FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 561 



§ 3. Functions of the Brain. 



Physiologists have in all ages sought for an 

 elucidation of the functions of the brain by the 

 accurate examination of its structure, which 

 evidently consists of a congeries of medullary 

 fibres, arranged in the most intricate manner. 

 Great pains have been bestowed in unravelling 

 the tissue of these fibres, in the hope of dis- 

 covering some clue to the perplexing labyrinth of 

 its organization : but nearly all that has been 

 learned from the laborious inquiry, is that the 

 fibres of the brain are continuous with those 

 which compose the columns of the spinal 

 marrow ; that they pass, in their course, through 

 masses of nervous matter, which appear to be 

 analogous to ganglia ; and that their remote 

 extremities extend to the surface of the convo- 

 lutions of the brain and cerebellum, which are 

 composed of a softer and more transparent grey 

 matter, termed the cortical or cineritious sub- 

 stance of the brain. 



of the basis of the skull, from the ear to the roots of the upper 

 incisor teeth, and the other from the latter point, touching 

 the most projecting part of the forehead. Camper conceived 

 that the magnitude of this angle would correctly indicate the 

 size of the brain, as compared with the organs of the principal 

 senses which compose the face : but the fallacy of this criterion 

 of animal sagacity has been shown in a great many cases. 



VOL. II. O O 



