promote liberality towards mankind. For it shows how one individual cannot think and act precisely as another does; how much error is to be pitied, and how important a duty it is to endeavour to counteract by education in infancy the original defects of organization. It also points to a judicious selection of partners in marriage, since it has ever been well known, what Phrenology confirms, what sagacious naturalists have always taught, namely, that defects of organization, and therefore the first con ditions of characters, are hereditary. By indulging evil propensities in ourselves, too, we may strengthen the disproportion of organs, which ought to be in a certain relation to each other. This defective organization may be handed down to posterity; and thus we see how the evil of the father may be visited on the children, even unto the third and fourth generation.

t

The second principle of the system is, that the organs exist independently of each other, and that there is no proportion between them. It is not necessary, therefore, because a person has the organ of one faculty very strong, that he shall therefore have any other well proportioned. This accounts for the great disproportion between the different faculties in the same person, and confutes the vulgar prejudice, that a man must be naturally just, because he is benevolent; or that because a man is a mathematician, he therefore could have been a poet, or a linguist, if he had given attention to Composition or to Philology: an error, alas, too common, as it seems to have caused many academies of instruction to erect one particular science as a standard and test of excellence of intellect in general. This consideration of the plurality and disproportion of the organs explains particular genius; and shows that a head, most perfect, is one which contains the greatest number of organs in the greatest perfection. It must be remembered, that every individual of the same species, except idiots, are possessed of all the organs, and the difference between persons consists in the different degree and proportion of the developement of the parts; and of the degree of their activity.

Sdly. Though the relative proportion of the different organs as to size, which is innate, or born with us, is usually preserved through life; yet their activity is greatly to be decreased or di+ minished by exercise: hence education is important. Even the

size itself seems capable of being in some degree augmented by early exercise.

4thly. We may say, that there are four considerations which belong to an organ, when we regard it as an instrument of a faculty-1st. Its size, which is the most important, and is marked on the outside of the head.-2d. The degree of activity. This generally belongs to the nervous system in general, or may be increased in any particular organ by exercise.-3d. The particular sort of affection. For there appear to be different affections in the same organs, though we do not know exactly at present, whether they are performed by the same fibres: and there seem to be many strange idiosyncracies in the affection of organs. Lastly, we must consider the mutual influence of the organs on each other.

5thly. The organs, like all other nerves, are nourished as every other part of the body, and are liable to general and particular diseases of structure; and to die, or become inactive, either separately or together, according to circumstances. Thus a man loses some faculties before others, and the mental infirmities of age are often partial. I cannot help observing here an impropriety of expression, which is very common, and consists in calling age a second childishness: whereas, nothing can in reality be more different. Childhood is a state in which the organs have not yet gained knowledge, for want of experience. Age, a state in which experience is futile, from the decay of organization. A fancied similarity of effects is produced by quite opposite causes. But the limited space of a periodical publication hastens us forward to the consideration of other parts of the subject.

6thly, and lastly. The size and figure of the scull are conformable to that of the brain; hence the organs are indicated on the outside of the head. It has been objected, that there are irregularities in the thickness of the scull; but these are too insignificant to puzzle the experienced craniologist. Dissection has proved the strictest relation between the external form and the developement of the organs within the cranium.

It must be remembered, that these observations have been extended to comparative anatomy, and have proved, that the strictest

analogy is maintained throughout all the creation. Where animals have propensities in common with Mau, they have corresponding parts of the brain. In future all the classes, orders, general species, and varieties of animals must be arranged according to the brain and nervous system.

II. Of the History of the Discoveries.

The history of the discoveries of Gall is very interesting, and may be found in his large work. It tends to show that the organs, and their respective places, and the connection between them and the primary faculties were discovered entirely by accident. Dr. Gall does not appear to have projected any part of his system, like a theorist, but to have arrived at the general results, or the philosophy of the mind, in consequence of deductions from the multiplied observation of facts made by himself and his learned colleague, Dr. Spurzheim: a circumstance, which ought particularly to be remembered; because from the very natural arrangement of the organs, which in fact proves strongly the correctness of the theory, some persons might be induced to suspect that he had planned out a map of the head, previously to discovering the real seats of the particular faculties.

For we shall see that the organs are grouped together according to the mutual relation of their functions. Thus the organ of religion is situated between benevolence, hope, perseverance and justice. The organ of physical love, close to that which causes us to protect our progeny, and so on, of others.

Dr. Gall first observed, when only a student, that many of his condisciples, who were inferior to himself in reflecting powers, nevertheless greatly excelled him in memory of languages. Others in local memory and so on. He then noticed a difference in the forms of their heads, and by repeating and extending his observations for many years, he discovered by degrees, the particular prominences of parts which indicated the greater or less developement of the convolutions of the brain below them, and which became indices of the different faculties of the mind. The obser vations were daily extended by him and his colleague, and I have myself paid particular attention to this subject, and can say that NO. IX. Р

Pam.

VOL. V.

none of us have ever found one single exception to the rules; that is, we have never found a strong faculty existing without its respective organ being marked on the scull. Our adversaries may say what they please against the truth of the system; but we shall constantly advert to these facts as living proofs of its correctness; and only request an opportunity of pointing out well marked cases to those who are sceptical, and at the same time really desirous of obtaining information of the truth.

It has been said, that the facts are not new; and that the different forms which the ancients gave to the busts of gladiators, poets, philosophers, &c. show the antiquity of the doctrine. We admit this as a collateral proof. Thus the additional discoveries of the moderns, which have been perfected, and become a system, confirm the observations of the ancients, whose skill taught them to imitate from nature, what no philosophy had as yet shown them the cause of.

III. Of the Anatomical Structure of the Brain.

It would be impossible in these sheets to enter into the detail of the anatomical structure of the brain: such an account would fill a large volume; I must be contented, therefore, to state a few of the leading facts, and to refer the professional reader for particulars to the large work published in France, entitled, "Anatomie et Physiologie du systeme nerveux en général et du Cerveau en particulier," wherein will be found a very scientific developement of the hitherto unexplored structure of the brain and nerves.

Previous to Gall, the minute Anatomy of the brain, was quite unknown; anatomists set about the investigation of it in a manner which would never have led to any useful results; they made horizontal slices of this organ with the scalpel, and only mutilated its parts without displaying its structure. The very names given to the different parts of the organ, showed how very imperfect were their views of its structure and functions. They talked of the medullary or central mass, of the cortical covering, and used other terms equally erroneous. Gall and Spurzheim, by a method of dissection entirely new, have since unfolded the parts of the brain, and shown that its structure was fibrous, and that the manner of dissecting it,

caused former anatomists to mistake the middle parts for medullary substance. Indeed so erroneous were the views and descriptions of this organ, that anatomists have even compared its substance to boiled rice, to paste and to other inorganic masses. The new anatomy has not only shown the fibrous structure of the brain but has proved the most exact uniformity of nature, in the structure of the nervous systems of animals throughout the creation. All nervous parts are constructed on a uniformity of principle, with varieties adapted to the peculiar function of each. The cineritious substance seems proved to be the instrument of production for the nervous fibre; the quantity of this substance about the origin of every nervous filament is commensurate to the body of the nerve, which issues therefrom. It is the nidus of the nerve; the same substance is found in the different ganglia which are apparatus of increment. Thus there is a proportion between every nerve, and the cineritious substance with which it is connected, either at its origin, or by its ganglia.

Every nerve, to use Dr. Spurzheim's words, exists for itself, and the assemblages of nervous fibres, which compose the brain, are produced, encreased, and exist in a manner similar to other nerves, and there is no determinate proportion observed between the parts of the brain. The nervous fibres, which compose both the cerebrum and cerebellum, are divided into the diverging and the converging fibres. The former take their origin about that part usually called the medulla oblongata. They originate in the cineritious substance. The fibres which compose the intellectual organs, and are distributed eventually to the anterior, interior and inferior parts of the brain, arise in the anterior pyramids, and there decussate each other; acircumstance which explains the reason why apoplexy on the front part of the brain affects the opposite side of the body. The fibres which compose the posterior, exterior, and superior parts arise posteriorly in the medulla oblongata, and do not decussate. The former have a ganglion of increase in the pons varolii or near the grand commissure of the cerebellum. They pass through that part called corpora striata, and are eventually embedded in the cineritious covering of the intellectual organs,' which may be regarded I I make this description imperfect, though not erroneous. For the professional student must examine for himself the large work, and also the brain in dissection.