FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBELLUM. 417 



the seat of muscular sense, or to the centre for combining mus- 

 cular actions, that experiments on the subject afford no proof 

 in one direction more than the other. 



Gall was led to believe, that the cerebellum is the organ of 

 physical love, or, as Spurzheim called it, of amativeness ; and 

 this view is generally received by phrenologists. The facts 

 favoring it are, first, several cases in which atrophy of the 

 testes and loss of sexual passion have been the consequence of 

 blows over the cerebellum, or wounds of its substance ; sec- 

 ondly, cases in which disease of the cerebellum has been at- 

 tended with almost constant erection of the penis, and frequent 

 seminal emissions; and thirdly, that it has seemed possible to 

 estimate the degree of sexual passion in different persons by 

 an external examination of the region of the cerebellum. 



The cases of disease of the cerebellum do not prove much ; 

 for the same affections of the genital organs are more gener- 

 ally observed in diseases, and in experimental irritations of 

 the medulla oblongata and upper part of the spinal cord 

 (Longet). 



The facts drawn from craniological examination will receive 

 the credit given to the system of which they are a principal 

 evidence. But, in opposition to them, it must be stated that 

 there has been a case of complete disorganization or absence of 

 the cerebellum without loss of sexual passion (Combiette, 

 Longet, and Cruveilhier) ; that the cocks from whom M. 

 Flourens removed the cerebellum showed sexual desire, though 

 they were incapable of gratifying it ; and that among animals 

 there is no proportion observable between the size of the cere- 

 bellum and the development of the sexual passion. On the 

 contrary, many instances may be mentioned in which a larger 

 sexual appetite coexists with a smaller cerebellum ; as e. g. y 

 that rays and eels, which are among the fish that copulate, 

 have not laminse on their almost rudimental cerebella ; and 

 that cod-fish, which do not copulate, but deposit their genera- 

 tive fluids in the water, have comparatively well-developed 

 cerebella. Among the Amphibia, the sexual passion is ap- 

 parently very strong in frogs and toads ; yet the cerebellum is 

 only a narrow bar of nervous substance. Among birds there 

 is no enlargement of the cerebellum in the males that are polyg- 

 amous ; the domestic cock's cerebellum is not larger than the 

 hen's, though his sexual passion must be estimated at many 

 times greater than hers. Among Mammalia the same rule 

 holds; and in this class the experiments of M. Lassaigne have 

 plainly shown that the abolition of the sexual passion by re- 

 moval of the testes in early life is not followed by any diminu- 

 tion of the cerebellum ; for in mares and stallions the average 



