108 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
On Diseased Lungs from Sand respired. By Dr. Joux MAcKinTOSH. 
In this communication, the injurious effects arising from the deposi- 
tion of particles of stone in the lungs were illustrated by the case of a 
mason employed in the Cragheith Quarry. 
oe 
On the Contagiousness of Cholera. By J. G. Simpson. 
On some Crania found in the Ancient Mounds in North America. By 
Dr. Warren, of Boston, U.S. 
From an examination of the crania found in some of the numerous 
earthworks forming lines, pyramids, and platforms, which are scattered 
over the country, from the lakes of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, 
Dr. Warren infers that this whole region was once occupied by a race 
of men differing from the North American Indians as well as from any 
known people of the old world, but apparently ¢dentical with the an- 
cient Peruvians, and having much resemblance to the Hindoos. 
Ornaments and utensils have been discovered in the mounds which 
bear a great resemblance to articles of the same description seen in 
Hindostan. On these facts the author founds his opinion that the an- 
cient Peruvian people were the remains of a great race of men dis- 
possessed of their original seats by the North American Indians ; and 
notices as a probable hypothesis, that America was peopled from more 
than one point of Asia, the ancient Americans having passed from the 
southern parts of Asia, but the existing Indian races from the north of 
that continent. 
A Critical Analysis of the different Methods that have been adopted for 
determining the Functions of the Brain. By Dr. Evanson. 
In this communication the author endeavoured to place before the 
Section a correct general view of the progress hitherto made toward 
a solution of the question, ‘‘ What are the functions of the brain ?” Dis- 
section of the brain, he observed, has failed to give us a knowledge of 
its functions ; the removal of parts of the brain in living animals has ~ 
led to remarkable but not perfectly consistent results ; the study of the 
brain in a diseased state had revealed but few and determinate relations 
between its parts and affections of definite portions of the body; nor 
has the comparison of the central mass of man with that of animals, 
in respect of absolute magnitude, proportion to the body, to the spinal 
marrow, or the bones of the face, (Camper’s facial angle, ) furnished any 
perfectly general law, by which the degree of intelligence manifested 
by the animal may be connected with a particular property of the entire 
brain. Dr. Evanson then explained the method of induction adopted 
