308 Dr. Spurzheim's demonstrative Course of Lectures 



though all languages have the expression " a good heart/' yet 

 the feeling is in the head. So, of all the other affections, shame 

 manifests itself in the skin of the face, yet we never say that the 

 feeling of shame is in the skin : sorrow makes us shed tears ; but 

 we do not thence say that it exists in the lachrymal glands : it is 

 sympathy which produces these effects. Measure, or absolute 

 dimension, is no criterion of mind : elephants have a larger brain 

 than man, afies and dogs less than an ox. Artists err in sup- 

 posing any relative proportion between the head, mental facul- 

 ties, and the dimensions of the body. The Venus de Medicis 

 has a head quite too small for nature ; it would be the face of an 

 idiot if animated. — Camper's facial angle taken from the jaw to 

 the ear and the top of the forehead. The more acute this an- 

 gle, the more intellect, or the greater the powers of mind. This 

 conclusion untenable, and contradicted by tacts: it would operate 

 against two very intelligent Negroes now learning the British 

 System of Education at the Borough-road School, in order to 

 practise it in their own coinitrv (many of the weakest men in 

 this country have this facial angle very acute). No proportion 

 of parts can be established, not even between the brain, cere- 

 brum, and cerebellum ; some have a large, others a small cerebel- 

 lum, without any peculiar characteristic. Women, generally 

 reasoning less and feeling more than men, have less brain in 

 front, and more behind. — Every one has a peculiar talent, a bias 

 for one thing or another; can follow one pursuit till fatigued with 

 it, and then apply to another ; one organ rests while another is 

 occupied. This is owing to the plurality of the organs of the brain, 

 which, when all are at rest, produce perfect sleep ; when only a 

 part rests, dreaming is the consequence. — Somnambulism prevails 

 when many of the organs of sense are active, but when too many of 

 them are still at rest to give a will to the person : somnambulists 

 can often not only walk, but see and hear ; yet, the whole organs 

 and powers of the mind not being awakened from sleep, they have 

 nowill. — Visions are occasioned by transferring internal sensations 

 to external objects : these, if permanent, become actual diseases. 

 Teal insanity. This diseased state, the patient being perfectly 

 well excepting in some one i)oint, proves the plurality of the 

 organs, and also the necessity of all to make a perfectly ra- 

 tional being. Dr. S. related several cases of this kind of topical 

 insanity. 



Led. 2. Means of determining the faculties by the functions 

 of the brain. Anatomy does not show these functions, and struc- 

 ture is no guide ; but aoatomical structure is not contrary to the 

 fuactions or phjsiology of the brain. — No inferences to be 



drawn 



