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POWELL, W. EYED. 



marcation of the frontier of the two countries, 

 from the mouth of the River Minho to the con- 

 fluence of the Caya with the Guadiana. The 

 treaty was accordingly promulgated in April. 

 In closing the Cortes the king announced that 

 the condition of the Portuguese finances was 

 satisfactory. 



POWELL, W. BYED, M. D., a distinguished 

 physiologist and medical philosopher, long a 

 professor of physiology and its allied sciences 

 in the medical schools of the Western and 

 Southwestern States, born in Bourbon Co., 

 Ky., Jan. 8, 1799; died in Covington, Ky., May 

 13, 1866. His father, a native of Orange 

 County, Va., was one of the early pioneers in 

 the settlement of Kentucky, a man of great 

 resolution, energy, and vital force, and in his 

 childhood and youth the future philosopher was 

 subjected to the hardships of the pioneer life 

 in Kentucky. In 1800, his father removed to 

 Shelby County, and in 1808 to Kenton County, 

 opposite Cincinnati, where he spent the re- 

 mainder of his long life. He became wealthy 

 in a few years after removing to Kenton Coun- 

 ty, and his eldest son, the subject of this sketch, 

 manifesting a taste for study, entered Transyl- 

 vania University, Lexington, Ky., in due season, 

 and graduated there about 1820. He imme- 

 diately entered upon the study of medicine, 

 under Professor Charles Caldwell, one of the 

 most eminent physiologists of the day, and 

 graduated at the Transylvania Medical School 

 about 1823. After practising his profession for 

 nearly two years, he visited Philadelphia, and 

 attended the lectures of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania. He had at this time become greatly 

 interested in physiological studies, and espe- 

 cially in the physiology of the brain and the 

 doctrine of the temperaments, with its relations 

 to health and disease ; but felt painfully the 

 need of further light on the subject. The visit 

 of Spurzheim to this country about this time, 

 and his new discoveries of phrenology, indi- 

 cated to the young Kentuckian the direction in 

 which he must proceed to attain a full compre- 

 hension of his subject. Without adopting all 

 Spurzheim's views, he commenced a careful 

 study of the brain and its functions, with 

 special reference to the different temperaments 

 indicated by the varied forms of the naked 

 cranium, and the indications to be ascertained 

 from it in relation to the vital force and lon- 

 gevity of the subject. These studies were care- 

 fully and persistently prosecuted for the next 

 thirty years or more. In 1835, he was ap- 

 pointed professor of chemistry in the Medical 

 College of Louisiana, which position he held 

 for several years. In 1836 he announced his 

 discovery that the human temperament could 

 be read from an examination of the cranium 

 alone, without the adjuncts of hair, eyes, flesh, 

 or the remainder of the skeleton even. This 

 announcement excited great opposition, and 

 Professor Caldwell, his former preceptor, as 

 well as many other medical philosophers, de- 

 nied that it could be accomplished, but he de- 



monstrated the fact so conclusively that hii 

 opponents were obliged to acknowledge it. Ho 

 now set himself the task of collecting as largo 

 a number of crania, representing different 

 tribes, races, nations, . and temperaments, as 

 possible, with a view of illustrating as thor- 

 oughly as possible his doctrine. For this pur- 

 pose he commenced in 1843 a tour among the 

 different tribes of Indians in the western por- 

 tion of the continent, studying their habits, 

 manner of life, dispositions, longevity, etc., 

 and procuring the skulls of their chiefs and 

 distinguished warriors. He spent three years 

 among them, and, adopting their dress and 

 manners in order to ingratiate himself with 

 them, and secure the purposes of his investi- 

 gation, he was regarded by many of his friends 

 as insane. In 1846, however, he returned to 

 the States with a very complete collection of 

 crania, which by subsequent efforts he increased 

 till at his death his museum contained over five 

 hundred skulls, representing, in even greater 

 variety and completeness than the late Dr. S. 

 G. Morton's collection, the crania of most of 

 the nations of the globe. 



In 1847 Professor Powell obtained from the 

 Legislature of Tennessee a university charter 

 for an institution called " The Memphis Insti- 

 tute," and in 1849 assisted in organizing the 

 law, medical, and commercial departments of 

 his new university. In this university he oc- 

 cupied the chair of cerebral physiology and 

 medical geology, In 1851 he removed to Cov- 

 ington, Ky., and prosecuted his investigations 

 with increasing industry. In 1856 he was ap- 

 pointed to the chair of cerebral physiology in 

 the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, 

 and lectured there for two or three years. In 

 1865 he was chosen Emeritus professor of cer- 

 ebral physiology in the Eclectic Medical Col- 

 lege of the City of New York, but we believe 

 never lectured there. In his " Natural History 

 of the Human Temperaments," published in 

 1856, Professor Powell announced his discovery 

 some years before of a measurement indicating 

 infallibly the vital force, and also the signs 

 of vital tenacity. These discoveries were not 

 only interesting and easily verified, but they 

 were of great importance in their bearing upon 

 the chances of life and health in individuals. 

 Another discovery, which he had verified by ex- 

 tensive observation, was that of the laws of 

 temperament as affecting marriage and the vi- 

 tality and sound mental condition of progeny. 

 He announced boldly that there was an incest- 

 uous union of similar temperaments, where 

 there was no blood relation, as productive of 

 serious injury to the physical, mental, and moral 

 condition of the offspring, as marriage within 

 near or prohibited degrees of consanguinity. 

 Professor Powell, in his writings, and we should 

 judge in his lectures, paid very little attention 

 to the graces of style. He wrote forcibly, 

 clearly, but never elegantly, nor at all times 

 with grammatical precision. He was, however, 

 a very frequent and always velcome contrib- 



