details of cerebral science will be much more easily understood if we begin with a comprehensive view of the entire plan of the functions and structure.

The brain is distinguished from all other organs by being the source of commands which all other organs obey, and being the immediate seat of the soul, which has no knowledge of anything occurring in the body, until a message or impression has reached it through nervous channels. The compression of all the nerves before they enter the cranium and connect with the brain would deprive us of all knowledge of the body, and of all sensations or perceptions; and the compression of the brain itself would render us totally unconscious, as if dead,—incapable of either thought or action. Manifestly, therefore, all the powers of the soul are lodged in and exercised through the brain; and as all distinct nerve structures have essentially different functions, and every different function requires a different structure, it is obvious that the vast variety of our psychic faculties, intellectual, emotional, sensitive, passional, and physiological, requires a corresponding multiplicity in the nervous apparatus; and this incalculably great multiplicity we find in the brain.

The crude, mechanical idea that all the organs of the brain should be distinctly marked and separated by membranous walls or obvious changes of structure, is very unscientific; for even in the spinal cord, which is more easily studied, we do not find such separation between the widely distinct functions of sensibility and motility. Their nerve fibres run together undistinguished, and it is only by the study of pathological changes that we have been able to distinguish the course of the motor fibres, which to the most careful inspection are indistinguishable from the sensitive.

Moreover, the functions of the brain are not like those of the spinal cord, of a widely distinct and opposite character in adjacent fibres, but exhibit a gradual variation, like the blending colors of the rainbow. The sensitive or psychic individual who touches any part of the head and feels an impression of the emotional, intellectual, or impulsive function in the subjacent convolution of the brain, will find the impression gradually changing as he moves his finger along the surface, until, after passing half around the cerebrum, he will feel an influence exactly opposite to that with which he started.

As there are many millions of sensitive persons who are capable of receiving these impressions from the brain, we cannot but wonder at the unanimous indifference (which some may hereafter call stupidity) which hinders the medical profession and scientists generally from becoming acquainted with such facts, which I have proclaimed and demonstrated until I have grown weary of attempting to instruct wilful ignorance. Not only does the nervaura, direct from the brain convey such impressions of organic action, but almost any substance held for a few moments in contact with any part of the head will absorb enough of the local nervaura to convey a distinct impression to a sensitive, similar to that derived directly from the head.

Although the organs of the brain are thus distinct, they are not distinct like the spokes of a wheel, each totally independent of the other and fixed or invariable in its own simple character; for all organs have double functions, and a great variety in their degree of manifestation.

The double function is psychic and physiological, or physical. When the action of the brain is confined within the cranium, its action is purely psychic; but when its influence passes into the body, it produces physiological effects. As the brain is the seat of the soul, its action is essentially and primarily psychic; but as it is the commander of the body, and the source of its spiritual vitality, all its conditions or actions affect the body; and hence every organ has its dual action, psychic and physiological. Cerebral physiology and sarcognomy explain in detail how the brain and the mental conditions affect the body; cerebral psychology shows how the brain and soul are correlated. The purpose of this treatise is to show how the brain is correlated with both soul and body, giving the principal attention to the former.

If cerebral organs all have this double function, it is manifestly exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to find any words competent to express the double functions, and it will be necessary to adapt our nomenclature to expressing the psychic function, leaving the physiological to be expressed otherwise. As the basilar organs act more directly upon the body, their nomenclature will be more suggestive of physiological effects. The organ, for example, of alimentiveness or appetite will suggest by its name its relation to the stomach.

The difficulty of arranging a satisfactory nomenclature for a certain portion of the brain, in consequence of the varying energy of organic action, is very great, and must be met by using the word which will express in a general manner the organic tendency, leaving to the intelligence of the reader to imagine the variations of intensity. In the greatest energy of organic action the opposite faculty is entirely overcome, and the conduct becomes abnormal, for normal action implies the harmonious co-operation of all parts of the brain. Nevertheless, it is in this abnormal or excessive action that we get the true, isolated tendency or function in its naked expression.

For example, if we refer to that portion of the brain near the mastoid process, which in its excessive action produces murder, we perceive that as murder is an abnormal action, such a term is not a suitable name for an organ, as it would convey the impression that every human being has a constant murderous impulse, and that the faculty is kept inactive when murder is not committed; from which we might infer that the human constitution is badly planned.

Still, it is not to be concealed that murderous violence is the ultimate result of this organ when unrestrained,—that it is the most conspicuous faculty in carnivorous animals, and alas! that it has a terrible and at times predominant action in the masculine portion of the human race. Throughout the greater part of ancient history the murderous violence of this faculty has been as conspicuous in the human race as in the wild beasts. Even to-day, after centuries of so-called civilization and religion, no man’s life would be safe if not protected by policemen; and the civilized nations, with a skilful ferocity, devote the major part of their governmental revenues to preparations for international homicide as a defence against the murderous impulse in their neighbors, and to watching or controlling the murderers within their own limits; whose homicidal propensities, however, are not restrained from mutual homicide, by agreement, in the warlike form of the duel, which is considered a proper institution to cultivate a martial spirit and promote the efficiency of the army,—ay, and even tolerated in the German system of education, provided that life is not actually sacrificed.

Murder is therefore not an improper term to express the consummate energy of this basilar organ, if we at the same time understand its gentler manifestations; and Dr. Gall was a faithful student of nature when he called this faculty the “carnivorous instinct, or disposition to murder,” for that is the way that it exhibits in animals, and, unfortunately, in mankind also.

Yet as an element of character, and an organ in the brain, this faculty needs a more general and comprehensive term than murder to express its ordinary action. It operates as an impelling and modifying influence in our daily life, giving a certain kind of energy to physical and mental action, as our fruits have a certain degree of sweetness in their juices which is not due to crystals of sugar, though if the sweetening element were extracted it would appear in