merism, and he would not believe truth when it was displayed to him.

Mr Lang also speaks of persecution so often, that one would almost think some of the mesmerists had been hanged or beheaded-banished or suffered imprisonment at the very least. But we observe it is always the medical men who persecute. Now, let any one read over his fourth chapter, and then say, if it does not shew strong signs that he would be a persecutor if he could. Alas for the poor doctors, if he were to be their judge! But then, Dr Elliotson has surely been persecuted by his medical brethren for espousing Mesmerism! If, as our author states, the Doctor lost a great part of his practice in London, is the medical profession to blame for this? It surely shews that the public at large had something to do with the persecution, when they withdrew their patronage from him. The truth probably is, that even Mesmerism was only indirectly the cause of the diminution in his practice, if such really took place. From paying so much attention to Phrenology and Mesmerism, he could not, it may have been inferred, attend closely to his professional duties. Practice would soon be found to decline by any medical man who should direct his attention almost exclusively to one subject, whatever that subject might happen to be.

We were not a little amused on reading Mr Lang's defence of the genuineness of the manifestations given by the young girls O'Key, the first mesmeric patients Dr Elliotson exhibited in London several years ago. It seems, some one had the audacity to state that these girls were impostors; a fact, we may remark, proved to demonstration-if ever there was any individual fact proved in this world—and known to have been so by every impartial man acquainted with the particulars.* But our champion of Mesmerism and of Dr Elliotson says no; and gives proof of it. "Listen," he says, "to what Dr Elliotson states in his Numerous Cases, published in 1843;" and then follows a quotation from the Doctor, finishing with-" Every thing stated or ever printed to their disadvantage, was an absolute falsehood; I repeat these words emphatically, an absolute falsehood." Verily Mr Lang is no lawyer, if he supposes that Dr Elliotson will be taken by the public as a witness in his own cause. Did any one ever expect, after the scenes exhibited, and the discoveries detailed in the Lancet respecting these girls, that Dr E. would ever admit the imposition, and confess that he was himself deceived? Assuredly none. Our author evidently knows nothing of the circumstances, except

* See various articles under the title "Animal Magnetism," in the Lancet for 1837-8, vol. ii.

through the medium of Dr E. himself, otherwise he would be aware that the Doctor's evidence on this subject is not worth a straw. That Dr E. himself is firmly convinced of the sincerity of the girls, is a circumstance of no weight with those who think themselves as able to estimate the value of evidence as he; and who, at all events, are more likely to form an unbiassed judgment on the question.

V. The British Medical Journals.

1. The Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. LXXVI. (April 1843), contains a long analysis of Mr Guthrie's work "On Injuries of the Head affecting the Brain." One result of his experience in cases of loss of considerable portions of the cerebrum, is stated by Mr Guthrie to be, that brain is more rarely lost from the forepart of the head without danger to life, than from the middle part; and that a fracture of the skull, and even the lodgement of a foreign body and a portion of the bone in the brain, may be sometimes borne without any great inconvenience in the back part. With respect to concussion, he thinks that the exact condition or lesion of the brain is far from being very clear; "whilst he agrees," says the reviewer, "as all rational thinkers must, with Sir B. Brodie, that there may be changes and alterations of structure in the brain, which our senses are incapable of detecting." "-P. 294. According to Mr Guthrie, in children the cranium does not break so readily as in adults, the brain bears pressure better, and the level of the bone is gradually restored. "Avellan says that a girl of fourteen had a depression of the right parietal bone from a blow, which gave rise to mental derangement, amounting almost to imbecility, for three months; at the end of which time the depressed bone gradually resumed its level, and the girl completely recovered. In Quesnay, Mémoires de l'Académie de Chirurgie de Paris, tome i." (P. 309). "When a person," says Mr Guthrie," has received a serious blow on the head, which has given rise to an exfoliation of the bone, or to a very slight depression of the skull, he is rarely restored to his previous healthy and natural state. In all these cases, and I could relate many, of persons of education, they can bear no great exertion of any kind. They fall down under exposure to heat. They are easily inebriated, rendered furious by a small quantity of liquor, and often become stupefied, comatose, or even die suddenly. In addition to these evils, which may be avoided by care, many are subjected to fits, which are appa

rently epileptic; and others suffer from such intolerable pain in the part injured, as well as in the head generally, as to be rendered miserable and desirous of seeking relief at any risk. These injuries are often accompanied during their progress by mental defects which time does not always remove. The memory is very often much impaired. It is frequently defective as to things as well as to persons. The sight of one or both eyes may be impaired, or even lost. Ptosis, or a falling of the upper lid, is not an uncommon although a more curable defect. Speech is not only difficult, but the power of uttering certain words is often lost; a language is occasionally for a time forgotten, and a sort of conventional one has even been adopted, in the manner mentioned by Sir A. Cooper, the Baron Larrey, Sir B. Brodie, and in the case related by Dr Hennen, which was under my own observation. The more serious evils which befall these unfortunate sufferers are aberrations of mind, rendering some degree of restraint necessary, or a state of fatuity, which is not less distressing. These intellectual defects are often accompanied by various states of lameness and debility, from which there is but little hope of recovery."-P. 324.

In a notice of Sir Alexander Crichton's "Commentaries on some Doctrines of a dangerous tendency in Medicine," it is mentioned (p. 398) that he repudiates the doctrine of insanity being a disease of the mind, if by mind we mean the soul, or "the immaterial agent which directs our reason or moral feelings." Sir Alexander, says the reviewer, "justly considers the anatomical researches of Foville and Delaye as the very best that have ever been made in respect to the condition of the brain in insanity. These gentlemen always took care to have a sound brain on the table while dissecting the brain of a maniac. In acute cases of insanity, the cineritious part of the brain was discovered by these gentlemen to be preternaturally red and congested. In early stages of acute insanity, no adhesions of the membranes to the cortical substance were discovered; but in chronic cases these adhesions were very common." Dr Carpenter, in his "Principles of Human Physiology," writes as follows: "From the great vascularity of the grey matter, and the occurrence of a structure of corresponding character around the origins of the afferent nerves, it is evident that its functions must be different from those of the fibrous structure; and, whilst there is no evidence that the latter serves any different purpose than that of a mere conductor, there seems good reason to believe that all the active operations, of which the nervous system is the instrument, originate in the former."

A very remarkable case, bearing upon this subject, is men

VOL. XVII.-N. S. No. XXV.-JAN. 1844.

F

tioned by Dr Brigham in his recently published" Inquiry concerning the Functions and Diseases of the Brain;" we here extract it from that work, p. 62. It is the case of an idiot, who died during the clinical course of M. Esquirol, in 1823. “The right side of the body was extremely atrophied. The limbs of this side were reduced almost to skin and bone, and not capable of the least motion. They were also considerably shorter than the limbs of the opposite side, which were well developed, and capable of motion. In short, the left side of the body was in a natural and healthy condition, while the right was paralytic, emaciated, and of diminutive length. The cause of this singular appearance was sought for after death with great diligence, and the autopsy was witnessed by a large number. No disease was found on examining the body, except that of the brain. The head was quite small, though the bones of the cranium exhibited nothing remarkable. The hemispheres of the brain presented no appearance of convolutions. The cineritious substance was wanting on both sides. But the condition of the medullary part of the brain was most interesting. On the right side it was natural, as the discase appeared to have extended only to the surface of the right hemisphere; but in the left hemisphere it was almost entirely wanting, and its place filled by a semi-transparent fluid." Dr Brigham considers this case fully to establish the opinion, that the grey matter is the seat of the mental faculties, and the medullary that of the motive powers. "It is evident," he adds, "from the condition of the brain, that the paralysis and atrophy of the right side of the body, was owing to the absence of the medullary portion of the left side of the brain, and that motion cannot be dependent on the cineritious portion of the convolutions, for this was wanting on both sides. The absence of the eineritious substance may, however, account for the idiocy. I do not know of a case deserving of more consideration than this, not merely as relates to the confirmation of the views advanced respecting the functions of the cineritious and medullary parts of the brain. but as shewing that the healthy and full development of the muscles, limbs, and other parts of the body, is dependent upon the healthy condition of the nervous system."

It is natural to ask, how this doctrine, that the mental powers are the function of the grey matter exclusively, will, if confirmed by farther observation, affect Phrenology. At present it is impossible to answer the question. Of this, however, we may rest assured, that whatever may be ultimately determined

on the point, the fact will stand unshaken, that certain very recognisable forms of the brain are accompanied by certain well-defined mental qualities. There is no fear of any one truth being found to clash with another.

On page 432 of the same Number, the following quotation is made from Dr Matthew Truman's work on "Food and its Influence on Health and Disease :"-" Many persons consider that the human race has degenerated since the variety of our food has been so much increased. One trivial circumstance may be mentioned to prove the incorrectness of such an opinion. At the time of the tournament lately given by the Earl of Eglintoun at his seat in Scotland, when the old armour of so many departed Templars was brought out for the use of the knights who were to figure at that entertainment, many periodical publications teemed with paragraphs asserting that a great deal of padding and filling-up was necessary, to enable our young but degenerate aristocracy (as they were called), to keep on the corselets, arm-pieces, and sheaves, on account of the gigantic stature of the persons for whom they had originally been made. Mr Pratt of Bond Street, who provided a large portion of this armour, states the very reverse to have been the ease; that the reason, in almost every instance, the old armour had to be altered was, that it was too small instead of being too large. Most of the cuirasses and the coverings for the limbs were found to be so tight across the chest and round the arms and legs, that they could not be worn; and scarcely any of the helmets could be got on before they were enlarged; most satisfactorily proving that the higher orders of young men, in this country, possess a more perfect corporeal development than those of a similar class had six or seven hundred years ago."

The reviewer of Dr Carpenter's "Principles of General and Comparative Physiology," after quoting, with full and warm concurrence, the opinion of that writer, that "no one, who has had sufficient opportunities of observation, can doubt that the intellectual faculties, which have been developed by cultivation, are generally transmitted to the offspring in an improved state; so that the descendant of a line of educated ancestors will probably have a much higher capacity for instruction than the child that springs from an illiterate race," adds the exclamation, "How wide a field for discussion and for action does this consideration present! How gravely do the spread of education and the science of intermarriage address themselves to the attention of the philanthropist and the legislator! The fruits of care and culture are not confined to the well-being of a single individual: they bear within them the blessings of in