Morton’s Crania Americana. 353 
the cylinder) being then dropped down, with its foot resting on 
the seed, the cane? of the cranium, in cubic inches, is at once 
read off on it.’ 
Dr. Morton gives also measurements of particular regions of 
the brain, as indicated by the skull; and in this portion of his 
work, the phrenologists alone can claim precedence of him. 
Secondly. The most distinguished philosophers on the mind, di- 
vide the human faculties into the active and intellectual powers ; 
and some admit even subdivisions of the feelings into propensities 
common to man with the lower animals, and moral emotious ; and 
of the intellect, into observing and reflecting faculties. Dr. 
Thomas Brown’s division of the intellectual powers into simple 
and relative suggestion, corresponds with this last classification. 
If, then, the mind manifest a plurality of faculties, and if the 
brain be the organ of the mind, it appears to be a sound inference 
that the brain may consist of a plurality of organs. The pre- 
sumptions which arise, in favor of this idea, from the constitution 
of the external ‘senses and their organs, are strong. Each sense 
has its separate nervous apparatus. Nay, when the function of a 
part is compound, the nerves are multiplied, so as to give a dis- 
tinct nerve for each function. The tongue has a nerve for volun- 
tary motion, another for common sensation, and the best authori- 
ties admit a third nerve for taste, although the precise nerve is 
still in dispute. The internal nostrils are supplied with two 
nerves, the olfactory, and a nerve of common sensation, ramified 
on the mucous membrane, each performing its appropriate fune- 
tion. The spinal marrow consists, by general consent of physi- 
ologists, of at least two double columns, the anterior pair for vol- 
untary motion, and the posterior pair for common sensation. Sir 
Charles Bell has demonstrated the distinct functions of the nerves 
proceeding from these columns. Farther, every accurate ob- 
server distinguishes diversities of disposition and inequalities of 
talents, even in the same individual. The records of lunatic 
asylums show numerous instances of partial idiotey and partial 
insanity. These facts indicate that the brain consists of a plu- 
rality of organs, and this idea is countenanced by many high au- 
thorities in physiological science. “The brain is a very compli- 
cated organ,” says Bonnet, “or rather an assemblage of very 
diferent organs.”* ‘Tissot contends that every perception has 
* Palingénésie, I, 334. 
Vol. xxxvim, No. 2.—Jan.—March, 1840. 45 
