is not affected; but when the vessels in the substance of the brain are the seat of disease, constituting cerebral apoplexy, then there is some degree of palsy in the right or left side, or a retraction of one of the angles of the mouth. In the first class of cases, the vessels, ramifying on the membranes, are either simply distended, or there may be an effusion of blood without the substance of the brain suffering organic lesion. The condition of vessels which is mentioned in the case first supposed, when limited to a particular portion of the pia mater, may give rise to distressing headaches refer able to a definite point in the encephalon. The circumstances in which the periodic return of certain diseases originate are very obscure, though they may be in general referred to the various changes which are going on in the animal œconomy, modified by the ingesta, and the operation of extrinsic causes. The occasional headaches with which R. W. was afflicted may reasonably be supposed to have originated in a diseased condition of the vessels of that portion of the pia mater which exhibited unusual vascularity* on dissection. In some instances a temporary loss of verbal memory may be produced by simple distention of vessels compressing the or

In 1818 was much afflicted with frightful dreams, which occasion. ed astonishing muscular efforts, such as leaping several feet from his bed upon the floor over chairs, &c. with all the bed-clothes about him. He was almost constantly troubled with vertigo on turning or raising his head quickly, and in the same year he had an attack of palsy. Blood-letting, leeching the temples, shaving and blistering the head, with purgatives, in a short time produced such beneficial effects that he was able to walk out and attend to business. He has enjoyed tolerable health since that period, but is under the necessity of keeping his head constantly shaven; notwithstanding he is occasionally troubled with vertigo, double vision, and the sound of the finest music ringing in his head. Last summer, for a considerable time, he had been free of all these complaints; when walking one day in the garden, he stooped down to pull some weeds. He had not been many minutes in this position, when he suddenly perceived in his head the sound of music the most delightful. The same tune or piece of music was occasionally repeated, but more frequently the melody of sound in the sweetest strains flowed on in endless variety, unlike and far surpassing any thing of the kind he had ever heard produced by art. This species of music, he observed, was extremely pleasant for a short time, but became annoying from being continued almost incessantly day and night for a fortnight or three weeks. Not being acquainted with the gamut, he was incapable of noting the music with which he was at times exquisitely delighted, and annoyed only by its unseasonable continuance. Query, Was this a preternatural excitement of the organ of Tune, or of the vessels in the membrane by which it is surrounded?

gan of Language,* and, on the pressure being removed, the patient is in his usual condition in the course of a very short time. But, in the case under consideration, it seems highly probable that there had been some effusion of blood, thereby giving a permanency to the complaint, which was not likely to have continued so long from simple distention of vessels.

In pathology, too, this case is farther remarkable, as affording, in the two first attacks of palsy, an exception to a very general law in the animal œconomy, viz. that when an injury or effusion from apoplexy has happened to one hemisphere of the brain, the opposite side of the body is affected with palsy. So universal has this law been considered, that some authors of great name and research have altogether denied the possible existence of such cases. But such an assertion seems to be rash, in as much as there are a considerable number of wellauthenticated cases on record, and the one before us tends only to confirm our belief in the reality of the exceptions to the general rule. It seems probable, that the two depressions or cysts, noticed in the dissection, corresponded to the two paralytic attacks which he sustained previous to the apo

aged 66 years, has five or six years been troubled with uneasy feelings, weakness, and a sensation of weariness in the eyes, which has rendered her incapable of attending to business. Since the commencement of her complaint, there has been a constant apparent dropping, in measured time, of a luminous point, from the right eye. At times, when she is under excitement, it is more vivid, than when both body and mind are unruffled. The slightest exertion, either in reading or sewing, causes her to complain of an uneasy sensation in the forehead, but referable, in particular, to the sockets of the eyes and eyebrows. Several weeks ago she had been reaching for something above her height, and, being elevated on a stool, she fell back without doing herself any material injury. The following day, as she was reading a book, she perceived, with surprise, that she was going over the page without comprehending what she was reading. She began again, and still observed the same incapability of understanding what she read. On farther trial being made, she found that, in going over the sentence with her eye, without making any attempt at utterance, she comprehended the meaning of the sentence distinctly; but when she began to read aloud, words flowed promiscuously, though without order or connexion, such as she saw in the book. When she attempted farther to particularize, the same embarrassment prevented her from spelling or dividing the words into syllables. As she was somewhat alarmed with this unusual and singular condition of mind, and being a lady of much intelligence and good sense, she prudently closed the book and laid it aside. In a short time she could read as usual; but being apprehensive lest this singular affection might return perhaps with more alarming symptoms, she called upon me, and stated her case for advice.

plectic affection of which he died. In the two paralytic attacks the exception was verified; but, in the apoplectic affection where the lesion of substance was much more extensive, and the left ventricle filled with clotted blood, the muscles of the left or paralytic arm and leg did not seem to sustain farther diminution of power, as they were frequently in action, but the right arm and leg were quite motionless. The explanation of the phenomena observed in the general law, was first satisfactorily resolved by the discovery of Mistechelli in the decussation or twisting of the cerebral fibres in the medulla oblongata, and afterwards confirmed by Winslow, Santorini, and Morgani. In reference to the assertion of M. Serres and some other continental writers, respecting the impossibility of palsy and cerebral injury occurring on the same side, the intelligent editor of the Med. Chirurg. Review, No II. new series, observes,-" But accurate anato"mical investigation has shewn, that we should not be too precipi"tate in coming either to conclusions or exclusions on this point, "since, although there is a general twisting in the nervous fila"ments in the medulla oblongata, there is not a total change of "sides. Some fibres are found not to decussate, but to continue "from the brain to the spinal marrow-or, if it must be so, from "the spinal marrow to the brain, on the same side. This fact, so "amply proved and demonstrated by Gall, offers the only rational "solution which we yet possess of the exceptions to the general rule " in question."

There are few philosophers or physiologists of the present day, who do not admit that an intimate connexion subsists between the body and mind. Though this much be generally admitted, any idea which may seem to imply that certain mental phenomena are dependent for their manifestation on the organic development of a particular part or portion of the brain, has been treated by many as altogether visionary and absurd. But a great variety of observations, made at different times and places, by various individuals, has rendered what was at first conjectural, or merely probable, almost indubitable with respect to a number of the organs of the brain. The organ of Language, as situated

"above and behind the socket of the eye," has long been considered as established by phrenological writers; but, if a doubt had remained on the subject, the history of this patient's disease, and the post-mortem examination of the brain, must produce conviction on every unbiassed mind. Morbid anatomy, indeed, does not point out the cause of disease; but change of structure and disorganization of parts mark with accuracy where that cause has been operative. The severe head-aches, so often distressing, were uniformly referable to that part of the head corresponding to the organ of Language; and, when it is recollected that this faculty, as far as words were concerned, was suddenly lost in the progress of the disease, and that dissection after death exhibited a preternatural condition of the vessels of the pia mater in this part of the brain, the inference comes upon us almost irresistibly, that the mental phenomena, so remarkable in this case, must have originated in compression of the fibres of the brain, in this point, from effusion or distention in the vessels of the diseased portion of the membrane. Such reasoning would be admitted as fair and conclusive, when employed in accounting for the phenomena or symptoms of disease affecting any other organ of the body, and we have yet to learn why it should not here also be sustained.

It may, perhaps, be allowed, that there are some points on which a caviller may find opportunity for the exercise of his talents, viz. 1st, That the morbid appearance described did not extend so far as the external surface of the organ of Language. 2d, That the right hemisphere of the brain. was in a sound condition, and ought to have performed the function of the injured organ. 3dly, That the patient recovered the use of words, so as to be able to support conversation, notwithstanding that he sustained two distinct attacks of palsy, a considerable time before death, without his memory being materially affected.

In answer to the first objection, then, it may be observed, that, in as far as memory is concerned, the same phenomena VOL. III.-No IX.

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might have been expected, from a like condition or compression of the fibres of the organ in any definite point between the peripheral extremity and their termination in the corpora pyramidalia. But had the fibres suffered compression, or lesion, in any point much nearer to the commencement of the spinal cord, it is highly probable, that, by the interlacing of fibres, various other mental functions would have been impaired, and the symptoms, as far as pain or uneasiness was concerned, would have been referred to a different part of the head, and the case must have been less conclusive respecting the truth of Phrenology; but the morbid change having taken place in the vessels of the membrane affecting the fibres at half an inch from their peripheral extremity, seems quite as decisive evidence of the locality of the organ of Language, as if disease had been found at the extremity of the fibres, or in the external position of the organ itself.

2dly, From all the observations which have been made on animated nature, it may be inferred as an universal law, that whenever the Creator has bestowed two organs on an animated being, the healthy condition of both is indispensably necessary to the production of their full effect in the economy of that being. It will be quite unnecessary, therefore, to particularize the nature of the embarrassment, or injury, which a human being sustains, when, for example, the function of a member, or organ, which operates in pairs, such as a leg, an arm, an eye, an ear, a lung, or kidney, is suddenly lost. But among the cerebral organs much more intimate connexion subsists than among those which have been enumerated; and, besides their acting in pairs, their state of activity or action is simultaneous. When sudden distention of blood-vessels, therefore, either in the organ itself, or the membrane by which it is surrounded, or an effusion of blood takes place from the one or the other order of vessels, so as to induce compression, the function may be impaired without perception being lost; but should the injury be so severe as to destroy perception, the function peculiar to the part may