APPENDIX. 275 



aptitudes, dispositions and mental force of these families of mankind. If this 

 doctrine be unfounded, these skulls are mere facts in Natural History, presenting 

 no particular information as to the mental qualities of the people. 



In applying phrenology to the elucidation of character as indicated by national 

 skulls, the most important points to be attended to are the following. 



1st. To judge of the size of the whole brain. This is indicated by the 

 dimensions of the skull. Magendie, in his Compendium of Physiology, says that 

 " the only way of estimating the volume of the brain^ in a living person, is to 

 measure the dimensions of the skull; every other means, even that proposed by 

 Camper, is uncertain." (Milligan's Translation, p. 104.) Sir Charles Bell 

 observes, "that the bones of the head are moulded to the brain, and the peculiar 

 shapes of the bones of the head are determined by the original peculiarity in the 

 shape of the brain." (Bell's Anatomy, II, p. 390.) Dr. Gordon, in the forty- 

 ninth Number of the Edinburgh Review, admits that "there is in most instances, 

 a general correspondence between the size of the cranium, and the quantity of 

 cerebrum ; that large heads usually contain large brains, and small heads small 

 brains." (p. 246.) 



The size of the national skulls indicates the dimensions of the brains which 

 they contained. The influence of size in the brain on national character may be 

 judged of from the following facts. 



First. The brain of a child is small, and its mind is weak. As the brain 

 grows in size and attains to maturity in structure, the mental manifestations 

 increase in vigor. 



Secondly. A small brain is one but not the only cause of idiocy. A brain 

 may be enlarged by disease and idiocy ensue; but if this organ be too small, 

 although it be healthy in structure, idiocy is an invariable consequence. Phre- 

 nologists have in vain called on their opponents to produce a single instance of 

 the mind being manifested vigorously by a very small brain. 



Dr. Gall has laid it down as a fact, to which there is no exception, that 

 where the brain is so small that the horizontal circumference of the head does not 

 exceed thirteen or fourteen inches, idiocy is the invariable consequence. " Com- 

 plete intelligence," he remarks, "is absolutely impossible with so small a brain; 

 in such cases idiocy, more or less complete, invariably occurs, and to this rule no 

 exception either has been, or ever will be found." To the same effect. Dr. 

 Spurzheim, in his work on Insanity, says : " We are very well aware that a great 

 number of facts, repeated under various circumstances, are necessary before we 

 can draw a general conclusion ; but with respect to idiotism from birth, we have 



