Phrenology. 7-7 



sustains all the physical sciences, namely, induction, indicating the 

 correspondence of the phenomena with the theory. 



Those who have not profoundly studied the science, cannot 

 judge of the details ; it certainly appears very extraordinary that 

 numerous organs should be included within a mass no larger than 

 the brain, and that so many faculties should be found in particu- 

 lar regions, especially in that of observation along the front and 

 lower portion of the brain, contiguous to the eyes and the arches 

 of their orbits. It appears the more strange, inasmuch as dissec- 

 tion does not enable us perfectly to separate the different organs, 

 although the convolutions of the brain are distinct, and may in- 

 deed be dissected apart ; but there are no visible boundaries be- 

 tween the organs, so that they can be removed, one by one. 

 There is however an apparatus by which communication is made 

 to them and through them by the medium of nervous fibres ; 

 many groups of these fibres are visible in the brain, pervading 

 different organs, and therefore we may presume that, where we 

 cannot see them they may still exist, and perform their office of 

 communicating their appropriate impressions. 



Strong analogies favor this view. For example, in addition to 

 the nerves and blood vessels that may be traced in every part of 

 the body, there are certainly others that exist in inconceivable 

 numbers and with an infinitesimal minuteness, baffling equally 

 our powers of vision and dissection, and even of conception ; for, 

 whatever part of the system we puncture with a needle or other 

 sharp instrument, we both draw blood and excite pain, thus prov- 

 ing that not only blood vessels but nerves of vanishing minute- 

 ness pervade the entire structure, and every one of these blood 

 vessels receives its stores of blood from the circulation that is sus- 

 tained by the contractions of the heart, faithfully returning the 

 vital fluid again to that organ ; in the same manner, the infinitely 

 divided nervous fibres all communicate ultimately with the brain, 

 and thus when they are wounded, impart the iifformation from 

 the remotest extremities to the grand head quarters of the mind, 

 and that quicker than an electric movement in our machines, or 

 in the atmosphere, or in the wide external world. 



But this is not the ultimate term of infinitesimal minuteness. 

 While every part of the system is thus furnished with nerves of 

 common sensation, so that we suffer by a wound inflicted in any 

 place, and the mind is instantly informed of the injury ; there 



