214 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



They thought that a person's aptitudes and traits of character 

 could be told from the swellings over these various areas. If one 

 man had a swelling over the vision area, they assumed that he 

 could see better than another. If he had a high forehead, they 

 reasoned that his powers of judgment must be better. Thus the 

 pseudo-science of phrenology arose. Phrenology, as such, has 

 been disproved. Careful investigations have shown that the brain 

 does not conform exactly to the shape of the skull and that bumps 

 or enlargements on different heads are usually malformations of 

 the skull and not brain enlargements. 



Questions and Suggestions 



1 . What is a stimulus ? \Yhat is a response ? 



2. Discuss an experiment illustrating phototropism ; geotropism ; 

 hydrotropism. 



3. What is the value of tropisms to the plant ? 



4. State the difference between a tropism and a nervous reaction. 



5. Name a function of the central nervous svstem. 



6. Discuss the protection of the brain and spinal cord. 



7. Describe the structure and the function of the cerebrum. 



8. Discuss the function of the cerebellum ; the medulla oblongata ; 

 the spinal cord. 



9. Describe in detail the unit of structure of the nervous system. 



10. Draw and label a neuron. Name and define three types of 

 neurons. 



11. What are nerve centers and ganglia ? 



12. Compare the brain of man with the brain of lower animals. 



13. Discuss two ways of studying the nervous system. 



14. Describe the structure and function of the autonomic nervous 

 svstem. 



Supplementary Readings 



Gates, A. I., Elementary Psi/rhology (The Macmillan Co.). 

 McDougall, W., Outline of Psychology (Charles Scribner's Sons). 



