To Aristotle, the brain was merely a cooling system for the blood as it left the heart. Assyrians favored the liver as the seat of the "soul." The Egyptians who embalmed the pharaohs carefully preserved most major organs in special jars-but not the brain, thinking it inconsequential.
Natural philosophers and physicians in ancient Greece eventually ascertained the true state of affairs-some centuries before the birth of Christ-but enlightenment gave rise to mysteries of a subtler sort....