THE OLD PHRENOLOGY AND THE NEW. 233 



weights of which varied from 67*5 to 61 ounces. Several insane 

 persons have had brains of 64^ ounces, 62 ounces, 61 ounces, and 

 60 ounces, as related by Bucknill, Thurnam, and others. With 

 respect to the brain-weights of the fair sex, anatomical authority 

 asserts that in women with brains weighing 55^25 ounces and 50 

 ounces, no marked intellectual features were noted. Below 30 ounces, 

 the human brain becomes idiotic in character, so that there appears 

 to exist a minimum weight, below which rational mental action is 

 unknown. The anatomist's conclusions regarding brain capacity and 

 mental endowments are therefore plain. He maintains that the size 

 and weight of the organ do not of themselves afford any reliable 

 grounds for an estimate of the mental endowments, whilst his re- 

 searches also prove that a large brain and high intellectual powers 

 are not necessarily or invariably associated together. It is quality, 

 not quantity, in other words, which determines mental capacity. 



The foregoing details will be found to assist us in our criticism of 

 the pretensions of the old phrenology as a basis for estimating "the 

 mind's construction " and the mental habits of man. Primarily, let us 

 enquire if development that great criterion of the nature of living 

 structure lends any countenance to the idea that the brain is a 

 collection of organs such as the phrenologist asserts it to be. The 

 brain of man, like that of all other backboned animals, appears to 

 begin its history in a certain delicate streak or furrow which is devel- 

 oped on the surface of the developing germ. Within this furrow the 

 brain and spinal cord are at first represented by an elongated strip of 

 nervous matter, which strip, as the furrow closes to from a tube, also 

 becomes tubular, and encloses within it, as the hollow of the tube, 

 the little canal which persists in the centre of the spinal cord. The 

 front, part of this nervous tube, which soon exhibits a division into 

 grey and white matter, now begins to expand so as to form three 

 swellings named vesicles. From these three vesicles the brain and its 

 parts are formed. The foremost swelling soon produces the parts 

 known as the optic lobes, and also the structures which are destined 

 to form the hemispheres or halves of the cerebrum itself. The 

 middle swelling contributes to the formation of certain important 

 structures of the brain ; and finally the cerebellum or lesser brain, 

 along with the upper part of the spinal cord and other structures, 

 appear as the result of the full development of the hinder or third 

 swelling. Nor must we neglect to note that at first the human brain 

 is completely smooth and destitute of convulsions, and only 

 acquires its convoluted appearance towards the completion of devel- 

 opment. 



It is now an appropriate duty to enquire if the history of the 

 brain's growth affords any countenance or support to its phreno- 

 logical division into the different organs and seats of faculties. The 



