Elements of phrenology / [George Combe].

  • George Combe
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of phrenology / [George Combe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    powers of the mind are not equally developed at the same time, but appear in succession at different periods of life. As in some animals the sense of sight precedes the sense of hearing, each depending on the state of its own organ, so different parts of the brain are developed in succession, the most early subserving those mental powers which appear first. 2d, Because genius is generally partial. Madame Catalani, for example, was not gifted with an equal natural talent for mathematics or metaphysics as for music. An excellent painter is often no musician : or a clever and acute observer is, in some instances, not a profound reasoner. This is parallel to a person seeing who cannot hear,—a fact explained by the organs of vision and hearing being distinct. If the same part of the brain manifested the faculties of colour, of music, and of rea- soning, these powers should, of necessity, be equally strong or weak; which is contrary to daily experience. 3d, Because in dreaming one or more faculties are awake. while others are asleep, and if all acted through the in- strumentality of one and the same organ, they could not be in opposite states at the same time. 4th, Because in partial idiocy and partial insanity some faculties are greatly deficient or deranged, while others are powerful and healthy ; which could not occur if all depended on one organ. dth, Because partial injuries of the brain do not affect all the mental powers equally, which should regularly be the case if the organ of the mind were single. Certain parts of the brain have been wounded without impairing the intellect, while the temper and dispositions were evidently disturbed, and vice versa. These facts indicate, that different parts subserve different mental powers. These considerations lead so directly to the inference that the brain consists of a plurality of mental organs, that, to use the strong expressions of Foderé, “ they had been adverted to by almost all anatomists from the days of Galen downwards, and even by the great Haller, who felt the necessity (qui éprouvait le besoin) of assigning distinct A2
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