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SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE


    LIBRARY.



Section
W.1  ,   f**~*
  no. 113,   No..j:Lj..'/.MJ.J. [
W.D.S.G.O.                  3_613
\f U 
 
J.  G.  SPURZHEIM.
             Lith. ofJla/l&Afaeiiry, fluffuU 
.,*:

X 
 
F. J. V.  BROUSSAIS. 
 
              HISTORY

                            AND

                   PROGRESS

                            OF

PHRENOLOGY

    (Read before the Western Phrenological Society, at Buffalo,)


       BY   R.   W.  HASKINS,  A.  M.,

                    Corresponding Secretary.
  " Full well we wot it happeneth unto many  narrations  of matters by-
gone, that, as some con them "right, cleverly, other some do so but crudely,
while the thronging multitude trouble not themselves to do either the one
or the  other:  albeit  our task  is,  of need, ended,  ere theirs  can  have
beginning."
                BUFFALO :
        STEELE &  PECK!
NEAV-YORK:  AVILEY  &  PUTNAM.

                   1839.
Z1 Wt 
Entered according  to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by



                OLIVER  G. STEELE,



 In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District  of New-York.
Steele's Press, Buffalo.
 
PREFACE.
  In each of the  months of April and May, of the
present year, I read, before  the  " Western Phrenolo-
logical  Society,  at  BufFalo,"  a Lecture upon the
History of Phrenology :  the following pages  embrace
those  two Lectures, with such extensions and  emen-
dations as were deemed necessary, the better to  fit the
whole for publication.
  It is not the purpose  of  this  work to demonstrate
what  phrenology is, but rather  to unfold, concisely,
the  history of  its  discovery,  and its progress.   To
have  done more would have converted this volume
into a treatise upon  phrenology,  while of such a work
there  is  no present want;  the  science having been
amply  developed,   as  far  as  yet  perfected,  in the
various   able  works  of  Gall,  Spurzheim,  Combe,
Caldwell, Grimes,  and  several  minor  authors,  in 
iv                  PREFACE.
English ;  and of  Broussais, Vimont, and some others
in French;  together with  store of detailed knowledge
that is to  be  met  Avith  in isolated papers, of high
value,  in the English,  Paris, Copenhagen and  Ameri-
can  Phrenological  Journals;  and  in  the  works of
numerous Medical and Physiological writers.
   As  the entire existence of  phrenology,  thus  far,
has  been  one  of  continuedly  fierce  and  rancorous
warfare, its history  must  needs partake largely of
the strifes and conflicts which  have marked its daily
progress :   and  because  the  science  has  finally
triumphed,  and   become  established,  such   history
necessarily  involves, in some sort, a narration of its
victories;  and of the  manner, no less  than  the fact,
of its enemies  discomfiture, and final overthrow.
   I have made  free use of all accredited authorities
at my command;  and  in all  practicable  instances
the accustomed  references  and  credits have been
given;  but  still  this  has  not, in every case, been
possible,  from  the  manner in  which it  sometimes
became necessary to incorporate the  materials into the
general body of the text.
                                 The Author.
  Buffalo, Nov. 7,  1839. 
HISTORY  AND PROGRESS
                   OF
      PHRENOLOGY.
  Well, says a certain  class of readers,  what new
proofs have you  to offer  in support of the truths  of
phrenology ?  None,  whatever, is our ready response ;
for none are necessary.   We  consider the fundamen-
tal principles of phrenology as well settled and demon-
strated as are the great truths in chymistry, geology,
astronomy,  &c.    But in  this  way,  continues our
objector, you are taking for granted the very thing at
issue, while  many, myself among  the rest,  are not
yet convinced of its truth.  Very well: it is the same
with the other sciences ; there have ever been doubters,
and  disbelieA'ers, but  is this the fault of the sciences
themselves ?   Certainly not.  It is but a kw months
since a paper  Avas submitted to the Academy of Sci-
ence, at Paris, in which the author gravely attempted
to show  that  certain  lunar  observations  which had
been  made  by astronomers,  simultaneously,   in the
                         2 
2
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGV.
northern  and southern hemispheres, were not really
made upon  the  same moon !  Well : did the astrono-
mers of Europe thereupon bestir themselves, to prove,
anew, their former demonstrations just, and this man's
theory wrong ?   No : they left him in the enjoyment
of his doubts, while they continued their investigations
of  nature's  truths.   Just  so  here.   The evidences
already before the world,  of the truth of phrenology,
are so numerous and clear that they generally satisfy
and  convince those who examine them.   To these all
doubting readers are referred  ; as a defence of phre-
nology, against  those who withhold their assent to its
truth, forms no part of our present purpose.
  Mental  phenomena,  in some  form or  variety, have
necessarily  engaged  the  attention  of  philosophick
minds,  in all ages  of the  world ;  and  had rational
views upon the subject of mind, been imbibed at first,
the history of phrenology would ascend through the
ages of the  past, to the very  childhood  of  our race.
But this was not so :  on the contrary the wildest theo-
ries have obtained, in different ages, in relation to  this
subject.   Without at this  moment  diving deeper  into
antiquity we may refer to the period when the intel-
lectual faculties were divided into two classes,  namely,
intellect and will.  The intellect was supposed to be
the faculty or capacity to receive ideas, to comprehend
and combine them ; to judge, to reason, &c. : the  will 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
3
was the faculty or capacity to be affected agreeably or
disagreeably ; to  desire, to resolve,  and to act in con-
sequence.  This  distinction,  irrational as  it is now
seen to  be, was long satisfactory to a great number of
the ancient philosophers.  It has  been ever true that
dogmas Avhich had antiquity to recommend them, were
for this reason alone held in  some degree  sacred, and
this one  Avas thus received,  in succeeding centuries  :
which explains why more rational views were so long
delayed.
   The  Greeks considered ideas as  furnished by the
mind, and they admitted an action  of the brain upon
them.   Plato  held  that ideas are  all;  that they con-
stitute the  entire  universe ;  they come from God, that
they are planted  by him, and that they constitute the
whole of the creation !   Aristotle, a disciple of Plato,
declared that the ideas admitted by  his  master are
anterior to all  knowledge in  man ;  and he held they
are not innate but come to  us through the mind, and
impress  themselves upon the intelligence, which  he
compared to a tablet of wax, susceptible of any impres-
sion that accident or design  may stamp  upon it.   This
theory  became wholly unsatisfactory ;  and  Aristotle
himself was  necessitated to admit passions and griefs
from without,  which  disturbed the regularity  of  his
impressions upon his tablet of wax.
   The  Platonists  became discontented : they saw that 
4 -          HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.

with the same ideas all men acted not in  the  same
manner; and they thus found, at that early day, that
the whole Avas not yet discovered—that something Avas
wanting  in their system of mind.   It may be asked,
why drag forth these notions of antiquity,  and present
them here,  in an age  when they are so repulsive 1
But Ave must not forget  that these notions,  though noAV
absurd enough, AA'ere long revered by the greatest men
living;  and  if their   presentation  here  shall cause
some readers, by  looking about themselves, to disco-
ver that they, too, have  implicitly relied upon the truth
of positions, more modern, but no less  false,   it is
perhaps  turning such  material to  the  best possible
account.
  Aristotle reigned long in  the  schools, and was con-
tinually contradicted by the partisans for innate ideas,
although he  had admitted of thoughts, aptitudes and
passions.  It is a law of nature that men  judge  con-
tradictorily,  because  their  thoughts are  involuntary
and  various.  It ever was so, and still is  the same —
it arises, all  other things being equal, from cerebral
organization  and development.
  The  Platonick  philosophers  admitted   three  prin-
ciples  of life, in  man, namely, the  vegetative  ;  the
animal, or  sensitive ;   and  the  rational.   Bacon dis-
tinguished but tAvo ; the one rational, being the source
of the  intellect, reason,  reasoning poAver, imagination, 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
5
memory,  inclination and  will ;  the other  sensitive,
giving rise to voluntary motion and sensibility.
   Descartes  commenced  his labours  by  involving
everything  except his  own  existence,  in  doubt  and
uncertainty.   He  did not question his OAvn existence,
"because,"  said he, "I think,  I  have ideas, I act;
therefore, I  am."   He  too,  like others before  him,
gave the name of ideas not  only to  pretended  repre-
sentations, of exteriour objects, but also to judgement,
as a natal effort.
   Locke gave  to ideas two origins,  the  understanding
and reflection; but still, though he accomplished some-
thing, or rather, perhaps, much, compared to previous
labourers, yet he came  far enough short of  a rational
view of the operations of mind.
   Kant recognized ideas as the representatives of the
attributes  of bodies,  and he admits of interiour impul-
sions to goodness, justice, beauty, &c.   Yes, interiour
indeed,  exclaims  Broussais,  " but where  are these
entities, in  reference to our  bodies ?   No  region of
nervous matter, no cavity of  the  viscera is  designated
in this nebulous system of metaphysicks  ; all is vague,
indefinite, and  diffused."  Yet it was much to  have
said, as he did,  that man is not constituted alone to
learn, or  to act only in  virtue of what he knows, but
that he conceals within him, if he did not show where,
powers  which communicate impulses to him.
                        2* 
6            HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.

   The mental  philosophers of the Scotch school, and
particularly  Reid,  have  much more directly  based
this  philosophy  upon  common  sense.   They vir-
tually  ask,  Avhy  shall  we   plunge  ourselves into
shadowy  abstractions, where it is  with  difficulty Ave
can  maintain our identity, when  it is required  of  us
tp examine the  phenomena which are presented to  us
by mental man ?  What have  the images of bodies  in
common  with love or hate ; or with sentiments of the
beautiful, of sublimity, of justice,  benevolence,  &c. ?
Or, again, with the sentiment of  veneration, or  admi-
ration ?  These words exist in all languages, and have
been adopted by all nations ;   they therefore represent
real  impulsions,  emotions, &c.  These writers fur-
thermore distinguished and signalized  nearly all which
Gall has  located  under the names  of necessities and
sentiments, &c. ;  but still they have assigned to them
no organs.   Many  mental phenomena  are not pro-
vided for, in their philosophy,  nor are some  important
deficiencies  that  are met  Avith : they have  not even
shown  us why  it  is that  some  of our race  are  idiots
from birth ; but still they certainly have done  much
to  bring fonvard mental  philosophy ;  although it was
reserved  for  phrenology to crown it with  that degree
of perfection which  alone has been  able to  explain
the diversity we see in the poAvers and propensities  of
individuals and  races of the human family. 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.           7

  We have seen  that various principles of life, and
as they, perhaps, supposed, of peculiar actions, were
admitted by  the  ancients, in different ages ;  and it
was quite natural that in adjusting their crude systems
they should  have dwelt more or less upon the seat  of
these principles.    They   did do this;  and framed
diverse theories thereon,  and also of the various  uses
of the brain, with and  without connexion Avith these.
  Pythagoras, five hundred years before our era, sup-
posed the most  noble  of  the three principles  of life
which he recognized, Avas in  the head,  while  the other
two were in the body.  Much the  same opinion was
held by Democritus ;  while Plato lodged reason in the
head, but  the  passions in  the viscera.  Aristotle pro-
bably held different views, at different times, in these
respects.  He seems at first to have adopted the idea
that the brain Avas but a  gland, which in some Avay
ministered to the health of the blood ; and Hippocrates
held  very  much the  same  views.   Yet,  at another
period Aristotle  Avas familiar Avith comparative  ana-
tomy, and he makes  comparisons betAveen  the brain
of man and those of other animals, and remarks that
the great volume of the human  brain he supposes the
cause of man's  superiority.    He  even went  so far,
according to some authors,  as  to  give local  habita-
tions,  in  the head,  to  common  sense, imagination,
judgement, reflection  and  memory—this last being a 
8
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
kind  of  storehouse for all  the  rest.   These vicavs
were subsequently  reproduced,  sometimes  literally,
and  at  others variously modified, through a  long
period  of  succeeding  time.   The  history of  the
Alexandrian school,  imperfect as it is, shows much
of  it to  have prevailed there ; and the doctrines of
Galen are  but those  of  Plato and Aristotle, which
had passed through this school.   A  work published in
1296, by a professor  at Montpelier, reproduced almost
entire, the  opinions  of Aristotle, upon this subject;
and the same individual made further publications of a
similar nature,  in  1305.  Indeed,  the  whole of the
middle ages may be  included as having entertained
views of this kind.
  Leaving these vague speculations, the offspring of
closet theories, and which can  be usefully referred to
only to illustrate the necessity there  ever has been for
the  aid of phrenological science, in  mental  investiga-
tions, let us turn our  attention  to the statuary and the
paintings of antiquity.  In  doing  this  we  leave  the
regions  of fancy for  matter of  fact  demonstration ;
and apply  ourselves  at  once  to view and to handle
what the ancient masters themselves saw and touched.
And  here  we  find, in  practical  life,  much  that is
worthy of observation.  The  pictures and  statues  of
ancient,  renowned  men, correspond to  the  phrenolo-
gical  development  requisite  to the characters  they 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
9
severally bear.   But, says  the objector, hoAv are we
to know that these pictures and statues are  just — that
they  are not ideal  creations ?  Very well :  suppose
they  are?  It still remains to be shown, if they were
not copied  or imitated from nature, how they happened
to be created, by the artist,  in such just conformity to
our  science.   Many of these  pieces are knoAvn to
have been  imaginary, for  the originals of them were
so ;  but still the result is the same.   When the Greek
artists attempted to represent genius, science, wisdom,
&c,  they  always figured a large  head,  particularly
prominent  in front; and when they would pourtray
muscular strength, only, in which mind was no  way
concerned,  they  uniformly give  us  small  heads.
They  never drew Jupiter and  a gladiator with  the
same  cerebral development.   There are, however,
exceptions,  in ancient pieces, and  reasons for these
exceptions — both of which  demand attention.   " The
ancients,"  says  the  Edinburgh Phrenological Journal,
"have  fallen into errours,  in some of their  master-
pieces, which are  now considered monstrous, such as
the extreme  smallness of the head of the Venus  de
Medicis.  For the same  cause, and for fear of failing
in certain arbitrary propositions,  the head of Napoleon
has been reduced in  size, without regard to the exist-
ence  of  an extraordinary  cerebral development,  of
Avhich phrenology, alone, is capable of comprehending 
10
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
the importance, and  appreciating the beauty.   The
ancients, when they  concealed the  enormous  size of
the head of Pericles,  had the same end in view as the
moderns, but were more faithful  imitators of nature."
These errours, as they  are designated, are not strictly
such, since they are the result of intention.   They
are the productions  of the  devotees  of fashion;  and
this, without  citing antiquity  in  proof, we all  see is
every  day making both  sexes  ridiculous, and often
contemptible.    The  individual whose phrenological
development has  fitted him  to excel as a fashionable,
sacrifices,  in  anything, when fashion  is  concerned,
not only propriety and  present  convenience,  but he
unhesitatingly  infringes  the  organick laws  of  his
being,  at the  cost of health,  and an abridgement of
his days.   This, phrenologists know why  to expect of
such individuals ; and they are therefore not surprised
to  see  them  distorting  nature in  a painting or a
statue, to ideal proportions  such as fashion may have
established.
   We  have seen that from  Aristotle  downward, some
vague  notions of a division of the brain,  and of as-
signing distinct offices to these  divisions, have every
where  prevailed among  philosophers.  These  notions
seem to have formed the standard of philosophy, of the
brain  and  mind,  as before  observed, through  the
middle  ages.  A tangible form was given  to these 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
11
views, in 1562, by Lodovico Dolce, a Venetian, in a

work upon memory,  in which he has given a drawing

of a head, and upon it the seat of the different faculties

are  marked  out, somewhat in the manner  of  those

upon a phrenological bust  of the present day.   Of

this drawing the following is a copy.


         .     [ Head given by Dolce, in 1562. ]
References to the Engraving.

 1. Sensus Communis.
 2. Fantasia.
 3. Imagina.
 4. Vermis.
 5. Cogitativa.
 6. Estimativa
 7. Memorativa.
 6. Olfactus,
 9. Gustus.
  Here we see the nose,  tongue,  eye, and  ear;  or

smell, taste,  sight and hearing, all united by  lines to

» common sense," in the  forehead ; while "fantasia,"

"imagina," "cogitativa," "estimativa,"  "memora-

tiva," and " vermis," are severally allotted to parti-

cular parts of the head.  It  is  unnecessary to dwell

long  upon  these fanciful and theoretick divisions. 
12           HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.

The vermiform or worm-like processes  of the cere-
brum,  according to the dogmas of  that age, served
as a medium  of communication by  Avhich the phan-
toms of the mind passed into the  regions of the brain
where  memory was supposed to  be  situated ; and to
this feature of what was  once thought sane  we are
indebted for that phrase, not, indeed, the  most elegant
or refined,  namely, "he has now some new maggot in
his head."  The reference to "storehouse of memory,"
Avhich is esteemed  much higher, and  readily and con-
stantly finds a place in the pages of our novelists,  and
light writers,  generally,  is  also  a  remnant  of  this
" philosophy of mind."
  Neglecting,  as needs we must, a crowd of gleaners
in these fields  of  fancy,  we  pass to Henry  Home,
Lord Karnes.   This writer, long known as the able
author  of  several works,  published,  among other
productions, " Sketches of  the History  of Man," in
four volumes,  octavo.  The work appeared at Edin-
burgh,   irr1774.  In pursuing his investigations  this
author  disregarded  all mere authority, and discarding
the method of  reflecting upon the phenomena of his
own consciousness,  he sallied boldly out into the field
of nature,  in search of truth.  Hence his  work con-
tains a  vast accumulation of  facts.  Although Lord
Karnes  did not attempt anything like a phrenological
division and arrangement of the primitive  faculties, 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
13
yet he  has distinctly  referred to,  and  described as
original principles of thought and action, no less than
twenty of those now recognised by phrenologists.   He
has not, indeed, given the present phrenological names
to these — nor did Dr. Gall, to many of them — but he
has  sufficiently identified  them.    For  instance,  he
often refers to " the  appetite of sex,"  which he as-
cribes  to organization,  yet  he does not call  it ama-
tiveness ;  his  " principle  of malevolence"  becomes
destructiveness by his definition;  his  " sense of pro-
perty," is  but acquisitiveness; his " sense of cause,"
but causality ;  his " sense  of symmetry," but order ;
and so of the  rest: and he makes no mention of such
individual powers as memory, or judgement.
   Professor Camper,  whose name is familiar  to most
readers,  however little his works may be known, was
truly eminent, for his day,  both  in anatomy and natu-
ral history.  He was a native of Leyden, and died in
1787.    The  philosophick  mind of this great man,
though surrounded and weighed down by all the rub-
bish Avhich ages of abstract theorising and neglect of
careful observations had  accumulated,  maintained  a
perpetual struggle  against  the  clouds  of ignorance
which  then so nearly enshrouded  man's mental cha-
racter.  He delighted in comparative anatomy, in the
practice  of Avhich he  convinced himself of  what is
since so well known,  namely, that  there have existed
                       3 
14
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
various animals of which the  species are at present
extinct.  Following up  this subject he wrote a disser-
tation upon natural varieties, in  which he has distin-
guished the varieties of the human family by the shape
of the scull.   His treatise upon the natural  difference
of features in persons of various countries ;  and his
treatise upon  beauty,  have both  been translated into
English, by  Cogan ;  and a copy of them, in quarto,
London, 1794, with numerous plates, we have now
before us.  The facial angle, of which Camper is the
well  known  inventer,  is here  illustrated  at  large.
This  is based upon the difference in the shape of the
bones of the face of men and other animals.  The jaws
of brutes are more projecting than those of men ; and
on this  relation of the  jaw to the forehead, is founded
Camper's theory of  this angle, which will be readily
understood by the following sketch. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
15
  Here, the right line A B, drawn along the base of
the  scull, passes  across  the orifice of the  ear, and to
the  bottom of  the  nose, while the  right line  A  C,
extends  from  the roots  of  the upper incisors to the
forehead, which  it just  touches.   The  angle  opened
by  these two lines will be more  acute  the  less the
shape  of the face, in brutes, resembles that  of  man.
It is this angle Avhich  Camper supposed Avould  point
out  the specifick  differences in the heads of men and
other animals ; and also of the different races of  men. 
16
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
In some mammalia he found this angle no more  than
20° ; and  from this it  gradually  rose,  through  the
different  classes of animals, and the varieties of the
human family, to  85° in the scull of the European.
The angle in the above sketch  is 70°, which is that
assigned  by Camper to the  Negro.   The succeeding
outline, from life, exhibits this angle about 85°.
                   / ''


  By comparing with  these  the  following scull, of
one of the ape  family, the principle  which Camper
sought to  display will be fully established ;  the facia!
angle, in this instance, being no more than 42°. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.           1*
   This discovery, upon which so  much reliance was
placed  at  one time,  and which  is  still by many  es-
teemed far  above  its   merit, was  nevertheless  an
attempt at  investigating craniological and consequently
cerebral development, by observation ;  and therefore,
however valueless in  itself, was still useful in  pointing
attention in a direction in which  knowledge might be
had.   That  little can be known by the facial angle
was long  since assumed.  It was  readily seen  that
nothing of the Avidth of the scull can be shown, in this
way, either in front or rear ;  but it seems  not to have
been  so evident to all that  the  developments of the
organs at the frontal base of the  brain, relatively to
those in the forehead, would  materially change  this
angle.    And yet, from the situation of the parts, such
                         3* 
18
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
a result seems inevitable.  Camper did, however, by
additional  lines  and  rules, attain  the  measures of
sculls in several  other directions, so far as to facilitate
his investigations of the rules of drawing.
   We have seen, above, that fashion has  had some
agency in distorting nature, as well  in  pictures  and
statuary as in real life.   Against the arbitrary sway,
at least in drawing and painting, of this  invisible  yet
iron despot,  Camper exerted  all  his powers — with
what success, those conversant with these arts can best
judge.  In his chapter upon the proportions of the head,
this author observes :   " The portrait painters of the
present day generally describe an oval upon their panel
before the person to be painted sits to be drawn ;  make
a cross in the oval, which they divide into the length of
four noses, and  the breadth of  five  eyes ;  and they
paint the face according  to these divisions, to which it
must be accommodated,  let the proportions themselves
be ever so  much at  variance."  But  it may be said,
some painters, at least, and perhaps some  of the first,
still make  use of  these  or  equally arbitrary  rules.
Very well : and  is it not to this fact that  we owe so
many failures, and through it that we derive so  many
bad pictures  and even unintentional caricatures, from
the pencils of these men ?  No phrenologist,  certainly,
would ever thus paint;  nor would one be able to judge
correctly, by such a portrait, of the individual who sat 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
19
as  its original.   All  the world has  heard  much  of
physiognomy ; and there are many now, who suppose
it to  be  nothing  more than  a  study  of the  lines and
contour of the eyes, and the  face below ; and yet they
have  great reliance  upon a judgement formed from
such  data, and even suppose  this to embrace the whole
of  phrenology.   Such  individuals have yet much to
learn, in relation to this subject, as we shall endeavour
to  show  in  the subsequent pages  of this history.
Phrenologists daily see, and others may, with but little
trouble, portraits of distinguished living or recent men,
in Avhich nature's conformation of head is destroyed,
and the phrenological proportions that their characters
respectively disclosed, are quite wanting.
   From Camper we pass to Lavater — one  of the most
singular  men of his  age ; and in some respects cer-
tainly one of the most  anomalous of authors.  His
great  work, namely,  "Essays  on  Physiognomy," an
English edition  of which, in four volumes, octavo,
translated from the French, was published ini 1797, is,
perhaps,  one  of  the most extraordinary collections  of
fact and  fable, observation and theory, acute remark
and  sophisticated absurdity,  that  has been  produced
within the wide  range of modern  research.  Lavater
evidently read much,  reflected much ;  and  at times he
observed acutely, and reasoned clearly; but he lacked
method, in all he did,  which is indispensable to success 
20            HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 in any science ; and he often unconsciously blended the
 wildest vagaries of caprice or fancy, with sane and im-
 portant deductions.  His work upon physiognomy has
 been but  little read, at least by this nation ;  and when
 consulted it has usually been in the imperfect abridge-
 ment thai is abroad, in which the four octavo volumes,
 with over three hundred plates, are represented by little
 more than the matter of an ordinary pamphlet.  From
 such scanty materials, upon which to base an opinion,
 it is not singular that radically erroneous views, in rela-
 tion to his sentiments and opinions, should have widely
 obtained.    His work, for a time,  was highly popular,
 and extensively read, in Europe ;  but his theory,  as a
 whole, wanted consistency, and was founded upon no
 just or certain principles.  Yet he  was familiar  with
 the  writings  of his  predecessors ;  he  had  shared in
 their difficulties in regard to mind,  and its manifesta-
 tions, and had seen, with many of them, the  necessity
 of something Avhich  they had not.    Probably Camper,
 (who died after Lavater was forty-eight years old,) by
 his discovery  of the facial angle,  had some  influence
 in turning his mind from the  speculative theories of
 the ancients to the observation of facts, as  they are
exhibited in real  life.   But what  is physiognomy, as
taught by Lavater ? This author  has very generally
been thought to have confined his views to the faces of
men;  as  the  nose,  mouth, eyes,  chin, dec, and to 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.            21

have  drawn  from these his opinions of their mental
abilities and defects ;  their characters, dispositions, dec.
That he did treat extensively of all these, and that he
placed much reliance on some  of them, frequently, is
true ;  and to this is  greatly  owing  the  fall of  his
system, if such  it may be  called.   But  he did  not
always deal thus fallaciously with his subject and with
facts.   On  the  contrary  he  really  hit  upon  some
important outlines of phrenology,  as since  demon-
strated and established ;  and these constitute,  at  the
present day, all  that is  most valuable  of his  work.
He taught,  indeed,   that there  is  profundity  in  the
shape of a nose,  and goodness or mirth in the contour
of a chin : but he did more  than this ;  he treated  the
brain as the  organ of the mind, and he judged of its
abilities and endowments by the manifestations of its
size and  shape,  as  disclosed by  the contour  of  the
scull !   This was,  and  still  is, phrenology.   The
following passage,  which  we  quote from  the first
volume of his Physiognomy, is well worthy  the con-
sideration of our opponents of the present day :
   " Who would  have the temerity to maintain that
Newton  and Leibnitz might  resemble one  born  an
idiot, Avho could  not walk with a steady pace, nor  fix
his eye,  nor conceive,  nor express, reasonably,  the
plainest  abstract  proposition 1  What wretched rea-
soning, to advance, that one of these great men con- 
22
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
ceived the Theodicea in a misshapen brain like that of
a Laplander !  and that the other balanced the planets
and divided  the rays of the sun, in a head resembling
that  of an Esquimaux,  whose shallow intellects can
reckon no farther than six, and declares all beyond it
innumerable ! "
  From  the  brain we  proceed  to  sculls,  of which
Lavater  has given numerous  drawings;  and  upon
all these he  has bestowed detailed  observations and
descriptions.   His fourteenth lecture  is headed  " the
human scull  minutely  considered,"  and commences
thus :  "The scull, that part of the human body which
is of the most importance to study,  authors  and ob-
servers who have preceded me in the physiognomical
carreer,  seem to have paid only a  slight  degree  of
attention to.   No  one  is  more  interesting  or  more
significant to an attentive  observer.   The  knowledge
of this part  is  the most solid foundation  of that of
man."   Again :  " The scull,  which by degrees ac-
quires so great a solidity,  is, in  infants,  soft and
flexible.....the cavity of the scull is visibly fitted
to the  mass  of the substances  which it contains, and
follows their  growth  at every age  of human  life.
Thus the exteriour form of the brain, which imprints
itself perfectly on the internal surface of the scull,  is,
at the same  time, the  model of the contours of the
exteriour surface." . ..." On the surface of the  scull 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
23
chiefly  are  to be  found distinct marks of the manner
of life,  folloAved by the  party to whom  it belonged."
In conclusion of  this  lecture he observes:  "1  shall
finish this  article  by  mentioning  an historical trait
known  to  the  whole  world.    There  were  found,
formerly, on the  field of  battle,  the  bones  which
remained  there many years after the combat, and the
distinction was even then sensible between the  sculls
of the effeminate Mede and the warlike Persian.   The
same thing has, I believe, been said  of the Swiss and
Burgundians ; and this Avill prove, at least,  that it has
been deemed possible  to discover,  simply by the in-
spection of  the scull,  the difference  of the manner of
life, and that of the several powers of different nations,
and to distinguish one people from another."
  In pursuance of these and similar views repeatedly
expressed by him elsewhere, Lavater has given no
less  than thirty drawings of  human sculls, besides
those of monkeys  and various lower animals,  illus-
trated  by extensive  criticisms  and explanations  of
their various shapes, sizes, &zc, and the characteris-
tick features of mental powers and  propensities  there-
by portrayed.
  The opinion, as  we have seen, is extensively abroad,
namely, that Lavater's  views and estimates  of  men's
characters, abilities, dzc, were drawn from the contour
and lines  of the face.    As before  observed, he did 
24
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
often dwell, in detail,  upon these ; but yet they  were
far from being his chief reliance, as has been shown
by quotations from his own pen.   It is true  that in
very strongly marked cases,  phrenologically, the indi-
viduals  thus developed will have, in some degree, the
natural  language of the  predominant organs depicted
in the expressions of the countenance.   And there are
certain of the organs,  also, as alimentiveness, and lan-
guage,  for  instance,  which  when greatly developed,
exercise an influence upon the actual form of the face
itself.   But still, the  dependence that can be  placed
upon  the face,  as  an index  of either  character  or
mental  ability,  is very  little — less, indeed,  by far,
than most persons are willing, before  strict investiga-
tion, to  admit.    That  Lavater did not form  correct
opinions of men by  the indications  of their faces,
because  he could not, if he  would,  may very  readily
be learned by an examination of the  following cut.
Here  we have   the  portrait of Dr.  Franklin,  which
has been selected on  account of  his well known cha-
racter, no less than from the fact that the portrait is
itself familiar a3 the  face of a friend,  to almost the
whole nation.  All concur in saying that the portrait
of Franklin exhibits  strong marks  of a  powerful
mind; of wisdom, thought, decision, dec, as is  usually
remarked of it:  in short, no one ever supposes it the
portrait  of a weak, simple,  or subordinate individual. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
25
Verv Avell:  now,  by means of the fly sheet, let  the
head, only, of the portrait be  covered, leaving, it will
be observed, every portion  of the face entirely  the
same as before, but surmounting it with a new head,
of a  diflerent form and size ;  and how changed !  The
"intelligent countenance,"  as  it  Avas called, is no
more ;  the marks of decision  and  of Avisdom, where
are they ? They  are  gone ;  and notwithstanding  the
                         4 
26
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
same face is still there, yet  this would  be instantly
recognised  as  the portrait of  a simple, submissive,
weak man; an  humble  obeyer of others,  but the
leader of no one.  It is the  head, then,  and not the
face, by Avhich we all judge  and estimate a stranger,
upon his first presentation.   It is by phrenology, in
fact, though without the name, and  for the most part
without  the valuable details that  are furnished by that
science.
   We might enlarge, to very great extent,  our quota-
tions from  this author, in further illustration of his
phrenological  views ;   but  this  seems  unnecessary.
We  have shown  enough to  prove all we  attempted —
all we claim for Lavater — namely,  that he saw some
glimmerings of  truth,  in  his  long wanderings amid
confusion and darkness; that his voyagings  frequently
brought  him in sight of the sought for coast,  and that
he often looked steadfastly thereon, but still failed to
recognise it as the realm he  so anxiously hoped to
discover.  He saw that the size and form of the brain
dictated  and controlled mental  phenomena ;  but the
idea  of  particular organs therein seems never to have
occurred to  him.
   We have  traced this hurried outline of  the dim  and
shadowy dreamings  of men  in  past ages,  upon  the
nature and  methods of  their own minds, not, indeed,
to constitute it a finished picture of what  has been or 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
27
Avhat still  is dignified with the name of mental  philo-
sophy,  but  only to  illustrate  the  urgent  necessity
which was constantly felt, from the  earliest  history of
our  race  to  the  day  that phrenology was announced
to the  world,  of something rational and  satisfactory,
in explanation  of mental phenomena.   Through  £»H
former time, Avhile  century after century  rolled on,
families and nations  were born  and buried  ;  empires
and  republicks  rose, flourished, fell,  and  were  for-
gotten ;  brute force often bore  sway, until  low crafti-
ness dethroned it, while  high and  noble intellectual
combinations pushed  this aside  in  its turn, and still
man knew not himself;  and the whole  philosophy of
mind Avas yet but some mystical chimera of the school-
men— an  ignis  fatuus of the  cloister, or the solemn
toy  of  some Diogenes in his  tub, carefully shunning
observation and building theories by torch-light! *
  * While preparing these pages for the press, our attention
was invited  to a  new work,  namely,  " The  Young Lady's
Home," by Mrs.  Louisa C. Tuthill,  first published since the
commencement of the present year.  The  remarks  of this
authoress  upon mental  culture,  memory, imagination  and
judgement, were  particularly recommended to us as valuable.
Had Mrs. Tuthill  understood phrenology, as, for her own repu-
tation, she should have done,  before writing  upon the sub-
jects above enumerated, she would have known that some of
the views  she has  given to her readers, though once deemed
mental philosophy, have no longer any claim to rationality. 
28
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
   But  we  have now  arrived at a  period when  this
could no longer  satisfy :  when man, having rendered
himself practical  by discoveries and applications  in
the other sciences, became at length anxious for some
rational vieAvs  of  the mind.   Yet  this  want  Avas not
supplied by midnight  vigils  and  painful  theorizing;
no:  accident first  pointed the way  for man to read
himself;  and the first link in the chain  of discoveries
Avhich now enables him to do so, Avas forged by a child !
But this child did not owe all  to accident — nor do we.
The accidental  hint, in  childhood,  he pursued in all
his after life ; and by so doing he arrived  at the signal
distinction,  in  common  with almost  all  great disco-
verers, and human benefactors, not forgetting our oAvn
lamented worthies, Fulton  and Clinton, of being
jeered,  contemned,  scofFed   at, and  persecuted,  for
For instance,  Mrs. T. relates some well known  and  striking
historical instances of the exercise of verbal memory, such  as
repeating a whole poem, after reading it, 4-c, upon which she
remarks as follows :  " It is impossible for us  now to  discover
wlfether these efforts were owing to a naturally strong memory,
which had been habitually exercised, or to an artificial memory ;
probably to the former."   Now, cases of this kind are but mani-
festations of extraordinary development of the organ of lan-
guage ;  and far  are they from being impossible to be under-
stood : on the contrary,  any good phrenologist, after spending
fifteen minutes in Mrs. Tuthill's presence,  would  decide, with
perfect certainty, whether or not she possessed the ability thus
readily to retain and repeat words. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
29
 having  disclosed scientifick truths  so important — so
 vast that, although he has but  just left us, we already
 begin to appreciate, in his labours, what posterity is to
 adore.
   The individual thus fortunate and thus distinguished,
 was Franqois Joseph Gall, who is the father of phre-
 nology, strictly speaking.  He was a native of Suabia,
 and was born in  1757.  At the age of nine years, as
 he  himself states,  he was  placed,  with  another boy,
 under the  tuition of an uncle,  and while with him was
 often reprimanded  for his inability to compete with his
 companion in learning  by rote, although  in  other
 respects he greatly excelled him.   The two boys were
 subsequently  sent  to school  at Bade, where  thirty
 boys attended, several of whom committed  to memory
 with  such  facility that,  although  they  stood at the
 eighth or tenth place in other exercises, in this they
 rose to the highest.   Two of the  thirty even excelled
 Gall's first companion; and he was  struck at the coin-
 cidence of all of  them having oyes so prominent as to
 have  given rise  to the nick-name, bull's eyes.   He
 was subsequently transferred  to  another school, and
again lost his  places by inability to compete Avith other
boys at verbal recitation ;  and here, too, he observed
the  projecting eyes  of those who excelled him in this
exercise.   At a later period he again suffered defeat,
in the same way, at the college of Strasburgh, and by
                         4 * 
30
HISTORY OF FHRENOLOGV,
youths whose  eyes exhibited the same kind of promi-
nence.  Many of these  who thus excelled,  he found
had  very  moderate  ability for  any other  kind  of
learning.   Having observed thus far, the idea very
naturally arose in his mind, that prominent eyes were
an  indication of a good verbal memory — and here
was the  beginning of phrenological  discovery.  Gall
built not a  theory in his closet,  and then  sallied out to
seek proofs of its truth ; for at nine years old none
will say he could have done so ; but he detected  the
fact in nature : a fact which, however often observed ;
had never  before been applied  to any useful purpose ;
and he ever found it coupled with a  peculiar  manifes-
tation of mind.   Reflecting  upon this he very naturally
inferred that if there  was an external indication of one
mental  talent, there  might  be such  indications for the
others ;  and  from that  moment, all  those who were
remarkable for any particular talent  became objects of
his most especial attention.   He noAV entered upon the
study of medicine.   Thia, of all professions, was  best
calculated  to  aid him in his new researches, not  only
by outward observations, in connexion  with  mental
manifestations, but also  in extending his  researches to
the brain  itself,  by examination after death.  In  his
new  character  of  professional  student, Gall's   first
attention was very naturally turned  to the brain, in the
hope of acquiring a knoAvledge of its functions ; but he 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
31
Avas  doomed to severe  mortification, upon  finding  the
whole question involved in the conjectures  and obscu-
rities which two thousand years  of theorizing had not
removed.  Having, however, ascertained certain talents
and dispositions always to accompany unusual size of
certain  parts of this organ, the brain, he still  hoped
that, by a long course of observation in every situation
in which man  is to be found, farther disclosures  might
be added to the  number, until  at last  the functions of
every part of  the brain might become known, and the
most important results be obtained in a department of
science of all  others the most interesting.   With this
view, and in this exalted hope, Gall devoted himself to
the  study  and observation of human nature, with a
zeal, ability and patient  perseverance previously un-
known ; and, ultimately, with the happiest results.   It
is impossible  to read  his works Avithout a feeling of
admiration for the extent, variety and  nature  of  his
researches, both in the study of man, and in that of
the  lower  animals.  Nothing seems to  have escaped
his  notice — nothing  to  have  slackened  his  efforts.
Little,  indeed, did those  who lavishly bestowed upon
him the   epithets  "reckless   theorist,"  "visionary
dreamer," and a multitude of kindred  detractions,
suspect the figure they will make  with posterity; to
whom  they will in this way  become  known, indeed,
but only as the enemies of the true science of mind. 
32
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
   We have already shown hoAv phrenology began —
hoAv its first discovery arose from accident; and as the
subsequent labours of  Dr. Gall were all  equally based
upon observation,  we shall  enter upon  a condensed
history  of his discoveries of the several organs he esta-
blished, in the order in which he has arranged them, in
his  Avorks.   The  names  originally  adopted  by Dr.
Gall, for the organs, have been most of them changed;
Dr. Spurzheim having bestowed  upon them those by
which they are. now generally designated.   To  illus-
trate this historical fact we shall give to each organ, in
the following list, first a translation from the  French,
of Dr. Gall's name for it ;  and then add that bestowed
by  Spurzheim,  and  by  which  it is now generally
known.   We preserve Dr. Gall's order  of arrange-
ment,  although  that is  not  the  order  in  which the
organs were discovered.
  1st.  Instinct of Generation—Amativeness.  Before
Dr. Gall had suspected this organ to exist in the brain
it was disclosed to  him by accident.  In supporting the
head of a patient in convulsions, he was struck with
the extraordinary size  and  heat  of the region  of this
organ ;  and from a knoAvledge of the  character of the
patient he was induced to institute a course of observa-
tions, which resulted in establishing the organ.
  2d. Love of Offspring — Philoprogenitiveness.   In
comparing  the various forms of the head, Dr.  Gall 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
33
 remarked that the female scull was generally  much
 more  prominent,  at  the  region of this organ,  than
 that of the male ;  and having previously ascertained
 that difFerent  faculties were connected  with  difFerent
 parts of the brain, he naturally supposed that this must
 be the organ of a faculty possessed in a greater degree
 by  females than by males ;  but  it was long before  he
 kneAv  its  nature  or office.   During several  years  he
 adopted and  abandoned successive opinions,  as  testi-
 mony  seemed  to preponderate for or against each in
 turn.  He had noticed that  this  part of  the head Avas
 generally more  largely developed in  female  monkeys
 than in other  animals, and this led him to reflect  upon
 what quality of mind that  could be which  the females
 of the  human  family and  of the monkey tribes  both
 possessed in  a more  remarkable  degree than other
 animals.   Pursuing  the  hint thus  furnished him  he
eventually succeeded  in affixing to this organ its  true
character and  office.
  3d.  Attachment, friendship — Adhesiveness.  Dr.
Gall kneAv a  lady  so remarkable for her friendship
that he Avas induced to take a cast of her  head.   This
cast exhibited great development at the  seat of this
organ, Avhich  immediately became the object of Gall's
investigation.   He  Avas constantly told, by those  Avho
knew this lady better  than  himself,  that she  was re-
markable  for  nothing but her unvarying constancy in 
34
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 friendship.  Her fortune  had changed from Avealth to
 poverty, and from poverty to wealth, while her friend-
 ship knew no  change.    Here,  then,  was a probable
 explanation of the character of the organ—and subse-
 quent  investigations  converted  that  probability  into
 certainty.
   4th. Instinct of the defence of one's self and  one's
 property — Combativeness.   In  order to judge of what
 qualities of mind the populace  Avas most susceptible,
 Dr. Gall  assembled,  at  his  house, a  number of the
 lower order of  persons, as porters, coachmen,  dec,  to
 Avhom he distributed refreshments and  money until he
 had gained their confidence,  and he then invited each
 to state what he knevv of  the good  or bad qualities  of
 the others.  He was astonished at  the interest this ex-
 cited in  all those who were  reputed quarrelsome and
 disputatious.  Those most fond of quarrels spoke with
 much contempt of the cowardice of others.  On exa-
 mining the heads of the former,  as compared with the
 latter, the only  uniform  result was, that all the quar-
 relers were full, upon the head,  in the  seat  of this
 organ,  while  the others,  that  were called cowards,
 were deficient in such fullness at that  part.   He then
 extended his observations, and examined the  heads  of
 those  who were remarkable for  courage, including
some of his old  school-fellows, who  were prone   to
excite fights, and to take a lead  in them;  and  in all 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
35
these he found  the heads  uniformly full at this part,
although, in most of the other  parts  there  might  be,
and often was,  much  disagreement.  In this  way  he
pursued the  investigation,  until there no  longer re-
mained any doubt as to the office of this part of the
brain.
  5th.  Carniverous instinct, disposition to  murder —
Deslructiveness.  Dr. Gall, in comparing the sculls of
animals, found  a marked and  constant  difference be-
tween  those  of the  carniverous and  other classes of
animals.    Ranging the  sculls  of  several different
classes before him he found that those of the carnive-
rous animals were ahvays much more fully  developed,
and swelling, at the seat of this organ, than any of the
others.  This showed him, distinctly, a development of
brain in a certain region of the  head of carniverous
animals, Avhich did not exist in other  races ; and with
this hint he  proceeded to examine  the heads of men.
He had the scull of a parricide, that  had been sent
him, and which he had laid aside, Avithout much atten-
tion, as he could  not suppose the scull  of a murderer
could be serviceable to him.   But about  the period in
question, another, being  the scull of a  highwayman,
was forwarded  to him.    The former possessor of this
scull,   not  contented  with robbing, had  committed
several murders.  These  two  sculls Dr. Gall placed
side  by  side,  and  carefully  inspected ;  and he Avas 
56
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 struck with the fact that, although they differed greatly
 in other respects, yet they agreed in  this,  that they
 both  had  a full, swelling surface at the same part
 where he  had noticed that form  in  the carniverous
 animals.   This did not carry the  appearance of acci-
 dent ;  and Dr. Gall consequently  began to  apply the
 discovery  he  had made  to other  objects, both  of the
 human  and the  lower animals, to determine, if pos-
 sible, whether there was any connexion between  this
 conformation and a disposition to kill.    He says, "at
 first the idea was revolting, but, when the object is to
 observe, and to recount the result of my observations,
 I recognise no law but that of truth."   But upon strict
 inquiry  he found cases so extreme as   to justify his
 suspicions.   He  relates  the  case of an apothecary's
 boy who so delighted to kill, that he sought the profes-
 sion of hangman ;  of a  merchant, who  for  the same
 reason,  took up the trade of a butcher ;   and  of  a rich
 Dutchmari  AVho used to hire the butchers  to let him kill
 their  cattle, that he might see  the blood flow.  The
 Chevalier Selwyn,  he relates,  made  particular exer-
 tions  to  be placed close  beside criminals Avho were
 undergoing  barbarous  punishments; and he  recounts
this anecdote of Lacondamine,  that he had become  so
noted in this  line that once, at a  publick execution,
when making  his way through  the crowd, and being
stopped  by the  soldiers, the executioner said, plea- 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
37
santly, to the military, oh, let that gentleman pass, he
is an amateur!   With these  and a multitude of other
cases,  not  less revolting, before him, he named this
the organ  of murder.  The  name, as the reader will
hereafter see, Avas indeed erroneous enough, although
no organ of the head  is better established.
  6th.  Stratagem,  finesse,— Secretiveness.   In his
boyhood Dr. Gall  was struck with the  character and
form of head of one of his companions,  who, Avith
many excellent qualities,  was noted for his cunning and
deceit.  His head was very broad in the region of this
organ.  He  was  a vvarm friend ;  but  his expression
of cunning Avas precisely  like that of  the  cat, when
Avatching to deceive her  prey.   Another, who, at first
sight appeared the  picture of candour,  was trusted by
no one ; he  was false, perfidious, and perjured ; de-
ceiving his friends, instructers  and parents.   He car-
ried his head like the  other, and like his, this head was
exceedingly broad in  the same region.   In after life a
patient of  Dr. Gall's  who  was  thought to  be  a very
worthy man, presented the  same  remarkable width in
that region of the head.  At his death, soon after, Dr.
Gall learned that  he had  cheated all his  acquaintances,
and  even  his  mother,  out  of considerable sums  of
money. He also  found that a physician, an able man,
at Vienna, had so much of this  development and the
accompanying manifestation, that the  police  authorities
                        5 
38
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
gave publick notice to beware of him.  This man de-
clared to Dr. Gall that he knew no delight equal to that
of deceiving those who distrusted him most.  From his
character, and the shape of his head, which was  the
same  as the others,  in the region of this organ,  Dr.
Gall suspected he  had discovered the  organ in ques-
tion ;  and he continued his observations until no doubt
remained upon the subject.
   7th.  Passion for, or sentiment of,  property; pro-
pensity  to steal — Acquisitiveness. Among the porters
and other low  persons Avhom, as we  have seen,  Dr.
Gall assembled at his house, with the view of studying
their manifestations,  a great  number, many of them
boys, openly accused themselves of  pilfering ;   and
some were so proud of the act  that they boasted of it.
What struck Dr. Gall as most singular in these  exhibi-
tions  was,  that some of the individuals  assembled
looked with  perfect horrour upon these boasters,  and
preferred hunger to stealing,  or  even to partaking of
provisions stolen by others.  He wished to solve  this
singular enigma, as it then appeared, and for that pur-
pose he assembled a great number and divided them
into three classes : 1st, the thieves; 2d, those Avho ab-
horred  thieving;  3d,  those who appeared  indifferent
upon this point.  He carefully examined and compared
their heads, and was surprised Avith the discovery of a
rising or prominence in the situation of this organ, in 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
39
the first class ;  while in the second it was either flat or
depressed.   In  the  third it varied, but still was never
so prominent as in the  first.   He repeated this experi-
ment  upon different assemblages, and with the same
result;  and from this  he  very naturally inferred that
there  might be  an organ for the love of property, and
that he had thus discovered it — which subsequent and
vastly numerous observations have wholly confirmed.
Of course it will be seen that  the cases here cited,  by
means of  Avhich Dr.  Gall  made his discovery,  are
those  of  the abuse  of  this organ ; and  hence the im-
propriety of his original name for it.
   8th. Pride,  hauteur,   loftiness of feeling — Self-
esteem.   When reflecting upon  the causes  of mendi-
city, Dr. Gall at one time imagined he had  discovered
the real one in  carelessness and want of foresight.  At
this time he took a cast of the head of a young beggar,
and found, as he expected, the  organ of cautiousness
very  small ; but upon farther  inspection he  found a
large  projection in the  region of this organ.  Here was
a hint:  he questioned  the young man, and learned that
he  Avas the son of a  rich merchant;  but, being  too
proud to attend to business, he had sunk to  the condi-
tion of a beggar :  yet  even then he could not  make up
his mind to Avork.  Dr. Gall  someAvhat  doubted  so
strange a story; but it had the  effect to direct his at-
tention to the part of the  brain in question.  He called 
40           HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.

to mind a relation of his OAvn Avho manifested a similar
disposition; looking  with  contempt  upon  all  useful
occupations.   He  also  noticed  the same thing in  a
prince at Vienna, who was notorious for his ridiculous
pride in gait and manners, and for a constant reference
to his ancestors, in  conversation.   This prince being
bald, Dr. Gall had no difficulty in perceiving a promi-
nence upon his head, at the  part where he had noticed
it in  the beggar.  Hence  a well-grounded  suspicion
arose, that the feeling of pride was  a primitive faculty,
dependent upon its  own peculiar  organ ;  nor was he
long in confirming the truth of this  suspicion.
  9th. Vanity, ambition, love of glory — Love of ap-
probation.   Being physician to a lunatick asylum, Dr.
Gall was one day occupied in verifying the truth of his
discovery of the organ  of  self-esteem,  when  he met
with a Avoman who  believed herself queen of France.
Here, then,  he expected to find  the organ of self-
esteem very large ;  but instead of  this he found a de-
pression there, and an evident rising  upon either side
of it.  Of the nature of the functions of those regions of
the brain here discovered to be elevated, Dr. Gall  a3
yet  knew  nothing ;  and the  condition  in  which he
found this  woman's head sorely puzzled him.  But,
taking his  facts as  he found them, and pursuing the
subject, he was not long in discovering that this  pecu-
liar  state of lunacy  was quite different from that  of 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
41
persons  insane  from pride.   The  latter  are  serious,
calm, imperious, arrogant;  and always affect a digni-
fied  majesty.  All their  expressions,  he noticed, bore
the stamp of the feeling of  power  and dominion over
others ;  while those  in  the former state of mind  he
found quite different.   They had an inordinate  vanity,
and  would address  you with the most polite and affec-
tionate  attentions, and  impress you,  if possible, with
an idea of their high  birth or riches, and  often bestow
voluntary promises of wealth or honours.   The proud
man, on the  contrary, full of  his own merit, regards
all other mortals with contempt or indifference ; while
the vain one  thinks the approval of others of the first
importance.   The proud man waits to  be sought for,
while the vain one knocks at every door, under some
pretence, as if he feared he might be forgotten.  These
and  similar contrasts  led to such farther  observations
as demonstrated the existence of this  organ, and fixed
its place upon the scull.
  10th.  Circumspection, foresight — Cautiousness.
Dr. Gall knew, at Vienna, a man of  superiour mind,
who could never go straight forward with  what  he had
to say.  He continually stopped, and began anew, as if
not sure he was  right, so that he exhausted the patience
of all with whom he conversed.   In his actions it was
ever the same :  he  prepared, with numberless precau-
tions, for the most unimportant interview or occurrence.
                         5* 
42
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
Dr. Gall noticed the great width of his  head near the
top, when viewed from behind, and compared it Avith
one whom he knew,  and whom he saw  sitting  beside
the first, with a like  enlargement at that  part of the
head.  These two men he found generally unlike each
other in every thing but in this single point, while here
they agreed.  Upon  this coincidence Dr. Gall based
his first opinion  that irresolution, hesitancy or indeci-
sion  might  have its  organ here ;  and upon farther
observation so it proved.
   11th. Memory of things, memory of facts, sense of
things, educability, perfectibility—Eventuality. After
Dr. Gall had  discovered  the organ  by which indi-
viduals learn by rote,  he soon distinguished  that  this
sign  by no  means indicated  every kind of memory.
Among his  school-fellows  some easily remembered
words, sometimes without a knowledge of their mean-
ing, others were  remarkable for the want of this power,
and  yet had a strong memory of facts and  events.
Some, too, had a talent for  remembering places,  and
for leading  the  way  through strange  paths ;  others
could repeat, without  errour,  a piece  of musick they
had heard but once ;  while others, again, could not do
this,  but yet retained numbers and dates well :  but he
found no one who had all  these powers combined in
himself.  He afterwards learned that others had made
the same  observation before  him ; and  that they had 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
43
distinguished  three  kinds  of  memory,  namely,  of
things, of places, and of words.  He found many per-
sons who, without being profound,  had still a general
knowledge of things or events, and such he saw were
full in the middle of the lower part of the forehead —
including individuality, (which he  did not  discover,)
with the organ  in question, and which he so anoma-
lously named.
   12th.  Sense  of locality,  sense of the  relations of
place — Locality.  Dr. Gall's  fondness for natural  his-
tory led him  often to the woods in  search of  birds'
nests, and  to  place snares,  dec, in all which he suc-
ceeded very Avell; but it  was hardly possible for  him
to return to his nets, or to find the place Avhere he  had
left them, after  a day  or two  had elapsed.  So  much
Avas he troubled in this way that he finally had to en-
gage the assistance of  one Avho never lost his Avay, but
could return to each desired spot, though  there  might
be many of them, without effort, and  without hesita-
tion.  When Gall asked him  how  he could thus   re-
member ?  he  could only reply by expressing  his sur-
prise that any one could  fail to do  so.   This did  not
explain the phenomenon ; so  Dr. Gall took a cast of
his head, and waited  farther observations  upon those
who possessed the same talent.  The great landscape
painter, Schcenberger,  told Dr. Gall that he only took
an  outline  of his  pictures from nature, and  that  his 
44
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
memory  never failed to serve  him for  the filling up,
even to the individual trees.   Two other men he soon
after met who had this power; and of the heads of all
three  of these he took casts.   On comparing  these
several casts,  although they were very different in
other  respects, yet at the point where  this organ  is
located, he found  them  all large and full.  This gave
him the idea that  this quality depended  upon a primi-
tive power of the mind ;  and he  very soon after veri-
fied  the  fact,  by  observations   upon dogs and  other
subordinate animals, as  well as  upon man himself.
  13th. Power of distinguishing and recollecting per-
sons— Configuration.   This  organ  was so small in
Dr. Gall that  he  had great  difficulty even in remem-
bering persons who had sat beside him  at table, or
those  to whom  he  had the same day been introduced.
No effort ever enabled  him  to  overcome  this  defect;
and while he saw some who  encountered no such diffi-
culties, others fell  under his observation who  were
nearly as much perplexed, in*this  particular, as him-
self.  He could not blame his eyes, for these he knew
to be good ;  nor was it  a want of  exercise ;   for one
of the chief occupations of  his  life had then been the
study  of  the qualities of bodies.  Among animals he
found as great a difference prevailing, in this respect,
as in  men.  The  bee knows every individual of its
own family or hive, although these sometimes number 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
45
  as high as 80,000.  Dogs,  also,  differ very  much in
  this respect.  These facts led him to  suspect that the
  power depended  upon a primitive faculty ; the organ
  of which he finally discovered, after a protracted and
  most laborious course of observations.
    14th.  Sense of words, sense of names,  memory of
  words, verbal memory — Language.    This organ was
  the first, in  point of  time, that was discovered, and it
  thus lead to the disclosure of  others.    Of the manner
  of its discovery we have already spoken.
    15th. Faculty  of  spoken language; talent of phi-
 lology, 8fc.  This, by Dr. Gall, was treated as a sepa-
 rate organ;  but all phrenologists now  reject such divi-
 sion, and include  this  in the organ of Language.
   16th  Faculty  of  distinguishing the  relation  of
 colours ;  talent for painting — Colouring.   The fact
 that some persons are incapable of perceiving the dif-
 ferent shades of colours, while others  have a natural
 tact in distinguishing the most  delicate tints, is so com-
 mon that  it could  not long escape  such an inquirer as
 Dr. Gall.   Finding that this quality was in no degree
 proportioned to the power of perceiving the other pro-
 perties  of matter, he  was induced to pay attention to
 the development of those who  were remarkable either
 for this power  or  the  Avant of  it, and to endeavour to
analyze, by observation, the different talents proper to
a painter,  especially those distinguished for colouring. 
46
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
In all such he remarked a prominence in the situation
of this organ.  At this time Dr. Gall had no knowledge
of the structure of the brain.   Travelling, afterwards,
with Dr. Spurzheim, they  every where  found  their
previous observations confirmed ;   and at Augsburg
they were surprised to find a book-seller of that town,
born blind, who maintained that it was not the eye but
the intellect which recognised and compared colours ;
and he declared he was  able to form  a notion of the
primitive colours.  Continuing observations, the organ
Avas at length well established.
   17th. Sense of the  relations of  tones;  musical
talent— Tunc.  A little girl of only five years old Avas
brought to Dr. Gall for examination, as she had  a
remarkable talent.  Seeing nothing Avhich, as he then
understood the subject,  indicated a  great  memory, he
told her friends  so.  They replied,  then his  disco-
very of the organ of memory must be erroneous,  since
this  child had a  most  unusual memory for  musick.
Dr. Gall  then inquired if she had  a good verbal
memory, and  was answered that she had not:  that
her memory   was extraordinary only  in regard  to
musick.  From  this hint he was   led to infer  there
were different kinds of  memory.  He then sought out
other persons, noted for this same excellent memory  of
musical sounds, and carefully examined  and compared
their heads.   Those  he first encountered chanced  to 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
47
have the upper part  of the  forehead  narrow and the
middle very broad, giving  it a  kind of conical form.
Finding several  in this way, he suspected that it was
this shaped forehead  which indicated the talent in ques-
tion ;  but he subsequently was undeceived, by meeting
several, in his researches,  who were  great musicians,
and yet had  the top of the forehead broad,  as well as
the base.  At Vienna, where musicians are very nume-
rous,  he  procured many  casts ;  and on  comparing
these, as was his custom, in order to discover in Avhat
particular  part  they would all  agree, however much
they  might  differ in  all  others,  he found a part  in
which they were all  prominent.  He then sought out
numbers of  those who  were remarkably deficient  in
the talent in question, and in all  these he  found this
same part of the head depressed: and thus was located
and established the organ of tune.
   18th. Sense of the relation of  numbers — Calcula-
tion.   At St. Polten, near Vienna, there was a scholar
who was much talked of, for his great  powers of cal-
culation, in numbers, although  he was the son  of  a
common smith, and quite uneducated.   Dr. Gall sought
him out, brought him to Vienna, and exhibited him to
his class.    This excited some  attention, in  the inhabi-
tants, and in a feAv days an  advocate called upon Dr.
Gall, to detail and lament his son's fondness for arith-
metick, which he said so wholly absorbed  the child's 
48
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 attention, that  he would not  even indulge himself in
 play.   On comparing the two, the only  resemblance
 he could discover was in the region of this organ.  He
 then sought for men distinguished for this talent ;  men
 whose delight it was  to  deal  in  arithmetical puzzles,
 and questions  of numerical  intricacy ; and although
 some of these were men of very moderate abilities in
 everything else, yet in them all he found the same de-
 velopment in the part in question.   One of these was
 the Baron de Vega, author of a set of tables of loga-
 rithms.   From publick  men  Dr.  Gall turned, first to
 families, and subsequently  to large schools, in search of
 evidence upon  the point in question ; and finding every
 where the same results, namely, this part prominent in
 all those who excelled in arithmetick, and  retreating in
 all who could not  thus excel, he established the organ
 of calculation,  or number.
   19th.  Mechanical  talent;  sense of  construction;
 talent of architecture— Constructiveness.  When Dr.
 Gall first  turned his attention to the talent for construc-
 tion, as manifested by many individuals, he had  not
 discovered the fact that every primitive faculty is con-
 nected with a particular part of the brain, as its organ ;
 and consequently he directed his attention, in this case,
 to the whole head of great  mechanicks, instead of any
particular part.   He  was  frequently struck with  the
circumstance, that the heads of these artists were as 
              HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.           49

 large in the temporal  regions as at the cheek bones.
 This,  however, was not  true in every instance, and
 therefore he  Avas  gradually led to believe  that  the
 talent depended upon a  particular power.   To deter-
 mine this point, he made acquaintance with  men of
 distinguished mechanical genius,  wherever he could do
 so ;  took casts of their  heads,  and studied and  com-
 pared them.   In these he soon noticed that, at the pre-
 sent seat of this organ, they were all largely developed,
 though they agreed, uniformly, no where else.   From
 this  hint Dr. Gall pursued his investigations  farther ;
 and  at Vienna a man was brought to him, concerning
 Avhose talents  his  opinion was   required.   Dr. Gall
 stated  that the individual ought  to have a great ten-
 dency towards mechanicks.   In  this he was declared,
 by the gentlemen who conducted  the person to him, to
 be mistaken ; but the individual, himself,  who proved to
 be the famous painter, Unterberger, defended Dr. Gall's
opinion.  He declared that he had ever  had a strong
 passion for the  mechanick arts, and  that he  only
painted for a livelihood.  In proof of this,  he took the
party to his house, where he showed them  a multitude
of machines and instruments,  some  of which he had
improved, Avhile others were Avholly of his  OAvn inven-
tion.  The same talent, also, exhibited itself in his pro-
fession, in  the construction of his designs.   Farther
                         6 
50
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
    research  brought additional  confirmation ;  and he
    found, wherever he  went, this part of the head deve-
    loped in mechanicians, architects, designers, sculptors,
    dec,  in due proportion to the skill they respectively
    manifested, until he  satisfactorily and  fully established
    the organ.
      20th.   Comparative  sagacity — Comparison.   Dr.
    Gall often conversed, upon philosophical subjects, with
    a man of great talent; and he observed that whenever
    the latter was at a loss to make himself understood, he
    always had recourse  to  comparison.   Seeing this  a
    characteristick  of his  mind, the Doctor examined his
    head.   He had already advanced so far  in  his  disco-
    veries as  to know that, being an  intellectual faculty,  it
    probably  had its seat  in  the forehead, and  not among
    what he designated  the sentiments or  the propensities.
    In the head of  the gentleman in question he remarked
    a large rising  in the upper region  of the forehead.
    Seeking others who were remarkable for  this quality,
    he uniformly  found   the  same  fulness  upon  their
.   heads,  at the  same  part.  Among others  were two
    Jesuits, remarkable  for the clearness  with which they
    illustrated their subject while preaching,  by means  of
    comparisons and  allegories, and  in both these the part
    in question was  greatly prominent.   Dr. Gall continued
    to inquire and observe, in  all circles to Avhich he had 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
51
access,  and among every class, until there  no longer
remained any doubt, either of the position or the office
of this organ.
  21st.  Metaphysical depth or power of thought; power
of drawing conclusions — Causality.   Dr. Gall  had
long remarked, that  those men  Avho were known for
strong  philosophical  or reasoning  powers, had the
upper  part of the  forehead very prominent.   Such
were  Socrates, Cicero,  Bacon,  Montaigne,  Galileo,
Leibnitz,  Diderot, dec.  The  genius  of these  men
divides  itself  into  two  kinds.  One set studies the
material world, and makes observation  the base of all
its speculations :   the other studies the spiritual world,
Avithout deigning  to look at the laws  of matter.  In
these last, Dr. Gall observed the part upon each side
of comparison largely  developed.   He  verified the
nature of  the function of this  part, by studying the
manifestations of the followers of Kant, who were men
distinguished for  intellectual power.  He found  those
parts extremely large  in  Kant, himself;  in  Fichte,
Schelling,  and  men of that  class ; and thus he soon
ascertained, beyond all doubt, the nature of the faculty
here indicated.
   22d.  Causticity;  wit — Mirthfulness.   This,  it is,
perhaps, quite impossible strictly  to define,  in words.
Dr. Gall says of it, I see no better  means than to cite
men Avhose dominant faculty Avas Avhat  I  suppose this 
52
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
to be ; such  as Lucian, the Voltaire of the Greeks,
both by his  boldness and by  the turn of  his  mind ;
Rabelais, Cervantes, Marot, Boileau,  Racine, Regnier,
Swift, Sterne, Voltaire, Piron, Rabener, Wieland, dec.
In the heads and busts of these, and all others,  thus
gifted, in whose cases Dr. Gall had  an opportunity of
learning the fact, he found the part which  is the seat
of  this organ,  fully,  and in most cases, largely de-
veloped.   It was much easier to establish in  the brain,
the seat of this power, than it  is, now that  is accom-
plished, to  define it, satisfactorily, by  language,  alone
— so versatile is the power, and so multifariously may
it constantly combine Avith others, in its manifestations.
  23d.  Poetick  talent — Ideality.   Dr. Gall says  he
first observed this  organ large upon  a poet, who was
a friend of his, and who  had little else to recommend
him to distinction.  He  then  observed  the form of
Ovid's head,  which he found large at  the seat of this
organ ; and the same proved true of other noted poets.
This  raised  a  strong  suspicion, and led  to a more
general application of the  test to  living   examples.
After many individual examinations, all of  Avhich re-
sulted  in  confirming  his  previous  views,  Dr. Gall,
when at Berlin, was invited, with  Dr. Spurzheim, to
visit a collection of some thirty busts of poets.  In all
these busts they found this region prominent; in some
more than in others, just in proportion to the greater 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
53
or less poetick talent of each.  Observations were con-
tinued long after this, before the organ was  treated as
established ; but at length, the number of these having
become so great as to remove  all room  for doubt or
question upon  the  subject, the organ was  admitted as
fully established.
   24th.   Goodness, benevolence, gentleness—Benevo-
lence.  Dr. Gall Avas once requested, by a friend, to
take a cast of his servant's head, as he was a most ex-
traordinary model of benevolence and good feeling,
although  brought up  among a very  worthless class.
Up  to  this  period Dr.  Gall had no  suspicion  that
"goodness of heart," as  it was  called, had  any  con-
nexion with the brain.  He took  the cast,  however ;
and also that of another  person whom he knew, and
Avho always kept the least share of anything for him-
self, being happier at seeing  others enjoy it than if he
received the  Avhole.  Towards  him  his relations so
conducted as to excite any feeling  rather than that of
charity ; but still,  this treatment did not abate the ac-
tivity of his benevolence.   A third  remarkable case of
this kind, soon after falling under Dr. Gall's  observa-
tion, he secured a cast of this  individual's head ;  and
upon  comparing the three casts, although  they agreed
generally, in  nothing else, yet  in the region of this
organ they Avere all greatly prominent.  Dr.  Gall then
sought, in  schools and private families,  for cases of
                         6 * 
54
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 similar character, and also for those who manifested
 the opposite disposition ; and in all these  cases he uni-
 formly found the strongest confirmation  of  his views.
 Not willing  to rest here,  he  pursued the subject still
 farther, and  among  the animals  lower  than man he
 found  the same  truth  illustrated.  These observations
 were continued  until no doubt  remained, either  as  to
 the position of this organ upon  the head, or the  func-
 tions it is destined to  perform.
   25th. Faculty of imitation ;  mimickry — Imitation.
 Dr. Gall had his attention called, by one of his friends,
 to a remarkable  rising upon  his  head, which  the Dr.
 had  not hitherto observed in any one.   The  individual
 upon whose  head this was, had a very great talent  at
 imitation.  Finding  this a prominent  feature of the
 person's character, he bore the  hint  in mind while he
 proceeded to farther observations.  His first  essay was
 at the  Deaf and Dumb Asylum,  where  there was a
 boy  Avho possessed the same talent, in  a surprising
 degree, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which
 he  laboured,  through  his  natural  defects.   On this
 head was the same  prominent rising.   A man in pub-
 lick  life, a secretary to the war minister, furnished the
 next example.  His head and character both fully con-
 firmed   the  previous  cases ;  and from this Dr. Gall
proceeded, as was  his frequent custom,  to schools,
families, and  publick  hospitals,  when  confirmation 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
55
everywhere rewarded  his efforts.   Having  proceeded
thus far, it occurred to him that as this  was a talent
indispensable  to  good  actors, he  might derive still
farther  proof  from their heads, either of the truth or
errour of his suspicions.   He therefore sought out and
examined the heads of the great actors of that day, as
Muler,  Lange, Brockman,  Koch,  and his daughter,
Madame Brede, Monteufel, Talma, dec.   Also in the
portraits and busts of the earlier great comedians, dec,
he found it large, as in Shakspeare, Garrick, Clairon,
Boran,  Moliere, Corneille, Siddons, and many  others.
In this way Dr. Gall multiplied facts, by observations,
until doubt no longer remained.
  26th.   Sentiment of  religion — Reverence.   Dr.
Gall's brothers and sisters,  although all  received the
same education, Avere possessed of very different disposi-
tions and powers of mind.  One of the brothers had an
unusually strong tendency to devotion.  His toys were
church ornaments, constructed by himself.   His father
designed him to pursue a commercial calling; but with
this the lad vvas soon displeased, and he ran away, and
became  a hermit.   At the  instance of Dr. Gall, that
brother Avas permitted, by the father, to turn his atten-
tion to devotional  study ;  and he spent his  Avhole life
in the exercises of  devotion  and  penance.  Dr. Gall
remarked, among his  acquaintances,  that some, like
this brother, had  a natural  liking for the priesthood, 
56
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 and for devotional  exercises ;  Avhile  others, educated
 in the same way, and under the  same circumstances,
 Avere either indifferent to all this,  or had a marked dis-
 like for it.   These  several observations convinced Dr.
 Gall that this tendency was innate ; and scarcely had
 he begun to look  for external  signs which  might indi-
 cate the talents and dispositions  of individuals, when
 these  facts arose fresh  in his  recollection.  He then
 proceeded to examine the heads  of his  friends ;  and
 subsequently those of religious professors, of whatever
 sect;  and   he particularly  observed  those  who were
 most  fervent.   Monasteries, also, became  objects of
 his visits and attention ;  and whenever he could learn
 the characters of the inmates, he applied his investiga-
 tions to the developments  of their heads :  and he did
 the  same  with celebrated preachers.   Finding  many
 of those  most devout to be bald  upon the upper part of
 the head, he Avas attracted, by this circumstance, to
 that region, and the conformation  there eventually  dis-
 closed the seat of the organ in question.
   27th.  Firmness,  constancy,  perseverance—Firm-
 ness.   Dr. Gall was led to suspect that there might be
 an organ for this  quality of the mind, from the fact
 that he found it bearing no proportion to the  intellect,
and no way in unison with the circumstances in which
the individual  had  been  educated.   He  found  this
quality  remarkable  in the painter Unterberger, who 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
57
 was immoveable  in Avhatever he undertook,  although
 he did not  always hit upon that which was  most to
 benefit  himself  or  his family.  He also  found  a re-
 markable  rising, in  the  region where this  organ is
 situated, upon the scull of a robber who was long  con-
 fined  in prison,  to induce him to inform against his
 associates in crime.   This proving ineffectual, scourg-
 ing was resorted to, and after suffering  much, in this
 way, he ended the matter by strangling himself,  but
 Avithout  making any disclosure.  Drs. Gall and Spurz-
 heim, for they were then  together,  found  this organ
 very largely developed in  a criminal who  feigned to
 be deaf and dumb for a whole year ;  and by folloAving
 out  the  investigations  thus begun, the  organ was at
 length fully established.
   In the phrenological busts of the present  day, all
 the  discoveries since Gall appear ; and consequently
 several organs are there which were unknown to him.
 Some of these haA'e been  found  Avithin the spaces he
 had allotted to other  organs,  and others  upon surface
 Avhose uses he had not  ascertained.   As the organs es-
 tablished by Dr. Gall did not occupy all the surface of
 the head, he was  wont, in  the busts and drawings  that
 he  published,  at  different  periods, to lay  down  only
such organs as he had  discovered, with the surface he
supposed them to occupy, leaving the rest of the head
an unsurveyed blank — a kind of Oregon territory, not 
58            HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.

sub-divided, in the maps—; and portions of this Avaste
region  he subsequently appropriated, from  time  to
time, as he successively discovered  the  purposes  for
which nature had designed them.
   Thus far, then, was phrenology brought down by its
legitimate discoverer; and here he may be said to have
left  it.  He certainly did so, as respects individual
organs, and to all else pertaining to the science he paid
little  attention,  save  his  conjoint labours with  Dr.
Spurzheim, mentioned hereafter.  Let it not be sup-
posed,  however, that this remark can,  in  justice, be
construed  in  any degree  unfavourably to Dr. Gall's
memory :  far from it.   It has been shovvn that he dis-
covered twenty-six of the organs, (they number twenty-
seven, but it will be  seen, by  referring back,  that two
of his are now included in one) ; and nothing having
been done previously, in this way, it is not to be sup-
posed that he had either time or the necessary data for
carrying out the philosophy of the science ; which, in
truth, time has  not yet  enabled  his successors to  do,
except  very partially, and in some  particulars.   He
did not, himself, suppose he had completed, alone, and
single-handed, Avhat in  two thousand  years the  com-
bined mental effort of intellectual man  had been unable
even to  commence,  namely, a system of  mental  philo-
sophy founded in nature and  truth ;  but on the con-
trary, after having contributed  all in his power  to  its 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
59
 development,  he left  his  valuable  boon,  confessedly
 imperfect,  to be improved and extended by others.   It
 has not been the lot of" any man  to discover the ele-
 ments of a science, and yet  himself perfect  all its de-
 tails.    The discoveries of Newton, although of high
 importance to mankind, are  now comparatively value-
 less, if  not combined, in  their application, Avith those
 of Lagrange,  Laplace, and  other master  spirits Avho
 came after him ;  and even  these have  already been
 succeeded, by one, at  least, who, without  diminishing
 the importance of the eternal truths they discovered,
 has already pushed the detail of refined analysis much
 beyond  the terminal point of the labours of those great
 men.  Attention is here called  to these facts, for the
 benefit of those minute criticks who  have  so often dis-
 proved  the great  truths   which  Gall disclosed, by
 showing he did not, in every case, strictly and perfectly
 describe and  define each  propensity or power whose
 seat he discovered  in the brain ; and that  he still far-
 ther offended  by selecting names so inappropriate as
 to cause the substitution of others, more befitting, by
 subsequent  phrenologists.     And yet, from  the very
 nature of the investigations in question, Avhat else was
 to be expected ? The organs of the brain, as developed
 upon the  exteriour of the  head, could only,  in the
first instance, be detected and fixed in extreme cases,
 or  in cases of extraordinary  size of  the organs. 
60
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 In  this  Avay  they actually were discovered ;  and of
 course, in the possessors of them,  these organs  were
 manifested in  action, by  that excess Avhich constitutes
 their abuse.  It Avas the actions, then, arising from the
 abuse of  the organs Avhich furnished Dr. Gall with his
 names.   Hence the organ of destructiveness he named
 that of murder.  Now, a great excess of power, in this
 organ, often produces murder ; and yet its influence,
 in due and just proportion Avith the rest of the head, is
 of  the highest importance, and therefore greatly  to be
 desired.   But Ave must  not forget that  in this propor-
 tion it Avas not discovered, and consequently  it was
 named before  its true character was understood.  The
 same is true of the greater  part  of the organs disco-
 vered by  Dr. Gall :  nearly all the  names he bestowed
 have been  changed,  and several of them more than
 once ; while  some, at least,  cannot  even now,  with
 any certainty, be considered  fixed.  Yet the  organs
 remain  unchanged :  it  is  only  their  names  that
 fluctuate,  as the  nature and offices of the organs them-
 selves become  better understood.  This is true of other
sciences ;  instance chymistry, geology, dec. ;  and the
propriety  of  these  changes  has been  too  apparent
to admit of any hesitancy on the one hand, or of com-
plaint upon the other.
  Having recounted the discoveries of  Gall, we  pro-
ceed  to the second illustrious name in phrenology, 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
61
namely, John Gaspar Spurzheim.  Dr. Spurzheim,
who has Avritten  much upon  phrenology, was  long  an
associate with Dr. Gall ;  and, when the latter ceased
his labours, the  former toiled on, amid scoffing, and
every discouragement, until the day of his death.
  Broussais,  in his  " Lecons sur la Phrenologie faites
a la faculte de Medecine de Paris," thus points us to
the valuable labours of this philosopher :  " Spurzheim
has made  most interesting observations ;  and notwith-
standing some have accused the phrenologists of  an
undue confidence, and a sort of superstitious credulity
in this one of their number, yet I do not hesitate to say
that, in  my eyes, he was a great man.  After Gall it is
he who  has accomplished most for phrenology."  And
again, in  the  same work, he says :  " Spurzheim was,
like Gall, a man of genius, who had not,  indeed,  the
merit of discovering the science of phrenology, yet he
had that of having made remarkable  progress therein,
and of rendering it acceptable and interesting to those
who had, until  then,  looked upon it only with repug-
nance."   Such was the testimony, so late as 1836, of
one of the first medical men of France, upon the cha-
racter and labours of this lamented philosopher.
  Dr. Spurzheim Avas born in 1776, at Longuich,  a
village  near  Treves,  on  the  Moselle, in Germany.
He  Avas originally  destined, by  his parents, for  the
church  ;  but having  passed through  his collegiate
                       7 
62             HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
course, he went to Vienna, in 1799, to study medicine^
instead of theology, and there became acquainted with
Dr. Gall.   The  first  written notice of  Dr. Gall's in-
quiries concering  the  head,  appeared  in a  familiar
letter to Baron Retzer, which Avas inserted in  a Ger-
man  periodical,  in  December,  1798.    Two  years
previous  to  this he  had given private  lectures,  upon
the subject,  at Vienna.   Some of  his hearers after-
vvards  made publick  notices of  his  doctrines,  which
ultimately drew from the Austrian government an edict
that such lectures must cease, his doctrines being  con-
sidered dangerous to religion ! *
  * The persecutions of Galileo, for teaching the " irreligious"
doctrine that the earth moved, are familiar to all;  but it may
not be as generally known, that so late as 1820, this same spirit
showed itself ut Rome;  but only, in this instance, to meet
merited rebuke at the hand of its intended victim.  In that
year the professor of astronomy at the academy delta sapienza,
at Rome, seignior Settele, submitted the manuscript of  his as-
tronomical lectures to the appointed authorities, soliciting per-
mission to print  them.  This was refused,  "because  he  de-
fended the motion of the earth round the sun"—a doctrine that,
in the case of Galileo, had been settled as contrary to the bible.
The ingenuity of the professor,  however,  promptly relieved
both himself and the authorities from all embarrassment.   He
applied to the Inquisition, with the request that it would  substi-
tute its own explanation for that part of his work which  had
been condemned ;  to the end that he might publish this with
the  unobjectionable  portion of his labours !   Caught in their
own toils,  the Inquisitors transmitted, in reply to this request,
permission to publish the original work, without alteration! 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
63
   Dr. Spurzheim's efforts have been somewhat differ-
 ently  directed from  those  of  Gall, and therefore do
 not admit of  being treated  in  the same manner.   As
 already  stated, his early  labours were performed in
 conjunction with  Dr. Gall  ;  and much  was accom-
 plished for phrenology, upon the continent of Europe,
 by their united efforts.  In 1800, Dr.  Spurzheim be-
 came the pupil of Gall :  he entered  with zeal, into the
 new doctrine  Avhich Gal! was  just then opening to the
 world ; and for four years this relation continued.   In
 1804,  having  completed his medical studies, he became
 associated  Avith Dr. Gall, in his labours ; and from  that
 period his character of pupil ceased.  After  this asso-
 ciation was adjusted,  being, as  has  been seen,  prohi-
 bited  from inculcating phrenology at Vienna, by an
 edict of the government, they left that city together, in
 1805, for  the  purpose of  pursuing, jointly, and  in
 common, their researches into the anatomy and physi-
 ognomy  of the nervous  system.  During the ensuing
 two years  they visited many  of the principal  towns
 on the  continent, lecturing upon this "new doctrine,"
 and dissecting the  brain, to illustrate its  truth.  In  this
 period  they thus  visited  Berlin,  Potsdam,  Leipzig,
 Dresden,  Halle, Weimar,  Jena, Gottingen,  Brown-
schweig, Hamburg, Kiel, Copenhagen, Bremen,  Miin-
stcr  in  Westphalia, Amsterdam, Leyden, Frankfort 
64
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
on  the  Main,  Heidelberg,  Manheim, Stuttgard, Fri-
bourg in  Brisgaw,  Marburgh, Wurtzburg,  Munich,
Augsburg, Ulm,  Zurich,  Berne,  Bale  and Paris.
Such was the amazing  industry Avith Avhich these men
toiled for  the benefit of after ages.   At Paris Dr. Gall
now settled, and he there gave his first publick course
of  lectures — being still  associated  with, and  assisted
by,  Dr. Spurzheim.   Here,  too, they  dissected  the
brain,   first in  the  presence  of Cuvier,  Fourcroy,
Geoffroy  de St. Hilaire, Dumeril, Dr. Demangeon, dec,
and ultimately before many learned societies.   Some
of these gentlemen thought much of Dr. Gall's illustra-
tions ;  and Cuvier, in particular, Avas heard to assert, in
a circle not strictly private, his approbation of its gene-
ral features.   But higher authorities did not encourage
these researches.    Broussais,  in  his  phrenological
Avork, in French, already quoted, has this remark upon
the subject :  "Napoleon protected all  the arts; all the
works of  the imagination ; all  the sciences  Avhich, oc-
cupied with material  facts, tended to advance the social
organization, to multiply the means of existence, and
to augment the resources of the country ; but he dis-
liked profound discussions upon the nature and origin
of  the  faculties,  and in  consequence of this he pro-
nounced the proscription of the system of Gall.   Sena-
tors, generals,  counsellors of  state, and  learned men 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
6 5
who had been admitted to the course, foIloAved assidu-
ously  the demonstrations of  Gall,  at  this memorable
epoch; but the day after that on which the Emperour,
at his soiree,  and in full saloon, "indulged in certain
pleasantries at the expense of the craniologist, the lec-
tures of the professor ceased to be  honoured  with the
presence of these distinguished personages."   In 1808,
Gall and Spurzheim presented their memoir upon the
anatomy  of the brain, to  the Institute, at  Paris.   A
commission  was named,  by the Institute,  to  report
thereon.   This report wa3  prepared by Mons. Cuvier;
and that distinguished  naturalist exercised his skill to
diminish  the  merits  of these phrenologists.   He  art-
fully evaded their real discoveries, however important,
as set forth in their  memoir,  and dwelt,  with patient
complacency,  upon  whatever  circumstance  or  fact
could be found that was susceptible of  being construed
to their  disadvantage.*   To  this  report  Gall  and
  '  Mons. Bouillaud, in his recent work upon medical philoso-
phy, alludes to the incredulity of Mons. Magendie, who ranks
phrenology  with necromancy, alchymy, and astrology ;   and
sums  up his  opinion in these words:  "the  efforts  of  this
pseudo-science are reduced to assertions which cannot  sustain
examination for an instant."  To this, Mons. Bouillaud, in his
work  above-mentioned,  replies :  "In vain Cuvier and  even
Napoleon opposed themselves to the doctrine of Gall:  that
doctrine triumphed over their resistance ;  and, by a retaliation
7* 
66
HISTORY  OF PHRENOLOGY.
Spurzheim  prepared and  published a  detailed reply,
giving each section  of the report separately, and fol-
lowing it with strictures and  expositions, such  as they
deemed the nature of the case to admit and demand.
In 1810 was commenced the  publication of " Anatomie
et Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux en general, et du
Cerveau en particulier," by Gall and Spurzheim, con-
jointly.   This  work Avas  not completed until  1819 ;
and as, in the mean time,  (1813,) a separation of the
labours of Gall and Spurzheim took  place, the third
and fourth volumes of this great work appeared in the
name of  Gall, alone.  The  whole work is illustrated
by a rich folio atlas, containing one hundred plates.
   From the period of this separation Spurzheim began
to give  new and important features  to phrenology.
Dr. Gall had  already  accomplished so much, in the
discovery and establishment  of individual organs, that
there Avas both leisure and necessity for Dr.  Spurzheim
to apply some portion of  his powers  to the bringing
forward and illustrating other features  of the science.
At this time phrenology had  much to contend against.
Most of the names bestowed upon the organs, by Gall,
worthy of itself, it now employs the heads of these two great
men to illustrate and support its principles !  After such a vic-
tory, and now still better understood, what enemy has phreno-
logy hereafter to dread ? " 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
67
as the reader has  seen, being derived from  excessive
manifestations of those organs, Avere such as  gave rise
to a  combined  feeling  of horrour  and repugnance,
whenever they were mentioned ; and  this unfavourable
aspect was increased by  the  incipient  stage in which
the whole matter  then  was — being  little else than a
mere catalogue of  organs ;  or, as  it  Avas  generally
called,  " Gall's doctrine  of  brain and scull."   The
nervous system, the medium of sensation  and of mo-
tion, required more  extended and sane investigations.
Much had been well begun, in the great work we have
mentioned; but not completed.  " Since our conjoined
publication," says Dr. Spurzheim,  " I  have extended
our notions of the communication of the  nerves and
cerebral parts with each other, and collected them in a
separate section, in my English Avork on the anatomy
of the brain.   During the last three years 1 have been
occupied in showing the regularity of the cerebral por-
tions, and  with  specifying the  individual  organs and
their boundaries.   This additional discovery  Avas desi-
rable for phrenology.  It is also a means to prove that
individual parts are wanting  in various idiots, and in
the brain of the orang-outang, which,  however, has
the greatest  analogy with  the human brain.*   I pre-
  * It is worthy of remark, that the old schools of mental phi-
losophy offer no explanation, by their systems, of the well- 
68
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
sented these ideas in a paper, accompanied with draw-
ings, to the Royal Society of London.  The council of
this learned body permitted them to be  read, but  did
not think the paper  worthy of being published in their
Transactions.  My ideas,  however, are neAv, noAvhere
demonstrated in books, and  will be, I am sure, appre-
ciated by phrenologists, as  the completion of the phre-
nological anatomy of the brain."   Dr. Gall died with-
out  knowing  the regularity  of the  convolutions  and
boundaries of the  cerebral organs.
   " My special rectifications  of phrenology, and  new
physiological  discoveries,  begin  with our  separation
from each other, in  1813.   They concern particularly,
the discovery of new  organs, and the  analysis of the
special  powers of  the mind,  whilst  Dr. Gall  mostly
confined himself to  the comparison of  talents, charac-
ters, and certain modes of acting, with  individual cere-
known fact that some children are born idiots, while others are
not; and it may  well be deemed matter of surprise that  this
self-evident defect of those systems has not been made matter
of more serious complaint against them.   Should not a philo-
sophy of mind show why some are born without the power of
manifesting its possession ?  Phrenology does show that the
brains of  those born idiots, are absolutely wanting,  in some
parts, some convolutions, which,  in the brains of sane  and
able-minded persons are always found ;  and also, that convolu-
tions not wholly wanting are often partially so, in the brains of
such unfortunates. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
69
bral portions.   He  admitted, in every  power of the
mind, the same modes of action; for  instance, per-
ception, memory, judgement,  and imagination ;  whilst
I classify the  mental powers  into orders,  genera and
species, and examine the common  and special modes
of acting of the difFerent faculties.  Farther; Dr. Gall
ascribed to the senses the notions Avhich the  mind ac-
quires of existence, and of the physical qualities of the
external objects, whilst I think those operations of the
mind to  be  dependent on  cerebral organs.  I there-
fore speak of  immediate and  mediate  functions of the
external senses ; in the former the mind takes cogni-
zance by the  assistance of the  senses  alone ; in the
latter it  is assisted,  besides  the senses, by  cerebral
organs.   In general, my philosophical vieAVs in phre-
nology differ widely from those of Dr. Gall.  He never
endeavoured to point out  the  standard  of natural
morality.   In  the natural language I  discovered  seve-
ral  principles  in addition to that found by Dr. Gall :
that the movements of the head, body, and extremities,
are  modified  by  the  seat  of the organs in action.
Moreover, in the practical part of phrenology, and  in
examining the development of the special organs, I
began  to pay more  attention to  the breadth of the
organs than Dr. Gall was accustomed to  do, and  di-
rected phrenologists to attend to the individual regions
of  the head,  in reference  to the three lobes of the 
70
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
brain, and to the three regions of the animal  propensi-
ties, the human sentiments, and intellectual faculties,
rather  than to the  protuberances and depressions to
Avhich  Dr.  Gall  attached  himself almost exclusively.
In short, the comparison of Dr. Gall's works with my
publications on phrenology, on  its  philosophical  prin-
ciples,  on education, insanity, and  other  matters, will
best show how much 1 have contributed to extend and
improve phrenology, and to forward its study."
   In 1813 Dr. Spurzheim visited Vienna,  when  he
took his degree of doctor of medicine ;  and in the fol-
lowing year he quitted the continent for England, with
the  intention of introducing phrenology there.  To
effect this, difficulties of no ordinary magnitude, and of
a  peculiar kind, Avere to  be  overcome.  From  some
cause, the  English had then become — as, indeed, in a
good degree they still continue — strongly  averse to
receiving any instruction from the continent;  and this
indiscretion involved,  of course, the  implied  assump-
tion that the philosophers of the continent neither  Avere,
nor could be, in possession of any knowledge of Avhich
they, in  England, Avere not equally masters.  Nor
was this unprofitable feeling then of recent origin.  It
had  long  before been producing its bitter fruits, and
casting its blighting shade over the  progress of sci-
ence, in England ;  the consequences  of  which  were
both seen  and deplored by some  who had the fortune 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
71
to discern and the frankness to point them out for cor-
rection.  Of these, Playfair — whose name is immortal
— was one.  In  1808 this philosopher stated that, in
the list of  mathematicians and philosophers  to whom
the science of physical astronomy, for the previous
sixty or seventy years,  had been indebted  for its  im-
provements, hardly a name from Great Britain was to
be found ;  and that  his countrymen had not  grappled
with the gigantick problems, in this  science, which  had
engaged  the  scholars of the adjacent coast, from  a
"consciousness that, in the  knowledge  of  the higher
geometry, they were not on a footing with their breth-
ren of the  continent."  Of  the celebrated  Mecanique
Celeste, the same writer, on that occasion continues,
that  there  were  not twelve  persons  in Great  Bri-
tain  that   could  read  the book, with  any  tolerable
facility ;  and this " from  want of knowing the princi-
ples and the methods which are taken for granted  [by
continental Avriters,] as known to every mathematical
reader."   So much for the book itself :  of its author,
BreAvster, of Edinburgh, — another well known  name
— says :  "the contemporary of Lagrange, in this bril-
liant career of discovery, was the celebrated  Laplace,
a name Avhich, in this country, we haA'e been taught to
calumniate, but which every friend  of  science will as-
sociate with her  most noble efforts, when  the days of
prejudice  and illiberal  sentiment  are  past."  These 
72
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
examples of  illustration, in a single science, had, un-
fortunately, but too many parallels in all  the other
branches of scientifick research ; and it Avas against the
combined agency of this  blighting prejudice and con-
ceited pride, that both phrenology and its abettors were
doomed  to contend, when Dr.  Spurzheim carried the
first knowledge of the science  to England.   "The
manner in  which it was  then received," says an able
pen,  "was not such as  to authorize  a belief that  it
ever could be treated but with contempt."   Ridicule,
sophistry,  and  scandal  were  the  three weapons first
employed against Dr. Spurzheim, on his setting foot in
England.  His  doctrines, his country, and his person
were equally and  simultaneously attacked :  even the
itinerant labours which he  had  performed upon  the
continent,  conjointly with  Dr. Gall,  were  converted
into material for engendering foul  reproach.   Against
all  this Dr. Spurzheim  battled, single-handed, as best
he might.  In a land of strangers, who  spoke a lan-
guage  Avhich he  had  but  recently acquired,  and of
whose manners and habits he was  greatly uninformed,
he opposed to these mingled assaults only the truths he
had come to defend, and that  calmness which a con-
sciousness of  their immutable character  had inspired.
During  this unpleasant  contest,  Dr.  Spurzheim pub-
lished,   in  English,  " the Physiognomical System of
Drs. Gall and Spurzheim," 8vo.  London,  1815 ;— 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
73
"Outlines of  the  Physiognomical  System,"  12mo.,
London, 1815  ; and " Observations on the Deranged
Manifestations of  Mind, or Insanity," 8vo.,  London,
1817.  The first  of these works was  assailed, in the
Edinburgh Review, in a tone and  with  a violence  to
which that lofty Quarterly had not previously stooped.
The author was Dr. John Gordon ;  and many of his
periods were disfigured by the most  able and practiced
combinations of such epithets as  elevated minds  ever
seek  to  avoid.   Dr. Spurzheim read the  review  at
London, and immediately resolved upon a visit to Edin-
burgh.  He procured but a  single  letter of  introduc-
tion, which was to Dr. Gordon, himself;  and  thus fur-
nished he reached  the Scotch capital.   He called upon
his assailant, and obtained permission to dissect a brain
in his  presence.   Dr. Gordon was  himself a lecturer
on Anatomy, and  the dissection  took  place in his lec-
ture room.   Some of those  present were  convinced,
others were not,  of the  truth of Spurzheim's views ;
and a  second  day Avas  named.   On this occasion  all
were present that could be accommodated, intermediate
scats being reserved, so that Dr. Spurzheim might pass
to each individual, in  succession, and exhibit  to him
his  demonstrations.   " There,  with the  Edinburgh
Review in one hand, and a brain in the other, he  op-
posed fact to assertion."  Dr. Gordon still believed  his
own assertions, in the Review,  but the eye-witnesses
                         8 
74
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
of what was exhibited, believed Dr. Spurzheim; "and
that day won over near five hundred witnesses to the
fibrous structure of the white substance of the brain,"
while the demonstrations then made detached from Dr.
Gordon a large number of his former pupils.
  Satisfied, thus  far, with his success Dr. Spurzheim
forthwith opened, at Edinburgh, a course  of  lectures
on the anatomy and the functions of  the brain, and its
connexions  with mind.   He  often remarked to the
Scotch, "you are  slow,  but sure ;  I  must remain
some time with you,  and then I shall leave the fruits
of my labours  to ripen in your hands."
  The criticisms  which  were  showered  upon Dr.
Spurzheim  in the British Islands—for  attacks upon
both him and his doctrines were not wanting  through
all grades  of the publick  press — drew  from him an
" Examination  of  the Objections   made  in Britain
against the Doctrines of Gall and  Spurzheim."  In
this work,  octavo, Edinburgh, 1817,  a very full and
somewhat  severe,  but  still  a  perfectly  dispassionate
and courteous exposure is  made of the ignorance and
the arrogant presumption of those Avho had thus become
assailants  of phrenology.
  During this visit  to the  English Islands,  Dr. Spurz-
heim lectured in London, Bath,  Bristol, Dublin, Cork,
Liverpool,  and Edinburgh.   In 1817  he returned to
London, from his visit  to Edinburgh,  dec, and deli- 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
75
 vered  there  another  course  of lectures ;  and during
 this stay he became a licentiate of the Royal College
 of  Physicians in that  city.
   Having  now  been  absent  from the continent  near
 three years, Dr. Spurzheim, in July, 1817, returned to
 Paris.   Here he remained until 1825 — eight years —
 assiduously engaged  in cultivating  his  new  views,
 and contributing, as far as in his power, to the ad-
 vancement of the science of  human nature.   At Paris
 he  delivered, regularly, two courses of lectures,  each
 year, on the Anatomy,  Physiology  and Pathology of
 the Brain,  and  the  External  Senses.   It was during
 this period, also, that  he published several of his valu-
 able works, which were issued at  Paris.   In 1818 ap-
 peared his  "Observations sur la Folic, ou sur les De-
 rangemens  des Fonctions Morales  et Intellectuelles de
 l'homme,"  with two plates ; and " Observations sur la
 Phrenologie,  ou la Connaissance  de l'homme, Morale
et Intellectuel,  fondee sur les Fonctions  du Systeme
 Nerveux,"  with  seven plates.  In 1820  he published
his  " Essai Philosophique sur la Nature, Morale et In-
tellectuelle, de  l'homme."    His  work   in  English,
 namely, " View of the Elementary Principles of Edu-
 cation, founded  on  the study of the Nature of  Man,"
 appeared at Edinburgh,  in 1821.  Of this  a French
edition was issued at Paris, in the following  year ; and
 in 1828 another edition, in  English,  much enlarged, 
76           HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.

Avas published at London.  In 1824 the French govern-
ment, adopting the wisdom of the  Austrian, prohibited
the delivery of all lectures, without its especial permis-
sion  ;  and Dr.  Spurzheim was therefore obliged to de-
sist from all oral teaching, save what he communicated
in conversation at his OAvn house.
   In 1825 he again visited London ;  and in March and
April of that  year delivered two  courses of lectures
there,  each  eighteen  in  number;  besides  several
courses of dissections of the brain, at St. Thomas' and
St. BartholomeAv's Hospitals, and in some of the medi-
cal schools.  On this occasion the  manner in Avhich he
Avas noticed by the periodicals, particularly the Medico-
Chirurgical Review, and the Lancet, and also by some of
the leading newspapers, was in the highest degree con-
soling to one who could not but recollect the former ill
treatment which he had received at the same hands; and
the change in the publick mind, thus  manifested, was
no less gratifying to the friends  of philosophy, gene-
rally, than to him Avho  was its  more immediate object.
During this visit to London,  Dr. Spurzheim  published
two  important Avorks,  namely, " Phrenology, or the
Doctrine of the Mind, and of the  relations between its
Manifestations  and the Body," with fifteen engravings;
and  "A View  of the Philosophical Principles of Phre-
nology" ;  both  in octavo.  "In these works,  Avhich,
like the ' View of the Elementary Principles of  Educa- 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY".
77
 lion,' are  extended editions of some  of the principal
 chapters  of  the 'Physiognomical  System,' the com-
 prehensiveness  and profundity  of  intellect, the accu-
 racy and assiduity of observation,  and the purity  of
 moral feeling, Avhich distinguish all Dr. Spurzheim's
 Avritings,  are  conspicuous ;  and they will be a  monu-
 ment by  which posterity will judge correctly  of the
 admirable character and talents of this  great phre-
 nologist."
   Dr. Spurzheim  now returned once  more to  Paris ;
 but his stay Avas of short duration, for in the early part
 of  1826 he  again revisited  London,  where he lec-
 tured to large and intelligent audiences, and was gene-
 rally received with  kindness  and  respect.  It was
 during the course of this year  that he published the
 two  following works : "Phrenology in connexion with
 the  study of  Physiognomy, part  one, Characters;
 with thirty-four plates;" and  "the  Anatomy  of the
 Brain, Avith a general view of the Nervous System ;
 with eleven  plates."   After the publication of  these
 works  he  returned again  to Paris;   but  soon after
 forming  the  resolution to  remove  permanently   to
 England,  he executed his plan, within the same  year ;
and  near its  close  he  visited  Cambridge.  On  this
occasion  he had no cause of complaint :  at the Uni-
versity  he Avas received with  distinguished respect
The  use of the publick lecture room was granted him,
                        8  * 
78
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY,
for his lectures, and his  audience,  embracing  men of
the first standing and influence  in  the University, ex-
ceeded one hundred in  number.   He  also  lectured
upon the dissection of the  brain, several  times, in the
lecture room of the anatomical professor ; and he Avas
feasted in the College Halls, daily,  while  he remained.
The  impression which he  produced, particularly upon
the anatomical and  medical  professors, was in the
highest degree  satisfactory.  He subsequently lectured
at Bath and Bristol, with success ;  the interest increas-
ing Avith each lecture, to the last.  In April, 1827, he
again lectured in London ; and in the same  year he
published his " Outlines of Phrenology ; being also a
Manual of reference for the  marked Busts."  From
London  he  Avent to Hull, Avhere he  lectured ;  and
visited  the  work-house,  insane  hospital,  grammar
school, and town jail ; and in  January, 1828, he again
reached Edinburgh.  Here he delivered several cour-
ses of   popular   lectures,  and also  courses  upon
dissections  of  the  brain; and both  his reception,
and the  attention paid  to  his illustrations, contrasted
proudly,  for  him  and  for  science,  Avith  what  it
had been  his  fortune  to encounter,  upon a previous
occasion,  in the  same city.   On the 25th of January,
1823, the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, gave a
dinner to Dr. Spurzheim;  and  upon that occasion he
thus expressed  himself:  " Dr. Gall and myself often
conversed together  about the  future admission of our 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
79
 doctrines :  though we  relied with confidence on the
 invariable laws of the Creator, we, however, never ex-
 pected to see  thern, in our life-time, admitted to such a
 degree as they really are."   During the same year he
 visited Glasgow, Avhere he delivered one popular and one
 professional course of lectures.  It was Avhile at Edin-
 burgh and Glasgow, at this time, that a protracted cor-
 respondence took  place between  Dr.  Spurzheim  and
 Sir William Hamilton.   The latter gentleman took an
 active part  against phrenology ; but yet he  preferred
 a Avar of words, only, rather than  examination of  tan-
 gible realities.  To this latter alternative Dr. Spurzheim
 endeavoured to bring his adA'ersary ;  and no less than
five times did  he challenge him thereto ;  but  the wary
 baronet declined it as undignified!   It was also during
 this  year that Dr.  Spurzheim published his "Sketch of
 the Natural LaAvs of Man."
   He noAV returned once more to  London,  where  he
 applied himself, with patient assiduity, to the inculcation
 and  diffusion  of phrenology.   On the 14th  of May,
 1829, a paper of  his, upon the brain, was  read before
 the  Royal  Society.   The  history of  this  paper Dr.
 Spurzheim has given  in the preface Avhich he pub-
 lished Avith the paper  itself, soon after.*    He states
  ■ This paper is mentioned at p. 68; but the history of its pro-
duction is not there related; nor is the real cause of its rejection
from the printed Transactions. 
80
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
that he had been requested, by his friend Chenevix, to
furnish a paper on some point of phrenology, proper
to be presented to the Royal Society of  London ;  and
he  then  continues :   " I complied with his Avish, in
order to try the Avisdom of that  learned body, and my
lamented friend delivered the following paper to one of
the secretaries, avIio  read it to the Societ)', but declared
that it could not be  printed in the Tranasctions of the
Society, because it did  not contain  any new matter."
Dr.  Spurzheim, after  shoAving,  in  detail,  that  this
assumption is  erroneous, thus proceeds  :  " It is, how-
ever,  conceivable  that the  Secretary,  who  never
ceased to be hostile to phrenology, found, as he  said,
that my  ideas  require a great  imagination to be ad-
mitted, and objected  to their being printed in the Philo-
sophical Transactions.  My  friend Chenevix,  in order
not  to  have  a formal  refusal, Avithdrew  the paper.
The adversaries of  phrenology  may not  appreciate,
perhaps not even understand,  the principles and  ideas
of my paper;  but those who take interest in the most
important part of Anthropology  will appreciate them,
as the completion of the Phrenological Anatomy of the
Brain."
  After lecturing in  some  dozen  different towns and
cities of England ; delivering two courses in Dublin,
and being elected  an honorary  member of the Royal
Irish Academy,  Dr. Spurzheim,  in  1831,  once more 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
81
returned to Paris.  During the Avinter of 1831-2, he
lectured in that city ; and in  the  spring  of  the latter
year he published,  in a small  volume,  his  " Manuelle
de Phrenologie,"  which is the  last  of his Avorks.
   Dr.  Spurzheim had noAV conceived the idea of visit-
ing the United States ; and on the  20th of June, 1832,
he sailed  from Havre,  for New-York, Avhere he ar-
rived on the 4th  of the  ensuing August.  At that pe-
riod, as Ave shall  learn from subsequent pages, phreno-
logy had  made  but  inconsiderable progress, in the
northern and eastern portions  of the United States, al-
though it had a feAv very able  and  intelligent  defenders
there.  Without attempting publick phrenological teach-
ing,  in the form  of lectures, he proceeded to Boston ;
visiting, on  his way,  the  state's prison, at Weathers-
field, Conn.,  Avhere he freely  gave his opinions upon
the phrenological development of  many convicts con-
fined there.   At Boston he gave his first  lecture upon
the subject of education ; and in  September he com-
menced a course  of eighteen lectures upon phrenology.
This course Avas  at Boston ; but he  gave, also, one  at
Cambridge University.    Both  these  Avere  popular;
Avhile before  the Medical Faculty he  gave  still another,
upon dissections  of the brain,  dec.   He was Avarmly
received, in the first circles of science and literature,
and was every Avhere welcomed as a philosopher whose
knowledge of mental phenomena  Avas valuable above 
82
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
anything that could be acquired from the older schools
of that science.   He  visited, extensively, the various
schools,  within  his reach ;  and  often  astonished the
teachers by displaying a more intimate acquaintance
Avith the mental peculiarities of the  pupils,  by merely
observing their heads, than their  preceptors had been
able to acquire from months of daily intercourse.  This
Avas peculiarly the case with  all  such  as had a large
development  of the  organ of scretiveness.  In the
state's prison, too, his observations were equally de-
monstrative of the truths of phrenology ;  while in pri-
vate  circles his  constant application of the  principles
of the science daily won over  to it  those with whom it
was his fortune to be associated.   Great  interest in
phrenology  was  thus excited in  Boston,  where the
foundations of protracted future investigations, on this
subject, may thus be supposed to have been laid : and
probably the  same  would  have  been  done  by Dr.
Spurzheim, at various other points of our country, had
not death prevented.   Before, hoAvever, he was pre-
pared to leave Boston,  on his tour through  the  United
States, he fell sick ;  and on  the  10th of November,
scarcely more than three months  after first  setting foot
in the country, he expired.   The funeral honours paid
to his memory fully  attested  the deep  hold his teach-
ings had taken  upon  the  minds of  those to Avhom he
was so recently an entire stranger. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
83
  Should  some  portion  of  the  previous  pages be
thought rather to partake of a biographical than histo-
rical  character, it must  not be forgotten that  such
semblance  Avas unavoidable, from the fact that, for a
long period, phrenology had but a single able devotee
who stood boldly forth, professionally, either to incul-
cate its principles  or  to defend it from assault;  and
that the progress Avhich the  science,  during this time,
was making, could only be shown by noting  the daily
walk  and  reception of him  Avho thus  toiled,  single-
handed, for its promulgation.
  The labours  of  Dr. Spurzheim, whose philosophick
course Ave have rapidly traced, were  in the highest de-
gree important to the  development and practical appli-
cation of phrenology.   His reformation of  the nomen-
clature  of Gall has  been   noticed  and  shown :  his
anatomical researches, also, have been alluded to; but
to estimate these justly, a careful study of his works
upon  " the Anatomy  of the Brain"  ;  " Observations
on  Insanity," dec. dec, and a comparison of  them
with all that Avas previously  knoAvn upon the points on
Avhich he treats, is  indispensable.  When this has been
done, the importance  of this part of Dr.  Spurzheim's
labours proves to be  great indeed — even  far beyond
Avhat simple estimate  would  concede.  To the number
of the organs, too, Dr. Spurzheim has liberally contri-
buted. We have seen that Dr. Gall well settled twenty- 
84
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
six organs of the brain :  to these  Dr. Spurzheim has
added nine others, of his own discovery.*   They are
the  following :  " Inhabitiveness,   Conscientiousness,
Hope,  Marvellousness,  Individuality, Size,  Weight
and Resistance, Order, and Time.
   He was also the first to attempt any classification of
  * We are aware that this statement, if unexplained, may be
deemed an  errour, as Dr. Spurzheim, in one  of his works,
claims the discovery of only eight organs.   He, however, num-
bers thirty-five upon his bust, and in his phrenology, while he
includes in these only twenty-six that are found in Dr. Gall's
works, and claimed by him.   Mr. Combe, too, awards to Dr.
Gall the same twenty-six ;  and yet, like  Spurzheim,  enume-
rates and describes thirty-five, in all.  Two causes may have
contributed to this apparent anomaly, namely :  1st, Dr. Gall's
having made  two of the organ of language, and  in this way
making his  whole number twenty-seven, although all subse-
quent phrenologists treat these two organs  of Gall's as but one;
and 2d, Dr. Spurzheim's having claimed only eight as of his
own discovery.  Mons. Broussais,  in his  " Cours de Phrc.no-
logie,"  says: " Gall did not distinguish Marvellousness from
Ideality, but confounded this faculty with that which he desig-
nates the poetick talent:  Spurzheim separated them."  It
may, then, very well  be that, under these circumstances, Dr.
Spurzheim did not see fit formally to claim the discovery of this
organ ;  and subsequent writers, seeing that he fixed  the num-
ber of his claim at eight, and that by Dr. Gall's method of divi-
sion  he numbered twenty-seven in his  discovery, they have
thus arrived at the correct total number of organs, by recording
only eight as discovered  by Spurzheim.  Still, as he was the
first  to describe  and number this  organ, we  see  not to whom
else its discovery can be awarded. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
85
the organs ;  and although what he accomplished,  in
this, is manifestly far from perfect, still, as a  first at-
tempt, it was  creditable  to  its author,  and in some de-
gree  useful to the science.  Dr. Gall was not so far
successful,  in any effort of  this kind, as to have in-
duced him to  alloAV his labours to see the light;  nor is
it probable, in the state  in  which he left  the science,
that anything valuable could have been accomplished
by him or others.
  The powers and organs of the  mind,  Dr. Spurzheim,
according  to his last  modifications, divided into Affec-
tive and Intellectual  faculties ;   and  these are again
sub-divided, the  former into  Propensities and  Senti-
ments ;  and the latter into Perceptive and Reflective
poAvers.  The whole,  by this arrangement, will stand
thus :

                 AFFECTIVE,

              1st.  PROPENSITIES.
    Desire to Live ;*           Alimentiveness '; *
    1, Destructiveness ;     2,  Amativeness ;
    3, Philoprogenitiveness ; 4,  Adhesivenesss ;
  T These two  organs are stated, by Dr. Spurzheim, as pro-
bable, only, but not established.  He does not claim the sug-
gestion of them ; nor are they numbered by him.
                         9 
86
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
    5,  Inhabitiveness ;      8,  Acquisitiveness ;
    6,  Combativeness ;      9,  Constructiveness.
    7,  Secretiveness;

               2d.  SENTIMENTS.
   10,  Cautiousness ;       16,  Conscientiousness :
   11,  Approbativeness ;    17,  Hope;
   12,  Self-Esteem ;       18,  Marvellousness ;
   13,  Benevolence ;       19,  Ideality ;
   14,  Reverence ;         20,  Mirthfulness ;
   15, Firmness;          21,  Imitation.

              INTELLECTUAL.
               1st.  PERCEPTIVE.
   22,  Individuality ;          28, Order;
   23, Configuration ;         29, Calculation ;
   24,  Size ;                  30, Eventuality ;
   25,  Weight and  Resistance;  31, Time;
   26,  Colouring ;             32, Tune ;
   27,  Locality ;              33, Language.

               2d.  REFLECTIVE.
   34, Comparison ;          35, Causality.

  Without dwelling longer upon the  labours of one
whose range of effort was so widely extended as to
preclude all attempt at more than a condensed view of 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
87
it here ; and Avho, to be  appreciated, must be studied,
through his  numerous and valuable works, we  pass to
the name and  phrenological services of
   Mr. George Combe.   We cannot better introduce a
notice of this accomplished scholar and able philosopher,
than by adopting the language of the Edinburgh Phreno-
logical Journal, respecting him.   "Mr.  Combe's great
merit, as a phrenologist,  unquestionably consists in his
judicious, zealous, and persevering endeavours to disse-
minate the knowledge of the doctrines of Drs. Gall and
Spurzheim.   In neglect, amidst ridicule, and under the
most violent personal aggression, he has always exhibit-
ed the same composed reliance  in  the goodness of his
cause, and  to it, alone,  trusted  its final success, and
the consequent removal of the aspersions upon his own
prudence and integrity.   How  much this truly philo-
sophical proceeding has  contributed fo the diffusion of
the science, in Scotland, at least, our readers do not
need to be informed.  There  can  be little  doubt, in-
deed, that the truth of phrenology and the importance
of its practical applications would have ensured its ulti-
mate  reception in this country;  but had it  not been
for the unostentatious, but well-directed and  indefati-
gable exertions of Mr. Combe, it is difficult to say how
long it might have been confined to a few isolated indi-
viduals, without taking any hold of the  publick mind.
By continually bringing the   subject under general 
88
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
notice ;  by repelling the objections that, from  time to
time, were brought forward ;  by exhibiting a faithful
view of the  principles that Drs. Gall and Spurzheim
maintained, and by adapting the application of them to
the habits and tastes of those whom he addressed, Mr.
Combe  has succeeded beyond what the warmest friends
of  phrenology could have  anticipated.   The  speedy
prevalence of the science is noAV no longer a matter of
doubt,  the load of ridicule and  abuse that  Avas once
heaped upon it is removed ;  and we have the satisfac-
tion of hearing even our enemies allow that the subject
is one Avhich deserves  attention."
   Such were the remarks with which a dignified and
able  periodical, in the city of Mr. Combe's residence,
opened a review of the second edition of his  " System
of  Phrenology,"  in  1826.    Mr.  Combe  is  now,
(March, 1839,) in the United  States; and  if all this
were true of him, in Scotland,  at that early period, it
is doubly so, at the present day, here.  His  " System
of Phrenology" has been studied, or at least read, by
almost  every one  in  America who has looked  upon
phrenology, or given  any  attention  to the defects of
the older systems of philosophy ;  and since his arrival
in our country, he has  been assiduously engaged in dis-
seminating the science  of mind, by publick  lectures, as
well as by conversations, and  his pen.   In 1833, he
prepared, li by  request," a  corrected edition of his 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
39
work, for the American  press;  and in  a note Avhich
he has prefixed thereto, after a touching and creditable
advertence to the memory of Gall and Spurzheim, Avith
a modesty Avhich  -everyAvhere characterizes his Avri-
tings, he adds :  " We who remain  profess to be only
humble disciples,  made  wise by  the  Avisdom of  our
masters, and shining with a light  reflected from  their
brightness.   In proclaiming the value and importance
of their  doctrines,  therefore, Ave assume no merit to
ourselves ;  we  simply invite others to  partake of a
moral and intellectual banquet which Ave  have  enjoyed
with the highest relish, and  found  to  conduce  to our
happiness and improvement."
  This Avill prepare, then, all those Avho are not fami-
liar with Mr. Combe's Avork, not to expect in it wide
deviations from Drs. Gall and  Spurzheim;  nor  any
considerable  improvements  in the  science itself, be-
yond the point at which it was  left by the  latter.  He
has,  however, made  some  changes, in a feAV  particu-
lars, that  require to be noticed.   The nomenclature of
Dr. Spurzheim Mr. Combe has varied in a feAV instan-
ces, as will be seen by comparison of the two, as ex-
hibited in their  respective classifications.
  Upon  the subject  of Classification,  Mr. Combe ob-
serves :   " It appears impossible to arrive at a correct
classification until all the organs, and also  the primi-
tive faculty or ultimate function  of  each, shall be defi-
                         9* 
90
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
nitely ascertained, which is not, at present, the case.
Till this end shall be  accomplished, every  interim  ar-
rangement will be in danger of being ovterturned, by
subsequent discoveries."   The folloAving is  the  classi-
fication adopted by Mr. Combe :

              order  i. —FEELINGS.

          GENUS I.--PROPENSITIES.

     1, Amativeness  ;             Alimentiveness*;
     2, Philoprogenitiveness ;      Love of Life* ;
     3, Concentrativeness  ;     7, Secretiveness ;
     4, Adhesiveness ;          8, Acquisitiveness ;
     5, Combativeness  ;        9, Constructiveness.
     6, Destructiveness ;

   GENUS  II. — SENTIMENTS  COMMON  TO
      MAN  AVITH THE  LOWER ANIMALS.

     10, Self-esteem ;         12, Cautiousness.
     II, Love of Approbation ;
  * These two organs are treated as probable, by Mr. Combe ;
and, like Spurzheim, he has left them without numbers, in his
" System of Phrenology."  In his late Lectures in New-York,
however, as reported and published by Mr. Andrew Boardman,
Mr. Combe states that he now considers the organ of Alimen-
tiveness as established. Of the Love of Life he speaks in the
same work,  but without giving  a definite  decision upon its
claims. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
91
  GENUS III.--SUPERIOUR  SENTIMENTS.

   13, Benevolence ;       18, Wonder ;
   14, Veneration ;        19, Ideality ;
   15, Firmness;         20, Wit or Mirthfulness;
   16, Conscientiousness;  21, Imitation.
   17, Hope;

order ii. —INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.

      (iEKBS I.--EXTERNAL SENSES.

        Feeling  or Touch ;       Smell;
        Taste ;                 Hearing and Sight.

GENUS  II.--INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES
   WHICH PERCEIVE EXISTENCE AND  PHYSI-
   CAL  QUALITIES.

    22, Individuality ;          25, Weight ;
    23, Form ;                 26,  Colouring.
    24, Size ;

GENUS  III.--INTELLECTUAL  FACULTIES
   WHICH  PERCEIVE  RELATIONS  OF EX-
   TERNAL  OBJECTS.

      27, Locality;           31,  Time;
      28, Number ;           32,  Tune ;
      29, Order;              33,  Language.
      30, Eventuality; 
92
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
    GENUS  IV.--REFLECTING  FACULTIES.
       34,  Comparison ;           35,  Causality.

   As already  stated,  the  general  features of  Mr,
 Combe's phrenology coincide with those of his prede-
 cessors  in the science.   In relation to one organ, how-
 ever, there is a material difference between  the views
 of Mr. Combe and those of Dr. Spurzheim.   This dif-
 ference  is not in regard  to location,  for in this they
 fully coincide, but in  the  nature  of the  offices of the
 organ itself.  It is the organ designated Inhabitiveness,
 by Spurzheim, and  Avhich Mr. Combe calls Concentra-
 tiveness.   The different duties assigned to this organ,
 by the two phrenologists, involved the  change of name
 to which Mr. Combe has subjected it.  This difference
 of opinion existed during  the life-time of Spurzheim,
 and of his intimacy Avith Sir. Combe ; and each Avriter,
in his works, has given his  own  peculiar vieAvs in de-
tail.*   As  the elements of phrenology  must be studied
  * Mons. Vimont,  as quoted by Mons. Broussais, from fami-
liarity with this diversity of opinion, upon the organ in ques-
tion, applied himself carefully to its investigation, in animals
lower than man.  Of course he  found great attachment  to
place, in many of these; and in numbers he also found mani-
festations of the power of concentrating attention upon a parti-
cular subject.   From the external developments upon these 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
93
 before  these can be appreciated, they Avould, on  that
 account alone,  if for no  other  reason, be manifestly
 out of  place here.  In his  prefaratory  note  to  the
 American edition of Mr. Combe's phrenology, already
 once  quoted, the author,  upon  ihis point, observes :
 "To the best  of my knowledge, there is no material
 point of doctrine on which he, [Spurzheim,] and I  dif-
 fered, except concerning the functions of  the organ of
 Inhabitiveness.   I continue to entertain  the  vieAvs  ex-
 pressed in my works, in regard to it.  I may now add,
 Avithout delicacy, that it was, perhaps, the only cere-
 bral organ in Avhich the superiority of development lay
on  my side,  and that every one understands best the
 functions of  those organs which  are largest in his own
brain.   It was  remarkably  small in Dr. Spurzheim,
and it appeared to me that he never comprehended the
effect produced by it when  large.   The point,  however,
is left open for the judgement of all inquirers."
  In  addition to his phrenology, proper, Mr.  Combe
has written  ably and extensively, in defence and de-
monstration of phrenological truth, upon various occa-
classes of heads, respectively, Mons. Vimont was led to the
conclusion that there are two organs ;  and that,  in man, the
organ  of Concentratkcness occupies the superiour part of the
region assigned  to  the organ of  the love of place — thus
riividing into two what other phrenologists had made but one, 
94
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
sions ;  and also in application of  its principles to the
purposes of life in general.   His work, namely, " the
Constitution  of Man,"  is both  widely known, and
highly appreciated; and although it is not, technically, a
phrenological work, yet  it is  so, virtually,  and has al-
ready done much for the  science.   Among his detached
papers, none, perhaps, is more  able, or more worthy
the cause and its author, than his  masterly  "Letter,"
of eighty-two octavo pages,  to Francis  Jeffery, Esq.,
which appeared in the Edinburgh Phrenological Jour-
nal, in 1826, and Avas also extensively sold, in pamph-
let form.   Mr. Jeffery, as is  well knoAvn, was editor of
the  Edinburgh RevieAv  ;  and the production of  Mr.
Combe here in question,  was penned in  reply to a re-
view which Mr. Jeffery  had  then just  given, of  Mr.
Combe's Phrenology ; and in which he  had patiently
exhausted both his wit and his exalted poAvers of argu-
ment.   The ancient hostility  of the Edinburgh Review
to phrenology, is  proverbial:  we have  had occasion
to advert  to  it before,  in regard to Dr.  Spurzheim.
Mr. Combe informs us,  elseAvhere, that  his "first in-
formation  concerning the system of Drs. Gall  and
Spurzheim was derived from  No. 49  of the  Edinburgh
Review.  "Led aAvay by the boldness of that piece of
criticism," continues  he, "I  regarded their doctrines
as contemptibly absurd, and their  authors as the most
disingenuous of men."   These opinions were eradi- 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
95
cated, in due time, by an acquaintance with phrenology
itself; and neither slight or momentary Avas the indig-
nation, we may  suppose,  Avhich  Mr. Combe  felt,  in
common with others, at the  uncandid but bold and in-
genious deceptions with which the revieAver had adorned
the  caricature he had drawn.   But  reckoning day
finally came ;  and it may Avell be said that Mr. Combe's
" Letter" wrought out for  the doings of the Reviewer
much the  same fate  Avhich Mazeppa, in a case no Avay
parallel, avers to have  provided  for  the  castle of one
to Avhom he owed payment for severity ; and Avho

         ----------" Paid it well in after days :
         There is not of that castle gate,
         Its drawbridge and portcullis' weight,
         Stone, bar, moat, bridge,  or barrier left;
         Nor of its fields a blade of grass,
             Save what grows on a ridge of wall,
             Where stood the hearth-stone of the hall;
         And many a time you there might pass,
         Nor dream that e'er that fortress was."

   The early labours of Gall and Spurzheim, in France,
have been already mentioned.   The  fruits of these are
now being gathered, in a  rich  phrenological harvest,
at Paris.   Many of the first men of that  capital are
prominent and successful in the dissemination of the
truths of phrenology.   Among those Avho have greatly
distinguished  themselves,  none,  perhaps,  has  higher 
96
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 claims to  renown  than the  late F. J.  V. Broussais*.
 His medical writings are found in almost  every physi-
 cian's collection.   A Parisian author, of 1828, says of
 him:   "Mons. Broussais is unquestionably the most
 remarkable medical Avriter of the present age.   Splen-
 did works, celebrated lectures, and a  great number of
 proselytes, have, in a (ew years, spread far and wide
 his  opinions."   This  distinguished  light of  science
 made an early examination of phrenology ;  and from
 the period of his doing  so, to that of his  death, he con-
 tinued one of its most able promulgators.  Holding an
 ardent and ready pen,  Mons. Broussais always spread,
 with much facility,  his views and reasonings before the
 reading publick.   In  1831, upon  the formation of a
 Phrenological Society at Paris, he was one of its primi-
 tive members;   and the numerous  papers he has pen-
 ned, in relation to the science, are  justly held in high
esteem  by  phrenologists.   His  chief work,  namely,
" Cours de Phrenologie," has  never been  translated,
we  believe, and is  certainly quite too  little  known in
this country.  It is  an octavo volume of  eight hundred
and fifty pages, and is  constituted of  twenty lectures,
  * Prof. Broussais died at Paris,  in November, 1838, at the
age of sixty-six years. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
97
  delivered by Prof. Broussais to  the Faculty of Mede-
  cine, of Paris, in 1836.
    Mons. Broussais  has assumed,  as  the basis of his
  Avork, Mr. Combe's Phrenology ;   and he has retained
  his  classification, and  generally, his  views.  But he
  has  not been confined to these, nor  has he limited him-
  self  merely to what he  found in his  model:  on the
  contrary, his Avork is every where enriched by original
  vieAvs  and  elevated sentiments, always  conveyed in
  that  strong, yet lucid and beautiful  language Avhich the
  author so well knew hoAv to employ Avith effect.   His
  details of national characteristicks often denote acute-
 ness  of observation ; and he returns, again and again,
 to the defects of the old  systems  of  mental philosophy,
 as, in his progress, he is called upon to elucidate  Avhat
 those systems have never recognised, Avith a point, we
 had  almost said severity, Avell calculated  to cause
 them to be both noticed and remembered.   The Avork
 in  question  also  abounds in  copious extracts from
 "Vimont's Treatise  upon Human  and  Comparative
 Phrenology,"—of Avhich more  hereafter— Avhich gives
 it a high additional value;  as  that Avork is rich in im-
 portant material  not elsewhere  collected ;   and  yet,
 from  its great price, is but very sparingly  known.  In
short, none can doubt that phrenology is largely in-
debted to  Mons.  Broussais,  since  his Avhole connexion
with  the  science has shoAvn him a close  observer of
                         10 
98
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
facts, and a  clear and  able reasoner.  The folloAving
incident he relates, in his work, as one which aided in
fixing his attention upon the science :  " Before I had
imbibed a taste for phrenology," says he, " I was one
day in attendance  upon a musick merchant.   In  the
room there were forty portraits of musicians;  and in
all these heads the organ of time Avas well developed.
This  made such an impression upon  me  that I  ceased
not to think of it,  during the day : and I said to  my-
self, Gall is  not a fool."  In the sixth lecture  of his
course,  after detailing  many facts which  had  fallen
under his own observation, bearing upon the point of
which he Avas treating,  he adds:  "I assure you that it
is not heedlessly, without reflection, without numerous
observations,  that I have  ventured to stand forth in
favour of phrenology.   I have multiplied observations
as far as it has been possible for me, before taking this
step."  Mons. Broussais, then, was not the convert of
a day ;  nor the victim  of  an enticing theory;  but in
phrenology, as elsewhere, he felt and saw and reasoned
his Avay up to conclusions he could no longer doubt :
and hence it  was,  that he  ever held himself equally
aloof  from the extremes of either party.  In a discus-
sion,  at  the Royal Academy of  Medicine, of Paris, in
1836, his language was so clear on this point, that we
quote  his Avords :  "I  am  not  prepared to defend all
the  opinions  either of Gall or Spurzheim, or of  any 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
99
other phrenologist.   Many of the details of authors on
this, and indeed on every other branch of science, are
necessarily imperfect and inaccurate ;  but such an ob-
jection cannot invalidate its leading principles and con-
clusions.  These have been deduced from a patient exa-
mination of facts, Avhich no reasoning can gainsay, and
which most satisfactorily establishes this important truth,
that certain mental developments  are always associa-
ted with certain cerebral formations.  This ' empirick'
fact is the foundation of all  phrenological reasoning ;
and notAvithstanding the indiscreet and  ignorant haste
of many disciples of the science, its essential doctrines
are based upon the most incontestable observations."
   We have already stated that Mons. Broussais' classi-
fication  corresponds with Mr.  Combe's :  we should
add that the  numbered organs, also,  are  the  same.
He  has given the organ  of Alimentiveness the same
location as Mr. Combe ;  and directly beloAv  this he  lo-
cates the organ of " the love of life," which Spurzheim
and Combe do not  assign  a  place on the bust.   They
both, in their last editions, barely mention the  organs
as probably existent, at  the base of the brain ; yet the
latter is not, in their opinion, discoverable during life.
The former of the organs under consideration, we may
observe here, if not considered as absolutely settled, is
still treated as  much more certain in this country than
bv  the phrenologists of Europe.   Indeed, Ave no longer 
100
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
consider  it doubtful;  multiplied observations,  on this
continent, having satisfied our phrenologists of its ac-
curacy.  This organ was first suggested by Dr. Hoppe,
a phrenologist of Copenhagen ;  and a letter from him,
detailing his vieAvs  on  the subject,  was received at
Edinburgh, in February, 1825.   Mr. Crook,  also, an
English  phrenologist, had  made  the  same discovery,
independently of  the researches of Dr. Hoppc, and in
April,  1825,  read a paper upon this  organ, before the
Phrenological Society of London.  The suggestion of
the organ of  "the love of life," so far as Ave knoAv, is
due  to Mons. Vimont.   Broussais,  upon its  history,
says :  " This organ was proposed by Mons. Vimont;
1 speak according to his work, for  I avow to you  I
have not ransacked all the annals of English, Ameri-
can  and Danish  phrenology, to test  his claim to the
originality of this idea, but he  affirms  it to  be his."
Both these organs are treated  of more extendedly by
Mons.  Broussais  than by  his  predecessors ;  and he
has enriched  his pages by copious extracts from Mons.
Vimont, in relation to each.   According to these, Mons.
Vimont pursued,  in regard to the organ of the love of
life,  the same course Avhich had been pointed  out  and
pursued  by Drs.  Gall and  Spurzheim, namely, a total
abandonment of all theory, and speculative dogmatism,
and a rigid adherence to facts alone,  as  deduced from
observations of nature.   He carefully noted the cha- 
               HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.           101

 racter  of various  animals, not only of the same, but
 also of different races, in  relation to this  propensity,
 while living ;  and  after death he  compared the brains
 of these :  and by  the  uniform  conformity  of one por-
 tion of the brain to the character thus previously de-
 termined, while in  other parts there was great diversity
 of development, he satisfied himself that the organ had
 existence, and that these facts  had fully established its
 location.
   Mons.  Broussais may be said to  have systematized
 his work to a greater extent, perhaps, than those who
 have preceded him.   In very  many instances, after
 treating of an organ's individual  functions  and  its
 locality, he has illustrated  its effect, in various combi-
 nations, as well with those  organs that directly aid its
 action,  as Avith those whose tendency is to  either  mo-
 dify or  deflect, in some degree, those functions, from
 their  direct line of  action.   To  some of these he  has
 applied  the terms auxiliaries and  antagonists, accord-
ing to the nature of the influence he  supposed them to
exercise,  relatively to the  powers of the organ under
consideration.*
  * One of the most constantly repeated  complaints  brought
against phrenology, by its opponents, is, that the science did
not primitively present itself to us perfect and mature, in all its
parts, like the fabled Minerva from the head of Jupiter.   That
                         10 * 
102
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
   We have  several times  had occasion to advert  to
the labours of Dr.  Vimont.    The name of  this valu-
able contributor  to  phrenological science  is occasion-
ally found, in our phrenological books,  in the  English
language, but he is  rarely more than just  referred to,
without so  much as  an outline being  given of what he
has really accomplished.   The Edinburgh Phrenologi-
cal Journal has done  its readers  better  justice,  in  re-
spect to the labours of  Mons. Vimont,  than  any other
this would have been, in some respects, at least, advantageous,
it is not our province to deny ;  and perhaps as much may very
safely be said of the remaining sciences, also;  but why this sin-
gular complaint should rise up in judgement against phrenology,
alone, is not so clear.  True it is, however, that because phre-
nology is not a perfect whole, not only are all the settled features
of the science questioned and denied,  but this fact is made the
ground of grave complaint against those who profess it.
  A writer in the " Boston Quarterly Review," No. for April,
1839, may be said to belong to this class of reasoners.   He as-
sumes that phrenologists deny or neglect to  recognise man's
" personality," &c.  The arrogant assumption of perfection
belongs neither to philosophers or philosophy ;  and phrenolo-
gists, while they freely admit that they have not reached per-
fection,  and have  no expectation of doing  so, still do not dis-
card  the utility  of farther and constant investigation.  The
writer adverted to, had  he read all  they have done,  in this
way,  would have learned that  the subject of  "personality"
has not escaped the attention  of all phrenologists.  Broussais
has devoted near fifty pages  of his able work to me, (person-
ality,) the will, liberty, reason, &c, which the  Boston  critick
evidently has not seen. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
103
English work we have examined.   Dr. Vimont Avas a
physician of Caen, in France ; and the seventh volume
of the periodical just named, gives the folloAving notice
of him, as an extract from " Dewhurst's Guide to Phre-
nology"  :   " Dr. Vimont was originally an  opponent
of phrenology ;  having attended Dr. Gall's lectures, at
Paris,  he  left that city  Avith strong  prepossessions
against his doctrine, and,  on returning to Caen, prose-
cuted his researches with the express object of refuting
them ;  but after the fullest investigation, his inquiries
terminated in making him a  thorough convert to the
system,  and  in the formation of a splendid  museum,
containing more than tAvo thousand  sculls of  the mam-
malia and  birds ; casts of brains, modelled in wax, and
nearly three hundred original  draAvings, made by him-
self."   Thus much of this  naturalist's cabinet, Avhich
contained, indeed, a grand total  of more than six  thou-
sand specimens.   Of his work, namely, " Treatise on
Human  and  Comparative Phrenology," the  editors of
the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal, while  it  Avas in
course  of  publication, in 1832, thus spoke : " When
completed, it  will  extend to  two quarto volumes, ac-
companied by a splendid atlas,  in  folio, consisting of
one hundred and twenty  plates,  and containing  more
than three hundred Avell  executed  subjects  on human
and comparative anatomy." 
104
HISTORY OP PHREXOLOGA*.
   It Avill be observed that the labours of this naturalist
 are in a department peculiarly his  own, namely, com-
 parative phrenology.   This is a field, broad and ample,
 indeed, and rich in material illustrative of  mind ;  but
 still it has  hitherto been greatly shunned or neglected.
 True, occasional glances have been cast in that direc-
 tion ;  and  sometimes a writer  may have devoted a
 page  or two, by way of  digression, to surmises  touch-
 ing what might be achieved  by  appropriate research
 and  labour — but  nothing more.   The  language of
 Mons. Broussais, upon this point should not be lost :
 " Is it not," says he, " astonishing that Ave set so high
 a value upon comparative anatomy and physiology,
 and yet give no attention to the  comparison of our
 cerebral faculties Avith those of animals ?  Gall uttered
 the  same  complaint; and yet Mons. Vimont is still
 the only one who has undertaken  to  supply the defi-
 ciency : but it is necessary to pass life in the midst of
 fields and woods, to  pursue this study with success."
 Here, no doubt,  is suggested the  real difficulty :  and
 what  store of useful knowledge  might  some  of our
 American philosophick woodsmen, the immortal Audu-
 bon, and Catlin, for  instance, impart, upon  this sub-
ject, had they  but been attentive to  this species of ob-
servations,  during their long wanderings of years in
our prairies and  forests ? 
 
"9-   ^
Li ill. tf //„!/ »,U>-
"//"''■■ 
 
 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
105
    The labours of Drs. Gall and  Spurzheim, at Paris,
  while  they  contributed so  largely to the diffusion of
  phrenology  in Europe, Avere destined, farthermore, to
  establish the first healthy  and permanent growth of
  that science in this  country.   It  is to  Prof. Charles
  Caldavell, noAV of Louisville, Ky., that we are in-
  debted for the first definitive promulgation of  phreno-
 logy in the United States.    It is eighteen years since
 this event;   and during all  that period  Prof. Caldwell
 has not ceased to give the  science the  full benefit of
 his active and superiour abilities.   It has been the  sin-
 gularly happy fortune  of this indefatigable philosopher
 to  have effected more for the science, in this country,
 than it has fallen  to the lot of any  other  single indivi-
 dual to achieve.  Not, indeed,  that he  has toiled all
 this while, single-handed ; for he has not.  Others oc-
 casionally put forth  an effort for  phrenology,  even at
 an  early day, in different parts of the Union ;  but for
 a long  period the burden of sustaining the new philo-
 sophy,  in this hemisphere, rested principally upon him ;
 and against his reputation, as a man and a philosopher,
 Avere pointed the  countless  thousands of Avitless effu-
 sions Avith Avliich  the vain and frivolous  multitude of
 triflers, at one period, almost inundated  our   publick
press.
  It Avas  in  the summer of 1821  that Prof. CaldAveli 
106
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
attended the lectures of Dr. Spurzheim, at Paris.  He
candidly admits,  says Dr.  AndreAV Combe, that he al-
loAved himself to be persuaded to attend these, solely in
the expectation that  he would bring  away  with  him
more materials for ridicule.   But the result Avas Avidely
different from this  anticipation.   Of those lectures
Prof. Caldwell says :   " The clear and forcible expo-
sition Avhich Dr. Spurzheim made, connected with my
own observations and reflections, soon produced in my
mind  a thorough conviction of the truth as Avell as the
importance of the science,  connected with a  firm reso-
lution to vindicate that truth, and  to promote a  knoAV-
ledge of it, in my OAvn country, with all the  resources
I could bring to the task."
   So  little had phrenological investigations commanded
attention in some portions of the United States, previous-
ly to the arrival of Dr. Spurzheim in America, in 1832,
that numerous persons, deemed well informed, even noAV
constantly date the permanent introduction of phreno-
logy into this  country, from that period, and of  course
connect the event with the visit of Dr. Spurzheim to our
shores.  We  have  already stated that the science was
deeply  rooted in our soil, many years  prior  to this
period, through the  agency and care of Prof.  Caldwell;
and, as well to sustain and make good that assertion, as
to do justice to the labours of this indefatigable pioneer, 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.           107

we shall recount, somewhat in detail, and in  chronolo-
gical  order, the most prominent of his multitudinous
exertions.
.  After hearing the lectures of Dr. Spurzheim, in the
summer of 1821, as already related, Prof. Caldwell re-
turned home; and in the winter of 1821-2, he prepared
and delivered a brief course of lectures, upon the sci-
ence,  to his class in the Medical Department of Tran-
sylvania.   This was the first phrenological course ever
delivered  in America;  and  every  winter since  that
time the author has repeated that course, with such ex-
tension and improvement as unabating application, and
the advance of the science, have enabled him to  make.
  In the Spring of  1822 he  delivered a popular course
of phrenological lectures to the  citizens of Lexington,
Kentucky;
  In  1823, a like course to  the  citizens  of Louisville,
Ky.;
  In  1824, the same in Nashville, Tenn. ;
  In  1825, another to the citizens of Baltimore, which
led to the formation of a phrenological society in that
city;
  At  the  close of this course he,  by invitation,  deli-
vered  another in the city of Washington,  which re-
sulted in the formation of a phrenological society there;
  Before  this society, in 1826,  he, by invitation,  deli-
vered another course of lectures ; 
103          HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.

  In 1828  he extended his  labours  to New-England,
and delivered his first course there,  to a Boston audi-
ence, in that year ;
  In 1835  he delivered a  second course in Louisville,
Ky., and also in Nashville, Tenn. ;
  In 1836 he gave a course in Natchez, Miss.,  which
Avas  immediately  succeeded   by  another  at  New-
Orleans ;
  In  1S37 he Avas invited to Philadelphia, Avhere  he
delivered a course to a class of the Summer Institute ;
and
  In 183S  he delivered, by invitation of the Phrenolo-
gical Society of New-York, a course to the citizens of
that commercial metropolis.
  During  all  these  multiplied  oral  teachings  Prof.
Caldwell's  pen  was no  less  active than his tongue.
The following, so far as Ave have been enabled  to  as-
certain them, arc his publications upon the science.
  In 1824  he published, by invitation of his class, a
summary of his course of lectures previously delivered
to them.   This was reviewed in the Edinburgh Phre-
nological Journal, with marked approbation.
  In 1827  a second, and greatly enlarged  edition of
this was printed, to which Avas prefixed, in the form of
a preliminary  discourse, extending to some seventy
pages, a reply to Mr. Jeffrey's various slanderous  but
powerful attacks upon phrenology. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
109
   In 1826 he produced two papers upon the Phreno-
 logy of the  North American  Indians, compared Avith
 that  of the  Caucasians,  founded on an examination
 which  he instituted in  the  city of Washington, of
 parties of Creeks, Cherokees,  and Seminoles.  In the
 second  of these  papers our  author shoAved that, in
 phrenological development, the difference between the
 present race  of North American Indians and a prece-
 ding race,  whose  sculls are  found in  the ancient
 tumuli of the west, is very great.    From the size and
 warlike development of the heads of the present race,
 he  dreAv  the conclusion  that  they  had, at  a  distant
 period, taken possession  of the country, as invaders,
 and either exterminated their predecessors, or perhaps
 more probably driven  them  to the  south, where  they
 might have  settled  in Mexico ;  their  heads bearing
 some resemblance to the heads of the present Mexicans.
 These  two  papers,  as  there   was no  phrenological
 periodical in this country, at so early a day, were  pub-
lished in the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal.*
  * The following passage, from one of these letters, gives so
just a view of the radical difference between the Caucasian race
and  the American Indian, (whom  Prof. Caldwell supposes to
belong to the Mongolian division of the human family,) that we
give it our readers entire.   The facts it contains might be made
                        11 
110
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
   In 1829 he published a paper entitled "New Views
of  Penitentiary  Discipline and Moral Reform."   In
this, the subject was treated  phrenologically, and  the
entire paper Avas reprinted in Europe, with high enco-
miums, from the British and Scotch phrenologists.
   In 1831 he Avrote and published  an  essay on Tem-
perament,  considered  phrenologically.   This   paper
embraced the  substance of three  lectures  Avhich  the
in the highest degree useful, in modifying the character of our
Indian relations.
  " The average size of the head of the Indian is less than that
of the head of the white  man, by the proportion of from an
eighth to  a tenth, certainly from a tenth to a twelfth part of
its entire bulk.   The chief deficiency in the Indian head lies in
the superiour and lateral parts of the forehead, where are situ-
ated the organs  of Comparison, Causality, Wit,  Ideality, and
Benevolence.  The defect  in  Causality, Wit, and Ideality  is
most striking.  In the organs of Combativeness,  Destructive-
ness,  Secretiveness, Caution  and  Firmness,  the  functions of
which constitute the dominant elements of the Indian charac-
ter, the development is bold.   The proportion of brain behind
the ear is  considerably larger  in the Indian than  in the white
man.  The organ of Adhesiveness, in the former, is small.
  " This analysis, brief and imperfect as it is, unfolds to us
much of the philosophy of the Indian character, and enables
us, in a particular manner,  to understand the cause of the pecu-
liar inaptitude of that race of men for civil life.   For, when the
wolf, the buffalo  and the  panther  shall have  been completely
domesticated, like the dog, the cow,  and the household  cat,
then,  and not before,  may we expect to see the full-blooded
Indian civilized, like the white man.
  "Of the mixt breed,  which is very numerous,  the cerebral 
HISTORY" OF  PHRENOLOGY.
Ill
author had previously delivered;  and it was published
at the request of his class.
   In 1832 he produced an  essay for the Transylvania
Medical Journal, on "Mental Derangement," phreno-
logically considered ;  and another, entitled, "Thoughts
on true Epicurism."   This last Avas published in the
NeAv-England  Magazine, at Boston ; the subject being
treated upon the principles of phrenological  science.
In the  same  year he delivered, by appointment of the
city  of Lexington, Ky., an  address on  the centennial
 development and the general  character approach those of the
 white man in proportion to the degree of white blood which in-
 dividuals possess.   On account of the marked superiority of his
 intellect, a half-breed seldom fails to become a chief.
   " Of the full-blooded Indians generally, permit me to remark,
 that such is their entire unfitness for civilization, that every suc-
 cessive effort to mould them to that condition of  life, more and
 more deteriorates their  character.  Of the mixt-Kloo&s this is
 not true.  Hence the only  efficient scheme to civilize the Indi-
 ans, is to cross the breed.  Attempt any other and you will ex-
 tinguish the race.  To the truth of this the experience of every
 day  bears ample testimony.   The real aboriginal Indian is re-
 treating before civilization, and disappearing with the buffalo
 and the elk, the panther and the grisly bear.  Let the benevo-
 lent and enthusiastick missionary say what he may, the forest
 is the  native home of the Indian.  Remove him from it, and,
 like the imprisoned elephant, he loses the strength and loftiness
of his character.  He becomes a hot-house plant, and dwindles
in all his native efficiences.  This problem  (for  so by many it
is considered,) is solved only,  but can be solved easily, by the
lights of phrenology." 
112
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
anniversary of the birth  day of Washington.   In this
address, though not of a character to be  strictly phre-
nological, the author introduced that science as one of
the great discoveries of  the  age,  and very  happily
pointed to its important  bearings and influences.  Du-
ring the same year, and at the same place,  he deli-
vered, also by appointment, an address upon " Intem-
perance," in Avhich he gave a  vieAv of the phrenology
of  that vice.  This production was favourably noticed
by  the late Dr. McNish, of GlasgOAv, in his "Anatomy
of Drunkenness."
  In 1833 he wrote two essays ; one on "Moral  Medi-
cine," the other upon " The true mode of  improving
the condition of Man."   Both these subjects  Ave re
treated phrenologically.   In another essay, written du-
ring the same year, and published in the NeAv-England
Magazine, upon the  " Study of the Greek  and  Latin
Languages," our author gave a phrenological  analysis
of mental cultivation.   During  the same year, in a re-
vieAv of  " the Principles  of Medicine," by  Professor
Jackson, of Philadelphia, and  published in  the Tran-
sylvania Journal, he  retaliated somewhat severely
upon the author for a Avanton and feeble  attack  which
he made upon phrenology.
  In 1834  he published  an address  delivered, by re-
quest, to the Education Convention, held at Lexington,
Ky., in November, 1833,  on the  subject of Physical 
             HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          113

Education.   The subject was treated  phrenologically,
Avith an ability which has already commanded exten-
sive attention, and resulted in much usefulness. During
the same year our author wrote and published two arti-
cles entitled " Phrenology Vindicated" ;  one of them in
the first volume of "the Annals of Phrenology," (a pe-
riodical issued at Boston, Mass.,) in reply to an abusive
attack made upon the science in  the North American
Review, which  reply was written  at the request of  the
phrenologists of Boston; the other published in  the
New-England Magazine, in reply  to an anti-phrenologi-
cal article in the same Avork.   In November of the same
year, he delivered, by appointment, at Lexington, Ky.,
an " Address upon Gambling," in which he  gave  the
phrenology of that vice.
   In 1835  he published, in  the second  volume of  the
"Annals  of Phrenology,"  an   article,  also entitled
" Phrenology Vindicated," in reply to an attack made
on the science,  by Lord Brougham.   In the  same year,
and still under  the same title, he wrote and  published a
reply to a very virulent attack upon  phrenology in the
"Boston  Christian  Examiner."   Within that  year,
also,  he delivered by appointment,  and subsequently
published,  tAvo  addresses, both of a phrenological cha-
racter;  one at Nashville,  Tenn., on  "the Spirit of
Improvement;"  the other at Lexington, Ky., being a
second  Address upon Gambling.
                         11* 
114
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
  In 1836 he  delivered,  by request, in Bloomington,
Indiana, and Avhich he subsequently published, an aca-
demical address "on Popular and Liberal Education,"
in which the subject was phrenologically treated.
  In 1838 he published, in New-York,  a small volume
containing two essays; one entitled " Phrenology Vin-
dicated,  and Anti-phrenology  Unmasked,"  being a
reply to certain productions of Drs. Sewall and Reese ;
the other "the Phrenology of Falsehood  and its kin-
dred Vices."  During the  same year  he delivered, at
Jeffersontown,  Ky., by  invitation,  an address  upon
" Education,"  in which the  subject was treated  phre-
nologically.
  In the early part of the present year,  (1839,)  our
author published,  in pamphlet form, a letter to the edi-
tor of the American Phrenological  Journal,  Philadel-
phia, in which he has  given  a  view of the  true con-
nexion between phrenology and religion.   Of this last,
some farther account will be found in  our subsequent
pages.
  It  will readily  be seen that one  who could devote
himself to such a zealous and protracted course of pub-
lick exertion, for  the  advancement of  a given branch
of knoAvledge, would  not-be wanting  in  stimulus to
private effort, to the same end.   The detail  of labour
of this kind, performed by Prof. Caldwell, during  the
last eighteen years, it is, of course, impossible for us 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
115
to give:   we only knoAV that during that time he has
written hundreds of letters  in illustration and defence
of the science, and conversed, during his various jour-
neyings, Avith thousands of men  of distinction from dif-
ferent parts of the country, upon the truths of phreno-
logy, and their  importance to  mankind.  His  chief
efforts have  been  for the  diffusion  of the science
through  the western and  southern  states,  where the
fundamental principles of phrenology are, at this day,
and mainly through his means,  much more generally
understood than in any other part of our Union.  The
tAvo principal  points of his personal labours have been,
first, in  the  Medical  Department  of  Transylvania
University ; and now, (1839,) in the Medical Institute
of Louisville, Ky.   From   these two points, through
the  ability and perseverance of Prof. Caldwell, has
radiated,  in all probability,  a greater amount of phre-
nological  knowledge  than  from  any  other  score of
points in the United  States.   But few of the foregoing
publications were printed for sale; the great body of
them having been, through  the  liberality of their au-
thor, distributed gratuitously, in  the valley of  the Mis-
sissippi, for the benefit and diffusion  of the science of
which they treat.
  The names of Dr. John  Bell  and  Dr.  Benjamin R.
Coates also belong to the early  history of phrenology
in this country.   These gentlemen Avere of the  small 
116
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
number who, tAvelve years since,  Avere found openly
teaching phrenology in America,  and  breasting  the
flood-tide of scoffing, denunciation and  invective  Avith
Avhich both the science  and its abettors Avere then every
where assailed.
  The brief career of Dr. Spurzheim, in America, has
already been recorded : but that career though brief,
was brilliant.  The honours paid him while living, and
to his memory when dead, Avill bear Avitness to future
ages of the esteem in which his doctrines and his  cha-
racter Avere held.   His  short presence in Boston roused
a spirit of  phrenological  inquiry in that city and  vici-
nity, the effects of which will be long felt.  Among
the  important consequences here  adverted  to, that of
calling forth American editions of European phrenolo-
gical books, may be considered as not the least impor-
tant.  Prior to this, the scarcity and great cost of such
books had kept American  phrenologists almost wholly
ignorant of them;  as they were possessed only by the
few who commanded the means and enjoyed the facili-
ties of importing them  for themselves.   The works of
Gall,  Spurzheim,  the Messrs.  Combe, George   and
Andrew,  (the latter on  Mental Derangement,)  &c,
have thus been brought within  the reach of purchasers
in this country, the Boston press having supplied the
demand in good editions of these publications.   We
must except,  of course, from  this list, the great work 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
117
of Gall and Spurzheim,  namely, " Anatomie et Phy-
siologic du  Systeme nerveux en general, et du Cerveau
en particulier," which has not thus reached American
readers, and is generally unknown, except by name,
in this country.   The " Treatise  upon  Human and
Comparative  Phrenology," by Dr. Vimont, to which
we have frequently referred, is  also greatly wanted.
The Paris  edition, we are  informed by Mr. Combe, is
exhausted, and the only French copy noAV to be had is
the pirated edition of Brussels, with plates of inferiour
execution :  and we believe a translation of the text,
though so   badly done  as scarcely to  deserve  that
name, has  appeared  in  English.   A  good transla-
tion  of Prof.  Broussais'  " Cours de Phrenologie" is
also loudly called for.*
  The  voluminous  writings of  Prof.  Caldwell  we
have already cited.  These, Avith  one exception,  are
so many applications, and not text books of the science.
In this latter department,  however, we are not Avithout
other American  authors.   "Practical  Phrenology,"
  * Since our remarks on page 96 were in print, we have been
informed, by Loking D. Chapin, Esq., of New-York, that a full
translation of these lectures was published  in  the London
Lancet, in 1837.  We have not seen the Lancet; but if this
translation is what it should be, we hope the American press
will speedily furnish an edition of the work. 
118
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
by Mr. Silas Jones, Avas published at Boston, in 1836.
Mr. Jones says he adopts the division of the Faculties
made by Mr. Combe, and the numbering of the Organs
of Dr. Spurzheim.  The work, as its title imports, is
designed for  practical  use;  and in his  preface  the
author rejects  all  claims to originality.
   "Phrenology proved, illustrated and applied," by
Messrs.  O. S. and L. N. Fowler, and Samuel Kirkham,
Avas issued at  New-York, in 1837.  In this work  the
classification is slightly changed from previous phreno-
logists ;  and Inhabitiveness and Concentrativeness are
recognised  as  separate  and distinct  organs — as was
previously done by Mons. Vimont.*   In their preface
the authors thus characterize their Avork:
   " This volume  is not designed to  supersede the in-
Araluable writings  of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, and of
Mr. Combe, nor does it  profess to be wholly original;
but it does lay claim to  many important improvements
in the science  of phrenology.   These consist mainly in
presenting many  new, and  (as the authors conceive,)
useful views  upon  the subject;   in bringing  fonvard
many new facts and the result of many  observations
and successful experiments, Avhich serve as new proofs
of the truth of the science and illustrations of its prin-
* Vide note,  pages 92 and 93. 
 
-W-'ue< *^--C-e',
'/   y/t~ ( -i- > "i- <- /•
I. ,//,. cf l/i,» KMannry . Ruff alp 
 
 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
119
ciples and utility ; in supplying many gross deficiences
of the other writers  upon the subject;   and, above all,
in presenting  the subject in a far more practical form
than it has been heretofore given."
   Prior, in point of time, yet differing, essentially, in
character and object, was issued, at Albany, a volume
of lectures upon  phrenology, by Amos Dean, Esq., a
well known and  distinguished member of the bar of
that city.
   In the early part of the present year, (1839,) "A
NeAv  System  of  Phrenology," by J. Stanley Grimes,
was issued at  Buffalo.   Of his Avork the author holds
the following language :  "The principal object of this
volume  is, to lay before the publick the results of seve-
ral years' phrenological study and observation.  When
I commenced  teaching  phrenology, I  followed in the
footsteps of Gall and Spurzheim.   My only object Avas
to  disseminate,  among  my fellow countrymen, the
sublime truths which were discovered by these  illustri-
ous men.   I adopted their doctrines,  and  imitated, as
Avell as  I could,  their manner of teaching and illustra-
ting them.   I  also adopted their favourite maxim, that
we should study things rather than Avords.   I deter-
mined   to admit  nothing  Avhich Avas  not  based  upon
facts,  and capable of being philosophically demonstra-
ted.  It was by observation that I first  satisfied myself 
120
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
of the truth of the essential facts upon Avhich  the  sys-
tem of Spurzheim Avas based;  and by  continuing  to
pursue this same course I  have been enabled, as 1 be-
lieve, to remodel  and improve that system.   Admo-
nished by the history of the past, it is without any  feel-
ing of presumption that I present to the  notice of the
scientifick  publick my New System of Phrenology ;
conscious that  it must  contain many  errours  Avhich
future experience and just  criticism cannot fail  to
detect."
   The changes and additions in this work are so consi-
derable as legitimately to constitute them portions of the
history of  phrenology.   That  the science is yet in its
infancy,  and open to vast extension and  improvement,
Ave have  the concurrent testimony of every writer  who
has studied and understood the  subject.   How far each
or any attempt at  either the one or the other  shall,  at
its promulgation, be deemed to have been successful, is
not for us to decide :  the province of the historian is
confined  to faithful and unprejudiced narration.
   The classification of the phrenological organs,  in
this Avork,  is claimed by the author as  entirely neAv,
both in its detail, and in the principles upon which it is
founded.   He says :  "I find the cerebral organs of all
animals evidently divided into three classes ;  each  of
Avhich, commencing at the base of the brain Avith a sin- 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
121
gle organ, expands and proceeds upwards,  receiving
new additions  as  the  animal rises  in the scale  of
beings."  The author's classification follows :
                    CLASS I.
    lpseal,  o r Self-Relative propensities.
                   CLASS  II.
   Social, or Society-Relative  propensities.
                   CLASS  III.
 Intellectual, or Knowledge-Relative  faculties.
   Each of these classes may be sub-divided into ranges
or groups, to correspond  with the progressive stages
of animal character, from the lowest species of zoo-
phites, that seem  to claim kindred Avith the vegetable,
up to man.
            class i.—IPSEALS.
                   1st  RANGE.
    1,  Alimentiveness,      2,  Destructiveness,
                3,  Combativeness.
                   2d RANGE.
    4,  Secretiveness,           5,  Cautiousness.
                   3d  RANGE.
    6,  Constructiveness,      7, Acquisitiveness.
                   4til  R A N G E.
    8,  Playfulness,           9, Perfectiveness,
                 10, Hopefulness.
                         12 
122
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
       CLASS II.—S O C I A LS.
        ESTABLISHING GROUP.
 1,  Amativeness,         3, Inhabitiveness,
 2,  Parentiveness,        4, Adhesiveness.
          GOVERNING  GROUP.
 5,  Imperativeness,       7, Firmness,
 6,  Approbativeness,      8, Conscientiousness.

         CONFORMING GROUP.
 9,  Submissiveness,       11, Imitativeness,
10,  Kindness,             12, Credenciveness.

 class  in. —INTELLECTUAL.
            LOAVER  RANGE.
  1, Individuality,             6, Weight,
  2, Chymicality,              7, Colour,
  3, Language,                8, Order,
  4, Form,                    9, Number.
  5, Size,
            MIDDLE  RANGE.
 10, Direction,                  12, Time,
 11, Eventuality,               13, Tune.

            UPPER  RANGE.
 14, Comparison,            15, Causality. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
123
   "This division into three classes, Ipseal, Social and
Intellectual, is founded," says the author, "upon Ana-
tomical considerations, and  on the Natural History of
Animals.   The  spinal  cord,"  he  continues, "is in
three columns, anteriour, middle and posteriour;  and
Mr.  Charles Bell has demonstrated that all the nerves
which proeeed from one column  are  destined to per-
form one class of functions.  The nerves from the an-
teriour column are  for volition ; those from the middle
for respiration and  nutrition ;  and those from the pos-
teriour for sensation.
   " The three powers,  namely, Alimentiveness,  Ama-
tiveness and Individuality, which constitute the founda-
tion  of the three classes, are manifested by all animals.
These organs are found at the very base of the brain:
Amativeness at the  lower posteriour, Alimentiveness at
the JoAver middle, and Individuality in  the centre of the
loAvest front of the  brain.
   "The  powers of the mind  are divided into  two
grand orders,  namely, Propensities, or blind impulses,
Avhich are the causes of all  actions;  and  Intellectual
Faculties,  that acquire  knowledge,  and point out the
means by Avhich the propensities may  be gratified.   If
avc had no propensities we should do  nothing;  if we
had no intellectual faculties Ave should  know nothing."
   This  classification, it will be  readily  seen, by all
who  are familiar Avith  the subject,  is Avholly variant 
124
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
from any and all that had gone before;  and the author
details his views of its accuracy, in conformity with
nature,  and its  great  usefulness in studying the sci-
ence, with ability and minuteness.   By  reference to
the classifications of Spurzheim and Combe, in the pre-
vious pages, it will be  seen that our author has materi-
ally varied  the nomenclature;  and for this  he has
given his reasons  ;  commenting, in detail, upon each
change  introduced, and exhibiting  the  motives which
have conduced to  its adoption.  Of  the ranges in this
classification, our  author continues :
   " A knowledge  of the natural history of animals, in
the present  improved  state to which the  great Cuvier
has brought it,  would be highly useful to phrenological
students, and enable them better to appreciate  this ar-
rangement of the  Ipseals ;  but it is sufficient  for our
present purpose to state that the  more perfect animals
may be divided into the Carniverous, Herbiverous and
Rodentia, on account of the different modes in which
they obtain  their food; and that the first, second and
third  ranges  of Ipseals exactly  correspond with this
division of animals.  The carniverous animals are dis-
tinguished  for  the  manifestation of  the first  range,
which may therefore be denominated the carniverous
range ;   the herbiverous animals, for the manifestation
of the second,  Avhich  may  be called the herbiverous
range;  and  the rodentia for the third,  which may be 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
125
  named  the rodentia range.  The fourth  is peculiar  to
  man, and may therefore be denominated the human
  range."
    The imperfect state of phrenology has been already
  mentioned.   Broussais thus remarks upon it :  " Ob-
  servation, in phrenology, is full of interest ;   and it  is
  this which causes me to hope that the voids of this sci-
 ence Avill be made to disappear.   Every science,  in its
 infancy, offers many of these ; but, far from being dis-
 couraged, those Avho  cultivate it, from  choice, should
 redouble their efforts to overcome  them."  Upon the
 same  subject Dr. Spurzheim says:   "Let every one
 earn the  merit  he deserves.  Also, those who add to
 our discoveries, have a just claim to  every idea of im-
 provement, and I shall always be  disposed to  acknow-
 ledge it Avith a feeling of gratitude."   It has long  been
 the  current opinion of phrenologists that there are
 organs still undiscovered, in the brain;   and  also that
 there are probably some there  so situated that   they
 never can  be known ;  while, as we  have seen, some
 have been suggested which are now regularly noted in
 phrenological treatises, but not treated as established.
 Mr. Grimes, in  connexion Avith the multitude  of  new
 vieAvs with which he has clothed the various established
 portions of the science,  has introduced and described
two new organs  Avhich he believes he has discovered,
by observation ;   and a third,  the  existence of Avhich
                        io #
                        1 .w 
126
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
had previously been suggested, he has adopted, though
with entirely different and original views of its charac-
ter and functions — the original  location, only, being
retained.  These  organs he  has named  as  follows :
Pneumativeness,  Chymicality,  and  Sanitativeness.
The first of these,  says the author, "bears precisely the
same relation to the lungs that Alimentiveness does to
the stomach.  When the lungs  are not supplied  with
air, a disagreeable feeling of suffocation is experienced,
analogous to the feeling  of hunger when Alimentive-
ness  is not  gratified."   The  second  is defined "the
perception of those chymical qualities of bodies which
affect the senses of taste and smell.   If we admit that
the  senses do not  perceive,  but only convey  impres-
sions, we shall be obliged  to acknowledge  that  this
faculty depends upon an organ of the brain."  After
detailing his experience,  in regard  to  this organ, the
author adds:   "These  observations  naturally  sug-
gested  the  idea that the propensity  to acquire  food,
and the perceptive faculty  which ascertains  the  qua-
lity of food, depend on  two  separate  organs."  The
third "is the propensity to  preserve the bodily consti-
tution from  injury.   When  disagreeably affected,  it
produces the feeling of bodily pain ; and when agree-
ably  affected,  it  communicates a  feeling of bodily
ease."  We have said, of this organ, that its existence
had previously  been suggested, though it was defined 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.           127

 with functions  radically different.    Spurzheim  thus
 speaks of an "organ of the desire  to live."   "It  is
 highly  probable," says he,  " that there  is a  peculiar
 instinct to live, or love of life, and I look for its organ
 at  the  basis of the brain,  between  the  posterior  and
 middle lobes, inwardly of combativeness." Mr. George
 Combe speaks  of this as the " organ of the love of
 life;"  and adds  that  he  deems  it "highly probable
 there are a special faculty and  organ for the  Love of
 Life."   Dr. Andrew Combe, also, in a  paper in  the
 Phrenological Journal  of Edinburgh, (Vol.  3, 1826,)
 states the fact  of a dissection in Avhich he  found  the
 convolution of the brain in  question truly enormous;
 and that a constant dread of death was well known to
 have constituted a very prominent feature in the cha-
 racter of  the person to whom this brain had pertained.
 Broussais, in treating of this organ, quotes Dr. Vimont,
 at length.   The views of this author,  Avho was  also  the
 original suggester of  the organ's existence, we have
 already detailed, at pages 100 and 101 of this work.
 Mons. Dumoustier, also, as quoted by Mons. Broussais,
 has made  remarkably extensive  observations upon this
 subject; and he deemed it well  settled,  by facts, that
 the organ, in general, is but  feebly developed in  sui-
 cides, Avhile it is very large  in  those Avho think only,
as it were, of preservation — such as are profoundly
egotistical, and  are  constantly  occupied  with them- 
123
HISTORY OP  PHRENOLOGY.
 selves ;  Avhose perpetual  refret is, live! help !  pro-
 tect me!  Hypochondriacks  generally  belong to  this
 class of persons.
   The suggestion, then, and pointing attention to  this
 organ,  are  by no means neAv ;  but Mr. Grimes sup-
 poses the definition  of its  functions, by his predeces-
 sors,  to  be faulty  and  erroneous.   He  says:  "The
 lower animals do not protect their bodies from injury
 because  they understand the importance of health  and
 vigour ;   they do not,  by reasoning, infer that Avounds
 Avill endanger life, or  disqualify  them for the enjoy-
 ment of happiness, any more than  they do that absti-
 nence from food, or air,  will be fatal ;  but  they are
 endoAved  with  this propensity,  which impels them to
 avoid bodily injury."  Of the organ of the love of life,
 or rather of its assumed functions, he  says :  " It  is a
 propensity conjectured by some phrenologians to exist.
 I must confess that I can see no  good reason for ad-
 mitting such a distinct poAver.  I consider  the love of
 life to be the result of  hope and reflection ;  and this is
 confirmed by the fact that suicides generally have small
 Hopefulness.   Perhaps Sanitativeness, by giving a de-
 sire to  preserve  health and soundness  of body,  and
 aversion to personal  injury,  sometimes produces effects
in animals  that are mistaken for a love of life ;  but
Sanitativeness is manifested poAverfully by animals so
Ioav in the scale that  they cannot be  supposed to know 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.          129
 that they enjoy life.   There are doubtless organs un-
 discovered, particularly at the base of the brain, which
 relate to the corporeal  necessities ; but I  shall treat
 only of  what is  believed to be discovered,  and leave
 the great field of  conjecture to those  Avho  are better
 qualified to cultivate it."
   Our author  dwells upon the importance of employ-
 ing difFerent terms to  designate propensities, feelings
 and actions;   and this leads to a  reformation  of the
 names of some of the organs.   " Reverence," for in-
 stance, is a feeling, and is the effect of a propensity
 to submit.   So, also, is  " Veneration" ; but worship
 and submission are actions which  follow the feelings.
 We should  therefore have one name for the propen-
 sity, another for  the feeling, and a third for the result-
 ing actions ;  and this rule he  applies alike to each of
 the  propensities.   He denies  the  distinction between
 propensities  and  sentiments ;  and considers all  the
 moral powers  as  purely  propensities as the  animal
 poAvers.
  Original and peculiar views of our author will also be
 found  in his definitions and explanations of  the organs
 of Language,  Direction, Playfulness, Perfectiveness,
 Hopefulness,  Firmness,  Submissiveness,  Kindness,
 and Credenciveness ;  as  well as in  his  reasons for be-
lieving that  the  cerebral organs  increase  more, by
iwercise, than  any other organs of the system.   The 
130          HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
same is true, also, of his remarks upon the importance,
to health, of  the Corporeal Range ;  and in those, still
more  extended,  upon the resemblance  of children to
either  parent, and the  possibility of determining,  in
strongly marked cases, and without seeing the parents,
to which of them the  child's  head bears the strongest
resemblance.   The possibility of  doing this is  based
upon certain  generally uniform  differences in the size
of particular cerebral organs, in the  different sexes.
   The  subject of Temperaments, .also, has received
detailed  and  peculiar attention,  at  the hands of Mr.
Grimes;  and in his chapter upon  " Phreno-physio-
logy," under which head he  "includes  all the appear-
ances of the  body and face which indicate character,
by reason of their harmony with the  Phrenological
Organs," much that is new and  striking will be found.
   From what has been shown it  will be readily seen
that the extension and advancement of  the science at-
tempted by Mr  Grimes is neither trifling in amount,
nor immaterial in  its  consequences ;  and that,  Avhat-
ever may be the decision of future experience thereon,
it necessarily constitutes a  portion  of  the history of
phrenology.
   The work, upon its appearance, very naturally pro-
duced some interest among phrenologists,  and they re-
ceived it,  in the  first  instance, without either condem-
nation or approval;  but with the intention, in this, as 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
131
 in all previous cases of  advancement, to test its  accu-
 racy by careful observation.   In order that this  might
 be the more  speedily  and extensively accomplished,
 and  that both  hemispheres  might  be  simultaneously
 engaged  therein,  the  Executive   Committee of  the
 " Western  Phrenological Society, at Buffalo,"  at  the
 meeting of that  body, on  the 2d of March,  1839,
 adopted the following Preamble and  Resolution :
   " Whereas, an  entirely new system of classification
 of the phrenological  organs, and  several other im-
 portant improvements, should future observations con-
 firm  their  correctness, have  been made by J. Stanley
 Grimes, in  his 'New System of  Phrenology';  and
 whereas, it  is important to the interests and diffusion
 of  Phrenological Science that observations, upon  these
 points, be multiplied as rapidly and as extensively as
 possible, therefore
   " Resolved,  That  the  Corresponding  Secretary
 transmit, at his earliest convenience, and in the name
 of this Society, a copy  of  < Grimes' New System of
 Phrenology,'  together with a copy  of  this preamble
 and resolution, to each of the Phrenological Societies
 of Edinburgh, London, and Paris."
   We have  previously  adverted  to  the presence and
labours of Mr. George  Combe,  in  this country.   He
has completed  two  courses of lectures  in New-York,
tAvo in Philadelphia, one in Boston,  one in Hartford ; 
132          HISTORY* OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 and  we  learn  that  he contemplates  still  others  at
 Boston,  Albany, &c.  The lectures of  one of these
 courses, namely, the last one in New-York, Avere re-
 ported, in full, by Andrew Boardman, Esq., Recording
 Secretary of the New-York  Phrenological  Society.
 These lectures Mr. Boardman has given to the publick
 in a volume ;  having first obtained the sanction of their
 author to the  general correctness of his text.  They
 are very fully illustrated with wood cuts;  and he has
 prefixed to them a sketch of the rise and progress of
 phrenology.
   Occasional articles of  a phrenological  character,
 have appeared,  from time to time, in various American
 periodicals, from the day  phrenology was introduced
 into this country, to the present time;  and as early
 as  1833,  the  experiment  was  tried of establishing
 a purely phrenological periodical in the United States.
 In October, of that year, the "Annals of Phrenology"
 was  commenced at  Boston, Mass.  The Avork  was
 issued quarterly,  and  was  conducted  with  ability ;
 some of the first phrenologists of this continent having
 been among its contributors.  The publick mind, how-
 ever, in this country, was not at that time sufficiently
 aAvakened to the subject  to  obtain for the Avork much
circulation, beyond the ranks of professed  phrenolo-
gists ;  and it was discontinued,  we believe, at or about
the close of the second year, for Avant of support. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.          133
  In September, 1838, appeared the first  number  of
" The American Phrenological  Journal and Miscel-
lany," a monthly  publication, issued at  Philadelphia.
A circumstance coupled Avith the conception and first
issue of this work,  from its consequences, requires to
be noted.   The prospectus of the Avork  contained the
following paragraph :
  " The religious character of the  Avork will be deci-
dedly evangelical ;  for one prominent object in giving
it existence is, to wrest phrenology out of the hands of
those Avho, in ignorance of its true nature and tenden-
cies,  suppose that they find  in it  an  instrument  by
which to subvert  the truths of  revealed religion, and
loosen the bonds of human  accountability,  and  moral
obligation."
  The  insanity  of assuming  that phrenology  Avas in
the hands of those  Avho Avere ignorant of it, though it
argued little for the clearness or depth of the mind that
conceived it, was passed over Avithout comment;  but
not so the remainder of  the paragraph.   The charge
that  those in Avhose  hands  phrenology  was, were
wicked  or  unworthy persons,  was  not calculated to
gratify  the great  body of American  phrenologists ;
nor did those who had been longest in the field, fight-
ing the  battles of the science,  and defending its truths
against  the mingled assaults of all its foes,  deem them-
selves deserving such distinction, from  one  Avho Avas,
                       13 
134
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
as it were, but just enrolled in the phrenological ranks.
That veteran in  phrenology,  Prof.  Caldwell,  with
whose valuable phrenological labours Ave have already
made our readers acquainted,  in  the  prefatory note
to his "Letter to the Editor" — published in pamphlet,
at Louisville, Ky., the present year — thus comments
upon the passage in question :
   " The notion avowed in this paragraph appeared to
me objectionable on a two-fold ground.  In  the first
place, though phrenology, by demonstrating man to be
constitutionally a religious being, favours the principle
of catholick  or universal religion, it does not  counte-
nance any one specifick form of  religion,  as such,
more than another, except so far as one form is  truer
and sounder than another.   There  is nothing in it,
therefore, that can be correctly pronounced  'decidedly
evangelical,'  in the legitimate meaning of that expres-
sion.   On finding the  expression, therefore, in the
Prospectus of the Journal, a suspicion took  possession
of me, that it was employed as a lure,  to collect sub-
scribers  and  conciliate  patrons to  the work by words
and sounds, instead of facts  and matter;  and, worse
still, by covert artifice, instead of open honesty.   Re-
garding  such a  measure, in behalf of phrenology, to
be intellectually  unnecessary, and morally unsound, I
declared my  disapproval of  it, and added, that, unless
some alteration  in   the  matter  were  made,  or a 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
135
satisfactory explanation given, I must not be expected
to be friendly to the Journal.   Nor was this  the only
ground of my objection.
  "A menace was uttered against  those who had pre-
viously been the advocates and propagators of phreno-
logy in the United States, and  a proclamation  issued,
as if from the judgement seat,  that the science was to
be  henceforth  ' wrested  from  their hands,' because
they had attempted to make it an 'instrument by Avhich
to subvert the  truths of  revealed  religion, and loosen
the bonds of human  accountability and moral obliga-
tion.'
  " Now, as none of these phrenological assailants of
morality and religion were here designated by name ;
and as I most assuredly knew  of no such unprincipled
and reckless offenders as were here  thundered  at  and
threatened — as this was the case, I supposed, and had
a right to suppose, that the denunciation was wholesale,
and that all American phrenologists  Avere to  be ousted
by  the  lump,  to  make  room  for  some  new-fangled
'evangelical' sect, Avho were hungering and thirsting
for  the ' spoils of victory'  which had been won  by
their predecessors.  I considered myself,  therefore, as
one of the party  about  to be  ejected.   And had the
ejectment been attempted on intellectual ground, with-
out  any  slanderous  imputation  on morals, the design
against  the corps to Avhich I  belonged  Avould have 
136
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
given  me  no concern.   With Avhatevcr  resolution  I
might have endeavoured  to  retain my own place, and
to aid my associates in the retention of  theirs, the loss
of position  would have neither discouraged nor offended
me.   Considering  it but  an event  in  the fortune of
war, I Avould have taken measures for its recovery, or
remained patient under the loss.  But to be proclaimed
a foe to morality and religion,  and therefore to all the
benefits and blessings of social order, and  thus to  lose
at once both place and character, amounted to an evil
not  to  be  altogether contentedly borne.   Hence  I
calmly but firmly remonstrated  with some of those  con-
cerned in the publication of the Journal,  and cherished
a hope that the  exceptionable clause in the prospectus
Avould be changed.
   " But when the first number of the Avork  appeared,
I found the evil,  as  respected myself, very materially
aggravated.  Not only was the objectionable passage
in the prospectus retained ;  in the  'Introductory State-
ment' to  the number, I was personally, in no very  deli-
cate  or equivocal terms, alluded to, as being unfriendly
to the Journal, and  even threatening war against it, on
account of the  religious  character it was  to bear.  In
simpler terms, I Avas virtually represented as an enemy
to religion.
  "Being  in Philadelphia not long after  the appear-
ance of this assault on my character,  1 had an interview 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
137
 Avith the  editor of  the Journal, conversed with him
 calmly, and I trust courteously and reasonably, respect-
 ing the matters in controversy between us, and did not
 find, from  anything expressed by  him,  that our opi-
 nions in  relation  to  them were essentially different.
 That all  mistakes on  the subject might be in future
 avoided, I furnished him with a note,  containing my
 views,  explicitly slated,  respecting the connexion  of
 phrenology and religion, and requested its publication-
 My request was complied with ;  and in number  three
 of the  Journal  my  note made its  appearance.   And
 had it appeared either without comments, or with well-
 founded and fair ones, there, as far as  I was concern-
 ed, the  matter should have ended.
   " Such, however, was not the case.   The paper was
 accompanied by editorial notes and remarks as ground-
 less in themselves, as they were unfavourable to me.
 Added  to other  exceptionable  points  in  them,  an
 attempt Avas made, by  their author, to show, without a
 shadow of foundation, that, as respects  the relation of
 phrenology  to the christian religion, there exists be-
 tween the  sentiments of Dr. Spurzheim and Mr. Combe,
 and myself, an essential difference.   And that the pro-
 ductions of those  writers testify to a  more  radical,
close, harmonious,  and friendly connexion  betAveen
phrenology and Christianity than mine do.
  " To those indiscreet remarks  from  the pen of the
                        13 * 
138
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
editor, the following letter is a plain reply.   And as 1
feel no apprehension  of being  in any way injured by
the remarks, the reply is  intended much more for the
benefit of their author than of myself.   It is designed
as a warning  to him, by which he  may  profit, if he
be as judicious as I trust he is.   He  is a young man, a
young writer, a young  phrenologist, and a young  edi-
tor.   Let him be modest, therefore, as well as cautious
of handling edge-tools, until he shall have learned to use
them Avith  dexterity, and to  guard against the  injury
and hazard of their misuse.   Failing in this, he will be
much more likely  to do mischief to his own person, by
their recoil on himself, or by their being turned against
him by a practiced hand, than  to injure  those  against
whom he may unskillfully employ them.
   " Without  the  slightest feeling of personal unkind-
ness  towards  the editor, and with every  disposition to
contribute,  as far as practicable, to  the  patronage of
his Journal, which I believe will minister very profit-
ably  to the cause of truth, I tell  him plainly  that he
has done me wrong—unbecoming as well as flagrant
wrong.  However inefficient and unequal to my wishes
my services may have  been  to  phrenology,  they have
been faithful and fearless, long continued and unflag-
ging.  For the last eighteen years, in  sickness or in
health, in  good  report  or bad, my zeal on the subject
has never  abated, nor have my exertions in  some way 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
139
known a day of idleness.  Within that  period I have
written and published not a little, conversed much, and
delivered I think forty courses  of lectures,  (perhaps
more,) to many thousands of listeners.  In relation to
place,  those  courses  have  extended  from Boston  to
New-Orleans, and been held in most of the  large and
several  of the smaller intermediate cities and  towns.
During these toilsome journeys and performances, (for
they were toilsome,) I have  laboured for the science
many more weeks than the editor has days — probably
even  more days than he  has hours.  And throughout
this  arduous and  protracted series of  action, I have
never failed to maintain, often with great  earnestness,
the fundamental and immutable friendliness of phreno-
logy to religion and morality, human  aggrandizement,
and human happiness.   These things moreover, were
done, Avhen the publick was  actively and bitterly hostile
to phrenology, and when the American press and the
American pulpit  Avere uttering, alternately,  thunders
and scoffs against the science, and often invectives and
abuse against myself.
   "And, as far  as the editor is concerned, what, for
this toil and  trouble, in behalf of the science, under
whose triumphant banner he has  lately enrolled him-
self— what, I say, have been the approbation and re-
Avard I have received ?  The  answer is plain;  and 
140
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
Avhether creditable or  the  reverse to the  editor, let
others decide."
   All  this,  so  pointedly  true,  in  the case of  Prof.
Caldwell, Avas no less applicable, in a greater or less
degree, to every other phrenologist in America, in pro-
portion as his labours had been more or less protracted
and efficient.  Many, therefore, beside Prof. Caldwell,
felt most deeply  the injustice thus inflicted ; but, al-
though some complaints Avere uttered by them,  there
would seem to have been  a species  of implied admis-
sion,  on their  part, that  to the veteran pen of  Prof.
Caldwell should be assigned the task  of  a formal de-
fence.   The confidence thus manifested in this philo-
sopher, while it is justified by all that is known of him
here at home, is fully sustained by the  remark of a dis-
tinguished  European  phrenologist,  made to us but a
few months since, namely, that he had been in frequent
correspondence with Prof. CaldAvell, for fourteen years,
and had never yet detected his vigorous pen in a false
position.
   It is now  more than twelve months since the Journal
in question,  was commenced:  it is still continued, and
better counsels seem recently to have  prevailed  in its
conduct and management.   In the prospectus for the
second volume  the censurable  and  hostile  arrogance
we have quoted no longer finds a place; and the  work 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
141
 is  steadily acquiring the  confidence  even of  those
 Avho, as a body, it once averred Avcrc in  possession of
 phrenology, in this country, while they were ignorant
 of its true nature and tendencies,  and out of whose
 hands it Avas the alleged object of the Journal to ' wrest'
 the science.   The able and efficient pens of some thus
 unAvisely denounced, and among these  is included that
 of Prof. Caldwell, noAV supply the most useful and able
 original articles Avhich adorn the pages of this publica-
 tion.
   Besides this,  there are several other phrenological
 periodicals, all published and  sustained by the phreno-
 logists of the old world.  The Edinburgh Phrenological
 Journal, already more than once referred to, was com-
 menced at Edinburgh, in 1823, and was the first perio-
 dical ever issued,  devoted  particularly  to this science.
 It was mainly through the  pages of  this work — which
 for ability, had few superiours — that the multitudinous
 attacks upon  phrenology,  with which all Europe was
 at one time rife, Avere replied to, and disposed  of, by
 all  that portion of  our  transatlantick phrenologists who
 made the English  language their medium of communi-
 cation.   That Avork  has,   Avithin a  few years,  been
 transferred to London, Avhere it is still continued; and
is in the enjoyment of an enviable reputation, both for
candour and ability.    The  past numbers of this Avork 
142
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
are highly important, for the diversity and  character
of the information they contain.
   The  Phrenological Society of Paris,  a few years
since, established a Phrenological Journal, which  Avas
issued periodically, and  was conducted by a committee
of the members.  It was able and fearless in its course:
Avhether still published we are unable to state.  Another
periodical, namely, "La Phrenologie,"  was in course
of publication, at Paris,  a few months since, then in its
second year, and we haA'e not heard of  its discontinu-
ance — but we  never saw it, nor do  Ave  know more of
the work than its name.
   There remains but the Danish Phrenological  Journal
to be mentioned.   This is published at  Copenhagen,
where  it has been some years established,  under the
editorial charge of Professor Otto, a gentleman exten-
sively known to the learned world.   He has long been
a medical professor, at Copenhagen, where he has con-
ducted a Medical Journal.   The Phrenological Journal,
under his guidance, it is conceded, by those  who have
been its readers, has been an able and efficient publica-
tion, of extended usefulness.
   Of the means employed against phrenology, and the
manner of their employment, in both hemispheres, it is
just and necessary that  we speak more  in detail  than
we have hitherto done.  To recount all these would be 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
143
to (ill many  volumes ;  but specimens  are  necessary,
as rightfully belonging to our history,  no  less than to
justify the strong language of condemnation which they
have  so often elicited,  from  candid  inquirers after
truth.   The fate of phrenology, in this particular, has
been but that of the other sciences that  arose before it.
" The history of every age has demonstrated that every
remarkable  discovery has had the misfortune to  be
persecuted.  Whenever it has been impossible to attack
the principles  of  a doctrine,  the attempt  has always
been made  to render   its nature  suspected.   Igno-
rance,  prejudice, and not unfrequently, bad faith,  have
ever endeavoured,  although  in  vain, to combat the
greatest truths.
   " The philosophers of the different schools of Greece
accused each   other  of  impiety.   The novelty of
the opinions of Pythagoras was the cause of his expul-
sion  from Athens ; and those of Anaxagoras consigned
him to  a prison.   Democritus was treated as a madman
 by the  Abderites; and Socrates,  for demonstrating the
 unity of God,  was condemned  to die by poison.
   " The same injustice has  been inflicted on human
 reason in every age, and among every people.   Not a
 few  individuals, who distinguished themselves for ex-
 tensive knowledge, in  the fourteenth century, were
 condemned to  death as magicians and  sorcerers.    To
 what disgraceful  treatment Galileo was subjected, for 
 144          HISTORY' OF  PHRENOLOGY.

 having proved the rotation of the earth ! What a viru-
 lent warfare was urged against innoculation, and  the
 discovery of vaccination !  Varolius, for his great ana-
 tomical  discoveries,  Avas  treated by Silvius, himself
 an eminent man, as the most infamous,  most ignorant,
 and most insensate  of men !   Harvey,  for maintaing
 the circulation of the blood, Avas attacked as a visionary
 and  impostor!   The  physical  truths  announced  by
 Linnaeus, Buffon, Bonnet,  &c, were  held  up  as  so
 many maxims of impiety,  destined to uproot, entirely,
 religion and morality!  The same, or nearly the same,
 has  been the fate of  Gall's discovery.   It seems as if
 nature had subjected all important truths to persecution,
 that they  might be more  firmly established and consoli-
 dated ;  since it has always  happened that the sophisms,
 arguments,  and other weapons directed against demon-
 strable truths, have been, at last, dispersed like dust
 before the wind.
   "The history, moreover, of every age and of every
 science has  shown that the same opinions were at one
 time regarded  as dangerous,  only because they were
 new, and  at another as useful, only because  they were
 ancient;  and that man has,  at one time or another,
 made an object of scandal of every thing.  But,  as St.
Bernard observes, we must  judge suitably the scandal
of the ignorant and that of the Pharisees.  The former
utter scandal from ignorance, and  the  latter  from  a 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
145
perverse mind.   Malebranch  says, that it is not per-
sons of true and solid piety who condemn new truths,
but the superstitious and hypocritical :  the supersti-
tious  from  an unworthy fear ;  and  the  hypocritical
make use of the semblance of holy truth, to oppose,
for  sinister purposes,  the progress  of  neAv  truths.
The latter,  in their  hearts, often  laugh at everything
Avhich the world respects, and are in fact the most for-
midable enemies to truth."
   We have adopted the above  somewhat protracted
quotation from  the  works of Professor Uccelli,  of
Florence, as translated by the editors of the Edinburgh
Phrenological Journal : and we have  done so, as well
from  the intrinsick value  of the vieAvs and illustrations
it contains,  as from the important fact that its author
has, himself, been made to feel the persecuting force of
the strong  arm of power, Avielded  in  the  cause  of
bigotry,  by reason  of his  belief in the  truths which
phrenology  has  disclosed.   We have already seen that
theological  considerations  caused the suppression  of
Gall's lectures at Vienna; and through the like source,
though not quite so distinctly  avowed,  at a subsequeut
period, the  same result Avas  obtained  at Paris.   This
latter event occurred in 1824.   Two years after  this,
namely,  in  1826,  Professor  Uccelli,* of  Florence,
* Author of the copious extract we have just given.
                     14 
146
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
published  a large work upon the human frame, in
Avhich  he  recognised  the  phrenology  of Gall  and
Spurzheim.   The sequel is  perhaps best  told in the
following  letter from one who avows himself not a
phrenologist.  We copy it from the Edinburgh Phre-
nological  Journal,  Avhere  it  stands  credited to the
Morning Herald.
                        Florence, Oct.  18, 1828.
   " The discussions Avhich occupy all parties here will,
I dare say, reach England.  The dismissal of the Pro-
fessor of  Anatomy at  the Medical College,  is a sad
evidence of the intolerant, persecuting spirit which still
rules  among  the upper  powers, and that  in  the most
liberal part of  Italy.   Not that you in England have
any right to wonder, for the world does not forget  the
storm  and  the  clatter,  and  the  fierceness  and  the
bigotry, which pursued Mr. Lawrence some time ago,
when somebody or  other chose to deduce materialism
from  his lectures.  The accusation against Professor
Uccelli is,  that he preached the doctrines  of  Gall and
Spurzheim — in other words,  heresy, necessity, mate-
rialism, protestantism,  atheism,  and the  devil, — so,
when the howl of ignorance and barbarism begins it is
easy  enough  to  find victims.  The first point is for
those knaves who set  on the  howlers to cover them-
selves with the proper mask, and to swear  they are
influenced  by  nothing  less  than a love of virtue and 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          147
religion.   Uccelli published, in 1826, five volumes on
the Organization of the Human Frame.   His reputa-
tion, as a  physiologist, stands second only to that  of
Vacca of Pisa.   The  fourth volume treats of the ana-
tomy of the  brain, and may be deemed a defence of
the new theory.   The discussion is carried on through-
out, in a mild, modest, philosophical spirit; and what-
ever may be thought of his system, nothing can  be
urged against his manner of treating it.   1 am no con-
vert to the doctrine of the twenty-seven departments,
or boxes of organs, each separate and distinct;   but I
honour the man who  carries on the duty of investiga-
tion in a frank and fearless temper, and am sure man-
kind Avill be greatly served by the  result, be it  what it
may.  If there be any  part of the field of science in
which the whole of the human race are  deeply and
directly interested, it is in  this — that a correct  know-
ledge  be  obtained of the structure and functions of
every part of the human frame.  Uccelli is a dexterous
controversialist, and Avas  yet  more  redoubtable as he
offered to meet his  opponents  even  on what they
deemed their  vantage ground, and reconcile Gall Avith
St.  Augustine — the  teachings  of anatomy  Avith  the
Pope's bulls—and experimental  physiology Avith  the
faith of the Catholick Church.  The priests,  hoAvever,
liked no such ally — they  cannot be better off by dis- 
148
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGA".
cussion — they may be  worse off;  and he Avho is in a
rotten ship Avould be a fool if he brewed  up a storm.
But in the meanwhile, a pamphlet, of furious iiiA'ective
against the Professor, is  published anonamously,  but
was undoubtedly traced to the Medical Sub-Professor,
in the same College — one Lippi, who OAved his situa-
tion and  advancement to Uccelli, and  availed himself
of his intimacy, first to  seduce Uccelli's wife, and then
to traduce  his character.   What does Uccelli do  but
cite Lippi before  the  tribunals,  for defamation ?  and
the court decides  that  he shall be temporarily sus-
pended.  Uccelli,  indignant at such a  result, proffered
his resignation to  the Grand Duke, alleging that  he
could not possibly  continue to be the colleague of  his
slanderer and betrayer.   But the Grand Duke did not
care to trouble himself about the  matter,  and would
not accept  Uccelli's  resignation ;  and thus the affair
seemed to rest:  but now  appears  another pamphlet,
Avritten by a meddling professor  of Lucca, (Grimaldi,)
defending Lippi, and holding up  the opinions of Uccelli
to the execration  of all devout Catholicks.  The pam-
phlet reached  the Palazzo Pitti,  and dire, indeed, was
the shock  and the horrour produced  in the minds of
the three Grand Dutchesses,  who had no notion that
such damnable and devilish notions as  those of Uccelli
had  any existence  in  their  states.    These ladies — 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
149
 pinks of piety,  and  pionys  of faith—who scarcely
 ever take a ride without cramming their carriages with
 wax candles to present to some Madonna  whom they
 visit on their way — those fair and gentle ladies hurry,
 with uplifted hands, long  faces, and noisy tongues, to
 the  Grand Duke,   and move him,  at  last,  to refer
 Uccelli's work  to  the Theological College,  of Pisa.
 The College condemned it, as a thing of course,  and
 Uccelli is sent a begging.
   " Two of the  Bologna professors have given similar
 umbrage by preaching fatalism:  any  word will do
 for a  persecutor, particularly if nobody understands
 its meaning.  Their names are Oricoli  and Tomma-
 sini.   Cardinal  Opizoni sent to  them the  following
 polite message :   ' I beg to  apologize for  the trouble 1
 give;  but as all mankind are  not as enlightened as
 you, you will be so good as not to scandalize them by
 preaching the dangerous and immoral doctrines of Dr.
 Gall :'  and the  professors, not less courteous, replied
 that  they were obliged  by the  polite interference, with
 which they  should  comply ;  but they have not com-
 plied, and a proceeding is  ripening for deposing  them.
 It is  knoAvn that  both  Lippi  and  Grimaldi, who have
 been fanning this flame of persecution,  have not  the
Avretched  excuse  of the ignorant and fanatick — they
knoAv  better ; but  in  Italy it is difficult for publick
opinion to apply its  scourges for the punishment of the
                       14 * 
150            HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
vile,  or to stretch out the encouraging hand for  the
protection of the injured." *
   But, Avhile, as we  have seen, in Papal countries, and
by Papal ecclesiasticks and ministers of the laws, phre-
nology Avas held to be  most dangerous;  and was con-
demned as leading  to  heresy, necessity,  materialism,
protestantism, and so finally on  " to the devil,"  yet
in the  protestant English Islands,  and in America, a
different, though  certainly  no less  unfavourable  vieAV
of its character and effects obtained,  with the thoolo-
  * In the case of Professor Uccelli, persecution did not cease,
even at his death, which took place in 1832.   Mons. Cassimer
Broussais, of Paris, as quoted by Professor Caldwell, thus  no-
tices this event:
  "That physician, (Uccelli,) of extensive knowledge, of the
highest skill in the anatomical sciences, filled with the love of
truth, and with independence of character, had composed an
important work, in which he gave an exposition of the doctrine
of Gall,  and supported  it by  observations.  A blind fanaticism
saw, in that profound and conscientious treatise, a blow direct-
ed against those  superstitions which it was interested in main-
taining ;  and it  resolved to embitter his life.   Condemnation of
his works,  deprivations — nothing was  spared to afflict and humi-
liate him.   *  *   *   *  Even after death, the same power which
had persecuted  him during life continued  to pursue him.  The
censorship prohibited the publication of biographical accounts
of him, and suppressed, in a notice which was purely necro-
logical, a passage which stated that the students had accompa-
nied his body to the grave.  The  young men  intended to per-
form a funeral service  in their church ; but  they were prohi-
bited from doing so, and even from asking permission !" 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
151
gians.   In all these, Avhile the publick press loudly de-
nounced the science as a heresy of dangerous import,
and  one,  therefore, we infer,  not, in this case,  sus-
pected of leading to Protestantism, the sacred desk has
been made the theatre of studied assault upon it, in al-
most every variety of  form, from  the  dark  and wily
insinuation,  half threat, half persuasion, to one  Avide-
weltering rhapsody of condemnation.*
   In 1837 the attention of the members of the London
Phrenological Society Avas called, by its President,  to a
work by the Rev.  Mr. Taylor.   This  production,  the
Rev. gentleman, in his advertisement, showed he  had
intended as a work to put "young persons  upon their
guard against the wicked doctrines of phrenologists,
as well as those  of geologists." t
   * Examples from oral communications can rarely be obtained,
and of course will not be expected here; but many will be able
to verify the truth of our position by their own personal experi-
ence.  Numbers  in this  city,  in common with ourselves, were
present, but a few months since, when a studied  and laboured
assault upon phrenology was  made  by one of our clergymen,
from his own desk, and in pursuance of a previous notice which
he had himself given.   Parallel cases have not been of uncom-
mon occurrence.
  t Here we find  Phrenology and Geology placed side by side,
and classed  together, by  the Reverend  author;   yet this
is  only  done  the better, if possible, to  detract, thereby,
from  the  character and  credibility of  both.   Archbishop
Whately, in his  lectures upon Political Economy, holds the 
152
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
   The language of Dr. Ryan, in his Manual of Medical
Jurisprudence, is  Avholly explicit.   It follows :  "The
doctrine  of the materiality and mortality of  the  soul,
Avhich  is that  of  Materialism  and Phrenology, should
forever be  exploded  as  totally  false, and  unAvorthy of
all regard,  as subversive of the fundamental principles
of all religions, as introducing  civil  anarchy into the
political economy  of legislation, as substituting disorder
for harmony, despair for hope, and eternal  darkness
      following language:  "That  Political Economy should have
      been complained of as hostile to religion, will probably be re-
      garded a century  hence, (should the fact be then on record,)
      with the same wonder, almost approaching to incredulity, with
      which we, of the present day, hear of men sincerely opposing,
      on religious grounds, the Copernican system.   *   *  *  But
      that the erroneous principle — that of appealing to  revelation,
      on questions of physical science,—has  not yet been entirely
      cleared away, is evident from the objections which most of you
      probably may have heard to the researches of Geology."  This
      was pronounced in 1831;  and the notes of condemnation, here
      referred to  can scarcely  be  said to have died entirely away,
      even yet.   So late as November, 1837,—less than two years
«     since — Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, in an article studi-
      edly defamatory of the " Scientifick Association,"  which had
      just then held its  annual meeting at Liverpool, averred that its
      tendency was "to set scripture and science at variance, and to
      assert a silly superiority over prejudice, on the silly ground of
      believing the nonsense of some rambling geologist, in prefer-
      ence  to the declared and  precise language  of inspiration."
      This is succeeded by scripture quotations which the  writer sup-
      poses at variance with  geological  discoveries; and upon that 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
153
for everlasting light.   *  *   *   *   Such are the con-
sequences naturally resulting from the  principles  laid
down in phrenological writings."
   Stimulated by the boldness and unqualified character
of  these European denunciations of phrenology,  one
class of its opponents,  in this  country,  hastened to
respond to sentiments  they felt no hesitancy in adopt-
ing as their own   They consequently, in opening the
conflict  here,  relied upon the  efficiency of the same



science he finally sums up thus:   "It is to be observed, in the
entire of this subject, that of all the sciences,  geology,  is at
present least worthy ofthe name of a science.   *   *   *   Yet
of all the sciences it is already the most presuming, and every
trivial gatherer of pebbles fancies himself master of a theory of
the globe."  Again — still of geology — he says,  "Yet it is in
the midst of this mass of immaturity and ignorance^ that the
pretended philosopher lifts up  his pert  physiognomy, and pro-
nounces his impudent oracle."
  As a farther illustration of the " erroneous principle" com-
mented upon by the Bishop, we may add that  we have  now
upon the table before us, in  a  literary  periodical, an  Essay or
Tract,  copied from "the New Monthly Magazine,"  "Upon
the Scriptural Objections to  the Polar  Expedition" !  from
England.  In this the writer carefully quotes  his texts, and
adds thereto his comments, to  prove that such voyages of dis-
covery as those that have been sent  to  the North, under Ross,
Parry,  &c,  are  plainly  forbidden,  in  scripture;  that they
cannot, therefore, be successful, and that could they have been
so,  they would  " have set at naught, and brought  into strong
controversy  the  most solemn and  the soundest part of our
ritual." 
154
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
weapons  which  they had  seen  their trans-atlantick
allies, both Catholick and Protestant,  employ, and, as
they believed, with satisfactory effect.   The following
which, says Prof. Caldwell, "is from the pen of a gen-
tleman who occupied a  pulpit," forms part of an ar-
ticle of some twenty pages, in the Boston Christian
Examiner, for November, 1834.
   " Our purpose  in these remarks — the bearing of
which  on the subject before us may be somewhat re-
mote— was  to determine,  as nearly as possible, the
position which phrenology must  occupy, in relation to
previous systems  of philosophy, if allowed to take its
place among them.  It is evidently a branch  of the
Sensual school, and must be  considered as  belonging to
the loAvest form of that school.  It is,  in fact, a system
of pure Materialism.  We are fully aware that some of
its professors have laboured to avoid this imputation,
but, as it seems to us,  unsuccessfully and  umvisely.
Unsuccessfully,  because the  fundamental  principle,
and indeed  the whole structure of  their doctrine is an
everlasting  contradiction to any disclaimer which thej'
may see  fit  to make on this subject : —unwisely, be-
cause the disavowal  of  Materialism gives an appear-
ance of inconsistency  to their system,  and  by this
means deprives it of  the  small degree of considera-
tion it might otherwise claim.  If  we are right in our
suspicions,  the  motive  of  this disavowal  proceeds 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
155
partly  from a natural, though very  unphilosophical,
dread of a consequence so startling, but chiefly from a
fear of the discredit which  it might bring upon  their
doctrine.   This  is mistaken policy. The worst feature
which  any  philosophy can  exhibit  is  inconsistency;
and no system is  entitled to respect, which does not
candidly admit, and resolutely meet  the  consequences
Avhich  naturally flow from  it.   Not  that  phrenology
would  be any more  true, if it assumed the form of
avoAved Materialism.  God forbid! But it would certainly
deserve  in that  form, a  more  patient hearing.  The
phrenologist  may  profess, if he pleases, that he is not
a Materialist; such a profession is nothing to the pur-
pose, except  to prove that his instinctive good sense is
truer than his philosophy; — but when he asserts that
phrenology is  not Materialism,  he  sIioavs  himself
utterly deficient  in logick, and  renders his whole sys-
tem  ridiculous."
  After pointed  condemnation of  both Spurzheim and
Mr. Combe, for  what he deems their heresies,  the Re-
verend  author proceeds  thus:  "The pretensions  of
these men have been loudly echoed by their followers.
Phrenology is proclaimed, with that boastfulness which
always distinguishes  sciolism, to  be the ultimate and
complete science of man — the last and highest attain-
ment  of human wisdom.   The  beautiful  region  of
mental  philosophy is  to  be converted  into  a barren 
156
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
Golgotha,  or place  of sculls.   Yes!   this  ignoble
doctrine, born of the dissecting knife  and a  lump of
medulla, betraying at every step its mean  extraction,
— this carnal philosophy, with its limited conceptions,
its gray truisms,  its purblind  theories, its  withering
conclusions, and  its weary  dogmatism, is to supplant
the lofty faith of antiquity, and the sublime  philosophy
of the bible, and to sit in judgement on the Infinite and
Eternal!   A great discovery  has been  made !   It is
ascertained that there is no in-dwelling spirit in  man.
Those god-like powers  which raise us above  time and
sense, — those  thoughts which  compass  heaven and
earth,  and commune with the All-wise and True, are
not, as we  once fondly deemed, the immaterial  func-
tions of an  immaterial  being.   We have changed all.
The anatomist has taken the subject into consideration.
Those powers, those thoughts, are the products of little
lumps of flesh, measuring each an inch in diameter,
weighing,  altogether, about two pounds, avoirdupois.
Behold here the true nature and the full dimensions of
the human soul ! " *
  * It has been well observed, by Mr. George Combe, that the
phenomena produced by alcohol, opium, and nitrous oxide gas,
upon the manifestations of mind,  remain to be explained by
those who  assume, as  some have,  that mind has no distinct
dependence upon matter. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          157
  The North American Review for July, 1833, in an
article against phrenology,  after  seA'eral  quotations
from Spurzheim, holds  the  following language :   " It
seems to us sufficiently clear,  from these extracts, that
however the conclusion  may be evaded by the conve-
nient phrase,  'pure  Christianity.'—the  doctrines  of
that Avork are entirely incompatible  with any kind of
Christianity,  that  we have  any notion of;  and  it is
equally clear that these doctrines are legitimate deduc-
tions  from the phrenological  premises,  as  far  as Ave
understand  them.  Considering,  therefore, that there
is no evidence of the truth of phrenology, and a good
deal in  favour of Christianity, we incline to prefer the
latter."
   The identity, in character,  of these outgivings  with
those of an earlier date,  in Europe, will not escape the
attention of the  reader.  They  are, indeed, substan-
tially, repetitions of the early attacks  made beyond
sea ;  and which, for the most part, as we shall learn
in the sequel,  had been fully abandoned, in the lands
of  their invention, even before  any  use  was  made
of  them here, by  those who noAV deem them suit-
able  Aveapons wherewith  to  do  battle against phre-
nology.
   The  Edinburgh Phrenological Journal, in 1831,  ob-
served ;  " It is instructive to trace the different views
                         15 
158
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
in which  the science has been  regarded by religious
persons, at different  times, bearing in mind  that the
fundamental truths of the doctrine have never varied.
A few years ago phrenology was favourably received,
by a certain religious class, because it was believed to
be the philosophy of their peculiar  views.   The cor-
ruption  of human nature is a fundamental point of doc-
trine with them, and the large organs of Amativeness,
Combativeness,  Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Se-
cretiveness, &c,  which the  human head  displayed,
were  hailed as so many  philosophical evidences, coin-
ciding with the  testimony  of scripture,  in support of
their position.    For a season, phrenology was patron-
ised by  this party, and  recommended to the  approba-
tion of its  adherents.  But  when  phrenologists pro-
ceeded  to  show that the function of  every  organ  is
good  in itself,  and that evil arises  only from abuses ;
that the tendency to commit abuses is,  other  things
being equal, in proportion to the excess in size of the
organs  of  the lower propensities  over those  of the
moral and intellectual faculties ;  that the relative pro-
portions of  the organs are, to an important  extent, in-
fluenced by the condition  of the parents;   in short,
when  the doctrine  was stated  that  human disposi-
tions  are fundamentally influenced by physiological
causes, phrenology began to be suspected and disliked 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
159
by those Avho had, under the first view of  it, regarded
it Avith favour." *
   We pass to other objections.  It is not alone with such
obstacles as we  have hitherto cited,  that  phrenology
has  had to contend.   Ridicule, in  ever-varying form;
with  a species of  ingenious misrepresentation, which
its authors ever stoutly maintained could not be consi-
dered falsehood,  have been liberally employed  ; Avhile,
for the more crude taste of the multitude,  low scandal
and wordy defamation, mingled with jests good or bad,
as the case might be, have been poured out in rivers of
profusion,  from  the  publick  press,  and   through  the
efforts  of  oral  teachers.    This  was  particularly  the
  * The "erroneous principle  of appealing to revelation, on
questions of physical science" — to borrow, again, the language
of Archbishop Whately, is here once more fully illustrated;  as
it has previously been, in the contentions it has caused against
Astronomy, Geology, Political Economy—all the sciences, in
short; and even voyages of polar discovery.   In all  these the
truth of the science, or the propriety of the inquiry in question
has been tested by what the sectarian objector  supposed he had
found,  in the inspired volume, to sustain or  condemn  it:   a
theory being thus first formed,  and facts subsequently made to
conform thereto.   Hence it was well said, by this prelate, that
"the objections against astronomy have been abandoned rather,
perhaps, from its having been made to appear that the scripture
accounts of the phenomena of the heavens may be reconciled
with the conclusions of science, than from its being understood
that scripture is not the test by which the conclusions of science
are to be tried." 
160
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
case  in England, for a long period ;  and the objec-
tions  offered in this country, have generally been  bor-
rowed from the English press.   In  the round of these
assaults it is but justice to the assailants to declare  that
they  employed all the forces at  their command ;  and
that,  too, with untiring zeal.  They seemed  resolved
that if phrenology did  finally triumph,  the sin of its
success should not be chargeable either upon their in-
activity,  or  to conscientious scruples in regard to the
means employed for its  suppression.   In both these
particulars  they  have  unquestionably  secured them-
selves, forever, against the  censures of posterity.
   We select, promiscuously, a few examples  of these
pointed condemnations;  confining ourselves mostly to
the higher  and exalted walks of periodical and other
literature;   as there can be little difficulty or uncer-
tainty in determining, from these, what the more humble
and usually less scrupulous followers, in the same path,
would deem  appropriately befitting  for  them, where-
with  to instruct such as they find seeking edification,
at their hands, in matters of this import.
   "The  Avritings of Drs. Gall  and   Spurzheim  have
not added  one fact   to the stock of our  anatomical
knowledge, respecting either the structure or functions
of man;  but consist of such  a  mixture of gross er-
rours, extravagant  absurdities,  downright  misstate-
ments, and  unmeaning quotations from scripture, as 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.          161
can leave no  doubt,  we apprehend,  in  the  minds of
honest and intelligent men,  as to  the  real ignorance,
the real  hypocrisy,  or  the real  empiricism  of the
authors."
   "To enter on a particular  refutation  of them, (the
doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim,) Avould be to insult
the understandings  of our  readers.  Indeed  we  will
flatter the authors so far as  to say, that their  observa-
tions  are of a  nature to  set criticism at defiance. They
arc a collection of mere absurdities, without truth, con-
nexion or consistency ;  an incoherent rhapsody, which
nothing could have induced any man to have presented
to the publick, under a  pretence  of instructing them,
but  absolute  insanity,  gross  ignorance,  or  the  most
matchless arrogance."
   "Such is the trash, the despicable trumpery, which
two men,  (Gall  and Spurzheim,) calling  themselves
scientifick inquirers, have  the  impudence  gravely  to
present to  the physiologists of the nineteenth century,
as specimens  of reasoning and induction."
   " We have tAvo  objects in view, in a formal expose
and exposure  of the  volume  before  us.   The first
is to contradict, directly, various statements in point of
fact,  made by Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, with unparal-
leled boldness and effrontery, Avhich persons perfectly
satisfied  of the general absurdity of their opinions,
may  not have the same opportunities of refuting  as
                         15 * 
162
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
ourselves;  the second, and by far the most important,
is to save the purses of our readers, if  possible, before
it be too late, by satisfying their curiosity, which might
otherwise lead them to purchase  the  book themselves,
or attend the lectures-of these cunning craniologists."
  " We look on  the Avhole doctrines taught  by these
two  peripateticks, (Gall and  Spurzheim,) anatomical,
physiological,  and  physiognomical, as  a   piece  of
thorough quackery, from beginning to end."
   " There are a certain  number of individuals, how-
ever, in every community, who  are  destined  to be the
dupes of empiricks.   So it would be a matter of sur-
prise, if these itinerant philosophers did not make some
proselytes wherever they came."
   " Our readers will here recognise, without  any diffi-
culty, the same man of sculls whom we had  occasion
to take notice of more than twelve years ago.   Long
before this time we should have looked  for his  cranio-
logical death! "
   " Every  one,  of course, has heard of Dr. Gall's
Craniology,  and  seen his  plaster heads mapped  out
into the territories of some thirty or  forty independent
faculties.  Long before  this time, we confess, we  ex-
pected to have seen them turned into toys for children,
and  this folly consigned to  that great limbo of  vanity
to which the dreams of alchymy,  sympathetick medi-
cine, and animal magnetism had passed before it." 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
163
  These several passages  are  all extracted  from the
Edinburgh Review,  a work Avhose  literary  reputation
ranked  indisputedly high,  and  which,  for a season, at
least, arrogated to itself a commanding position among
the opponents of phrenology.  The reader will scarcely
fail to note, in the two closing paragraphs, the editor's
surprise  that his own labours should have been of so
little avail.   The comparison here  made,  of phreno-
logy to  alchymy, &c, has been  deemed so extraordi-
nary, for excellence, that scarcely a subsequent oppo-
nent  of  the  science, who has given  the publick the
benefit of  his thoughts, upon the subject, has omitted
to avail himself of its aid.
   We proceed to Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine  :
   " Such patchwork systems of conjecture and specu-
lation are fortunately destined, by the immutable and
eternal  laws of truth,  to last but for  a season.   Cra-
niology  has almost lived  its little hour.  In this city,
Ave are  certain that, with the  absence of Dr. Spurz-
heim, and the introduction  of some other novelty, as a
French dance, or a  new beauty,  it  will be very soon
forgotten."*
   " These infernal idiots, the phrenologists."
   " In the education of youth, the phenomenon is quite
*This was uttered in 1817. 
164
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 familiar, that both the intellectual and moral  powers
 are stimulated and improved by scholastick castigation.
 Therefore those powers are not situated in the head !"
   " Why is phrenology like a parrot ? Ans. Because
 it is far-fetched and full of nonsense."
   " We have already said, that,  in our opinion,  fool
 and phrenologist are  terms as nearly synonymous as
 can be found in any language.  One writer  in  this
 work demolished the Edinburgh Phrenological Society
 by one article equal to any thing in Arbuthnot or Swift.
 The phrenologists called out against wit and clamoured
 for pure argument.   Here  they have it with a ven-
 geance !"
   The London Literary Gazette furnishes the follow-
 ing :
   Poor Dr. Stukely never dreamed  that a future  age
 Avould produce a tribe  of crazy sciolists,  denominating
 themselves craniologisfs ; that these visionary abortions
 would establish,  in modern Athens, formerly known
 by  the name of Edinburgh, a Phrenological Society,
 and open a toyshop  in  the Strand,  for the sale of casts
 from the heads of those worthies,  who have been exe-
 cuted for murder, rape, and larceny; or, to employ the
technical phraseology  of this crew,  who have been
martyrs to excessive destructiveness, amativeness  and
secretiveness.   How  would the good sense of that
philosopher have  revolted on seeing M. De Ville point 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
165
out to  his customers  an imperceptible  eminence  or
insensible depression,  as the only  reason for the fatal
sentence of  the  law !   And  Avhat  would  he have said
on learning that it Avas the  height of the fashion  for
every fool to have  a cast of his own head !"
  " A tribe of crazy sciolists, denominating themselves
craniologists" — " these  visionary abortions" — " this
creAv,"  &c.
  The  following are  from  the New Monthly  Maga-
zine :
  " Never Avas there a more humiliating  conception of
man than this ; by which love, reason, wit, and all the
nobler faculties of  the human mind are  framed of a
number of masses  of flesh conglomerated  together,
Avhich enlarge  and diminish while  Ave  live, and  rot
when we die."
   "The most celebrated of the ancient  philosophers,
in order to inspire virtuous  deeds, were Avont.to extol
the dignity  of  human nature ; whereas some  of  the
moderns strive to vilify  it by assimilating  men to  the
nature  of beasts.   But this  plan  of self degradation
has been carried by Gall  and Spurzheim, to the utmost
extreme,  as they  have  classed mankind  among  the
carniverous  animals,  and given him an organ of de-
structiveness, Avhich instils  the  propensity  of  killing
animals, and of tormenting and murdering men.'' 
1GG
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
    " The difference between  one man and another is
  prodigious,  and the  pretended  cause is evanescent.
  For when the head of a humane  man is compared with
  that  of a murderer, and  even when their brains arc
  dissected, no distinction can  be  perceived, except by
  the adept! and he OAvns that the difference is  hardly
  discernable."
    The North American Review  has spoken thus :
    " We have thus endeavoured to express our opinions
  on the  merits, direct  and incidental, of phrenology.
  It remains to offer some explanation of its rise  and
  progress.  This seems to us to  be simple.   The his-
  tory of one physiological or medical delusion is mainly
  the history of all.   Quackery, of any kind, needs but
  one requisite — boldness.   Of this, phrenological wri-
  ters have shown no lack, and their temporary success,
, in most places, has been correspondent."
    " Of the principal  phrenological Avriters, including
  Gall and Spurzheim, and with one exception in favour
  of Mr. Combe,  who appears to us to have allowed his
  natural acuteness and professional tendency to hair-
  splitting to bias his better judgement, we  can  say with
  sincerity, that  to judge  from their works, they  are
  alike  deficient  in learning and  accuracy.   They ap«-
  pear to us to have  picked up, by casual assiociation
  with  Avell-in formed  persons, a mass of odds and ends 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
167
of information,  which they have engrafted  on their
system, without much solicitude  about their exact fit-
ness.   They  have been at the feast of learning, and
stolen the scraps."
  "The convenient paganism  of ancient Rome, in her
march towards universal dominion, took care that the
Avorshipper every where  should  find his own Deity
among the  Gods of the empire.  And in like manner
this doctrine  is ready  to adopt, without scruple, what-
ever any body happens to think  wise and interesting,
and call it phrenology, careless, so long as a multitude
can be found to throw up their  caps at the  word  of
their leader, Avhether they knoAv or believe the peculiar
doctrines, whether they worship the hawk-billed divini-
ties of Dendera, or the Jupiter of the Capitol."
  The following Ave extract  from  the  pages of  the
American Quarterly Review.
  Referring  to  the proofs adduced by Dr.  Gall,  of
separate organs in the brain, the Reviewer proceeds
thus :
  " To us  they have always appeared very unsatisfac-
tory.   There is scarcely one  of  them, indeed, Avhich
might not be  applied, with equal force, to prove a com-
plication of organs in the stomach.   Let us try an ex-
ample or two.  ' In the same  individual, all the facul-
ties do not appear, nor are they  all lost, at the same
periods.  Each  age has  its oavd psychology.  How, 
168
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
then, can Ave explain these intellectual and moral varie-
ties, according to age, under the hypothesis that the
brain is a single organ V  Might we not also say :  the
likings and loathings of the stomach do not appear,
and are not lost, at  the  same periods.   Each age has
its particular tastes.   The child delights in molasses
and gingerbread,  the  man in porter  and beef.   How
can we explain these varieties on the supposition that
the stomach is a single organ ?
   "Again :  Dr. Gall says, ' It is a  common observa-
tion, that when we are fatigued  with  one kind of men-
tal  occupation, we  have recourse  to another;   yet it
often happens that the new labour, instead of adding to
the fatigue experienced  from the former, is a  relaxa-
tion.   This would not be the case, if the brain were a
single organ, and  acted  as such, but is readily expli-
cable under the doctrine  of a plurality of organs.   It is
owing to a fresh cerebral organ having been put in ac-
tion.'  Does not the stomach present us with  a per-
fectly  parallel case ?  Does it not become fatigued with
the long use of any particular kind of food,  and, when
thus cloyed,  will it not  receive  another with perfect
relish ? How could this be the case, if it had  not a
pouch  for the digestion of  partridges, another for the
digestion of mutton,  &c.  ?
  "Let us take one more  parallel.   * Insanity,' says
Gall,  ' is  frequently confined  to one single train  of 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
169
 ideas, as in the variety called monomania.   Is it pos-
 sible to comprehend this fact,  under the  hypothesis of
 the unity of the brain V  In like manner the stomach,
 sound in all other  respects, has sometimes  a loathing
 for a particular article of food, a kind of monophobia.
 Some have  an antipathy for cheese—some for honey.
 Does not this prove the existence of special honey and
 cheese compartments,  in the organ of digestion ?"
   Once  more from the Boston Christian Examiner :
   " The prevalence  and popularity of  phrenological
 views may  seem to require explanation.   It is well
 knoAvn, to most of our readers, how suddenly the doc-
 trine established  itself, and   how  rapidly  it gained
 ground in this region.   No sooner had its late distin-
 guished apostle appeared in our city, than a pentecost
 was witnessed, such as philosophy had not  known be-
 fore, since   the  days  of the  later Platonists.*    All
 tongues were loosed, and a strange onamastick was in
 every man's mouth.   Heads of chalk,  inscribed with
 mystick numbers, disfigured every mantel-piece.  Con-
 verts multiplied on all sides,  some proselytes of  the
covenant, and some proselytes of the gate.  A general
inspection and  registry  of heads  took place.   In
  ¥ This allusion is to Dr. Spurzheim, and has reference to his
visit to Boston — the article from which we here quote bearing
the date 1834.
16 
170
history of Phrenology.
defiance of the apostolick injunction, hands Avere laid
suddenly on  all men, and many, by such imposition,
were ordained teachers.   *   *  *   *   In short, this
theory of man obtained a speedy and signal triumph,
and all the higher  principles of our nature  were  in
danger of being entombed in the  little tumuli of the
brain."
  Farther to  multiply  extracts of  this kind,  might
justly be deemed superfluous ;  and therefore, with a
profusion of material, still, upon every side, Ave desist.
As proposed,  we have  confined ourselves,  for exam-
ples, to the upper ranks of periodicals ;  however  un-
worthy many of the extracts we have  given, may be
supposed to be of a place therein.    We have  done so,
not because  these were not sustained, in their course,
by  the subordinate  press;  but rather  because much
which emanated from that press will not  bear repeat-
ing, except to those for whose peculiar taste and habits
it was originally designed.   The  universality  of the
assault, particularly in England, is thus described by
Professor Caldwell:
  "There was scarcely a periodical of distinction, in
Great  Britain, whether daily, weekly,  monthly,  or
quarterly ;  literary or political, scientifick or theolo-
gical, that did not unite in it.   To exterminate phreno-
logy would seem to have become almost as much an
affair of the  empire, as it had recently been to triumph 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
171
 over Napoleon.  Even the pulpits joined the chorus of
 execration, and  issued  their  thunders  in  the terms
 'infidel,'  'deist,'   'atheist,'  'abandoned   of  God,'
 'candidate for hell,' and other like charitable  appel-
 lations;   all  intended  for the same purpose — to  ac-
 cumulate odium on the names of Gall and Spurzheim,
 and foreclose the publick ear  against their doctrines."
   While the  publick press was  employed, in the man-
 ner we have  shoAvn, the probable  efficacy  of scenick
 representations Avas suggested, and at once resorted to.
 In this field of adventure the celebrated Kotzebue made
 the first  essay.   At Berlin this  author learned of Dr.
 Gall the  technical terms of phrenology,  and  such
 other details pertaining  to the  science as he deemed
 most susceptible  of ridicule ;  and  when  he had done
 so, composed his play,  namely, Craniomania,  which
 Avas forthwith enacted at the Berlin Theatre ;  Dr. Gall,
 himself,  constituting one of  the audience.   Early in
 the year 1830, a farce, namely, " The Phrenologists,"
 was brought out and enacted, at Covent Garden Thea-
 tre,  London.   Ridicule was the object of this  piece  ;
 and the means resorted to for effecting the desired ob-
ject Avere, mainly, such puns and plays upon the tech-
 nical terms of the science as the ingenuity  of the au-
 thor suggested to him for the occasion.   An under-
 taking all similar to this was entered upon at Paris  ; 
172
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
but when the piece was ready for enactment  its exhi-
bition was prohibited by the authorities.
   These devices for exciting the ridicule of the popu-
lace were strongly seconded by the employment of the
caricaturist,  George  Cruikshank.   A publication  of
his,  issued at London, had for  its object the ridicule of
the science, by grotesque and ludicrous personifications
of  the  manifestations  of  the  various  phrenological
organs.   In some of these he Avas exceedingly happy;
while, in others, by a total misconception of phrenolo-
gical terms, his efforts were abortive, in the extreme.
   It will not have escaped  the attention of the reader
that in the examples we have given,  of this fierce con-
tention against phrenology, little or no attempt is made
to demonstrate  its erroneous  character,  while great
anxiety is constantly shown  to defame  it.  The same
is equally  true  of the greater part  of the opposition
that  phrenology has ever encountered.  A few attempts
have been  made, however, to exhibit its  fallacy,  and
want of foundation in  nature.   But,  to  have quoted
from these Avould have broken  the chain of reasoning
upon which their whole value and force must depend.
All the  more specifick forms of detailed objections to
the science, that have been hitherto offered, have been
treated  and discussed  in  the  pages of  the  different
phrenological periodicals,  already mentioned,  and  in 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
173
the various  works of  Drs. Gall  and Spurzheim,  Mr.
Combe,  Professor Caldwell,  Mons.  Broussais,  and
other phrenological authors.
   To condemnations so general,  or so vague, as those
Ave have exhibited in the numerous extracts  to  which
we have  invited the  reader's attention, detailed  and
systcmatick rejoinders  were, of course, impossible ;
and  this fact,  it may be supposed, had originally no
inconsiderable  influence in dictating the peculiar  spe-
cies  of  offensive warfare  in question.   To the baleful
influences of phrenology upon religion, so strenuously
insisted upon,  there was not, even at first, a general
assent,  either with the clergy or  the  laity.  Among
those who early gave their testimony, and the weight
of their influence  against this assumption, stands con-
spicuous  the  Rev. David Welch,  one of  the most
gifted divines of Scotland.  This gentleman Avas  one
of the original founders of the  Phrenological Society
of Edinburgh ;   and  at the dinner subsequently given
by that  society  to Dr. Spurzheim, namely, in 1828, he
gave the folloAving testimony in favour of the science.
Having been referred to by name, by  Dr. Spurzheim,
at the table, upon  that occasion, Dr. Welch, in reply
said  :  " I feel  as if  I  were discharging  a part of the
debt  of  gratitude under  which  he  [Spurzheim]  has
placed me, when 1 bear publick testimony, in  his pre-
                       16* 
174
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
sence, to the  pleasure and benefit which phrenology
has  afforded  me, in my  own  speculations,  and still
more to the  unspeakable  advantages I  have derived
from it, in my professional capacity.
   "As  reference  has  been made to this subject,  I
think it right to declare,  that I have found the greatest
benefit from  the  science, as a minister of the gospel.
I have been led to study the evidences of Christianity
anew, in connexion  with  phrenology, and I  feel  my
confidence in the truth  of our holy religion  increased
by this neAv  examination.   I have examined the doc-
trines of our church, also, one by one,  in connexion
Avith the truths of our new science, and have found the
most wonderful  harmony subsisting  between  them.
And, in dealing with my people, in the ordinary  duties
of my  calling,   the  practical benefit I  have derived
from phrenology is inestimable." *
   The  presence of  so  distinguished and esteemed a
 divine, upon such an occasion ;  and still  more, the
employment  of  language like  this, when addressing
phrenologists, would be deemed inexplicable, did not
these very facts disprove the charges  of  irreligion and
  * This clergyman has ever manifested the greatest zeal for
the success of phrenology;  and he has been repeatedly elected
President of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
175
moral  abandonment which,  as we have seen, have
been  profusely  heaped upon  the  votaries of  this
science.
  To the extract from Dr. Ryan's  Manual of Medical
Jurisprudence which we have  given, at page 152,
" the  Lancet," an  English medical periodical, uttered
the following  reply :
  " It is hard to treat of  such  consummate nonsense
in a serious  vein.   How  much longer  will men,  de-
parting from the calm precepts of rationality, abandon
their minds to childish prejudices, and their pens to the
propagation of the most atrocious  calumnies  against
those  from  whom  they differ in  opinion ?   When
Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, the cry
of ' Atheist' was hounded after his footsteps ;   when
Galileo deciphered  the language of the stars — when
Martin Luther opened the  book  of  reformation — their
fate was yet  worse :  there  neither were tongues nor
pens wanting to misconstrue the  calculations of Newton
into an overt denegation of the existence of a Supreme
Being;  and now,  Avhen  Gall, and  Spurzheim, and
Combe, and  Elliotson, — men  whose lives  were and
are beyond reproach, as pure at least as those of the
medical iconoclasts who hurl their declamatory missiles
at their heads, — when  these men  come fonvard, and
in the  plenitude of learning,  philanthropy and true re-
ligion, propound the firm data of  a neAV, and, in its 
176
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 broad facts, most useful science, up springs Dr. Ryan,
 and, despising arguments  and facts beyond contradic-
 tion, utters the  silly howl  of Atheism against them.
 Dr. Ryan  should know the  vulgarity, to say the  least
 of it, of this petty resort of all-confounding dogmatists.
 Whenever an ill-informed and shallow writer feels the
 ground of reason and truth sinking beneath his feet, he
 tries to avert his fall by catching hold of and dragging
 down the character  of  his opponent.  Nor is the  arti-
 fice Avithout a transient triumph.  The crafty disputant
 knows how readily mankind  are prejudiced by a name,
 and in nearly the same spirit  and expectation that in-
 duce a burglar  to  accuse the watch-dog  of  hydro-
 phobia, he  fixes the libel  of ' Atheism' on  the philo-
 sopher, whom  the Avorld,  for  a season, then cuts off.
 Truth,  hoAvever, is certain, though  tardy, in its  pro-
 gress ;  and the phrenologists have at least this conso-
 lation, that  idle and  noisy declamation never yet made
 a rational man the enemy  of correct, or the proselyte
 of erroneous, opinions."
   To the attacks, other than theological,  there have not
 been wanting able and efficient refutations, from sources
 of the highest claims to talent, candour  and respecta-
 bility.   In  answer  to  the  general,  and  oft-repeated
 charges that phrenology emanated from  the  ignorance
of its promoters;  that its anatomical discoveries are
but pretensions ;  that it can be of no practical  utility, 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
177
if true, &c, the Medico-Chirurgical  Review, London,
in 1826, held the following language :
   "Phrenology is more intimately connected with the
applications of medical knowledge  than may at first
sight be apparent.   On this account, therefore, Ave re-
cognise, in the science of its  principles a legitimate
and useful subject of professional inquiry.   We must
acknowledge, at the same  time, that we feel impelled,
by the pure  force of multifarious and unquestionable
evidence, to regard this  as the most  intelligible and
self-consistent system of  mental philosophy that  has
ever yet been presented to the contemplation of inquisi-
tive men.    *  *  *   *    We might have expatiated
at great length on the utility of  this  science, in its  ap-
plications  to the  purposes of education,  legislation,
political economy,  criminal jurisprudence,  history,
legal and  theological elocution, and, above all,  to the
true philosophy of medicine ;  but we  have abstained
from this indulgence, in the belief that the  foretaste of
an  intellectual  luxury  we have  provided for  our
readers, will  stimulate  them to desire the  enjoyments
of a full repast."
   Much to the same end and purpose is the folloAving,
from Professor Uccelli's great work upon "  the Organi-
zation of the Human  Frame" — a book  Avhich  the
reader will  recollect Ave have before had occasion to
introduce to his notice : 
178
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
  " The physiology of the brain unfolds to us a  philo-
sophy of man, founded on his organization, and conse-
quently in great and perfect harmony with nature.  It
is founded  on observation, on experience, and on re-
searches a thousand times repeated, both in man and
in other  animals.  Reasoning has done nothing more
than seize the results, and fix the principles, Avhich are
derived from the facts;  and, on this account, the nu-
merous propositions which  phrenology embraces,  al-
though often subversive of received opinions, are never
at variance among themselves.   Every thing is in har-
mony, every thing is  connected, every  point  throws
light  upon the rest, and every fact corroborates the
general truth.  The explanation  of the most abstruse
phenomena of the moral and intellectual nature of man
and of animals, is no longer a play of gratuitous sup-
positions ;  many of the most hidden causes of the dif-
ferences of character of the species, of nations, of the
sexes, from infancy even  to decrepitude, are  demon-
strated  and laid open,  as  are also the causes of the
alienation of the mental functions.
  " In short, man, that  hitherto  inextricable being, is
made known.   Phrenology  composes  and decomposes
his thoughts, his  talents, and  his dispositions.   It  de-
fines the object and the  sphere  of his  activity.  It be-
comes the fruitful source of most important applications
to medicine, to philosophy, to jurisprudence, to morals, 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.           179

to education,  to history, which,  on the other hand,
become as many guarantees of the truth of the physio-
logy of the brain.
  " The  anatomical and  physiological  doctrines of
Gall, in regard to the brain and nerves, cost, to their
indefatigable author, the  labour of more than thirty
years, spent in continual activity, and incessant obser-
vation ;  and, in our opinion, the truths announced by
him deserve to be subjected to the most  rigorous exa-
mination  of the learned, who, without  prejudice or
partiality, and  after the most rigid scrutiny and multi-
plied observation, may decide with confidence both on
the doctrine in general, and also on the true  nature
and situation of the organs, and  whether the number
ought to be diminished or increased, the latter of which
I consider by much the more probable.
   "But  all great truths, and  especially those which
are subversive of long established  opinions, supported
by venerated names, require Time, that impartial judge
of every thing, to confirm their  incontestibility, before
they can become generally admitted."
   Great inquietude seems to have pervaded the minds
of those who wished ill  to the success of phrenology,
in relation to the strength and validity of the successive
assaults that were,  from time to time, made  upon it;
and for this reason  it was  that Avhenever  a  paper or
pamphlet Avas uttered  against  the  science,  it  wa3 
180
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
received and treated, by those who contemned the dis-
coveries  of Gall, as  conclusively destructive  of its
every pretension ;  and yet, upon the appearance of a
subsequent  effort,  of a  like  kind,  the  same  honours
were uniformly awarded to this last;  and so  on, con-
tinually.  The  succession of  deaths, as  it  may not
inaptly  be termed, to which phrenology has in this way
been subjected,  is thus commented upon by Mr. George
Combe, in his answer to Stone,* in 1829 :
   " Ever since  Dr. Gordon's celebrated attack  on
phrenology, in the 49th number of the Edinburgh  Re-
view, fourteen years ago, the  newspapers  of this city,
[Edinburgh,]  with few exceptions, have  announced
with high encomiums, each successive  attack on  phre-
nology as utterly subversive of its pretensions.   The
very fact of  their repeating  this proclamation,  year
  * This  Mr. Stone had previously written and published one
refutation of phrenology ;  but not satisfied with what he had
done, he  attempted its  destruction  a second time.  His first
effort, namely, " Evidences against Phrenology," had been re-
viewed, with most searching severity, in the " London Medical
and Surgical Journal" —which work thus added its testimony
to that of the  " Medico-Chirurgical Review,"  in favour of
phrenology.  Few expositions of any author have been  more
disastrous in number, or more withering and disreputable  to
character, than those fixed upon Mr. Stone, by this review of
his  " maiden assault."  Possibly it was the face  thus put
upon his first overthrow of phrenology, that induced his second
effort, with the same end and aim. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
181
after year,  during so long a period seems never  to
have struck  themselves as  demonstrating  its falsity
and  absurdity.   If  phrenology  was refuted  by Dr.
Gordon, why did they laud Dr. Roget for demolishing
it.*   If Dr. Roget succeeded, why did they  praise Dr.
  ~ This author produced his paper against phrenology in 1818;
and it was published in  the supplement to the Encyclopedia
Brittanica.   During the  present year, (1839,) an edition of Dr.
Roget's Physiology has  been issued at  Philadelphia, to which
this article, from the Encyclopedia, is subjoined, as an appendix.
The appearance of this book,  from the American  press,  has
been made an occasion, by some of our newspaper editors, to
call the attention of phrenologists to the fact;  to premise that
the article in question will probably not be very acceptable to
them;  that they must buckle on their armour to meet the au-
thor, who is no common adversary;  that he is author of one of
the Bridgewaler Treatises ;  that he is esteemed one of the first
physiologists of Europe ;   and  finally, that the phrenologists
will not, with this warning fairly before them, be likely to dis-
pute either his competency or his knowledge in the premises.
From all this we must infer these editors did not know  that Dr.
Roget penned his attack twenty-one years since, and that, con-
sequently, phrenologists were wholly familiar  with all he had
offered against them.   Nor were  they aware,  it seems, that
fifteen  years  since, the  Edinburgh  Phrenological Journal con-
tained a detailed  review of Dr. Roget's objections — to which
they are respectfully referred for some of the  opinions  which
phrenologists entertain of the Doctor's attempt to overthrow
 their science.
   As we have been thus reminded that Dr. Roget is the author
of one of the Bridgewater Treatises, we shall be justified in in-
 troducing a passage or  two from that work to the notice of our
                             17 
182
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
Barclay  so extravagantly, for  subverting  what  was
already  overturned 1 — If Dr.  Barclay  Avas  a fatal
enemy, why did they extol Mr. Jeffrey to the skies, as
the prince of all  anti-phrenologists? — If Jeffrey  left
no shred of  the science  sticking  to another, Avhy  did
they  sound a loud acclaim to Sir  William Hamilton,
for his reputed  victories  over its  scattered  members 1
— and if  Sir   William's  brows  were decorated with
readers.  Firstly, however, we will  go back the twenty-one
years, to the Doctor's attack upon phrenology, for some pas-
sages there, with which we wish to contrast what we  shall
quote from his  much later  work, namely,  the  Bridgewater
Treatise.  In his attack upon  phrenology Dr. Roget asserts :
" The whole fabrick rests upon the validity of a single proposi-
tion, which, in itself is extremely questionable, namely, that the
size of an organ is in  general a criterion of the energy with which
its function  is performed."   In his  Bridgewater Treatise he
says :  " Confining our inquiries, then, to the more intelligible
intellectual phenomena  displayed by the higher  animals,  we
readily trace a gradation which corresponds with the development
of the central nervous organ, or brain.  *   *   *   *  In propor-
tion as the intellectual faculties of animals are multiplied, and
embrace a wider sphere, additional magnitude and complication
of structure are given to the nervous substance which is the organ
of those faculties.   The  greater the power of combining ideas,
and of retaining them in the memory, the greater do we find
the development of the cerebral hemispheres.   *   *    *   *   In
man, in whom all the faculties of sense and intellect are so har-
moniously combined, the brain is not only the largest in size,  but
beyond all comparison the most complicated in its structure."  Is
size, then, no measure of power  i. 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
183
Avell-earned  laurels,  on account of  his  magnanimous
achievements, why do they noAV cling to Mr. Stone,  as
if no other champion had tilted with  success against
phrenology ?  The only inference  that can reasonably
be draAvn  is, that those  who uttered these  eulogiums
entertained  a  great  yet childish   prejudice  against
phrenology,— that they  dreaded its  ultimate triumph,
as implying a censure  on their own conduct  tOAvards
  Again.  In 1818, in his attack upon phrenology, Dr. Roget
says :  " The brain, that large mass of pulpy substance, which
fills the cavity of the cranium, is, even at the present day, as
incomprehensible in its functions as it is subtile and complex in
its anatomy."  Now, in his Bridgewater Treatise, the Doctor
informs us that, " Experiments and pathological observations,
however, seem to show that the  hemispheres of the brain are
the chief instruments by which the intellectual  operations are
carried on ;   that the central parts, such as  the optick lobes,
and the medulla oblongata, are those principally concerned in
sensation ;  and that the cerebellum is the chief sensorial agent
in voluntary motion."   Here, then, is a  division of the brain
into separate organs !  But again, in the same treatise, he says:
"All the parts met with in the brain  of  animals exist also in
the brain of man ;  while  several of those  found  in man are
either extremely small, or altogether absent in the brains of the
lower animals."  What is this last but phrenology ?  We quote
it from the Bridgewater Treatise ;  yet the same passage occurs
again in the author's "Outlines of Physiology" — so valua-
ble does he deem it, and so important that it be known and re-
membered.   The brain, here, is certainly a very different thing
from that "pulpy  substance," of the functions of which the
Doctor knew nothing, in 1818 ;  and  whatever he  would have 
184
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
its founders, — but  that, even Avhile  they condemned
it, they  were  conscious of  being ignorant  both of its
nature and its evidence, and Avere beset by that inward
misgiving,  that secret uneasiness, Avhich ever haunts
those who  oppose  truth on  the  strength of prejudice
alone.   It was this state of  feeling Avhich caused  them
to hail  with deep interest  every  shadow of an argu-
ment, and  every  phantom  of a  fact by Avhich  they
 us believe, concerning  his not  having changed his views, it is
 clear that these concessions  have been  forced from hiin by
 phrenological  investigations, and the progress which  phreno-
 logy has made since he first essayed its overthrow.
   In 1823 the London Medico-Chirurgical Review, while re-
 marking upon the claims of phrenology, spoke thus of our au-
 thor and his attack :  " Dr. Roget,  indeed, is another author
 of consideration, who has delivered an adverse opinion  on their
 merits ;  but he  appears rather as a historian of the doctrines,
 who sums up his  account by delivering an opinion against
 them, than as a regular enemy who comes into the field to op-
 pose and destroy them.  On this account we do  not hold this
 gentleman as pledged even on the side which  he has espoused,
 so as to stake his reputation on  their futility, but view him as a
 critick open to conviction,  if he has pronounced  an erroneous
judgement."
  Whether the Doctor holds  himself thus open to conviction
 we know not ;  but, that

      "A change came o'er the  spirit of his dream,"

between  1818, and the time of his penning  his Bridgewater
Treatise, we have clearly shown — be the cause what it may. 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
ISo
 might justify, to their OAvn minds, the doubtful conduct
 Avhich they had pursued."
   In concluding  the  same  article,  Mr. Combe  ob-
 serves :
   " It is now thirty-three  years since Dr. Gall first
 announced his discovery of the functions of the brain,
 and it is just so many years since an emperour and his
 nobles,  and the  press  of Europe,  set themselves to
 subvert  his'conclusions,  subdue his spirit, and  laugh
 his doctrines to scorn ;   but  the doctrines have spread
 over Europe,  and taken root in Asia  and America.
 It is an incredible assertion,  then, to say  that Dr. Gall,
 Dr.  Spurzheim,  or  any other individuals, have  set
 kingly poAver,  priestly bigotry, and philosophick pride,
 at naught by the  mere force  of their talents, Avithout a
 basis for their  tenets in  reason  or in fact.  The com-
 pliment to  their genius, implied in such a statement, is
 too extravagant to be admitted, even by their most en-
 thusiastick admirers.  Nothing  but  the force  of truth
 could have carried them victorious through such hosts
 arrayed against them;  and the same quiet but resist-
 less power will ensure their  final  triumph over every
 obstacle  that may  be presented to  their progress."
   The position, namely, that phrenology  is a delusion,
 because  very few scientifick men,  distinguished  for
their  attainments  either in  mental or physical philo-
sophy had  given their  assent to  its  doctrines,  was
                         17 * 
186
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 early and  often assumed.   In the Royal Academy of
 Paris, in 1836, Professor Broussais, in a discussion in-
 volving  phrenology, thus  replied to  this  argument :
 " This, indeed, is a most feeble objection.  In all ages,
 the savans have been the most opposed to the diffusion
 of neAV discoveries.   The dread of ridicule, envy, the
 reluctance to be taught any  subject by younger and
 less lettered men, and a host of other feelings — these
 often constitute  the  motives of this opposition."   Mo-
 tives like these have, indeed, but too often  blighted the
 fairest hopes of the benefactors of mankind ; and they
 have, in every age, constituted stumbling blocks, which
 those engaged in creating, as  it were, or in advancing
 any one of the  sciences,  have ever been fated to en-
 counter.  In the earlier days of phrenological research,
 this evil weighed heavily  upon its  advancement:  so
 much so, that great moral  courage was indispensable
 to those who engaged in its promulgation.   And even
 at a much  later  period, this evil  continued a blighting
 one, in its  consequences.   The refusal of the "Royal
 Society," of London, to allow a  phrenological paper,
 which had been read before them, to  appear,  in their
 printed Transactions, upon the evasive—because un-
 true— assumption that  it contained nothing new, and
therefore came not within their rules :  the refusal of
the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,"
London, to insert,  in the pages of the  " Penny Cyclo- 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
187
podia," a treatise upon phrenology, when offered them
free of cost, upon  the  plea  that, in the opinion of the
Society's  editors,   " phrenology,  and its  connexion
Avith the moral and intellectual sciences is not  such as
would justify them in  adopting  the  offer" :   and the
boorish personal rudeness of the philosopher, Dugald
SteAvart Avho, when Dr. Spurzheim called at  his oavh
house, to  deliver a letter of introduction, refused to re-
ceive the  disciple of Gall,  or even to tender  him the
use of a  chair — all these  are manifestations of that
opposition to the diffusion of new discoveries, of Avhich
Mons. Broussais has so well explained the causes.
   But conversions  to  the truth of phrenology, among
the learned, seem  recently,  in despite of all  this, to
have  been not uncommon, as many illustrious names,
in the ranks of  these,  are iioav found enrolled  upon its
side,  and bearing testimony to its value.  Particularly
is this true of  medical men, the most  prominent of
whom, in various  countries, have generally  embraced
the science  with ardour, and  defended it with  success.
It is  the  medical  profession,  indeed, rather than any
other, Avhich directly leads to an investigation of the
nature and  functions  of the brain ;  and  this  may ex-
plain why it is  that, among the  best  informed, in dif-
ferent communities, the  prominent medical gentlemen
are more  frequently phrenologists.  To this is OAving,
also,  the fact that the leading medical periodicals are 
189
HISTORY  OF PHRENOLOGY.
generally the staunch and  standing defenders of the
science :  and the same is true of authors upon physio-
logy.  That a correct estimate  may be formed, by the
reader, of the value of this remark, the names of some
of these are subjoined : beginning, then, with France,
Ave  have,  among others,  Andral,  Professor in the
Faculty  of  Medicine, of Paris;  F.  J. V. Broussais,
M. D., Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, and Chief
Physician of the Val-de-Gr&ce ;  Cloquet (Jules,) Pro-
fessor of  the Faculty  of Medicine, of Paris, and Sur-
geon to the  Hospital  of St.  Louis;  Falret, Physician
to the Salpetriere ;  Ferrus, Physician to the Bicetre ;
Focillon, Assistant Physician to the Invalids ; Pinel,
Physician;   Rostan,   Physician to  the  Salpetriere :
Sanson,  Surgeon to the Hdtel Dieu ;  Voisin, Treille,
Thiery, Teissier, Tanchou,  Sorlin, Sarlandiere,  Pres-
sat, Ribes, Richy, Roberton, Robouan, Pilliot, Pichard,
Pariset, Moynier, Monnoye, Mondiere, Mege,  Maurin,
Lombard, Londes, Lelut, Legallois, Leblond, Laroche,
Lanyer, Lamouroux,  Jaquemin, Jolly, Koref, Lacor-
biere, Frapart, Foville, Fossati,  Forget, Fontaneilles,
Foissac, Dupuis, Abraham, Amussat, Bouillaud, Ca-
nuet, Chapelain,  Corby, Dannecy, Dauverne, Devil-
liers, Doin, Dubuisson, and Vimont, Physicians.  Most
of these are found in the list of members of the Paris
Phrenological Society, as early as 1831.  Of the phy-
sicians who  have since added their names thereto, and 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
189
 of  those, not members, Avho have embraced and  sus-
 tain the science, in France, since that period, we have
 no  means of furnishing the names  even of the most
 prominent.
  In the British Islands the members of Phrenological
 Societies are stated at upwards of one thousand ;  and
 of  these  one third  are  avowed to be medical men.
 Among the most  prominent  medical phrenologists in
 these  Islands, stand  the  names  of  the late Dr. John
 Abcrnethy, F. R. S. ;  James Johnson, M. D., Member
 of the  Royal College  of Physicians, London, Editor of
 the  Medico-Chirurgical Review, and late Physician to
 the  King ;  Dr. Andrew Combe ; Dr. Gregory ;  Dr.
 Elliotson, Medical Professor in the University of Lon-
 don ;  Adam Hunter, M. D., Member  of the  Royal
 Medical  Society, Edinburgh,  and  Physician  to the
 House  of Recovery, Leeds; Thomas Buchanan, Licen-
 tiate of the University of GlasgoAv ;   Alex.  Chalmers,
 M. D. ; Robert Hamilton, M. D ; Benjamin Bell, Fel-
 low of the Royal College of Surgeons, London and
 Edinburgh, &c.
  In the United  States, Professor  Charles Caldwell,
 M. D.,  Drs.  John Bell, and  Benjamin  R. Coates, the
 late  Dr. Physick, Professor W. Byrd Powell, M. D.,
 William Gibson, M. D., Thomas Harris, M. D., John
W.  Francis,  M. D.,  J. C. Beals, M. D.,  A.  Sidney
Doane, M. D., S. G. Howe, M. D., M. S. Perry, M. D., 
190
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
J. F. Flagg, M. D., John Flint, M. D., N. B. Shurtliff,
M. D., Benjamin C. Joslyn, M. D., Caleb Ticknor, M.
D., Ch. A. Lee, M. D.,  P. H. Wildman, M. D.,  Ben-
jamin Drake,  M. D., &c.   Scattered  over various
other parts of  the  world  there are, also, many distin-
guished medical  phrenologists, among whom wc may
name Professor Hoppe, M. D., Copenhagen ; William
Wagner,  M. D.,  Berlin ; Professor C. Otto, Copen-
hagen ;  Frederick Leighton, M. D., St. Petersburgh ;
Professor Uccelli, Florence ; and George M. Paterson,
M. D.,  Dr. Abel,  Physician to  the Governour-General,
J. Grant, Surgeon-General, &c, Calcutta.
  Let not  these be thought catalogues of the medical
names connected with phrenology :  they are far from
it, and  are only  meant  as  very limited references ;
while numbers that have  been  omitted are equally pro-
minent  with many here enumerated.   From several  of
these,  being more  particularly phrenological writers,
Ave  have already quoted, more or less fully.   We have
placed the name of the celebrated Dr. John Abernethy,
of London, in  the  above  list ;   and as we  have  often
heard, and lastly,  within a few months,  this individual
cited as an opponent of phrenology, we quote his own
AArords upon the subject.   In 1821, Dr. Abernethy pub-
lished  "Reflections on Gall  and Spurzheim''s System
of Physiognomy  and Phrenology,"  addressed  to the
Court of Assistants of the College of Surgeons, London, 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
191
in which he treated it as the  true system of the philo-
sophy of mind.   The following is his language :
  "The foregoing  representation of  human nature,
when vieAved in its proper light, and with due attention,
must,  I think,  please every  one;  for it  is not like
others  heretofore  presented  to us, which appear in
comparison but as  mere diagrams, the  result  of  study
and imagination ; whilst this seems like a portrait from
life,  by masterly hands.   It  is not,  indeed, exactly
like  any individual, but capable, by  alterations, of
being  made to  resemble  every one ;  so that by the
help  of a few touches we are able readily to show
' Virtue her OAvn image, Vice her own deformity,' in
all their diversities.
   " I  had great gratification in being intimate with Dr.
Spurzheim whilst he remained in London,  and in a
kind of badinage I proposed to him questions which he
answered with facility,  and in a manner that sheAved a
very perfect knowledge of human nature.   For in-
stance, I inquired whether he had discovered any organ
 of common sense ?  and he replied in  the negative.  I
 then demanded in Avhat that quality consisted 1  and he
 answered,  in  the   balance  of power betAveen  other
 organs.  This  answer  shews Avhy a  quality so pecu-
 liarly useful is common to  all and rare in any :  for
 there  are but few Avho have  not prejudices or partiali-
 ties, hopes or fears, or  predominant feelings,  which 
192
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
 prevent them  from  pursuing that middle and  equal
 course of thought and conduct, which unbiassed consi-
 deration, or common sense,  indicates and  directs.  I
 inquired of Dr. Spurzheim if there was any organ of
 self-control, or if not, Avhence that power  originated ?
 He said,  'it  is the result of  a predominating motive:
 thus, justice may control avarice, and avarice, sensua-
 lity.'   In short, I readily acknowledge my inability to
 offer any rational objection to Gall's and Spurzheim's
 System of Phrenology, as affording a satisfactory  ex-
 planation  of the motives  of human  actions.
    "Their represeptation simplifies our notions of such
 motives, by lessening the number of reputed agents;
 thus, the Avant of benevolence and virtuous dispositions,
 Avith excitement to anger, produces malevolence, and
 this conjoined with concealment, malice.  I need  not
 recite a variety of instances, since they are sufficiently
 apparent.   We perceive  that mankind  may be  natu-
 rally benevolent, conscientious, and humble-minded, or
 the reverse ;  just as they are naturally timid or  fear-
 less,  resolute or fickle, candid or reserved ;  Ave per-
 ceive that  they may have natural  talents,  qualifying
 them to excel as mathematicians, calculators, linguists,
 draughtsmen  or musicians ;   and also that they  may
 possess various degrees and kinds of intellectual  poAver.
Yet, Avhatcver may be the natural  character or  abili-
ties of the man,  he  neither deserves praise nor censure, 
             HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          193

for he is but Avhat nature made him.   We farther per-
ceive that  real virtue consists in  the  efforts which we
make - to  cultivate  our talents,  rational powers, and
moral sentiments, and to  educate  and control  the in-
feriour propensities of our nature, so as to alloAV to each
only its proper  sphere and  mode of  action,  thereby
rendering our  conduct conformable  to  the acknow-
ledged laAvs of moral rectitude, and  religious obliga-
tion.  And, if Ave Avere to examine our  OAvn conduct
and that of  others by this test, Ave shall  probably dis-
cover but little in the former, which we are warranted
warmly to approve,  or  in the latter strongly to con-
demn.   Nature  has not only given  to man good and
honourable  sentiments,  but  also  made  it his highest
gratification to employ and indulge them ;  so that we
rarely deny ourselves  this supreme  pleasure, except
when prevented by selfish considerations.
   "Now Gall and  Spurzheim have represented  the
office of the superiour  intellectual faculties and  senti-
ments as  affording motives and possessing powers that
can, and  ought, to  control and educate  the  inferiour
propensities.  But  there have been, and  are some who
seem to Avish it believed that human  actions are  under
the control of these inferiour propensities ;  allowing,
indeed, that the fear of great personal evil may deler
us  from  compliance  Avith  their urgent solicitations.
They also  represent the absence of guilt  but  as  the
                        18 
194
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
result  of the Avant of temptation.  Yet if we inquiro
why such  degrading and disgusting  views of human
nature are presented to us ?  Why opinions are incul-
cated  which tend to weaken virtuous  efforts, by de-
claring their inefficacy?   We find that the authors of
them,  from a vieAV of their OAvn conduct, and that of
the baser part of mankind, are convinced that there is
no virtue in them, and therefore infer that others must
equally want it.  Thus do  they presumptuously  ' call
virtue, hypocrite,' and ' malevolently pluck away the
rose from the fair bosom of innocence to place a blister
there.' "
  Probably no  man paid more close attention  to phre-
nology, and all  that Avas offered, both for and against
it, during the early war respecting it, in Europe, than
Dr. James  Johnson;   while all concede his full ability
to form a clear and rational opinion upon the merits of
the  respective arguments.   In 1823, while speaking of
the  doctrines of phrenology, in the Medico-Chirurgical
Review, of which he was editor, Dr. Johnson employed
the  following language :
  " No person is to be met with, who is able to  show
a clear and philosophical reason, Avhy these [the doc-
trines of phrenology,]  ought to be disregarded ;  and it
is a curious fact, well worthy of observation,  that, ex-
cept the late Dr. Gordon, of Edinburgh, who fell, as it
were, into a serious discussion inadvertently, and un- 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
195
intentionally, by his intemperate  article  in the Edin-
burgh Review, no author of note,  either medical or
metaphysical,  has chosen fairly  to grapple with  the
subject,  and expose ils  errours;  and of those  who
have written, we do not know one, who has made good
his objections, in the judgement of impartial men, and
replied satisfactorily to the answers  given by the disci-
ples of the new school."
   Upon the  occasion of the death  of Dr. Spurzheim, in
1832,  the  Boston  Medical Association, directed  the
proceedings  of a special meeting published, in which
they unanimously  thus express their views  of  Spurz-
heim's doctrines and labours :
   " The Boston Medical Association having received
with great satisfaction the visit of the  late Dr.  Spurz-
heim ; and (heir acquaintance with him having inspired
them  Avith high respect for his researches in anatomy
and physiology, and a deep interest in  his opinions on
the moral and physical improvement of man ;  there-
fore,
   "Resolved, That Ave recommend to our fellow citi-
zens the opinions of the deceased, on the improvement
of our systems of education; and especially Avhat relates
to the development of the physical  powers and moral
dispositions; and as they can no more expect to hear
them from the  lips of our lamented friend, that  they 
196
HISTORY OP  PHRENOLOGY.
lose no time in making a practical application of  them
to the existing state of our institutions, for the  culture
of the human mind."
  We have stated that the leading medical periodicals
have  very generally adopted or defended phrenology.
We may mention, of  this number, the " Medico-Chi-
rurgical  Review," the "Medical  and Surgical  Jour-
nal," and the  " Lancet," all of London ;   and the
" Transylvania  Medical Journal," the "North Ameri-
can  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal," the American
Journal of the Medical Sciences," &c,  in the United
States.
  Physiological  authors, also, Ave  have remarked, are
no less phrenologists.   Professor Caldwell, whose offi-
cial and professional  duties have  long and constantly
urged him to an intimate  acquaintance  with all these.
made, in 1833, the following statement :
  " Every system of physiology, with one or  two ex-
ceptions,  written  within  the  last  twelve years,  into
which Ave  have  looked, admits the general soundness
of phrenology, and adopts both its tenets and its terms.
Of almost every  Avork of merit,  treating of  the dis-
eased functions of the brain  and nerves,  that has ap-
peared since 1820, the same is true.   Even the authors
of such books Avho do not openly profess themselves
phrenologists,  adopt the principles and language of the 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
197
science, and apply them to their purposes, with decided
benefit,  as  well  to their oAvn  reputation, as  to their
readers."
  The proportion of exceptions, since the  time in ques-
tion, according to the best data at our command, is still
less than is here allowed by Professor  CaldAvell, up to
that period.
  We have said that medical men, from the nature of
their  professional  inquiries, had been  particularly led
to a knowledge of  phrenology, and that they had very
extensively embraced  its doctrines ;  and  we have ad-
duced the  proofs of that  position.   But, while men of
this class have decided  for the truth and value of phre-
nology,  they have not done so  alone :  distinguished
men,  of every class,  have accompanied them.   In
1824 the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh consisted
of eighty-six members, of Avhom nineteen were private
gentlemen, wilh Sir George M'Kenzie, Bart.,  at their
head.  Of the  remainder,  nineteen Avere in the law ;
four were ministers of the Scotch kirk ; two colonels ;
three  captains;  five  artists;  with civil engineers,
bankers,  merchants,  school teachers,  &c.  " There
were members," says the Medico-Chirurgical Review,
"of both Oxford and Cambridge, Fellows of the Royal
Society  of both London and Edinburgh, physicians  and
surgeons of great medical  establishments, a professor
of the  University of  Transylvania, and another of
                        18 * 
198
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
Berlin."   In like manner the Phrenological Society of
Paris, even  at its first creation, embraced men of high
distinction in the state, in literature, the  sciences,  &c.
Among these were the king's counsel; the head of the
department  of publick instruction ;  the Inspector-Gene-
ral of the Houses of Detention, in  France ;  the editor
of the Revue Encyclopedique; a civil engineer, a pro-
fessor  in the Faculty  of Law,  at  Paris; naturalists,
advocates, &c. &c.   In both these countries the num-
ber of prominent  and  distinguished men  that have em-
braced  the  doctrines  of phrenology, has greatly in-
creased  since  the  dates  exhibited above;  including
those of every prominent walk and profession.
   In the United States many  of  the illustrious names
belonging to Science, Literature,  the  Arts, and  the
more exalted walks of private life,  are found either di-
rectly connected  with phrenology, or yielding  to its
value their approving testimony,  by the  bestowment of
honourable  distinction  upon the living, and by expres-
sions of regret  for the  dead, whose only  claims to
these manifestations  of their  reverence  are based
upon phrenological services  rendered  to the human
family.    Upon the occasion of the  death of Dr. Spurz-
heim,  already detailed,  a meeting was convened at
Boston, to adopt  those  "measures which  should ex-
press a sense of the publick loss sustained by the death
of this distinguished man, and of the impression made 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
199
by his talents and virtues," when the subject was com-
mitted  to  the following  committee, namely :  Josiah
Quincy, LL. D.,  President  of  Harvard  University;
Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D. ;  Joseph Story, LL. D.;
Joseph Tuckerman, D. D. ;  Charles Follen, J.U. D.;
Jonathan Barber, M. D.;  Charles Beck, P. D.; William
Grigg, M. D.; George Bond, and Charles P. Curtis,
Esquires.
   At New-York, upon the close of one of Mr. Combe's
courses of lectures, in December, 1838, a meeting of
the  class  was  held,  at  which the following,  among
other resolutions, was  passed :
   " Resolved, That in the application  of phrenology
to the investigation of human character, and  the prac-
tical purposes of life, we  perceive a new era  in mental
and physiological science, in Avhich we believe  human
inquiry will  be greatly facilitated,  and  the amount of
human happiness essentially increased."
   To tender this sentiment, with others, to Mr. Combe,
the following committee was raised : Silas Jones, Esq.
Counsellor at Law, and Superintendent of  the New-
York Institution  for the Blind ;  Judah Hammond, Esq.,
Judge  of the Marine Court;   John  B. Scott, Esq.,
Judge of the Marine Court; Loring D. Chapin, Esq.,
Member of  the  Legislature, &c; Robert Sedgwick,
Esq., Counsellor at Law, &c.; A. Lee, M. D., Pro-
fessor of Materia Medica  in the  New-York University; 
200
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
B. F. Joslin, M. D., Professor of Mathematicks and
Natural Philosophy, in the New-York University ;  E.
Parmley, M. D. ;  J. Neilson,  M. D.;  J. W. Francis,
M. D. ; A. S. Doane, M. D.,  Professor of Physiology
in  the New-York University  ;  Caleb  Ticknor, Pro-
fessor of Hygiene in the New-York University ;  and
Joel Foster, M. D.
   At a like  meeting, for  a similar purpose,  held at
Philadelphia, in the early part  of the year 1839, it was,
by members of the class,
   " Resolved,  That  they have listened with  great
pleasure and mental profit  to the comprehensive views
of human nature, and to the elucidations of individual
character, set  forth  by Mr. Combe,  in his lectures,
just completed :   and that in these  they recognise
many important suggestions  for  the  improvement of
education and jurisprudence,  and the consequent  in-
crease of the happiness of mankind."
   To present this resolution to Mr.  Combe, and to  re-
quest him to repeat his course of lectures, the folloAving
committee was  appointed : Nicholas  Biddle, LL. D.,
President  of the Board of Trustees of the Girard Col-
lege,  and  Member  of the American Philosophical So-
ciety ; Joseph Hartshorne, M. D., Member of the Ame-
rican  Philosophical Society ; Benjamin  W. Richards,
former Mayor of  the city;  William Gibson, M. D.,
Member of the Philosophical Society ; Thomas Harris, 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
201
M. D., Member of the Philosophical Society ;  Alexan-
der D. Bache, President of the Girard College ; Rem-
brandt Peale, a painter of celebrity ;  Charles Picot,
Teacher ; and John Bell, M. D., Member of the Ame-
rican Philosophical  Society.
  To the foregoing  names many additions might, in-
deed, be made, for each  country ;  yet they  could, at
best, be expected to add weight to such a catalogue,
only in their numerical proportion.
   Phrenology  has been  some years  recognised  as a
science at the London Hospital, the London Institution,
and Granger's Theatre of Anatomy and Medicine ;
and the  Professor  of  the Principles and Practice of
Physick, at the London University has,  for about the
same  period,  taught the treatment of Insanity  upon
phrenological  principles.   Several  private  schools,
also, in England, have been conducted upon the  prin-
ciples of this science, and with marked success.  What
has been done,  if  any  thing,  in this way,  upon the
European continent, we have not the  means of deter-
mining.   The London Lancet stated, indeed, a few
years since, that the government of  France had  sent
to  England  for information,  in detail, of the condition
of phrenology there,  Avith the vieAv, as was  supposed,
of collecting  materials for  a practical  application of
the principles of phrenology to the education of youth,
and the reformation of criminals.  Many of the Medi- 
202
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
cal Professors, of  France, and some,  certainly,  of
those of various other nations of the old world, both
teach the science, and apply it in practice ; but whether
other  publick  application  of  it, in  these  countries,
prevails, we have no means, at  this time, of determi-
ning.  In the United States, we have seen that phreno-
logy has long constituted a part of the regular medical
instruction  imparted by Professor Caldwell, though it
has not been generally, and is not  now, so taught, in
the medical schools ; nor are  we aware  that it has at
any time constituted a part  of the  regular courses  of
publick instruction, other than medical, of this country.
Individuals, both in the United Stales and in Europe,
who have  acquired a competent knowledge  of phre-
nology,  practically  to  apply  it, constantly, though
unostentatiously, regulate their intercourse,  with the
members of society, by its lights and principles.
   During the gradual and unremitted progress of phre-
nology, as disclosed in the preceding pages, voluntary
associations, under the denomination of Phrenological
Societies, were formed, in great numbers ; having for
their  object its farther advancement and cultivation.
Several of  these have been already more  than once
adverted to.   They are scattered over the British Is-
lands in numbers  too great for enumeration  here;
while in France, Denmark, and, we  believe  Germany,
they are also  found.   Even in Calcutta one  of these 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
203
 was established as early as the year  1825.  In the
 United States, perhaps the greater part of the principal
 cities and towns  have  each a similar organization.
 Some of these are incorporated, Avhile others are not;
 and they  have usually connected Avith  them libraries,
 and cabinets of sculls, casts, &c, for  the  use of the
 members.
   The  general connexion of  prominent  men  with
 phrenology which the preceding pages exhibit, is suffi-
 ciently detailed for our purpose, and as much so as is
 compatible Avith our plan.   The  individual opinions
 and reasonings of many of these,  upon the science,
 the reader has already encountered, in the preceding
 portion of this history ; and farther illustration will be
 given, to this  branch of our subject, by the additions
 which follow.
   Mr. George  Combe was recently a candidate for the
 chair of Logick in the University of Edinburgh ; and
 as is  there customary, upon such  occasions, testimo-
 nials were collected  for  the purpose of sustaining the
 candidate's claims  to  the  station  he sought.   Very
 many of these, in the case of Mr. Combe, were almost
 wholly  of a phrenological  character.   The testimo-
 nials  thus collected were  all subsequently published in
 a volume, at Edinburgh : and from the collection thus
 formed Ave extract the following.   Professor C. Otto,
of the University of Copenhagen, says : 
204
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
   " I feel  it a duty incumbent upon  me to state, that,
as  far as  tAvelve  year's observation and study entitle
me to form any judgement, I not only consider phre-
nology as  a true science  of the mind,  but also as the
only one that, Avith a sure success, may be applied to
the education of children,  and to  the treatment of the
insane,  and criminals.  I have found it of the highest
importance, as  physician  to the civil  prisons,  in ac-
quainting  myself  with the character of the prisoners,
and adapting my moral treatment of them to this know-
ledge ;  and as a member of the Royal Board of Health,
my votes on the motives and  the  misdeeds  of crimi-
nals, of Avhose  responsibility  the board is  questioned,
are always according to phrenological principles ;  and
hitherto the court  of justice has in all instances acted
upon  my  judgement.  In my lectures on Forensick
Medicine,  I treat the chapter  on insanity and  respon-
sibility, phrenologically ;  and am,  by  the science of
phrenology, more  able to explain  the  subject than  I
would  be  by metaphysicks,  the doctrines of  Avhich
badly accord with  the precepts of common sense, and
daily  experience.   Upon  the  whole,  I  consider phre-
nology as  one of the greatest  benefits that of late has
been bestowed upon mankind."
  Professor Hoppe, also of Copenhagen, writes thus :
  "I state it as  my most sincere conviction, that phre-
nology is the only true philosophy  of  mind, and, of 
             HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          205

course, the most important of all human sciences ; the
influence of which, in a great many practical points
of view, already  has  been,  and  still will  be more
striking."
  From  G. M. Schwartz,  Professor of Natural Phi-
losophy,  Stockholm, Sweden :
  "I consider the important  discovery of  Messrs.
Gall, Spurzheim,  and others, on which phrenology is
based, to be founded on the most scrupulous and con-
scientious observations and inductions, and as having
perfectly achieved their object — that of giving to  the
science  of the mental faculties, called psychology —
till now purely speculative — the same degree of evi-
dence possessed  by the other natural sciences ;  on
which points  controversy seems,  in  all countries, to
have ceased among those learned men who have made
themselves sufficiently acquainted  with the doctrines,
and  Avho, by the nature of their studies, are competent
to judge of them."
  From Robert  Hunter, M. D.,  Professor of Anato-
my and Physiology, Glasgow :
  "  For more than  thirteen years I  have paid  some
attention  to the  subject, [phrenology,] and  I beg to
state that,  the  more deeply I investige it, the more I
am  convinced of the truth  of the science.  I have
examined it in connexion with the  anatomy of  the
brain, and I find it beautifully to  harmonize.  I have
                         19 
206           HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.

tested the truth of it on  numerous individuals, whose
character  it  unfolded with  accuracy and precision.
For the last ten  years I have taught phrenology pub-
licly, in connexion with  anatomy  and physiology, and
have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion,  it is
a  science  founded  on  truth,  and  capable  of being
applied to many practical and useful purposes."
   From Dr. John Mackintosh, Fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons, Edinburgh :
   " I was formerly  not  only an unbeliever in phreno-
logy, but a determined scoffer, and my conversion was
sloAvly produced by the occurrence of individual cases
that were accidentally  brought before me.  *  *  * *
I  regard phrenology  as the only  true basis of the
science of mind.  *  *  *  *   I know no one who
has  devoted the  energies of his  mind  to  the careful
study of phrenology, who has  not become a convert  ;
and  I anticipate,  at  no very  distant  date, the  triumph
of truth  over  the prejudices  which have been so assi-
duously heaped upon the science by crafty  men, or
those quite ignorant of the subject.  * *' *  *  I may
add, that a great revolution has taken place within
these few years,  not only in  this country,  but also on
the continent, in  favour of  phrenological doctrines  ;
the number  of opponents has diminished, and the dis-
ciples have increased  in a  remarkable manner ;  so
much so, that in  Paris there  is  scarcely an illustrious 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
207
name connected with medicine, or any of the sciences,
that is not found enrolled in the list of members of the
phrenological society."
  From Sir G. S. Mackenzie, Bart, of Edinburgh :
  "While I Avas unacquainted with the facts on which
it is founded, I scofFed,  with many others, at the  pre-
tensions of the  new philosophy of mind, as promulga-
ted by Dr. Gall, and noAV known  by the term of phre-
nology.   On hearing  and conversing with his  most
eminent  disciple,  the  lamented  Spurzheim,  the  light
broke in upon my  mind ;  and  many  years after I had
neglected the study of mind, in consequence of having
been disgusted with the utter uselessness and emptiness
of Avhat  I had  listened to in  the  University  of Edin-
burgh,  1 became a zealous student of Avhat I now per-
ceive to  be the truth.  During the last twenty years, 1
have lent my humble aid in  resisting  a torrent of ridi-
cule and abuse, and have lived to see the  true philoso-
phy of mind establishing itself wherever talent is found
capable of estimating its immense value."
   From Dr. R. Macnish, LL. D., of Glasgow ; author
of the " Philosophy of Sleep" :
   " For many years the philosophy of mind has  occu-
 pied much of my  attention ;  but  till I became acquain-
 ted Avith the neAV method of mental investigation  disco-
 vered by the late Dr. Gall, I found it utterly impossible 
208          history of phrenology.

to arrive at any rational  conclusion upon the  subject.
The old system of  metaphysicks explained  nothing
satisfactorily, and like all other persons who attempted
to arrive at definite  results, by  its assistance, I only
experienced mortification and  disappointment.  Since
commencing the study of phrenology, a new light has
dawned upon me,  and various  phenomena which were
before perfectly inexplicable, upon any known theory,
are now of easy solution.  Nor is the influence of this
light confined to a state of healthy mental manifesta-
tion ; it  extends equally  to the functions of mind in a
state of disease, giving a neAv insight into the  hitherto
dark and  unaccountable mysteries of  insanity,  and
clearing up what was  formerly hid  in  impenetrable
darkness.   As a  medical man,  I have derived the
greatest benefit  from the  forcible manner in which the
study of phrenology has directed my attention to the
functions  of the brain,  in health  and disease.  The
relations subsisting  between the brain and other or-
gans have  been unfolded  by this science with  uncom-
mon clearness,  and  with a precision and  accuracy
hitherto undreamt  of by physiologists.   I have no hesi-
tation in saying that my notions on  every  subject,
whether  of moral or physical science, have  become
more just,  more systematick,  and more  in harmony
with each  other, since I  studied phrenology ; and I 
HISTORY of  phrenology.
209
firmly  believe, that the same fortunate  result may be
calculated upon  by all who pay any attention to the
subject."
  From William Hunter, A. M.,  Professor of Lo-
gick, GlasgoAv :
  " I am convinced that phrenology is the true science
of the mind.  Every other system is defective in enu-
merating, classifying, and tracing the  relation of the
faculties.  I consider this  science indispensably neces-
sary in teaching any branch of education properly.   1
find it eminently useful in  giving instructions in ancient
and modern history ; in Greek and Latin, in connex-
ion  with our vernacular tongue ;  in Logick and Rheto-
rick, Avith the analysis of  argumentative  works on the
most dissimilar subjects ;  and it  is signally effective in
exciting and directing the  faculties of the mind, without
having recourse  to corporeal  punishment, or even a
peevish or resentful expression."
  Farther to augment this mass of evidence, full  and
conclusive  as  in all respects it is, Avould seem super-
fluous, indeed ;  since probably no names could readily
be selected in which those who,  by education and pur-
suit, have become qualified to offer an opinion upon the
subject, Avould feci more unreserved confidence than in
those already cited.
  While  the names  we   have  recounted,  and others
                         19 * 
210
history  of phrenology.
 equally  illustrious — names that virtuous  intelligence
 everywhere delights  to honour — have  become  identi-
 fied with phrenological research, both the number and
 activity of the opponents of the  science have, within a
 few years,  materially  declined.   The course adopted
 by the members of the medical profession, and through
 them, in the pages of the periodicals under  their con-
 trol and direction, has evidently had much agency in
 this ; while the more multitudinous miscellaneous press,
 which,  upon all  questions of science,  very naturally
 derives its tone and manner from periodicals of more
 exalted pretensions, is appreciably less censorious and
 more just.  It is asserted by Professor Caldwell, in his
 letter to the editor of the American Phrenological Jour-
 nal, that a writer of standing, or a periodical  of influ-
 ence and authority,  which contests  the principles of
 phrenology, is no where to be found.   Indeed,  the
 champions in this Avar for old opinion's sake have  fled
 the contest: and, in  the  language of  the author just
 quoted,  the Gordons, Giffords, Jeffries and Hamiltons
 of past days are  no longer in the field.
  We have now traced  phrenology, in its progress,
 from the moment when,  commencing with the unaided
 efforts of a single individual, it  has gradually spread
 itself  over  the  civilized  world, until  all  the  great
subdivisions  of the  earth have   been penetrated by
it ;  and  untiJ, in all these, it  has  secured  a settled 
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
211
permanence in the minds of the great body of the in-
telligent and inquiring philosophers.  During this pro-
gress, and the successive changes incident thereto, we
have seen it subjected to all the violence of opposition
of which its foes  were capable, and forced to combat
every real or  imaginary objection which  they saw  fit
to offer to  its  advancement.   These, of course,  have
varied with the time and the local occasion that  have
called them forth ; but they have ever been urged with
the full measure of ability and zeal that their  authors
could command.   We have seen, too, that a favourite
though singular  presumption, adverse to the truth of
phrenology, in the earlier stages of its history, rested
upon  the  fact that  philosophers  had not then exten-
sively adopted its tenets.  That position being hoav no
longer tenable, one widely different, and far more re-
cent,  in  point of time,  has been  substituted.   It is,
that comparatively feAV in number embrace phrenology,
any where, while the great body of every  nation and
people does not admit, or even countenance its claims.
To a position so faulty, and a test so fallacious,  phre-
nologists  have replied that  the  same is  true  of all
the other sciences :   that the great body of the people
of every land, neglects all these ;  and this no less
from habitual callings than from established  inclina-
tion ;  and that, consequently,  these detailed truths are
nowhere  admitted, by the  general population.   None 
212
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
 such, for instance, admits, by majority, that a geologi-
 cal and chymical examination of a given soil can de-
 termine what that soil will,  or Avill not  produce ;  or
 that many of the fixed stars revolve around each other,
 in regular orbits, and at stated periods of time ;  or
 that  a strong  fire,  with smoke  and flame,  may  be
 kindled and kept burning, Avith only a mass of snow
 for  fuel,  &c. ;  and  yet  these  facts are all very well
 known to those whose inquiries have rendered them
 conversant with the several sciences to which  they re-
 spectively belong.  It  is not,  then, to  the multitude
 that we are to look for the  verification  of scientifick
 truths.   We  do not even seek  such verification  in the
 miscellaneous periodicals of the day;  and for the rea-
 son  that  the editors,  and others, Avho fill the pages of
 these works,  have rarely given science any attention,
 and therefore are not competent to impart scientifick
 instruction — however  capable  they may be  in their
 more immediate and  proper  sphere of action.   " We
judge  of chymistry  as  it exists  in  the works and
 minds of its  most eminent cultivators,  and not as it
comes forth from those of half-initiated disciples ;  and,
in like manner,  we  form our  opinions in  regard  to
Natural Philosophy, and the  applications of its princi-
ples, not as unfolded to us in the pages of a newspaper,
or in the hastily got up articles  of a review, but as
they come from  the minds of a Laplace, a Playfair, 
              HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.          213

 a Leslie, or a Guy-Lussac  No good reason can be
 given Avhy a different, and  less equitable rule should
 be applied  to  phrenology ;  on the contrary, from its
 being a new science,  candour and justice would rather
 require that a more liberal  allowance  should be made
 for its real and supposed deficiencies." *
   In defence of the daily  assumption, namely,  that
 the interest felt in phrenological inquiries is less, now,
 than formerly, is offered the fact that less is said of the
 science,  in  general society, than at a former period.
 The author just quoted has, to this position, thus re-
 plied :  " From now hearing much less of phrenology,
 in ordinary  conversation, than formerly, some intelli-
 gent persons have hastily supposed that the new  doc-
 trines  were fast hastening into  the vale  of oblivion
 which had been assigned them by more than one  emi-
 nent critick, and have therefore concluded  that it was
 needless for those who had  anything else to do, to oc-
 cupy their  time in verifying or confuting  their truth.
This  inference, hoAvever,  is  entirely  erroneous,  and
 proceeds on a false view of  the facts from  which  it  is
deduced.  A feAV years ago  we heard a great deal  con-
cerning  phrenology,  because it  was  then  a constant
theme  of discussion  in medical and literary societies
* Dr. Andrew Combe, on Mental Derangement. 
214
HISTORY  OF PHRENOLOGY.
and journals, and at every convivial board ;  and  its
merits and  demerits were  canvassed with  a  warmth
and  acrimony which, on both sides, arose,  too  often,
from imperfect  information and exasperated personal
feeling, rather than  from a philosophick search  after
truth.   Now we hear less, not  because it is forgotten,
but  because  the feeling is becoming general among
candid and  enlightened men,  that the subject is of too
grave and  important a nature to be so lightly  disposed
of;   and it has accordingly ceased to be the subject of
idle  gossip or table-talk, and  is rarely mentioned, ex-
cept with the seriousness due to rational science; and,
in proportion as it is examined  in this spirit,  the pro-
gress  and diffusion  proceed,  unobtrusively, no  doubt,
but with the steady certainty  characteristick of truth."
   We have seen that the regular and systemalick op-
position to  phrenology, as a  science, Avhich for years
after its first introduction to the attention of mankind,
Avas in perpetual and high-wrought activity, has  finally
succumbed  to the  combined  weight  of observed facts
and  legitimate deductions.  It is true that an occasional
article, intended to call in question the settled  truths of
the science, still finds its way to the reading commu-
nity, through the publick press; but these, in  no  in-
stance, bear any evident impress of their  author's in-
telligence, upon  the subject of  which they treat;  and
it may, indeed, be deemed  a  remarkable  fact that, in 
HISTORY OF PHRENOLOGY.
215
defence  of a  science  of  so  recent introduction, there
should be arrayed so proud  an assemblage of confes-
sedly intellectual and cultivated defenders, while there
is no where to be found, in the ranks of its opponents,
a single champion who is at once Avorthy and ambitious
to break  a lance with any of these.  The contest, then,
for  the establishment of phrenology, is past:  the deci-
sive battle has been fought, and phrenology has signally
triumphed.  " The  entire day  of actual  war is gone
by ;  and the  morning of another day has opened on
us,  when that Avhich has been  gained in strife is to be
employed in  peace, for the  benefit of our race." *
We  speak here  of its  principles only :  yet, because
these are established, let none suppose the whole has
been  thereby accomplished.   In the carrying  out of
the  details of phrenology — in the development and ap-
plication  of the  philosophy of  the science—there re-
mains much — very much yet  to be  achieved  ;  and
that  task  is one requiring the best efforts of the  ablest
heads and the readiest pens.   Its general influence,
upon all the  multiplied  ramifications of social  inter-
course — its action and its benefitting agency upon the
mass, is  yet  to  be established.   It is not until it shall
have displaced,  in its onAvard course,  all that is false
* Professor Caldwell. 
216
HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.
and  unreal in the older systems of  "Mental Philo-
sophy" that the  aggregate of nations will be favour-
ably affected by it.  When the fatal  errours in what
Ave now technically designate " education" shall have
been removed by its light,  and physical organization
shall  no longer be deranged or destroyed by  misap-
plied  and  irrational  efforts  at mental cultivation —
efforts at open war with the organick laws of our being
— when,  from a  knowledge  and  just appreciation of
the manner of mental manifestation,  individual effort,
on the part of each pupil shall be directed only in those
channels in which the highest possible degree of desir-
able success, of Avhich  that pupil  is capable, shall  be
rendered certain ;  Avhen such knowledge and apprecia-
tion shall have penetrated the halls  of legislation, and
so reformed prevailing criminal 'codes as that deeds,
under  their sanction  and  authority,  Avhich  not only
humanity but  even justice shudders to detail, are  no
longer perpetrated: in  short, when the true distinc-
tion between ability and disability, and misfortune and
guilt shall have become generally established, through
the eradication of existing errours, then will the  full
value of the true philosophy of mind  be  realized by
mankind.   To effect this, however,  is  no trivial work.
" On the contrary, it is a mighty  one, before the  pe-
riod of whose completion mind must operate to great
effect, and years and ages, perhaps whole centuries, 
              HISTORY OF  PHRENOLOGY.          217

must  yet elapse."    To this gigantick task it is the
duty of every phrenologist  to bring the best efforts at
his command ;   to the end that Ave may, at the earliest
possible moment, enable  the human family, at large, to
enjoy the rich and valuable fruits which the  science is
destined  to yield, by bringing man to a more intimate
and  just acquaintance  with himself, and  with  the
relative  conditions  of his  being.
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