SECT. II.] THE BRAIN THE ORGAN OF MIND. 443 



not only according to age, but also in persons of every age, 

 according to the varying constitution of the brain proper to 

 each individual ; for just as an equally vigorous stomach, lungs, 

 and other viscera is not seen in all men, so the brain does not 

 acquire the same strength and perfection in all men; and hence 

 we should expect a diversity in the faculty of thought, of which 

 the brain is the instrument, in different men ; and this, in fact, 

 we daily find to be the case. For some persons endowed with 

 a more fortunate condition of the brain, are quick in perception, 

 sound in judgment, prompt in willing, happy in retaining and 

 recalling ideas ; others with little talent, as the phrase is, owing 

 to a less fortunate condition of the brain, are dull in perception, 

 weak in judgment, slow to action, unfortunate and imperfect in 

 the exercise of memory. Some, again, perceive quickly, and 

 remember most felicitously, but judge foolishly; whilst others 

 who are endowed with an excellent judgment, have by so much 

 the more imperfect a memory. Some, in consequence of a 

 congenital defect of the brain, are stupid and fatuous through- 

 out their whole life ; ^' many of whom,^^ says Haller,^ '^ have a 

 face scarcely human, large mouth, dribbling saliva, numerous 

 strumous swellings, harsh voice, and a mind unfit for all the 

 duties of life. Another equally numerous class spend their 

 whole life in bed, incapable of any corporeal movement : they 

 pass a long life in a condition not much superior to brute 

 animals, and having rather less intelligence for the functions 

 of life ; and, indeed, their senses are so dull, that lately one of 

 them perished from a collection of fseces, which distended the 

 rectum to the diameter of a foot and a half, and of which he 

 felt nothing.^^ This effect of a vitiated state of the brain in 

 depraving the intellect is so well known that it cannot be 

 doubted that if the state of the brain of Newton and Alexander 

 had been changed in infancy by slight concussion or compres- 

 sion, the one might have been a stupid man, and the other a 

 wise king. Who, in short, does not daily observe the faculty 

 of thought to be disturbed, impaired, and even extinguished by 

 disease, and all consciousness for a time abolished? If his 

 kinsfolk be placed before a man delirious in fever, he often 

 does not recognise them, for either the perception is affected, 



' Elem. Phys., torn, v, p. 570. 



