TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 793 



and which they supposed to incite us to the sensual enjoyment of the palate, and 

 the activity of which is independent of hunger and thirst. 



(c.) Profeysor Ferrier (' Functions of tho IJrain,' p. 4G:j, &c.) considers intel- 

 lectual attention to be essentially ideal vision, and says that when we are con- 

 centrating our attention the ideal object is held in the field of clear vision by 

 appropriate ocular movements, which react back on the centres of vision and keep 

 the ideal object in the field of clear consciousness, and through this recall its 

 various sensory and motor associations. He comes to the conclusion that the 

 centre of vision is the centre for concentration of attention. Professor Ferrier 



George Combe located the same power, naming it * concentrativeness,' which he 

 supposed to enable one to fix one's attention for a long time on one object. 



(d.) The area, a portion of the ascending frontal convolution, in which Professor 

 Ferrier locates the centre for movements of the elevator muscles, the same which 

 are called into action in joyful emotions, and enable us to elevate the cheeks and 

 angles of the mouth as e.vpressed in smiling, is the same in which George Combe 

 located the organ of cheerfulness — badly termed ' hope ' on account of the grandiose 

 delusions which are created when the organ is in an excited state. Sir James 

 Crichton Browne and others have noted that in the disease known as general 

 paralysis of the insane there is almost invariably optimism, insane joyousness, 

 delusions as to wealth and grandeur, while the earliest physical symptom is 

 trembling at the corners of the mouth and at the outer corners of the eyes ; and 

 Dr. Voisin explains this condition (' Traitd de la Paralysie Generale des Ali^nea,' 

 1879) by supposing the existence of a centre of exaltation. 



(e.) Mr. Herbert Spencer, the eminent philosopher, who wrote in his younger 

 days some clever articles on phrenology (see ' Zoist,' vols. 1 and 2), in which 

 he expressed his belief in Gall's system, and showed himself an acute observer, 

 localises in the latter halves of the lower frontal convolutions, in the area which was 

 thought by Gall to be connected with ' visions,' the faculty of * reviviscence.' His 

 theory is that the proposed faculty is ' the chief agent for the revividcation of ideas, 

 the chief agent of imagination, and that it affords a tangible explanation of mental 

 illusions.' He quotes many examples of men of powerful imagination like Dante, 

 Tasso, Swedenborg, and others who have been subject to mental illusions, and asks 

 Lis critics to examine the likenesses of poets to see the predominance of the corre- 

 sponding skull-area. Modern pathologists thought at one time that spectral appear- 

 ances were caused by disturbed brain-centres of vision ; but an examination of the 

 cortex of the insane has shown that the supposed visual brain-area is hardly ever 

 allected, while the posterior zone of the frontal convolutions always shows adhe- 

 sion, decortication, and wasting. Further evidence is deducible from the fact that 

 physiological experiments contirm Mr. Herbert Spencer's theory, for, as Professor 

 Ferrier explains, the movements caused by excitation of this area are essential to 

 the revivification of ideas. 



(/.) Lesion of the angular gyrus is shown by Munk (' Ueber die Functionen der 

 Grosshirnrinde,' Berlin, 1881) and others to cause so-called 'psychical blindness' 

 {Seelenblindheit), and numerous experiments demonstrate the ' non-perception of 

 danger' in those animals in which this gyrus has been destroyed. Adjoining it, 

 i.e. at the extremity of the ascending parietal convolution, Professor Ferrier 

 locates the centre for movements of the ' platysma myoides muscle," on the impor- 

 tance of which, in the expression of fear, both Darwin and Sir Charles Bell dwell, 

 while Ducheune calls it the muscle of fright. The whole area corresponds with 

 the area in wiiich Gall located his organ of 'apprehension,' afterwards called 

 ' cautiousness,' which he supposed to be excited when we are in a state of anxiety 

 or fear, and which region he found enormously developed in persons known to take 

 alarm easily and who could be easily terrified. 



((/.) Darwin's and Herbert Spencer's description of the physical expression of 

 the 'irascible' emotion in animals, as, for instance, when about to attack an 

 antagonist, is a drawing back of the ears, gnasiiing of the teeth, and growling ; 



