DUAL CHARACTER OF THE BRAIN. 13 



say, on diseases of the left side of the brain than on diseases 

 of the right side. This is all I know now which belongs to the 

 left side of the brain. Tlie right side of the brain is quite dif- 

 ferent. From all that I have stated about the left side, as you 

 will see, that organ is chiefl}' the organ serving the mental 

 faculties, either in speech, or in intelligence, or in gesture, or 

 in writing. That organ, therefore, is the important organ in 

 our system adapted to the life of communication between our- 

 selves and our brethren in a mental way. But the other organ 

 — the right side of the brain, in some individuals, as you will 

 see, has the power of the left side, and in all, perhaps, it might 

 have had it if the proper development had taken place; but this 

 right side has also additional functions. The right side of the 

 brain serves chiefly the emotional manifestations, hysterical 

 manifestations included, and to the needs of the nutrition of 

 the body in various parts. There is, therefore, taking a large 

 view of the differences between the two brains, this difference, 

 that one of them — the left — serves to what we call the life of 

 relation, while the right serves to what we call the organic life. 

 This view, which I put forward five or six 3^ears ago, has begun 

 now to receive demonstration from several physicians, and I 

 am, therefore, the more emboldened in maintaining its correct- 

 ness. The right side of the brain is remarkable in producing 

 alterations of nutrition either in limbs that are paralyzed, or in 

 the back. It is perfectly well known that a number of patients 

 die every month in every large city, of ulcerations taking place 

 on the nates or on the sacrum originating from an irritation 

 of the brain. These patients are more numerous among those 

 attacked by disease in the right side of the brain tlian among 

 those attacked with disease in the left side of the brain. Either 

 oedema or bed-sores, either one or the other of those two kinds 

 of lesions is more frequent in cases of disease of the right side 

 of the brain than in cases of the left side. The proportion is 



considerable. It is as two-thirds for the right side of the brain 

 2 



