338 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
ger) offers good evidence of his having nearly completed the disco- 
very, which, when fully completed, shall leave the thing no longer dis- 
putable. None of the opponents of the “reflex function” doctrines 
equal Dr. Elliotson in argument and ingeniousness, nor is their hos- 
tility so cogent ; but we confess, he fails to satisfy us that he is right 
on an important point, distinguishing him from others, and of those, 
most conspicuously, Miiller.* In examining this subject, a striking 
difference is apparent in the modes of reasoning and research of Miil- 
ler and Elliotson ; a difference which indeed often gives a preponder- 
ating advantage to the distinguished German ; he leaves no doubt on 
the mind, that his belief on any given point, is the result of reasoning 
on what he actually saw and experimented ; phrenology alone except- 
ed. Too often a great good has a proportionate alloy or qualification 
arising out of human fallibility, over estimating in its pride its seem- 
ing triumphs in the search after truth, sometimes causing too large a 
reliance on what are called facts: it is not necessary to give examples 
in proof, that generally, even the most indifferent logicians are oftener 
to be relied on in their ratiocination, than in their facts ; a circum- 
stance not necessarily invalidating their honesty. In experiments, the 
chief object sought, and sought with the greatest avidity, is that which 
adds confirmation to a foregone conclusion, notwithstanding, it is 
sometimes coupled with other consequences, which, if not neutralizing, 
at least, so qualify the main one, as to abate considerably its value : 
with the sanguine, and the short-sighted, these deductions are not 
duly allowed for, and a common, vitiating effect, is, ‘ proving too 
much.” The sources of error are innumerable where the senses are 
concerned—they are notoriously more easily imposed on than the 
judgments, and the differences in men’s sentient perceptions are 
greater, than in their mental percipience of disparity: add to this the 
readiness with which men are persuaded to believe that which they 
wish to be true. To what but defective observation of facts can we 
ascribe such things as follow? Wilson Philip contends that division 
of the pneumo-gastric nerve suppresses secretion of the gastric juice, 
and arrests digestion: on the other hand, Leuret and Lassaigne main- 
tain, that digestion proceeds as before, after six inches of each nerve 
* Dr. Elliotson, without forseeing the consequences, almost admits the ex- 
istence of the excito-motory functions, when he says, “ The functions of the 
lungs and stomach could hardly proceed without sensation” (page 437). He 
could scarcely mean, by “ sensation,” in the sense used, ‘‘ common sensation,” 
as consciousness of those organs exists only when they are diseased or disor- 
dered ; but they have a peculiai excitability, which Miller and Hall show is 
proper to them, and the appeal to which, by the “excito-motory” portion of 
the nervous system, leads to the performance of actions proper to them. 
Consciousness of sensation would prove disease in those organs: and when 
organs respond to the stimuli peculiar to them, and essential to excite their 
proper function, the impression is not recognized by the brain, as that 
organ is conscious of pain produced by injury, or is aware of external exist- 
ences. 
