The Functions of the Brain

Abstract

I.

THIS is in many respects an important work. Full of experimental facts and theoretical suggestions, clearly and forcibly written, it is important as a contribution to our knowledge (and our ignorance) of the functions of the brain. The reader must not misunderstand my parenthesis as an epigram. That we are ignorant of brain-function is undoubted; and this ignorance is sustained and fortified by the “false persuasion of knowledge” which prevents search in other directions. Such false persuasion of knowledge will be deepened by Dr. Farrier's work-all the more because of its merits, if the conclusions maintained there are erroneous, and the conceptions which determine them are unphysiological; and on both points I am inclined to judge affirmatively. There is something seductive in the precision of his statements and the unhesitating confidence with which only one side of a question is presented. The reader is easily led captive by a writer who has no hesitation. Add to this the many difficulties which stand in the way of controlling by experiment the experimental data, and the indisposition of most men to undertake the labour of verification, and we may foresee that physicians and psychologists will eagerly accept this work as an authoritative storehouse of material for their speculations. They will see how its “facts” harmonise with their own pet errors. They will interpret clinical observations or psychological facts by its conclusions. Already we have seen various theories invoking the Hitzig-Ferrier views; and when nerve-cells of a larger size than usual are found in a particular region of the cortex they are straightway declared to be motor-cells, because the region is said by Hitzig and Ferrier to be motor, while the existence of these cells is adduced in confirmation of the hypothesis respecting the region !

The Functions of the Brain.

By David Ferrier. With numerous Illustrations. (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1876.)