THE STUDY OF CHARACTER 603 



plied by the association of mental symptoms with injury or disease of 

 different portions of the brain, and noted that these were very different 

 according to the region affected. His contentions proved to be correct 

 in fact, in interpretation, and in method. In this controversy Gall 

 argued physiologically, not phrenologically. In another controversy the 

 reverse was the case. Flourens restricted his conclusions of the unity 

 of function to the cerebrum, and confirmed the experiments on pigeons 

 which showed that the cerebellum regulated locomotion. Gall had 

 made the cerebellum the organ of amativeness; if it regulated the love- 

 affairs, it could not regulate the gait. He replied first physiologically, 

 that the experiment was defective, and the motor impairment due to 

 concomitant injury of other parts of the brain; and then phrenologically, 

 that if the cerebellum were the organ of locomotion, it would follow 

 that persons with large cerebellums should be acrobats, and asked 

 whether women (who in Gall's view possessed a small cerebellum) 

 " walked and danced with less regularity, less art, less grace than men." 

 Controversies of this kind were futile in view of the wholly irrecon- 

 cilable positions of the advocates. In the end, the phrenological posi- 

 tion became an obsession. 



At one other point phrenology came in contact with the advances 

 leading to modern psychology; this is in its alliance with the study 

 of hypnotism in the career of James Braid (1795-1860). The remark- 

 able insight of this investigator enabled him to recognize under dis- 

 advantageous conditions the true nature of this mental state as a partial 

 disqualification of the nervous system; but it did not prevent his tem- 

 porary subjection to the phrenological fallacy. He refuted the position 

 that the hypnotic state was a histrionic deception; he demonstrated its 

 reality, but unwittingly brought it within range of suggestion or self- 

 deception. Later he realized the error of his earlier work ; but his asso- 

 ciation with phrenology injured his reputation, and delayed the recogni- 

 tion of his pioneer work in a difficult field. The following suggests the 

 course of the experiments : 



I placed a cork endwise over the organ of veneration and bound it in this 

 position by a bandage under the chin. The patient thus hypnotized at once 

 assumed the attitude of adoration, arose from his seat and knelt down as if 

 engaged in prayer. On moving the cork forward, active benevolence was mani- 

 fested, and on its being pushed back veneration again manifested itself. 



This observation seems the very parody of science. It illustrates that 

 prepossession, even in men of shrewd observation and abilit}^, is dis- 

 astrous to logical integrity; and further that not until the true nature 

 of nervous functioning was established as a fundamental directive posi- 

 tion in all psychological considerations, were false leads of this kind 

 entirely discredited. 



In view of the fact that the vogue of phrenolog}' in the middle of 

 the nineteenth century represents the largest collective interest in the 



