Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/38

 structure of the brain has been much more clearly demonstrated, since the mode of treating it, by transverse sections, has been exchanged for the more rational one, of unfolding its several parts, without injuring their texture, or rudely disuniting them.

Respecting the nerves, the brilliant discoveries of Sir C. Bell constitute an æra in anatomical science. They shed around his name a lustre of no common brightness, and will extend his fame to distant climes and remote ages. They open a field, too, for further investigation, for it is highly probable that the nerves perform other functions besides those of sensation, motion, and volition; and that there are special nerves devoted to several of the more intricate processes of the animal economy, which enlightened research may yet explore.

Of the several abdominal viscera we have yet much to learn. The uses of the spleen, of the renal capsules, of the appendix cœci, are still conjectural, if not wholly unknown. The physiology of the liver is very imperfect. In fine, sedulously as anatomy and physiology have been cultivated for ages, there is still enough unascertained to excite inquiry and repay exertion.

Pathology.—In pathology, the field is still more ample, for this branch of science, can hardly be regarded otherwise than in its infancy. It presents but few truths which merit the name of principles, and even the series of morbid changes from which the special diseases, recognised by nosology, result, has been hitherto very imperfectly investigated.