12 J. V. HULTKRANTZ, 



Granholm, it is said, approached, witli equally little result, other 

 members of the New Church, and therefore still had the cranium when, 

 on the 28th of January, 1819, he died in poverty in London, after 

 which the skull came into the hands of the Swedish pastor. Wapilin, 

 Jr./ relates concerning this the following: »Dr. Wahlin in his ministe- 

 rial capacity, and thus bound to secrecy, was called to a person on 

 his deathbed, who confessed that he had taken Swedenboeg's skull 

 out of his coffin on the occasion of a bui'ial; that Swedenboeg's hair 

 was still on it, which fact aroused the landlady's suspicion. After re- 

 moving the hair, he desired to sell it to the sect in England; but on 

 account of illness he was not able to execute the design. He delivered 

 the skull to the pastor of the society. Meanwhile the matter got into 

 the newspapers, and Dr. Wählin received an offer of^j/" 500 for it, 

 which he indignantly declined.» 32 (Vol. IL, p. 1207). 



The somewhat aberrant account of the matter, given by »Ter- 

 tius intervenions» (Pastor Wahlin), namely, that the skull was found 

 among the effects of the deceased »culprit», and that its removal was 

 prevented, »though claimed by the friends of the deceased abroad», does 

 not seem to contain any direct denial of what was said above. 



Half a year after Geanholm's death, i. e., on July 4th, 181 i), 

 Pastor WÅHLIN announced the theft and the restoration of Swedenborci's 

 cranium at a meeting of the Church Council of the Swedish Congre- 

 gation. The culprit's name was not mentioned at that time, but Pas- 

 tor WÅHLIN afterwards indirectly admitted that it was Geanholm, w^hen 

 reproducing in his book Dagsländor, 38 without any reservations, the 

 above-mentioned article by Hawkins in the Times, where Geanholm is 

 mentioned by name. At the meeting of the Church Council the skull 

 was exhibited and Pastor Wahlin was requested to take charge of it, 

 »that it might not again come into unauthorized hands.» {Appendix, No. 1) 



As to how Pastor Wahlin interpreted this commission, the pro- 

 ceedings accessible report nothing. It is, however, certain that during 

 the time antecedent to 1823 a skull, which Avas supposed to be Swe- 

 denboeg's, was contained in the phrenological collections belonging to 

 the renow^ned Member of Parliament, and ardent admirer of Sweden- 

 borg's works, Chas. A. Tulk^, It is not known when and how the 



^ J. W. T. Wâhlin, born 1817, son of Pastor J. P. Wahlin. Teacher of languages 

 at Stockholm; died there 1871. 



^ Charles Augustus Tulk, born 1786. Member of the House of Commons, 1821. 

 One of the founders of the London Society for Printing and Pubhshing the Writings of Sweden- 



