KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



85 



hatch in the body of the living caterpillar; and 

 what is most remarkable, they do not destroy its 

 life. It is not until the larvaj have quitted their 

 abode in the caterpillar that it dies.'' The same 

 writer states, " In most cases these eggs are not 

 hatched until the caterpillar has changed into a 

 chrysalis; they then hatch, and the Ichneumon 

 larvae feed upon the contents of the pupa case, 

 enclose themselves in silken cocoons, and undergo 

 their final transformation, to come forth in 

 proper season, eating their way through the 

 chrysalis case." 



I shall be glad if this interesting subject 

 receives further attention, and, above all, positive 

 testimony from personal observation. — It. M. 



PHRENOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. 

 No. XIX -PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN. 



BY F. J. GALL, M.D. 



{Continued from page 72.) 



It is certainly not necessary, nor allowa- 

 ble, to admit as many particular fundamental 

 dispositions, as we can remark acts or modifica- 

 tions in the human mind. Yet, it may be main- 

 tained, that the example taken from the eyes and 

 ears, is singularly inconclusive. Bonnet believes, 

 and it seems very probable, that each nervous 

 fibre has its proper function; that is, that each 

 fibre of a nervous organ modifies the action of 

 this organ. Why, otherwise, should nature have 

 created it? The modifications of the functions 

 of the senses explain themselves, in this view, 

 in a sufficient manner; and we can conceive, 

 why certain persons are incapable of perceiving 

 certain colors, or certain sounds, while they 

 perceive others very distinctly; why such a man 

 finds very agreeable, what shocks the taste of 

 another; why the same senses in different species 

 of animals, and even in different individuals, are 

 susceptible of flavors, odors, &c, of a nature 

 altogether different, and so on. A more ex- 

 tended development of the same conjecture, 

 might dispose the reader to consider each ner- 

 vous fibril, whether in the nerves, or in the 

 brain, as a little peculiar organ, destined to a 

 small part of the total function. 



But the question is not respecting the modi- 

 fications of the functions ; it relates to functions 

 and dispositions essentially different. All the 

 modifications of vision are owing to the general 

 organ of sight; in the same manner as all the 

 modifications of digestion, and of the seminal 

 secretion belong to their organs: but who will 

 dare to Fay that sight, hearing, taste, smell, 

 touch, the seminal secretion, and digestion, are 

 simple modifications of the same function? 

 Who will venture to make them depend on one 

 single source, one single organ? In the same 

 manner the mechanical aptitudes, instincts, pro- 

 pensities and talents, which I recognise as fun- 

 damental or primitive forces, manifest them- 

 selves under thousands of modifications; but 

 everything is opposed to our regarding the 

 nstinct of propagation, that of the love of pro- 

 geny, the carnivorous instinct, the talent for 



music, poetry, calculation, the feeling of justice 

 and injustice, &c., as simple modifications of a 

 single faculty. 



Thus, as it is necessary to admit five dif- 

 ferent external senses, since their functions are 

 not simply modified or transformed sensations, 

 but functions essentially different and belonging 

 to distinct organic apparatuses, so is it finally 

 necessary to recognise the various industrial 

 aptitudes, instincts, propensities, talents, not as 

 modifications of desire, preference, liberty, atten- 

 tion, comparison, and reasoning, but as forces 

 essentially different, belonging, as well as the 

 five senses, to organic apparatuses, peculiar and 

 independent of each other. 



The innateness of the fundamental forces, 

 moral and intellectual, is the basis of the physio- 

 logy of the brain: for, if in place of being able to 

 demonstrate that they are innate, we could prove 

 that they are only the accidental product of ex- 

 ternal things, and external senses, it would be 

 useless to seek their origin and seat in the 

 brain. 



To give an extended demonstration of this 

 first principle. I shall first throw a rapid glance 

 upon inanimate nature. I shad then continue 

 to compare man with animals, when any points 

 of analogy appear between them. 



It is to Philo-Judteus that we owe the doctrine, 

 that nothing can subsist without certain proper- 

 ties. It is only the metaphysical theologians 

 that have embraced the error, that all activity 

 and all action is owing to a spiritual being, and 

 that inertia is the essence of matter. The weight 

 of earths and metals, their attractive and repul- 

 sive forces, the laws of their forms, their affinities, 

 their antipathies for other substances, &c, are 

 properties which result from the mixture, form, 

 and proportion of the integral particles of these 

 bodies, and which are so intimately identified 

 with them, that the extinction of these proper- 

 ties, necessarily involves the dissolution of the 

 bodies: take away the properties of any sub- 

 stance whatever, and the idea of its existence 

 disappears. 



It is the same with the nidus for mativ us, or the 

 plastic soul, which the ancients admitted in the 

 vegetable kingdom. The laws, by which the 

 fructification of plants is produced, according to 

 which their germ is formed, developed, and 

 finally acquires its whole increase, their specific 

 irritability, peculiar relations to each other, and 

 to other beings, are properties essentially inhe- 

 rent in their nature. 



If we thence pass to animals, and reflect on 

 the instincts, on the mechanical aptitudes, which 

 they manifest, from the moment they see the 

 light, it is evident that these instincts, these 

 mechanical aptitudes, are innate. The spider, 

 when hardly hatched, weaves his web; the 

 youngest ant-lion digs his conical hole in the 

 sand ; the bee, before going for the first time into 

 the fields, raises himself into the air, and turns 

 to reconnoitre the position of his abode; the 

 young quail and the young partridge, from the 

 moment they quit the egg, run with admirable 

 address in pursuit of insects and seed ; the duck- 

 ling, and the tortoise, still dragging the remains 

 of the egg from which they have just emerged, 

 make their way to the nearest water ; the new- 



