753 



ment of which the conical papillaB are devoid. This movement ap- 

 pears to be for the purpose of promoting absorption and of removing 

 any foreign particles from their surface. 



He regards the conical papillae as strictly destined for tactile 

 purposes, on account of the thickness of their epithelium, and the 

 presence of the nervous ramifications at their base, which are simi- 

 lar to those existing at the under surface of the tongue, where the 

 sensation of taste does not exist and the tactile powers alone are 

 present. 



The author has extended his observations to other animals, to the 

 mammiferse, and to Man in particular, and states that in all these 

 the same difference exists between the two species of papillae. He 

 promises in his next paper on this subject to describe the structure 

 of the mammiferae. 



This paper is illustrated by several drawings. 



May 4, 1848. 



The MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 



" The Brain the sole centre of the Human Nervous System." 

 By Edwin Lee, Esq. Communicated by Samuel Solly, Esq., F.R.S. 



It has been inferred by many physiologists, from experiments 

 made on the lower animals, that portions of the human nervous 

 system are isolated and independent of each other ; but from the 

 circumstance that in these animals the brain is only a small ap- 

 pendage to the rest of the nervous system, while in the human spe- 

 cies it is the principal portion, the author takes an opposite view of 

 the subject. In man, the grey matter, which is the source of the 

 power of the brain, is largely agglomerated in that organ, but is 

 only diffused in comparatively minute proportions throughout the 

 other parts of the nervous apparatus, which, when detached from 

 the central organ, speedily lose the power of exciting muscular con- 

 traction, because this power is derived exclusively from the brain, 

 and only such a portion is retained in the grey matter of the spinal 

 cord and the ganglia of the sympathetic as is requisite for the im- 

 mediate actions of the parts which they supply with nerves. 



The opinions of Galen, of Willis, and of the more recent phy- 

 siologists, Louget, Muller, Duges, Carus, Pinel, Foville, Flourens, 

 Cruveillier, are cited at some length in corroboration of the views 

 of the author, and in opposition to those of Bichat, and others 

 of the older physiologists, together with those of Sir C. Bell, Mr* 

 Grainger, Dr. M. Hall, Kolliker, Stilling, and others, and tending 

 also to disprove the excito-motory theory of Dr. M. Hall, as regards 

 its applicability to medical practice. Quotations to the same effect 

 are given from Valentin, Volkmann, Fauvel, Mery, Cabanis, and 

 Legallois ; and reference is likewise made to pathological illustra- 



