THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 40^ 



Not prone 



And brute as other creatures, but endued 

 With sanctity of reason, and to erect 

 His stature, and upright, with front serene, 

 Govern the rest, self-knowing." n 



The very expression "human nature" implies certain innate 

 faculties and dispositions, generally ; the circumstance of peculiar 



appointment to St. Thomas's Hospital, I did not know six phrenologists in 

 England ; and, when I founded the Phrenological Society of London there was 

 none in England or abroad. They now exist in many parts of Scotland, where 

 the first Phrenological Society was established ; in many parts of England, 

 in Ireland, America, Denmark, and Paris, where, however, no one existed till 

 Gall's career was finished, 24 societies in all. In Paris the most distinguished 

 in our profession are phrenologists. To the everlasting honour of Edinburgh, 

 not only was the' first Phrenological Society established there, but the first 

 Phrenological Journal ; and a treatise on the science by Mr. Combe has passed 

 through three editions, and made its hundreds of converts : 14,000 copies of 

 his phrenological works have been sold. (Statistics of Phrenology, by H. C. 

 Watson. London, 1836.) On the stand made by Mr. Combe and his circle 

 in Edinburgh, the seat of a hostile celebrated Review, of a University, and 

 of great religious bigotry, too much praise on the score of intellect and moral 

 principle cannot be bestowed. Thousands of well-informed persons in this 

 country are now phrenologists, a very large number in my own profession. 

 Though the Pope put Gall's works into the Index Expurgatorius, phrenological 

 treatises have lately been permitted in the states of his Holiness, as well as by 

 Austria in Milan and Pavia. Phrenological language is of daily use with 

 our best writers and teachers ; though they too often fear to declare their con- 

 viction. I have never known an individual write or speak against phrenology, 



in Dr. Johnson's Med. Chr. Review; and have read in the London Phrenological 

 Society a paper on Imitation, reported in the Lancet, 1827, No. 190. on an 

 Idiot, 1. c. 1826, No. 169. on the Head of the Incendiary Smithers, 1. c. 1832, 

 No. 486. ditto Thurtel, ditto Pallet, Ed. Phr. Journ. vol. i. an Answer to 

 Mr. Jerdan and Dr. Ryan, Lancet, No. 430 to Dr. Kidd, 1. c. 1834, No. 547. 

 to the Rev. Mr. Taylor, 1. c. 1834, No. 548. to Mr. Godwin, 1. c. 1834, 

 No. 432. ditto to Dr. Pritchard, ditto to Dr. Burrows, but not reported, 

 ditto to Dr. Bostock, ditto to Dr. Magendie, Ed. Phr. Journ. vol. v. In the 

 Lancet for 1829, No. 304. and 1831, No. 400. will be found reported some 

 curious pathological illustrations of Phrenology from my patients in St. Thomas's 

 Hospital. In the Ed. Phr. Journ. vol. iv. also will be found a phrenological ex- 

 periment, and in the Lancet, No. 642. another, both communicated by me pre- 

 viously to the London Phrenological Society. 



u Parad. Lost, vii. 

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