520 PHRENOLOGY : OLD AND NEW. 



were known to be remarkable for their extreme irresolu- 

 tion ; and therefore one day in a public place Gall stood 

 behind them and observed their heads. He found them 

 extremely large on the upper and posterior part of both 

 sides of the head ; and this observation gave the first idea 

 of this organ." Such was the kind of haphazard tentative 

 method by which, after multitudinous observations con- 

 ducted, it is true, upon persons of all kinds, ages, and 

 stations in society, the details of their ' System ' were 

 finally established. 



The ' system of Phrenology ' of Gal] and Spurzheim was, 

 therefore, fallacious in almost every respect. It was alto- 

 gether defective in its psychological analysis, eminently 

 unsatisfactory in its localizations, and was, in short, as un- 

 reliable in its methods as it was inconclusive in its results. 

 It would have been almost needless, indeed, to have dwelt 

 so long upon this subject but for the fact that amongst 

 the general public there are probably very many who, if 

 not actual believers in the ' Phrenology ' of Gall and 

 Spurzheim, may be glad to know upon what precise 

 grounds the system should be rejected. 



Are we, however, to run into the opposite extreme, and 

 subscribe to such doctrines as those put forth by Flourens 

 (1840) ? This eminent physiologist, who may be said almost 

 to have been the initiator of experimental research as 

 directed to the determination of the Functions of the Brain, 

 felt entitled to draw from his own well-known investi- 

 gations the following conclusions, altogether opposed to 

 any localization of functions in detail — that is, of special 

 functions in special regions of the Cerebral Hemispheres. 

 His conclusions are these (" Eech. Experiment.," p. 99): — ■ 



" Ainsi 1°, on pent retrancher, soit par devant, soit par derricro, 

 soit par en haiit, suit par cote, line portion assez etendue des lobes 

 cerebraux, sans que leurs fonctioas soient perducs. Una vortion 



