 280n10

Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (Arbuthnot, Swift, Pope, and Gay), 143, 146, 154–65; compared to Addison’s satire, 155; composition history of, 154, 273n21, 273n23, 273n28; Descartes and, 273n23; Drury-Lane Journal and, 179; empiricism in, 158–59, 162–63, 170, 273n25; Hobbes and, 273n23; mind-body problem in, 157–58, 273n24; nervous fiction used in, 160, 164–65; neuroscience juxtaposed against ancient predecessors in, 155–57, 166; personification in, 162–63; pineal gland in, 161–62, 164; reductive metaphors, use of, 160, 162–64; soul’s location in, 162–65

memory: Boswell and, 245–47, 248, 282n77; dissection revealing seat of, 152, 176; seat of, 7, 145; Sterne and, 190; Willis and, 53, 54, 59, 67

Menippean satire, 271n3

mereological fallacy, 18, 252, 256n37, 257n40, 257n44, 257n47. See also homunculus fallacy; synecdoches

metaphors. See figurative language

microcosms in brain, 7, 8, 9, 28, 73, 153–54, 160, 184, 206

Milton, John: Paradise Lost, 261n43

the mind. See brain; psyche

mind-body relationship, 253, 255n16, 256n36; Boswell and, 223; Cavendish and, 103; Descartes and, 21–25; Locke and, 109; Mandeville and, 237; the mental synced up with the physical, 7, 50; “mock dissectors” and, 157–58; nervous fictions dealing with mysteries of, 10–11, 221; Sterne and, 188, 192, 201–2, 276n16; Willis and, 61

Mishori, Daniel, 125

“mock dissection,” 32, 143–81, 271n2; ancient vs. modern views of anatomy and, 155–57, 166–68; animal spirits and, 166; Berkeley’s essays and, 178–79; debates over use and abuse of brain dissections as basis for, 144–46; Drury-Lane Journal and, 179–80; examples of, 143–44, 177–81; figurative language, use of, 9, 33, 146–47, 149, 155, 160, 162–65, 273n28; it-narratives containing traces of, 180–81; location of mind in relation to love and lust and, 171; magic of anatomist’s work in, 152, 177; microcosms in, 153–54, 160, 162; mock dissectors pretending to be followers of Willis or Descartes, 146; nervous fiction used in, 146, 160; personification and, 7, 69, 155, 162–63, 165, 168–70, 173; pineal gland in, 153–54, 161–62, 164; Scott’s Adventures of a Rupee, 180; soul’s location in, 162–65, 179. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus; Prior, Matthew; Spectator

Monro, Alexander (secundus), 231–32, 245

More, Henry, 16, 56, 144

Morgan, Thomas, 46–47, 197

Muri, Allison, 42

music: calming powers of, 45, 46; nerves and brain compared to musical strings and instruments, 1, 26, 33, 103, 139, 197–99, 203–5, 235, 258n64

Myer, Valerie, 192

natural philosophy: brain dissection and, 13, 32, 143–45; Cavendish’s disagreement with, 73, 75, 85, 103, 263–64n7; fiction and metaphors capturing discoveries of, 20–28, 39, 183–84; Locke’s rejection of, 112–13, 124; Newton and, 103, 105; satire of, 143–44, 165; Sterne and, 183, 186, 192; style of writing in early works of, 27–28, 30. See also animal spirits; mechanistic paradigm; Willis, Thomas; specific scientists and writers

nervous fictions: association of ideas and, 137–38, 142; Boswell and, 220–21; brain and nerves taking central role in, 5–6, 8–9; definition and purpose of, 1–12; Descartes and, 21–25; figurative language in, 8–9, 11, 20, 25–26; hypochondria’s fantasies as, 230, 235, 236–37; journey into the body staged in, 9; mind-body problem and, 10, 123; personification in, 8–9, 137, 257–58n47; post-eighteenth century persistence of, 252; prevalence in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 6, 10, 85; relationships among science, philosophy of mind, and literary or rhetorical language, 8–10; as response to problem of how to correlate physical brain structure and substance of mind, 15, 108–9; satire in response to, 9; Sterne’s primary role in writing, 33, 182; as virtual witnessing, 9

nervous system: compared to society of sentimental subjects, 215; contemporary knowledge of, 252; corporeal soul equated with, 41; Galvani’s experiments on, 252; Newton’s conception of, 103–7; personification of, 30, 192; Sellars’s manifest image of, 17; sympathy between nervous systems of different persons, 207–8; in vitalist system, 203–12; Willis’s account of, 12–13, 36. See also animal spirits; brain; “great sensorium of the world”; neuroscience

neurons, 252–53

neuroscience: hypochondria as problem for, 221, 235, 237; literary-scientific techniques in, 28; Locke and others critiquing, 32–33, 108–9, 116–24, 128, 137, 138; as magic in “mock dissections,” 152, 177; new theories in mid- to late eighteenth century, 16, 33, 183, 193, 203–5, 253; ontological taming of animal spirits in, 50–51; Sterne and, 33; Swift’s knowledge of, 66–70; use of term, 13, 255n10; Willis’s role in advancing, 12, 27, 41–42, 68. See also dissections; vitalism

Newton, Isaac, 103–7, 117, 140, 193, 197, 203, 205, 208, 214, 267n73

Noë, Alva, 258n49

Ovid, 171, 173

Pasanek, Brad: Metaphors of Mind, 25

Paulson, Ronald, 272n18

personification: of animal spirits, 35–36, 38, 69, 128, 137, 184, 188, 194, 198, 203, 277n44; of brain, 8, 9, 20, 107, 257n47; in nervous fictions, 8–9, 137, 257–58n47; Scriblerians’ satire and “mock dissections” exposing, 7, 69, 155, 162–63, 165, 168–70, 173; Sterne and, 33, 184, 188, 192, 209; vitalist system and, 184; Willis and, 35–36, 38, 39, 43, 48, 58, 60–63, 69, 73, 74, 94, 137

Phillips, Natalie, 29

Philmus, R. M., 263n98

philosophy of mind, 10, 17–19, 31; contemporary main concerns of, 256n34; Dennett on, 257n46; of Descartes, 22; Locke and, 31; reading together with cognitive science, 29; Ryle on, 19–20; Sterne and, 201; Wittgenstein on, 19–20, 253, 281n33

physicians’ hypochondria, 232–42

pineal gland, 8, 30–31, 41, 46, 178–80, 182; analogy to throne for the soul, 30; Cavendish’s evolution of thinking about role of, 76–77, 81, 92–93, 95, 264n11; as command center of brain, 22, 26, 75, 92, 129; Descartes designating as control room for mind, 21–23, 123, 153, 164, 258n57, 273n20; in “mock dissections,” 153–54, 161–62, 164; as part of brain that is not doubled, 24, 273n20

Pope, Alexander, 143, 154, 156; Dunciad, 154; Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry, 154; Three Hours after Marriage (with Gay and Arbuthnot), 7. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus

Preston, Claire, 27

Prior, Matthew: Alma, 32, 143, 146, 165–77, 258n51, 273n27; ancient vs. modern views of anatomy and, 166–70; compared to Memoirs and Addison’s satire, 165, 166, 273n28, 274n31; Drury-Lane Journal and, 179; empiricism in, 170–71; linguistic ambiguities in, 177; location of imagination and memory in, 176; location of mind in relation to love and lust in, 171; optic nerve in, 168–69; personification in, 170; psyche in, 166; relationship between poetry and physiology explored in, 172–75

prosopopoeia. See personification

psyche: Cavendish and, 83–84, 95, 108; Descartes and, 129; figures used to describe, 25–26; Locke and, 124–25, 129; Willis and, 42, 129. See also brain; mind-body relationship

Purcell, John: Treatise of Vapours, 235, 239–40

Rabelais, 192

Reill, Peter Hans, 206

Robinson, Bryan, 194

Robinson, Nicholas, 46, 235–36, 282n51

Rodgers, James, 212

Romanell, Patrick, 116, 268n15

Rorty, Richard, 130, 270n32

Rousseau, G. S.: Nervous Acts, 29, 35

Ryle, Gilbert: Cartesian mind and, 21; Dennett on, 257n38, 257n46, 258n48; “double life legend” and, 9, 165, 188, 224; on fallacies used to explicate mental experience, 18–19, 253, 257n38, 257n43; suspicious of mental interiority, 20; Willis and, 38

satire, 271n1; of animal spirits, 7; Menippean satire, 271n3; “mock dissection” or “mock anatomy,” 9, 32, 143–81; “Scriblerian satire,” 271n3; Swift’s early satires, 66–70, 149. See also “mock dissection”; Sterne, Laurence

science: closeness to literature of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 27–28; philosophy of mind, reading together with cognitive science, 17, 29, 112; Sterne and scientific theory change, 33, 183, 193, 203–6, 209–11, 274n2; theater, relationship with, 259n66. See also natural philosophy; theory of mind

scientific image vs. manifest image, 17, 19, 25, 29, 39, 42, 50–51, 61, 256n33

Scott, Helenus: The Adventures of a Rupee, 180

Scriblerians, 7, 9, 32, 146, 154, 165, 271n1, 273nn24–25. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus

Sellars, Wilfrid, 17, 19, 253, 256n33, 257n43, 257n46

sensibility: of Boswell, 220, 226–28; of hypochondriacs, 226; in Sterne, 214–17, 277n46

Shapiro, Lisa, 24

Shklovsky, Victor, 277n43

Silver, Sean, 110–11; The Mind Is a Collection, 25, 258n50, 270n31

Smith, Adam, 212, 278n70

Smith, Courtney Weiss, 27, 58

Smollett, Tobias: History and Adventures of an Atom, 214

soul: Descartes on, 21–22, 40; location in “mock dissection,” 162–65, 179; operating even when cut off from brain, 207; rational vs. corporeal soul, 41–42, 260n30; Willis on, 40–42, 43, 45

Spears, Monroe K., 273n27

Spectator (Addison), 105, 140–41, 214; Berkeley’s satire building on, 178–79; Drury-Lane Journal and, 179; empiricism and, 272n10; enduring popularity of, 178; “mock dissection” in, 32, 143, 146, 147–54, 155, 272n14

Spenser, Edmund: Faerie Queene, 11

Sprat, Thomas, 58

Starr, G. Gabrielle, 266n58

Steno, Nicholas, 145, 176, 271n5

Sterne, Laurence, 33, 182–218; animal spirits and, 182–91, 193–203, 275n15, 276n21, 277n44; Clarke-Leibniz debate and, 214–17; compared to Cavendish, 20, 184, 211; compared to Swift, 184; Diderot and, 208, 213, 278n61; double life of a person and his brain in, 188–89; evolution from animal spirits to vibrating sensoria in, 33, 183, 193, 203–6, 209–11, 235, 274n2; figurative language, use of, 9, 20, 184, 192, 203, 204, 209, 214–16; “great sensorium of the world” and, 20, 184, 213–18; homunculus fallacy and, 185–93, 275n10; implied reader and his hostility in, 190–92, 276n20; isolation of characters in, 189; Locke and, 185, 201, 275n9; mind-body relationship in, 188, 201–2, 276n16; natural philosophy and, 183, 186, 192; nervous fictions by, 33, 182; nervous system as tool or agency interacting with world in, 9, 33, 204, 211–12; Newton and, 214–17; personification in, 33, 184, 188, 192, 209; philosophy of mind and, 201; reductive fallacy in, 191; satire and mockery of brain representations by, 20, 33, 184, 190, 193, 201–3, 213; sensibility and sentimental mode in, 214–17, 277n46; stoicism and, 189, 276n17; vitalist system and vibrating sensoria in, 183–84, 203–6, 209–13, 216, 274n2. Writings by: Sentimental Journey, 33, 105, 183–84, 204, 210–15, 274n3, 277n47; Tristram Shandy, 33, 182–83, 185–93, 200–204, 209–12, 274nn3–4, 275n15, 277nn43–44

Stout, Gardner, 279n72

Sutton, John: Philosophy and Memory Traces, 29, 183, 275n6

Swift, Jonathan, 66–70, 207, 262n93; animal spirits and, 67–69, 184, 262n95, 263n98; compared to Sterne, 184; “Mechanical Operation of the Spirit,” 69; A Tale of a Tub, 66–68, 149–50, 154, 262n95, 263n98, 272n16, 272n18. See also Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus

Sydenham, Thomas, 116–18, 135–36, 144, 239, 243, 246, 251, 268n15, 269n19

synecdoches: of Cartesian theater, 128; Cavendish avoiding, 95; of mechanistic models of nervous system, 210; use of term, 257n47; of Willis’s figurative spirits, 61

Tabb, Kathryn, 60

theory of mind, 29, 126, 248

Thompson, Helen, 27–28, 269n27

Traugott, John, 189

Turner, Daniel: Art of Surgery, 16, 271n5

Van Sant, Ann Jessie, 277n47

Vermeule, Blakey, 29

vibratory theories, 139, 197–99, 201, 203–12, 215; Boswell’s vibrating nerves, 221, 223, 225–26, 236, 280n9, 280n16; Cavendish and, 103; invisibility of vibrating nerves, 223; Robinson advocating for, 235–36; Sterne and, 33, 183, 193, 203–6, 209–11, 235, 274n2. See also vitalism

Virgil, 171, 173

vitalism: autonomy of body’s parts in, 206–7; Cavendish and, 101, 103, 263n5, 263n7, 264n12; figures and fictions of, 184; organs operating in sympathetic unity in, 207–8, 210, 216; in second half of eighteenth century, 107, 183, 203–12, 277nn48–50; similarities to mechanistic paradigm, 14, 212; Sterne and, 183–84, 203–6, 209–13, 216, 274n2; sympathy between nervous systems of different persons, 207–9, 216, 278n63, 278n69; transition from mechanistic hydraulic model to, 14, 33, 183–84, 203–12, 215–16, 235, 252, 274nn1–2, 275n5; world itself as one brain and all nervous systems belonging to, 208–9, 213. See also “great sensorium of the world”

von Haller, Albrecht, 198

Walaeus, Johannes, 2–3

Walmsley, Jonathan, 116

Weinberg, Shelly, 269n28

Wetmore, Alex, 278n70

Whytt, Robert, 103, 198, 206–8, 212, 213–14

Willis, Thomas, 30, 35–70; on ability to think, 260n21; anatomical work and dissection by, 12–13, 27, 32, 36–37, 39, 40, 55, 63, 73, 144, 145, 176, 256n18; animal spirits and, 35–36, 38, 40–48, 60, 68, 153, 193, 253, 260n20, 264n10; brain analogy to alembic, 49–50, 51, 59, 101; brain analogy to castle, kingdom, home, etc., 153; Cavendish at odds with, 31, 72–75, 92, 98, 102, 263n5; Cheyne on, 36; claiming to eschew figurative language while using it, 37–38, 39, 53, 54–55, 62–63, 73; criticized for use of technical jargon or figurative language, 47, 66, 252; Descartes and, 35, 40–41, 260n21, 264n10; dualism of, 40–42, 70; figurative language and metaphorical fiction used by, 27, 30–39, 44, 45, 48, 50, 55–63, 72–73, 252, 259n13; Haywood and, 65; Helmont and, 85; homunculus fallacy and, 38; on how brain matter makes the mind, 13, 15, 30, 35; hypochondria and, 33–34, 268n16; on imagination, 53, 59; influence of, 63–70; Locke and, 32, 116, 121, 128–29, 261n58; on love, 61–65, 69; on madness, 43, 58, 59, 60–61, 260n30; on memory, 53, 54, 59, 67; personification and, 35–36, 38, 39, 43, 48, 58, 60–63, 69, 73, 74, 94, 137; political allegories in, 42–43; soldier figures used to explain mental sensations, 56–58, 73, 153; on solid science presented by neuroscience, 27, 37; on soul, 40–42, 43, 45; as standard of thinking for eighteenth century about the mind, 21, 275n5; Swift’s satire of, 66–70, 262n93, 263n98; synecdoches of figurative spirits, 61; Wittgenstein and, 38; Wotton as supporter of, 14–15. Writings by: The Anatomy of the Brain, 55, 259n2; Essay of the Pathology of the Brain, 43–44, 52–53, 259n2; Two Discourses concerning the Souls of Brutes, 259n2

Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Dennett on, 257n38, 257n46; on fallacies used to explicate mental experience, 18, 256–57nn38–40, 257n43, 257n45; on philosophy of mind, 253, 281n33; Willis and, 38

women: feminine vs. masculine activities, 91; as quick and witty thinkers, 6–7

Wotton, William, 144; Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, 14–15, 66, 262–63n98

Wragge-Morley, Alexander, 59

Wright, John P., 131, 270n35

Zunshine, Lisa, 29