St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-23
THE HUMAN BRAIN.
Some Curious Facts About a Very
Complex Organ-How Its Action
Is Stunted

Complex Organ-HoW Its Action
Is Stunted.
Harpers Magazine.
When l was a student of medicine,
thirty years ago, the brain was regarded
as a single organ, and its various func-
lions were not thought TO have any eS-
Sential localized centers of action.
When the brain acted it was thought
that the whole of 1t acted, just as the
liver or the stomach acts, as whole.
Now we know that instead of being a
unit it Is really very complex organ.
Just as in the abdomen, besides the
other organs in the interior. we have
the stomach, the liver, the pancreas and
the bowl, each of which has its part in
digestion, SO correspondence in the
brain, besides the portions concerned in
the sight, smell, thought, ETC., we nave
four adjacent portions Which are con-
cerned in motion. One produces mo-
ton OF the face; another. motion of the
arm; Il third, motion of the leg, and the
fourth, motion of the trunk.
How, it may be asked, have these
facts been determined? Has 1t not been
by observing the effects Of injuries and
diseases in man? TO a small extent.
yes. But very, very rarely does disease
y
limited regions Of the brain; and the
moment two or more OF them are i'll
VOlved our infererceS become confused
or misleading. AS matter of fact.
which cannot be gainsaid, nine-tenthS
of our knowledge has been derived from
exact experiment upon animals, and IN
this way:
A monkey is etherized, a certain area
of its brain is exposed, and an electrical
current is applied. This stimulation of
most portions of the brain IS followed
by no motion III any part OF the body.
These parts of the brain, therefore,
have nothing to do with the motion, but
are the centers for general sensation
(touch), or for certain special senses, as
sight. hearing, ETC., or for mental
processes. But i'll one definite region
Of the brain, called the motor area"
the moment the brain is stimulated by
the electrical current, motion is pro-
duced.
Moreover. it was soon found that
stimulating parts of this motor area
produced motion in different parts of
the body, ana that this was not hapha2
ard, but that stimulation OF one part of
ii produced motion in the aru., and i'll
another part motion III the leg. etc.
Thus nave been mapped out the Vari-
Jus DOI llOIlS VI biG lliOGOI diCd
1t is evident that by experiment upon
animals the motor area can be more
easily and more exactly determined
than can those regions which are the
seat OF the faculties of smell, taste.
sight and hearing, the presence or alb
Sence of these senses i'll animals being
difficult 10 determine with absolute ac-
curacy. Yet disease and injury in man,
if they alone could answer the queS
tiOnS what part of the brain has to do
with motion, what part with sight, what
part with the Intellect, ought 10 have
answered them long ago.
No better evidence could be given of
the superiority of experiment upon ami
mails over observation OF accident and
disease i'll man i'll determining facts of
this character than this; that those cen
tiers are best and most accurately known
which can be determined by ViviSection,
and that those in which viviSectiun can
aid US but little are still only vaguely
located. Thus the motor area is posi-
lively and definitely located; that for
sight approximately We'll; those for
hearing, smell and taste and general
sensation (touch) are still uncertain,
though guessed at.
AS to those for mental processes, we
are almost wholly in the dark. Disease
and accident have made their cruel and
rude experiments ever since the world
began. But as matter of fact the last
fifteen years, of experimentation have
taught us more than the previous 1,500
years of careful observation and post
mOrtem examination.
Dream pictures of life float before
him, tender and luminous, tiileu with a
vague, soft atmosphere, i'll which the
simplest outlines gain strange Signifi-
canoe. They are like some of Millets
paintings - "The SoWer'' or the
Sheepfold' is very little detail in
them, but sometimes little means so
much.
Then the moon slips up into the sky
from behind the eastern hills, and the
fisherman begins to thiHk-of home and
of the foolish, fond old rhymes about
those whom the moon sees far away, and
the stars that have the power to fulfill
wiSheS-aS if the celestial bodies knew
or cared anything about our small nerve
thrills which we call affection and de-
sires!
But if there were Someone above the
moon and stars who did know and care,
Someone who could see the places and
the people that you and | would give so
much to see, Someone who could do
for them all of kindness that you and l
fain would do, Someone able to keep
your beloved in perfect peace and watch
over the little children sleeping in their
beds beyond the Sea-what then? Why
then, III the evening hour, one might
have thoughts of home that would go
across the ocean via cR!um, and be BET
ter than dreams, almost as good as
prayers.