OF THE CEREBRAL FACULTIES.

123

parts of the encephalon.* Out of this last theory has arisen the principle of the localisation of the cerebral faculties, which was, in the early part of the 19th century, announced in a definite form by Gall, who divided the brain into organs endowed with primordial faculties, distinct the one from the other. The germ of this idea of the polysection of the encephalon is to be found in the writings of physiologists long before the time of Gall; indeed, one author, Charles Bonnet, assigned a special function to each fibre, stating that every faculty, sensitive, moral, or intellectual, was in the brain connected to a bundle of

* All are agreed, says Dr. Ferrier, that it is with the brain that we feel, and think, and will; but, whether there are certain parts devoted to particular manifestations, is a subject on which we have only imperfect speculations, or data too insufficient for the formation of a scientific opinion.'

124 ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BRAIN OF

fibres; that every faculty had its own laws which subordinated it to other faculties, and determined its mode of action; and that not only had every faculty its fasciculus of fibres, but that every word had its own fibre !* This writer is not very logical in his conclusions, for he maintains that each brain has, from the birth of the individual, characters which distinguish it from every other brain; and after stating that 'it is as impossible for a passionate man to be otherwise than passionate, as it is for the three angles of a triangle to be otherwise than equal to two right angles,' he utterly destroys the force of his reasoning by the following passage:-'Whence comes

*A Spanish physiologist, Juan Huarte, writing in the sixteenth century, proposed that a jury of scientific men should determine what course of study, and what career should be assigned to each child.

THE PHILOSOPHER AND THAT OF THE PEASANT. 125

the enormous distance which separates the immortal Newton from the rustic peasant ? Has nature not moulded their brains out of the same material? Has she, perchance, placed in one of these brains certain parts which are not to be found in the other? Or, has she arranged these parts in a different manner in each brain? No, the brain of the peasant has essentially the same organs, the same structure, and the same texture as the brain of the philosopher. Education alone has effected this prodigy.'*

Gall, however, was the first to attempt to connect the seat of language with any definite portion of the cerebro-spinal centre, by asserting that there was a special organ for language, which, according to him, was placed in those convolutious of the

Essai de Psychologie, P. 159. (1754.)

126 THE PHRENOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF GALL.

anterior lobes of the brain, which rest upon the posterior part of the supra-orbital plates, or, in other words, upon the roof of the orbit. These convolutions are marked O, O, in Figure IX, which is a representation of the convex surface of the left hemisphere, the engraving being taken from a cast kindly sent to me by my friend Professor Broca, of Paris.

The circumstance which directed Gall's attention to the possibility of connecting the brain with certain faculties of our mental nature is so well known that I scarcely need to allude to it. In his early days, he often found himself surpassed by certain of his fellow-students who he felt were intellectually inferior to himself, but in whom a remarkable memory coincided with a striking prominence of the ocular globes. This external prominence

FIG.IX.-CONVEX SURFACE OF THE LEFT HEMISPHERE,

SHOWING THE DISPOSITION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE
CEREBRAL CONVOLUTIONS.

RR, Fissure of Rolando.

SS, Fissure of Sylvius.

1, 2, First and second frontal convolutions.

3, Third frontal convolution, in the posterior part of which M. Broca

places the seat of Speech.

FF, Transverse frontal convolution.

PP, Transverse parietal convolution.

00, Orbital convolutions, the seat of language according to Gall.

T1, T2, First and second temporo-sphenoidal convolutions.

I, Island of Reil (the superior and inferior marginal convolutions are represented as being drawn asunder so as to expose it).