

588 THE LINGERING ADMIRERS OF PHRENOLOGY. 
merely pointing out that the system is certainly a blunder; 
and their hearers have gone away impressed with the con- 
viction that it is impossible for the uninitiated to argue with 
experts, yet saying in their hearts that they are sure there 
is a mistake somewhere, and unwilling to part with all their 
beautiful theories and get nothing in exchange. Iconoclasm 
is not popular: when an image is thrown down it is well 
that its destruction should make way for a flood of light suf- 
ficient to satisfy the eye in its stead. "This is an achievement 
not easy to accomplish, but actuated with the laudable 
motive of attempting it, the writer will try, not only to 
reiterate the reasons why phrenology cannot possibly be true, 
but to give some idea of what is positively known regarding 
the brain and its functions, and to point out in what direc- 
tion speculation may be still legitimately indulged. 
Let us begin at the beginning and try and form some gen- 
eral notion of what the brain is as it is known to the anato- 
mist, before we dogmatize about the functions of the parts 
which happen to come in contact with the upper and lateral 
walls of the skull. 
If a chick be examined in a hen's egg which has been 
allowed to hatch for twelve hours, or if the embryo of any 
vertebrate animal be examined at a similarly early period; it 
will be seen to exhibit a long open furrow, the walls of which 
are the first portions of the animal to be formed. The most 
superficial layer of substance entering into the construction 
of this furrow may be described as a long ribbon, consisting | 
of two symmetrieal parts separated by a longitudinal groove : 
this is the embryo brain and spinal chord, constituting one 
continuous structure, the cerebrospinal axis. The parts 
which support the ribbon form in like manner the cranium 
and the spinal canal, primarily undistinguishable one from 
the other. The edges of the furrow rise up and become 
m united, so that the open furrow is converted into à closed 
=~ Cylinder; and similarly the ribbon within it has its lateral 
edges brought together, so that the brain and spinal cor 



