Spook: Chapter 4

5 Comments
1] No one-at least on a scientific basis-knows for sure when the soul, the spirit, the self, instilled, or installed, or whatever process it uses to get itself in there.
2] Descartes is one of the few early philosopher/scientists to have physically searched for the soul, actaully opened up bodies and looked for it.
3] Descartes eventually nominated the pea-sized pineal gland.
4] Descartes dreamed up an elaborate model of the nervous system with strings and valves and tiny bellows.
5] The luz is shaped like a chickpea and is located at the top of the spine.

4 Questions
1] When does the soul enter the new body?
2] If the soul had arrived at conception, what would happen then?
3] What is a midrash?
4] Why was Herophilus looking around for a soul in a dead man?

3 Vocabulary
1] Contend: to struggle in opposition.
2] Supplanting: to usurp the place of, especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics.
3] Primitive: being the first or earliest or the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The very first person to poke around for a soul in a human cadaver was the third century B.C. physician Herophilus, of Alexandria." -Metaphor.
2] "As such, he bagged a lot of anatomical discoveries." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Scientists were trying to find if they could find a soul, so they opened up dead bodies to look for them.