60 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



dead body.) On dividing the root of the nerve in 

 a living animal, the jaw fell relaxed. Thus its 

 functions are no longer matter of doubt : it is at 

 once a muscular nerve and a nerve of sensibility. 

 And thus the opinion is confirmed, that the fifth 

 nerve is to the head what the spinal nerves are to 

 the other parts of the body, in respect to sensation 

 and volition." 



The value of the experimental method could 

 hardly be stated in more emphatic words. He 

 supposed something, conceived it, had an opinion 

 about it. Anatomy had suggested something to 

 him. He put his opinion to the test of phenomena, 

 that is to say, to the test of visible facts ; and then 

 his opinion was confirmed. As with the spinal 

 nerve-roots, so with the fifth cranial nerve — his 

 work was successful, because he followed the way 

 of experiment. 



He was by nature of a most complex and 

 sensitive temperament, full of contrary forces — one 

 man in 1811, another in 1830. In 181 1 he wrote, 

 / now saiu the meaning of the double connection of 

 the nerves ; in 1830 he had come to hate the stupid 

 sterile materialism of the French school : he beheld 

 anatomy falling behind physiology, and his Wind- 

 mill Street school perishing to make way for the 

 Hospital schools and for the University of London. 

 He was before everything else a great anatomist : 

 he stood up for the honour of anatomy against the 

 new physiology, and for the honour of the Monroes 

 and the Hunters against Magendie : he hated the 

 notion that any man should proceed to experiments 



