330 WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN. 



an adult, probably between 20 and 60 years of age 1 , is said 

 to weigh, on the average, between 40 and 50 ounces; the 



white colour, and there a line of grey, or one of red, were displayed : here a 

 cineritious, there a medullary, mass : here a fraction white without, grey within ; 

 there a fraction white within, and grey without : here a gland pituitary, there a 

 gland like grains of sand-: here a ventricle, and there a cul de sac with endless 

 fibres, and lines, and globules, and simple marks with appellations no less fanciful 

 than devoid of meaning." These are just Gall's views, for which he was loaded 

 with opprobrium. Anat. et PhysioL, vol. i. p. 287. sq. 285. 



Loder, who not only had attended Gall's lectures at Halle, but dissected nine 

 human and thirteen brute brains with him, adds, after specifying Gall's ana- 

 tomical discoveries, " These discoveries alone would be sufficient to immortalise 

 Gall's name : they are the most important which have been made in anatomy 

 since the discovery of the absorbents. The discovery of the unfolding of the 

 brain is admirable." " I am ashamed and indignant with myself for having, 

 with others, been slicing hundreds of brains, like cheese : I never perceived the 

 forest for the multitude of the trees." " I say, with Reil, that I have found more 

 than I thought one man could discover in the course of his life." * 



" Reil," said Professor Bischoff, above thirty years ago, " who, as a profound 

 anatomist and judicious physiologist, requires not my praise, rising superior to all 

 the littleness of vanity, has declared that he found more in Gall's dissections of 

 the brain than he thought any man could have discovered in his whole life." Ex- 

 position, just quoted, p. xxvi. 



Such is the judgment of Reil on what Mr. Mayo calls Gall's " popular and 

 showy anatomy," dependent for its correctness, when it is correct, " rather to 

 bold and fortunate conjecture, than to cautious and philosophical research ; " 

 amounting to " little more than an expansion of the views of Willis," and desti- 

 tute of the force of "demonstration which belongs to the researches of" Reil 

 their " rival. " Gall, so far from regarding Reil as a rival, thus speaks of him : 

 " With what readiness would the nervous system, this noble part of anatomy 

 and physiology, the knowledge of which has so long made such small progress, 

 have been restored to its dignity, if, in every country, men like Reil, animated 

 with the love of truth, and endowed with a spirit of profound observation, had fol- 

 lowed his example ! We are proud that the discoveries made by this able 

 naturalist in the cerebellum, by following a totally different course from ours, 

 agree so perfectly with ours." (Anat. et Physiol.,p. 250.) In truth, Gall was 

 too good towards Reil ; for, after Gall's report to the French Institute, Reil, 



* Dr. Sims has just published, in the 19th vol. of the Trans, of the Royal Med.- 

 Chir. Society, the most extensive averages of the weight of the brain. His average 

 weight of the adult brain, between 20 and 60 years of age, is from rather above 

 44 to rather above 46 ounces. 



* Bischoff, 1. c. p. xxix. Also Gall, 4to. vol. iv. p. 378. sqq. ; 8vo. t. vi. 

 p. 493. In this sixth volume will be found copious answers to Tiedemann, 

 Rudolphi, Serres, &c., and a refutation of many of their anatomical assertions. 



