Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-06-03
CEREBRAL NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,

his audacl0uS plnlOnS, IL Is udIuly WlJhlh
the scope of the human intellect to
imagine.
The positiveness with which he declares
his opinions, and the recklessness and
boldness with which he performs his eX-
periments, alike upon animate and inani-
mate nature, to substantiate these opinions,
are appalling to the ordinary unscientific
mind, and send creeping over the bodies
of the more conservative and probably less
progressive of his fellow mortals, feelings
of the hottest horror.
Cincinnati contains one such slave to
science, at least and constant practice in
the arts of his nefarious trade have so
blunted his sensibilities that, with the
greatest nonchalance, he thrusts long
needles into the brain of poor unfortunate
woman, whose cleft parietal bone was
eroded to the extent of some inches by an
epitheliomatous liberation laying bare the
surface of the BRAIN" And further, he
applies the galvanic current to these
needles and electrifies the cerebral mass in
its various parts. And to what end? To
discover if possible the functions of the
different parts of the brain to add some.
thing to our very limited knowledge of
the nature of cerebral action and the
locations of its numerous centres.
A worthy purpose, in the abstract, all
must admit, but still the manner of pro-
cedure, even in this day of reckless
thought and still more reckless action,
must be considered bold and daring.
But in point of results, it is nothing to be
compared to story that comes from over
the water. They do "these things better
in France" you know, and we naturally
look for more perfect and satisfactory at
tainments to follow from their greater cul-
ture and higher civilization.
In brief, the story runs thus: \ Prus-
sian soldier shot his officer. That meant
death, immediate and inglorious." But
science asked and obtained him for its
own. 1t would be a useless waste of good
material to allow this man to be swung
up in the regulation way when
he could be made the subject of an impor-
tant scientific experiment, and settle for
all time question which q friori reason
ing had already solved to the satisfaction
of the investigators. Here was the oppor-
tunity long and anxiously waited for, to
test in the human being the efficacy of
cerebral transportation, which had al
ready been so successfully performed on
lower animals. Circumstances were all
in the favor of the experimenters. In the
hospital was man of good physical con-
formation and fine health, suffering with
heart disease from which he might die at
any moment. And in order for the con-
venience of the experimenters he was
obliging enough to die suddenly without
struggle, leaving his body in the finest
possible condition for the experiment.
The condemned soldier was chloroform-
ed and placed on o table by the side ofthe
dead man. The scalp of both was stripped
down, the bones laid bare and the skull
cap taken off and the brain of each shay
ed off at the very same place, severing all
the parts in identical points. The brain
OF the dead man was then placed
on the body of the soldier, nerve to
nerve, artery to artery vein to
vein. The skull cap was replaced,
the scalp drawn over, and nature
was left to finish the work thus auspici.
ously begun by man. Need we say it was
a success? Such brilliantly conceived
procedure, carried out so skiIlfully, could
not fail. The soldier after a time of deep
slumber, began to wink one eye, then to
move a hand, finally to swallow food
and at last to walk about and perform all
the functions of an animated and intellect
ual being. He talked, he laughed, he re.
membered incidents that happened long
ago, he knew his friends. In short, life
went on as though nothing had happened.
Butt was the dead man who talked ami
laughed, and it was the incidents that
happened in the dead mans life, that were
remembered, and it was his friends, who
were recognized. No Intellectual trait of
The soldier was left, no vestige Of his char
acter was to he recognized. The expert
Iuent was success; again mind had tri-
umphed over matter.
tits patent to every one that we have now
aplsn for the indefinite perpetuation of our
master minds, our leading intellects in
politics, literature, religion and science.
What boon 10 the world, II this
wonderful discovery had been known
years ago-when the great men of the
past, such as Washington, Adams, Web
ster, Cuvier, Agassiz, SHAKESPEARE, Milton,
Homer and all the fine old fellows that
are now gone forever, gathered up their feet
in death. All that would have been necessa-