12B Anal If si :i of Scie)tiijic Books. 



office of lymphatics, carrying the absorbed matter into the supe- 

 rior longitudinal sinus. 



Our readers are probably aware that among metaphysicians 

 there is some slight discrepancy of opinion respecting the head- 

 quarters of the sensorium and the seat of the soul. Physio- 

 logists have also differed respecting the functions of the various 

 parts of the brain ; after the trash that has lately been current 

 upon these subjects, we feel particularly indebted to Sir Everard 

 for the following sterling facts : 



" That the cortical part of the brain is the seat of memory, is an opinion 

 I have lonp entertained, from finding that any continued undue pressure 

 upon tiie upper anterior piirt of the brain entirely destroys memory, and a 

 less degree nialerially diminishes it. Pressure upon the dura mater, where 

 the skull has been trepanned, puts a temporary stop to all sense, which is 

 restored the moment that pressure is removed ; and the orftan appears to 

 receive no injury from repeated experiments of this kind having been 

 made. In hydrocephalus, when the fluid is in large quantity, and there 

 only remains the cortical part of the brain and pons Verolii connecting it to 

 the cerebellum, all the functions go on, and the memory can retain pas- 

 sages of poetry, so as to say them by heart; but a violent shake of the 

 head produces instant insensibility. Pressure in a slight degree upon the 

 sinciput, produced in one case complete derangement, with violent excess 

 of the passion of lust, both of which went oflTupon removing, by the cro^vn 

 of the trepan, the depressed bone." 



A little further on, adverting to the abundance and office of 

 the transparent mucus. Sir Everard says, " There can be no 

 doubt that the communication of sensation and volition more 

 or less depend upon it." Indeed, it is evident that those func- 

 tions cannot be ascribed to any individual component of the 

 brain and nerves, but belong to them as entire structures. 



The remainder of this part of the lecture is taken up in 

 attempting to show that the above-mentioned mucus exists 

 ready formed in the blood, and that it is the medium " by 

 which the colouring matter is attached to the surface of the red 

 globules," and that fat may exist in the blood. 



Having dismissed the structure of the brain, the next portion 

 of this lecture is devoted to a subject which some of our 

 readers will perhaps consider as of paramount importance ; 

 namely, to the provision for carrying off the fluids taken into 

 the stomach, whenever the quantity or quality interferes with 

 the process of digestion. 



" To do this by the route of the thoracic duct, was not only too circuitous 

 to correspond with the general simplicity of the operations of nature, but 

 was mixing tliese heterogeneous liquids in too crude a state, with the ge- 

 neral circulation of the blood. That there was some unusual mode of 

 conveying fluids from the stomach to the urinary bladder, I have upon a 

 former occasion established, since they arrived there when both the pylorus 

 and thoracic duct were tied up, and the spleen was removed out of the 

 body ; but till the fact of valvular vessels supplying the office of absor- 

 bents was ascertained, any opinion respecting the route of fluids from the 

 stomach, must continue to be entirely hypothetical." 



Our author then proceeds to demonstrate tlie existence of 



