66 Physiology of the Brain. (January, 
of concurrent experiences had satisfied him of a connection, 
named the primitive faculty by the simplest words indicative 
of its funétion to be found in the vocabulary of every-day 
life. Hethus replaced the phantoms of the metaphysicians, 
which explained nothing, by terms which speedily asserted 
their vitality by being constantly heard in the mouths of the 
people to assist them in defining and describing their fellow- 
men, thus at once obtaining that sanction from the spon- 
taneous dictates of popular common-sense, which is the 
surest test of the truth of all fundamental ideas. 
It is a common do¢étrine that discoveries are seldom made 
by an individual greatly in advance of the scientific mind of 
the day, or without other investigators having been placed 
by the existing state of knowledge on the same track as the 
more fortunate discoverer, who is thus merely credited with 
having by a short date anticipated other investigators in 
bestowing a new fact, or idea, on mankind. With regard to 
the discovery of phrenology, however, made at the close of 
the last century by Dr. Gall, if we may judge by the fact 
that what he discovered the great mass of his contemporaries 
never succeeded in recognising, even when the locality for 
research was pointed out to them, and the means of obser- 
vation lay in profusion everywhere around, there appears 
every reason to believe, that but for the appearance of 
a man of his rare and exceptional genius, the vast contribu- 
tion to human knowledge for which the world is indebted to 
his labours would still have been slumbering in the womb of 
futurity. I venture to assert that no body of doctrines were 
ever established on a series of observations more cautiously 
condu€ted, rigorously scrutinised, and patiently verified 
than those of phrenology by Dr. Gall, who devoted his 
entire life and all his pecuniary resources to this object, 
finding his reward in the consciousness of the importance of 
his discoveries, and that prophetic vision of the future 
which placed him above contemporary jealousies, and 
caused him to exclaim in calm self-reliance, ‘‘ This is truth, 
though opposed to the philosophy of ages !” 
“‘T have always,” says Gall, ‘‘ had a consciousness of the 
dignity of my researches, and of the extended influence 
which my do¢trine will hereafter exercise on all the branches 
of human knowledge, and for this reason I remain indifferent 
to all that may be said either for or against my works. 
They differed too much from the received ideas of the 
times to be appreciated and approved at first..... My 
views of the qualities and faculties of man are not the fruit 
of subtle reasonings. They bear not the impress of the age 
