on Brs. Gall and Spurzheim's Physiognvmonical System. S 1 1 



radiations a complete skull is formed. It was observed that the 

 ■skulls of females are long, and project backward : now it is evi- 

 dent that this form caimot be owing to the muscles, which do 

 not act horizontally. As the brain enlarges, so does it deposit 

 osseous matter according to its own peculiar figure. This pro- 

 cess is ascertained by observing the fact, that if an eye be extir- 

 pated, its orbit soon becomes contracted, in consequence of the 

 deposition of bony matter. The ridge, or vertical elevation, often 

 seen in the forehead of children, does not experience any dimi- 

 nution; but it becomes gradually less apparent by the increase 

 ef the adjoining parts. Cranial elevations and depressions have 

 forms totally different from those of the insertion of muscles, and 

 exist where there are no muscular insertions. The alleged me- 

 chanical pressure on the heads of the Caribs, as stated by travel- 

 lers. Dr. S. thinks can have no influence in giving their foreheads 

 that flatness for which they are remarkable. The skull is very 

 strong, and well formed to resist injuries, consequently must re- 

 quire a very great force to change its natural form; and such a 

 force cannot be applied to the forehead without a counter-pres- 

 sure or opposite resistance, which would necessarily produce a 

 very different form of the skull. — He next considered the phy- 

 siognomical signs. Dr. Gall, while he followed the opinions of the 

 .schools, long laboured in vain to discover the organs ; his great- 

 est difficulty was to discover the faculties. There is no organ 

 of instinct ; and the opinions and language of philosophers re- 

 specting it, memory, judgement, imagination, affections, and 

 passions, are more erroneous than the common language, which 

 is consonant vvith nature. In the agony of disappointment and 

 uncertanty. Gall said to himself, " I know nothing," and began 

 de novo to study men, ».s a Linnaean botanibt does an unknown 

 plant. He observed men's actions, and compared them with 

 their cerebral organization ; examined individuals who excelled 

 i^i some one tliiuij alone, and traced the co-existence of this 

 particular character with some specific appearance, or prominent 

 organ, on the skull. He continued his observations, and ascer- 

 tained, from an immense number of examples, that different ex- 

 ternal characters always accompany different characters of mind, 

 sjid that the same configuration of the head is uniforndy attend- 

 ed l)y sameness of intellectual character : he also examined the 

 negative traits, and finally deduced from experience, that certain 

 elevations on the skull have certain mental cliaracters. If such 

 an energy or faculty of mind, he argued, he always attended, as 

 according to his experience it unquestionably is, by certain or- 

 gans or configuration* of the skull, then must the same conclu- 



U 4 iiou 



