136 Dr.Spurzkeini's demonstrative Course of Lecturer. 



well as in intellects; some of them have a talent for music, and 

 Cretins have had constructiveness. Diseases of the mind inter- 

 mittent ; and hence partial insanities whicli are difficult for a 

 judge to lecoguise. Absolute and individual justice; the former 

 results from tlie sentiment of justice united to the superior fa- 

 culties, the latter is followed by legislators. St. Augustin ob- 

 serves, The letter kills, the spirit preserves. Grief weakens the 

 faculties more than passion, and the strongest feelings may be 

 perfectly quiet. Here Dr. S. took a survey of the different 

 crimes of nuMder, suicide, and infanticide* : the latter, he ob- 

 served, was tb.e only crime on vi^hich men legislated without being 

 capable of a condition to commit it, and consecjuentlv tliey should 

 }>roceed with great caution. Such crimes are often occasioned 

 by diseases of the mind. Tliis te-rm the Professor considers un- 

 jihilos. phical ; the derangement is in the body and organization ; 

 t!ie imnd cannot manifest itself without an organ, as we cannot 

 see without eves. In fiiture we must consider the diseases of the 

 brain like those in the other parts of the body, and that some of 

 them are curable and others incurable. Such disease^ must be 

 divided according to their cause, and receive a physical and mo- 

 ral tventment. The propensities are to the brain what food is 

 to tlu' stomach, air to the lungs, or light to the eve ; they mnst 

 not be aggravated or indulged to excess, any more than excess to 

 aiiv other organs. If the brain of children be too large, then do 

 tiot exercise their minds too much ; the mind sometimes in- 

 creases so that children die. Irritabilitv is periodical ; friends 

 or persons of similar dispositions experience this feeling at the 

 same time all over the world, in Vienna, Paris, or London. All 

 ])haenon)ena have peri(jdicitv; )ilants increase more in spring, 

 and children grow more at one pei iod than anotlier. Every one 

 feels a ■noli )/ie tmicere once a month, when he wants appetite, 

 is disgusted ami peevish with every thing. Some persons ex- 

 perience this twice every 28 days ; then it passes off, and they 

 become cheerful as before. Medical men then say they have 

 cured such a person, but nature has done it. Derangement 

 occurs at certain periods, when suicides are more numerous ; 

 these attacks can be anticipated. To cure such diseases, the 

 period niu>-t pass, and then the hritabilitv subsides. Thus, ob- 

 served Dr Spurzheim, in his concluding lecture to an audience 

 of Pnitish philosophers, I have demonstrated the truth announced 

 bv Chailea Bonnet, that " the moral nature of man is discover- 

 able by hi^ organization." 



* 'Ihi- (.'itiie ii.ii^hr r.e a::iiost (•■ntircly banished from society, were the 

 fnthers of ihurdtTcd chiUire.i always to be tncil I'v tlic la\vs of the land^ 

 »i;(l ?ubjocled to a certain punisihiiient, accor.dint; to tlie degree of guilt 

 yihich an impartial and enligbteiicd jury miglit dctcnnine. 



• ■ XXV. On 



