The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 11

/ TEMPERANCE, Their tendencies are to { SANITY, HEALTH.

ANIMAL FACULTIES.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73. is a representation of the cranial conformation of Alexander VI., exhibiting a full development of the conservative faculties. His character, according to history, brought reproach upon the papal chair.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 74. represents Zeno, a profound thinker and moral philosopher. The contrast in their cranial developments was no greater than that of their lives.]

Under this generic term we will group those cerebral powers which are common to the inferior animals, and closely allied to bodily conditions and necessities. As denoting a group of animal faculties they relate not only to the organic functions and self-preservation, but combat the action of the intellect, oppose the evolution of new ideas, resist investigation, and discredit the value of truth. Adhesiveness, being blindly conservative, clings to old ideas and traditionary opinions. The animal faculties tend to stifle investigation, and put authority above truth and science. Having a fixity of nature, a stationary attachment, they treat all intellectual developments as absurd. When these faculties predominate, thought is obscured, intolerance of disposition is manifested, and mental progress is arrested. Thus they evince their conservative nature, and, since they relate to individual interests, they represent the elements of instinct. Such are the functions of Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, Selfishness, and Combativeness, as well as the Generative powers. If these faculties predominate, all intellectual advancements are treated as experiments or theoretical novelties, and rejected as evanescent and worthless. If the promptings of these be followed, there will be no innovation, and the orthodoxy of the dark ages will remain the standard for all time. The animal faculties coincide with Lethargy, Sleep, and Nutrition, thus favoring organic restoration. The intellectual faculties are wakeful, active, irrepressible, while the animal powers tend to repose, sleep, and renovation, and thus suspend the activities of thought, sense, and motion. The intellect expends the energy of the sensorial centers, induces fatigue and suffering, whereas the animal faculties overcome the vigils of thought, and produce refreshing slumber. Dr. Young styles sleep "tired nature's sweet restorer." Swedenborg declared that, "in sleep the brain folded itself up, and the soul journeyed through the body, repairing the wastes of the previous day." When sleep is natural, the insane are in a fair way to recovery, the sick become convalescent, ulcers granulate, and lesions are made whole.

The animal faculties are skeptical, stubborn, and dogmatic, readily combining with those of the violent cla.s.s, the ultimate tendencies of which are criminal. They are likewise conceited, a.s.suming, and clannish.

Any person distinguished by them, will cling to old a.s.sociations, perpetuate the status of existing parties, be a stickler for creed, ceremonies, and stale opinions, and adhere to ancient orthodoxy in medicine and religion. The animal faculties, since they are staid and regular, are naturally antagonistic to genius, sensibility, and originality. Their mental tendencies have been fairly described and their physiological results may be represented as follows:

/ RESTRAINT, / SLEEP, The animal faculties produce { NUTRITION, RESTORATION, CONSERVATION.

BASILAR FACULTIES.

The ultimate tendencies of the faculties, represented by the posterior base of the cerebrum, are violent and criminal. Being contiguous to the junction of the cerebrum and spinal system, they are subject to the influence of animal experiences. A large development of these faculties is indicated by an unusual breadth and depth of the back part of the base of the brain, and a full, thick neck, both of which denote good alimentary and digestive powers. Active nutrition, plethora of the circulation, vigorous secretion, a well developed muscular system, a large heart and lungs, are accessory conditions. We do not a.s.sociate corpulence or surplus of vitality with a long, slender neck. The character of cerebral manifestations is represented by the baser faculties of mind, such as Combativeness, Destructiveness, Desperation, Turbulence, Hatred, and Revenge. If unrestrained, these culminate in violent and criminal acts; if _regulated_, they are employed in personal defense. When _unduly excited_, they lead to dissipation, obscenity, swearing, rowdyism, and licentiousness; when _perverted_, they are the source of recklessness, quarrels, frauds, falsehoods, robberies, and homicides. They are unlike instinct, inasmuch as they are not self-limiting. The intimate relation which they sustain to the stomach and nutritive functions is strikingly displayed in the habit of alcoholic intoxication. Spirituous drinks deprave the appet.i.te, derange and destroy the stomach, poison the blood, and pervert all the functions of mind and body; and their injurious influence upon the nerves and basilar faculties is equally remarkable. They excite combativeness, selfishness, irritability, and exaggerate the influence of the animal organs. Intemperance results in disputes, fights, brawls, and murders--the legitimate consequences of which are misunderstandings, suits at law, criminal proceedings, imprisonment, and the gallows. It is, therefore, evident that the ultimate tendencies of these faculties are tyrannical, cruel, violent, and atrocious. They are opposed to the n.o.ble, moral faculties--Faith, Love, and Devotion--and, whenever temptation inordinately allures, the course of life is likely to be characterized by dishonorable, deceptive, and treacherous conduct.

The pangs of hunger cause soldiers to act more like ravenous beasts, than rational beings. It is animal instinct which impels the soldier to seek first for the gratification of his appet.i.te. Some persons, instigated by carnivorous desires, yearn for raw meat, and will not be satisfied unless their food is flavored with the flesh of animals. Their bodies increase and thrive, even to repletion. Contrast these individuals with pale, lean, anaemic people, who crave innutritious articles of diet, and eat soft stones, slate, chalk, blue clay, and soft coal. Such perversions of the appet.i.te are manifested only when there is either a diminution in the volume of blood, deficient alimentation, defective a.s.similation, or a general depravity of the nutritive functions. Morbid conditions generate vitiating tendencies and destroy the natural appet.i.te.

While alcoholic stimulants affect the medulla oblongata princ.i.p.ally, opium acts chiefly on the cerebrum, and excites reverie, dreamy ideality, optical delusions, and the creative powers of the imagination; some of these hallucinations are said to be grotesquely beautiful and enjoyable. The effects of this agent differ from those of alcoholic intoxication by not deadening the moral sensibilities, or arousing the animal propensities. Opium smokers are dreamy and abstracted, not quarrelsome or violent. Those who use ardent spirits lose their moral delicacy, their intellect becomes dull, the reason cloudy, and the judgment is overruled by appet.i.te. It is conceded that the _trophic center_ is princ.i.p.ally in the medulla oblongata; the cerebellum and lower cerebral ganglia, however, favorably influence the nutritive functions, and, when these organs are large and active, a plethoric condition is the natural consequence. Redundancy of blood in the body indicates preponderance of the basilar organs. These faculties being vehement in character, an excess of animal characteristics produces those conditions which result in acute and inflammatory diseases. We may express these conditions of the system as follows:

The _Animal Faculties_ correspond to the lower instinctive manifestations.

/ ACQUISITIVENESS, The elements of character are { SELFISHNESS, COMBATIVENESS

They tend to / TURBULENCE, CRIME.

/ ALIMENTATION, They relate especially to the { SECRETION, functions of NUTRITION, REPRODUCTION.

/ VITALITY, A large development of them { PLETHORA, indicates HYPERAEMIA (congestion).

These naturally give rise to the following diseases: Inflammation, Rheumatism, Gout, Convulsions, etc., which, in these conditions, pursue a violent course.

REGION OF FEEBLENESS.

Although the middle lobe of the cerebrum, at the base of the brain, does not denote decided force of character, or energy of const.i.tution, yet it has a certain sphere of normal action which is essential to the harmony of mind and body. If this region is largely developed, the const.i.tution is languid, inefficient, sensitive, and abnormally disposed. But if it be deficient, the volitive energies preponderate, and there is a lack of those susceptibilities of const.i.tution, which prevent excessive waste.

The cerebral faculties are Fear, Anxiety, Sensibility, Servility, Relaxation, and Melancholy, and their excessive predominance indicates a weak, vacillating, irresolute character, and the existence of those bodily conditions which produce _general excitability_ and chronic derangement. A full development of this portion of the brain indicates that the person is naturally dependent, inferior, and subservient to stronger characters. Such a one is fearful, fretful, complaining, irritable, dejected, morose, and, sooner or later, becomes a fit subject for chronic disease.[5] The ultimate result of excessive fear, excitability, and irritability, is functional or organic derangement,--the morbid conditions represented by the word Disease. The medulla oblongata and portions of the middle lobe of the brain, the functions of which represent Excitability, Anxiety, Fear, and Irritability (symbols of physical profligacy), are located just between the ears (see Fig. 60). Inferior animals distinguished for breadth between the ears are not only cunning and treacherous, but very excitable and irritable. The head of the Fox is remarkable for its extreme width at the region of Fear. He is proverbially crafty and treacherous, always excitable, and so variable in temper that he can never be trusted. He is a very timid thief, exceedingly suspicious, irregular in habits, and frequently driven by hunger into mischievous depredations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 75.

Sly Reynard]

The organ of alimentiveness, located directly in front of the ear, indicates the functional conditions of the stomach, which, when aroused by excessive hunger, exerts a debasing influence upon this and all of the adjacent organs, and is demoralizing to both body and mind. In obedience to the instinct of hunger, children will slyly plunder gardens and orchards, displaying profligate, if not reckless tendencies in the gratification of the appet.i.te. In this regional division we include the medulla, the posterior and middle portions of which give rise to the pneumogastric nerve. This nerve receives branches from the spinal accessory, facial, hypoglossal, and the anterior trunks of the first and second cervical, and its filaments are distributed to the lungs, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, and gall bladder (see Fig. 60, with explanation) Its agency is necessary to maintain the circulation, and the respiration, since, as the medium of communication, it conveys from the brain large supplies of nervous force to sustain these vital functions. It likewise instantly reports the impressions of these physiological processes to the brain, and especially to those parts which, by a.n.a.logy of functions. It likewise instantly reports the impressions of these physiological processes of the brain, and especially to those parts which, by a.n.a.logy of functions, are intimately related to the stomach. Hence, we observe that the conditions of the stomach give rise to reflex impulses, which involuntarily excite the animal faculties to the gratification of the appet.i.te. That the stomach has an intimate connection with the rest of the organism is evident from the fact that when it is inflamed the body is completely prostrated.

We have already alluded to the perverting tendencies of alcoholic stimulants. Their peculiar influence upon the cerebellum causes the subject to reel and stagger, as though a portion of that organ were removed; the group of energetic faculties is stupefied, and mental as well as corporeal lethargy is the result. The reaction, which inevitably follows, is almost unbearable, and relief is sought by repeating and increasing the poisonous draughts, the primary influence of which is stimulating, the ulterior, depressing. Alcoholic stimulants unduly excite the nervous centers, the heart, and the arteries, and, consequently, the blood is carried to the surface of the body, where it counteracts the influence of cold and exposure, the frequent attendants upon drunkenness. The use of alcoholic beverages perverts the appet.i.te, interrupts habits of industry and destroys all force of character.

Pecuniary, physical, and mental ruin, therefore, are sure to follow as the consequences of habitual, alcoholic intoxication.

That ordinary alimentation, which includes the process of digestion, the subsequent vital changes involved in the conversion of food into blood, and its final transformation into tissue, causes mental languor and dullness, as well as bodily exhaustion, is attested by universal experience. A torpid condition of the liver, one of the most inveterate of chronic derangements, is indicated by sullenness, melancholy, despondency, loss of interest in the affairs of life, sluggishness, etc., and the ultimate tendency of this morbid state is towards _suicide_. A broad and deep development of the middle lobe of the brain, shown by a fullness under the chin, and of the adjacent portion of the neck, denotes tendencies to somnambulism, delirium, and insanity. If such characteristics of the organization do not culminate in mental derangement, they exhibit childishness, helplessness, and great dependence. Age abates the vigor of the executive faculties, and old people manifest not only bodily infirmities, but the relaxing and enfeebling influences proceeding from the lower portions of the brain.

They totter about in their second childhood, mentally and physically enervated. Those who become dissipated by the use of intoxicating beverages are not only weak, trifling, and foolish, but walk with an unsteadiness which betrays their condition. These ill.u.s.trations show that this part of the brain is dest.i.tute of energy. Diseases of the digestive organs also indicate it. Cholera, whether induced by invisible animalcules in the air, or in water, takes the route of the alimentary ca.n.a.l, opens the vital gates, and myriads of victims are swept down to death. It proves remarkably fatal to those having this cerebral conformation. Perhaps enough has been said to indicate the relaxing and enfeebling tendencies of this region of the brain. They may be cla.s.sified as follows:

_REGION OF FEEBLENESS._

/ SERVILITY, / CAUTIOUSNESS, / FEAR, Cerebral Functions: { ANXIETY, SENSIBILITY, CUNNING, PROFLIGACY.

/ ATONIC, Physiological conditions / EXCITABILITY, and tendencies: { RELAXATION, FEEBLENESS, DISEASE.

This cla.s.sification shows their tendencies to chronic disease, functional derangement, insanity, and suicide.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Before the structure of the brain was understood, Buffon spoke of it as a "mucous substance of no great importance." Its functional significance was so slightly appreciated that some people hardly suspected they had any brains, until an _accident_ revealed their existence. Latterly, however, it is generally understood that the perfection of an animal depends upon the number and the development of the organs controlled by the nervous system, the sovereign power of which is symbolized by a grand cerebrum, the throne of Reason. That animal which is so low in the scale of organization as to resemble a vegetable, belongs to an ascending series ending in man. The lowest species have no conscious perception, and their movements do not necessarily indicate sensation or volition. Instinct culminates in the _Articulates_, especially in Insects; while created intelligence reaches its acme in man, the highest representative of the _Vertebrates_.

"All things by regular degrees arise-- From mere existence unto life, from life To intellectual power; and each degree Has its peculiar necessary stamp, Cognizable in forms distinct and lines."--LAVATER.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 76.

Outline of Skulls. 1. European. 2. Negro. 3.

Tiger. 4. Hedge Hog. 5. Sloth.]

Man, in the faculties of mind, possesses more than a complement for instinct; some of the lower animals, however, seem to share his rational nature, and to a certain degree become responsible to him. Finally, the manifestations of mind bear a relation to the development of cerebral substance, and to the bodily organization which supplies the brain with blood. Fig. 76 shows the relative amount of brain matter in the lower animals, compared with that of man; the peculiarities of each agreeing with its cerebral conformation. It is easier to measure the capacity of skulls in different races than to procure and weigh their brains. The following table has been published.

CRANIAL CAPACITY OF HUMAN RACES.

Race. CUBIC INCHES.

Swedes,................. 100.00 Anglo-Saxons,............ 96.60 Finns,................... 95.00 Anglo-Americans,......... 94.30 Esquimaux,............... 86.32 North America Indians,... 84.00 Native Africans,......... 83.70 Mexicans,................ 81.70 American Negros,......... 80.80 Peruvians and Hottentots, 75.30 Australians,............. 75.00 Gorilla, adult,.......... 34.50 Idiot,................... 22.57

Mr. Davis, of England, having a collection of about eighteen hundred cranial specimens obtained from different quarters of the globe, ascertained the relative volume of brain in different races, by filling the skulls with dry sand. He found that the European averaged 92 cubic inches, the Oceanic 89, the Asiatic 88, the African 86, the Australian 81. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, had a collection of over one thousand skulls, and his conclusions were that the Caucasian brain is the largest, the Mongolian next in size, the Malay and American Indian smaller, and the Ethiopian smallest of all. The average weight of brain, in 278 Europeans, was 49.50 oz., in 24 White American soldiers, 52.06 oz., indicating a greater _average_ for the American brain.

OUNCES The brain of Cuvier, the celebrated naturalist, weighed 64.33 Ruloff, the murderer and linguist, 59.00 Dr. Spurzheim--phrenologist, 55.06 Celebrated philologist, 47.90 Celebrated mineralogist, 43.24 Upholsterer, 40.91

The weight of the human brain varies from 40 to 70 oz.; that of idiots from 12 to 36 40 oz. The average of 273 male European brains was 49 oz., while that of 191 females was 44 oz. If we compare the weight of the female brain with that of the body, the ratio is found to be as 1:36.46, while that of the male is as 1:36.50; showing that, relatively, the female brain is the larger. It appears that neither the absolute nor relative size of the cerebrum, but the amount of gray matter which it contains, is the criterion of mental power. Although a large cerebrum is generally indicative of more gray matter than a small one, yet it is ascertained that the grey substance depends upon the number, and depth of the convolutions of the brain, and the deeper its fissures, the more abundant is this tissue. It is this substance which is the source of thought, while the white portion only transmits impressions.

We do not wish to underrate any attempt heretofore made to cla.s.sify the functions of mind and a.s.sign to them an appropriate nomenclature. It is not unusual for scientists to give advice to phrenologists and point out the fallacies of their system; but it is hardly worth while to indulge in destructive criticism, unless something better is offered, as the day has pa.s.sed for ridiculing endeavors to understand and interpret the physiology of the brain. The all important question is, not whether phrenologists have properly located and rightly earned all the faculties of mind, but have their expositions been useful in the development of truth. While endeavoring to connect each mental power with a local habitation in the brain, the system of phrenology may be chargeable with some incongruous cla.s.sification of the faculties, and yet it has furnished an a.n.a.lysis of the mind which has been of incalculable service to writers upon mental philosophy. Phrenology, in popularizing its views, has interested thousands in their own organizations and powers, who would otherwise have remained indifferent. It has called attention to mental and bodily unities, has served as a guide to explain the physical and psychical characteristics of individuals, and has been instrumental in applying physiological and hygienic principles to the habits of life, thus rendering a service for which the world is greatly indebted. Samuel George Morton, M.D., whose eminent abilities and scholarship are unquestionable, employs the following language:

"The importance of the brain as the seat of the faculties of the mind, is pre-eminent in the animal economy. Hence, the avidity with which its structure and functions have been studied in our time; for, although much remains to be explained, much has certainly been accomplished. We have reason to believe, not only that the brain is the center of the whole series of mental manifestations, but that its several parts are so many organs, each one of which performs its peculiar and distinctive office. But the number, locality, and functions of these several organs are far from being determined; nor should this uncertainty surprise us, when we reflect on the slow and devious process by which mankind has arrived at some of the simplest physiological truths, and the difficulties that environ all inquiries into the nature of the organic functions."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 77.

Side view of the brain of a Cat. A. Crucial sulcus dividing anterior convolutions. B. Fissure of Sylvius. C. Olfactory bulb.]

We may here allude to the recent experimental researches with reference to the functions of various portions of the brain, prosecuted by Dr.

Ferrier, of England. He applied the electric current to different parts of the cortical substance of the cerebrum in lower animals which had been rendered insensible by chloroform, and by it could call forth muscular actions expressive of ideas and emotions. Thus, in a cat, the application of the electrodes at point 2, Fig. 77, caused elevation of the shoulder and adduction of the limb, exactly as when a cat strikes a ball with its paw; at point 4, corrugation of the left eye-brow, and the drawing inward and downward of the left ear; when applied at point 5, the animal exhibited signs of pain, screamed, and kicked with both hind legs, especially the left, at the same time turned its head around and looked behind in an astonished manner; at point 6, clutching movement of the left paw, with protrusion of the claws; at point 13, twitching backward of the left ear, and rotation of the head to the left and slightly upward, as if the animal were listening; at point 17, restlessness, opening of the mouth, and long-continued cries as if of rage or pain; at a point on the under side of the hemisphere, not shown in this figure, the animal started up, threw back its head, opened its eyes widely, lashed its tail, panted, screamed and spit as if in furious rage; and at point 20, sudden contraction of the muscles of the front of the chest and neck, and of the depressors (muscles) of the lower jaw, with panting movements. The movements of the paws were drawn inward by stimulating the region between points 1, 2, and 6; those of the eyelids and face were excited between 7 and 8; the side movements of the head and ear in the region between points 9 and 14; and the movements of the mouth, tongue and jaws, with certain a.s.sociated movements of the neck, being localized in the convolutions bordering on the fissure of Sylvius (B), which marks the division between the anterior and middle lobes of the cerebrum. Dr. Ferrier made similar experiments on dogs, rabbits, and monkeys. The series of experiments made on the brain of the monkey is said to be the most remarkable and interesting, not only because of the variety of movements and distinctly expressive character of this animal, but on account of the close conformity which the simple arrangement of the convolutions of its brain bears to their more complex disposition in the human cerebrum. It is premature to say what import we shall attach to these experiments, but they have established the correctness of the doctrine, advanced on page 105, that thought, the product of cerebral functions, is a cla.s.s of _reflex actions_. The cerebrum is not only the source of ideas but also of those co-ordinate movements which correspond to and accompany these ideas. Certain cerebral changes call forth mental states and muscular movements which are mutually responsive. They indicate that various functions are automatic, or dependent upon the will, and, as we have seen, experiments indicate that the electric current, when applied to the cerebrum, excites involuntary reflex action. We cannot say how far these experimental results justify the phrenological cla.s.sification of the faculties of mind, by establishing a _causative_ relation between the physical and psychical states. This short and unsatisfactory account furnishes one fact which seems to support the claim of such a relation: the apparent similarity between the motor center of the lips and tongue in lower animals, and that portion of the human cerebrum in which disease is so often found to be a.s.sociated with _Aphasia_, or loss of voice. While these experiments are by no means conclusive in establishing a theory, yet they favor it.