Now an organ, that is to say, under the present point of view, the nerve of an external sense, is nothing more than a fascicle of nervous fibres. Therefore the brain, under the theory, can be nothing but a collection of fascicles of fibres.[101]
According to Gall, the origin, the development, the structure and mode of termination, as to the organs of the faculties of the soul and the organs of the external senses, every thing is similar, every thing is in common. And yet the primitive difficulty remains unsolved.
When I say an organ of the senses, I speak of a very determinate nervous apparatus. But is the same thing true when I say an organ of the brain? What is an organ of the brain? Is it a fascicle of fibres? Is it each particular fibre? But if it be a fascicle of fibres, there are too few of them, for there are not twenty-seven of them; and twenty-seven are necessary, for there are twenty-seven faculties. If it be each particular fibre, then there are too many of them, and far too many, because there are only twenty-seven faculties. What are we to do in this difficulty? We must do as Gall does: sometimes say it is a fascicle of fibres; at other times, that it is each fibre in particular.
In one place he says: “The brain consisting of several divisions whose functions are totally different, there are several primary bundles, which contribute by their development to produce it. Among these bundles we place the anterior and posterior pyramids, the bundles that come off direct from the corpora olivaria, and some others that are concealed in the interior of the medulla oblongata.”[102]
And there are yet some others; be it so; but they never can amount to twenty-seven.
Again he says: “A more extensive development of the same conjecture, might perhaps dispose the reader to consider each nervous fibrilla, whether in the nerves or in the brain itself, as a little special organ.”[103]
Even this is not all. For the sake of Gall’s doctrine, the anatomy of the brain must have a connexion with cranioscopy. And Gall takes great care to place all his organs upon the surface of the brain.
“The possibility of a solution of the problem under consideration,” says he, “supposes the organs of the soul to be situated at the surface of the brain.”[104] Indeed, were they not situated at the surface of the brain, how could the cranium bear the impression of them? and what would become of cranioscopy?
Cranioscopy has nothing to fear. Gall has made provision for it; all the organs of the brain are placed at the surface of the brain; and Gall most judiciously adds, “This explains the relation or the correspondence that exists between craniology and the doctrine of the cerebral functions (cerebral physiology), the sole aim and end of my researches.”[105]