The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-28 00:00:00

At the recent meeting of the British Scientific Asso-
ciation, Professor EvaNs being called on for his paper
Ott " A critical Analysis of the different Methods adopted
for determining the ' Functions of the Brain," said—He
meant to confine himself very strictly to what the title
'of his paper announced. The proposition was—" What
are the uses of the brain ?" There was this important viscus
in the body—what were its uses, or was it of no use what-
ever ? This question had naturally. attracted the attention
of the moot distinguished physiologists. One of the first
methods was to anatomize the brain. They said "We will
dissect it, and find out its uses thereby." But this was
Soon found to be ineffectual. Mere anatomy would not re-
veal its use, or that of any organ. The -mere examination
of a structure would not show the functions of which that'
structure was capable.—(Hear.) The mere anatomy of
the brain was insufficient. " Oh, but,' said some physiolo-
gists, "we have found out a method by which the ques-
tion can be determined ; we will not rest satisfied by dis-
secting it in the dead subject, but we will dissect in the
living." This was one step in the advance of inquiry. But
was this measure adequate to the object proposed, and had
it been attended with success? That method was unable to
solve the proposition it pretended to. To cut out the parts
of the brain and then determine its functions, implied that
they knew what part to cut out. It implied also that they
knew how to take neither more nor less than the function,
lest they should commit an injury on surrounding parts.
They were as badly off as Shylock, when he had to take of
pound of flesh, but to take neither more nor less. Had it
been satisfactory ? Certainly not. The same investigators
had differed from themselves at different times as to the re-
sults. The principal result had been a conviction that cer-
tain emotions appertain to certain' parts of the brain ; it ap-
pearing to be ascertained on investigation that an abstrac-
tion of particular parts of the brain--of the cerebellum—
was invariably attended with disturbance of peculiar emo-
tions. Injury to the ea; a cerebelli was said to be attended
with certain rotatory motions. It Appeared strange enough,
that making wounds in the cars of birds was attended with
disturbed rotatory motions. It was therefore as legitimate
a conclusion, that a particular part of the brain had the
function of motion as that the canal of the ears of birds had
a similar function. This was an arguntentuni ad absurdum
sufficient without going any further. But so far as this
had gone in the hands of another investigator, Boileau, he
seemed to have established this fact, that the removal of
the anterior lobes of the brain was always followed by a
loss of perception. This seemed to be so universal as to
give a general assent. And so far as this rude examination
went, this method had proved the use of the anterior lobes.
There were some facts stated with respect to injury of the
human brain, which were puzzling, but they were puzzling
to all classes of philosophers. It would appear from some
of them that man was different to animals ; that he could
afford to lose a part of his brain, and not miss it—that brain
was of more necessity to a rabbit than to a man.—(A laugh.)
This might be a consolation. Another class of inquirers then
came forward, and said, " We have now the best me-
thod : we will not depend on merely dissecting the brain
in the dead, nor in cutting it up in the living ; we see
the disadvantage in that as the investigation could never
be applied to man." " We," said the pathologists, " will
wait till nature, or rather disease, does for us what the dis-
secting anatomist does for himself ; we will wait till parti-
cular parts of the brain are affected ; we will see the cause
of disturbance, and infer therefrom." No one could feel
more than he did the great assistance that had been derived
from pathological observations of the brain ; but he was not
One of those who thought pathology was a sort of Alexan-
drian sword, with which they were to cut every Gordian
knot. He would read to them some of the results which
had followed these observations. Looking at the effect of
the diseaies of the brain, they would find that investigation
had proceeded a very small way indeed. So far as these
investigations had gone, it had been agreed on by investi-
gators that the loss of the power of utterance seemed to de-
pend on the loss of the anterior lobes of the ce..-cbrunt. Little
light had been thrown on the subject. He would suggest to
different izvestieators, that they should. qualify themselves to
do more than they had done.—( Hear.) A great number of
pathological cases were brought forward to prove by indivi-
dual cases the power of connecting signs with sense, when dis-
ease existed in that part of the brain which was demonstrated
the organ of language. He would take the liberty to incul-
cate on the junior part of his audience the necessity of
their making inquiry for themselves. A gentleman became
possessed of a case, and he wrote an account of it, either for
or against phrenology, without having a full knowledge of
the subject. The pathologigal method for determining the
functions of the brain was really not fully sufficient, and be
passed from it. A wholly different investigation was now
taken up. It was said,—" We will take the brain as it is,
in its natural living state, wed institute an investigation, and
compare it, and make out why it was that man was the
moat intelligent animal in the world." " Oh, it was be-
cause he has the largest brain in the world ; no animal has
so large a brain." Now, there were larger brains in the
world ; therefore that theory was overturned. Then it
was—" He has not the largest brain, but he has the largest
brain compared with the size of his body." That was not
the fact. The wren and the sparrow had larger brains
compared to the size of their bodies. Then it was-
-" He has a larger brain in comparison with his spinal
marrow than any animal." He had not the largest
brain in comparison to his spinal marrow ; so there
was an end of that statement. It was remarkable that
great names were attached to each of these theories,
whilst the statements of others deserving respect had
not been so well and properly treated. One 'said—" 1
will compare the brain to the face, and then I will make
it out. The reason that man is the bead of the crea-
tion in his intellectual powers is, that man has the greatest
brain in comparison to his face." This was not correct.
Campier's facial line was next introduced. Accordingly rs
the angle, showing the comparative prominence of the fore.
head with the jaws, used in his plan, was greater or less,
the intellect was to be greater or less. This appeared quite
successful at first. Now, it appeared so from an accidental
circumstance. It was accidentally right as it happened to
take in the anterior part of the brain, which was the part
of intellect ; but when investigated it was not true in prin-
ciple nor in fact ; for in the young child you beve a larger
anterior brain than in man. And again, according to their
method, the most intelligent negro must Le inferior to the
most stupid European the angle being altered as the jaws
or face protruded. All these methods failed in b ing ree-
sonable methods of inquiry ; and he had shown that they
failed in being irreconcilcable with matters of fact. They
took the whole brain to be a single organ, which it was
not ; and the measure of the brain to be the measure of
the intellect, which it was not. A man's brain was fixed.
What mattered it whether another part of his body
grew small or great ; that would not alter his intel-
lect. If they changed the shape of the bones of his
face, that would not alter his intellect. Yet, accord-
ing to these methods, the alteration of any one of them
would alter the man's intellectual powers. These methods
would seem not to be adequate to this investigation ; they
had been tried and found wanting. Another investigation
now appeared in the field :—A man possessed of the power
of original thought—of the power of observing nature with
the greatest accuracy—(and he particularly mentioned this
because he was represented in an opposite light)—as a
physiologist coming out with so perfect a theory that its
very perfection was an argument against it.—( Loud ap-
plause.) Dr. Gall proceeded to investigate the brain and
put his facts together ; and he put down nothing but what
he believed to be a fact ; and to this day Dr. G.s own system
was infinitely behind all others as to fact. He had given in
his adhesion to the power of the organs being determined
more than any other person, showing the slowness with
which he gave in his verdict to what, was not fully settled.
He looked 'on the brain as a plurality of organs ; and his
method was not to compare it with anything else, or any
other brain, but to compare each part of it with another. This
had been ridiculed ; but what there was in it ridiculous he
could not discover. The result of his observations was, to come
to the conclusion that, where the anterior part of the brain
predominated, the intellect held sway ; where the sopa-_
riot part preponderated the moral powers were more ex-
alted, and where the posterior and inferior, the animal proe
pensities. If they came to look into this rationally, what
more rational than this, that the brain, the organ of the
mind, and the organ of the feelings, as one part of it pre-
dominated, so' in that the function predominated ? - if the
anterior lobes preponderated, and it be supposed to be the
part of intellect, so would the intellectual part preponderate..
They might be here met by an opinion which was very
generally adopted, diet the feelings and sentiments did not
belong to the brain. They all knew that the sympathetic
affections between the brain and other parts of the body
were very remarkable ' • and that certain feelings or pas-
sions were accompanied with sensations in different parts
of the body, from which it had been inferred that the pas-
sion lived in the place where it was felt—as, for instance,
some of the finer feelings in the heart, and some of the less
:amiable in the liver. The same reason, if this were well
founded, should make them place grief in the tacit, ymal
glands, because they shed tears. Such an idea was an-ab-
surd one. The system that Gall had pursued in bis investi-