162 MEMOIR OF PELTIER. 



"We easily conceive of a nonn ; it is tlie iiarae of a person or thing, or else the 

 o-eneralization of a quality ; we understand an adjective or verb ; but a prej^osi- 

 tion is infinitely more difficult of conception; it is neither an object, cpiality, tiov 

 act, but a relation between all these ideas; it is, in short, a something completelv 

 intangible. Led by his ideological studies on the one hand, and his studies of 

 Latin grammar on the other, Peltier undertook, about the year 1820, a treatise 

 on Latin prepositions. To this he applied himself assiduously for several years, 

 and finally completed it. In 1826 he even had some thoughts of submitting it 

 to the press, but, led off by other studies, he soon renounced his intentions. 



At the time that Peltier Avas studying the formation of ideas with such care, 

 Dr. Gall had opened his public courts in Paris, in which he expounded his theory 

 of the development of the brain, and the localization of the faculties. Peltier, 

 perceiving in an instant of what immense advantage such knowledge would be to 

 him, studied with assiduity the lessons of Dr. Gall, and became, and to the close 

 of life remained, his zealous partisan. Not that he thought the localization of 

 faculties as maintained by Dr. Gall incontrovertible; he had not implicit faith 

 in all his bumps, (to speak after the usual manner;) but he did believe sincerely 

 and with reason in the fundamental princijile of Gall's doctrine; that is, in the 

 relation which exists between the mental and moral nature on one harid, and the 

 development of certain parts of the encephalon on the other. 



The confidence he had in the principle of this doctrine, however, did not pre- 

 vent him from pointing out a few errors of detail. He made several objections 

 to Gall himself on his cranioscopy ; one, among others, liaving reference to the 

 organ of perfectibility, and another to comparative sagacity. On this subject he 

 wrote as follows: "I have never been able to understand how there could be 

 an organ of perfectibility unless it should be made the centre of all the intellec- 

 tual organs, which would be an entire subversion of your scientific principles. 

 Mathematics, metaphysics, music, having each its particular organ, perfectibility 

 cannot be a separate, universal quality ; it can only be a greater development 

 of a particular organ. Neither have I been able to comprehend the organ of 

 comparative sagacity. All judgment is the result of a comparison; the mathe- 

 matician compares and judges; so also the painter, the mechanic. Our knowl- 

 edge does not come but by comparing and judging. The organ of comparative 

 sagacit\', then, is one tliat encroaches upon the others, and that is directly opposed 

 to your theory of the localization of the faculties." The reply of Gall to these 

 objections was far from being satisfactory. 



The study of Gall's theory had made Peltier feel the necessity of studying the 

 anatomy of the brain. This necessity once acknowledged, he set himself to 

 work ; he went into the amphitheatres and dissected like a novice, altliough he 

 was at that time about 36 years of age. He did not, it is true, pursue the study 

 of anatomy so far as is necessar}^ for a phj-sician or surgeon, but he studied 

 enough to understand thoroughly the nervous system of man, and to have suf- 

 ficiently correct ideas of all his other organs. The gross dissection of the brain 

 and nerves showing him almost nothing of their inmost structure, Peltier endeav- 

 ored to study them with magnifying instruments. But man stands highest in 

 the scale of animal beings. Instead of stud\'ing the construction, assimilation, 

 and life of so complex a being, it is much more rational to study them in beings 

 of more simple construction. Transparent insects will perhaps let the secret of 

 their existence be seen. Thus Peltier was led to apply himself to microscopy. 



Perfectly insatiable in his desire for knowledge, Peltier attended at the stime 

 time the lectures of M. Flourens at the College de France, and the experiments 

 in vivisection of M. Magendie. Electricity was just rising into great favor with 

 physiologists ; ail was attempted to be explained by it. M. Magendie made 

 dogs and rabbits digest by electricity ; according to M. Dumas, muscular con- 

 traction was but electro-dynamic; nothing seemed able to resist its power, not 

 even the generation of beings, the males being powerfully chari;ed with positive 

 electricity, the females consequently with negative: it was a general mania. 



