302 
G. ARCHIE STOCK WELL. 
cess, in each and every instance securing to the part a maximum 
of strength, with a minimum expenditure of material; then, as if 
this were not enough, the whole is usually supplied with a mov¬ 
able glacis , so to speak—the scalp—that is well calculated to di¬ 
vert approach and convert the direct to an indirect assault. 
Herein lies the comparative infrequency of traumatic injuries of 
the head as with other and less exposed portions of the creature 
economy. 
Because it is the seat of voluntary impulse and the prompter 
of the various functions that collectively maintain the mysterious 
phenomena of Life, until within a half decade the brain has re¬ 
ceived but trifling, or at least superficial, attention at the bands 
of the surgical pathologist. It is only yesterday, as it were, that 
the theory of non-interference in traumatic lesions of the head 
was carefully inculcated and persistently insisted upon, and even 
to-day nine-tenths of the medical profession are blinded by this 
ancient fetich. It was, and yet is, believed that the nervous sys¬ 
tem is a structure so frail, complex and uncertain as to be beyond 
the delicacy of the human band and mind, and consequently not 
to be meddled with even in attempt to restore and further its 
functions. 
Even the pagans of Greece and Rome were superior to us in 
this respect, for Celsus describes the symptoms of abscess and 
blood clot within the dura, and an operation for relief; and in 
Egypt have been found mummies exhibiting marks of a trephine 
that manifestly had been applied for other purposes than 
fracture. 
With the decline of the ancient colleges, art and science fell 
into decay, and it was the early Fathers of the Church who, dis¬ 
torting the Esoteric doctrine of the Mysteries that yet lingered as 
mere superstitions, located a spiritual and Divine essence within 
the brain, and promulgated the dogma that to meddle with this 
“ seat of soul ” was an “ insult to Deity.” 
The difficulty of ridding the human race of the superstitions 
of centuries is well exemplified by the indifference with which re¬ 
covery after severe injury with loss of brain substance has been 
regarded ; instead of being deemed natural results of reparative 
