The Brain

[From the New York Tribune.] The views expressed at the Washington convention of the pbysicians of insane asylums indícate somewhat the course of soientifie opinión as to tho functions of the brain. To the poets and the popular conception, the human sku.l will long remain "the dome of thought, the palace of the mind." To the student of phyriology, the seat of the mental processes had been gradually narrowing and receding till finally Dr. Clark, of Toronto, tells us that no satisfactory evidence proyes that mentality is localized beyond a focal point of the nerves at the base of the brain. We can better appreciate how great is this change from former views if we comparo with such a conception the notions on which phrenology was based, when the various attributes of mind were supposed to display themselves in the "bumps"of the skull, and, in consequence, to reBide on or near the circumference of the organ witnin. If the new views are to be aeoepted, much moro than phrenology must be sacrificed. Brain-power, the new doctrine teaches, is not dependent alone on tho size of the skuli's contenta. Probably, also, considerations of shape will follow those of size ; people with high foreheads will gain no reputation from their frontal expanses, and a head as lowcrowned as that of a mound-buiider will be credited with a full average supply of intellect. It must be admitted that there are Bome facts hard to explain under the old doctrine. Dr. Brown-Sequard described a few years ago a large number of casses where people who had lost half or more of their brains succeeded in keeping quite as much seuse as they had ever possessed. This was partially explained on the theory that either half of the brain may perform the functions of the whole. But other instances were related where the full mental capacity survived a partial loss of both hemispheres of the brain. However, there was the cerebellum, the little brain, to fall baek upon. A great deal of faith has been pinned to the cerebellum by scientific lolks who have lost faith in their brains. But now comes Dr. Walter Kemper, of Oshkosh, with the postmortem examination of a patiënt who was interested in the news of the day, conversed intelligently on politics, religión and science, and was well versed in English literature, yet had suffered from a disease which wasted away one side of her cerebrum and the other sido of her cerebellum, till neither was of one-fourth the natural size. Such instances seeni more conclusive than the famous experiments upon pigeons, in which the birds not only snrvived the extirpation of their entire brains, but even regained, apparently, their normal senses and capacity af ter the lapse of a few weeks. If it be conceded that the mental faculties reside in the focus of neryes at the base of the brain, there will be less difflculty in obtaining correct notions about the insect world. Few insects have any brains, yet many of them - as, for instance, Sir John Lubbock's ants - have sound, discriminating intellects. In f act, certain sa vage anís of South America hold tracts of land, and wage successful war against man when he attempts to plant a residence on their domain. Big brains, in that oase, are powerless against no brains. Wiiat, then, it may be asked, is the use of the organ in question, if it does not serve as the seat of mind ? Dr. Brown Sequard's answer was that the brain, like the hand, does the work ot the mind, as it is ordered ; but is the instrument, not the motor. That view of the matter suggests at least one sensible precept : If our brains are mere tools, we shonld at all events keep them in good order.