Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/535

Rh "A young idiot, whom I have long had under my eye, has the most marked and irresistible inclination to imitate all that she sees done in her presence; she repeats mechanically all that she hears said, and imitates with the greatest fidelity the gestures and actions of others, without much regard to propriety."

I can not go into details to-night as to the ample evidence, pathological and otherwise, which the early phrenologists brought forward in their time. They were only ridiculed and treated as charlatans. To-day people know nothing of the old phrenology, except what they hear from opponents and read in books by some, phrenological dilettanti. Scientific men think Gall's theory exploded, because Sir William Hamilton and Flourens appeared to disprove it; but we know, since 1870, that the doctrines of these two men are equally valueless, for Flourens taught that the whole brain acted as an organ of the mind, and not, as we know now, that special parts of the brain have separate functions; while Sir William Hamilton considered it impossible 'to form a system on the supposed parallelism of brain and mind. L. Landois (Lehrbuch der Physiologie) recommends a re-examination of Gall's theories, and I hope to show you to-night that, whatever you may think of the phrenological system, Gall's fundamental observations were correct.

Ferrier's experiments on monkeys on the anterior and inner aspect of the uncinate gyrus, marked 15 (Fig. 1), had the effect of "torsion of the lip and semiclosure of the nostril on the same side, as when the interior of the nostril is irritated by some pungent odor." He says (page 244, The Functions of the Brain, London, 1886):

"Irritation of the middle temporo-sphenoidal convolution I have found in general to be without any obvious reaction except toward the lower extremity, where in several instances movements of the tongue, cheek-pouches, and jaws were induced very much like those which are characteristic of tasting."

The same experiment on 15, the uncinate gyrus or extremity of the temporal lobe of dogs, had the result of "torsion of the nostril on the same side, as if from irritation directly applied to the nostril." The same effect was produced by experiments on cats and other animals. He continues:

Page 315: "As above described, irritation of the hippocampal lobule in the monkey, cat, dog, and rabbit was attended by essentially the same reaction in all, viz., a peculiar torsion of the. lip and nostril on the same side. This reaction is precisely the same as is induced in these animals by the direct application of some strong or disagreeable odor to the nostril, and is evidently the outward or associated expression of excited olfactory sensation."

Page 321: "As to the sense of taste, I have not succeeded in