Obituary JVotice of Dr. Gaspar Spurzheim. 357 



when, without premonition of his illness, his death was abruptly- 

 announced. It was one of those thunder strokes, which, in the full 

 career of life, bring us up with a sudden check, and throw us, all 

 aback. Every man, especially, who presses onward in the habitual 

 pleasure of intellectual effort, and who lives less for himself than for 

 his fellow men ; less for the idolatry of his own poor fame than for 

 the honor of his maker ; every such man, feels, on an occasion like 

 this, a momentary paralysis of his powers, and is, for the time, dis- 

 posed to cease from the vain struggles of life. This feeling, so in- 

 consistent with the discharge of duty, is happily temporary. We 

 look on the illustrious dead — we mourn — we pay them the last honors, 

 and then resume our arms, and press onward in our warfare. 



On the present occasion, however, we are more desirous to ad- 

 vert to facts than to pursue a course of moral reflections, however, 

 in other circumstances, proper and useful ; and happily, we have an 

 interesting biograpical notice of Dr. Spurzheim in the excellent fune- 

 ral oration pronounced by Professor Charles Follen, in honor of the 

 deceased, which we are permitted to use on the present occasion. 

 We shall quote, in Dr. Follen's own words, the biographical sketch 

 of his departed friend and countryman. 



"Gaspar Spurzheim was born on the 31st of December, 1775, 

 at Longvich, a village about seven miles from the city of Treves, on 

 the Moselle, in the lower circle of the Rhine, now under the domin- 

 ion of Prussia. His father was a farmer, and in his religious per- 

 suasion, a Lutheran. Young Spurzheim received his classical edu- 

 cation at the college of Treves ; and was destined by his friends, for 

 tjhe profession of Theology. In consequence of the war between 

 Germany and France, in 1797, the students of that college were dis- 

 persed, and Spurzheim went to Vienna. Here he devoted himself 

 to the study of medicine, and became the pupil, and afterward the 

 associate of Dr. Gall, who was at that time established as a physician 

 at Vienna. 



" This extraordinary man had been induced, by an observation 

 made by him when a boy of nine years old, to attempt a new mode 

 of scientific investigation. While at school, young Gall felt mortified 

 at seeing himself surpassed by a number of his school-fellows in all 

 those exercises that required verbal memory. The mortified pupil 

 tried to find out some reason to account for this fact, that boys who 

 in their other exercises were much his inferiors, yet showed better 

 heads in committing lessons to memory. He was struck with the 



