VIEWS OF PHRENOLOGISTS. 361 



certain extent, with impunity. Gall, we have seen, does not admit 

 any central part, which holds the others in subordination. He thinks, 

 that each encephalic organ, in turn, directs the action of the others, 

 according as it is, at the time, in a state of greater excitation. On 

 the other hand, different physiologists admit of a central cerebral 

 part, which they assert to be the seat of the 4w moi or mind. They 

 differ, however, regarding the precise situation of its domicile. At one 

 time, the strange notion prevailed, that the seat of perception is not 

 in the brain, but in its investing membranes. Des Cartes, 1 again, em- 

 braced the singular hypothesis, that the pineal gland is entitled to this 

 pre-eminence. This gland is a small projection, seen in Fig. 9 (page 

 80), at the posterior part of the third ventricle ; and, consequently, at 

 the base of the brain. Being securely lodged, it was conjectured by 

 that philosopher, that it must be inservient to some important purpose; 

 and, upon little better grounds, he supposed, that the soul is resident 

 there. The conjecture was considered to be confirmed by the cir- 

 cumstance, that, on examining the encephala of certain idiots, the 

 gland was found to contain a quantity of sabulous matter. This was 

 supposed to be an extraneous substance, which, owing to accident or 

 disease, had lodged in the gland and impeded its functions ; and the 

 inference was drawn, that the part, in which such functions were im- 

 peded, was the seat of the soul. Nothing, however, is now better esta- 

 blished than that the pineal gland of the adult always contains earthy 

 matter. 2 Others, again, as Bontekoe, 3 La Peyronie, 4 and Louis, placed 

 the mind in the corpus callosum ; Yieussens in the centrum ovale ; 

 Digby 5 in the septum lucidum ; Drelincourt 6 in the cerebellum ; Ack- 

 ermann in the Sinneshiigel 7 (prominence or tubercle of the 

 senses) ; Sommering 8 in the fluid of the ventricles ; and the greater 

 part of physiologists in the point where the sensations are received and 

 volition sets out, the two functions, which, together, form the sen- 

 serial power of Dr. Wilson Philip. 9 Dr. Darwin 10 had previously em- 

 ployed this term in a more extended sense, as including the power of 

 muscular contraction; but in Dr. Philip's acceptation, it is restricted 

 to those physiological changes in which the mind is immediately con- 

 cerned. 11 



The discrepancy among physiologists sufficiently demonstrates, that 

 we have no positive knowledge on the subject. 



1 De Passion. Anira., Amst., 1664, and De Hoxriine, p. 78, Lugd. Bat., 1664. 

 1 Somrnering, De Lapillis vel prope vel intra Glandulam Pinealem sitis, Mognnt, 1785. 

 3 Haller. Bibl. Anat., i. 673. * Mem. de 1'Academ. des Sciences, Paris, 1741. 



5 Of the Nature of Bodies and the Nature of Man's Soul, London, 1658. 



6 Opera. Anat., Lugd. Bat., 1684. 



' This term he applies to the optic thalamiand corpora striata ; because, according to the 

 then received opinion, the optic nerves originate in the optic thalami; and the olfactory 

 nerves from the corpora striata. Gall, Sur ies Fonctions du Cerveau, ii. 57, Paris, 1825. 



8 De Corp. Human. Fabric., iv. 98. 



9 An Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of the Vital Functions, p. 186, London, 1817. 



10 Zoonomia, 3d edit., ii. 103, Lond., 1801. 



i Dr. W. Philip, ibid.; and especially his paper on the Powers of Life, in the Lond. Mod. 

 Gazette for March 18 and 25, 1837; also, his Treatise on Protracted Indigestion, &c., Amer, 

 edit., Philad., 1843. 



