216 On the Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain. 



count of it. for tlie benefit of a numerous class of readers in Eng- 

 land, who only know what is going on in the capital through 

 the medium of the periodical journals ; and to enable those 

 who have time, and who are tliemseives organized for such in- 

 vestigations, to labour in the same wide and fertile field of in- 

 quiry, and by their cooperation to contribute to the advance- 

 ment of this useful science. 



Few anatomists there are, I believe, who will not be ready to 

 acknowletlge the imperfect state of our knowledge of the minute 

 anatomy of the brain, before the time of Gall and Spurzheini's 

 dissections. The manner too in which anatomists dissected (or 

 rather sliced) that organ, was ill calculated to lead to any useful 

 and satisfactory results as to its component organs, Drs. Gall 

 and Spurzheim, by a method of dis:5ection entirely new, have 

 traced the various nerves to their origins, have shown the ana- 

 tomy of the brain and its several organs, and pointed out the 

 best method for future discoveries. As we hope to give a more 

 particular account of the anatomy in our next, we must content 

 ourselves with giving a short detail of the proceedings of Dr. 

 Spurzheim with respect to the physiology of the brain, and the 

 organs of the mind's manifestations, &c. Since the last account 

 we gave in our number for June, the Doctor has finished his 

 lectures on the science. They were attended by numerous medi- 

 cal persons of the first respectability, and gave great satisfaction. 

 He has also examined many schools, and pointed out the peculiar 

 dispositions of the different boys, merely by the examination of 

 the shapes of their heads, in a manner which has quite astonished 

 the schoolmasters and others who knew their faculties and dis- 

 positions. One principal part of Dr. Spurzheim's last lecture 

 was to state the mhnic, or expression which the action of the 

 different organs gave to the features and muscles. In this part 

 of tlie course he ])ointed out wherein Lavater was correct, and 

 in what respect deficient. Dr. S. resumes his lectures on the 

 18th of October, at seven in the evening. He has collected 

 many thousand skulls of persons of different characters of mind, 

 and moulded many busts to illustrate by example his peculiar 

 doctrines. In the conclusion of this short sketch, which we hope 

 in our next will be extended into a more systematic account, we 

 must observe, that some of the warmest and most able opposers 

 of this theory have now become its advocates. 



XXXVI. 01- 



