mental manifestations, but both organs of language having sustained lesion, he failed to manifest the power of conversation, or the appreciation of words. It would lead to a medical inquiry, too tedious to be inserted here, to notice the facts and arguments which have been urged on both sides of this question. We shall only observe, that any man who can be hardy enough to contend that the brain is of no use, or that one ounce of it serves exactly the same purpose as a pound, is à dialectician with whom we have no desire to engage in controversy of any kind. These positions all physiologists constructively and inferentially maintain, who assert that injuries of the brain have occurred in both hemispheres, without producing any effect upon either mind or body, or who allege that the whole brain has been removed, while all corporeal and intellectual functions have been conducted with the same regularity as before. What do these gentlemen-who seem to carry the Row heresy into physiology, and to suppose that the spirit is quite sufficient to the performance of all bodily evolutions, without even the use of means-make of the brain? Do they suppose that the skull would be as well if it were stuffed with cotton? Or when they are endeavouring to disprove the assertion, that

"When the brains are out the man will die,"

are they reasoning from their own case, and calling upon the world to take notice that they are alive and hearty? Let not these men be allowed to go at large without being called upon in presence of such friends as Providence may have sent to take care of them, for a categorical answer to the question- What is the use of brains? They contend that no difference appears in the discharge of all organic functions, and that every corporeal process takes place, when there is no encephalon, equally as when the skull is as full as it can hold. We are driven, then, inevitably to the alternative of maintaining, either that the mind is the faculty of which the brain is the organ, or that the latter is of no more use than so much cold porridge. We grant that it is often applied to much worse purposes, and to none more absurdly, than when it is occupied in the defence of the proposition, that it is made for no end whatever.

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With regard to the use of a double brain, many conjectures have been made by Phrenologists. Mr. Hewett Watson supposes that the one side may perform the office of perception, and the other of memory. "I should be induced," he remarks, "to regard perception as the active state of either of the corresponding intellectual organs. Attention might be supposed to rest in the combined activity of the two organs, directed to the same matter. We see with one eye, and look with both. The sense of resemblance might depend on the two corresponding organs coexisting in the same state, though individually excited. Sympathy would arise when the same occurred to the affective organs. The sense of contrast and discord would imply the opposite states. Memory seems nearly allied to comparison."

Relative to this curious subject, many interesting facts have been ascertained. "A minister," says Gall," at Vienna, was attacked during three years with the same disease (alienation of one entire side of the brain); he communicated to me an account of it; he described minutely the manner in which each side of the brain was affected. On the left side he continually heard insults uttered against him, so that he always turned his eyes that way, although, with the right side, he distinctly perceived that these sounds came from no other source than a derangement on the left side of the head. When he had a fever, he was incapable of combating the illusion. For a long time after his recovery, whenever he drank wine to excess, or abandoned himself to anger, he perceived, on the left side of his head, the signs of a relapse. At Paris, I attended a young lady, who frequently expressed to me her apprehension of falling into dementia on one side of her head, because she observed that the process of thought was not the same on this side as on the other. Another lady, a woman of infinite sense, made nearly the same remarks to me; she distinctly felt, she said, that she perceived every thing differently with her left side from what she did with the right; that every thing affected her differently on different sides. She told me, that sometimes her faculty of thinking was completely shackled on that side, and that this inability was accompanied by an icy stupor: it seems to me (these are her own words, and she applied her hand perpendicularly upon the middle of her forehead)-it seems to me, that from the front to the back of my head, the brain is divided into two distinct halves. Neither of these ladies had the least knowledge

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of the cerebral structure, or of my physiological discoveries. A physician, with whom I studied in Vienna, frequently complained that he could not think, except with one side of his head; he felt distinctly the inefficiency of the other side. Indeed, the weak side was much less elevated, and much narrower than the other." have noticed the case mentioned by Dr. Beattie, of a learned man, whom a blow on the head made to forget Greek, but nothing else; and of Dr. Abercrombie's patient, who, on a similar misfortune, forgot nothing but the fact that he had a wife and family. Sir Astley Cooper knew a German sugar-baker, who, in the early stage of a cerebral complaint, spoke English, but at last only German. So of a man in St. Thomas's Hospital, who, after a blow upon his head, was found talking in a language unknown to all, until a woman recognised it as her vernacular, which was Welsh. The accident destroyed his recollection of English, the only language he could speak when in health. When he recovered, he lost all power of conversing in Welsh, the only language which, in his illness, he could use. Dr. Rush observed, that many of the old Germans and Swiss of Pennsylvania, who had not spoken their native language for fifty or sixty years, and who had probably forgotten it, would often return to it in time of sickness. He also noticed an Italian, who, in a fever, of which he latterly died at New-York, spoke English in the commencement of his disease, French only in the middle, and on the day of his death, Italian. Tiedmann says of a person, named Joseph Moser, that he was insane on one side, and observed his insanity with the other. Numbers of madmen hear angels singing, or devils roaring, only on one side. Dr. Caldwell mentions, that another case, perfectly analogous to that mentioned by Tiedmann, exists in Kentucky, not far from Lexington. Several others are noticed on authority that must be respected. Forster says, that" some curious facts in dreaming, too numerous to be detailed here, seem to show that the organs of one hemisphere sometimes become vigilant, while those of the other become dormant." Boerhaave, Haller, and Van Sweiten, commented on the duplicity of the senses and of the brain, and consequently, on the plurality of the organs. Dr. Hewett Watson observes, that, besides dreams remembered in waking hours, he is perfectly conscious of certain trains of ideas, repeated again and again, during different intervals of sleep; yet, when he is awake, not the most vague notions can be formed of them, beyond the mere conviction that such ideas have existed. They are again remembered, when again repeated; and this remembrance, he thinks, is accompanied by a knowledge that the recollection of them has been vainly wished since they were last formed or felt." Dr. Abel knew an Irish porter, who forgot, when sober, what he had done when he was drunk; but upon again becoming intoxicated, recollected what he had done when drunk before. He lost a valuable parcel when in a state of liquor, and when sober could give no account of it. Upon again recurring to his favourite pursuit, he remembered perfectly where he had left it, and thus regained possession of it. Lord Monboddo cites the case of a girl in the neighbourhood of his estate, whom he often saw in a state of somnambulism, perform surprising feats with her eyes quite shut; and adds, what I have said of this girl remembering nothing of what passed while she was in the fit, is the case of all night walkers." Dr. Abercrombie, after enumerating similar examples, observes, "another very singular phenomenon presented by some instances of this affection, is, what has been called rather incorrectly, a state of double consciousness. It consists in the individual recollecting, during a paroxysm, circumstances which occurred in a former attack, though there was no remembrance of them during the interval." In the example cited in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, Dr. Dyce, to the same effect, states, "the remarkable circumstance was now discovered, that during the paroxysm the patient had a distinct recollection of what took place in her former paroxysms, though she had no remembrance of it during the intervals." The next case is reported in the "Medical Repository," by the Rev. Timothy Aldin of Pennsylvania, as communicated to him by Dr. Mitchell, the physician of the patient. Miss R possessed naturally a very good constitution, and arrived at adult age. She had excellent abilities, was a good housewife, obtained a fine education, and wrote a beautiful hand. She had a capital memory and a well-stored mind. Suddenly she fell into a profound sleep, which lasted several hours longer than usual. On waking, it was found that she had forgotten every thing she had acquired; her memory was as a sheet of white paper; all vestige of words and things was totally obliterated. Her education, it was found necessary to begin again. She acquired, by

K

new efforts, spelling, reading, writing, and calculating, and gradually became acquainted with the persons and objects around her, like a being for the first time brought into the world. In these exercises she made considerable proficiency. After some months, another fit of sleep overtook her. On rousing from it, she found herself restored to the state she was in before the first paroxysm; but was wholly ignorant of every event and occurrence that had befallen her afterwards. The former condition of her existence, she now calls the old state; the latter, the new state; and she is as unconscious of her double character as two distinct persons are of their respective natures. For example, in her old state, she possesses all her original knowledge; in her new state, only what she has acquired since. If a gentleman or lady be introduced to her in the old state, and vice versa (and so of all other matters), to know them satisfactorily, she must learn them in both states. In the old state, she possesses fine powers of penmanship; while, in the new state, she writes a poor awkward hand, having not had time or means to become expert. During four years and upwards, she has undergone periodical transitions from one of these states to the other. The alterations are always consequent upon a long and sound sleep. Both the lady and her family are now capable of conducting the affair without embarrassment. By simply knowing whether she is in the old or new state, they regulate the intercourse, and govern themselves accordingly."* In the still more extraordinary case of Miss Jane C. Rider, reported in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for August 1834, it is observed, " Pain in a circumscribed spot on the left side of the head, was generally, if not always, an attendant on the paroxysm, and frequently occasioned a degree of suffering almost beyond endurance.”

These very extraordinary and interesting cases suggest curious points for observation. It will be observed, that, in the more marked instances, a profound sleep always preceded the changes. This is a very common, and indeed almost invariable result, of mental fatigue. We have already seen that the brain is divided into two perfectly equal proportions, and that all the organs of the faculties are double. If we suppose, that in the examples above quoted, only one hemisphere of the brain was exercised, and did all the mental duty, this will easily account for all the organs on that side being over-fatigued. The natural result of this is a deep sleep. That hemisphere of the brain which, for the sake of hypothesis, we may suppose not to have been exercised, having long rested, and now being ready for action, receives its stimulus, awakens the patient, and she recovers consciousness. But the hemisphere through which she had formerly felt, perceived, and reflected, still continues asleep, and the wakened hemisphere having been without exercise, has every thing to acquire. Education and reflection have to be begun, as it were, anew. The hemisphere is as that almost of an infant, and having too much to do it becomes exhausted; a new sleep comes on; the other hemisphere awakens refreshed; and the former consciousness and advanced education recur. Thus may the old and new states be accounted for, upon the theory of the organs of the brain being double, but upon no other hypothesis. If it be said, that it is impossible to suppose that a whole hemisphere of the brain should, as in the last case, lie dormant for sixteen years, without being altogether diseased, let us remember the case of the man whose optic nerves had been dormant for forty years, and who, upon being couched by Cheselden, found them active, sound, and healthy. The cases of Caspar Hauser, and of the old Swiss and Germans, who resumed a language they had forgotten for sixty years, upon being attacked by fever, render this phenomenon not at all extraordinary, especially if it be adverted to, that some persons complained that they could only think with one side of their head.

SECTION II.—The Anatomical Appearances of the Brain and Skull.

THE brain is formed before the skull, and has three coverings, of a thin pliant substance, denominated membrane. That which is next the brain, is called the pia mater; sinks down and fits into the sulci, or cerebral convolutions, and takes in along with it all the blood-vessels to the several parts of the encephalon. The

* If there be room, a few more examples will be given in the Appendix.

middle one is termed the tunica arachnoidea, resembling a spider's web, which, like a cloak, covers, but does not fit into, the sinuosities of the shape of the brain. It secretes matter to lubricate the pia mater below it, and the dura mater above it; the latter of which coheres to the inner surface of the skull, although fitting closely upon the brain.

The skull commences to make its appearance in gradual deposits of bone upon the brain, which are extremely like thin frost, radiating from a centre upon a window, and at last entirely cover it. The cranium consists of several bones, which divide it into portions connected together by means of teeth or sutures, as they are termed, calculated to give strength when united, but to yield and open the more readily when the brain enlarges. It grows exactly as the brain increases; follows its shape wherever it alters or increases; yields whenever it presses from within; is small as the brain is at birth, and grows large as it does at maturity. The skull follows the rule of all the parts of the body, in which the soft substances uniformly shape and give figure to the hard ones. The skull is meant to be a protection to the brain, and nothing more; and it is evident, that if when the brain grew, it did not yield in the exact proportion in which the brain advanced, the latter would become inflamed, and madness would ensue.* But that it does so yield is evident from numerous cases of water in the head, in which, from the mere presence of this fluid, the skull enlarges to an enormous size.

A thin membrane, called the falciform process of the dura mater, suspended edgeways and perpendicularly from the front to the rear of the centre of the inner coronal surface of the skull, divides the two hemispheres of the brain from each other through their whole length, and for about two-thirds of their depth, and also separates the cerebellum from the cerebrum, being at that point of separation, called the tentorium. As the brain gives form to the skull, of course it fits exactly into it. Above the inner plate of the cranium, and joined to it, is a thin honeycomb-looking process, called the diploë; above which, and also joined to it, is the outer plate or table of the skull. These plates, although not perfectly parallel, are sufficiently so for all practical purposes, with the exception to be afterwards noticed, and also of cases of disease. Its variation seldom amounts to more than one-eighth or a ninth of an inch, while the differences in developement of single organs, amounts to an inch in the larger class, and to three-eighths of an inch in those of the forehead, where there is the smallest deviation from parallelism. The sutures also interrupt perfect uniformity of surface, but they are easily detected, and present no difficulty to a practised Phrenologist. Besides, the size of the organs is not estimated by mere protuberances in the skull, but by the breadth and length of its surface at the situation of each; so that the want of perfect uniformity of superficies does not present any very serious objection to the certainty of manifestation. Many heads developed in a high degree, often present no protuberances at all; and were the organs all of equal size and activity, this would uniformly be the case.

Along the base of the forehead, there runs, in some cases, what is called a frontal sinus, a cavity betwixt the inner and outer plates of the skull, which produces a deviation from parallelism betwixt them. The diploë is absorbed, and the hollow is greatest at the root of the nose, extending half an inch upward, and sometimes an inch or more laterally on each side. The greatest number of organs embraced in the sphere of sinuses, is properly not more than five-Individuality, Locality, Form, Size, and Weight. The organs of Form and Size extend laterally as well as outwards, and their dimensions may therefore be judged of by their breadth partially, which is not affected by a sinus projecting merely superficially. It is never known to exist in persons under 14 years of age, and rarely in females. Wherever the external appearance of the skull indicates the organs in the region of the sinus to be small, there can, of course, be no difficulty in predicating a deficiency of the corresponding faculties. The difficulties of judging are thus reduced to comparatively a few cases of the

*

'Byron's skull did not yield to his brain sufficiently, and he was always at high pressure, and on the borders of madness. We informed an eminent literary and medical friend, that his skull appeared too small for his brain, and that he was surely subject to threatenings of phrenitis. He acknowledged that this was the case. We impressed upon him the necessity of taking much more bodily and much less mental exercise, and for a short time he followed this course; but having afterwards abandoned it, he fell a victim to his disregard of this principle.

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VOLUME OF BRAIN A CONDITION OF REASON.

positive of the proposition. But a practised Phrenologist will have no great difficulty, from the very form of the brain, in detecting the existence of a sinus, in which he will be further assisted by the tones of the voice, which are deeper and more nasal where there is a sinus, than where there is not.

The brain consists of two soft substances, presenting different appearances. The interior part of the brain is of a white colour, and fibrous in its texture. The material of which it is composed, is called medullary. This is covered with the exterior part of the brain, which is also soft, and of a cineritious colour, so called from its presenting a greyish appearance, resembling ashes. Both are intersected with blood-vessels; but the latter has a much larger supply than the former, and is supposed to be more immediately connected with the thinking principle. The cineritious and medullary parts are abrupt and defined in their junction. It has been already explained, that the brain consists of convolutions, varying in number and depth with the intelligence of the animal. Those of the two hemispheres, are connected by fibres formed of, and proceeding from, the medullary substance, of which the interior of the brain is composed; and fibres of a similar kind, and from the same source, form the origin of the cerebellum, and so connect the larger and lesser brain with each other. Each hemisphere is supplied with separate arteries to convey the blood to it. The cerebellum is similarly endowed, while the veins which return the blood to the heart, are common to all.

SECTION III. The Amount of Volume of Brain a Condition of Intellectual

Competency.

We have found that the size of the brain is the measure of its power. It is also necessary to attend to the question-What size of brain is necessary to produce reason, and to remove the possessor from the condition of idiocy? It is a consequential corollary from the proposition of size being a measure of power, that a certain degree of size is necessary to produce that amount of reason or mental energy, which we agree to recognise as the attribute of a sane individual. There is no doubt that idiocy may coexist with the presence of a large head; but this will be in spite of its size, from disease, water in the head, or some disorder of the nervous system, arising from constitutional inheritance, early bad habits, or accident. We know, that upon any great shock happening to persons of brilliant minds, by fear, sudden joy, or appalling calamity, the brain has become diseased, and idiocy has followed. But even where there is, and has been no disease of any kind, and where the brain is perfectly sound and healthy, it requires a certain amount and quantity of brain, to produce the degree of mental power necessary to remove the individual from the state of idiocy. A child's brain is not nearly so large as that of a man, and it has accordingly much less intellect. If his brain were of the same size, and as soft in texture at the age of forty, as at the age of seven, we would at once pronounce him an idiot. This is more palpable, when we consider the condition of mind. That amount of intellect which we would consider as even precocious in a child of seven years of age, we would pronounce absolutely idiotic, if manifested by an adult. So it is with permanent incapacity, which, in truth, is but everlasting childhood, from a childish brain. Hence the creature is called an innocent. Dr. Gall maintains that there is no exception to the rule, that a man's brain which measures round horizontally immediately above the ears, no more than fourteen inches, is always an idiot. Dr. Voisin of Paris, who has made many observations on the subject, avers that in the lowest class of idiots, the circumference varies from eleven to thirteen inches, and the measurement from the root of the nose to the

"If a mother," observes Dr. M'Nish, "is subjected to annoyances, which fret and irritate her, the offspring will run a strong risk of inheriting the temper similar to that under which she laboured, during the time of gestation. Pinel mentions, that out of ninety-two children born after the blowing up of the arsenal at Landau, in 1793, eight were affected with a species of cretinism, and died before the expiration of the fifth year; thirty-three languished through a miserable existence of from nine to ten months' duration; sixteen died on coming into the world; and six were born with numerous fractures of the larger bones."