73 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW PHRENOLOGY. 



By Prof. M. ALLEN STAKE, M. D., Ph. D. 



ALMOST every one has at some time wondered whether there 

 is any truth in phrenology. The figures of heads, on which 

 various mental faculties are marked, are to be seen everywhere, 

 and the notion that from the shape of the head the character can 

 be determined has enough of the mysterious in it to prove attract- 

 ive. The thought that some one may discover our little foibles 

 and more serious deficiencies — for it is these rather than our 

 strong points that we are afraid of having found out — makes the 

 study of bumps disagreeably interesting. And perhaps the desire 

 to find out a little more about our friends than they would wish 

 us to know adds somewhat to its attraction. 



It is pretty well agreed among scientists, at present, that the 

 old system of phrenology has no actual basis of fact, and that ele- 

 vations upon the skull do not indicate masses of brain beneath 

 them. But to this old system of Gall modern science really owes 

 a great deal ; for, like every false idea, it had within it a little 

 kernel of truth, and the interest excited by the claims of its sup- 

 porters awakened a discussion which has led to a discovery of the 

 greatest importance in the saving of human life. 



The claims of Gall that each part of the brain presided over 

 some mental faculty stimulated Flourens, the leading French 

 physiologist of forty years ago, to a series of experiments which 

 seemed to show the falsity of Gall's hypothesis. These experi- 

 ments in turn were disputed and led to others, and thus interest 

 in the brain and its action was stimulated, until in 1870 the sub- 

 ject was taken up in Germany, and facts were discovered which 

 form the basis of our present knowledge of brain action. 



For in Germany a method of testing the action of the brain 

 was invented by Fritsch and Hitzig in 1870. These men noticed 

 that when they applied an electric shock to the brain of an anaes- 

 thetized dog, the result was a movement of the limbs. To cause 

 this movement a certain part of the brain had to be irritated by 

 the electricity, other parts being irresponsive ; and it was even 

 possible to distinguish the part which moved the fore-leg from 

 that which moved the hind-leg, while, queerly enough, the irrita- 

 tion of one side of the brain always caused movements in the 

 other side of the body. This was an important discovery, for it 

 showed that one part of the brain governed motions while the 

 other parts had nothing to do with motion. 



The German investigators went a step further. They said, 

 " If this part of the brain really governs motion, then when it is 



