ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, &C, 251 



Brains not indispensable. 



Acephalous foetuses have grown to full size, and 

 have even lived for some time after birth ; and when 

 they actually died, it did not appear to be owing to 

 the want of brains, or to any physical impossibility 

 of continuing life, but to the want of the organs of 

 deglutition, which prevented their receiving a regular 

 supply of nutriment. 



Gall and Spurzheims System of Phrenology. 



According to Gall and Spurzheim,- the various 

 operations of sensation and volition are performed in 

 particular parts of the brain, every faculty or feeling 

 having a distinct organ in which it is generated. The 

 fore part of the brain they consider subservient to 

 intellect, the middle to sentiment, and the back part 

 to propensities ; a healthy brain being always under- 

 stood. 



The Nerves. 



The nerves are medullary chords, differing from 

 each other in size, colour, and consistence, and may 

 be regarded either as originating from or terminating 

 in the brain and spinal marrow. There are 39, 

 sometimes 4-0, pairs of nerves, nine originating in the 

 brain, and thirty or thirty-one in the spinal marrow, 

 and the whole nervous system may be considered as 

 a kind of net- work, between the different parts of 

 which an intimate connexion subsists. The use of 

 the nerves is to receive and convey impressions from 

 all parts of the system to the brain, which more im- 

 mediately exercises the powers of perception and 

 volition; but the manner in which these operations 

 are effected remains unknown. The whole forms 

 what is called the nervous system, which connects us 

 with the external world, and unites the different parts 

 of the machine so as to form a definite whole. 



