CfiAP. X5V.] PHRENOLOGY : OLD AND NEW. 623 



tlie present day. It makes it possible to recognize a cer- 

 tain amount of truth in them, without thereby involving 

 us in a denial of the all-important principle of * locali- 

 zation,' as applied to cells and fibres. 



Brown- Sequard has indeed of late * expressed himself 

 most positively in favour of the diffuse and interblended 

 arrangement. He thinks he can prove, beyond question, 

 that — " motor or other centres, as commonly conceived, 

 that is to say, as agglomerations of cells, having one 

 and the same function, and which form a more or less 

 definitely limited mass, do not exist." The existence of 

 the other mode of arrangement would equally with the 

 latter make it necessary to admit that cells having the 

 same kind of functional activity should be in communi- 

 cation with one another by means of processes. And, as 

 he contends, the functional activity of similar cells might, 

 in either case, be conjointly and equally well carried on 

 through the intervention of intercellular processes. It 

 w^ould, in fact, make comparatively little difference 

 whether such similar cells were closely packed together or 

 whether they were scattered over comparatively wide areas 

 of the Cerebral Cortex. So far, at least, the writer finds 

 himself thoroughly in accord with Brown- Sequard. 



Thus, whilst a topographically separate localization of 

 independent ' faculties ' seems to the writer altogether im- 

 probable,! he fully believes that certain portions of the 

 Cerebral Hemispheres — the Anterior Lobes for instance — 

 are always concerned in the carrying on of Intellectual 

 and Volitional Operations of practically the same nature, 

 though of different degrees of complexity in different 

 individuals. Yet it can scarcely be said of " carrying 

 on," but rather of assisting and aiding to carry on, cer- 



* " Archiv. de Physiol, norm, et path.," 2nd Ser. IV. p. 412. 

 t See " Journal of Mental Science," January, 1869. 



