ESSAY-REVIEWS 



THE MECHANISM OF THOUGHT, by Thomas Beaton, M.D., on : 

 In Search of the Soul and the Mechanism of Thought, Emotion, and 

 Conduct. In Two Volumes. By Bernard Hollander, M.D. [Vol. I, 

 pp. X + 516 ; Vol. II, pp. vii + 361.] (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 Trubner & Co. ; New York : E. P. Button & Co. Price i^ 25. net.) 



From the time, towards the end of the eighteenth century, when psychology 

 was lifted out of the welter of metaphysical speculation and recognised 

 as being a definite branch of biological study, the problem of localising 

 the various aspects of mental function in specified regions of the brain has 

 exercised a great fascination for all workers in the subject, anatomists, 

 physiologists, and psychologists. With a little reflection upon the matter 

 it becomes quickly apparent that the successful solution of the problem 

 demands, on the one hand, a complete knowledge of the anatomical structures 

 of the brain and their physiological activities, and, on the other, a satisfactory 

 conception of the mind, as to how it may be regarded as built up of component 

 functions and what relationships may exist between these component func- 

 tions. Although vast strides have been taken with the result that much 

 more clear conceptions of the structure and physiological activities of the 

 brain and also of the correlated functions of mind can now be entertained, 

 yet it must be explicitly stated that these conceptions are still too inconclusive 

 to permit of any but the most generalised statements regarding the actual 

 intimate relations of brain function and mental activity. It is, therefore, 

 a matter for conjecture as to what amount of reliance is to be placed upon 

 the very definite cerebral localisation which was dogmatically laid down 

 by Francis Joseph Gall at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 



At that period of scientific knowledge a system of " faculty " psychology 

 was largely in vogue, and the exponents of this system held that the 

 personality, the character, and the intellect were capable of being split up 

 into various attributes, which were to be regarded as independent units so 

 far as function went. At this time, also, the wondrously complex structure 

 of the brain was first being recognised, and one cannot be surprised that 

 the enthusiasts of the day jumped to the conclusion that the cumbrous 

 pigeon-holed psychology was to be accurately fitted into the surface of the 

 great cerebral hemispheres, so conveniently and consistently divided up natu- 

 rally by the furrows and ridges forming the cerebral convolutions ; and from 

 this early attempt at cerebral localisation arose the great cult of phrenology 

 and charlatanism with which the name of Gall is inseparably associated. 



So far as Gall himself was concerned, there is no doubt but that he was 

 one of the pioneers in the investigation of the anatomy and physiology of 

 the brain, but it is difficult to ascribe to him that pre-eminence which Br. 

 Hollander implies to have existed ; moreover, he chose to stand or fall by 

 his scheme of cortical representation, and, according to the opinion of pos- 

 terity, he has fallen. Even in his own times the tide of scientific opinion 

 definitely set away from his views ; the high hopes which he had raised by 

 his statements were found to be not justified by the experience of other 



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