74 Phrenology. 



nerves that supply the lungs, the sufferer continues to breathe and 

 to converse, manifesting a rational mind as before the accident. 

 Death must of course soon follow, and as to perception, the body 

 is already dead ; but the continued activity and soundness of the 

 mind prove that its residence is in the brain. This fact appears 

 to me decisive, as no one would imagine that the lungs, a mere 

 light tissue of air cells and blood vessels, separated by thin mem- 

 branes, and destined only for circulation and respiration, can con- 

 tain the mind — especially as this noble power is not subverted in 

 chronic diseases of the lungs, not even when their substance is 

 almost removed by a wasting consumption.* 



The residence of the mind being in the brain, it is not absurd or 

 irrational to inquire whether it can be read in the form of the 

 cranium as well as in the expression of the features. 



It would appear from the observations of Dr. Barclay, that 

 there is at least a general conformation that indicates intellectual 

 and moral powers, and we are thus led to ask whether the 

 research for more particular manifestations is unphilosophical. On 

 this point, we ought not to depart from the received rules of sound 

 philosophy. We are accustomed, in all other cases of scientific 

 inquiry, to examine and weigh the evidence of phenomena, and 

 to apply to them the severe canons of induction, nor can we dis- 

 cern, in the present case, any reason for a different course. 



If, as has been ascertained by physiologists and anatomists, the 

 bony matter of the cranium is deposited upon and around the 

 membranous envelops of the brain, which is formed before the 

 skull, then, the latter adapting itself in its soft and yielding state, 

 must, of necessity, take the shape of the former ; if the differ- 

 ent faculties, affections and propensities of the mind are distribu- 

 ted in different organs contained in the convolutions of the brain, 



* Dropsy in the brain does not form an objection, because its appropriate seat is 

 in the ventricles or cavities, and by the very postulates of phrenology, a particu- 

 lar organ, or particular organs of the brain may be diseased, or even destroyed, 

 without subverting the action of the mind, except in the part affected. 



The case of Sir Robert Liston, mentioned by Mr. Combe, is very remarkable on 

 this point, as his intellectual powers remained unimpaired, while the organs of won- 

 der, corabativeness, and language were affected on one side. I had the pleasure 

 of knowing him at his beautiful cottage near Edinburgh, when all his faculties 

 were perfect, and nothing was at that time more removed from his conduct and 

 character than the frantic anger which he afterwards manifested in a state of the 

 brain, ascertained by post mortem examination, to be diseased in the three animal 

 organs. 



