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Suspension of Thought

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 1.

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Suspension of Thought.

By D. M. Canright

Dr. Mulholland, practicing physician of this county, makes the following statement over his own signature of an incident that occurred in his practice in Milwaukee, Wis.
“In this city in 1859, there was a brick building in process of erection. As I was standing by, a hod carrier was just starting with a load of bricks for the top of the building. The boss workman called out from above, 'More bricks.' The hod carrier was just ready to respond 'Aye, aye,' when a brick fell from above and struck him on the head, breaking the skull and pressing it down upon the brain. He was carried a few rods to a surgeon's room, where he was trepanned, that is, the skull was raised from off the brain. This was about half an hour after he was hurt. The moment the skull was raised so as to allow the brain to act, he responded, 'Aye, aye,' in answer to the call of the workmau for brick. Evidently these words were formed in the man's mind before the brick struck him. The pressure upon the brain suspended all thought. When the brain was allowed to act again, the mind took up its thread of thought right where it was broken off.”
“Dr. Mulholland.”
The above incident shows conclusively, that the action of the mind is entirely dependent upon the action of the brain. When the brain ceases to act,thought is entirely suspended.
“The dead know not anything.”
D. M. Canright.
Tuscola Co., Mich.