CALL'S CRANIOGNOMIC SYSTEM. 197 



XL 



Outline of the Craniognomic Si/Jlem of Dr. Gall *, Phyficiart at 

 Vienna. By Dr. Boj ames f. 



JL HE defire of finding in the external ftruclure of man, Various fyftems 

 certain indications of his internal faculties, his paffions, his° p iy 10 S nom y> 

 moral difpofition, &c. has in the moft remote as well as in 

 modern times,, engaged philofophers to eftablifh fyftems of 

 phyfiognomy, which have been more or Iefs fatisfactory. 



The moft generally known are thofe of Porta, Lavater, the of Porta, of La. 

 theory of the facial angle, and laftly the fyftem of Gall. Y*Z\™\f ** 



With regard to the firft, who has burled himfelf in com- s ftem of p orta 

 paring the outlines of the figure of man, with that of brutes, hafty and inac- 

 obfervers have decided on its value, and confider his prin- curate ' 

 ciples as the product of a wild imagination ; they have found 

 them too hafty, very little eftablilhed on reafonable obferva- 

 tions, and abfolutely uncertain in application. 



Lavater's fyftem has had more fuccefs ; but though we re- Lavater's fyftem 

 vere the genius of this man who was really a great obferver, founded on fen- 

 we cannot be ignorant of the loofe foundation on which all his fcience*. 

 opinions are built, and the mind is unfatisfied with truths which 

 can only be appreciated by an imagination as exalted, and 

 feelings as delicate as thofe of the author. 



The theory of the facial angle which comprehends a more Theory of the 

 ample field than the fyftem of Lavater, leaves us in uncertainty fac ' aI angle true 5 

 as to the detail of faculties, and gives us only general points u °°8 enera * 

 of view. But it prefents this moft important truth, that the 

 facial angle increafes in magnitude in equal proportion with 

 the faculties of animals, and in this point it evidently agrees 

 with the general refults of Gall's fyftem. 



Without entering into a fcrupulous detail of the laborious Syftem of Call 



courfe which this learned philofopher has followed, in order lts . fu " da mental 

 r r principles, 



* This hiftorical expofition which does not in the leaft tend to 

 prove the truths of Gall's fyftem, mould not influence any one's 

 judgment concerning it, as it will be confirmed by its author with 

 folid reafoning and convincing proofs. 



It is likewife necelTary to remark, that the fentences marked with 

 inverted commas do not reft on the authority of Gall. 



f Inferted by him in the Encyclopedic Methodique, of the learned 

 Mi Hi a, 



to 



