Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/337

Rh preponderates, the cerebellum is relatively to the cerebrum larger than in man.

7. Alcohol, which affects the motor co-ordinations carried on by the cerebellum, affects first of all and chiefly the emotions.

8. Rats whose cerebellum was extirpated by Dr. Courmont ceased to give any signs of fear or anger.

9. Comparative anatomy shows that the development of the cerebellum runs parallel with the activity of the emotional life. Whales show great affection for their young, dolphins cry aloud and weep, and seals and sea-lions are notorious for the vivacity of all their feelings; but all these animals are remarkable for the size and complication of the cerebellum. In reptiles, which are emotionally at the opposite extreme, the cerebellum is at its minimum. Compare also birds with fishes. The only fishes which show much emotional life are the sharks and rays, and in them the cerebellum is exceptionally developed.

10. The nerves concerned with the emotions and their expression can be traced into the cerebellum or into the region of its stem (pons, valve of Vieussens, restiform bodies). Such are the pathetic, the trigeminal, the facial, and the auditory.

11. Emotional insanity may coexist with sound senses and intellect. In many cases of this sort the cerebellum has been found diseased. In general paralysis the cerebellum is usually affected where the psychic sensibility is increased.

12. The cerebellum is a sensitive organ, not only by its anatomical connections, but by the evidence of direct pricking, etc., and of intense pain when it is diseased. Hyperæsthesia and other disturbances of tactile sensibility are among the most constant results of its injury. The motor disturbances which are also observed must be regarded as indirect results, similar to what occurs in reflex paralysis.

Dr. Courmont's conclusion is that whilst the cerebral hemispheres possess whatever sensory functions are sufficient for the cognitive life, to the cerebellum those concerned in psychic sensibility, properly so called, such as pleasure, pain, emotional feeling, and the feeling of bodily condition, are assigned. Dr. Courmont uses the term psychic sensibility without any particular analysis. In general this lack of minute analysis gives to his book a certain old-fashioned air. The day is past when such lump-terms as 'reason' or 'intelligence' can be assigned as the functions of such a lump-organ as the 'brain.' Both on the mental and the anatomical side we now distinguish elements and try to correlate them. But our author still treats the cerebellum as a whole, not distinguishing the vermis from the lateral lobes any more expressly than he distinguishes bodily pain from 'sentiments.' The reader has many doubts as he goes along. Destructive and irritative lesions are by no means consistently