From "The Revolt of the Unfit" by Nicholas Murray Butler

From "The Revolt of the Unfit" by Nicholas Murray Butler
Read by Tom J. Dolan

At that point, when individuals begin to give each to the other, then their mutual cooperation and interdependence build human society, and participation in that society changes the whole character of the human struggle. Nevertheless, large numbers of human beings carry with them into social and political relations the traditions and instincts of the old individualistic struggle for existence, with the laws of organic evolution pointing grimly to their several destinies. These are not able to realize that moral elements, and what we call progress toward an end or ideal, are not found under the operation of the law of natural selection, but have to be discovered elsewhere and added to it. Beauty, morality, progress have other lurking-places than in the struggle for existence, and they have for their sponsors other laws than that of natural selection. You will read the pages of Darwin and of Herbert Spencer in vain for any indication of how the Parthenon was produced, how the Sistine Madonna, how the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, how the Divine Comedy, or Hamlet or Faust. There are many mysteries left in the world, thank God, and these are some of them.

The escape of genius from the cloud-covered mountain-tops of the unknown into human society has not yet been accounted for. Even Rousseau made a mistake. When he was writing the Contrat social it is recorded that his attention was favorably attracted by the island of Corsica. He, being engaged in the process of finding out how to repeal the laws of man by the laws of nature, spoke of Corsica as the one country in Europe that seemed to him capable of legislation. This led him to add: “I have a presentiment that some day this little island will astonish Europe.” It was not long before Corsica did astonish Europe, but not by any capacity for legislation. As some clever person has said, it let loose Napoleon. We know nothing more of the origin and advent of genius than that.

Perhaps we should comprehend these things better were it not for the persistence of the superstition that human beings habitually think. There is no more persistent superstition than this. Linnæus helped it on to an undeserved permanence when he devised the name Homo sapiens for the highest species of the order primates. That was the quintessence of complimentary nomenclature. Of course human beings as such do not think. A real thinker is one of the rarest things in nature. He comes only at long intervals in human history, and when he does come, he is often astonishingly unwelcome. Indeed, he is sometimes speedily sent the way of the unfit and unprotesting earthworm. Emerson understood this, as he understood so many other of the deep things of life. For he wrote: "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk."

The plain fact is that man is not ruled by thinking. When man thinks he thinks, he usually merely feels; and his instincts and feelings are powerful precisely in proportion as they are irrational. Reason reveals the other side, and a knowledge of the other side is fatal to the driving power of a prejudice. Prejudices have their important uses, but it is well to try not to mix them up with principles.

Read more at bartleby.com

Posted by M. Dolan

From "Surgical Anatomy" by Joseph Maclise (1815-1880)

トムのナレーションによるビジュアル作品。
Joseph Maclise （ジョセフ・マックリース）の有名な解剖図と、その解説が書かれている『Surgical Anatomy』の一部です。
この作品を利用し、医学英語に聞き慣れ、単語の発音に慣れ親しみ、自然に発音が出来るよう活用してください。



---------------
Transcript
---------------

Of the illustrations of this work I may state, in guarantee of their anatomical accuracy, that they have been made by myself from my own dissections.

The middle point, between 7, the clavicle, and 6, the sternum, of Plate 4, is marked by a small triangular space occurring between the clavicular and sternal divisions of the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle. This space marks the situation (very generally) of the bifurcation of the innominate artery into the subclavian and common carotid arteries of the right side; a penetrating instrument would, if passed into this space at an inch depth, pierce first the root of the internal jugular vein, and under it, but somewhat internal, the root of either of these great arterial vessels, and would wound the right vagus nerve, as it traverses this region. For some extent after the subclavian and carotid vessels separate from their main common trunk, they lie concealed beneath the sterno-mastoid muscle, B, Plate 4, and still deeper beneath the sternal origins of the sterno-hyoid muscle, 5, and sterno-thyroid muscle, some of whose fibres are traceable at the intervals.

The ulnar artery, C, Plate 17, is attended by the ulnar nerve, D, in the wrist, and both these pass in company to the palm. The ulnar nerve, D E, lies on the ulnar border of the artery, and both are in general to be found ranging along the radial side of the tendon of the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle, T, and the pisiform bone, G. The situation of the radial artery is midway between the flexor carpi radialis tendon, I, and the outer border of the radius. The deep veins, called comites, lie in close connexion with the radial and ulnar arteries. When it is required to lay bare the radial or ulnar artery, at the wrist, it will be sufficient for that object to make a simple longitudinal incision (an inch or two in length) over the course of the vessel A or C, Plate 17, through the integument, and this incision will expose the fascia, which forms a common investment for all the structures at this region.

The popliteal artery, F, Plate 66, being the continuation of the femoral, extends from the opening in the great adductor tendon at the junction of the middle and lower third of the thigh, to the point where it divides, in the upper, and back part of the leg, at the lower border of the popliteus muscle, L, into the anterior and posterior tibial branches. In order to expose the vessel through this extent, we have to divide and reflect the heads of the gastrocnemius muscle, E E, and to retract the inner flexors. The popliteal artery will now be seen lying obliquely over the middle of the back of the joint. It is deeply placed in its whole course. Its upper and lower thirds are covered by large muscles; whilst the fascia and a quantity of adipose tissue overlies its middle. The upper part of the artery rests upon the femur, its middle part upon the posterior ligament of the joint, and its lower part upon the popliteus muscle.

An anatomical illustration enters the understanding straight-forward in a direct passage, and is almost independent of the aid of written language. A picture of form is a proposition which solves itself. It is an axiom encompassed in a frame-work of self-evident truth. The best substitute for Nature herself, upon which to teach the knowledge of her, is an exact representation of her form.

---------------

Posted by M. Dolan