Phrenology, or, The doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body / by J. Spurzheim.

  • Spurzheim, J. G. (Johann Gaspar), 1776-1832.
Date:
MDCCCXXV. [1825]
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 J. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    wolf and sheep however have the nates larger than the testes : the general assertion of Cuvier, therefore, falls to the ground. I pass over many other errors believed and propagated by com- parative anatomists, because they belong rather to anatomy than to physiology; and I only say that comparative anatomy has no more than anatomy in general advanced the physiology of the brain. I think it will suffice, if I quote but one passage of Cuvier in confirmation, where he says * positively, that the instinct is indicated by no visible mark in the conformation of the animal. II. Mutilations. Several natural philosophers have endeavoured, by mutila- tions, to determine the functions of the brain. They cut away various parts to see what faculty would be lost. But, in the first place, such means formerly could not be accurately employed, and must therefore have been entirely useless; the duplicity of the organs was frequently overlooked; the structure of the brain too was not known, and the mutilations were made horizontally, while the direction of the fibres is vertical. Moreover, the special faculties of the mind were unknown, and the mutilated animals were said to manifest all the faculties, if they exhibited such as are common and general only. These means have been pursued without fruit hitherto, and are certainly inadequate to determine the functions of the brain; for the organs not being confined to the surface must be cut away on both sides down to the medulla oblongata, and a wound of this extent would kill any perfect animal. But let us even suppose that it survived such a mutilation, how is it to manifest a sensation of whose organ it has been deprived ; and how indicate its want? Such operations too are so violent, that several faculties might be retained without being mani- *,. Le regne animal distribue d’aprfis son organization. Paris, 1817, tom. I. p. 51.