Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/537

Rh to think, since I wrote last, that the place where its different degrees of development are manifested in the living body is in the fossa zygomatica (c, Fig. 2). Before I had thought at all of phrenology I was struck with the remarkable breadth of the face or head of a friend of mine, caused, not by prominent cheekbones, as in some varieties of mankind, but more toward the ears, by the great convexity of the zygomatic arch. Knowing that this individual was exceedingly fond of good living, and that, even in spite of a very powerful intellect, and propensities moderate in almost every other respect, he was prone to indulge too freely in the joys of the table, I afterward thought that this form of the head and tendency of the mind might bear a nearer relation to each other than had at first occurred to me; and in some other persons, notoriously fond of good eating and drinking, I found a confirmation of my suppositions. This prominence of the bony arch, I think, must be an absolute consequence of the part of the cranium lying under the temporal muscle being pushed outward, and diminishing in that direction the space of the fossa."

Dr. Hoppe considered the organ "alimentiveness" to be likewise the organ of taste. He says:

"That the sensation of taste only passes through the nerves and is perceived in a part of the brain is a supposition, I think, sufficiently proved. Now, it appears to me as highly probable, and by analogy agreeing with other experience, that it is one and the same organ which tastes, viz., distinguishes and enjoys, and incites us to taste, or, in other terms, to take food and drink. This, according to my opinion, is the organ of appetite for food, and consequently it may be named the organ of taste, gustus."

Dr. Crook, of London, mentions that, several years before the publication of Dr. Hoppe's papers, he himself had arrived at similar conclusions with regard to this faculty and the position of its organ. He says:

"Three persons with whom I had become acquainted in the year 1819, first led me to suspect that a portion of brain situated near the front of the ear was connected with the pleasures of the "festive board. From that time to the end of 1822 above a thousand observations were made. As they tended to confirm this view, several phrenological friends were informed of the result. From 1823 I no longer doubted that the anterior portion of the middle lobe was a distinct organ, and that its primary use was the discrimination and enjoyment of meats and drink. It was difficult, however, to hit the fundamental power. The situation of the organ, under the zygomatic process and the temporal muscle, frequently precluded the possibility of accurate observation. But, notwithstanding, well-marked cases, both of a positive and a negative kind, were investigated."