Researches on the Anatomy of the Brain. 281 



pose of experiments on the nervous system, whatever be the 

 mode in which they may be introduced into the animal oeco- 

 nomy. We see, indeed, that after such an appHcation, a par- 

 ticular phaenomenon is produced, and that a particular change 

 takes place in a particular faculty. But, first, the phaenomenon 

 is often a complicated one ; and secondly, it is very rarely, if 

 ever, possible to discover the part or organ which has been 

 affected. Hence the difficulty of ascertaining by this method 

 the special functions of the particular parts of the nervous 

 system. 



As to the method which consists in studying the nei'vous 

 system in its progressive development, from the moment at which 

 it first becomes perceptible to our senses, until its formation 

 is complete, and thence through all its changes, as the animal 

 arrives at its full maturity and afterwards descends to a senile 

 death ; and in analysing the corresponding progress in the 

 growth and the decline of the intellectual, sentient, and loco- 

 motive functions ; — this is evidently a more solid and an easier 

 method, because it is anatomical. But it stands in the closest 

 relation to the first method. 



Next, and lastly, I shall speak of the fifth or metaphysical 

 method ; since, in fact, it is the most modern, and that which 

 evidently has led Drs. Gall and Spurzheim to their mode of 

 viewing the anatomical conformation of the nervous system. 



It is not difficult to conceive the possibility of analysing, a 

 priori^ all the functions of the intellect, of sensibility, and of 

 locomotion; of systematizing them, and of subsequently seeking 

 in the organized structure a corresponding arrangement. It 

 is this new direction which has diverted anatomists from the 

 beaten track, to which they had attached themselves before the 

 labours of Gall and Spin-zheim. Had Gall and Spurzheim 

 done nothing but this, and moreover, were all the points of their 

 anatomy to be successively contested and completely refuted, 

 there would still remain to them the honour of having disco- 

 vered a new impulse ; and consequently to them must be re- 

 ferred, as to its source, all that may be valuable in future la- 

 lx)urs on this subject. 



From this preliminary analysis of the means which may be 

 employed to enable us to form some conception of the physio- 

 logy of the brain, it is evident that the chief and most im- 

 portant one, and that without which all the others must fun- 

 damentally err and be devoid of all certainty, is the minute in- 

 ternal as well as superficial anatomy of the human brain, in its 

 adult, perfect, and healthy state. Without this point to start 

 from, all must be precarious. It is the rule by which all the 

 rest must be measured. How in fact shall we be able to say 



N.S. Vol. F). No. 28. April 1829. 2 O whether 



