514 . PHRENOLOGY: OLD AND NFW. 



admitted that the infundibulum was hollow, but d'^nied the exist- 

 ence of the last mentioned ducts, and maintained that the venlricks 

 required no special outlet for the evacuation of serum. 



In regard to the mode of generation of the * animal spirits ' it 

 was contended by Malpighi, Willis (1664) and others, that they are 

 secreted in the cortical substance of the brain, and thence received 

 into the white or medullary substance, whence they are distributed 

 through the nerves to the whole body. " The faculties of the mind, 

 such as perception, imagination, understanding, and memory, were 

 banished from the ventricles together with the animal spirits, and 

 were located by some in the solid mass of the brain ; by others 

 were affirmed to be properties of the immaterial and rational soul 

 alone, and in no wise dependent on the body." Malpighi con- 

 sidered the cortical substance of the brain to be a true glandular 

 structure. 



Willis has been styled the "father of phrenology," on account of 

 the extent to which he assigned to each particular part of the brain 

 a special influence on the mind. He held, " that the cerebrum 

 subserves the animal functions and the voluntary motions, the 

 cerebellum the involuntary; that a perception of all the sensations 

 takes place in the ascending fibres of the corpora striata, and that 

 through the descending, voluntary movements are excited ; that 

 the understanding is seated in the corpus callosum, and memory 

 in the convolutions, which are its storehouses; that the animal 

 spirits are generated in the cortex of the cerebrum and cerebellum 

 from the arterial blood ; that they collect in the medulla, are 

 variously distributed and arranged to excite the animal actions, and 

 distil through the fornix as if through a pelican ; that the animal 

 spirits secreted in the cerebellum are ever flowing, equally and con- 

 tinuously, into the nerves which regulate involuntary movements; 

 but those of the cerebrum, tumultuously and irregularly, according 

 as the animal actions are vehemently performed or quiescent. To 

 excite sensations the spirits flow along the nerves to the brain . . . 

 As to the loops of nerves with which the arteries here and there 

 are encircled, he states their use to be to relax or close the arteries, 

 and thus during various emotions of the mind to admit the blood 

 in greater or le.ss quantity to certain parts. He decided that the 

 l)ineal body is not the seat of the soul, but a lymphatic gland." 



The successors of Willis adopted some of his doctrines but refuted 

 others. Much bootless discussion was carried on by Boerhave and 

 others as to the essential nature of the animal spirits, and in the 



