THE, brain and spinal column are the great centers of the nervous system.

The brain produces sensation, thought, and voluntary motion. When this organ is diseased, therefore, we may expect one of these functions to be either disturbed or destroyed.

Of Sensation there are various disturbances, perversions, and suspensions, caused by disease of the brain and nerves; such as nausea, giddiness, specks floating before the eyes, ringing in the ears, deceptive tastes and smells, intolerable itching, neuralgic pains, boisterously high spirits, depression without apparent cause, anxiety, and dread.

Thought, in like manner, is disturbed and perverted in many ways. There is high delirium, dullness and confusion, loss of memory, weakened judgment, and every degree of stupor, down to entire loss of consciousness.

Voluntary Motion is perverted and destroyed in muscular twitching, trembling of the limbs, spasmodic stiffness, involuntary jerkings, convulsions, muscular debility, and palsy.
The brain is composed of three parts, the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the medulla oblongata. These are all contained within the skull bones, and are immediately covered by three membranes, called the dura mater, the arachnoid, and the pia mater. The dura mater is a strong, fibrous membrane lying next to the skullbones. I The arachnoid is a serous membrane, lying next below, and the pia mater, which means pious mother, is a vascular membrane, lying next to the brain, dipping into it in places, and containing the vessels which bring to it all its nutrient materials. Hence its name.
These membranes are all liable to be inflamed, and so is the brain.