Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim.

  • Spurzheim, Johann Gaspard, 1776-1832.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    36/90 (page 34)
    liai ior 1795. The description he gives, quoted by the Historian himself, p. 98. is applicable only to the same parts which Vieussens had shown, and which Monra and Vicq d’Azyr had attempted to represent. The passage does not leave the least doubt. It is, “ Each crus, being embraced by the optic nervey spreads out like an unfolded fan, almost horizontally, below the great cavity of the brain, towards the inferior and lateral parts, and towards the extremities of the brain.”* There is no mention made of the two orders of fibres diverging and converg- ing, none of the two sets of the diverging fibres, not even of the diverging bundles in the great cavities of the brain; After having spoken of the convolutions, I will show, whether Reil, on whom the Historian bestows so much praise, can be considered as entitled to original claims in the two essays inserted in his Archives of Physiology for 1809 and 1812. At all events, the literary gospel, and Anatomist par excellence, when he wrote his book, were not acquainted with that structure. Even now the His- torian denies evident appearances in the crura and their lateral distributions. He says, p. 103. “ The crura cerebri, according to Drs Gall and Spurzheim, contain throughout their whole length a great quantity of grey substance, by which they are continually reinforced with new fibres; whereas the quantity of this substance min- gled with them is just perceptible, and no more, and the reinforcement of fibres from it is a mere averment, for which there is no foundation. Nor are there better grounds for the statement, that they receive a still greater * Jeder Schenkcl breitet sich alsdann, naclidem ihn der Sehnervc um- fasst hat, als ein entfalteter Faecher fast wagerecht under der grossen Him- lioehle gegen die unteren Flaechen, Seitentheile und gegen die Extremi- taeten des grossen Gehims aus. Gren't Journal, I. p. 102.