LECTUEE II. 



Delivered April 22, r874, 

 DUAL CHARACTER OF THE BRAIN. 



By C. E. Brown-S£quard, M.D. 



Gentlemen: I have to-day to put forward views which, if 

 they have the value that I attach to them, deserve all your 

 attention. I confess, however, that although I have come to a 

 conviction myself (and I am, perhaps, rather difficult to satisfy 

 in this respect), I do not accept as proved all that is drawn 

 from facts. I confess, also, that I feel great embarrassment, 

 since not only are the facts I have to present new, and not, 

 perhaps, easily to be accepted, but besides, they require for their 

 full understanding a knowledge of medicine, which probably 

 does not exist among many of my hearers. I will, however, 

 try my best to render the subject as clear as possible, even to 

 persons who know nothing of medicine. 



As you perhaps know, the svibject is this, putting it in an 

 interrogative form. Have we two brains or one ? And if we have 

 two brains, why not educate both of them : 



As you will see by these questions, if the first is decided 

 negatively, of course there is no reason for discussing the 

 second. The very fact, therefore, that I am in your presence to 

 speak about an hour on this subject, implies that I have come 

 to the conclusion that we have two brains, perfectly distinct the 

 one from the other. There are, however, views held in science 

 on this subject different from mine. They consist in consider- 

 ing the left side of the brain as the exclusive organ serving to 

 the movement and feeling of the right side of the bod}-, and 

 1 (1) 



