Morton's Crania Americana. 353 



the cylinder) being then dropped down, with its foot resting on 

 the seed, the capacity of the cranium, in cubic inches, is at once 

 read off on it." 



Dr. Morton gives also measurements of particular regions of 

 the brain, as indicated by the skull ; and in this portion of his 

 v/ork, the phrenologists alone can claim precedence of him. 



Secondly. The most distinguished philosophers on the mind, di- 

 vide the human faculties into the active and intellectual powers ; 

 and some admit even subdivisions of the feelings into propensities 

 common to man with the lower animals, and moral emotions ; and 

 of the intellect, into observing and reflecting faculties. Dr. 

 Thomas Brown's division of the intellectual powers into simple 

 and relative suggestion, corresponds with this last classification. 

 If, then, the mind manifest a plurality of faculties, and if the 

 brain be the organ of the mind, it appears to be a sound inference 

 that the brain may consist of a plurality of organs. The pre- 

 sumptions which arise, in favor of this idea, from the constitution 

 of the external senses and their organs, are strong. Each sense 

 has its separate nervous apparatus. Nay, when the function of a 

 part is compound, the nerves are multiplied, so as to give a dis- 

 tinct nerve for each function. The tongue has a nerve for volun- 

 tary motion, another for common sensation, and the best authori- 

 ties admit a third nerve for taste^ although the precise nerve is 

 still in dispute. The internal nostrils are supplied with two 

 nerves, the olfactory, and a nerve of common sensation, ramified 

 on the mucous membrane, each performing its appropriate func- 

 tion. The spinal marrow consists, by general consent of physi- 

 ologists, of at least two double columns, the anterior pair for vol- 

 untary motion, and the posterior pair for common sensation. Sir 

 Charles Bell has demonstrated the distinct functions of the nerves 

 proceeding from these columns. Farther, every accurate ob- 

 server distinguishes diversities of disposition and inequalities of 

 talents, even in the same individual. The records of lunatic 

 asylums show numerous instances of partial idiotcy and partial 

 insanity. These facts indicate that the brain consists of a plu- 

 rality of organs, and this idea is countenanced by many high au- 

 thorities in physiological science. " The brain is a very compli- 

 cated organ," says Bonnet, " or rather an assemblage of very 

 different organs.^''* Tissot contends that every perception has 



* Palingenesie, I, 334. 

 Vol. xxxviii, No. 2.— Jan.-March, 1840. 45 



