LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 439 



a didactic dissertation on the Art of Oratorical Delivery ; distinguishing the 

 qualities necessary for perfection therein, from the faults which public speakers 

 are the most liable to commit. By the judiciousness of his own remarks, and 

 the knowledge he evinced of elocutionists and their systems, Mr. Ball gave proof 

 of his great ability as a Professor of Elocution, in addition to the many admi- 

 rable specimens we had witnessed throughout his course, of his skill in the practice 

 of ^the art. But the most decisive proof of his elocutionary ability remained for 

 the close of this lecture, in his illustrations of Oratorical Delivery, namely, Henry 

 the Fifth's Address to his troops at Harfleur, and Marc Antony's Oration over 

 the corpse of Caesar. In these recitations Mr. Ball stands unrivalled, so far as 

 our own judgment is supported by men of discrimination and experience, who 

 have heard the latter speech, in particular, pronounced by a variety of profes- 

 sional reciters. 



At the close Mr. Ball pronounced his farewell address, during the delivery 

 of which he was frequently interrupted by bursts of applause^ 



LECTURE "ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF MAN AND 

 ANIMALS." 



On Monday the 8th of December, E. A. Turley, Esq. continued his Course of 

 Lectures on the above subject, at the Athenaeum. 



After having described the organ of *' attachment," and exemplified, in arery 

 pleasing and lucid manner, the social habits of man and animals, the lecturer, 

 in descanting on the organ of " combativeness," proceeded thus : 



" Are animals made to depend for subsistence on the capture of their weaker 

 fellow-victims } Yes, animated nature, from the ant, which is devoured by the 

 partridge, to the elephant, which becomes the prey of the comparatively small 

 tiger, testifies the decree ! Then is self-defence loudly called for, and surely 

 no propensity was given by a wise Creator not to be gratified — no talent not to 

 be exerted. 



" If this country were being invaded, we should crown the hero with laurels 

 who stemmed the torrent of devastation — yet stigm<rtise the same individual 

 who employed a similar propensity to defend his own honour in a duel. — It is 

 with actions as with objects, they receive a colour from the medium through 

 which they are viewed. — A Supreme Being has not created good and bad ; 

 man's abuse of the former gives birth to the latter — all is given for moderate 

 enjoyment, and excess only creates satiety. 



'* Dr. Gall was long unable to say if this combativeness were a derivative or 

 elementary impulse, and in our at present advanced knowledge of the seat of 

 faculties, we cannot help smiling at the means employed for their discovery. — 

 Dr. Gall collected a number of men of different occupations together, from the 

 lowest class of society — regaled them with plenty of wine and beer, which soon 

 began to develop their most prominent propensities. Dr. Gall introduced the 

 subject of fighting— he was quickly silenced, and was only able to make obser- 

 vations, for the pot-valiant motley crew had so much to say of their deeds of 

 •deadly doings,* so much to reprobate in the dastardly and to extol in the 

 brave, that they were soon the only talkers. This was enough for the man of 

 reflection, he had found special structure for special function in prior examina- 

 tions — hence he was assured that there existed a cause for this well-marked 

 impulse — he examined attentively as well those remarkable for their cowardice 

 as for their valour. He found a marked difference in their development of brain 

 in this region ; the brave were large and the poltroons small in this spot. The 

 extension of this elementary knowledge by practice enabled him to mark the 

 degree of form and function or cause and effect in man and animals. At 

 Vienna he had the most distinct proof of his opinion ; — there was a boy who 

 presented himself alone in the arena of animal fights, and subdued the wolf, 

 wild boar, the furious bull, and other ferocious animals, and did not seem 

 conscious of the existence of danger. He cites various other cases of a similar 

 nature in his great work, where they may be perused. 



