Phrenology examined / by P. Flourens ; translated from the second edition of 1845, by Charles De Lucena Meigs.

  • Flourens, P. (Pierre), 1794-1867.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology examined / by P. Flourens ; translated from the second edition of 1845, by Charles De Lucena Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    phrenologists who have come after them have followed the examples of Gall and Spurzheim. Yet, after all, it amounts to nothing. If we deprive an animal of its cerebellum, it loses only its locomotive action. If we deprive it of its tubercula quadrigemina, it loses its sight only; if we destroy its medulla oblongata, it loses its respiratory movements, and in conse- quence thereof, its life.* Neither of these parts, therefore, that is to say, the cerebellum, the tubercula quadrigemina, and the medulla ob- longata, is the organ of the understanding. The brain, properly so called, is so, and it alone. If we remove from an animal the brain, properly so called, or the hemispheres, it immediately loses its understanding, and loses nothing but its understanding^ The brain, en masse, the encephalon, is then * See my Recherches Expe>imentales sur Ies proprietes et les fonctions du Systeme Nerveux, 2d edit. Paris, 1842. f Ibid.