94 FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 



syringe introduced into the vagina, and thus to save it from 

 perdition. 



They, whose scruples are not quite set at rest by tlie 

 above-mentioned decision of the church, nor by being told 

 that the mind has not yet taken up its quarters in the brain 

 endeavour to account for the entire absence of mental phe- 

 nomena at the time of birth, by the senses and brain not 

 having been yet called into action by the impressions of 

 external objects. 



These organs begin to be exercised as soon as the child 

 is born : and a faint glimmering of mind is dimly perceived 

 in the course of the first months of existence ; but it is as 

 weak and infantile as the body. 



As the senses acquire their powers, and the cerebral jelly 

 becomes firmer, the mind gradually strengthens ; slowly 

 advances, with the body, through childhood to puberty ; 

 and becomes adult when the developement of the frame is 

 complete : it is, moreover, male or female, according to the 

 sex of the body. In the perfect period of organization, the 

 mind is seen in tlie plenitude of its powers ; but this state 

 of full vigour is short in duration, both for the intellect and 

 corporeal fabric. The wear and tear of the latter is evi- 

 denced in its mental movements : with the decline of or- 

 ganization tlie mind decays ; it becomes decrepit v/ith the 

 body; and both are at the same time extinguished by death. 

 What do we infer from this succession of phenomena ? — 

 the existence and action of a principle entirely distinct from 

 body ? or a close analogy to the history of all other organs 

 and functions ? 



The number and kind of the intellectual phenomena in 

 different animals correspond closely to the degree of deve- 

 lopement of the brain. The mind of the Negro and Hot- 

 tentot, of the Calmuck and the Carib, is inferior to that of 

 the European ; and their organization is also less perfect. 

 The large cranium and high forehead of the orang-utang 

 lift him above his brother monkeys ; but tlie developement 

 of his cerebral hemispheres and his mental manifestations 



