t is this spot which is reached by the needle of
the garroter in Spanish executions, and that the same centre also is
destroyed when a criminal is "successfully" hanged, this time by the
forced intrusion of a process of the second cervical vertebra. Flourens
named this spot the "vital knot." Its extreme importance, as is now
understood, is due to the fact that it is the centre of nerves that
supply the heart; but this simple explanation, annulling the conception
of a specific "life centre," was not at once apparent.

Other experiments of Flourens seemed to show that the cerebellum is the
seat of the centres that co-ordinate muscular activities, and that the
higher intellectual faculties are relegated to the cerebrum. But beyond
this, as regards localization, experiment faltered. Negative results, as
regards specific faculties, were obtained from all localized irritations
of the cerebrum, and Flourens was forced to conclude that the cerebral
lobe, while being undoubtedly the seat of higher intellection, performs
its functions with its entire structure. This conclusion, which
incidentally gave a quietus to phrenology, was accepted generally, and
became the stock doctrine of cerebral physiology for a generation.

It will be seen, however, that these studies of Flourens had a double
bearing. They denied localization of cerebral functions, but they
demonstrated the localization of certain nervous processes in other
portions of the brain. On the whole, then, they spoke positively for the
principle of localization of function in the brain, for which a certain
number of students contended; while their evidence against cerebral
localization was only negative. There was here and there an observer who
felt that this negative testimony was not conclusive. In particular,
the German anatomist Meynert, who had studied the disposition of nerve
tracts in the cerebrum, was led to believe that the anterior portions of
the cerebrum must have motor functions in preponderance; the posterior
positions, sensory functions. Somewhat similar conclusions were reached
also by Dr. Hughlings-Jackson, in England, from his studies of epilepsy.
But no positive evidence was forthcoming until 1861, when Dr. Paul Broca
brought before the Academy of Medicine in Paris a case of brain lesion
which he regarded as having most important bearings on the question of
cerebral localization.

The case was that of a patient at the Bicetre, who for twenty years had
b