Notes on the Physiological Pathology of the Brain

172 Art. II.?. :Author: J. G. DAVEY, M.D., Bristol.

Tjie title of this paper may lead many to anticipate the object I have in view in its composition. It is in great part to call the attention of my medical brethren to the respective labours of Drs. Hughlings-Jackson, Ferrier, and Brown-Sequard. Many are aware that the gentlemen named enjoy the credit of having added not a little to our knowledge of cerebral physiology and pathology; it is, however, a source of regret that teachers of medical science of such recognised ability and of so high a re- putation should be found the advocates of opinions so very antagonistic or contradictory as are those of the two first named, when contrasted with Dr Brown-Sequard’s published views on the same subject. The ” localisers,” as Drs. Hughlings-Jacksoil and Ferrier are named, would seem to this present time to enjoy the larger amount of support or credit; whilst Dr Brown- Sequard’s ” inhibitory” theory is comparatively considered nowhere. I hope to prove by the following remarks that it is more than probable, the largest amount of physiological and pathological truth is to be found away from or outside the teachings of each, or of all, the three gentlemen here named. Dr Hughlings-Jackson, it is well known, has made his mark in the profession by an attempt to localise the abnormalities of the brain; to assign to the morbid changes of its several parts certain and specific signs and symptoms. His theory of ” discharging lesions ” as well as of temporary and permanent organic changes occurring to the cerebral mass and its several parts?with their individual outward signs or symptoms,as seen in epilepsy, tetanus, chorea, &c.?his theory (I say) is well known, and accepted, in great part, by the profession. Let me add that the pathological investigations of Dr Hughlings-Jackson and the experiments of the Ferrier school have this one feature in common?viz. both or all such (investigations and experiments) are designed and prosecuted with the view to demonstrate the sure and certain localisation of both the motor functions of the brain?as well as of those several morbid changes occurring to this same organ, the presence of each one of which is said, as has just been stated, to be indicated in an especial manner by well-marked signs or symptoms. Many recent writers have expressed themselves in the strongest terms in favour of Dr Hughlings-Jackson’s patho- logical doctrines; and many more have conceived a marvellous affection for the vivisections of Dr Ferrier and their results ; and these results the press, both general and medical, has declared to be ” the greatest scientific discoveries of the present age,” and to have surpassed in importance ” all preceding knowledge.” Dr Carpenter, the long-continued opponent of Gall and Spurzheim’s “localisation” teachings, is now constrained to accept, with even much laudation, the ” data” of Broca, Hughlings-Jackson,and Ferrier, in so far as aphasia is concerned. The ” admirable experiments ” of the last-named he (Carpenter) affirms have afforded some reason to believe in the ” localisation” so long and persistently denied by him, and that the time is now come to “modify” or “abandon “his former and long-cherished antagonism to Grail, Spurzheim, and the Combes. As before intimated, Dr Brown-Sequard has put himself in a position of direct hostility to the teachings of both Dr Hughlings-Jackson and Dr Ferrier, and this being the case it is surely expedient, if not essential in every way, to ponder closely and well the relative claims of the gentlemen named on that profession of which they are, in any case, eminent and much-honoured members. Now Dr Hughlings-Jackson affirms: (1) That the researches of Ferrier demonstrate the truth of what he has long urged on bis medical brethren, that “discharges of convolutions” develop movements as in epilepsy. (2) That the proximate cause of epilepsy, as of the movements seen in chorea, is located in the gray matter of the convolutions. That the epileptic convulsions and the choreic twitches are ” one of degree rather than of kind ” ? ? . . ” having the same centric causation.” (3) That hemi- plegia, ” hemi-chorea,” ” hemi-spasm,” and ” hemi-contracture” (a mixture of palsy and spasm) are each one and all located in the corpus striatum. (4) That disease located in the right hemi- sphere is indicated by symptoms affecting the left side of the body and vice versa.

The following are among the conclusions of Dr Ferrier, as given by him in Vol. iii. of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports (1873).

1. The anterior portions of the cerebral hemispheres are the chief centres of voluntary motion and the active outward manifestation of intelligence.

2. The individual convolutions are separate and distinct centres; and in certain definite groups of convolutions and in corresponding regions of non-convoluted brains, are localised the centres for the various movements of the eyelids, the face, the mouth (and tongue), the ear, the neck, the hand, foot, and tail. 3. The action of the hemisphere is in general crossed ; but certain movements of the mouth, tongue, and neck, are bilate- rally co-ordinated from each cerebral hemisphere. 4. The proximate causes of the different epilepsies are, as Dr Hughlings-Jackson supposes, discharging lesions of the different centres in the cerebral hemispheres. It is added: ” The affection may be limited artificially to one muscle, or group of muscles, or may be made to involve all the muscles represented in the cerebral hemispheres, with foaming at the mouth, biting of the tongue, and loss of consciousness. When induced artificially in animals, the affection as a rule first invades the muscles most in voluntary use, in striking harmony with the clinical observations of Dr Hughlings-Jackson.” 5. Chorea is of the same nature as epilepsy, dependent “on momentary (and successive) discharging lesions of the individual cerebral centres. In this respect Dr Hughlings-Jackson’s views are again experimentally confirmed.” 6. The corpora striata have crossed action and are centres for the muscles of the opposite side of the body. Powerful irritation of one causes rigid pleurosthotonus, the flexors pre- dominating over the extensors. 7. The optic thalamus, fornix hippocampus major, and convolutions grouped around it, have no motor signification (and are probably connected with sensation). ” These results,” lie adds, ” explain many hitherto obscure symptoms of cerebral disease and enable us to localise with greater certainty many forms of cerebral lesion.”

I will now look at the same picture from a new standpoint. Keferring to the ” localisers”?(this is Dr Brown-Sequard’s own word)?it is affirmed that their views are untrue and contradicted by facts. Dr Brown-Sequard denies: (1) The existence of parts on the surface of the brain deserving the name of motor centres. (2) The assertion of Todd and Carpenter, backed though it is by both Hughlings-Jackson and Ferrier, that the corpus striatum is, in any sense, a motor centre ; and certainly not for both the arm and the leg.

In so far as the corpus striatum is concerned, Dr Brown- Sequard adds the following highly significant remarks?viz :?? ” Griven disease of the corpus striatum, you may or may not have paralysis of either the arm or the leg, or both. Given the complete destruction of the corpus striatum, then there may not necessarily be any paralysis of either a leg or an arm.” It is concluded by Dr Brown-Sequard that even in diseased states of the corpus striatum where the paralysis is found, then is it due to an ” irritation producing on distant parts an inhibitory influence.” Dr Semple, in an article contained in the Journal of Psychological Medicine, tells us, what, indeed, the preceding remarks seem to justify, “That Dr Brown- Sequard, who has perhaps done more than any living- in- vestigator to localise the functions of the brain, now publicly announces that his own previous results have proved fal- lacious, and that the brain acts as a whole and not by the separate agency of its individual parts… . That there is no necessary relation between the seat, the extent, the kind of cerebral lesion and the symptoms that may appear from its in- fluence.” Dr Brown-Sequard’s propositions are in short these: (1) That a lesion in one half of the brain may produce symptoms either on the opposite or on the corresponding side. (2) That a very small lesion, whatever be its seat, may produce most violent and extensive symptoms. (3) That a lesion occupying the same extent on the two sides of the middle line of the brain may produce symptoms only, or chiefly, on one side of the bod}7. (4) That symptoms may proceed slowly from a suddenly pro- duced lesion. (5) That symptoms may appear suddenly from a slowly and gradually developing lesion. (6) That the greatest variety of symptoms may proceed from a lesion in the same part of the brain. (7) That the lesions of the most various ‘parts of the brain may give rise to the same symptoms. (8) That permanent lesions may produce symptoms by attacks just as they produce epileptiform seizures. (9) That symptoms may cease suddenly or rapidly, notwithstanding the persistence of the lesion. (10) That symptoms of brain disease may appear from irritation of visceral and other peripheric nerves. (11) That considerable lesions anywhere in the brain may exist without the appearance of any symptoms.” Now, there is, as I believe, a way, and but a single way, by which we have it in our power to escape the dilemma into which Drs. Hughlings-Jack- son, Ferrier, and Brown-Sequard place us. There is no help for us but to accept, as we are bound to do sooner or later, the physiology of the brain as taught by Gall and Spurzheim. To this we must come or forfeit our claims to rank as physiologists. Physicians and surgeons of whatsoever rank, or of no kind of rank, may continue to call phrenology ” rot,” and to laugh at it ?may pretend to scorn those who have devoted the years of a fairly “long medical life to its investigation?but the truth will live, will have its due. Do we accept the doctrine of pro- gression, of evolution, and fail to attach to it the inevitable conclusions? Do these not demonstrate bona fide that the brain of man?so ample, so wonderfully contrived, so exquisitely protected, so well nourished as it is?must execute offices in the animal economy of the most important and indispensable kind ? Strange indeed it is that this marvellous structure (the brain), these cerebral hemispheres in man?the crowning points, as they are, in his organism?should at this day be so much dis- associated with their true and normal functions, so much denied their fair and very legitimate offices in the animal economy! The functions of the brain’s cortex are not yet estimated as they should be, and the consequence of the many false and mischievous views taught in connection with its physiology is simply this?its pathology is seriously at fault. We are taught by a host of the best men of the day that our knowledge of this complicate nervous system of ours has been reached by degrees inconceivably small. From the zoophyte to man we see a gradual increase of parts, a slow yet sure ampli- fication of nervous structure. Is not the embryo life of a given animal the index, tbe type, of all beneath that animal in the scale of living beings? Are we not assured that the perfect brain of man has in its mode of growth?its accretion and development?assumed in due order of sequence so many temporary states of being, each one of which is the representative of the permanent type of the lower forms of life, as seen even in fishes and reptiles, to say nothing of birds and mammals ? Is it not taught in our schools that nature starts from the most simple to reach the most complex, and exhausts, as it were,’ the structure of all other animals before she arrives at her chef cfoeuvre?man ? Now, in what consists this the grandest achieve- ment of nature’s laws??in what, but the development or creation in the genus homo of the anterior and superior cerebral lobes, the superadded instruments of altogether new functions?functions which, being altogether mental, i.e. of an intellectual and emotional nature, and not concerned else than sympathetically, so to put it, in the lower or merely animal movements?the automatic or excito-motory phenomena?can have but a very secondary relation to the morbid phenomena which belong to epilepsy, tetanus, chorea, and so on? From this point of view it is not possible to connect as cause and effect the diseased conditions found in the hemispherical ganglia (Solly) with the convulsive and nervous disorders named. The labours and discoveries of not only Gall, Spurzheim, and the Combes, but of Marshall Hall, Granger, Mayo, and many more, seemed threat- ened by something like an extinction; there appears a danger lest such labours and such discoveries may lose their fair and legitimate hold on physiologists. The long known and accepted plan and arrangement of the nervous system in man and in mammals, as well as its acknowledged varieties and functional endowments, are sought now to be shrouded by experiments of a character at once so startling and damaging, that one is driven to claim the privilege of questioning the views advocated so persistently by Drs. Hughlings-Jackson and Ferrier. In fact the mere presence of primary” motor centres “in and about the con- voluted surface of the brain would of necessity disarrange all our accepted ideas of the anatomy and physiology of the cerebro- spinal system, as such are handed down to us; and which ideas bear the impress of a form of truth not to be shaken by a series of vivisections on the lower animals?vivisections at once un- necessary and cruel. To insist on ” motor centres ” forming parts of the ” hemispherical ganglion” is to give a denial to the teachings of our most accomplished investigators: teachings which are to the effect that the conscience in man and many animals?or what is the same thing, though more practically rendered, the intellectual powers and the higher emotions or affections of our nature?are located in the brain proper?that is to say, in the anterior and superior cerebral lobes ; whilst the sentient or mere animal endowments are the outcome of the cerebellum medulla oblongata and the parts adjacent: and what is more, that these higher and lower planes of nervous matter are united from above downwards by the peduncles of the cerebrum, and from below upwards by the inferior peduncles of the cerebellum. No one can doubt the perfect adjustment of those several parts of the cerebro-spinal organism, and their several yet mutually dependent uses in the animal economy?in other words their functional entirety or completeness. The attempt to enrich the superior or convoluted brain surface, already so well provided with an especial force of its own, at the expense of the base of the encephalon and the medulla &c., to the integrity of which we owe the excito-motory phenomena, must and will come to grief. The position here insisted on is of the first importance; and such being the case I will venture to quote here the words of the late Dr J. Hughes Bennett, as found in the article ” Physiology ” in the Encyclojpatdia Britan- nica. He writes thus: “By cerebrum or brain proper ought to be understood that part of the encephalon constituting the cerebral lobes, situated above and outside the corpus callosum ; by the spinal cord, all those parts situated below this great commissure, consisting of the corpora striata, optic thalami, corpora quadrigemina cerebellum, pons varolii, medulla oblongata, and medulla spinalis.” In this way, he adds, ” we have a cranial and a vertebral portion of the spinal cord ? … In the cerebrum, or brain proper, the ganglionic or corpuscular structure is external to the fibrous or tu- bular. It presents on the surface numerous anfractuosities whereby a large quantity of matter is capable of being contained in a small space; this crumpled-up sheet of gray substance has been appropriately called the hemispherical ganglion (Sollv). In the cranial portion of the spinal cord, the gray matter exists in masses, constituting a chain of ganglia at the bases of the encephalon, more or less connected with each other, and with the white matter of the brain proper above, and the vertebral portion of the cord below. In this last part of the nervous system the gray matter is internal to the white, and assumes the form of the letter X, having two posterior and two anterior cornua ?an arrangement which allows the latter to be distributed in the form of nerve tubes to all parts of the frame. Further, the brain proper furnishes the conditions necessary for the manifesta- tion of the intellectual faculties properly so called, of the emotions and passions of volition, and is essential to sensation. That the evolution of the power especially connected with mind is dependent on the hemispherical ganglion, is rendered probable by the following facts: (1) In the animal kingdom generally, a correspondence is observed between the quantity of gray matter, depth of convolutions, and the sagacity of the animal. (2) At birth the gray matter of the cerebrum is very defective; so much so indeed that the convolutions are, as it were, in the first stage of their formation, being only marked out by superficial fissures almost confined to the surface of the brain. As the cineritious substance increases, the intelligence becomes deve- loped. (3) The results of experiments by Flourens, Rolando, Hitzig, and others, have shown that, on slicing away the brain, the animal becomes more dull and stupid in proportion to the quantity of cortical substance removed. (4) Clinical observation points out, that in those cases in which disease has been afterwards found to commence at the circumference of the brain and proceed towards the centre, the mental faculties are affected first; whereas in those diseases which commence at the central parts of the organ, and proceed towards the circum- ference, they are affected last. The white tubular matter of the brain proper serves, by means of the diverging fibres, to conduct the influences originating in the hemispherical ganglion to the nerves of the head and trunk,” including of course the extremities of both man and beast. ” The spinal cord, both in its cranial and vertebral portions, furnishes the conditions necessary for combined movements; and that the nervous power necessary for this purpose depends upon the gray matter, is rendered probable by the following facts: (1) Its universal connection with all motor nerves. (2) Its increased quantity in those portions of the spinal cord from whence issue large nervous trunks. (3) Its collection in masses at the origin of such nerves in the lower animals as furnish peculiar organs requiring a large portion of nervous power, as in the triglia volitans, the torpedo silurus, &c. The white matter of the cord acts as a conductor, in the same manner that it does in the brain proper, and there can be no doubt that the influence arising from impressions is carried, not only along the fibres, formerly- noticed, which connect the brain and two portions of the spinal cord together, but along those more recently discovered, which decussate or anastomose in the cord itself (Brown-Sequard), and are connected with the ganglionic cells of the gray matter.

We see then that, according to Bennett, the cortex of the brain proper must be held to be the starting point of not only those powers or faculties called intellectual, but also of those essentially moral in their operation, that is to say, of our affections or feelings or emotions and passions. But of these we learn nothing from Ferrier, so far as his teachings have yet reached us. The hard and thoroughly practical labours, the ever famous discoveries, of Gall, indicated as these are in the words of Bennett just quoted, cannot, must not, be so shelved, so ignored, as some among us woidd have them. However, Bennett was but one of the many who in a time gone by gave good and earnest support to the first principles or groundwork of the phrenological school. To come down to this present time, we find Dr Maudsley helping on the gOod cause of a sound psychology, and lending his aid to uproot or to get rid of the wild fancies and vain imaginings of the metaphysicians or immaterialists ; and whilst doing this much we find him also putting a drag, and a sound one too, on ” the teachings of Dr Ferrier himself.” But I will quote here Dr Maudsley’s own words, so pregnant as such are with the author’s especial force and eloquence:?

” It is most necessary to be on our guard against the danger of misapplying ideas derived from internal observation of the functions of mind-centres to the interpretation of the func- tions of lower nerve-centres, and so of misinterpreting them. Assuredly we have sad experience enough to warn us against involving the latter in the metaphysical haze which still hangs over the functions of the supreme centres.”

Again : ” Those modern inquirers who have pushed farthest their physical researches into mental functions and bodily organs have notoriously been at great pains to discriminate between the nervous centres which minister to sensation and those which minister to reflection, and have done much to elucidate the physi- cal and functional connections between them. They have never been guilty of calling all knowledge a knowledge only of sen- sations, for they recognise how vague, barren, and unmeaning are the terms of the old language of philosophical strife where an attempt is made to apply them with precision to the pheno- mena revealed by exact scientific observation. The sensorial centres with which the senses are in direct connection are quite distinct from, and subordinate to, the nervous centres of ideation and reflection?the supreme hemispherical ganglia. It is in these, which are far more developed in man than in any other animal, and more developed in the higher than in the lower races of men, that sensation is transformed into knowledge, and that reflective consciousness has its seat.”

The late Sir H. Holland?although, like Dr Maudsley, un- informed, or, it may be, prejudiced against a really practical psychology (phrenology)?confessed himself assured of the plural functions of the gray matter of the cerebral convolutions, whilst he failed to accept the evidence of Gall and his followers in regard to the location of the several primary qualities, intel- lectual and emotional, of the mind. The best among the metaphysicians?those very peculiar philosophers who will ignore matter and will give to airy nothing an habitation and a name withal?are without doubt growing into a knowledge of Gall’s discoveries, and making what use they can of the princi- ples and facts taught and proclaimed by him. That this is the case, I would refer, as an example, to the Study of Character, including An Estimate of Phrenology, by Professor Bain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, too, one of the most profound thinkers of the day, remarks: ” No physiologist who calmly considers the question in connection with the general truths of this science, can long resist the conviction that different parts of the cerebrum subserve different kinds of mental action. Local- isation of function is the law of all organisation whatever; separatenessof duty is universally accompanied with separateness of structure ; and it would be marvellous were an exception to exist in the cerebral hemispheres. Let it be granted that the cerebral hemispheres are the seat of the higher psychical activities ; let it be granted that among those higher psychical activities there are distinctions of kind, which, though not definite, are yet practically recognisable; and it cannot be denied, without going in direct opposition to established physiological principles, that these more or less distinct kinds of psychical activity must be carried on in more or less distinct parts of the cerebral hemispheres. To question this is not only to ignore the truths of physiology as a whole, but especially those of the physiology of the nervous system.” Mr. Spencer further adds : ” Either there is some arrangement, some or- ganisation, in the cerebrum or there is none. If there is no organisation, the cerebrum is a chaotic mass of fibres incapable of performing any orderly action. If there is some organisation it must consist in that same physiological division of labour in which all organisation consists ; and there is no division of labour, physiological or other, of which we have any example, or can form any conception, but what involves the concentration of special kinds of activity in special places.”

Let me ask, does Dr Ferrier, or those who think with him, hope or expect to prove that physiologists of the mould of Gilbert Blane and Marshall Hall wrote or taught in vain, and that their experiments were failures ? It has been demonstrated by many, and especially by those just named, that the inherent irritability of the muscular and nervous tissues (i.e. the contractile move- ments) or the excito-motory phenomena in man and animals ” are strictly connected with the integrity of the spinal cord,” and that all such ” irritability ” or such ” phenomena ” may exist separately from, and independently of, any cerebral or mental acts. This being the case it must be seen, and plainly seen, by all who desire the truth, that the effects of the vivi- sections practised by Dr Ferrier are due only to the certain diffusion of the electric current employed by him throughout the cerebral mass of the cat, dog, or monkey operated on, and the consequent excitation of the basic ganglia, i.e. the lower planes of gray matter; such ganglia being the bona fide “motor centres.” On these the stimulus employed is exhausted, and hence the movements of whatever kind.

The foregoing extracts from the writings of the late Dr. J. Hughes Bennett, Dr Maudsley, and Mr. Herbert Spencer, together with the references or allusions made to the teachings and opinions of the late Sir H. Holland, Blane, and Hall, may be said to supply a basis, firm and lasting?” a point of de- parture ” to or for those who would rise to the high level of a sound and enduring psychology, or in one word, ‘phrenology. Those medical men taking an interest in this ” localisation” question should read Dr Dodds’ Historical and Critical Ana- lysis in respect to the Localisation of the Functions of the Brain, to be found in successive numbers of the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. On the authority, then, of Dr Dodds, Dupuy, and even Hitzig, attach a high degree of importance to the very certain diffusion of the electric current employed, from the cortex to the base of the brain, and parts adjacent; and which ” plainly enough throws discredit on the idea of the position of 6 motor centres’ in the cortex itself, to the exclusion of the basic ganglia so termed.” Hitzig, we learn, is disposed to credit the blood-vessels rather than the white, the conducting tissue of the cerebrum, with this diffusion of the current; but whatever the source of such diffusion, the same must of necessity prejudice the results of the experiments performed. Dr Dodds writes : “There can be no doubt that diffusion of the currents forms a possible explanation of some of the phenomena of brain elec- trisation, and further that the danger of this must be directly as the tension of the electricity used.” By these words I understand him to mean that the danger or probability of such diffusion must be in proportion to the persistence and strength of the stimulation; and that such is really the case is shown by the investigations of Drs. Carville and Dnret, who affirm, according to Dr Dodds, ” that by progressively increasing the strength of the stimulation we may obtain very different results ; the electrodes remaining all the time at the same point.” Now it is pleaded or claimed by Dr Ferrier that in his latter experiments the objection taken to the diffusion of the electric stimulus applied to the motor centres (as he calls such) of the cerebrum is duly and completely, as I understand him, silenced and got rid of by ” the use of the induced, in preference to the continuous current for the purpose of excitation.” But I fail to recognise this position ; given the employment of the ” stimulation,” the mere form of it can signify but little. It may be there are those among us who, sufficiently enamoured with these new views of the physiology and pathology of the brain in man and the higher vertebrates, will accept Dr Ferrier’s views so far as the “induced” and ” continuous” currents are concerned ; but what can his supporters advance calculated to cover the crushing fact proclaimed by Dupuy, viz., ” In one experiment the nerves at the base of the brain were divided to prevent the trans- mission of nerve excitation, and yet they could still be excited by electrical stimulation of the cortex.” As additional elements in the question now being raised in regard to the nature and merits of Ferrier’s views, I would add that: (1) The ” motor centres ” are said to differ in their position on the cortex by different experimenters; thusFurstner disallows Ferrier’s centres; that (2) the response of the “centres” to the same measure of stimulation varies from time to time or occasionally. Dr Dodds writes : ” Sometimes centres whose action is usually easily demonstrated cannot be caused to react even by a powerful stimulus ” ; (3) Whilst the susceptibility of the posterior lobes of the cerebral mass is denied by some writers of eminence (by Carpenter, for instance), others have affirmed the contrary ; thus ” Dupuy has shown that in dogs electrisation of points situated at the posterior part of the cerebral hemispheres will give rise to muscular contractions ” (Dodds). Furthermore, Hermann ” denies ” in the most unconditional manner ” that the different movements produced on stimulation of different cortical areas drives us to the conclusion that the cortex forms the centre for those movements.” (Dodds.) Thus far it appears that the stimulation of any one or other portion of the cortex cerebri cannot be so localised as to call forth, simply and exclusively, the function of the part operated on. The evidence, then, as above shown, is altogether averse to the teachings of Dr. Ferrier; and such averse or negative evidence culled, as is seen from tbe writings of Dupuy, Duret, and Hermann, was, strange as it may seem, put forward by the illustrious Grail himself, something like sixty years ago. In his System of Phrenology are found these words, viz., “It is a subject of constant obser- vation that, in order to discover the functions of the different parts of the body, anatomists and physiologists have always been rather disposed to employ manual means than to accu- mulate a great number of physiological and pathological facts; to combine these facts, to reiterate them, or to await their repetition in case of need, and to draw slowly and successively the proper consequence from them, and not to announce their discoveries but with a wise reserve. This method, at present the favourite one with our investigating physiologists, is im- posing from its materiality; and it gains the approbation of most men by its promptitude and its apparent results. But it has also been constantly observed that what has appeared to have been incontestibly proved by the mutilator A either did not succeed with the mutilator B, or that he had partly found in the same experiments all the proofs necessary to refute the conclusions of his predecessor. It is but too notorious that similar violent experiments have become the scandal of Acade- micians, who, seduced by the attraction of ingenious operations, have applauded with as much enthusiasm as fickleness the pretended glorious discoveries of their candidates. … In order that experiments of this kind should be able to throw light on the functions of each of the cerebral parts it would require a concurrence of many conditions impossible to be fulfilled. It would first require that we should be enabled to restrain all the effects of the lesion to that portion only on which the experiment is performed; for if excitement, haemorrhage, inflammation, &c. &c., affect other parts, what can we conclude ? and how can we prevent these inconveniences in mutilations either artificial or accidental ? It would be necessary that we should be able to make an animal whose brain has been wounded and mutilated?

who is filled with fear and suffering?disposed to manifest the instincts, propensities, and faculties, the organs of which could not have been injured or destroyed. But captivity alone is sufficient to stifle the instincts of most animals.” * * How much have these few words of Gall the character of prophecy! How surely do they go far to cover the objections made, and very properly made, to the experiments of the Ferrier school! There is, however, one element of difficulty and doubt which Gall’s apparent foreknowledge did not cover or em- brace ; that element is seen in chloroform. However, in spite of the inevitable fear or “excitement” of the dog or monkey?due to the preliminary restraints imposed on the animal?in spite of the ” lesions ” or ” mutilations ” themselves, and in spite, too, of the inhalation of a poisonous compound?the result of all “which is a condition of being as purely artificial and abnormal as such can well be?it must be confessed that the results are of some value, although they fail Furthermore, it should be known, and well known, that Gall was aware of the effects of the application of a stimulus to the brain’s surface; and that he maintained, in direct opposition to the current doctrines of the physiologists of his day, and to ” the asserted proof to the contrary afforded by the experiments of Flourens and other mutilators, the competency of the sur- face of the brain to originate muscular movementsThis altogether to prove the presence of “motor centres” in the gray matter of the brain, which is the prime object sought; and because simply?as Gall puts it? it is impossible ” to restrain the effects of the lesions,” practised ” to those parts only on “which the experiment is performed”; a position, indeed, which Dr. Ferrier bis himself admitted in the following terms, viz.: ” There is, perhaps, no subject in physiology of greater importance and general interest than tho functions of the brain, and there are few which present to experimental investi- gation conditions of greater intricacy and complexity. No one “who has atten- tively studied the results of the labours of the numerous investigators in this field of research can help being struck by the want of harmony, and even positive contradictions, among the conclusions which apparently the same experi- ments and the same facts have led to in different hands. And -when the seemingly well-established facts of experimentation on the brains of the lower animals are compared with those of clinical observation and morbid anatomy in man, the discord between them is frequently so great as to lead many to tho opinion that physiological investigation on the lower animals is little calculated to throw true light on the functions of the human brain The serious nature of the operations necessary to expose the brain for the purposes of experiment, and the fact that the various parts of tho encephalon, though anatomically distinct, are yet so intimately combined and related to each other as to form a complex “whole, make it natural to suppose that the establishment of lesions of greater or less extent in any one part should produce such a general perturbation of the functions of the organ as a whole as to render it at least highly difficult to trace any uncomplicated connection between the symptoms pro- duced and the lesion as such. Moreover, the degree of evolution of the central nervous system, from the simplest reflex mechanism up to the highest encephalic centres, and the differences as regards the relative independence or subordination of the lower to the higher centres, according as we ascend or descend the animal scale, introduce other complications, and render the application of the results of experiment on the brain of a frog, a pigeon, or a rabbit, “without duo qualifica- tion, to the physiology of the human brain very questionable, or even lead to conclusions seriously at variance with well-established facts of clinical and pathological observations.”

In the Spectator for March 3, 1877, there is a review of Dr Terrier’s Func- tions of the Brain, in which the annexed paragraph occurs. It is worthy of notice, on account of the strange and present ignorance in regard to Gall and his dis- coveries?discoveries made and promulgated now close on three generations since:? ” A. singular and instructive fact, upon which we are inclined to lay con- siderable emphasis, is that although so many severe operations upon animals have been instituted by Professor Ferrier and others, for the avowed purpose of determining the localisation of the various sensory and motor centres, contem- porary physiologists have agreed only to regard, the position of a single one as actually settled, and that was ascertained purely by means of anatomical know- ledge, combined with the observation of cerebral disease in human beings, the very nature of the manifestation of such disease rendering it inaccessible to study by means of the vivisection of animals. “We refer to the localisation of the faculty of articulate and written speech in the third frontal convolution of the left side.” Truly Gall settled the position of the ” organ of language.” His first suc- cessful “localisation” was the facility of “articulate and written speech in the third frontal convolution,” but not “of the left side” only. Herein we recognise a grave error of Broca?an error which has been pointed out by many in very very interesting and important fact is recorded in a private letter now extant, from (rail to Baron Retzer, bearing- date 1798.*

However, Grail, unlike the modern “experimenters,” duly appreciated such “muscular movements.” Gall saw clearly enough what Dr Ferrier has failed to perceive, viz., that the “movements” begotten were but secondary, and the outcome or effects only of the conduction of the stimulus employed from the surface to the base of the brain, and parts adjacent thereto. To confine the operation of the electrodes to the upper and convoluted surface of the brain would be to beget phenomena of a purely ‘psychical nature; but inasmuch as this cannot be brought about, else than as an exception to a very general rule or under circumstances to be considered in another place, then the phenomena induced are necessarily of another, a motor character. Such is the close relationship of our mental and bodily natures?i.e. the ” psychical” and ” motor.” Between the convoluted surface of the brain and the basal ganglia so intimate and close a relationship exists in man and animals?so continued is the interchange of impressions from above down- wards, and from below upwards, that the independent action of either, whether in health or disease, may be said to constitute an exception to the rule. To think is for the most part to act and even vice versa. The comparative absence of the hemispherical ganglia (Solly) in a large proportion of the vertebrates, whilst it denies them the higher mental attributes, the purest affections or emotions, and the tenderest sympathies, leaves them prone as is man to the various nervous derangements or maladies, so often named in this paper. In man the intimate and close relation- ship between these upper and lower strands of nervous matter recent times. The late Sir James Simpson was, I believe, the first to disprove the position of Broca, and, as a consequence, to fall back on Gall’s view of the matter, to the effect that the ” faculty ” had its location on ” the third convolu- tion” of not one only, but of both hemispheres of the brain. Though entertain- ing a high regard for Dr Ferrier’s earnestness in the pursuit of medical science, I am inclined not a little to think with Dr Brown-Sequard, when he says that ‘’ the teachings of vivisection on the functions of the brain and nerves are a tissue of mistakes, created by vivisections, but rectified at last by correct clinical observation during life, and careful examination of the diseased structures after death.” The harmony of such views of Brown-Sequard with those of Gall is directly apparent.

• This fact is highly interesting, and the “extant ” letter referred to as from

Gall to Baron Eetzer is, indeed, of much value. _ Taking it for granted that Mr. Prideaux has fallen into no error in regard to this letter, then, indeed, must Dr. Ferrier see the mistake he has made in writing thus : ” The views of Hughlings- Jackson, published from time to time in the form of scattered contributions to the various medical journals, and now happily being collected by their author, were regarded by many as ingenious but rather fanciful speculations, and devoid of ex- perimental corroboration, seeing that all experimenters on the brain had failed to produce any such phenomena by irritation of the surface of the cerebral hemispheres In so recording the failures of “all experimenters,” he, Dr Ferrier, has but repeated what is very generally believed and asserted.

common to the brain and the ” medulla spinalis ” is shown by the occurrence of epilepsy, or chorea, or tetanus, in him, for example, subject to acute mental anxiety, or suffering from brain exhaustion. The same relationship is made manifest by the loss of brain power (imbecility) common to or the effect of epilepsy of long standing. Whilst the first is the effect of diseased action acting from above downwards, the second is the effect of morbid action acting in the contrary di- rection. If Dr Ferrier were informed of Gall’s great and imperishable discoveries; did he know the precision with which Gall and Spurzheim have located on the brain’s surface the many primitive qualities, intellectual and emotional, of our mental nature; did he enjoy the many advantages inseparable from a good practical knowledge of phrenology?if he knew where on the cranium of his friend or neighbour to find the several organs of, say, ” veneration,” “benevolence,” and ” wonder of ” causality,” ” comparison,” and ” eventuality of ” com- bativeness,” ” constructiveness,” and ” destructiveness “?he would then have estimated at their right value the movements or ” results ” of his experiments; such results would then have been looked at from another or a more truthful standpoint, that is to say, as simply effects of a pre-existing or psychical cause : but this consummation so devoutly to be wished for will yet be realised, or I greatly err. Commenting on Ferrier’s views, an eminent writer on matters physiological has these words, viz.: ” The ex- planation of the phenomena obtained by the application of stimuli to the surface of the brain, is found in the fact that those innate faculties which require the aid of the muscular system to carry out their behests have the power of originating the movements necessary for this purpose; and hence when Dr. Ferrier applied a galvanic current to the cortical surfaces of the organs of the instinct ‘to take food,’ ‘to seize prey,’ ‘to destroy,’ ‘to fight,’ ‘to construct,’ movements of mastication, of’striking with the claws,’ or ‘ seizing with the mouth,’ of ‘ biting and worrying, of scraping or digging’ ensued; whilst the stimula- tion of the same locality (constructiveness) which put the orepaws and hind lgs in action in the rabbit would, in the beaver, superadd the motion of the incisor teeth and the tail. What can be more palpable than that the inferences to be obtained from such experiments are not only far more vague and indefinite than those furnished by the employment of the phrenological method, but absolutely incapable of ascertaining the shape, and defining the boundaries of the organs as has been accomplished by Gall in the case of locality, the shape of which he ascertained to be similar in dogs to its form in man.. In short, little more can be said on behalf of these experiments at present than that in a cloudy and obscure form they lend a vague general confir- mation (not required) to the correctness of the localities assigned to the primitive faculties by phrenologists.”

To Dr Ferrier, nevertheless, is due in good part the credit of correcting Broca’s error in locating the faculty of speech in a portion of the left hemisphere of the brain to the exclusion altogether of the right. Thus far he has confirmed what, indeed, needed not confirmation to those among us who have kept themselves abreast of the progress in psychological science. Gall, it is well known, was the first to locate the memory of words in the lower frontal convolutions, though not in one only, but in both hemispheres of the brain. His followers in this one particular are many, including the late Sir J. Simpson, and Drs. E. L. Fox and Wm. Ogle. Yet a farther credit is Dr Ferrier’s in having written these few words; they would seem to justify the hope expressed above of his conversion ere very long to a sounder mental philosophy than he has yet reached: ” I should be inclined to regard the intimate relation subsisting between ideation and the unconscious outward expression of the idea in muscular action as a strong proof of the close local association of the ideational and voluntary motor centres.” Now in these words do we not perceive the groove along which Ferrier is moving? must they not carry him even in the near future to the conclusions of the phrenological school? Dr Carpenter is evidently afraid of anything so desirable, for he writes thus in Vol. iv. of the West Riding Medical Reports, at page 23 : ” The analogy afforded by the specialisation of downward (motor) action, would lead us to anticipate that a like centralisation may exist for upward (sensory) action; and that particular parts of the convolutions may be special centres of the classes of perceptional ideas that are automatically called up by sense impressions; and anatomical investigation, particularly in the lower animals?in which such ideas may be supposed to prevail almost to the exclusion of the intellectual ideas?may not improbably throw light on this relation. But in regard to those mental processes which mainly consist in the selection, classification, and comparison of distinct ideas, whether perceptional or purely intellectual, it still seems to me just as improbable as it formerly did?(1) That there can be special organs for their performance, such as those named “comparison” and “causality” in the phrenological system. I consider, therefore, that the results of Dr Ferrier’s experiments encourage the belief, that by the combination of anatomical and developmental study, of experimental inquiry, and of patholo- gical observation, much light may be thrown on the functions, not merely of the several ganglionic centres which are aggregated in the human brain, but on those of the different parts of the 188 NOTES OX THE PHYSIOLOGICAL great’ hemispheric ganglion’ formed by the convoluted layer of the cerebrum.”

It may be, however, that when Dr Carpenter reconsiders the whole matter, and prefers to dwell on the effects of a galvanic current applied to the organs of “alimentiveness,” of ” destruc- tiveness,” of ” combativeness,” and of ” constructiveness,” shown by the movements “of mastication,” ” of striking with the claws or seizing with the mouth,” ‘? of biting and worrying,” and ” scrap- ing and digging,” he may yet farther modifiy his judgment. In repeating the experiments of Ferrier, it was suggested to Dr. Burdon Sanderson to slice off the gray matter of the brain, and apply the electrodes to the cut surface of the white or fibrous struc- ture. It was even then found that the same effects to all appear- ance followed this mutilation of the animal operated on. The fact is of value, inasmuch as it proves that the movements so called forth can be in no way dependent on the gray matter of the convolutions, or rather on any ” physical antecedents ” oc- curring thereto, and of which the psychical phenomena observed in the absence of such mutilation are the direct effects. Strange to say, Dr Carpenter would disassociate these ” physical ante- cedents” from the “mental states themselves,” and because, as he puts his objection, ” we can scarcely believe that ideas and emotions can be called up by faradisation of a cortical substance in animals ” ” stupefied by chloroform.” The criticisms of Dr. Brown-Sequard are, it will be admitted, of an extreme character. He carries his objections to the localisation of function as well as of disease of the brain much too far when he affirms that the conclusion of ” Ferrier’s theory is just the same as though he had said that the seat of the will was in the soles of his feet, because by tickling them the muscles of the face were affected.”

It is on record that on one occasion when Dr Ferrier was pursuing his investigations he was so impressed by the intelli- gent character of the successive actions elicited as to speak of it as “an evidently acted dream.” The remark is highly suggestive. Now, had Dr Ferrier been an adept in matters phrenological it seems not unlikely that in this case he would have been prompted to seek in the monkey and dog the precise location on the cerebral surface not of motor centres, but of some at least of the many active powers of mind belonging to the animals named. The ” successive actions” linked or embodied in this ” acted dream ” if rightly comprehended or duly analysed by one compe- tent to the task, a follower of Gall and Spurzheim, it may then have been found of deep and lasting interest. Such “successive actions ” it is likely were simply the outward (bodily) signs of an internal mental condition artificially induced; i.e. ” the muscular expressions of feeling,” as Dr Maudsley terms them.*

I come now to the consideration of a new phase of my subject, one little known to the medical profession, and left therefore, in great part, to amateur physiologists for support. However much doubted, the same rests on a basis of truth which should command the very best attention of all. We know now of the existence of a stimulus of an especial kind, which may be and for the most part is ” so localised as to call forth simply the function of the part operated on” (Grail), and which demonstrates whence originate in the cortex cerebri the several primitive emotions, passions, and intellectual qualities of the genus homo. The stimulus alluded to goes by the somewhat undesirable name of ” phreno-mesmerism.” So long since as 1842 or 1843 it was that Messrs. Gardiner, Mansfield, and Atkinson, in this country, also and simultaneously (I believe) an American physician, dis- covered that, under certain circumstances or environments of an exceptional kind, the excitation of the different parts (organs) of the brain could be so brought about as to demonstrate in the person operated on the location of the several primitive mental attributes in man. The experiments of the gentlemen named confirmed the fact already alluded to?that generations since Grail taught, in opposition to Flourens and others, the brain’s susceptibility to an external stimulus, as indicated by the occurrence of both sensation and motion in the animal subject to such stimulus. And in this case it should be added, for truth’s sake, that Dr Carpenter has erred in stating, as he did in 1874, that “it was until lately the current doctrine of physiology that no stimulation of the cerebrum would excite either sensation * Dr Maudsley has put the matter in these words, at page 30 of his “work entitled Body and Mind. ” Fix the countenance in the pattern of a particular emotion?in a look of anger, of wonder, or of scorn?and the emotion whose appearance is thus imitated will not fail to be aroused. And if we try, while the features are fixed in the expression of one passion, to call up in the mind a quite different one, we shall find it impossible to do so.” The above is in perfect accord with the ” experiments of the late Mr. Braid on persons whom he had put into a state of ‘ hypnotism,’ for when the features or the limbs were made by him to assume the expression of a particular emotion, thereupon the emotion was actually felt by the patient, who began to act as if he were under its influence. We perceive then that the muscles are not alone the machinery by which the mind acts upon the world, but that their actions are essential elements in our mental operations.” Startling as all this is, yet is there no room to doubt this ” hypnotism,” so named by Braid, nor to discredit (what is much the same kind of thing) the ” mono-ideasm ” of the late Dr Hughes Bennett ? Doubtless the phenomena which go by the several names of” hypnotism,” ” mono-ideasm,” and ” mesmerism,” have a nature in common. That they run into each other and mutually illustrate each other as varieties or modifications of a single force are known to do, there is reason to believe. Such would seem as so many links in the single chain of causation?as elements in Nature’s teeming laboratory, wherein all bespeak the reign of law, order, and unity.

or motion, and that the converse of this was first ascertained by Hitzig in 1870.”

By the ” certain circumstances ” or ” environments ” named above are meant those which belong to the ” mesmeric sleep,” so called. In such a state of being it was that the discoveries of Grardiner and others were made. Such marvellous results as those witnessed in 1842 or 1843 in the drawing room of Dr Elliotson can never be forgotten by those then and there present. The precision with which the many experiments were made and the many proofs then afforded of the accuracy of the accepted localisation on the brain’s surface of the several primitive affections, passions, and intellectual powers or faculties comprising our nature, were indeed marvellous. The mere touch by the finger on the head of him or her operated on, in the situation of the ” organ ” of ” combativeness,” of ” construc- tiveness,” of ” acquisitiveness,” of ” secretiveness,” of ” self- esteem,” &c. &c., resulted in movements of the most extra- ordinary and convincing character; i.e. in the outward and visible expressions of internal or psychical states of being. That these ” expressions” and ” states” stood in the closest relation to each other (as cause and effect must ever stand) as parts of one whole, phases of a single phenomenon, could not be doubted. The natural language of ” combative- ness,” as of ” veneration,” of ” constructiveness,” of ” self- esteem,” &c., has been and is, under the necessary conditions, evoked by the contact above named of the operator and him or her operated on : such ” contact” affording the necessary ” stimulus ” to action of pretty nearly the whole range of what may be called the ” phrenological organs.” The clearness of the response is of course dependent on the condition of the person experimented on. In some cases only a few parts of the cerebral mass are found susceptible ; in others many more, or even the whole brain ” In rare instances,” we are assured ” that the mere pressure of inanimate substances will excite the action of the cerebral organs, and that this same action will be made manifest by positive and well-defined muscular move- ments, giving rise to expressions indicative of, it may be anger, or fear, or pride, or veneration ; and so on through the several primitive faculties of the human mind.”

To realise the importance and value of the above discovery, it must be borne in mind that to it we are indebted for a proof, at once tangible and conclusive, of the great value of the teach- ings of Grail and Spurzheim. The correctness of their localisation of the functions of the brain becomes at once so plainly demon- strated that the non-acceptance of phrenology is next to im- possible. However, as I have written elsewhere, ” the difficulties of unlearning are great,” and, as it would appear, insurmountable to even many men of the highest order of mind. This fact will I doubt not in after times be classed among the hallucinations of men of genius.

The late Mr. Uwins, E.A., was among the very first to not only recognise ” phreno-mesmerism,” so called, but to utilise it. As a painter he saw clearly that it may be made an important auxiliary to his art, an aid to both the brush and the chisel. In January 1843 he read a paper on the Effects of Mesmerism upon various parts or organs of the Brain in Man. This paper can be seen in the Zoist for April of the same year. From 1843 to this present time the subject has been taken up by several, and notably by Drs. Gregory and Ashburner. But there is no real need to go back a generation for an assurance that parts of the cortical substance, the psychical basis or first starting point, of mind, in all its phases, are affected by a local stimulus of the kind named, or are rendered so highly sensitive as to furnish to the experimenter palpable and various muscular movements involving responsive changes in the ” expression,” the outcome of the temporary and dominant mental life, and so on ; for in the early part of 1874 Mr. Ser- jeant Cox published the second volume of his Popular Mental Philosophy. In this book he treats of the mechanism o/ action of the brain and its parts ; and if you look to Chapter xiii., page 172 et seq.f you will find described the mental phenomena which attend on artificial somnambulism.

The experience of Mr. Serjeant Cox with or on somnambules justifies him in asserting that “when the patient has passed from the sleep-like condition into what appears to be an active existence, although he is unconscious and insensible, you can, by touching his head lightly with the finger excite the brain to action in almost any manner you will:’’ He adds these words, viz., ” This curious exhibition of cerebral excitement is not exceptional. It can be produced in the majority of som- nambules on the first trial; but in all, with very rare exceptions, after half a dozen experiments.”

Assuming, then, the certain and plainly demonstrated truth of the foregoing, can you doubt the great and very high claims of Grail and Spurzheim to our admiration and respect ? That they should stand in the very foremost rank of the most success- ful contributors to physiological knowledge can in no way be well disputed.

Without doubt the discoveries of Messrs. Gardiner and Mansfield, backed up as such were by Drs. Elliotson and Gregory, and are now by Mr. Serjeant Cox, the most recent advocate or supporter of “phreno-mesmerism,” have added greatly to the reputation of both Grail and Lavater. Their united and original labours demonstrate very conclusively the ” invariable relationship between outward appearances,” the expression, &c., “and internal powers.” Whilst Gall found in the external form or shape of the brain (in man and animals) the subjective and physical conditions necessary to individual character, the several and specific tendencies to mental power and action, Lavater may be said to have detected how and in what manner such ” conditions” or such ” tendencies” are indicated or expressed externally. He (Lavater) was one of the first to tell us what are the outward and visible signs of the internal and invisible mental attributes in the genus homo. However, to witness this close relationship and mutual depen- dence of the “internal powers” (Grail) and the “outward appear- ances” (Lavater) to be seen in the somnambule, when in the hands of a successful manipulator, is to be assured that “phrenology” and ” physiognomy” are but parts of one whole?and this a most important whole. Truly did the illustrious Bacon anticipate such when he penned the annexed few words: “The lineaments of the body do disclose the disposition and inclination of the mind in general; but the motions of the countenance and parts do not only so, but do farther disclose the present humour and state of the mind or will.” The late Sir C. Bell in his Anatomy of Expression has well illustrated the position of Bacon, although uninformed in great part of the writings of Grail and Lavater. In Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals a vast number of excellent examples are to be found of the depen- dence of the body on the mind, the corporeal on the psychical. Mr. Bain writes : ” I believe it to be a general law of the mind that, along with the fact of inward feeling or consciousness, there is a diffusive action or excitement over the bodily members.” Reverting to the discoveries in ” phreno-mesmerism” it is seen that certain psychical phenomena preceded the corresponding external or bodily (muscular) movements, whether in the face or extremities; these being the direct effects of the acquired or induced mental states, as pourtrayed in the somnambule; but examples are within our reach of another and reverse kind?one in which the mind itself responds to muscular action, reflecting back, as it were, its own image or temporary state of being. Given a particular movement, or series of movements belonging to, or expressive of, any one especial emotion or feeling, then may we look for the mind’s response to the same?a response which indicates the sure presence of the same “especial emotion or feel- ing in him or her experimented on; and this irrespectively of the will, or of anything akin to it. The exponents of human feeling, to write or speak critically, are seen to a large extent in the muscular system, and in the movements of the face (expression), and hence it is the brain (mind), and not less the body, are alike necessary to the entirety of any single emotion or passion in man. The metaphysicians who will soar into the regions of cloud-land for their poor philosophies will do well to bear the above fact in their memories. They will do well also to accept the very good advice indicated by the following sentences from Dr Maudsley’s Body and Mind, viz., “Those who would degrade the body in order, as they imagine, to exalt the mind, should consider more deeply than they do the importance of our mus- cular expression of feeling. The manifest shades and kinds of expression which the lips present, their gibes, gambols, and flashes of merriment; the quick language of a quivering nostril; the varying tones and ripples of beautiful emotion which play on the human countenance, with the spasms of passion which disfigure it?all of which we take such pains to embody in art? are simply effects of muscular action, and might be produced by electricity, or by any other stimulus, if we could only apply it in suitable force to the proper muscles… . Suffice it to say, that the special muscular action is not merely the exponent of the passion, but truly an essential part of it.”

The remarks above illustrate, very fairly, the reflected up and down and to and fro currents of nerve force, whether or not these have their origin or starting point in the emotional or motor centres?i.e. the upper or lower strands of gray matter of the cerebrum ; for to such ” lower strands ” whatever there is of “muscular action” must be due.

• The words of the poet (Pope) to the effect that ” all are but parts of one

stupendous whole ” derive an especial illustration from the co-ordination or mutual dependence of the nervous and muscular (the mental and bodily) systems (forces) pointed out in the text. Evidence such as that referred to?and for which the ?world is indebted so materially to the late Mr. Braid, of Manchester, confirmed as it has been by the late Dr J. Hughes Bennett, and others now deceased, to say nothing of the many eminent living writers, among whom are found er. Serjeant Cox?can be second in scientific importance to none other of the kind ; hut the difficulty is to insure the attention of the younger medical men?the rising generation of doctors?to such a lofty and ennobling theme as the words “hypnotism,” ” mono-ideasm,” and ” phreno-mesmerism,” comprehend or em- brace. However, ?* it time and skill will cure the blind, as has been prognos- ticated, then must patience be indeed our motto. What can we, whose good fortune it has been to get coached, and successfully coached, thus early, do but wait the good time coming for the many not yet disencumbered of their medical leading strings?their ” ancient faiths;’ not yet enabled to think and act like men; not yet confident in their own inherent strength and judgment; and anxious withal to protract their infancies to the tomb. What else, I ask, is within our reach than to hope-hope in the great future of truth?which, as Byron puts it, ” is a gem which is found at a great depth ; whilst on the surface of this world all things are weighed by the false scale of custom ‘ ?

I would venture to add here, as an apology for, and in confirmation of, the preceding remarks that the late Dr J. Hughes Bennett felt very keenly in reference to ” mono-ideasm,” as he has termed it. It must have been so, or he would never have written thus: “The facts of mono-ideasm are highly im- If ” physiognomy ” is destined to assume a higher, a more scientific standpoint than it has yet done, such will be the outcome of ” phreno-mesmerism.” By the adoption of it as a means to a thoroughly practical end the teachings of Lavater, associated as they should be with those of Grail and Spurzheim, will receive an additional impetus forwards. Moreover, if the face be indeed ” the index of the soul,” if ” the free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it;” if, on the other hand, ” the repression of all outward signs softens our emotions ” (Darwin”), and if, under such circumstances, the said ” expression ” and ” repression ” are qualities to be acquired and duly exercised by the systematic and artificial excitation of the “conscientiousness,” &c., and in view of what is right and just? or the exercise of our higher mental attributes to the exclu- sion, more or less, of the lower belongings of our nature?then indeed may this ” stimulus” (phreno-mesmerism) be enlisted in the cause of education and the moral training of our youth, i.e. in the cause of progress, of civilisation. The words of Darwin are calculated to encourage, somewhat, such a hope, for he writes thus at p. 366 of his work On Expression, viz., ” Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds.” He adds : ” Shakespear, who from his wonderful knowledge of the human mind ought to be an excellent judge, says: ” Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That, from her -working, all his visage warm’d; Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!” Hamlet, Act ii. Scene 2.

I will now proceed to the consideration of matters patho- logical and so conclude these “Notes.” Assuming that the cortex or gray matter of the cerebral convolutions is the origin or seat of the several normal and primitive (elementary) faculties portant, and demand the careful consideration of the physiologist and medical practitioner.” Such “facts recently ascertained in connection with this subject open up a new field for investigation, not only in physiology and practical medicine, ‘ but in what relates to evidence as it is now received in our courts of law… . All the phenomena produced are strictly analogous to what medical men are acquainted with in various morbid states ; and it must now be considered as well established, that in certain conditions of the nervous system they may be induced at will. This conclusion, however, is something new, for it has but recently been received in physiology or pathology, that a condition of the cerebral functions may be occasioned in apparently healthy persons in which suggestive ideas aro capable of producing those phenomena we have described, and which render them, for the time, as irre- sponsible as monomaniacs. Yet such is really the fact, and once admitted into physiology must have an important influence on the theory and practice of medicine.” To the same effect writes Mr. Serjeant Cox; at page 152, Vol. ii., of his lopular Introduction to Mental Philosophy, Chapter xi., On Artificial Som- of the mind, it follows that the derangement or disease of either one or more of the same faculties will be the effect of some lesion or morbid change affecting a portion, more or less, of the gray matter of one or more of such convolutions. Now, one of the elementary mental powers or faculties is recognised as the memory of words?the function of speech or language. The seat of this power or faculty is, we know now, exactly where Grail located it three long generations since, viz., in the third frontal convolution of either hemisphere. Some fifteen years ago a case was reported by the late Mr. Norman (of Bath) of a groom who received a kick from a horse on the lower part of the forehead between the two eyes. He recovered from the im- mediate effects of the inj ury, but ever after lost the memory of words. The record of this case, though imperfect, is not with- out interest. Dr B. J. Grlisson is the author of the annexed letter which appeared in the Lancet (I think) in August of 1875; it is headed Arrest of Speech in an Infant after a Blow on the Head.

” Sir,?A few days ago a patient consulted me for a skin affection on her son, a fine little boy four years and a half old, and told me the following about him. When he was eighteen months old he received a fall from which he had a contusion of the skin and a small tumour in the temporal region (left side). He gradually recovered. Before the accident he was just com- mencing to prattle a few simple monosyllables, but since then has not been able to speak, and has scarcely ever tried. If any of your readers have met with a similar case, and can recommend anything to remedy the disability, I will be glad to know of it.” In the above two cases the ” organs of language ” were the seats of the injury.

In the Medical Psychology of the late Mr. Robert Dunn, of London, is seen reported several cases bearing more or less directty on the faculty of speech as a primitive mental endow- ment. Mr. Dunn says truly : ” Grail was the first to assign the faculty of speech to a special cerebral organ?to the anterior cerebral lobes. His allocation has found advocates in many distinguished physiologists, viz., Serres, Paul Grandchamps, ‘? Belhomme, Bouillard, and others.” Mr. Dunn’s first case was that of a lady, aged 66 years, who suffered from three attacks of apoplexy. “The first, which occurred in October 1844, nambulism, are these words, viz., ” The phenomena of somnambulism (i.e. mesmerism once called), at first fiercely disputed, and their assertors denounced, as knaves and dupes, have come to be accepted as substantially true. But then they were declared not to be new truths, but to have been familiar to every physiologist and psychologist under other names, such as hysteria, or hallucina- tion, and now they have taken their place in physiology among the recognised incidents of a rare condition of the nervous system.”

seemed c congestive ‘ in its character, and passed away without any other permanent consequence than this, that she continually used one word for another, not applying appropriate names to the things or persons she desired to signify. The second attack, in May 1847, left her permanently hemiplegic on the right side, the power of voluntary motion being completely abolished ; and but little sensibility being preserved, though reflex movements could be excited on the lower extremity by tickling the sole of the foot. For the rest of her life she remained altogether in- capable of speech, not being able, to say Yes or No in reply to a simple question, and never getting beyond the utterance of the monosyllable ‘ dat!’ ‘ dat!’ and yet all her senses were intact, the motions of the tongue were free, and there was no difficulty of deglutition. She did not seem to have lost any of her intellectual powers; but her emotional sensibility was certainly increased. Her general health continued good up to the time of the last fatal seizure, which occurred in April 1850, without any premonitory symptoms. At the post- mortem examination, the upper two-thirds of the anterior lobe of the left hemisphere was found to be in a state of complete destruction, with colourless softening; while the middle and posterior lobes were sound and healthy. To another instance I would briefly advert, as the lady died afterwards in an apoplectic seizure, but no jpost-mortem examination could be had. In her case, a day or two after a seizure, which occurred in the street, the perceptive and thinking powers were regained. She knew where she was and all the family about her, as well as myself; but the m.emory of words was for some time in abeyance. She could not recollect the name even of her own daughter, who was constantly with her. She had a perfect recollection of past circumstances and events up to the time of her seizure; understood whatever was said to her; felt deeply conscious of her own inability to recollect names and common words when talking, and gave expression in consequence to emotional distress or feeling in tears. As I have elsewhere observed, in this case, it may be fairly inferred that the sudden shock to the nervous system in the first instance deranged the ‘ organic actions and normal correlations of the emotional and intellectual centres. The delirium was of short continuance; coherence of mind was soon regained, and the powers of thinking and reasoning were gradually, though slowly, restored. But there long remained?indeed, up to the time of her death?a manifest dislocation of the memory of words on the slightest emotional excitement or mental agitation.” … “I have lately had under my care a married woman of the nervous temperament and great emotional susceptibility, the mother of a large family ; and who, during the latter months of her last pregnancy, met with a sudden and painful nervous shock, the effect of which was to’ deprive her of the power of speech, and to produce giddiness and confusion of mind. When I first saw her, some hours afterwards, she had recovered the power of articulation, and regained the integrity of her reasoning faculties; she knew everyone about her, and was perfectly sensible to what was going on around her, but had lost the memory of the names of those about her, and of words she could not recollect or give the name of the commonest article of household furniture, as a chair or table, &c.; and sensible of her inability, she frequently burst into tears. She eventually recovered.”

To the above several cases of aphasic disorder I may add a fourth occurring in my own practice some months since. A young girl nine years of age was observed to become dull and listless ; and what was very remarkable in her, she ceased to take any kind of interest in her daily lessons. Her sleep was disturbed, and during it the head was moved involuntarily to and fro on the pillow. After a time she became, by degrees, speechless; everything like a memory of words failed her. The intellectual powers and the affections retained more or less their normal state, or so it appeared to the child’s parents and their friends. On being spoken to or asked a question, she seemed to know what she should say or what to reply, but it was plainly indicated where or in what direction the defect lay, the necessary or required words were forgotten ; they came not at the bidding. Here was a case of cerebral disturbance in which aphasia was the predominant symptom. The cause of the disorder was speedily found; the presence of worms in the intestinal canal suggested a case of symptomatic or secondary brain disturbance; at any rate my treatment in the main was such as to dislodge the said worms, and to free the primae vise of all such intruders in the present whilst their procreation in the future was guarded against. As the illness of this child had been of some duration when I first saw her, and as, moreover, the secondary or cerebral mischief had fallen on one too evidently predisposed by an hereditary taint to disorder of the nervous centres, it was some three or four months before the original health was restored to my patient; but with it came back the full memory of words: she became as loquacious as ever, and not less studiously inclined. I would add here that though unable to say why the morbid and reflected action set up in the prim? viae did in the foregoing case fix itself so palpably on or in such close contact with the ” organ of Reil” so called by Broca and his coadjutors in preference to any other ” organ ” or primitive faculty of the mind, yet such was the case. Years since I put on record the fact of a young man who, having tsenia in his intestines, was seized with so morbid and excessive an action of” destructiveness ” as to have nearly killed during a very temporary attack of impulsive mania (homicidal mania) a sister, a girl to whom he was much and tenderly attached. A full dose of calomel and scammony, followed by another of castor oil and turpentine, freed him of his tapeworm, and gave him back what I may call his freewill, or moral constraint. Mr. Dunn describes also an interesting case wherein the organs of firmness, as located by Gall and Spurzheim, were found -post mortem in contact with a ” tubercular deposit.” The selfvvill and ob- stinacy of the patient during the illness which preceded death attracted much attention, inasmuch as such was so very foreign to the little boy’s habits and tendencies. But I must ask your attention to certain details in regard to this case as given in the recital of it to be seen at pages 59 et seq. in Dunn’s Medical Psychology. Mr. Dunn has these words, viz.: ” There was a peculiarity?a psychological phenomenon?in this case which is worthy of record. Both the parents of the child, for four or five months previous to his attack, had been particularly struck with a marked change in his disposition which had been gra- dually taking place. From being a happy, placid boy, he had become irritable, peevish, and petulant, impatient of con- trol, very determined to have whatever he set his mind upon, and not to be driven from his purpose; in a word, to use their own language, he had become a most self willed and obstinate little boy. So marked, indeed, was this change in his disposition, that it had become a subject of serious con- sideration with them whether it was to be attributed to some latent disease under which he might be labouring, or to mere infirmity of temper; but as the child continued to eat, drink, and sleep well, and did not appear to be suffering from any bodily complaint, they did not take any medical opinion, but contented themselves with endeavouring to correct, by moral discipline and management, what they were induced to consider rather as an infirmity of the mind than of the body. Now, it is certainly a significant fact, and worthy of notice, that tuber- cular deposit should be found to be situated on that part of each of the hemispheres where Grail and Spurzheim have located their organs of firmness; it extended a little, perhaps, beyond the boundary line, especially on the right side, and encroached upon the site of the organ of self-esteem. In such a case as this it is but reasonable to infer that among the first of the morbid effects arising from the tubercular deposit would be an irritating excitement in the gray substance, which would lead to an abnor- mal development of its functional power ; and as obstinacy is an abuse of firmness, if we associate the change of disposition which had taken place in the child with the structural dis- turbance induced by the tubercular deposit, we cannot resist the phrenological inference as to the site of the organ of firm- ness. The attempt indeed to trace the connection between structural diseases of particular portions of the substance of the brain and deranged, impaired, or obliterated manifestations of the mind, however it may be beset with almost insuperable difficulties, is nevertheless one of vast interest and great im- portance ; and, to this end, I cannot suppress my conviction that it is an incumbent duty upon the medical practitioner to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the principles and facts of phrenology, and with the respective sites or localities of the different organs in the cerebral convolutions; and to let no opportunity slip of bringing phrenological doctrines to the test of experience. If I am not greatly mistaken, it is to post- mortem examinations of the brain, and to pathological investi- gations, more than to any other source, that we are to look, not for the discovery of normal functions, but for evidence in sup- port or refutation of the dogmata of phrenology. In the case I have related, while the peculiarity of the motor phenomena at the beginning of the attack led to the belief of the existence of tubercule in the brain, the psychological phenomenon, or ob- served change in the disposition of the child, was the only indication of the local seat of the disease.”

A tradesman of Bristol, when under the influence of alcohol, fell down a flight of steps and received a heavy blow on the outer angle of the left eye. This injury confined him to his room for some weeks. Months afterwards I was consulted, be- cause when engaged in business matters he was very commonly perplexed by a forgetfulness of the necessary words. He is now dead. I know not if any post-mortem examination was made. Another mental element is represented by the capacity to recognise time. This faculty, or power, has its location on either hemisphere towards the outer portion of the fore part of the brain, in a direction upwards from the external angle of either eye. A lady, now residing at Clifton, fell on proceeding down stairs; in one hand she held a brass candlestick, and on this her head struck violently on reaching the ground. Ihe force of her fall was expended on that part of the head just referred to. One humerus was dislocated. On her recovery from the immediate effects of the fall she discovered, on resuming her musical exercises, that she had lost much of her notion of ” time”; she has now recovered the lost p^wer.

The two following cases of disease, confined for the most part to the organs of veneration, are to be found in the Zoist for. 1843, a journal not now in existence. The second of these cases appeared originally in the provincial Medical and Surgical Journal for March 1843, and from it was copied into the Zoist. E. M., set. 64, an inmate of the Hanwell Asylum, and for some time past the subject of chronic rheumatic disease, &c., expired on December 6, 1842. The examination revealed the brain and membranes apparently healthy, with the exception of old and inseparable adhesions between the surface of the convolutions, indicating the organs of veneration, and the membranous structures naturally in contact only. A nephew and niece of the deceased told me that in 1837, about when the old lady became insane, her friends were first made conscious of her disease by an extraordinary penchant she evinced for theological dispute; and which eventually became so excessive that she has been known when attending divine service to call the officiating clergyman to order for, as she said, attempting to promulgate opinions on religious matters at variance with the truth. She subsequently regarded herself as an apostle, and used to de- clare she was an instrument in the hands of the Almighty with which to effect great good. Such is the early history of E. M., and which when considered in connection with the post-mortem appearances, is of value. During the last two years of the life of this person, during which she was under my care, it was ob- served only that she was a little strange and irritable, and exhibited a tendency to apply the epithet ” wicked ” to those about her, while she conjectured their probable fate in a future. The effects of sacred music were of a very marked character. It sent her into a thorough ecstasy, during which she talked wildly and gesticulated in no ordinary manner. The voice became at such times peculiarly shrill and tremulous. Such paroxysms occurred not unfrequently at the asylum chapel, and thus it was her attendance there was forbidden. In my record of this case in the Zoist I have described it as one of excessive action of small organs. The physical condition of the cranium being such as to suggest to the phrenologist ” veneration small.”

For the other case we are indebted to Mr. Millar. A clergyman, after prolonged study and a total neglect of all measures calculated to preserve his health, presented some premonitory symptoms, and after a few weeks exhibited the most positive evidence of disease of the brain. “He had,” writes Mr. Millar, ” that morning called on a notorious drunkard of the village to read him a sermon on his besetting sin. But his parishioner received his ministerial offices so contemp- tuously as to resolutely order the reverend curate out of his house. rIhis conduct had such an effect on his already excited feelings, that he rushed into the square of W holding his Bible in the air, and knelt down praying Grod to subdue the obstinacy of the sinner’s heart, and, rising up, began most vociferously to exhort people to repentance, for sin had darkened the land and the judgments of God were coming upon the earth. After much difficulty he was com- pelled to go home, when he ran up into his bedroom, stripping and washing himself by dashing basins of cold water over his body, and praying most earnestly ‘ that the waters of life he was now washing in would cleanse his soul from all sin.’ This process he had repeated thrice; and such was the intensity of his convictions respecting his own impurities, that each time he determinedly refused to be dressed in the same clothes because they were unclean. He lived twelve days, and the following is the account of the inspection of the brain: the vessels of the dura mater were tinged with blood looking blue and prominent, and so adherent was this membrane to the cranium that it was impossible to separate it entire. The sinuses were loaded with blood; the arachnoid membrane was firm and opaque, having a fluid yellow fibrinous secretion be- tween it and the pia mater; this was particularly manifest over the convolutions along the mesial line of each hemisphere, and on the left especially. The pia mater was gorged with blood.” Mr. Millar remarks: The character of the insanity is, I believe, sufficiently well accounted for by the nature of his studies, and the serious responsibilities of his professional avocation. And I am free to confess that the portions of brain to which phrenologists ascribe the functions of veneration were precisely the seat of the greatest vascular excitement, the most decided opacity and firmness of the arachnoid coat, and the most effusion between that membrane and the pia mater?a most striking evidence of damaged function in connection with organic disease… . Many may not be aware that the pia mater is the nutrient membrane of the brain. It is ex- cessively vascular, dips down between every convolution, and distributes multitudes of vessels to the gray substance. Here, then, we have the most conclusive evidence that a certain abnormal functional manifestation was accompanied by a certain organic change in the membranes; that one of the membranes supplies the vessels for the purpose of nourishing the convolu- tions, and that the inflammation was more acute in the portions covering the convolutions which cerebral phrenologists have proved to be the organs for the evolutions of a particular faculty?veneration.”

To the above illustrative cases others may be added calcu- lated in an eminent degree to command the patient attention of all really earnest in the pursuit of pathological science. Such cases or such facts, together with the many more contained in this paper (which as I conceive so plainly demonstrates the truth, and therefore the importance, of Grail’s discoveries in cerebral physiology?i.e. phrenology), will, it is to be hoped, so fix themselves on the minds of at least a few that the composi- tion of these Notes on the Psychological Pathology of the Brain might not prove wholly in vain, or useless.

To conclude: in the Journal of Anatomy for July 1878 Dr.N. J. Dodds concludes his series of papers, On the Localisation of the Functions of the Brain, with these words, viz.: ” The evidence of anatomy, as a whole, while it lends support in many ways to the localisation of centres held byHitzig, Ferrier,and others, points to a localisation and interconnection of centres very much more com- plicated than any yet indicated by physiological experiment.” This evidence of Dr Dodds I would venture to recommend to Dr Ferrier’s attention, asking him at the same time to bear well in mind the truism conveyed in this very significant couplet? Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below.

PoSTSCEIPT. But few readers of the preceding pages are likely to remember the very “unnecessary vituperative discussion,” so called by the late J. F. Clarke (M.R.C.S. Lond.), in his Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1874), in respect to mesmerism, with which the pages of the Lancet were encumbered now nearly forty years since. “Actuated by the most disin- terested and praiseworthy motives” (Clarke), ” and withal earnest in his attempts to account for most of the phenomena obtained by animal magnetism on purely scientific and physiological grounds,” the late Dr Elliotson, who, the late sub-editor of the Lancet, just named, declared was ” one of the ablest, most single minded and ardent inquirers that has ever existed,” entered on a course of experimental inquiry at the North London Hospital, of which he was the senior physician, into “mesmerism” so called. The result was, he demonstrated before London savants the facts taught previously by Baron Dupolet and Cuvier, and confirmed then by many others, including Mayo, Sir P. Crampton, and Dr Macreight. ButDr Elliotson, “honest himself, he believed all others were equally honest, and hence,” writes the late J. F. Clarke, “the result”?viz., the abuse and ” unnecessary vituperation ” of him by the late Mr. Thomas Wakley, who ” did not believe in the reality of the phenomena displayed” (Clarke), and which led to this?” Elliotson and mesmerism stood and fell together ‘ (Clarke). So thus was the genius of Elliotson rewarded; and after such a fashion was his noble enthusiasm in the cause of physiology accepted by the profession, of which he was so eminent a member. The Lancet, which owed so much to the publication of Elliotson’s ” reports of cases under his treatment at the hospital” and the able “clinical remarks” appended thereto, proved his near ruin; inasmuch as his income, which amounted through many years to several thousands (according to Clarke to ?5,000 per annum), dwindled to a comparatively trifling sum. It but little availed Elliotson that he was declared to have ” acquitted himself as physician and lecturer at the North London Hospital “admirably, and was one of the most popular teachers that ever existed (Clarke); it was enough that, like Grail, he was an ” innovator an indepen- dent seeker after truth,come it in what guise it would and theie- fore it was that the medical press of the time took upon itself to crusli him and mesmerism at one fell swoop. To this end there appeared in the Lancet, the organ then par excellence of reform and progress (!!) a series of leading articles written by the late Mr. Wakley “in his most forcible and trenchant style” (Clarke), designed to arouse “popular indignation ” “against the practice of mesmerism,” ” its absurdity and immorality so called.

It has been written, ” persecution gives wings to a bad cause and never yet put down a good one. W ithout doubt ” mesmerism,” or more properly animal magnetism, has not been put down by the ignoble ordeal to which it has been subjected, for its acceptance by the most eminent physiologists and writers on science, past and present, is plainly enough seen. Drs. Esdaile and Druitt, Braid, Cox, Caldwell, Atkinson, and a host more, have written concerning it, and have accepted the ” phenomena dis- played” as genuine?the very reverse of “humbug” (Wakley). Through my medical life I have heard much of the late Mr. Oakley’s exposure of Elliotson’s “foibles and fancies in regaid to ” mesmerism” and the O’Keys. Now the present is an opportunity, as I conceive, to put the plain facts of this matter before my pro- fessional brothers?I wish I could add sisters. I am indebted for the statement here given in abstract to the late J. F. Claike, it is to be found in his Autobiographical Recollections, quoted here. Dr Elliotson and Mr. ‘Wakley met on August 1838 at the house of the former in Bedford Square; the object was to ” experiment on the O’Keys.” Elliotson was strongly impressed with the idea that the metal nickel, in opposition to lead, could be and was charged with the ” magnetic influence by himself, and that it was conveyed by contact to the girlO Key, producing in her the ordinary trance effects, &c. ^ akley denied the exist- ence in nickel of any such property, and what is more, declared the whole affair to be a deception, a piece of ” humbug. The marked effects?i.e. the violently flushed face, the ” full squint/’ the prostration, the hurried breathing, the rigid limbs, and ” opis- thotonos/’ he affirmed, were put on, and therefore valueless as a scientific demonstration. As to the nickel, Waklev was quite right, for, unknown to Elliotson, he (Wakley) and Mr. Clarke put the nickel on one side. No metal was used. On taking the nickel from the hands of Elliotson Wakley gave it to Clarke, who put it in his pocket and walked to the other side of the room, a distance of eighteen feet. However, the experiment was con- tinued in the ordinary way by Wakley, when the phenomenon above given was produced, and ” with increased violence,” lasting ” upwards of half an hour.” On Elliotson being told that no nickel had been used by Wakley, the former expressed a very decided opinion that effects so marked could be produced only through the agency of the metal. Hasty words ensued. ” The experiment was again and again repeated, always with the same results, the nickel on no one occasion having been used.” It is added, ” Elliotson was puzzled, but said he had no doubt that some satisfactory explanation could be found of the circumstances, which would explain all appearance of anomaly in the results.” On subsequent occasions lead was substituted for nickel, when the ” mesmeric sleep ” (Clarke) was produced ; and now it was Elliotson confessed himself ” deceived in sup- posing that lead could not convey the magnetic influence.” So far the metals, nickel and lead; but, asks Mr. Clarke, how are we to explain the phenomena which result from ” mesmeric passes ” ? The experiments of Mr. Wakley, according to Clarke, ” failed to prove the imposture sought for and hoped for in Eliza- beth O’Key.” ” It is impossible,” he said,” that the results ob- servable in the O’Keys could have been of a voluntary character; no one could fairly deny that there had been ‘ effects’ whose cause, by whatever name we might call it, was mysterious, strange, and meriting calm and deliberate inquiry.” Such was the late Mr. Clarke’s opinion as put on record by him in 1874, and after the lapse of some forty years. So much for the late Mr. Wakley’s ” exposure ” (?) of the late Dr Elliotsorts experi- ments on the sisters O’Key ! It may yet come to pass, as Elliot- son affirmed at the time, that a ” satisfactory explanation of the circumstances ” in regard to the anomalous results of the nickel and lead upon the O’Keys will be discovered ; and the reasons demonstrated why nickel could not, or did not, ” convey the magnetic influence ” ; whilst, as Mr. Clarke affirms in his Auto- biographical Recollections, the application of lead did. The experiments of Charcot and others, now in progress, will, it is to be hoped, add much to our present knowledge of ‘’ Metallo- therapy ” or ” Metalloscopy.”

Disclaimer

The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:

1. Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.

2. Material that is in the public domain

3. Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.

See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/scanning/