736 



OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



gamous with the Raptorial and Insessorial tribes which live in pairs, we find 

 that the former, instead of having a larger Cerebellum, have one of inferior size. 

 Further, on looking at the Mammalia, the same disproportion may be noticed. 

 A friend who kept some Kangaroos in his garden informed the author that they 

 were the most salacious animals he ever saw ; yet their Cerebellum is one of the 

 smallest to be found in the class. Every one knows, again, the salacity of Mon- 

 keys ; there are many which are excited to violent demonstrations by the sight 

 even of a human female ; and there are few which do not practise masturbation, 

 when kept in solitary confinement ; yet in them the Cerebellum is much smaller 

 than in Man, in whom the sexual impulse is much less violent. It has been 

 supposed that the large size of the organ in Man is connected with his constant 

 possession of the appetite, which is only occasional in others ; but this does not 

 hold good, since among domestic animals there are many which are ready to 

 breed throughout the year, Cats and Rabbits, for instance, and in these we do 

 not find any peculiar difference in the size of the Cerebellum. 1 



768. It is asserted, however, that the results of observation in Man lead to a 

 positive conclusion that the size of the Cerebellum is a measure of the intensity 

 of the sexual instinct in the individual. This assertion has been met by the 

 counter-statement of others that no such relation exists. It is unfortunate that 

 here, as in many other instances, each party has registered the observations fa- 

 vorable to its own views, rather than those of an opposite character ; so that 

 until some additional evidence of a less partial nature shall have been collected, 

 we must consider the question as sub judice. It may be safely affirmed, how- 

 ever, that no evidence upon the affirmative side of this proposition has yet been 

 adduced, which can be in the least degree satisfactory to the mind of any Ana- 

 tomist who is competent to judge of its value. For nearly all the observations 

 which have been paraded by Phrenologists in support of Gall's doctrine have 

 been based, not upon the actual determination of the size or weight of the Cere- 

 bellum in different individuals, but upon the estimation of its proportional 

 development from the external conformation of the skull. Now any one who 

 has even cursorily examined those principal types of cranial conformation which 

 are characteristic of some of the chief subdivisions of the Human species, must 

 perceive that there is a no less characteristic difference between these different 

 types in the occipital, than there is in the frontal region. For whilst the occi- 

 pital projection is much greater in the " prognathous" skull than it is in the 

 "elliptical," it is as much less in the " pyramidal;" and thus while the first 

 would be considered, according to phrenological rules, to hold a much larger 

 Cerebellum, this organ in the latter would be regarded as necessarily very small. 

 Now there is not only as much evidence of a strong development of the sexual 

 propensity, in the characters and habits of the pyramidal-skulled Asiatics, as 

 there is in regard to the elliptical-skulled Europeans, or the prognathous Negroes ; 

 but there is also anatomical evidence to show that the size of the Cerebellum in 

 the different races bears no relation whatever to the degree of projection of the 

 occiput ; for the plane of this organ, being somewhat oblique in the elliptical 

 skull, is horizontal in the prognathous, and nearly vertical in the pyramidal, 

 while the size and anatomical relations of the organ are not in the least degree 

 affected by this difference in its position. 3 Hence it may be safely affirmed, 

 that no evidence with regard to the relation asserted to exist between the size 

 of the Cerebellum and the intensity of the Sexual propensity, has any value, 

 save that which is drawn from the positive determination of the former by 

 measure or weight. 



1 For a fuller examination of the indications afforded by Comparative Anatomy in re- 

 gard to this question, sec the "Brit, and For. Medical Review," Oct., 1846, pp. 534. 



2 The author's statements on this point are based on the very decided assertions of his 

 friend, Prof. Retzius, of Stockholm, who has paid special attention to this inquiry. 



