PHFSICS OF THE BRAIN. 
417 
After Gall. Majendie and others, their Parts. 
Meanwhile, to a large extent, the old anatomy of the brain 
has remained but little changed ; still exist the absurd names, 
meaningless, bewildering, and so adhered to, that within the 
last five years two of the greatest lights in comparative anatomy 
of this age have been holding desperate contest on one poor 
nodule, the physiological value of which is altogether unknown, 
and indeed little cared for, in respect of its function, throughout 
the controversy. At the same time, it is right to explain that 
the progress of rational physical discovery, into the nature and 
function of the brain, has been advancing with some determinate 
casting-off of the fnystical and hypothetical. The classification 
of the brain into ganglia or centres of power, and into com- 
missures or connecting bands, and the tracing of nerves into 
the brain-structure, a study which the late Mr. Grainger so 
admirably and industriously promoted, have all been aids of no 
mean value to the direct and positive appreciation of function. 
In the way of minute anatomy, also, a wonderful field of truth 
has been laid open, especially by the labours of Swan and 
Lockhart Clarke: while the chemists have been indefatigable in 
determining the chemical constituents of the organ and their 
relation to each other. Finally, the pathologists, in a quiet and 
unassuming research, have added a long array of new facts on this 
vast subject. Observing the phenomena of disease in instances 
where the functions of the brain have been disturbed, they have 
sought, after the death of the subject in whom the symptoms were 
presented, to find the precise seat of the disease, and so to trace 
the living phenomena to their true cause. In this direction our 
accurate and philosophical countryman, Dr. Wilks, of Guy’s 
Hospital, has taken a part which is beyond all commendation. 
I must linger no longer on these matters, but must proceed to 
note some purely physiological facts, for the illustration of 
which this paper is specially intended. To Dr. Philip, Majendie 
and Fluorens we owe the first real steps in advance for exploring, 
by physical experiment and analysis, the functions of the brain. 
It was unfortunate for these observers that their work was laid 
out before they had the necessary means for conducting it with 
satisfactory exactitude. Their experiments, often singularly 
accurate, were, from the mode of their performance, open 
to criticism. Knowing nothing of any methods for modify- 
ing brain-function short of actual removal of portions of the 
brain of the inferior animals, they proceeded by what is called 
ablation, or cutting away, of the living structure. Hhe result 
was that they took what they could not restore, and, as a conse- 
quence, left it often doubtful whether the symptoms they 
