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M83 682 THE COMPANION FOR ALL THE FAMILY 3 December 4,1919
THE NEWI Pi-IRENOLOGY
NE hundred and eleven years ago,
before the Institute of mice in
Paris, a. pioneer-minded doctor,
named Gall. described his theory of the
functions of the brain. llis theory has since been
known as phrenolngy. The system founded by
Dr. Gall has survived in a half-reputable man-
ner and finds its practitioners nnd votaries
to-day. According to their belief, each of the
various parts of the brain has its special mental
function. Ilence the term phrenolugy, which is
literally the science of the nlind. They further
assert. that the degree of development of the
various parts of the brain can be estimated
from the corresponding shape of the skull.
WAS GALL A QUACK7
IIUS we have the science of bunlps and
I the professors who, at fairs, feel the
heads of their customers and advise them
accordingly about their careers. The fatal ob-
jection to this theory, which we may all the
old phrenology, is twofold. In the first place,
it is totally impossible by feeling the skull to
ascertain the development of the brain. The
phrenologist s bumps do not correspond to the
brain at all, but are places where
the bone of the skull is thicker than
may any day be worth the life of any one of
us. Victor lIorsley's dexterity, or rather ambi-
dcxterity. am never have been surpassed, but
of what avail would it have been to that great-
est surgeon of the bmirr had not his researches
told him where to find the seat of his pzltient’s
distress? The workers at the new phrenology
are not actuated by mere curiosity. They know
that their work will enable the surgeon to go
to the very plztce whore a tumor, or what not,
is disturbing the functions of the brain, and
to save life and to avert pain accordingly. No
words can say of what service the new phre-
nology has been to soldiers of all nations in
recent years, when surgery of the brain has
been more important and more sucwsslul than
ever heretofore.
But my present concern is not to smte the
particular area in a particular fold of the brain
that corresponds to movements of the leg or
the arm, or to the sense of sight, or yet to dis-
cuss the reason why all the nerve nbrves cross
over on their way from the brain to the body,
associating the areas that are not silent Obvi-
ously, you must have some connection in the
brain between vision and speech before you
can hope to read aloud. That is true for every-
thing we do, and above all it is true for the
most: dillieuit thing of all, which is thinking.
Hence we begin to understand the differences
between hulnbler bruins and the brain of man.
The brains of apes, for example, differ little
from our own in respect of the areas that we
can map out. The brain of man is strong in its
power of vision and some kinds of hearing,
but is weak in its sense of smell. The slnell
area of the brain of man is a small, poor thing T
compared with that of the dog. The dog's, in-
deed, we may call a smell brain, but the brain
of man is a vision brain, 3 Seeing brain.
After all, the senses are higher and lower.
Cooking is a poor art compared with painting,
and to have a one palate for food is a poor
thing compared with having 9. fine ear for a
tune. The noble senses are hearing and vision,
and in those the brain of man is noble. Some
one may say that the unprecedented
size of the vision area in nlan, or of
elsewhere. In the second place the
parts of the brain do not have the
functions that Gall and his success-
ors ascribed to them. I shall even
go further and say, anticipating the
greatest of our conclusions, that
there are no parts of the brain that
correspond to the qualities of mind
and soul about which the phenol-
ogists are so sure.
Are we therefore to conclude that
Gall was a worthless quack? On the
contrary, we know today that in
principle he was right It is true,
as Gall asserted, that different parts
of the brain do special kinds of work,
g area, a.mounts to very
Q00 A ‘t - eari
- V ‘5"’"- little in results if man cannot see
like the eagle or hear Like the dog.
But that refers only to mere acute-
ness. The great quality of any sense
is not mere acuteness, but the power
of discrimination ‘ exampl
tween different. notes in the musical
scale, or between exquisite grada-
tions of color. In all the subtler quali-
ties of vision and bearing, our hum-
bler relatives do not even remotely
approach man.
centres is not the master fact of
man's brain. The master fact is the
' ' of the “sl-
even though he was wrong in his
details, and even though the skull
is no index to the brain.
Cm" cutrrlts or urr Hlmururnl or rail IKAIN
vv IN pr vo
A ruan-r- mourn nnro
lent,” association areas. Compare a
humbler bmin with ours, and on ours
We have therefore a new phrenol-
ogy as we may call it, or, as it is
technically known, the science of cerebral local-
imtion. It was also in Paris that in the middle
of the last century Dr. Brow first truly found
a particular function, no less than speech itself,
in a particular area of the brain that has since
been known by his name. Since that date many
students, chiefly in England, have advanced
our knowledge of the new phrenology. At
east gren as any of them was my beloved
friend, Sir Victor llorsiey, who gave his life for
humanity and freedom in Mesopotamia in 1916
Those men between them have mapped out
the brain of man and of many of the lower
animals. in the highest of which the corre-
spondence with our own brain is, up toa point,
very close. In every textbook, nowadays, the
student can see at a glance the results of those
fifty years of work. Here. for example, is a
map of the outer surface of the human brain,
and here a map of the inner surface. next the
great dssnre that separates the two sides of
the brain.
The demlls of such a map do not concern us
here, but their priceless value for the surgeon
best out Now she has to wear her old shoes.
Her feet are sore from stomping at me when
I forget my piece"
“Do you forget your piece, Frederick?"
“Only on the last verse, Annie. The first is
pretty good. My rnamma has set it down in
my hard. The last line. you know, is easy, like
our milkman. only when it comes to ‘truth
and courage’ my mamma gets so mad -"
“My papa, too, Frederick, he is hoarse from
it Ila says towava my flag so much. He says
a plwe without gesters is no piece at s.iL On
the last verse to make it go good, he says, at
every turn I must H"
“My mamma says only to speak loud. The
last verse, you know, Annie, is hard to say."
“My papa says I arnlike marmna bemuse I
can’: learn gesters She takes mypart. When
we are alone I am say it good. Every night,
he gets me to go to bed crying. My papa is so
proud." > ‘ .
“My mammals proud, too.Annle. This noon
she is going to have from the keg -"
Frederick paused. Annie nodded.
"We are going to have nve-from the Jar. ”
Annie paused. Frederick nodded.
An hour later Mrs. Schoener male from the
front door of her house, holding Frederick by
the hand. She looked neither to right nor to left
and so did not see her neighbor coming from
the Trevenna side of the house, keeping Annie
at arm’s length, and protecting with admoni-
tion and “goster" the stiff, star-spanglcd skirt
Still looking straight ahead, Mrs Schoener
moved down the school aisle and chose a seat
well up in front at the left of the stage. She
kept Frederick at her side. As she glanced
about her, she notimd Mrs. Trevenna guid-
ing Annie to a seat at the right of the stage.
so that the left side of the one corresponds to
the right side of the other. Indeed, the truth
is that for all of us who are not brain surgeons
or their patients the most important discovery
of the new phrenology is that about which we
are least triumphant What really concems us
is, not the functions that the new phrenology
can localize, but the functions that it tannot
local Ie. -
When we look at any of the brain maps. we
notice that they are very like the maps of
Afnm in the days when the first African maps
were made. Most of the map is blank. No
matter what tests we make, no matter what
we observe from cases of disease, the greater
part of the brain yields no answer to our ques-
tions. These are what are mlled the silent
areas We can lomlize the centres that corre-
spond toali the muscles in the body, and the
centres that correspond to all the senses of the
body, but even then most of the brain remains
nnmapped.
All we can say is that those silent areas
inrgely serve the purpose of connecting or
“She has been braiding her hair into a. mil-
lion tailsl" she mutter “Too fri l"
Frederick touched her elbow. “ Annie's
piece," he be n.
“Ilc will I have heard her father roaring it
for a week already. Attend to the musicl"
Frederick settled back with a. sigh, and his
eya followed his mother‘s as she admired the
decorations. The walls were draped with bunt-
ing. A great llag floated above the platform.
There were flowers on the piano, and in one
corner a daring orchestra of eighth -grade
pupils were taming their violins
“So lovelyl" breathed Mrs Schoener. “So
lovelyi"
If only Frederick would not get bashful
agnlnl If only truth and courage were still in
his headi But there was little time for her to
worry. The violins ceased to whine, and the
tmoher began to speak. In the old days of
lcasant intercourse Mrs Schoener and Mrs.
Trevenna had agreed that the children had a
“well-spoken teacher." To-day she spoke
very well. As she talked, bright red spots
began to glow In Mrs. Schc-ener's checks, and
Mrs Trcvenna's fingers worked nervously in
her lap.
The teacher said: “You have brought to this
country other Ideas, other ways. Your neigh-
bors, themselves of foreign birth, have done
the same. These customs of yours, these folk
songs and games-other things-mean little to
your children, save that they enjoy the games,
sing the songs, eat the dishes of
another country in this country
of their birth. This is your foster
land. perhaps, but your children
are Americans." There was en-
thusiastic applause. The exercises
it is as if all the marked places on the
map had been thrust far apart from
one another by the interposition of wide on-
marked nreas. It is those great silent places
that richly connect every single smrtllest part
of the brain with every other. Observe, there-
fore, how much greater in man than in his
relatives is the power of memory, for the
memory worth mentioning is not mere reten-
tion. The memory worth mentioning is the
memory that puts two and two together; the
memory that associates; the memory that, in
Newton, when he had noticed a falling apple,
reminded him of the moon and suggested that
both moon and apple lnigllt tend to fall to the
earth for one and the same reason-as they do.
THE MEMORY THAT IS VALUABLE
ANY years ago the late I‘r0I. William
M James described in his wonderfully
lucid way the nature of a. due memory
-not the memory for names and dates, which
can always be looked up in a reference book,
but the memory that has a hundred lines hooked
into every item of knowledge, so that any of
began immediately. Little Americans with eyes
of Czech and Finn, the olive skin of the Greek,
the fair brow of the Scandinavian, the inel-
low note of the Italian, the high tone of the
French, contributed to the Liberty exercises.
Mrs. Schoener‘s heart beat with palpitating
swiftness as each number was announced, and
then as each child mounted the platrfonn she
patted Frederick's hand in relieved disap-
pointment
So accustomed had she become to those reac-
tions that when at last the teacher announced
a recitation by Frederick Sehoener and Annie
Trevenna she was quite unprepared. Before
she realized the signiiimnoc of the announce-
ment, Frederick was tiptoeing up on the plat-
form. lie met Annie hallway and they squared
away to begin.
Standing pornpousiy as his mother had oom-
manded. Frederick filled his blouse very full.
Above his round red cheeks shone his blue
eyes, and only a slight tremor about the mouth
betrayed his bashfulness He began to speak
in a loud voice, and, forgetting all else except
the words set down in his head and hers, Mrs.
Schoener‘s lips moved soundlessly with her
son's
"We know no other dag than that which we
arry o-day, the banm-r of the (re
The Stars and stripes by-by-l7y- ”
Swift terror drove the blood from Mrs.
Sr.-hoener's cheeks, the words from her head.
Frederick looked toward her pieadingly. she
returned the look with an an-
guished stare. Frederick's hands
began to-travci to the seams of his
sailor trousers. Ills mother knew
that in another moment he would
begin to twist them and that he
But the great development of those amp]
- them (an pull it up to the surface of coli-
‘B Dr C W Sale eb if ERS (‘Edm ‘J%S W")--W 1"“ when it l= WW‘ 0"
L’ ' ' ' - V ' ‘ ‘ " ' ‘ account of in signifirurnt relation to what-
ever we happen to be thinking about. That
is the kind of memory uhlch enables a man to
“think on his feet" and master his fellows for
gaod or evil by the might of his words.
We shall say, then, not merely that the brain
of man is n seeing brain rather than n smelling
brain, but that it is above all n. remembering
brain-a memory brnin, not merely recording,
but associating, connecting, correlating, roc-
soning.
But we have more in our minds and selves
than sensation and memory and even rmson.
We have, for example, our emotions. Can the
new pllmiology tell us anything about them‘!
hat lowledge might be of great value, for
inslmity is not, as people suppose, a disturb-
ance of reason, but above all a disturliance of
feeling and enlotion. If an insane person, or
perhaps n person otherwise quite sane, is pos-
sessed with some mad hate or fear, it would
be well could we find the seat of his malady
in some particular area of the brain.
THE SEAT'OF THE SOUL
BOUT that We know virtually nothing.
A but Indeed our ignrimncrfis in itself
knowledge of the highest importance.
othing that the new phrenology tells us pos-
itively is worth a thousandth part as much as
what we learn from its limitations. We study
every grain of the brain; men spend their
lives tracing the course of bundles of nerve
fibres from one part m another; every area’
of the gray matter on the surface that holds
the nerve cells is looked at through the high-
est powers of the microscope, so that the
skilled observer can readily identify a thin
slice of brain substance and say that, for ex-
e, it comes from the vision centre and
nowhere else; but the result of the whole
matter is that there is no bnrin centre for the
will, none for anything that matters in char-
acter or conduct
It' would be of supreme interest to our
science to have opportunities for the micrlr
scopic study, very quickly after death, of the
brains of supremely great and gifted men and
women ; but though we might expect to bad it
very nne development of the vision centre in a
painter, or of one part of the hearing (‘t=l'itl’e
in a musician, I am very cerurin that such
inquiries would only further prove what we
already know, that the brain and the stuff
of it and the shape of it me very far from
containing the whole or anything at all of
the answer to the question of questions, What
are we?
The new phrenology teaches the enormous
importance of material facts of nerve cell and
nbre so far as they go, and then it teaches the
immeasurably more important truth that there
is no brain centre for the self or for what we
may still dare to mil the soul.
The brain is an organ-a Greek word simply
meaning an instrument In this organ not built
with hands we can distinguish many parts.
each of which has its own pocnliar function;
but when we have ransacked it through and
through, we have not found, nor shall we ever
so End, the orgztnist.
would go down from the plutforrn in tears and
disgrace. She had seen others go down under
the same weight. She sat waiting. Little Annie
turned her pleasant apple-checked face to her
companion. Did Mrs. n‘choener’s eyes deceive
her? Did Annie’: lips move? She made no
sound, but suddenly the look of fright left
Frederick's eyes. Ills hands dropped conti-
dently to his sides and he finished:
-' . . . by mm: and courage planned
Float over this, our mum’ fosterland."
Now little Annie's turn llmi come. The mas-
terly tutelnge of her father showed in the
rendering of her lines She made a mournful
chant of it, throwing on gesturesat every turn.
“Perhaps across the sea, when they were young,
Our fathers played, and in another wngue
Sang of their flag. but that was long ago.
This is our flag, the only one we know."
There was a stir and a bustle in the crowd
about the door. A short, stout. man was hurry-
ing down the aisle. As Mr.-L Schoener’s eyes
followed Sum Trevenna to his seat beside his
wife, they encountered the eyes of Mrs. Tre-
venna. She hesitated a moment, then bowed
vigorously in appreciation of Annie. Mrs.
Trevennn nodded happily.
Now the last stanza lmpendcd. What would
Frederick do with iti’ It became apparent that
the last verse was to be given in dust. Annie
gave Frederick the signal and swung away into
her chant with gestures right from the start
lier proud gum was fastened upon her father.
She did not worn to notice that Frederick had
not taken hold. Yielding to another attack of
bashfulness, Frederick's hands strayed toward
the fatal spurns. Annie saw then. She slowed
reluctant] y. She stopped ultogt-titer. For the lost
time she ginnoal toward her father. and then,
E
i
