528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



peculiarities in the heads of actors, poets, musicians, etc. He 

 reasoned that there must be in the case of murderers an organ 

 giving an impulse to destroy or. kill (" destructiveness "), in the 

 case of mimics an organ giving an impulse to imitate (" organ of 

 imitation "), etc. Now, these deductions are open to criticism, but 

 the original observations are beyond dispute. There are no two 

 characters alike, neither are there two skulls alike. The question 

 in both cases is, how to measure the differences. There is no 

 instrument for the measurement of those " ups and downs," pro- 

 tuberances and depressions of the living head. Between the 

 skull of a Goethe and that of a murderer there are innumerable 

 varieties. As we are able to distinguish the two extremes, why 

 should we not succeed in demonstrating the intermediate stages ? 

 Gall's system was rejected at its first appearance, because it 

 threatened to upset familiar notions about the liberty of the will, 

 about special creation, and supernatural religion. This was the 

 first obstacle, and very few men, even nowadays, care to risk the 

 danger of opposing popular opinion. The author had attempted a 

 revival of Gall's system, more scientific and appealing to the learned 

 only. He hoped that it would be received without prejudice. 



♦•» 



A QUEER PET. 



By ELIZABETH W. BELLAMY. 



ONCE, for ten summer days, I had the pleasure of entertaining 

 a strange and most interesting guest, known among the 

 learned as the Mantis religiosa ; but the more familiar appella- 

 tion of devirs-riding-horse, by which he is designated amid his 

 native haunts, seems so appropriate to his demoniacal oddity that 

 the creature might be recognized thereby on sight, without de- 

 scription. He looks much more like a nag for an imp of the 

 Inferno than like a locust at prayer, despite the attitude as of 

 supplication assumed when about to snap up an unwary fly. 



I captured my specimen upon the stalk of a common gera- 

 nium, to the pale-green color of which the hue of his long, slim, 

 grotesque body so closely approximated that it was by the merest 

 chance I espied him. Owing to this accommodation of tint — in 

 summer, like the grass and plants amid which he seeks his prey, 

 and, in autumn, like the twigs and branches whereon he alights — 

 the praying mantis, though by no means a rarity in the fields and 

 gardens of the South, commonly escapes all eyes save the sharp- 

 est. My prize was stalking his prey when I espied him. Nothing 

 can be stiller than the Mantis religiosa when he is waiting to 

 spring upon his victim ; and at that propitious moment, armed 



