August 20, 1885] 
NATURE 
381 
WH 
reproduce these is determined upon. Now, if we had a dual 
mind, and if each hemisphere was capable of acting ger sv, then 
we should have each intellectual area sending a message to its 
own motor area, with the result that the two figures would be 
distinct and correct, not fused. 
The other evidence that I referred to above, which is 
adduced in favour of the synchronously independent action of 
the two hemispheres, is from the account of such cases as the 
following. Prof. Ball, of Paris, records the instance of a young 
man who one morning heard himself addressed by name, and 
yet he could not see his interlocutor. He replied, however, and 
a conversation followed, in the course of which his ghostly 
visitant informed him that his name was M. Gabbage. 
After this occurrence he frequently heard M. Gabbage speak- 
ing to him. Unfortunately M. Gabbage was always recom- 
mending him to perform very outrageous acts, such as to give an 
overdose of chlorodyne to a friend’s child, and to jump out of a 
second-floor window. This led to the patient being kept under 
observation, and it was found that he was suffering from a one- 
sided hallucination. 
Similar cases have been recorded in which disease of one 
sensory perceptive area has produced unilateral hallucination. 
I cannot see that these cases in any way support the notion of 
the duality of the mind. On the contrary, they go to show that 
while as a rule the sensory perceptive areas are simultaneously 
engaged upon one object, it is still possible for one only to be 
stimulated, and for the mind to conclude that the information it 
receives in this unusual way must be supernatural, and at any 
rate proceeding from one side of the body. 
To conclude, I have endeavoured to show that as a rule both 
cerebral hemispheres are engaged at once in the receiving and 
considering one idea. That under no circumstances can two 
ideas either be considered or acted upon attentively at the same 
moment. That therefore the brain is a single instrument. 
It now appears to me that one is justified in suggesting that 
our ideas of our being single individuals is due entirely to this 
single action of the brain. 
Laycock showed that the Ego was the sum of our experience, 
and every writer since confirms him. But our experience means 
(1) our perception of ideas transmitted and elaborated by the 
sensory paths of the brain; and (2) our consciousness of the 
acts we perform. If now these things are always single, the 
idea of the Ego surely must also be single. 
THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION 
THE fourteenth meeting of this Association has been held 
this year in Grenoble, one of the most intelligent and 
active French provincial cities, although it has not quite 25,000 
inhabitants. It is situated on the banks of the Isére, one of the 
principal affluents of the Rhone, and is the head city of the 
Isére department. 
The presidential address was delivered by M. Verneuil in the 
municipal gymnasium in the very hall where girls and boys are 
daily using horizontal and vertical bars. The actual President, 
M. Verneuil, is a surgeon in large practice, who delivered a long 
address on his profession under the title of ‘‘ Confessions of a 
Surgeon of the Nineteenth Century.” After having tried with 
much wit and force of expression to dispell prejudices current 
against practitioners, he went so far as to argue that operations 
are less frequent in France than in other lands, in spite of 
animal vivisection being free. 
M. Napias, the general secretary, read a long paper on the 
scientific men who have died during the year, which has been 
singularly fatal to French science, and he announced the crea- 
tion of a section of public hygiene and medicine. This section 
was inaugurated by an address of M. Chauveau, the Director 
of the Lyons Veterinary School, on the choleraic vaccination by 
Ferran. Not having been able to witness the operations con- 
ducted by Dr. Ferran, the referee was not in a position ‘to give a 
definite opinion on this all-important matter ; but he is satisfied 
that Dr. Ferran has adhered faithfully to the principles esta- 
blished by M. Pasteur. Although he may be assailed as lacking 
correct information on the biological part of the question, none 
of his assumptions can be considered as being in contradiction 
with well-stated and observed facts. It is probable that his 
method may be rendered les cumbrous and painful for the 
patients, but credit must be given to him for his daring 
experiments. : 
M. Galande, the treasurer, showed that the Association is 
possessed now of 20,000/., invested in public funds. The 
amount of the annual subscriptions is 2250/., so it leaves a large 
surplus for the publishing of the transactions and encouragement 
given tu science. 
It was announced that the present meeting should have to vote 
on the fusion with the Association Francaise, which was created 
by Leverrier, and presided over by Milne-Edwards since the 
great astronomer died. No successor will be given to Milne- 
Edwards, as the two scientific bodies will unite. 
The public lectures at the Sorbonne will continue, and a 
scientific paper will be started, issuing in fortnightly numbers. 
M. Rey, the Maire of Grenoble, delivered a complimentary 
speech to the members of the Association, reminding them that 
Grenoble was the site of the first Marcel Deprez experiments 
after their short inauguration at Munich. The results of these 
important experiments now continuing between Creil and Paris 
are satisfactory. 
In the section of anthropology M. de Mortillet discussed the 
question of Tertiary man. He said the question was not to 
know if man as he exists at the present day already exi-ted in 
the Tertiary epoch. Animals certainly varied from one geo- 
logical stratum to another, and these variations increased as the 
strata were geologically distant. The higher the animals the 
greater the variation. It was to be inferred then that man 
would vary more rapidly than the other mammals. The problem 
was not to discover existing man in the Tertiary period, but only 
to find there an ancestral form of man a predecessor of the man 
of historical times. The question was, Do there exist in the 
Tertiary strata objects which imply the existence of an intel- 
ligent being? M. de Mortillet has no hesitation in saying there 
do. These objects have, in fact, been found at two different 
stages of the Tertiary epoch—in the Lower Tertiary at Thenay, 
and in the Upper Tertiary, at Otta; in Portugal, and at Puy 
Courny, in Cantal. These objects proved that at these two 
epochs there existed in Europe animals acquainted with the use 
of fire, and able more or less to cut stone. During the Tertiary 
period there existed, then, animals less intelligent than existing 
man, but much more intelligent than existing apes. This 
animal, to which M. de Mortillet gives the name of anthro- 
péthique, or ape man, was, he maintains, an ancestral form of 
historic man, whose skeleton has not yet been discovered, but 
who has made himself known to us in the clearest manner by 
his works. A number of flints were exhibited from the strata in 
question, which had been intentionally chipped and exposed to 
fire. After a long discussion, the almost unanimous opinion 
was expressed ‘‘ that after this meeting and discussion at Grenoble 
there can no longer be a doubt of the existence in the Tertiary 
period of an ancestral form of man!” 
The sitting of the Sections took place in the Palace of the 
Universily (Faculties). 
NORTH AMERICAN MUSEUMS 
A REPORT has just been issued on a visit to the Museums of 
America and Canada, by V. Ball, M.A., F.R.S., Director 
of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. Prof. Ball visited a 
large number of institutions in various parts of North America, and 
in his introduction says that he was impressed especially with the 
system, thoroughness, and good order which appeared to pervade 
the arrangements in the majority of these institutions. Many of 
them are of late growth, but already possess an astonishing 
degree of vigour, while their supporters and officers look forward 
in a spirit of great hopefulness to what must be described as 
gigantic extensions of their spheres of usefulness in the future. 
Largely dependent for their existence on the liberality of private 
individuals, they take what aid they can get from the Govern- 
ment, and it amounts, in the majority of cases, merely to State 
recognition. Those of them which possess directly educational 
functions claim an abundant harvest of good results, and there 
can be no doubt that the facilities which now exist for instruc- 
tion in science and art are largely availed of in the principal 
cities of America. 
Mr. Ball did not happen to come across, if such institutions 
exist, any which were in a condition of decadence from the apathy 
and indifference of those for whose benefit they had been 
established. On the contrary, several are unable, owing to their 
means or room being limited, to receive all the pupils who 
present themselves. 
‘«That an interest in museums is largely felt in America is 
not only evidenced by the number of them which are scientific- 
ally conducted and the large number of persons who visit them, 
but it is also proved by the existence of commercially-conducted 
