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XII. Observations on a new System nf Phrenology, or the Ana" 

 t07ny and Physiology of the Brain, nJDis. Gall and Spurz- 



HEIM. 



JL HERE are two fundamental errors into which people endowed 

 v.ith different proportions of certain mental faculties commonly 

 fall, whenever tlicy consider any new doctrine — 1st, that of he- 

 licving it before they have cxaniined the evidence in its favour ; 

 and, secondly, tlsat of condemning it anterior to investigation. 

 These two statt-s of mind are equally injurious to the advance- 

 ment of science : they are opj)oscd to each other, but are equally 

 hurtful to the progress of truth — ^just as the rage for novelty, as 

 well at tlie outcry against innovation, are both prejudical to real 

 iniproveineat. New discoveries too suffer from a variety of other 

 reasons — tlie jealousy of the selfisli and covetous, who envy their 

 contemporaries the merit of invention, and the bigotry of igno- 

 rant persons, who imagine that some mischief will arise to their 

 favourite creeds, as well as the great mass of imbecility and ig- 

 norance which pervades manldnd, are stumbling blocks in the 

 path of science, which nothing but steadiness and perseverance 

 will overcome. There is, too, another and a very rational mo- 

 tive for persons to fee) at first a prejudice agaist a new science, 

 namely, that there have been such a number of impostors in the 

 world from time to time, and the public have been so often 

 duped bv pretenders to philosophy, that cautiousness in admit- 

 ting any thing new seems the natural and necessary conse- 

 quence. This latter consideration operated powerfully on my- 

 self when first I heard of the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim 

 respecting tlie functioiis of the organs of the brain ; but I was 

 determined to investigate for myself the facts whereon the ap- 

 parently nev and peculiar notions entertaiiied by those anato- 

 mists were founded. 



During my studies of comparative anatomy, and while dis- 

 secting different aiiinials when a l)oy, I was much struck with 

 the generic forms of tiie crania of animals, and have often felt 

 surprised that am-'ng the many boasted comparative anatomists 

 whose volumes fill our shelves, none had made out any relation 

 between the brain and the character of animals : they described 

 minutely enoii;^li tiie number of vertel)rae — they named with 

 precision the bones of limbs — they measured the intestines to 

 feet and inches: others counted the articulations on the backs of 

 insects, the rings of the caterpillar, and the legs of the scolo- 

 pendrre ; but no one made accurate researches into the most 

 irn])ortant of orgiais. The difficulty attending these investiga- 

 tions of the brain, the laziness of individuals, and, above all, 

 that execrable plan of yielding to authority, whereby people 



cease 



