Phrenology examined / by P. Flourens ; translated from the second edition of 1845, by Charles De Lucena Meigs.

  • Flourens, P. (Pierre), 1794-1867.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology examined / by P. Flourens ; translated from the second edition of 1845, by Charles De Lucena Meigs. 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.)

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    proposition that the brain is the exclusive seat of the soul is not a new proposition, and hence does not originate with Gall. It belonged to science before it appeared in his Doctrine. The merit of Gall, and it is by no means a slender merit, consists in his having understood better than any of his predecessors the whole of its importance, and in having devoted him- self to its demonstration. It existed in science before Gall appeared—it may be said to reign there ever since his appearance. Taking each particular sense, he excluded them all, one after another, from all immediate participation in the functions of the understanding.* Far from being developed in the direct ratio of the intellection, most of them are developed in an inverse ratio. Taste and smell are more deve- loped in the quadruped than in man. Sight * He very properly distinguishes the senses from the under- standing ; but, as will be elsewhere seen, he endows each sense with all the attributes of the understanding. He escapes from one error only to fall into another.