17 



GALL, DR. FRANZ JOSEPH. 



GALL, DR. FRANZ JOSEPH. 



18 



to remove to Florence for the benefit of his declining health, he was 

 ordered to return to Arcetri. In 1630 he became totally blind, about 

 which time he finished his ' Dialogues on Motion,' which were remark- 

 able enough for the time or for any other man, though not perhaps 

 commensurate with the high ideas associated with the name of Galilei ; 

 and though he believed this work could not annoy the holy office, yet 

 the terror was so great and universal that he could not get it published 

 until some years after, when it was undertaken at Amsterdam. 



Amongst the most celebrated pupils of Galilei are Viviani and 

 Torricelli, the former of whom in particular bore a strong attachment 

 for his master. While Torricelli was arranging a continuation for the 

 ' Dialogues on Motion,' Galilei was suddenly taken ill with a palpitation 

 of the heart, and, having lingered two months, he died on the 8fch of 

 January 1642. 



Galilei appears to have been of a sprightly temperament, easily 

 crossed and easily reconciled ; his kindness to his relatives, which 

 distinguished him from his childhood to old age, and which went 

 frequently to such an extent as to embarrass himself, forms a noble 

 trait in his domestic character; he was somewhat attached to the* 

 bottle, and was considered a good judge of wine; he contrived to have 

 his son Vincentio legitimised, but afterwards had the misfortune to find 

 his hopes in this lad rather disappointed. Galilei was also acknow- 

 ledged to have an excellent taste for music, painting, and poetry, and 

 the style of his ' Dialogues' is still much praised by his countrymen. 



Galilei's works have been collected in 13 vols. Svo, Milan, 1811; 

 there have been also several other collections of the same, and they 

 have been published in separate tracts. 



Viviani, his disciple, wrote his life, and left a legacy to raise a 

 monument to his memory. Newton was born one year after Galilei's 

 death. 



One of the best-written biographies of Galilei that has yet appeared 

 is by Mr. Drinkwater, in tho ' Library of Useful Knowledge.' A learned 

 and elaborate, though not very temperate, defence of tho proceedings 

 of the Roman Catholic Church, was published in the ' Dublin Review ' 

 for July 1838. 



GALL, DR. FRANZ JOSEPH, the founder of the system of phren- 

 ology, was born at Tiefenbrunn, iu Suabia, on the 9th of March 1757. 

 If the story told of him be true, he, at a very early age, evinced habits 

 of accurate observation ; for it is said that, when a boy at school, he 

 amused himself with remarking the differences of character and talent 

 among his brothers and sisters, his playmates and schoolfellows ; and 

 he soon arrived at the conclusion that these characters and talents 

 seldom changed by education. He observed, it is said, that tho boys 

 who were his moat formidable competitors were all distinguishable by 

 a peculiar expression of countenance, the result of unusual protrusion 

 of the eyeball, which seemed to him a certain sign of talent, On his ' 

 removal to another school he still found himself invariably beaten by , 

 his " bull-eyed " companions, as he called them, and making the same 

 observations as before, he found all his playmates still distinguished 

 for some peculiar talent or temper. He next went to the university 

 of Vienna to pursue his studies for the medical profession, and at once 

 began to search for prominent eyes among his fellow-students ; all 

 that he met with were, as he found, well known for their attainments 

 in classics, or languages generally, or for powers of recitation ; in 

 short, for talent in language ; and hence the prominent eye, which he 

 had first thought indicated talent generally, he became convinced 

 marked a facility for acquiring a knowledge in words, which was the 

 principal study in the schools of his boyhood. This coincidence of a 

 peculiar talent with an external physiognomic sign, led him to suspect 

 that, there might be found some other mark for each talent, and 

 remembering that at school there were a number of boys who had a 

 singular facility in finding birds' nests, and recollecting where they 

 had been placed, while others, and especially himself, would forget 

 the spot in a day or two, he began to search among his fellow- 

 students fir all who indicated a similar knowledge and memory of 

 places, that he might see in what feature that would be indicated, 

 and he soon thought he found them all marked by a peculiar form of 

 the eye-brow. He now felt convinced that by accurate observation 

 of the shape of the head in different persons, he should find a mark 

 for every kind of talent, and he lost no opportunity of examining the 

 forms of the head in poets, painters, mechanics, musician?, and all 

 distinguished in art or science. He found, as he fancied, external 

 signs in each class that separated them from the rest, and he thought 

 ho could now clearly discern the character of each by their cranial 

 formation before he inquired into their pursuits or reputation. He 

 had observed that persons remarkable for determination of character 

 had one part of their beads unusually large, and he was therefore led 

 to seek whether there were not signs of the moral affections similar 

 to those which he believed he had discovered to indicate the intellec- 

 tual powers. After some time he imagined that these affections alno 

 might be ascertained by discerning how far one portion of the head 

 surpassed the others in size. His mind was now completely engrossed 

 with the pursuit of facts to support his belief that he should find a 

 complete key to the human character, and his academic career was 

 marked by no particular success. 



To further his pursuit, he resorted to the works of the most esteemed 

 metaphysicians of ancient and modern days, but here he found nothing 

 that at all favoured the view which he had been led to take of the 



B(00. DIV. VOL. III. 



human mind. He therefore gave them up, and resorted again to 

 observation alone, and he now extended his field. Being on terms of 

 intimacy with Dr. Nord, physician to a lunatic asylum in Vienna, he 

 carefully examined all the insane there, observing the peculiar character 

 of the insanity in each, and the corresponding forms of their heads : 

 he frequented prisons and courts of justice, and made notes of the 

 crimes and appearance of all the prisoners. In short, wherever there 

 was any person made remarkable by good or bad qualities, by ignorance, 

 or by talent, Dr. Gall lost no opportunity of making him a subject of 

 his study. With the same views he was constant in his study of tha 

 heads and characters of both wild and domesticated animals. He had 

 always felt sure, that the form of the skull in itself alone could stand 

 in no relation to the intellect or disposition, but it was not till late in 

 his pursuit that he resorted to anatomy to confirm his views. Having 

 obtained his diploma, he made it his care, as far as possible, to ask for 

 leave to examine the brains of all whose characters and heads he had 

 studied during life, and satisfied himself that, as a general rule, the 

 exterior of the skull corresponds in form with the brain contained 

 within it. 



At length, after upwards of twenty years exertion and study, Dr. 

 Gall delivered his first course of lectures, in 1790, at his house in 

 Vienna. Supported by a vast accumulation of facts, he endeavoured 

 to prove that the brain was the organ on which all external manifesta- 

 tions of the mind depended ; that different portions of the brain were 

 devoted to particular intellectual faculties or moral affections ; that, 

 CLcteris paribus, these were developed in a degree proportioned to the 

 size of the part on which they depended ; and that, the external surface 

 of the skull corresponding in form with the surface of the brain, the 

 character of each individual was clearly discernible by an examination 

 of his head. 



A doctrine so new, and so subversive of all that had been previously 

 taught in psychology, produced no little excitement. To some the 

 number of simple facts, the apparently clear and necessary deductions 

 from them, and the ease with which tho new system seemed to lead 

 to the knowledge of a science hitherto so obscure, were sufficient to 

 secure at once their assent, while others said that Gall, beginning with 

 a theory, had found at will facts to support it ; that a plurality of 

 powers in the same organ was too absurd to be imagined, and that 

 the doctrine, lending on the one hand to fatalism, on the other to 

 materialism, would, if received, be subversive of all the bonds of 

 society, and opposed to the truths of religion. It was argued with all 

 the ardour with which new doctrines are so generally assailed and 

 defended, but Gall took little part in these disputes, and still continued 

 to lecture and collect more facts. 



He gained disciples daily, and in 1800 Dr. Spurzheim became bis 

 pupil In 1 804 this gentleman was associated with him iu the study 

 of his theory, and to this event phrenology probably owes much of 

 its present clearness and popularity. Spurzheim possessed a mind 

 peculiarly adapted for generalising facts, of which phrenology at that 

 time almost entirely consisted, and besides being most ardent and 

 industrious in the pursuit of additional support for the doctrines, he 

 had much suavity of manner and power of conversation. 



Soon after their association, Drs. Gall and Spurzheim commenced 

 a tour through the principal towns in Germany and Switzerland, 

 diffusing their doctrines, and collecting everywhere with assiduous 

 industry fresh evidence in their favour. In 1807 they arrived at Paris, 

 which became at once the field of their principal labours, and of the 

 most vehement discussion. It attracted the attention of Napoleon, 

 who at first is said to have spoken iu no measured terms of the savaus 

 of his country for " suffering themselves to be taught chemistry by an 

 Englishman (Sir H. Davy), and anatomy by a German." He after- 

 wards however expressed his disbelief in it, and hence the reason (say 

 the most ardent supporters of the doctrine), why in 1809 the com- 

 mission appointed by the Institute on the ' MiSmoire ' presented by 

 Gall and Spurzheim, in March 1808, returned a report highly unfa- 

 vourable both to phrenology and its author. Undaunted however by 

 this severe check to their rising popularity, they continued to study 

 and to teach both by lectures and by voluminous publications till 1813, 

 when a dispute arising, partly as to the degree of credit which each 

 merited for the condition at which phrenology had then arrived, partly 

 from private motives, they separated. Dr. Gall remained in Paris ; 

 Dr. Spurzheim soon after proceeded to England. 



Dr. Gall continued in Paris till his death, which occurred on the 

 22nd of August 1828. He had suffered for nearly two years previously 

 from enlargement of the heart, which prevented him, except at intervals, 

 from pursuing his lectures, and at length produced a slight attack of 

 paralysis, from which he never recovered. At the post-mortem exami- 

 nation his skull was found to be of at least twice the usual thickness, 

 and there was a small tumour iu the cerebellum : a fact of some 

 interest, from that being the portion of the brain in which he had 

 placed the organ of amativeness, a propensity which had always been 

 very strongly marked in him. 



Whatever may be the merits of the phrenological system, Dr. Gall 

 must always be looked upon as one of the remarkable men of his age. 

 The leading features of his mind were originality and independence of 

 thought, a habit of observation, and invincible perseverance and 

 industry. Nothing perhaps but a character like this in its founder, 

 and the very popular and fascinating manners of his chief supporter, 







