212 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



again as the effect of association operating through the 

 intervention of education, or of the accidental circumstan 

 ces in which the individual has been placed. 



660. " And with respect to what may be regarded as 

 the practical application of the art, or science of cranios- 

 copy ; it may be objected, that the convolutions of the 

 cerebrum are not what one should expect to be the seat 

 of the ultimate operations of the organ. They are not 

 the part in which we behold that elaborate and compli- 

 cated structure, the existence of which has been supposed 

 to form so powerful an argument in favor of the doctrine, 

 while this view of the subject still leaves unexplained the 

 uses of the more minutely organized parts, that are situa- 

 ted in the interior of the brain." 



661. Dr. Bostock further remarks, that the question 

 whether this science has any foundation, or not, must be 

 decided by an appeal to facts. " These facts are of two 

 kinds, almost exactly coinciding in their object. We 

 must obtain sculls that are marked by some peculiarity 

 of form and shape, and must then endeavor to learn 

 what was the natural character of the subject ; or we 

 must take the cases of those who have shown some deci- 

 ded peculiarity of disposition and character, and examine 

 the figure of their sculls. A sufficient number of these 

 observations, carefully made, and impartially recorded, 

 cannot fail to decide the question whether there be any 

 ground for the doctrine of the appropriation of the dif- 

 ferent parts of the brain to distinct faculties ; and more 

 particularly, whether w T e have it in our power to ascertain 

 their seat by an external examination of the cranium. On 

 this point, I must give it as the conviction of my mind, 

 that the facts hitherto adduced, are altogether inadequate 

 to the end proposed ; that they are frequently of doubtful 

 authority, and of incorrect application ; and that, nothing 

 but the love of novelty, and the eagerness with which 

 the mind embraces whatsoever promises to open a new 

 avenue to the acquisition of knowledge, could have led 

 men of talents and information to place any confidence in 

 them."* 



An Elementary System of Physiology, by John Bostock, M. D., F. R. 

 S., L. 8. G. S. H. S. M. R. I., London, vol. iii., p. 264-5-6. 



