Phrenology, its nature and uses : an address to the students of Anderson's University, at the opening of Dr. Weir's first course of lectures on phrenology in that institution, January 7th, 1846 / by Andrew Combe.

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847.
Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology, its nature and uses : an address to the students of Anderson's University, at the opening of Dr. Weir's first course of lectures on phrenology in that institution, January 7th, 1846 / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    phenomena of digestion or of respiration I None whatever. We know that we breathe and digest, but we are left to find out, by observation, both the manner and the mechanism; and it is the same with the brain. We have a kind of con- sciousness, that we think and feel by means of our heads; but none whatever that our skulls contain brain, much less of the uses of its component parts, or of its particular uses even as a whole. The only other channel through which information has been sought, and sought in vain, is the study of the effects of injuries and diseases of the brain, and the effects produced by mutilating the brains of animals. Dr Weir will, by and by, demonstrate to you the inadequacy of this method also, to furnish the information required. Suffice it for me to say, that it is not amidst the suffering of disease, or the general disturbance of system caused by wounds or mutilations, that healthy regularity of function is to be found. Where any part of the nervous system is concerned and suffering is excited, ge- neral results become too much mixed up with those which are local,to admit of being properly discriminated; and, according- ly, not one new fact of any radical importance to the physiology of the brain in its connection with the mind has yet been de- monstrated by this method of inquiry, notwithstanding the many and persevering efforts made in recent times to turn it to account; and, except for the light thrown upon its results from other quarters, many of them would remain before us nearly as destitute of meaning as at first. Such, then, was the state of the physiology of the brain down to the time of Dr Gall, and such continues to be essen- tially its state even now, among those who reject his disco- veries. If, therefore, any adherent of the old methods of inquiry should happen, in your presence, to enlarge upon the demerits of Phrenology or the presumption of its disciples, you need be under no alarm for the consequences ; you may at once turn the attack against himself, by requiring him to shew what he can put in its place. If he has made any discovery of his own of the functions of the brain, he must be a very modest man indeed, to hide its brilliancy under a bushel; for, as yet, nobody has claimed any such merit. If, therefore, Phrenology contain any portion of truth, science can only gain by its candid and unprejudiced examination ; and you are interested in exact proportion to the amount of truth which it embodies, in not rejecting it heedlessly or un- examined. But what, then, you will ask, is this boasted method by which Gall has derived such a rich harvest from a field