522 PHRENOLOGY : OLD AND NEW. 



known), and that a similar impression would always fol- 

 low the same route, so long as the conducting channels 

 remained uninjured? In some such sense as this 'locali- 

 zation ' would seem to be a simple a priori necessity. But 

 if it holds good for Sensorial Operations it will be equally 

 likely to obtain for Intellectual Operations and Emotions. 

 Order and regularity could scarcely be absent in the 

 carrying on of the functions of those parts of the Brain 

 alone, where, from the subtle nature and multiplicity of 

 the molecular actions involved in myriads of cells and 

 fibres, these particular characteristics of lower Brain-actions 

 would sec m to be so preeminently needful. 



The fundamental question of the existence, or not, of 

 real ' localizations ' of function (after some fashion) in the 

 Brain must be kept altogether apart from another secondary 

 question, which, though usually not so much attended to, 

 is no less real and worthy of our separate attention. It 

 is this : Whether, in the event of ' localization ' being 

 a reality, the several Mental Operations or Faculties are 

 dependent (a) upon separate areas of Brain-substance, or 

 (b) whether the ' localization ' is one characterized by mere 

 distinctness of cells and fibres which, however, so far as 

 position is concerned, may be interblended with others 

 having different functions. Have we, in fact, to do with 

 topographically separate areas of Brain-tissue or merely 

 with distinct cell and fibre mechanisms existing in a more 

 or less diffuse and mutually interblended manner ? 



The latter kind of arrangement seems, on the whole, to 

 be an even more probable one than the former, and may 

 commend itself most to many persons. The existence 

 of some such arrangement would help to throw light 

 upon some of the results obtained by Flourens, and, 

 indeed, upon doctrines advocated by Brown- Sequard at 



