on the Functions of the Brain, 485 
In a case of a penetrating wound into the right hemisphere 
of the brain with bone forced into its substance, while there 
was an opening for the discharge of matter, no effects were 
produced, except when the circulation was much increased, and 
then only head-ache and numbness in the left side.* 
SECTION IX. 
Effects of alteration of structure in the Brain. 
In a case in which the tuberculum annulare had undergone 
a change in its texture, and become so hard as with difficulty 
to be cut with a knife, a considerable quantity of earthy par- 
ticles being intermixed with the medullary substance of the 
crura, and other parts of the cerebellum, and the cerebrum 
and upper part of the cerebellum unusually soft ; the effects 
were, the boy had been an idiot from his birth, never walked, 
spoke, or understood what was said. Went often three days 
without food. At sixteen, when he died, was no bigger than 
a child three years old, except the head, which was as large 
as it is usually at twelve.-f 
SECTION. X. 
Effects oj injury to the Medulla Spinalis. 
Pressure upon the medulla spinalis in the neck by coagulated 
blood produced paralytic affections of the arms and legs, all 
* A musket-ball fractured and depressed a portion of the superior and posterior 
part of the parietal bone, but did not penetrate ; an abscess formed in the substance 
of the brain in which the broken portions of bone were lodged. In this state the 
person was capable of doing his duty as a naval officer from China to England, but 
died in consequence of an attempt to extract the depressed bone. 
f The cranium was not completely ossified, the fontanelle being still of a large 
*ize. This case was examined by Mr. Brodie. 
sR 
MDCCCXIV. 
