54 



REMARKS ON MUSICAL PRECOCITY. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH CASES. 



By J. L. Levison. 



If I had the technical knowledge of music possessed by the ta- 

 lented writer of the article " On the Present State of the Opera," in 

 the last number of The Analyst, I might hope to render this paper 

 more generally interesting. I shall^ however, only give a notion of 

 the cerebral organization of some prodigies as infantile professors, 

 with the intention of adding my mite to our psychological informa- 

 tion. In order to render my thoughts practical, I propose examin- 

 ing the following propositions : that, in most cases of an early ma- 

 nifestation of musical talent, there are larger anterior lobes than in 

 commonplace children ; and that, in the cases of musical precocity 

 which I have investigated, there have been observed two conditions, 

 1st. That the parent or parents have been themselves musical; 2nd. 

 That all the nervous energy, or, as it is termed by physiologists, 

 the sensorial power, is abstracted for the purpose of developing fa- 

 culties predisposed to activity, and others are deprived of the ner- 

 vous stimulus. 



I select the three cases which follow, as illustrating my views. 

 1st. Master Phillips, called "The Infant Trumpeter;" 2. Master 

 Shaw, a juvenile organist ; 3. Master Manton, usually announced 

 as " The Infant Paganini." 



REMARKS ON THE CEREBRAL ORGANIZATION OF 

 MASTER PHILLIPS. 



I took the phrenological development of IMaster Phillips a short 

 time since, whilst on a visit at Hull, and previously to hearing him 

 perform. He is about ten years old, thin and pale, being of a ner- 

 vous temperament. His head is above the average size, and the an- 

 terior lobes are deeper than broad — that is, they possess greater 

 length than breadth of fibre, particularly in the reflective region. 

 But the lower portions of the middle lobe, and part of the posterior 

 lobes, have breadth as well as length ; or, in other words, the feel- 

 ings are large which impart energy to the character and give greater 

 vividness to combinations of the intellectual faculties, so as to indi- 

 vidualize a person for any specific or particular talent. The oz'gans 



