360 Obituary JYotice of Dr. Gaspar Spurzheim. 



to diminish as much as possible the merit which he was forced to 

 allow to this new mode of dissection. It is said that Cuvier, whose 

 firmness and independence were by no means commensurate with his 

 great talents, was swayed by the haughtiness of the First Consul, 

 who had seen with displeasure that the French Institute had awarded 

 a prize medal to Sir H. Davy for his galvanic experiments, and ' at 

 a levee rated the wise men of his land, for allowing themselves to be 

 taught chemistry by an Englishman, and anatomy by a German.' 



" In Paris, Gall and Spurzheim began to publish their great work 

 on the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system in general, 

 and that of the brain in particular. They also continued their pub- 

 lic lectures and demonstrations. They remained and labored to- 

 gether in Paris till the year 1813. In the following year Spurzheim 

 went over to England, and gave his first public lecture in London, 

 in the amphitheatre of Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Abernethy, though he 

 did not give full credit to the evidence brought forward by phrenolo- 

 gists to prove that special parts of the brain are the organs of certain 

 innate qualities of the mind, fully acknowledged the superiority of 

 Dr. Spurzheim's anatomical demonstrations over every previous 

 mode of dissecting the brain. I have been assured by a gentleman 

 who at that time attended Mr. Abernethy's lectures, that he directed 

 the attention of his class to Dr. Spurzheim's anatomical labors as 

 most important discoveries.* Still, the truly scientific method of 

 establishing phrenology by anatomical demonstration, though it se- 

 cured the respect of learned men, did not render it popular. 



" From London Dr. Spurzheim went to Bath, Bristol, Cork, and 

 Dublin, where also he delivered lectures. He then proceeded to 

 Edinburgh. His desire to visit that city was increased by a very 

 abusive article on phrenology, which had appeared in the Edinburgh 

 Review, for June, 1815, concluding with the confident assertion of 

 the writer that his statement of the doctrine of phrenology could 

 ' leave no doubt, in the minds of honest and intelligent men, as to the 

 real ignorance, the real hypocrisy, and the real empiricism of the 

 author.' 



* Mr. Abernethy, in one of his publications, speaks of Dr. Spurzheim as ' a man 

 who had made the motives of human actions a particular study, possessing also great 

 intellectual powers combined with benevolence and caution indecision;' he also 

 expresses the ' great gratification he had in being intimate with Dr. Spurzheim 

 whilst he remained in London,' 



