THE OLD PHRENOLOGY AND THE NEW. 239 



crimes had been marked by unusual brutality and violence, and who 

 might therefore be regarded as exemplifying cases in which the 

 largeness of the "organ" of destructiveness might be lawfully 

 postulated by a phrenologist, Mr. Stone demonstrated by careful 

 measurement and comparison that each of the fifteen had the organ 

 or surface of " destructiveness " absolutely less than the average of 

 ordinary heads, whilst thirteen of these skulls possessed this org;an 

 relatively less when compared with the whole contents of the brain- 

 pan. Nor was this all. Thirteen of these fifteen worthies possessed 

 a larger organ of " benevolence " than the average, and their " con- 

 scientiousness " was also as a rule well-developed. Their brains 

 were not markedly deficient in front of the ear the region of the 

 intellectual faculties according to the phrenologist nor were they 

 unusually developed behind the ear, where the animal faculties are 

 supposed to reside. 



No less instructive were the comparisons instituted between the 

 faculties of Dr. David Gregory, once Professor of Mathematics in 

 the University of Edinburgh, and Savilian Professor of Astronomy at 

 Oxford, a friend and contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton. Professor 

 Gregory's character was well known as that of an amiable, 

 accomplished, intellectual man. In such a case the moral faculties 

 would be expected to present high development, whilst the animal 

 faculties and baser qualities would naturally be regarded as being 

 but poorly represented. Mr. Stone's measurements, duly verified by 

 independent observers, elicited the awkward fact that Dr. Gregory 

 should, according to the phrenological interpretation of his cranium, 

 have ranked in the criminal category, since his organ of " destruc- 

 tiveness " was found to exceed in size that of every murderer in the 

 collection under discussion ! In proportion to the general size and 

 form of the brain, Dr. Gregory's " destructiveness " was larger than 

 that of the notorious Burke, who was executed at Edinburgh for the 

 cold-blooded murder of men, women, and children, whose bodies, 

 along with his coadjutor Hare, he sold for purposes of anatomical 

 inspection. Not to enumerate in detail the startling results which the 

 fair and unbiassed examination of Dr. Gregory's cranium afforded, 

 it may simply be mentioned that the Professor's " combativeness " 

 was larger than that of any of the debased villains with whom his 

 faculties were compared. Burke equalled him in " benevolence ; " 

 in " secretiveness " he excelled the noteworthy fifteen ; his "acquisi- 

 tiveness" exceeded that of Haggart and other noted thieves ; his 

 " causality " the power of reasoning closely, and of tracing the re- 

 lations between cause and effect, a faculty which as a mathematician 

 he should have possessed largely developed was less than that of 

 the criminals ; and his intellectual faculties at large were of less 

 capacity than theirs, as his animal faculties were present in greater 

 force. 



