Phrenology, a lecture delivered before the Woodville Lyceum Association / by Mariano Cubí i Soler.

  • Cubí y Soler, Mariano, 1801-1875.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology, a lecture delivered before the Woodville Lyceum Association / by Mariano Cubí i Soler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    7/22
    cheeks. Will any one say, without denying the evidence of sight, that this portion of the brain (destructiveness) is equal to this (benevolence), or that these convolutions (language, weight, color, form,) are like this mass (the cerebellum)? Im- possible. If, therefore, by a slight inspection, we see as much variety in the external form of the brain as we do in the external form of the face, will not the conclusion that the brain is designed for different functions, as the face is, be irresistible ? I know not what others may think ; for my part, I think it must. Besides the evidence of our senses, analogy, harmony, our own consciousness, and the appearance of many diseased mental phenomena, establish the same principle, that the brain is a series of organs, and that the mind employs them, vari- ously, for the performance of its functions. All animal creation affords a standing proof, that one dis- tinct function is performed by one distinct organ ; and that, if the function be complex, the organ is also complex. If hating, therefore, be different from loving, hoping from fearing, we must naturally suppose that nature, which is al- ways, invariably, consistent, will perform those different func- tions through the instrumentality of different organs. Partial genius, dreaming, monomania, partial idiocy, the successive appearance of mental powers in man, could not exist unless the mind acted through a variety of organs. If we thought through the same organ by which we feel and produce music, it would follow, as an inevitable con- sequence, that great power of thought would always be ac- companied by great musical talent, which, every one knows, is not the case. This observation is applicable to every other mental faculty. If dreaming be the awakened action of some mental powers, while others cannot be exercised, as its nature imports, it follows that the brain must be capable of being awake and asleep, active and inactive, at one and the same time, which could not possibly be the case, unless it were complex, unless it were a compound of parts. I say nothing in regard to the other mental phenomena, because it is self-evident that they could not exist, were the brain one single unit. To attempt to prove, for example, that monomania, which is the fact of one or more mental faculties being diseased, while others are perfectly healthy, presupposes the exisience of more than one mental organ, would be worse than useless. Besides, we need not go beyond ourselves in search of 2