The human brain : its structure, physiology and diseases. With a description of the typical forms of brain in the animal kingdom / by Samuel Solly.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The human brain : its structure, physiology and diseases. With a description of the typical forms of brain in the animal kingdom / by Samuel Solly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    prepared a work, illustrated with copper-plates, in wliich all his striking observations on comparative anatomy and the dissection of the brain were to be laid before the public. Subscriptions for it were opened, and com- pleted in a short time. But previous to its publication, the Doctor resolved to make a circuit of all the Northern universities and capitals of Germany, in order that the Literati and Professors might hear and scrutinize the Lectures which he intended to deliver in every place wherein he should make any residence. In the July number of the Edinburgh Medical and Sm'gical Journal for 1806, will be found a very careful but concise abstract of Gall's Examina- tion of the Brain, abstracted from all the psychical views of its author, from the pen of Professor Rosenmuller of Leipsic. In the same number, there is also a review of Professor BischofF and Hufeland's Account of Dr. Gall's Cranioscopy, which was looked upon as a correct epitome of Gall's Lectures, and of the objections raised against his demonstrations of the brain, and opinions, by Professor Walter and others. Copies of the abstract by EosenmuUer, and of the review of BischofF, I inclose, but shall be glad to have them returned at your convenience. Other notices exist in the general periodicals of the day, but these are sufficient to show that Gall and Spurzheim's public dissections and demonstrations of the brain preceded those of Eeil in Germany, and it is curious to observe the influ- ence they exerted in leading Eeil to publish on this subject in 1807 ; Baron Cuvier, in Prance, in 1809 ; and Sir Charles Bell, whose first pamphlet was circulated only among private friends, and entitled, Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain. The labours of these eminent men, and their successors, have indeed only been successful in carrying out the details of Gall and Spurzheim's leading general principle, that the nervous system was not an unit but an aggregation of systems, as numerous as the functions, intellectual, emotional or physical, of which it is the organized instrument. Believe me to remain, yours, very truly, S. Solly, Esq. J. S. Streeter. There is one point regarding the physiology of the brain to which I must here advert. It is Dr. Wigan's theory of the duahty of the mind. The facts and reasoning he has brought to bear on the subject are most interesting, and