THE OLD PHRENOLOGY AND THE NEW. 227 



The professions of phrenology are not by any means so correctly 

 appreciated as might be thought, considering how well known is the 

 name of the science, and how popular were its tenets within, com- 

 paratively speaking, a few years back. Although the name " phreno- 

 logy" is but an echo in the scientific class-rooms, its professors still 

 flourish, mostly in obscure localities in large towns, and often present 

 themselves as modern representatives of the Peripatetici, in that 

 they wander from town to town as travelling philosophers who 

 usually unite a little electro-biology to their phrenological talents, 

 and throw in an occasional mesmeric seance by way of offset to the 

 more serious business of the interpretation of character. There are, it 

 is true, phrenological societies and museums in several of our cities. 

 The latter are chiefly remarkable for the varied collection of mur- 

 derers' effigies and for the extensive assortment of casts of cranial 

 abnormalities ; the exact relationship of these contorted images to 

 phrenological science being rarely if ever made clear to the visitor 

 on the search for knowledge. Now and then in opticians' windows 

 one sees a wondrous china head whose cubic capacity is mapped off 

 into square inches, half inches, and quarters, of veneration, ideality, 

 comparison, benevolence, and many other so-called " organs " of 

 mind. The contemplation of such a work of art excites within the 

 mind of the ingenuous observer an idea of the literal awfulness of a 

 science which dispenses destructiveness by the inch, and which maps 

 out the bounds of our amativeness by the rule of three ; whilst the 

 profundity of its professors may by such a mind be compared only 

 to that of Butler's savant who 



Could distinguish and divide 

 A hair, 'twixt south and south-west side. 



Nor would the admiration of the ingenuous one be lessened were 

 he to enter the sanctum of the " professor " of phrenology, and sub- 

 mit his cranium to the ocular inspection and digital manipulation of 

 the oracle. The very furnishings of the apartment are often of 

 mystic order, and are calculated to impress or overawe the inquiring 

 mind. Pope's dictum concerning "the proper study of mankind " 

 embellishes the walls ; and the advice " know thyself," (meant to be 

 interpreted and taken in a phrenological sense,) is given gratis 

 through the medium of a conspicuous, and usually illustrated, poster. 

 The tattooed head of a New Zealander ; a few skulls, occasionally 

 supplemented by a collection of stuffed lizards and other reptilian 

 curiosities, and invariably flanked by busts of the ancient philosophers, 

 complete the aesthetic furnishings of the modern temple of the delin- 

 eator of character. To the proprietor, in due time, enters a certain 

 moiety of the British public in search of knowledge. And thence in 

 due season issue the clients of the professor of brain-pans, each pro- 



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