The human brain : its configuration, structure, development, and physiology : illustrated by references to the nervous system in the lower order of animals / by Samuel Solly.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The human brain : its configuration, structure, development, and physiology : illustrated by references to the nervous system in the lower order of animals / by Samuel Solly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    39/542 (page 17)
    a circumscribed mass, whatever form or arrange- ment it may assume ; for instance, the cineritious neurine which forms the convoluted surface of the hemispheres of the human brain I should deno- minate the hemispherical ganglia; for the convo- luted appearance arises solely from the circum- stance that it was necessary a contrivance should be adopted to pack a very extensive surface into a small space, on the same principle, (and I trust that the homeliness of my simile will be excused for its simplicity,) that when we put a handker- chief into our pocket we fold it up instead of attempting to carry it about us spread out to its whole extent. Now there would be just as much reason to deprive the semilunar ganglion of its generic title, and give it a name merely in accordance with its appearance, as there is in separating the hemispheres of the human brain from their analogous ganglia in the lower orders, and designating them by a term which gives a mystery to their character they do not deserve. When the physiologist is engaged in the diffi- cult task of discovering the office of any particular apparatus in the organism of an animal, there are few proofs which are so clear and satisfactory as those derived from some decided peculiarity of structure: as a simple instance we may cite the tubular form of arteries and veins, convincing us that they are intended to carry fluids, and the valves in the interior, proving to us that those