Prench National In^iiUde. zoB 



the justice which was clue to them for their anatomical dis- 

 coveries, the commiltee thought it their duty also to cau- 

 tion the public that there is no direct connection, no neces- 

 sary relation, between these discoveries and the doctrine 

 taught by M. Gall, on the functions peculiar to the diffe- 

 rent compartments of the brain, or with the possibility of 

 conjecturing from the size of these divisions the intellec- 

 tual and moral dispositions of individuals. ^' Every thing 

 that we have examined respecting the structure of the braiix 

 (they say, in concluding their report.) may be equally true 

 or false, without the possibility of any conclusion being 

 drawn either for or against this doctrine, which can only 

 be estimated by very different means/' 



M. Dumeril, professor of medicine at Paris, has pre- 

 sented an anatomical memoir to the public, in which he 

 considers under new points of view the bones and muscles 

 of the human and animal trunk. 



After having compared the vertebrae with each other in 

 the different regions of the spine, and in the different classes 

 of animals, he endeavours to show that the head, so far as 

 its movements are concerned, may be regarded as a verte- 

 bra extensively developped : not that he means to say that 

 the head is a vertebra, which v/ould be absurd, but merely' 

 that the facets by which the head i^ articulated have a re- 

 semblance with the articulating apophyses of the vertebrae; 

 that the projecting parts which afford a hold to the muscles 

 of the head, have a resemblance with the spinal and trans- 

 verse apophyses of the vertebrse, and that the muscles which 

 proceed from certain parts of the spine to the head- are 

 analogous with those which proceed from one part of the 

 spine to another. After having shown these resemblances 

 in the human species, M. Dumeril traces them into the 

 lower animals, and shows that at all times, when there are 

 variations in the connection of the parts of the spine with 

 each other, there are corresponding variations, in those of 

 the spine with the head. 



Passing to the examination of the muscles which act in 

 the sides, M. Dumeril shows that, whatever are the varia- 

 tions in the sides of various animals, there is always nearly 

 the same muscles which, only when there are no sides into 

 which they can be inserted, are attached to the transverse 

 apophyses of the vertcbroe, which are then generally larger. 

 From all this the author infers, that between the sides and 

 the transverse apophyses there is a resemblance of connec- 

 tions and of functions of the same order with that which 

 he established between the head and the vertebrae. 



Vol. 31. No. 133. OcloLxr iboy. U He 



