THE BKAIN THE ORGAN OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. SOT 



in the brain. Climate has probably a similar influence ; hence, the dif- 

 ference between the characters of different nations and races. The skull 

 of the Mongol is different from that of the Kelto-Goth or of the Ethio- 

 pian ; and the brain, as well as its functions, exhibits equal diversity. 



Again, it has been argued, that the facts noticed in the animal king- 

 dom are in favour of the brain being the organ concerned in the men- 

 tal manifestations ; that, if each animal species has its own psychology, 

 in each the encephalon has a special organization ; and that in those 

 which exhibit superior powers, the brain is found large, and more com- 

 plicated. To a great extent this is true. Nothing, indeed, seems more 

 erroneous than the notion, that even sensibility to pain is equal in 

 every variety of the animal creation. As we descend in the scale, the 

 nervous system is found becoming less and less complicated ; until 

 ultimately it assumes the simplest original character, which has laid 

 the foundation for one of the divisions of Sir Charles Bell's system ; 

 and although it is impossible to change places with the animal, we have 

 the strongest reasons for believing, that the sensibility diminishes as we 

 descend ; and that the feeling, expressed by the poet, that the beetle, 

 which we tread upon 



" In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies" 



however humane it may be, is physiologically untrue. The phenomena 

 in favour of this view that present themselves to the naturalist are 

 numerous and interesting ; and afforji signal evidence of creative wis- 

 dom in endowing the frames of those beings of the animal kingdom, 

 that are most exposed to injury and torture, with a less sensible organi- 

 zation. The frog continues sitting, apparently unconcerned, for hours 

 after it has been eviscerated ; the tortoise walks about after having lost 

 its head ; and the divisions of the polypus, made by the knife, form so 

 many distinct animals. Redi removed the whole of the brain of a 

 common land tortoise : the eyes closed to open no more ; but the ani- 

 mal walked as before, groping, as it were, its way for want of vision. 

 It lived nearly six months. All have noticed the independence of the 

 parts of a wasp, after the head has been severed from the body. It 

 will try to bite, and, for a considerable time, the abdomen will attempt 

 to sting. An illustrative instance of the kind occurred to Dr. Harlan. 1 

 He cut off the head of a rattlesnake ; and, grasping the part of the 

 neck attached to the head with his finger and thumb, the head twisted 

 itself violently, endeavouring to strike him with its fangs. A live 

 rabbit was presented to the head, which immediately plunged its fangs 

 deep into the animal ; and when the tail of the snake was laid hold of, 

 the headless neck was bent quickly round as if to strike the experi- 

 menter. The experiments of Dr. Le Conte, 2 of Savannah, Georgia, 

 and of Dr. Bennet Dowler, 3 of New Orleans, on the Alligator croco- 

 dilus lucius exhibit like results, and would lead to the inference, that 

 in that animal, phenomena essentially resembling those which in the 



i Medical and Physical Researches, p. 503, Philad., 1835. 

 a New York Journal of Medicine, Nov. 1845, p. 335. 

 3 Contributions to Physiology, New Orleans, 1849. 



