HEMISPHERES. 427 



and Spurzheim, under the name of Phrenology. These observers 

 recognized the fact that the intellectual powers are undoubtedly 

 seated in the brain, and that the development of the brain is, as a 

 general rule, in correspondence with the activity of .these powers. 

 They noticed also that in other parts of the nervous system, different 

 functions occupy different situations ; and regarding the mind as 

 made up of many distinct mental faculties, they conceived the idea 

 that these different faculties might be seated in different parts of 

 the cerebral mass. If so, each separate portion of the brain would 

 undoubtedly be more or less developed in proportion to the activity 

 of the mental trait or faculty residing in it. The shape of the head 

 would then vary in different individuals, in accordance with their 

 mental peculiarities ; and the character and endowments of the in- 

 dividual might therefore be estimated from an examination of the 

 elevations and depressions on the surface of the cranium. 



Accordingly, the authors of this doctrine endeavored, by examin- 

 ing the heads of various individuals whose character was already 

 known, to ascertain the location of the different mental faculties. 

 In this manner they finally succeeded, as they supposed, in accom- 

 plishing their object; after which they prepared a chart, in which 

 the surface of the cranium was mapped out into some thirty or forty 

 different regions, corresponding with as many different mental traits 

 or faculties. With the assistance of this chart it was thought that 

 phrenology might be practised as an art ; and that, by one skilled 

 in its application, the character of a stranger might be discovered 

 by simply examining the external conformation of his head. 



We shall not expend much time in discussing the claims of phre- 

 nology to rank as a science or an art, since we believe that it has 

 of late years been almost wholly discarded by scientific men, owing 

 to the very evident deficiencies of the basis upon which it was 

 founded. Passing over, therefore, many minor details, we will 

 merely point out, as matters of physiological interest, the principal 

 defects which must always prevent the establishment of phrenology 

 as a science, and its application as an art. 



First, though we have no reason for denying that different parts 

 of the brain may be occupied by different intellectual faculties, 

 there is no direct evidence which would show this to be the case. 

 Phrenologists include, in those parts of the brain which they em- 

 ploy for examination, both the cerebrum and cerebellum ; and they 

 justly regard the external parts of these bodies, viz., the layer of 

 gray matter which occupies their surface, as the ganglionic portion 



