2 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
was completely successful in showing that the phrenologists were 
wrong in the functions they assigned to the cerebellum, and 
the mental faculties assigned to organs of the brain lying behind 
the eyebrows ; and yet it may be questioned if he had not already 
given up the cause of pure Metaphysics as a lost battle, by 
bringing it to the practical test of observing the facts of action in 
connection with the functions of the brain. He may be said to 
have been the last of the scholastic metaphysicians of pure 
consciousness of any note. 
Since that time the Physiologists and Pathologists have been 
winning points all along the line, and raising questions as to 
the unity or solidarity of the consciousness, and its separableness 
from matter, which the old metaphysical method has been found 
inefficient to answer. 
This new departure in the science has proved of immense use 
in improved treatment of mental disease. In the last century 
the treatment of the insane seems to have been shameful : according 
to a work on The History of the Insane in the British Isles, 
by Dr. Hack Tuke, chains, flogging, and exposure to the climate 
without clothes were by no means the worst of the common 
treatment. That this treatment arose entirely from the scientific 
opinion of the unity of the mind I should be loth to maintain. 
It is as difficult to imagine that it arose from pure inhumanity; 
and it was, to a certain extent, the logical outcome of a belief in 
the unity of the mind ; for if the mind were an elementary 
substance, essentially distinct from matter, the delusions of 
insanity could only be understood as obstinacy, wilful error, 
wickedness, possession by the devil, &c. Such an explanation 
raised combative feelings in the caretaker, and resulted in harsh 
and punitive treatment. Whatever the connection may be, it is 
certain that on parallel lines, with advance in knowledge of the 
connection between the nervous system and the mind, there has 
been an ameliorative and more humane treatment of the insane. 
As was well said by an ancient eastern philosopher — Confucius, 
I think — " Let knowledge be increased. When knowledge is 
increased, the way is made easy. When the way is made easy, 
the heart is enlarged. When the heart is enlarged, the country is 
at peace." 
It is not to be supposed that Phrenology is to bear all the 
honour of this change of front. The general advance of the 
