1874.] Physiology of the Brain. 63 
The method pursued by Gall, in seeking to ascertain the 
functions of the brain, was by comparing the power of 
manifesting particular mental faculties with the size and 
condition of particular portions of this organ. Phrenologists 
believe this method to be vastly superior to all others, and, 
in justification of this opinion, point to the rich harvest it 
has produced in contrast to the barren results which have 
hitherto been obtained by the employment of mutilations 
and the application of stimuli. Is there, at the present 
moment, a single physiologist in a position to declare that, 
after qualifying himself to judge of the development of the 
organs by the requisite study, the result of careful examina- 
tion has convinced him that the localities assigned by Gall 
to the primitive mental faculties are erroneous? Why is 
this sound and legitimate mode of studying the functions of 
the brain neglected and ignored by physiologists in general, 
‘who seem desirous of exhausting every possible variety of 
error before they will adopt it?”” Men of science are usually 
eager to avail themselves of every practicable means in 
the pursuit of knowledge, but it would appear to be a 
desideratum to discover the functions of the brain by other 
than phrenological methods. 
In addition to employing mutilations, Rolando trephined 
the cranium of various quadrupeds, and applied one of the 
poles of a voltaic pile to different portions of the brain, 
whilst the other was applied to different parts of the body. 
With reference to these experiments of Rolando, and the 
experiments by mutilation of Flourens, Gall remarked :— 
“It is a subject of constant observation that, in order to 
discover the functions of the different parts of the body, 
anatomists and physiologists have always been rather 
disposed to employ manual means than to accumulate a 
great number of physiological and pathological faéts,—to 
combine these facts, to reiterate them, or to await their 
repetition in case of need,—and to draw slowly and succes- 
Sively the proper consequence from them, and not to 
announce their discoveries but with a wise reserve. This 
method, at present the favourite one with our investigating 
physiologists, is imposing from its materiality ; and it gains 
the approbation of most men by its promptitude and its 
apparent results. But it has also been constantly observed 
that what has appeared to have been incontestably proved 
by the mutilator A., either did not succeed with the mutilator 
B., or that he had partly found in the same experiments all 
the proofs necessary to refute the conclusions of his prede- 
cessor. It is but too notorious that similar violent experi- 
