The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand
John Stuart Mill · en
We do not wish to underrate any attempt heretofore made to classify the
functions of mind and assign to them an appropriate nomenclature. It is
not unusual for scientists to give advice to phrenologists and point out
the fallacies of their system; but it is hardly worth while to indulge
in destructive criticism, unless something better is offered, as the day
has passed for ridiculing endeavors to understand and interpret the
physiology of the brain. The all important question is, not whether
phrenologists have properly located and rightly earned all the faculties
of mind, but have their expositions been useful in the development of
truth. While endeavoring to connect each mental power with a local
habitation in the brain, the system of phrenology may be chargeable with
some incongruous classification of the faculties, and yet it has
furnished an analysis of the mind which has been of incalculable service
to writers upon mental philosophy. Phrenology, in popularizing its
views, has interested thousands in their own organizations and powers,
who would otherwise have remained indifferent. It has called attention
to mental and bodily unities, has served as a guide to explain the
physical and psychical characteristics of individuals, and has been
instrumental in applying physiological and hygienic principles to the
habits of life, thus rendering a service for which the world is greatly
indebted. Samuel George Morton, M.D., whose eminent abilities and
scholarship are unquestionable, employs the following language:
"The importance of the brain as the seat of the faculties of the mind,
is pre-eminent in the animal economy. Hence, the avidity with which its
structure and functions have been studied in our time; for, although
much remains to be explained, much has certainly been accomplished. We
have reason to believe, not only that the brain is the center of the
whole series of mental manifestations, but that its several parts are so
many organs, each one of which performs its peculiar and distinctive
office. But the number, locality, and functions of these several organs
are far from being determined; nor should this uncertainty surprise us,
when we reflect on the slow and devious process by which mankind has
arrived at some of the simplest physiological truths, and the
difficulties that environ all inquiries into the nature of the organic
functions."
[Illustration: Fig. 77.
Side view of the brain of a Cat. A. Crucial sulcus
dividing anterior convolutions. B. Fissure of
Sylvius. C. Olfactory bulb.]