CHAP. XVI. 



THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 161 



without comprehension, while others, although more in- 

 telligent, could not do so. He himself was one of the 

 latter group; and this led him to notice that those who 

 surpassed him most in this power of verbal memory, 

 however different they might be in other respects, had all 

 prominent eyes. The meaning of this peculiarity he did 

 not at the time perceive, but he continued his observa- 

 tions at college and in the hospitals, and very gradually 

 acquired the certainty that strongly marked peculiarities 

 of character or talent were associated with constant 

 peculiarities in the form of the head. This led him to 

 pay special attention to the anatomy of the brain and its 

 bony covering; he made collections of skulls and casts of 

 skulls of persons having special mental characteristics; 

 he collected also the skulls of various animals, and com- 

 pared their brains with those of man; he visited prisons, 

 schools, and colleges, everywhere making observations 

 and comparisons of form and size with mental faculties; 

 and later on, when he became physician to a lunatic 

 asylum in Vienna, he had vast opportunities for study- 

 ing the diseased brain, and for observing the correspond- 

 ence between the form of the head and the special delu- 

 sions of each patient. 



It was after more than twenty years of continuous 

 observation and study, under exceptionally favorable 

 conditions, that he became convinced that he had dis- 

 covered a real connection between the mental faculties 

 and the form and size of the various parts of the brain; 

 and in the year 1796 he began lecturing on the subject. 

 His lectures were continued for five years, and were at- 

 tended by numerous physicians and medical students, as 

 well as by men of culture of all ranks, many converts 



