306' 
Mr . Bell on the 
Physiologists yielding to him, mistook the importance of the 
several parts of the nervous system ; and even the multiplied 
experiments of Le Gallois failed to convince them of the 
nature of the spinal marrow. 
The experiments of M. Le Gallois were of the rudest 
kind possible. The spinal marrow was cut across, or de- 
stroyed, by passing skewers into the spinal canal, and the 
effects were observed ; as if the spinal marrow were a 
simple body. Whereas, by such destruction of its substance, 
the original ganglia, which form a series along the spine, 
must have been hurt ; the track of nervous matter which 
gives rise to the nerves of sensation : that also which gives 
roots to the nerves of voluntary motion : and the lateral 
column connected with the offices of respiration, must all 
have been destroyed by such coarse experiments. It cannot 
surprise us that the results were obscure and contradictory. 
But the most extravagant departure from all the legiti- 
mate modes of reasoning, although still under the colour of 
anatomical investigation, is the system of Dr. Gall. It is 
sufficient to say, that without comprehending the grand di- 
visions of the nervous system, without a notion of the distinct 
properties of the individual nerves, or having made any dis- 
tinction of the columns of the spinal marrow, without even 
having ascertained the difference of cerebrum and cerebellum, 
Gall proceeded to describe the brain as composed of many 
particular and independent organs, and to assign to each the 
residence of some special faculty. 
When the popularity of these doctrines is considered, it 
may easily be conceived how difficult it has been, during their 
successive importations, to keep my Pupils to the examples 
