The following extract, on the Location of the different Mental Faculties or endowments in the encephalic mass, gives a connected view of our author's opinions on a dark and difficult theme, and affords a good sample of his inquisitive character.

"The Intellect seems to be seated in the upper part of the cerebrum. In proportion as the development of this is defective, the being is unintellectual; he is an idiot.

"Its more manifest phenomena are connected with a certain set of nerves which may be termed Cerebral, and which are employed in conveying Sensations towards the central intellectual organ, and Volition from that organ.

"The Emotions are, I believe, seated lower down. The idiot, though deficient in intellect, is frequently swayed by the most violent emotions, and especially by the most extreme Fear, and the most violent Anger.

"The emotions display themselves principally, I believe, along that part of the nervous system which I have denominated the true spinal, or excito-motor. "The Desires and the Passions are seated lower still. The idiot, who is so deprived of intellect as not to approach articles of food set before him even, swallows portions of that food placed within the mouth, with the most extreme avidity and voracity.

"The Instincts appear to me to be complicated in a high degree; and to combine-1, an act of volition; 2, the display of desire and passion; and 3, an act, probably unintellectual, and of an excito-motor character.

"The lark ascends the atmosphere by an act of volition, with the lively expression of a sexual passion, and probably keeps on the wing by an excito

motor act.

"What the lark does for its mate, the swallow does in search of food. It undertakes a long flight or aërial journey, urged by desire, guided by its intellect, sustained by the excito-motor principle-which is not subject to fatigue,—with the express object of the search of food.

"In the same manner, the bee provides its honey, and forms its honey-comb; this act combining mysteriously the influence of volition and of passion, whilst the actual deposit of its wax, and of its honey, may be effected, like those of deglutition and of inspiration-certainly not less wonderful or inscrutable,—by an excito-motor power impressed by the Creator for this purpose, as in other acts apparently of design.

"Thus also the beaver builds its hut, and the bird its nest,-impelled by passion, guided by volition, and aided, probably, by the excito-motor power." P. 32.

It is quite unnecessary to adduce any examples of the Influence of the Feelings on the Body in health and disease; as we treated of this interesting subject at considerable length in a recent number of this Journal.*

We have heard, within the last year or two, of Reflex Cerebral, as well as of Reflex Spinal, Actions. Dr. Hall does not admit the propriety of the language:

"There is an interesting fact which I cannot pass over: a disgusting object frequently acts on the spinal and ganglionic systems so as to induce sickness and faintness. This has been called a reflex cerebral action. It is mere emotion." P. 43.

Does one interpretation or mode of speech explain the matter better than the other?-we cannot tell.

The remarks on Sleep," in Chap. VI., are not likely, we should think, to win the assent of many. Our author, ever anxious to find a reason for

* Vide Medico-Chirurgical Review for October 1845.

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Theory as to the Cause of Sleep.

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everything, suggests the following most singular explanation of the cause of this condition.

"I am of opinion, and I shall have to repeat the observation, that a state of contraction of certain muscles of the neck takes place, analogous to that of the orbicularis palpebræ, as sleep comes on; that certain veins are compressed; that congestion of the brain takes place; and, lastly, as a consequence of this last, sleep." P. 26.

A few pages farther on, we read :

Sleep, then, seems to be induced by any event which first gently excites and then gently lulls the attention. The influence of volition is removed. The levator palpebræ, a purely voluntary muscle (?), is consequently paralyzed; and the orbicularis-a muscle purely of excito-motor action (?)-is allowed its uncontrolled play; and the eye-lids close.

"Does any thing of this kind take place elsewhere? I have sometimes imagined that it does, and that it is the event which induces sleep. Certain muscles may be muscles principally of excito-motor action; and when volition is withdrawn from the other muscles of the neck, they may contract like the orbicularis, and gently compress the jugular veins, and so induce congestion of the brain, and sleep,-and, as we so often observe, attacks of apoplexy and of epilepsy. But I repeat that it is a mere conjecture-to be accepted for what it is worth, and a mere foil, if unfounded, to excite others to efforts more fortunate." P. 35. That Sleep should be owing to congestion of the brain; that it should be "allied to Epilepsy;" that it should be apt to induce an attack of this disease, "by allowing the excito-motor power to act uncontrolled by volition;" and that "sleep and emotion induce similar results, acting on different principles," are so many positions which we gladly leave to our readers to discuss at their leisure, before inviting slumber to their eyes.

Chapters VIII. and IX. will not detain us. The first of these treats briefly of "Galvanism as a test of the Irritability of the Muscular Fibre." The second contains a few cursory remarks on those Paralytic Affections -often associated with spasmodic contractions in other parts-which occasionally occur during dentition.

"Are these effects the immediate effects of teething on the dental nerves? or are they induced through the medium of some morbid condition of the spinal marrow?

"This is a question which, I think, has never been investigated in the only way in which an accurate result can be obtained-by careful post-mortem examination. It is therefore all conjecture." P. 49.

We alluded, in our review of Dr. Hall's first volume, to his extravagant laudation of his own mode of scarifying the gums. He rebukes the whole profession for their want of faith in his advice :

"To relieve the state of the alveola to which I have adverted, we must scarify the gums immediately contiguous to them; we must divide the very bloodvessels which feed them!-frequently-daily, or two or three times a day. But to this simple proposition objections still are made. Alas for our profession!" P. 50.

Chapter XI. is headed thus :-" The Dura Mater excitor; Diagnosis of Diseases of the Brain." It consists of a double report, one by Dr. Hall and the other by Mr. Smith, of an experiment which these gentlemen performed on a dog, with the view of ascertaining, we are informed, "whether the Dura Mater, being supplied by a nerve usually excitor (the trifacial), is in itself excitor." We shall give our author's own account of

this most humane and enlightened procedure; only adding that the poor tortured animal continued to breathe, until the medulla oblongata and upper part of the spinal marrow were removed!

"We removed a portion of the cranium of a spaniel dog, just over the left hemisphere of the cerebrum.

"We made pressure-gradually augmented: the dog became quiet, appeared to sleep; the eye-lids closed; the breathing became audible, stertorous, slow, sighing, the pupils contracted; at length, spasmodic twitchings were observed, and, afterwards, continued spasms: the eyes rocked, the tail was drawn, and then all the limbs were agitated and became stiffened.

"We removed the pressure, but the brain had been torn; the spasms ceased, the breathing became natural, the eye-lids opened, but the pupils remained contracted. The dog was hemiplegic, supporting his right side against the wall. We repeated this; the result was the same.

"We irritated the nostril and induced sighing, sometimes followed by sneezing, sometimes not. We irritated the meatus auditorius externus, and the head and limbs were much agitated. Sensibility was not entirely removed.

:

"We removed the cerebrum entirely the pupils became permanently dilated. On irritating the motor oculi, the eye-lids were a little drawn by the corrugator supercilii, and closed and drawn towards the outer angle of the eye; but there was no action of the levator. The eyes rocked.

"On irritating the dura mater in various parts, these and other movements were also induced.

"On drawing the cerebellum forwards, convulsive movements were induced; but neither laceration of the cerebrum nor cerebellum seemed to induce muscular contraction.

"When the animal appeared blind, approaching the candle induced closure of the eye-lids; as did always touching the eye-lashes.

"The flow of saliva was constant, and in large quantity." P. 66.

Now this experiment, we are informed, has important bearings upon practical medicine. Let us see what these are. It illustrates, we are told, the effect of Irritation of the Dura Mater, and shews that a certain degree of pressure on the brain induces mere apoplexy, while a higher degree of that pressure induces convulsions and spasmodic affections. So valuable is the instruction derived from the experiment, that reference is made to it in no fewer than three of the subsequent chapters. In one of these, after favouring his readers with a mutilated report of a case of Puerperal Convulsions, the phenomena of which are said to have been precisely similar to those manifested by the poor mangled animal, Dr. Hall informs them (no one, certainly, could have discovered it for himself) that they must now "perceive the advantage of Experimental Physiology in its relation to Clinical medicine."!!

If such be the basis on which science is to be built, and such be the means to promote its advancement; if this be the sort of physiology that is set forth as "" the only foundation for practical medicine," and this the KNOWLEDGE that is proclaimed as the sure corrective of quackery and the true exalter of our profession-it were better, we think, that science should be buried in the oblivion of Alchemy and Astrology, or be doomed to execration with that truculent Theology, which has impiously taught man to take the sword of persecution into his hand, and to pervert the glad tidings of mercy to mankind into the wild tocsin of cruelty and death, than that this revolting exhibition of animal pain and suffering should be, from

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Experiments on Living Animals reprobated.

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year to year continued in our schools. And what, pray! are the real benefits that even the perpetrators of these atrocities must acknowledge themselves to have been thereby conferred on the art of healing?—for we suppose that there is scarcely any one who will justify them upon any other ground. Have we learned to treat any of the diseases of the nervous system more successfully, after all the horrible butcheries that have been committed within the course of the last five-and-thirty years, than did the wise and able men of last century, the Boerhaaves, the Cullens, or the Heberdens? Was Sydenham, may we ask, educated in the school of blood and torture? Was Mead a vivisector? Did Jenner's great thought originate in mutilating experiments upon animals? Did Pinel learn his lessons of philanthropic usefulness from witnessing the writhings of tortured life? Was Baillie's consummate skill in diagnosis derived from the dissection of living brutes?-or was Laennec's grand discovery the offspring of such a deed? Did Abercrombie offer up hecatombs of dogs and rabbits on the altar of science (!), ere he wrote his admirable work upon disease of the Brain? Has Andral ever been a fellow-labourer with Magendie or Longet? or has Louis himself—the beau-ideal of a physician in our author's opinion-reaped his laurels from that "knowledge of the state of the living morbid actions which," Dr. Hall declares, "must guide us in practice;" and not rather from that very pursuit which is somewhat slightingly called by him "crude and post-mortem morbid anatomy?"

We regret to say that the experiment, which has called forth these remarks, is far from being the only one related, or alluded to, in these "Practical Observations and Suggestions." At page 57, we read thus:

"It is possible, by a peculiar mode of proceeding, to destroy or remove the spinal marrow, leaving the circulation of the blood subsistent. In this case, if the stomach, or intestine, or one of the limbs, be crushed, it seems to arrest the circulation entirely and at once; the injury acting, of course, through the medium of the ganglionic system only. Dr. Stilling has recently stated that, when the spinal marrow is entirely absent, no such effect is produced. He has not, I believe, deduced any inference from this experiment. The obvious inference would be, that the intra-spinal structure, and not the ganglia, is the centre also of reflected influence on the heart, and probably on all the internal organs. But the experiments require careful repetition" P. 58.

Is not the scientific sang-froid of the last sentence most edifying?

Chap. XIV. treats of "The Nature of Inflammation." One or two passages call for notice. The following description of the Capillaries is surely remarkable rather for its novelty than for its truth.

"These vessels have no distinct course,-no distinct successive unions, nor successive divisions,-no character of artery or vein, or of a tube of any kind. They pursue their course irregularly amongst the tissues,-sometimes uniting, sometimes separating,-uniting and dividing again, so as to produce no appearance of a rectilinear, or indeed of a linear, tube. On the contrary, the course of these vessels is irregular, and varied in every way. It is such as one may imagine, or may have seen, to be given in water poured in moderate quantity over an uneven surface.

"Every thing, in a word, induces the belief that these capillary vessels are, in fact, not vessels, not tubes, but mere canals or channels formed amidst the tissues, like gutters in a chalky cliff. The mode of their continual junction and

disjunction; the effect of certain re-agents on the capillary circulation (of a solution of common salt applied to the web of a frog, for example); seem to prove this peculiar character of the capillary vessels.

"Besides their rectilinear course, the veins and arteries are generally disposed singly, however deep the tissues. The capillary vessels, on the other hand, exist in great number, in whatever respect we consider them.

"From these and other considerations, I am of opinion that the term bloodchannels would be a more just denomination for this part of the circulating system." P. 75.

It is somewhat curious that our author himself will not abide by his own description. In numerous passages of his volume, both before and after the extract now quoted, we read of the "(so called, but mis-named) capillary vessels," "capillary tubes," and never once of "blood-channels," as here proposed.

Here is Dr. Hall's theory of Inflammation in a few words:

"1. We have, first, adhesion of the blood-corpuscles in the blood-channels. "2. This leads to Obstruction, and

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3. This to Congestion.

"4. We have then hypercrisis, or augmented secretion;

"5. Hypertrophy, or augmented size of the old, and the formation of new, vessels;

"6. Hyperendosmosis;

"7. Augmented Absorption, or Ulceration, Phagedæna, &c. "8. Death, Sloughing, Gangrene." P. 90.

The various chapters, although occupying upwards of 100 pages, on Puerperal Diseases, Puerperal Peritonitis, Puerperal Stomachal and Irritation, on the Effects of Loss of Blood in the Puerperal State, the Diagnosis of Puerperal Disease, the fatal effects of Blood-letting in Puerperal Affections, and the effects of previous Disorder on the Puerperal State," are most vexatiously overcharged with continual repetitions, and, after all, contain nothing but what has been perfectly well known to the public for the last twenty-five years at least. Almost all the recent treatises on the Diseases of Women exhibit a much more faithful and instructive picture of the phenomena of these morbid conditions, their diagnosis and treatment, than will be found in the present volume. Nay, we have no hesitation in saying, that it would be utterly impossible for any one to distinguish the truly inflammatory affections of the abdominal and pelvic viscera from those disorders, arising from intestinal irritation, fæculent accumulations, &c., which simulate them, if he trusted to the descriptions given of their distinguishing and characteristic phenomena by our author. The treatment, moreover, laid down by him is, in many respects, very far from being judicious. With respect to Dr. H.'s favourite dogma of making the induction of syncope a test as to the propriety of blood-letting, and the standard or measure as to the extent to which it may be carried, very few experienced men, we should think, can receive it as a rule of practice. Inflammatory affections of the abdominal or pelvic viscera in puerperal women will rarely admit of those large and ample blood-lettings, required for their subjugation under ordinary circumstances. To say, therefore, "that nothing should preclude of this remedy, but the actual existence of the state of sinking," is alike unsafe and most indiscreet. Is there not, too, a very misleading discrepancy of opinion upon an important practical