"Nay, while, in man, the brain is the principal seat of the soul, where it most eminently displays its powers; it seems to exist so equally through the whole bodies of insects, as that its power or influence scarce appears more remarkable in one part than another: and hence it is, that, in such creatures, the several parts of the body live much longer after being separated from each other, than they do in man and the other animals more nearly resembling him, where the soul seems chiefly to act on the different parts by means of their connexion with the brain and spinal marrow; or, at least, where the cutting off such connexion, soon renders the parts unfit to be any more acted upon by it."
An Essay on the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals
3 entries in ESTC (1751, 1763, 1768).<br>
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Robert Whytt, <u>An Essay on the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals</u> (Edinburgh: Printed by Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill, 1751). &lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=eCz7KJ_6XYIC">Link to Google Books</a>&gt;