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of tlie localization of speech in the anterior lobes ; but I have 
still further evidence to adduce. M. Peter has recorded the case 
of a man who fractured his skull by a fall from a horse. After 
recovery from the initial stupor there succeeded a remarkable 
loquacity, although after death it was found that the two frontal 
lobes of the brain were reduced to a pulp ( reduits en bouillie). 
Again, Professor Trousseau relates that in the year 1825, two 
officers quartered at Tours quarrelled, and satisfied their honour 
by a duel, as a result of which, one of them received a ball 
which entered at one temple and made its exit at the other. 
The patient survived six months without any sign of lesion of 
articulation, nor was there the least hesitation in the expres- 
sion of his thoughts till the supervention of inflammation of 
the central substance, which occurred shortly before his 
death, when it was ascertained that the ball had traversed the 
two anterior lobes at their centre. 
Here are three cases in which the two anterior lobes, the 
presumed seat of speech, according to Bouillaud, were both de- 
stroyed or very extensively injured. What does a conscientious 
analysis of them teach us ? In M. Peter's case we have seen 
that speech was preserved, although both frontal lobes were 
reduced to a jelly; in Professor Trousseau's case, a ball had 
traversed the two anterior lobes at their centre, entering at one 
temple, and making its exit at the other, and speech was also 
unaffected ; whilst in the third case, that of M. Yelpeau, although 
a tumour had actually taken the place of the two anterior 
lobes, instead of being speechless, the man was remarkably 
loquacious. 
These three cases, to which I could add others, seem to me 
to upset M. Bouillaud's theory, by showing that a profound 
lesion may exist in both anterior lobes without impairment of 
articulate language. 
The next theory for brief consideration is that of M. Dax, 
who placed the seat of speech in the left hemisphere, to the ex- 
clusion of the right. The brain, as a whole, has hitherto been 
considered as a symmetrical organ, even by those who regarded 
it as an assemblage of lesser organs arranged in pairs with cor- 
responding functions. M. Dax, however, assigns a function to 
the left hemisphere, which, according to him, is not shared by 
the right. Without entering into any details, I will just mention 
three cases, which prove the untenability of M. Dax's views, 
these cases being recorded by French physicians of great 
eminence. It will be observed that I have drawn most largely 
upon French literature, for our Gallic neighbours have been 
most indefatigable workers in the field of observation with 
