Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim.

  • Spurzheim, Johann Gaspard, 1776-1832.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tions of all ages and nations, they may, with the same propriety, believe in the stories of giants, of people with- out teeth, or without neck, in the existence of nations who have lost their tails, and others who still preserve this honourable mark of affinity with the brutes. And we may apply to them their own words : “ If they suc- ceed in convincing a single individual of common parts and observation that this assertion is truth, they will find little difficulty, we apprehend, in persuading mankind in general, that they hear by their eyes, and see by their ears.” NO. 49. p. 247. We think nature is constant in its laws, and never makes an exception. If the spinal cord is necessary to voluntary motion, this latter will never occur without the spinal cord. The time will ex- plode, I trust, such marvellous notions, according to which the manifestations of the mind can appear without brain, and voluntary motion without spinal cord, and able philosophers will explain the large hydrocephalic heads according to sound principles of anatomy and phy- siology. Thus we maintain, that there is not one fact well ascer- tained, that the mind has shown its powers, while the brain, or rather both brains, were annihilated. As to the second part of our proposition, viz. that each species of manifestation of the mind depends on an appropriate part of the brain, I will not quibble long about indirect observations and inductions, but proceed immediately to direct facts and experiments. SECTION II. We endeavour to ascertain the nature of the functions of the cerebral parts, by the influence which the size of