332 WEIGHT OF THE BIIAIN. 



would weigh several ounces. The ganglions and ganglionic 

 nerves can weigh but little comparatively. Dr. Macartney de- 



physiological, made after he engaged Dr. Spurzheim as his assistant, were merely 

 slight modifications, des nuances were the words he used ; and the truth of this 

 is evident to those acquainted with the early literature of the new anatomy and 

 physiology of the brain. Dr. Spurzheim himself affords, in many parts, refutations 

 of his unjust and absurd attempts to arrogate what is not his due. For instance, 

 he says (Anatomy of the Brain, p. 148.), " Modern anatomists before Gall and 

 myself 'were divided in opinion on the subject of the decussation." Yet, at p. xi. 

 he says that, having completed his studies in 1 804, he was associated with Gall, 

 " and at this period Dr. Gall, in the Anatomy, spoke of the decussation of the 

 pyramidal bodies ; of their passage through the pons Varolii, of eleven layers of 

 longitudinal and transverse fibres in the pons, &c." ! ! Yet at p. 5. Dr. Spurzheim 

 says the opinion that the white substance was fibrous is, that " which Dr. Gall and 

 I have espoused." An instance of his short-sighted ambition is afforded at p. 95. 

 of his Anatomy, where he positively says, " Before Dr. Gall and I began our 

 researches, all other anatomists were in the habit of cutting down the brain by 

 slices, " &c. ; whereas, before Gall ever saw him, Gall had taught his new method 

 to thousands : Gall taught it to him among the rest, and engaged him as his pro- 

 sector. At p. 178., he says, " Until Dr. Gall and / published, it was the custom 

 to take merely mechanical views of these" (the commissures); whereas, in 

 Bloede and Bischoff it appears that Gall taught all the true views of them before 

 he saw Dr. Spurzheim. At p. 110. he says," Dr. Gall and /claim the merit of 

 having been the first to compare the relations between the development of dif- 

 ferent cerebral parts and peculiar functions." When every where, even in the first 

 volume of the 4to. work, to which Gall, in the kindness of his heart, affixed 

 Dr. Spurzheim's name with his own, in order, as he often said, to encourage 

 him, and because he thought that Dr. Spurzheim would carry on phrenology 

 after his death as he himself had done, Dr. Spurzheim, like all the world, ac- 

 knowledges Gall to have been the first discoverer of the functions of different 

 parts of the brain, and of course through observing development. At p. 1 1 5. he 

 claims this all for himself ! though at p. xvi, of the preface to Gall's 4to. work, 

 with his name added by Gall, this is all given to Gall. " / claim the merit of 

 having been the first to maintain that the analogy or differences of cerebral parts 

 in different classes ought to be determined by the combined aid of Anatomy 

 and Physiology ! ! " Dr. Spurzheim gives another striking refutation of his own 

 assumption. Gall had made and promulgated his discoveries, when Dr. Spurzheim, 

 as he himself admits, having finished his studies in 1804, joined Gall. (Anatomy 

 of the Brain. London, 1826. p. xi.) Yet, in his eagerness to be equal with 

 Gall, he unluckily writes, in his Examination, <$-c., " I beg to observe that, in 

 the summer of 1805, we demonstrated to Reil the same leading points in the 

 anatomy of the brain which we still maintain ! " He whose fingers only were 

 employed on the occasion ! he who had joined Gall but a few months from the 

 class room ! In truth, the new anatomy of the brain did not consist m this 

 little detail of discovery, or that, but in grand general views of structure ; and this 



