481 



PHRENOLOGY. 



PHTHISIS. 



482 



deficiency of size; admissions which must throw doubt on the 

 sufficiency of the only means which phrenology possesses of collecting 

 facts to support its theory. If structure and form render it impossible 

 by the size alone to determine the comparative psychical characters of 

 two individuals of different species, the same conditions may often 

 disturb the results that should proceed from comparisons of size in the 

 organs of two of the same species. 



In the limited field of the comparison of different individuals of the 

 same species, phrenology is said by its supporters to be established by 

 numberless facts of the correspondence of strength or weakness of each 

 of the faculties with proportionate extent or deficiency of develop- 

 ment of its organ ; and they maintain that conclusions thus drawn 

 from facts can be overthrown only by facts that contradict them.* 

 But the numerous sources of fallacy which render the presumed facts 

 for phrenology doubtful, present as great an obstacle to the collection 

 of facts against it ; and although its theory, which possesses so much 

 plausibility, cannot be altogether overthrown by anything but well- 

 ascertained facts, yet it is fair for any one to withhold his assent to it 

 till he believes that it is supported by a sufficient number of positive 

 and unerring observations ; and the more so when he finds it opposed 

 by some, however few, facts, and incapable of explaining several 

 circumstances that might be expected to be placed under its laws. 

 For these reasons the fallacies to which craniological observation is 

 subject must be admitted as casting doubt upon the testimony of 

 phrenologists, who, granting that they are unwilling to deceive, may 

 yet. like all other observers, be charged with the liability to be them- 

 selves deceived. We believe that in this we do not step at all beyond 

 the commonly adopted rules of judging from evidence, according to 

 which it is open to every one to disbelieve statements and conclusions 

 that seem to him improbable, although he may not be in a position to 

 disprove them all by facia. 



Judging by these rules, the very perfection to which phrenology is 

 supposed to have nearly attained is strong evidence of its improbability. 

 No one will deny that, in its connection with the body, the human 

 mind must be the most difficult branch of physiology. Yet if phre- 

 nology be true, the physiology of the brain is more advanced than that 

 of any other organ in the body ; and the improbability is presented 

 that two physiologists accomplished more in about 50 years of study 

 of the most difficult branch of the science of life than the united 

 generations of physiologists of all classes for near 2000 years have 

 effected in the most easy. There is not one function of the living body 

 which can be so perfectly illustrated by the most accomplished 

 physiologists as (if phrenology be true) the functions of the mind can 

 be elucidated by a mediocre adherent to it* doctrines; and this too 

 while, to every source of fallacy which it has in common with other 

 departments of physiology, it is subject to still greater which are 

 peculiar to itself. 



The improbability that the labour bestowed upon phrenology should 

 have had so extraordinary a result, will appear greater when some of 

 the fallacies are pointed out to which the observations that serve for 

 its basis are subject. Admitting that the size of a part of the brain 

 may be taken as a measure of the power of the faculty of which it is 

 presumed to be the organ, it can be a correct measure of power only 

 when all other conditions are the same. This is admitted by phreno- 

 logists, who maintain only that, caeterit paribiu, size is a measure of 

 power; and it may be admitted that in this proposition they are 

 supported by the analogy of other organs of the body. But in all of 

 them, and therefore probably in the brain, the other conditions are 

 fully as important as size ; yet phrenologists in their usual practice 

 refer to quality of the brain only when they find that the indications 

 of quantity are manifestly opposed to their opinions. Moreover the 

 estimate which phrenologists make of the quality of the brain, by 

 observing the external appearance and temperament of the individual, 

 is as fallacious as a measure of the state of the whole mass, and is 

 valueless as a sign of the structural condition of each of its several 

 parts. But any one part of the brain may as well differ from the rest 

 in quality as in quantity ; an assumption which the phenomena of 

 local diseases, which are much more common than general diseases of 

 the brain, are sufficient to establish, and which phrenologists them- 

 selves admit in their explanation of monomania. There is here 

 therefore a manifest source of fallacy in every phrenological observa- 

 tion ; a source of fallacy comparable with, but greater than, most of 

 those which have so loug obscured the knowledge of the more simple 

 departments of physiology. No one who has had any opportunity of 

 appreciating the difficulty of analysing observations of which such a 

 varying source of error as is here indicated forms a constant part, can 

 avoid suspecting that phrenologists, when they pretend to have 

 overcome the difficulty, have merely wandered into the facilities of 

 error. 



Again, if the condition of quality (in which are included many im- 



* Dr. Spurzheim and his followers constantly call upon the public to decide 

 upon phrenology by thfir own observations ; proving that they regard it no 

 difficult m ittT to observe a-id draw correct conclusions in the most ambiguous 

 questions of physiolugy. Upon this plan there is certainly no theory so absurd 

 but it will easily gain adherent*. One cannot feel asuurfd that persona who are 

 so little sensible of the difficulties of observation are themselves fully competent 

 to observe. The more philosophic Dr. Gall did not fail to admonish hit auditors 

 not to attempt practising phrenology, 



ABTS AXD SOL BIT. VOL. VI. 



portant circumstances connected with both the temporary and per- 

 manent state of the brain, each of which is probably not less important 

 than size) must be regarded as a constant source of inappreciable error 

 in estimating the material condition of the organs, there is scarcely less 

 fallibility in the other element of a phrenological observation, namely, 

 the determination of the mental character of the individual examined. 

 The actions of men are taken as the index to their phrenological state ; 

 but (not to mention the cases in which men feign the possession of 

 dispositions and opinions which are not their own) it is evident that in 

 numerous instances, in which there is no intention to deceive/the same 

 actions proceed from different motives, and this phrenologists fully 

 admit, for in many cases in which the size of certain parts of the brain 

 does not agree with the apparent energy of the functions usually 

 allotted to them, they refer the prominent actions of the individual 

 under examination to the excess or defect of some other parts of the 

 brain. But if in one case an apparent disagreement between the state 

 of any faculty and of its presumed organ is thus easily capable of 

 explanation by the condition of other faculties and organs, then in. 

 every case the state of all the other faculties must become an inappre- 

 ciable source of fallacy in endeavouring to estimate the condition of 

 any one. 



It ia unfair to make use of these supplemental modes of determining 

 characters in cases that are opposed to phrenology, and not to admit 

 their influence in those which seem favourable to it. If the actions o 

 a man are to be taken as the index of his mind but if at the same 

 time it is allowed that the same actions may result from different pro- 

 pensities, desires, and tastes, it is evident that it will be almost im- 

 possible to bring the evidence of facts to bear against phrenology, in 

 which there must then be so many facilities of escape from conviction 

 of error. If, to take an illustration from the writings of Sir G. 

 Mackenzie, a young man in whom locality and inhabitiveness are very 

 moderately developed is yet irresistibly impelled to go to sea, by a 

 mechanical genius, and by attachment to the mechanism of a ship, 

 conjoined with perseverance, courage, love of approbation, and ideality, 

 there can surely be no certainty that any one propensity is proportioned 

 to the condition of a single organ rather than to the combined condition 

 of several others. 



When we point out these sources of fallacy in every phrenological 

 observation that has been made, and add to them the doubt which is 

 cast upon it by the total absence of any anatomical peculiarity in the 

 brain correspondent with the presumed separation of its organs, and by 

 the failure of its application in the comparison of the psychical con- 

 dition of man and animals, sufficient has been done to show that a 

 person exercises a justifiable and even a philosophical degree of caution 

 in withholding his assent from phrenology as it at present stands. He 

 may grant, as the writer does, that its theory is ingenious and pro- 

 bable ; that its plan of classifying the faculties of the mind is probably 

 more natural than that of any other psychological system ; that the 

 existence of many of the assumed faculties admits of little doubt ; that 

 a comparison of the heads of different nations and individuals renders 

 it almost certain that the general divisions of the part of the human 

 cerebrum are correct ; that in many cases, on balancing the evidence 

 on each side, the result is on the whole favourable to the belief that 

 the positions of several of the organs in each part oi the brain have 

 been nearly determined ; but without further and very extended 

 inquiry, and that made with a just appreciation of the difficulties of 

 attaining to facts, when so many of the elements of the observations 

 are inappreciable, and conducted by a disposition to doubt rather than 

 to find confirmation of the doctrine assumed, he will hesitate to accept 

 its theory further than as a direction to his inquiries, and will refuse 

 to admit its applications in any important practice. 



PHRYGIAN MODE. [MODE.] 



PHTHALAMIC ACID. [NAPHTHALIC GROUP.] 



PHTHALAMIDE. [NAPHTHALIO GROUP.] 



PHTHALAMILE (C 18 H(C,,H 5 ),NO 4 ) Phenyltalimide. An unim 

 portant derivative from aniline. [NAPHTHALIO GROUP.] 



PHTHALANILIC ACID. [NAPHTHALIO GROUP.] 



PHTHALIC ACID. [NAPHTHALIC GBOUP.] 



PHTHALIDINE (C..H.N). An organic alcaloid, produced by the 

 action of sulphide of ammonium upon nitrophthalene (C IO H 7 NO ). 



PHTHALINIDE. [NAPHTHALIO GROUP.] 



PHTHISIS (a Greek word, (fSicris, signifying "corruption," " decay") 

 was formerly used as a generic term to signify a wasting or consumption 

 from any cause, and was afterwards more distinctly specified, according 

 to the organ in which it was supposed to originate : hence we had a 

 Phthiti* hepalica, P. maenterica, P. pulmanalit, Ac. ; but the word is 

 now restricted to the disease produced by tubercles in the lungs, and 

 commonly known by the name of consumption. An acquaintance 

 with this disease, from which neither age nor sex is exempt, and no 

 part of the habitable globe is free, whose ravages extend even to the 

 brute creation, and whose course when once begun can rarely be 

 stayed, whose commencement is frequently so insidious, and whose 

 termination so fatal, must, above all others, be interesting ; for if by 

 any precaution its development can be prevented, it is only by a know- 

 ledge of those influences which most frequently give rise to it that we 

 can hope to attain our object. 



Morbid Anatomy of P/Uhin. The local morbid changes peculiar to 

 phthisis ar only the result of previous changes in the general system, 



