548 



PHRENOLOGY. 



This finishes the list of organs which phrenologists 

 have ventured to attribute to the brain, and as they 

 have left no further room on the cranium for addi- 

 tional organs, we may fairly conclude tluit their list 

 is terminated and their science completed. The 

 reader, however, must be apprized, that most of the 

 organs enumerated above have duplicates, that is, 

 the one hemisphere of the brain is taid to resemble 

 exactly the other. This is inferred from analogy. 

 We have two eyes and two ears, say phrenologists ; 

 so we have two organs of wit, destructiveness, &c. 

 In those organs, however, that are situated along the 

 middle line of the head, the two hemispheres of the 

 brain approach so closely, that both the organs are 

 included in one circle ; but still phrenologists insist 

 on two organs, one on each side. The advantage of 

 possessing duplicate organs is this. It has often 

 been objected to phrenology, that people are fre- 

 quently injured on particular parts of the cranium 

 indeed, there are many cases, not fatal, in which por- 

 tions of the brain have been actually destroyed and 

 yet the faculty attributed by phrenologists to the in- 

 jured locality has not been in the slightest degree 

 impaired. A soldier on the field of battle, as has 

 been wittily observed, whose organ of Veneration 

 receives a blow, is never heard to exclaim, ' There ! 

 my religion is clean gone ! I care nothing now for 

 God or the Captain !' A tender father, wounded on 

 the organ of Philoprogenitiveness, feels no sudden 

 disregard for his children. A miser, well banged on 

 the organ of Acquisitiveness, does not instantly be- 

 come careless of his money bags ; nor is a coward, 

 whose large bump of cautiousness has been half beat- 

 en in by ruffians, in any degree cured of his timidity. 

 To such facts as these, phrenologists say, the brain 

 is composed of two similar halves or hemispheres, 

 and the organs of all the faculties are double. That 

 one eye, one ear, or one nostril may perform its func- 

 tions, and the person see, hear, or smell, although 

 the eye, ear, and nostril of the opposite is diseased or 

 injured, is a fact of which we all are aware. Now 

 as the organs of the mental faculties are double, 

 analogy would lead us to conclude, that such will 

 also be the case with them ; and that before we can 

 expect complete loss of any one faculty, the entire 

 organ of each side must be destroyed, just as both 

 eyes or both ears must be diseased, before complete 

 loss of sight or hearing occurs. But this reasoning 

 is by no means satisfactory. For even granting the 

 hypothesis, and not to insist on the position that it is 

 necessary to produce something more than bare as- 

 sertion for the duplicate existence of the organs be- 

 fore we admit their illustration as available in argu- 

 ment, we may say, that when a man loses his eye, he 

 feels its want, and if he becomes deaf on one side, he 

 is quite conscious of a defect in hearing. A similar 

 consciousness, by analogy, should accompany the 

 destruction of one of a pair of phrenological organs. 

 The wounded soldier should at least become by one 

 half less ardent in his devotions, and the wounded 

 miser take a much less firm grasp of his money-bags. 

 But neither the consciousness of defect nor the fact 

 of defect accompanies the injury. Besides, it so hap- 

 pens, as we have already said, there is a range of 

 faculties at the conjunction of the hemispheres of the 

 brain, the organs of which, though called double, are 

 quite contiguous, and therefore substantially single, 

 so that it is impossible to injure one without injuring 

 both. These organs comprehend Comparison, Bene- 

 volence ,Veneration , Firmness, &c. , all of which, being 

 situated on the front, top, and centre of the head, are 

 more open to injury than any others.* 



* It may be scarcely necessary to apprize the reader, that, 

 although phrenologists have mapped the outer cranium into so 



Were phrenology an established science, and were 

 it possible to draw unerring deductions from the data 

 which it lays down, it cannot be denied that its dis- 

 covery would be the greatest step ever made in men- 

 tal philosophy, and its application the most beneficial 

 ever used for the amelioration of the human race. It 

 would give man a knowledge of himself, and direct 

 him in the application of the faculties with which he 

 might be endowed. By disclosing individual char- 

 acter, it would give security to social intercourse, and 

 make communication prompt and easy. It would 

 disclose real merit and expose unworthiness. The 

 truly wise and good would at last attain their proper 

 station in society ; while the ignorant and vicious 

 would be obliged to hide their diminished heads. To 

 parents the science would be of invaluable service, 

 in directing them as to the proper moral and intellec- 

 tual training of their children ; nor would any diffi- 

 culty longer exist regarding the choice of a profession 

 no one, in future, would be made a lawyer, who 

 should have been a painter, nor a clergyman who 

 should have been a fiddler. In medical jurisprudence, 

 and indeed in the administration of justice generally, 

 phrenology would create an entire revolution. The 

 real maniac would at once be distinguished from the 

 responsible agent ; and crime might even be pre- 

 vented by securing the thief and murderer before 

 they had given scope to their propensities. 



But neither is phrenology an established science, 

 nor, if it were, can it ever be applied with certainty 

 to the illustration of individual character. Many of 

 the organs are so heterogeneous in their nature, that 

 they may indicate faculties or dispositions diametri- 

 cally opposite, while others are furnished with com- 

 pensating organs which balance the good or the evil 

 of either, and thus render both ineffective. The organ 

 of secretiveness, for example, which indicates a thief, 

 also indicates a liar, an actor, and a novelist ! It is 

 even said to be necessary to constitute dignity of 

 character! Again, you may have the organ of de- 

 structiveness developed largely, and yet be a peace- 

 able and good man. How is this accounted for ? 

 Your organs of cautiousness and benevolence are 

 brought to bear upon it, so that it is tamed down into 

 a very harmless affair, and would not even hurt a fly. 

 It may be said, therefore, to be kept more for show 

 than use. Thurtell the murderer's bump of benevo- 

 lence was larger than his bump of destructiveness ; 

 and his killing Weare, phrenologists say, was merely 

 an exception to the general kindness of his disposi- 

 tion. They even adduce an instance in which he was 

 known to give half-a-guinea to a poor man ! By this 

 kind of shuffling of explaining away the character 

 of certain organs or extending their sphere and of 

 balancing one organ with another phrenologists are 

 never at a loss in making the configuration of the 

 skull to correspond with the propensities or mental 

 endowments of the individual. We could give nume- 

 rous instances, but we refrain. It has been said by a 

 profound philosopher, that every man is more than 

 half alike. THAT half, phrenologists, in their ex- 

 aminations of character, have the chance of hitting ; 

 if they miss the other half, they can easily explain 

 the reason in their own peculiar jargon. 



There are other circumstances in the way, which, 

 even according to the phrenologists' own showing, 

 must for ever prevent them from correctly judging of 

 the character of man from the external surface of his 



many sections, no corresponding sections or divisions are to be 

 found in the interior structure or arrangement of the brain. 

 Were the brain divided into thirty-five or thirty-six ceils, 

 phrenologists might be justified in marking the divisions with- 

 out, but it consists of one mass, and there is no kind of inward 

 separation or distinction of structure corresponding with th 

 outward boundaries of phrenological organs. 



