the
apparatus of hearing, and extending up about two inches on the side
head, and the occipital bone at the back, between the two temporals,
meeting the sphenoid bone in the centre of the base. The cerebellum
rests in the deep double concavities of the occipital bone, and the
spinal cord ascends through the large opening (foramen magnum) in the
middle of its base, assuming the form called the medulla oblongata.

[Illustration]

When we fully understand this view of the base of the skull, let us
look at it in profile, and observe the frontal bone connected by the
coronal suture to the parietal and the parietal by the squamous or
scaly suture to the temporal, and by the lambdoid suture to the
occipital. The sphenoid or bat-wing bone appears in the temples by its
wing, between the frontal and temporal, while in the centre of the
base its solid body is between the frontal and occipital.

The sphenoid bone is in contact with organs of sensitive delicacy,
refinement, and inspiration, the occipital with organs of vital force,
the temporal with organs of appetite, excitement, and force, the
frontal with organs of intellect and refined benevolence, the parietal
with the organs of virtue, amiability, self control, and general
strength of character, which make a superior person.

Modern anatomists do not divide the brain into front, middle, and
occipital lobes as would seem most natural, by erecting vertical lines
from their bases, but follow up the oblique courses of the
convolutions so as to extend the front lobe into the upper surface of
the brain, and extend the middle lobe from the middle of the upper
surface backward into the region of Self Confidence, giving the name
of temporo-sphenoidal to its lower portion behind the sockets of the
eyes and over the ears, which name is taken from the temporal bone,
that contains the apparatus of hearing, forming the middle of the
basis of the skull, and the sphenoid bone, which lies just back of the
sockets of the eyes, supporting the front end of the lower portion of
the middle lobe, called temporo-sphenoidal.

[Illustration]

The sphenoid bone thus sustains the region of Sensibility, while the
temporal bone lodges the organs of the most sensual, selfish, and
violent impulses, the action of which is downward into the muscular
and visceral organs of the body. The sphenoid bone as it extends up
touches the base of the front lobe and of the Ideal region, where it
assumes the name