Phrenology, or the doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body.
- Johann Spurzheim
- Date:
- 1825
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Phrenology, or the doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![brain. He shows that an excrescence in liis own possession liad a niiieh stroimer resemblance to tlie brain of an ox than that wliicli Dnverney liad caused to be drawn. He conse¬ quently reproaches Duverney with his ignorance in thinking that he and Bartholin had alone observed this phenomenon, and ex])resses the greatest amazement that the Academy of Sciences should have been deceived by that which Duverney presented as an ossified brain. He, moreover, reproaches Du¬ verney for having neglected to open and examine the interior parts, in order to see that there was no vestige of cavities, of corpora striata, or of thalami; and blames his credulity in sup- })orting his assertion only by the story of a butcher. To the observations of Vallisneri, it maybe added, that the part on the surface, called pineal gland by Duverney, is much larger than the pineal gland of an ox ; its form is also quite different; and, finally, it is situated on the surface not interiorly, as is the case in nature. In the same manner the part which he considers as a cerebellum with its vermiform process, resem¬ bles the natural cerebellum in no wise ; and Vallisneri justly remarks that Duverney would have found the brain as well as the bony excrescence, had he himself opened the head; he even states a case in point of a butcher of Modena, who, by proceeding more carefully, found both a brain and a bony excrescence of the skulk Messrs. Giro and Moreschi maintain that they saw the cen¬ trum ovale of Vieussens in the bony excrescence which they possess. This error is easily explained: for as the brain, when cut horizontally, presents a large white surface, called by Vieussens centrum ovale, so these bony excrescences, when sawed in any direction whatever, will also present a white sur¬ face like ivory, and this they have considered as a centrum ovale. But why have these gentlemen not found the ventricles, the thalami, the corpora striata, the tubercular quadrigemina, &c. ? That, however, which is most inconceivable is, that they found no vestige ot nerves, alfhoiigh the ox bad preserved](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2929597x_0066.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
