NA TURE 



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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1876 



FERRIER ON THE BRAIN 

 The Functions of the Brain. By David Ferrier, -M.D., 



F.R.S. With numerous Illustrations. (London : Smith, 



Elder, and Co., 1876.) 



I. 

 'T'^HIS is in many respects an important work. Full of 

 -L experimental facts and theoretical suggestions, clearly 

 and forcibly written, it is important as a contribution to our 

 knowledge (and oui ignorance) of the functions of the brain. 

 The reader must not misunderstand my parenthesis as an 

 epigram. That we are ignorant of brain-function is un- 

 doubted ; and this ignorance is sustained and fortified by 

 the "false persuasion of knowledge" which prevents search 

 in other directions. Such false persuasion of knowledge 

 will be deepened by Dr. Ferrier's work — all the more 

 because of its merits, if the conclusions maintained there 

 are erroneous, and the conceptions which determine them 

 are unphysiological j and on both points I am inclined to 

 judge affirmatively. There is something seductive in the 

 precision of his statements and the unhesitating confi- 

 dence with which only one side of a question is presented. 

 The reader is easily led captive by a writer who has no 

 hesitation. Add to this the many difficulties which stand 

 in the way of controlling by experiment the experimental 

 data, and the indisposition of most men to undertake the 

 labour of verification, and we may foresee that physicians 

 and psychologists will eagerly accept this work as an 

 authoritative storehouse of material for their speculations. 

 They will see how its " facts " harmonise with their own 

 pet errors. They will interpret clinical observations or 

 psychological facts by its conclusions. Already we have 

 seen various theories invoking the Hitzig- Ferrier views ; 

 and when nerve-cells of a larger size than usual are found 

 in a particular region of the cortex they are straightway 

 declared to be motor-cells, because the region is said by 

 Hitzig and Ferrier to be motor, while the existence of 

 these cells is adduced in confirmation of the hypothesis 

 respecting the region ! 



In view of the too-probable precipitation in adopting 

 the conclusions of this work, we cannot do better than 

 emphasize the warning with which the author closes his 

 Introduction : — 



" We are still only on the threshold of the inquiry, and 

 it may be questioned whether the time has even yet 

 arrived for an attempt to explain the mechanism of the 

 brain and its functions. To thoughtful minds the time 

 may seem as far off as ever." 



The volume opens with an elementary sketch of the 

 structure of the brain and cord, followed by a short 

 chapter on the reflex functions of the cord, with passing 

 reference to Pfliiger's view of its sensory functions, and to 

 Goltz's experiments against that view. Then follows a 

 chapter on the medulla oblongata as a respiratory and 

 vaso-motor centre ; and one on the general relations of 

 the mesencephalon and the cerebellum. After full, yet 

 brief accounts of 'what is taught respecting the effects of 

 removing the cerebrum, the mechanism of equilibration, 

 the muscular sense, the function of the semicircular 

 canals, vertigo, co-ordination of locomotion, and finally 

 the mechanism of emotional expression, we are brought to 

 the main topic of the book — the functions of the cerebrum 

 Vol. XV.— No, •;6o 



and basal ganglia. Let a word, in passing, be also givei 

 to the excellent chapter in which the psychological aspec 

 of the cerebrum is treated. 



Rich as the work is in facts and suggestions, it is s( 

 deficient in the indispensable correctives of counterfacti 

 and arguments, that the reader must be cautioned agains 

 accepting any position unless elsewhere verified. Parti; 

 because, from long occupation with his subject. Dr. Ferrie 

 has become unable to see it in any other light than tha 

 of his own hypothesis, and therefore doffs aside al 

 counter-facts and counter-arguments as not really signi 

 ficant ; partly, perhaps, because his memory has let slij 

 what must have entered into his knowledge ; from oni 

 cause or another there is a disregard of counter- evidence 

 which, in a second edition, I should seriously urge him t( 

 rectify. Let me cite examples. 



In arguing against the sensory functions of the spina 

 cord, the experiment which he urges as decisive is Goltz's 

 well-known experiment on the insensibility of the brain 

 less frog to pain. I formerly (Nature, vol. ix. p. 8^ 

 pointed out the defect in logic, which concludes from 

 the fact that under certain conditions a brainless animal 

 is insensible to pain (equally to be said of animal; 

 with brains), therefore it is altogether without sensibility 

 Pain and sensation are so far from being equivalent terms 

 that not only are the great mass of our sensations withoui 

 pain, but some cannot even be exaggerated into pain 

 Dr. Ferrier probably did not read the article in which ] 

 answered Goltz ; but did he also overlook the article ir 

 the Journal of Ana: amy for November, 1873, or the same 

 article in the Sttcdies in the Physiological Laboratory Oj 

 Cambridge^ Part i, where Prof. Michael Foster showed 

 by decisive experiments that the facts observed by Goltz 

 had another interpretation ? Again, is it possible that 

 Dr. Ferrier has never been made to hesitate in assigning 

 the optic thalami and corpora striata respectively as the 

 integration of sensory and motor centres, by the observa- 

 tions and experiments which show that sensibility some- 

 times persists after total destruction of the optic thalami, 

 and that paralysis does not always follow destruction of 

 the corpora striata ? One such observation would be 

 decisive against these localisations. But Dr. Ferrier 

 neither disproves the facts nor suffers them to disturb 

 his views of the functions of these ganglia. Finally, there 

 is an experiment by Dr. Burdon Sanderson which, as I 

 shall presently show, cuts the very ground from under 

 Dr. Ferrier's feet— yet this he does not even mention. 

 He probably overlooked its significance ; at any rate he 

 leaves his readers without the advantage of knowing that 

 there is such a fact. 



That this disregard arises from no unfairness, but 

 simply from the onesidedness which comes from preoccu- 

 pation with certain views, is evident in the way he equally 

 disregards his own counter-evidence. A notable instance 

 is the first assigning the occipital lobes as centres of or- 

 ganic sensations on the faith of observed absence of such 

 sensations when the lobes were removed, and then citing 

 a case of complete recovery of such sensation five days 

 afterwards, and instead of recognising this as decisive 

 against his hypothesis, still persisting in maintaining it. 



Thus much on what may be called the " personal equa- 

 tion." Another and more serious source of the mislead- 

 ing effects of the book seems to me its following the 



