Observations on the structure of the brain : comprising an estimate of the claims of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim to discovery in the anatomy of that organ / by John Gordon.

Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the structure of the brain : comprising an estimate of the claims of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim to discovery in the anatomy of that organ / by John Gordon. 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.

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    of its instructors ; who have little inducement to possess, as they have none to impart, more know- ledge than they are required or expected to con- vey. It is neither unaccountable nor unreason- able, therefore, that the anatomy of the bram should be imperfectly known to many, who are distinguished in teaching and practising the va~ rious branches of the medical art. These circumstances are undoubtedly favoura' ble to the progress of any hypothesis respecting the structure of this part of the human frame. Provided its author have the prudence to found it on some established truths, and the dexterity to represent it as the means of explaining certain phenomena hitherto inexplicable, he may often venture, with great prospect of success, to bring to its support facts not observable in nature, and not the parents, but the offspring of his theory. The persons he addresses, whose early studies (never, perhaps, in this department complete) have much faded from their recollection, and whom the duties of an active and toilsome pro- fession prevent from yielding the attention lequi- site for mature judgment on such a subject, are apt to acquiesce in any statements having an air