178 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



These objectors, of course, never made any pretence of 

 studying the subject, or even of ascertaining what it 

 really was. They decided at once that it was irreligious, 

 and their flocks, for the most part, followed them. 



The next body of opponents was that of the meta- 

 physicians, headed by the. great name of Sir William 

 Hamilton. These philosophers, as they termed them- 

 selves, had from the earliest ages studied the mind by 

 observations on their own consciousness, and on the men- 

 tal operations of others so far as they could detect them. 

 They recognized no connection between the mind and 

 the organism; and as the phrenologists maintained that 

 they had not only proved such a connection, but had 

 also determined the particular parts of the brain which 

 were the organs of the separate faculties many of 

 which the metaphysicians did not recognize at all they 

 of course declared the whole science to be erroneous, and 

 its teachers to be little better than deluded fanatics. 

 These objectors, also, never condescended to make any 

 personal study of the science, and remained quite igno- 

 rant of its facts or of the mass of evidence which had 

 been collected in support of it. 



The third class of opponents consisted mainly of doc- 

 tors and physiologists. At first, large numbers of these 

 were converted by attending the lectures of Gall, Spurz- 

 heim, and Combe. In fact there is, so far as I can find, 

 no record of any medical men or others who, having first 

 attended a complete course of lectures, then proceeded to 

 apply and test the information they had obtained with an 

 earnest desire to ascertain the truth of the matter, who 

 did not become confirmed phrenologists. Down to 

 about the years 1840 or 1845 phrenology continued to 



