THE OLD PHRENOLOGY AND THE NEW. 249 



Whatever results may in future accrue to human knowledge from 

 researches into the functions of the brain, no one may doubt the all- 

 important nature of the knowledge which literally enables man to 

 know himself, and to understand in some degree the mainsprings of 

 the actions which constitute his daily existence. The subject is 

 no less instructive in the sense in which it shows the displacement of 

 erroneous ideas by new and higher thoughts founded on accurate 

 observation of the facts of life. In a very direct fashion, also, such 

 higher knowledge may affect suffering humanity ; since an educated 

 medical science, Turnished with secure data regarding the causes of 

 mental affections, may successfully "minister to minds diseased," 

 and even in due time raze out the troubles which perplex many a 

 weary soul 1 



i It is interesting to note that as these sheets are passing through the press, cases 

 of surgical interference with the brain for the removal of tumours are being, day by 

 day, successfully recorded. A patient suffering severely from such brain lesion is now 

 capable of being cured completely, by the surgical art which is founded on experimen- 

 tation on living animals, discovering for us the true functions of the brain. Such 

 triumphs, in literally snatching hopeless cases of brain-disease from acute suffering 

 and death, form the best arguments against the ravings of anti-vivisectionists, whose 

 chief contention has always been that experiment on living animals could be of no 

 benefit to man. 



