Anatomy of the Brain

the humors contained therein, as well as their passages within the larger cavities of the containing parts, are discerned by sight: but in the Brain and Nerves, neither the things that move—namely, the animal spirits themselves—nor their tracts or traces can be perceived in any way. Wherefore, to wish to explain the uses of the Brain seems a task as difficult as painting the Soul, concerning which it is commonly pronounced that it understands everything except itself: for the tireless labor of the Brain explores the inner chambers of other bodies, while in the meantime the economy of its own domain and family remains entirely unknown and hidden.

But what we profess to have faithfully performed in the following Treatise, and hope will be of benefit to others, is this primarily: namely, that we have not rashly described the parts themselves, the anatomy of which is instituted, but have collected various phenomena and collections of observations through manifold dissection, diligent care, and the utmost fidelity. If any theory that should be gathered from those postulates and diagrams, delineated as if by the method of mathematics, appears still incomplete and not yet perfected in all its numbers, I have no doubt that a longer day and the addition of more observations will procure for it a further form and perfection; so that Antiquity may not seem to have spoken with an altogether empty omen: that Minerva was born from an opened Brain, with the tools of Vulcan acting as midwife. For either by this path—namely, through wounds and deaths, through anatomy, and as if by Caesarean birth—will truth come to light, or it will hide forever.