Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND 4.ITERATURE. 



VOL. VIII. APRIL, 1885. NO. 12. 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



THE NEW PHRENOLOGY.i 



J. B. BROWNING, M. D., KANSAS CITY, MO. 



It is the fate of humanity to do things in almost every possible wrong way 

 before it hits upon the right one. Whether this arises from the fact that knowl- 

 edge is something too precious to be lightly entrusted to man, or is something so 

 indifferent that its possession will make little difference with the final result, is a 

 question that we are not yet in position to determine. It is certain that in the 

 natural order of things, by which knowledge is placed as a premium on effort, more 

 stress is placed upon the effort than upon the acquisition. And the more import- 

 ant the knowledge to be acquired, the more does it seem to be beyond our reach. 

 To know one's self has been considered in all ages the climax of human wisdom ; 

 and yet to know one's self has been the despair of the ages. The effort, like 

 all others, has been made in the wrong direction and necessarily so. Suppose 

 man placed in the center of the universe, in the center of a sphere whose bound- 

 aries are ever increasing outward, and he is to search through this sphere for a 

 law or a fact v/hose existence is only inferred ; there are a million chances then 

 that he will look in a thousand wrong ways first. The chances are still more 

 against him when he has to investigate himself, for here, besides fiading the law 

 on which to string his beads of fact, he must investigate the nature of knowledge 



1 Read before the Kansas City Academy of Science, February 22, 1885. 

 YIII-43 



