Volume 54, Number 18 · November 22, 2007
The Source of the Stream
By William C. Waterhouse
In response to Sighting the Stream (August 16, 2007)
To the Editors:
The source of "stream of consciousness" [Letters, NYR, August 16] seems to be Alexander Bain's The Senses and the Intellect (1855), which refers to "sensations in one common stream of consciousness—in the same cerebral highway" (p. 359). It also surfaces in The Physiology of Common Life (1859) by George Henry Lewes (p. 61).
William C. Waterhouse
Professor of Mathematics
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania