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to him belongs exclusively the merit of applying a knowledge 
of these phenomena to pathology.” * 
Even had Prochaska never lived, and as far as Hall is con- 
cerned we are bound to consider him as non-existent, the sole 
claim which can be made to a discovery is founded on the 
true spinal system, with its separate sets of nerves. That is 
Marshall HalTs own; and that is an error. All the rest 
belongs to others. That it does belong to others is seen in 
the fact that the Reflex Theory, divested of this hypothesis, 
was simultaneously promulgated, as a novelty, by Johannes 
Muller, who, on a comparison of dates, at once awarded to Hall 
the priority of publication. But Midler had no new facts to 
adduce ; he simply generalized the known facts, respecting the 
action of the spinal chord; and connecting them with the 
assumption of the brain being the sole seat of sensation, 
he declared the independence of the spinal chord, and the 
absence of sensation in its special acts. 
But while history thus irrefragably shows that Marshall 
Hall made no discovery at all, even if Prochaska’ s claims 
be set aside, and that it is therefore preposterous to compare 
him with Harvey, who revolutionized physiology, and demon- 
strated that which no one before him had suspected, — whereas 
Hall demonstrated nothing but what was already well known, — 
still I think that science was greatly benefited by the zeal, the 
energy, and the ability with which Marshall Hall worked out the 
Reflex Theory, and applied it to the explanation of many 
physiological and pathological facts. It is only necessary to 
compare the state of our knowledge now, with its condition 
when he first published, to see what an immense advance 
has been made, much of which is certainly due to the discussion 
of points raised by him. Even the hypothesis of a separate 
spinal system, erroneous as it was, proved of great service, like 
many other erroneous hypotheses : it gave a definite direction 
to research. And if his successors have bit by bit destroyed 
all that was peculiar in his statement of the Reflex Theory, 
extending and^modifying the theory to suit the advance of know- 
ledge, and leaving it much more like the theory advanced by 
Prochaska ; we must nevertheless remember that it is owing 
to Hall’s striking hypothesis, and more systematic arrangement 
of known facts, that successors, in a great measure, have been 
enabled to improve upon his theory. 
To sum up, we may say, that if Marshall Hall was not a 
great man, he Vas a distinguished man, and has “ deserved well 
of his country.” 
* Sharpey, as quoted in Hall’s Memoirs, p. 109. And compare, also, 
what Marshall Hall himself admitted in his first paper, presented to the 
Royal Society, p. 659, and in his New Memoir, p. 87- 
