ved for certain functions, but receiving an influence from all the parts of the cord, and exercising one upon them by means of their communications.

We do not think that any anatomist can perceive any obscurity in this new explanation of the ten principal articles premised by the authors of the memoir which we are examining; they have, besides, acknowledg. ed them to be the true expression of their opinion.

We have repeated all the observations of Drs Gall and Spurzheim ; we have even submitted to a new examination, part of those which were made by older authors, but connected with theirs. We, therefore, think that we have fulfilled, as far as lay in our power, the commission with which the class has honoured us.

We are far from adopting all the views and all the observations related in the memoir of these anatomists, but we are also far from rejecting them entirely.

It appears to us, 1st, That Drs Gall and Spurzheim have the merit, not of having discovered, but of having recalled to the attention of physiologists, the continuity of the fibres which extend from the medulla ob longata into the hemispheres, and into the cerebellum, which Vieussens first detailed, and the decussation of the filaments of the pyramidal eminences described by Mistichelli, by Francis Petit, and by Santorini, but with regard to which some doubt had been entertained.

2d, That they are the first who have distinguished the two orders of fibres, of which the medullary matter of the hemispheres appears to be composed; the one of which diverges from the pedunculi, while the other converges towards the commissures.

3d, That, by uniting their observations with those of their predecessors, they have made it very probable, that the nerves called cerebral ascend

from the medulla oblongata, and do not descend from the brain; and that in general, they have very much weakened, not to say overturned, the system which makes all the nerves come originally from the brain.

But it also appears to us, 1st, That they have generalized rather in an inconsiderate manner, the resemblance of structure, and of functions in the various cineritious, or ash-coloured masses which are met with in the different parts of the nervous system.

2d, That the idea which they entertain of a solution of continuity in the middle of the medullary matter of each circumvolution, which would permit of its being unfolded like a pipe or a purse, requires to be expressed in more definite terms than they have hitherto done, so as to indicate, that there is no complete proof of an absolute solution of continuity, but only of a more feeble cohesion.

We ought however to remark, that these two articles do not affect their general result, with regard to the kind of separation and of reserve into which they place the brain; and we ought, at the same time, to allow physiologists and pathologists to judge how far this kind of separation or laying aside, which anatomy seems to point out, is justified by facts, and how far it may favour the explanation of the numerous and astonishing phenomena of organic and animal life, and especially of those in which these seem sometimes dependant upon, sometimes distinct from, each other.

We think ourselves, however, obliged to finish our investigation, by remarking, that, if we were even to adopt the greater number of the ideas of Drs Gall and Spurzheim, we would still be far from knowing the relations, the uses, and the connexions of all the parts of the brain.

So long as we have not even a well-grounded conjecture with regard to the functions of the pituitary gland

of

of the infundibulum, of the mammillary eminences, of the cords passing from these eminences into the substance of the thalami, of the pineal gland, and of its pedunculi, we must apprehend, that any system whatever, with regard to the functions of the brain, is very incomplete, since it will not embrace these parts so numerous, so considerable, and so intimately connected with the whole of this important organ.

This is almost finishing with as much doubt, and as much uncertainty, as we began; but one can only require, on every subject, the degree of probability of which it admits; and the natural philosopher always performs his task very well, when he neither exaggerates, nor diminishes this probability, and when he fixes its degree with precision.

It is of importance to repeat once more, if it were only for the information of the public, that the anatomical

questions with which we have been engaged in this report, have no immediate and necessary connection with the physiological doctrine taught by Dr Gall, with regard to the functions and the influence of the relative size of the different parts of the brain, and that all that we have examined with respect to the structure of the encephalon might be equally true or false, without any conclusion being drawn for or against this doctrine, which can only be determined by quite different means.

Given at the Institute, the 15th April 1808.

(Signed)

Tenon, Portal, Sabatier, Pinel, Cuvier. The class approves of this report, and adopts its conclusions.

Conform to the Extract,

(Signed) CUVIER, Perpetual Secretary.

Ships.

30th Sept. S

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