523 PHRENOLOGY: OLD AND NEW. 



of distinct ' motor centres ' in the cortex of the Cerebral 

 Hemispheres. 



Till quite recently there has been a notable dearth of 

 evidence in medical literature in regard to the existence 

 and localization of any such ' Perceptive Centres ' — either 

 in man or in the lower animals. We have, as already 

 explained, good reason for believing that sensory or 

 * ingoing' fibres from the body generally pass to the 

 Cerebral Hemispheres in the upper or posterior layers of 

 the Cerebral Peduncles ; and that in the situation where 

 each of these expands within its own Hemisphere into 

 the so-called * corona radlata ' such ingoing fibres corres- 

 pond to the posterior third of this fan -like expansion, 

 and are there joined by fibres coming from the lower 

 ganglia or 'nuclei' in relation with the organs of 

 Sight, Hearing and Taste. Destruction of this portion of 

 the peduncular fibres is found to cut off all sensory 

 impressions — special as well as general — proceeding 

 from -the opposite half of the body (p. 490). But, whilst 

 our knowledge is good to this extent, we are still much 

 in the dark as to the relations of these sensory fibres 

 with the Thalamus (and, indeed, as to the precise func- 

 tions of this body generally), as well as concerning the 

 ultimate distribution of the several sets of fibres to 

 particular regions of the cerebral cortex — where alone 

 their respective impressions seem to culminate and be- 

 come associated with subjective phenomena, or States of 

 Consciousness. 



The fact of this absence of evidence in regard to the sitnation of 

 the ' Perceptive Centres ' of Man seems at first very surprising, 

 since it might be imagined that a study of the multitudinous 

 records of local disease implicating the surface of the Brain which 

 exist in medical works would soon settle the problem. This, how- 

 ever, is far from being the case, and that for many reasons which 

 need not now be detailed. Suffice it to say, that local le&ions of 



