Dr. Foville on the Anatomy of the Brain. 15 



my memory for the description of some structural arrange- 

 ments which have arrested my attention. 



When we look at the works which treat of the anatomy of 

 the brain, we find that they may be distinguished into two 

 classes. Some being designed to illustrate the form of the 

 brain in general, and to indicate the particulars of its exter- 

 nal surface as well as of its ventricular cavities, only exhibit 

 its substance by sections, which destroy the arrangement of 

 the parts without showing their structure. Others, being 

 composed by authors aware of the imperfection of those 

 processes by which nothing but superficial appearances and 

 casual sections are exhibited, aim at elucidating the mysteries 

 of the cerebral organization by studying the composition and 

 arrangement of the substances constituting the encephalic 

 masses. 



It is needless in speaking to so enlightened an assembly as 

 this to draw any comparison between the advantages of 

 these two different methods. Centuries have passed since the 

 superiority of that which is designed to ascertain the intimate 

 composition and structure of the parts was first recognised 

 by some anatomists. The celebrated Willis has insisted as 

 strongly as any modern writer on the advantages of the pro- 

 cess alluded to ; and Malpighi proved its excellence when he 

 so accurately described the granular disposition of the gray 

 matter and the fibrous structure of the white. Nevertheless in 

 spite of these superior men, their improved views did not 

 generally prevail in the schools ; and when at the end of the 

 last century, Reil, and at the beginning of the present, Gall, 

 undertook to prove the fibrous structure of the white sub- 

 stance of the brain, they thought they were announcing an 

 anatomical discovery. 



Reil by his writings, and Gall by his lectures and publi- 

 cations in which he was associated with Spurzheim, have pro- 

 pagated their ardour for sound anatomical inquiries. But 

 notwithstanding their efforts, the practice of cutting through 

 the brain is not yet abandoned, though it is generally un- 

 derstood that this old and imperfect method is insufficient 

 of itself, and that it is by combining with it more appropriate 

 means of investigation that facts which twenty years ago were 

 controverted are now incontestably demonstrated. Thus, for 

 example, all anatomists of the present day concur in the view 

 that the white substance is fibrous, and the gray granular ; 

 and at the same time, contrary to the views of Gall, a great 

 many physiologists agree in thinking that the gray matter is 

 the active part in the functions attributed to the nervous sy- 

 stem, and that the white fibres are in the brain as in the 



