276 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



made such a number of observations in various countries, that we have no hesita- 

 tion in affirming that a too small brain is unfit for the manifestation of the mind. 

 I beg to remark, that I do not say that idiotism is the attribute of a too small 

 brain only; idiotism may be the result of different causes, one of which is a too 

 small brain. We are convinced from observation, that the laws of nature are 

 constant ; and if we continually observe that the same phenomenon takes place 

 under the same circumstances, we consider our conclusion as certain, till experi- 

 ence shows the contrary. No one, then, has the right to maintain that an inference 

 is too hastily drawn because he has not made a sufficient number of observations. 

 It is his duty to show facts w^hich prove the contrary, if he intend to deny the 

 inference." In the Journal of the Phrenological Society of Paris, for April 1835, 

 Dr. Voisin reports observations made upon the idiots under his care at the Parisian 

 Hospital of Incurables, in order to verify the assertion of Dr. Gall in the passage 

 just quoted ; and mentions that he found it substantiated by every one of his cases. 

 In the lowest class of idiots, where the intellectual manifestations were null, the 

 horizontal circumference, taken a little higher than the orbit, varied from eleven 

 to thirteen inches, while the distance from the root of the nose backwards over 

 the top of the head to the occipital spine was only between eight and nine inches. 

 When the size varied from fourteen to seventeen inches of horizontal measure- 

 ment, and eleven or twelve in the other direction, glimpses of feelings and random 

 intellectual perceptions were observable, but without any power of attention or 

 fixity of ideas. Lastly, when the first measurement extended to eighteen or 

 nineteen inches, although the head was still small, the intellectual manifestations 

 were regular enough, but deficient in intensity. In a full sized head, the first 

 measurement is equal to twenty-two inches, and the second to about fourteen 

 inches. So large was the head of Spurzheim, that even on the skull these two 

 measurements amounted to 22| and 13^ inches respectively. 



Thirdly. Individuals and nations distinguished for great aggregate force of 

 mind, animal, moral and intellectual, have had large brains. King Robert Bruce, 

 Napoleon, Cuvier, Canova, Burns the poet. Dr. Gall and Dr. Spurzheim, among 

 men, and the Teutonic race compared with the Hindoo among nations, may be 

 cited as examples.^ 



I do not adduce these observations as evidence to prove the influence of size 

 in the brain on the power with which the faculties of the mind are manifested, 

 but merely as a statement of the proposition that such influence exists. The 

 subject will be found more fully expounded in my System of Phrenology, in 

 which also the influence of temperament, health, and exercise, in modifying the 



