Phrenology, or The doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body / By G. Spurzheim, M.D.

  • Johann Spurzheim
Date:
[between 1830 and 1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology, or The doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body / By G. Spurzheim, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    important, the greater the influence it exerts upon every operation of the animal economy. Now in man and the more perfect animals, the manifestations of all the functions are more or less subordinate to, and under the influence of, the'nervous system. Those of digestion, nutrition, circulation, respiration, se¬ cretion, and excretion, are deranged or annihilated when the nerves, which co-operate in their perfor¬ mance, are compressed, wounded, or destroyed. Che¬ mical changes, as acidity in the alimentary canal during digestion, are the more apt to happen, the less the nervous power is active. The nerves distributed to the organs of sense and to the muscles, are indis¬ pensable to the performance of their functions. Im¬ pressions made on the body below the division of a nerve are no longer perceived, and the principle of motion cannot now be directed towards the muscles with which it is naturally connected. We shall also see, that besides the functions of the five external senses, all the instincts, propensities, sentiments and intellectual faculties, all affections and passions, and all the characteristics of humanity, are made ma¬ nifest by means of the nervous system alone.— Hence we must acknowledge, that without a sound physiology of the nervous system there can be neither psychology nor any species of philosophy; and that physicians, in determining the nervous functions, ren¬ der the greatest service to philosophers, moralists, teachers, judges, and legislators. From this it is obvious, that physicians who must .
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