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Tribune Extras Lecture and Letter Scries. 



fingers without chnngins the position of your arm, you 

 will be able to make perhaps 1,000 points. Wei), if MH-II 

 a power as that exists .iucl, indeed, the number which 

 I have given is not too large, as I have counted 792 

 points made by myself, and I am a miserable draught.-- 

 man if such a power exists with so little movement, 

 you eau easily understand what an immense number of 

 fibers it would require to establish commmne.ition be- 

 tween the brain and the periphery, were all the libers 

 continuous froui the lirain to the periphery, or viee 

 versa. Atrain. if we divide a portion of the spinal cord 

 we may find a diminution of sensation and voluntary 

 movement. or both, below the point of division; but the 

 communication is not utterly severed; there is not 

 always complete paralysis, as there should be to satisfy 

 the conditions of the bell-wire theory. 



In fact there is no necessity of more than a very few 

 fibers to establish communication between the bruin 

 and the spinal cor.l. Ic is more like a telegraphic com- 

 ruunie.iiion than a movement along a wire, by which 

 sensation is conveyed from the periphery to the brain, 

 or the brain transmits its orders to the periphery. 

 Let me invo an instance of what I mean. If a piece 

 of ice is laid upon uiy foot, I have at once, the 

 sensation of a contact, sensation of a temperature, 

 the sensation of the extent of the surface of the ice that 

 touch: s me, the sensation of the weight of the iee, and, 

 it it is left upon my foot, the sensation of pain, anil the 

 sensation 01 the skin to which the ice is applied. All 

 those (onus of knowledge are communicated at once. 

 I believe that all these impressions are communicated 

 to the spmal cord, which as a siusrle wire transmits it to 

 tlie brain. 



rr.KTixAciors ADHESION TO EXPLODED THEORIES. 



Now. as t<> tho two sides of tlic brain, the old view Was 

 that '.lie lei i side of the brain ovcrns the movements of 

 the riirht side of the body, and the right side governs 

 the movements of the left side of the body ; and that 

 there i> a similar arrangement respecting perception and 

 sensation. Facts oppose this view. I am sorry to 

 say that physicians adhere too pertinaciously 

 to old views like this, without regarding more 

 recent discoveries. We are constantly holdms on 

 to our old clothing, wearing it when it is worn out. I 

 am sorry to speak thus severely of a profession which is 

 my own, but tho discoveries of tile last ten years seem 

 scarcely to be recognized by the medical faculty. 

 Younger members of the profes>ion should seizs oppor- 

 tunities lomake themselves familiar with the advances of 

 modern ili-e iver.v . Take such facts as this for instance : 

 One-third of one-half the brain may be utterly destroyed 

 without any symptom of the injury: then one-third of 

 the other half, and still no symptom. Still another third 

 of either half may ba destroyed without any indication 

 of ill-health. There are hundreds of the first-named 

 cases ; I know of eleven or twelve of the latter. But 

 Abeivr.nnhie and Spii-er relate still more remarkable 

 case-. A lady of refinement had had very slight *ymp- 

 toms of any t rouble with the brain. She hid irone to a tea 

 party and enjnyed hew 1C there; had walked about ami 

 talked as if in her usual health. X. 'thing in her sens.i- 

 tions indieated any serious trouble. She was found 

 dead in her bed the next morning. The autopsy re- 

 Vt-aled that one half of hei lirain was entirely destroyed, 

 and moreover that this de-tri'etion had been of lonir 

 standing. The ueeount of tin- i-to bo found in Aber- 

 from hie, page 177, 4th edit ion. 



Let n.s n. .w consider the question of the locality of the 

 intelligence of the brain. Most idn sinlo^is's are agreed 

 thut tins is the gray matter of the upper pa-'.s of tho 



brain. But the method of communication Is still open 

 to research. Here tho lecturer went to tho blackboard 

 and drew a figure some what like a sheaf of wheat without 

 a band around it; the stalks ivpresoiiting the nerves, tha 

 heads of wheat representing tho cells. Now you may 

 subtract from this, by disease or otherwise, say the 

 upper third, and still you have the nerves and rhe nervo 

 cells and the processes can bb carried on; but in the 

 progress of such destruction downward there would 

 eventually be reached a point where the functions of the 

 brain could no longer exist. This view would explain 

 the facts as we find them. Bat there is no ease oa 

 record where the gray matter on both sides of the brain 

 has been destroyed without the loss of intelligence, and 

 wo must regard that gray matter as the seat of the in- 

 telligence. B:itva-;t p irtions maybe removed before 

 the loss of intelligence becomes apparent. This I have 

 myself tested and proved by vivisection of the lower 

 animals. 



Now, in respect to the locality of the powei of speech. 

 It has been said that the loss of brain power to express 

 ideas in speech was located in a certain part of the 

 brain. This affection is called aphonia or aphasia. 

 There are throe uiodjs of expressing ideas by speech, 

 by gestures, and by writing. It is with the first only 

 that we are concerned. Some very bold theorists 

 have tried to locate all these powers in a partic- 

 ular part of the brain. Lst us confine ourselves to facts. 

 Dr. Broca of Paris has advanced the view that a certain 

 small portion of some of the convolutions of the brain 

 held the power of speech. I admit that facts seemed to 

 favor this view. But we flud that there is no relation 

 between the decree of aphasia and the extent of the dis- 

 ease in that part, and there are cases where the de- 

 struction of those cou volutions is very great 

 and tho injury to speech very lit- 

 tle. Secondly, wo find that disease may 

 have overtaken the anterior, the posterior and tho mid- 

 dle lobes of the brain, tho particular convolution sup- 

 posed to involve spaech not being aff'cced, and yet 

 there is marked aphasia. Now is some one of these lobes 

 tho locality of the power of speech 1 Such would bo the 

 reasoning of my opponents. We should be obliged to 

 concede that in some parsons the faculty of speech ex- 

 isted in one part of tho brain ; in some in another ; in 

 others another, and so on ad injlnitiim. This is a reduc- 

 lio ad ubsurdnm. 



There is the ease of the paralysis of the insane, where 

 flie gray matter may bo diseased on both sides of the 

 brain. In these cases the power of speech does not seem 

 to bo involved. There are cases of aphasia where the 

 diseased person has had the power of spei eh restored 

 during delirium. The speech is c iheivnf, though the 

 sense may not be. It is cvi lent then that the 

 faculty of speech is not actually lost in such cases; 

 and yet we find that the third frontal convolution is 

 act'ially diseased insthese aphasiaes who talk in their 

 delirium. Bui the most den.-ivo argument i:-. tonnd in 

 the cases that I have seen, where the third frontal 

 convolution, the alleged organ of speech, has been 

 destroyed, and yet tho patients have not lost the 

 power of speech. T.icn-l'oro tho theory is itself 

 destroyed. There are fitly cases on record 

 to show that the question of rii:lir.-!iaii ledness or left- 

 handednes^ does not apply in these considerations. The 

 lecturer hern cited cas "s in t he praet ice ol Jacmot of 

 MontpcliiT and Mr. I'rescott-IIewiU of London. In the 

 latter case the nillent had sutlVred a destruction of 

 that part of the braiu for 20 years, and yet for 20 years 

 had spoken. 



