262 Phrenology. 



6. Destructiveness. This organ is situated immediately above^ 

 and extends a little backwards and forwards from the external 

 opening of the ear, and corresponds to the squamous plate of the 

 temporal bone. The faculty produces the impulse, attended with 

 desire to destroy in general. It prompts us to exterminate ob- 

 stacles, so that they may never rise up to occasion fresh embar- 

 rassment. When energetic, it gives a keen and impatient tone to 

 the mind, and adds activity and force to the whole character. 

 Anger and rage are manifestations of it, which being analyzed, 

 are threats of unpleasant consequences, or, vengeance to those 

 who transgress our commands, or encroach on our rights. Hence, 

 it gives weight to injunction, by inspiring with dread of suffering 

 in case of disobedience. It is essential to satire; and inspires au- 

 thors to write cutiinely, with a view to lacerate the feelings of 

 their opponents. When very deficient, there is a lack of fire in 

 the constitution; the mind, as it were, wants edge, and the indi- 

 vidual is prone to sink into passive indolence. The organ is con- 

 spicuous in the heads of cool, deliberate murderers, and in per- 

 sons habitually delighting in cruelty; it is likewise prominent, in 

 the head of the sportsman, and prompts him to bear with cheer- 

 fulness the fatigues of hunting, with the uncertainty of capture. 

 It is also generally large in those who are fond of seeing public 

 executions, floggings, and the infliction of pain in all its forms. 



7. Constructivcness. This organ is situated at that j)art of the 

 frontal bone immediately above the spheno-temporal suture. In 

 man, the faculty inspires with the tendency to construct in gene- 

 ral, and the particular direction in which it is exerted, depends 

 on the other predominant faculties of the individual; for example, 

 if combined with large combativeness and destructiveness, it may 

 be employed in fabricating implements of war; if joined with ven- 

 eration predominating, it may tend towards erecting places of re- 

 ligious worship. If united with large form, imitation, and secre- 

 liveness, it may inspire with a love of portrait painting. In the 

 lower order of animals, it appears to be directed, in a great meas- 

 ure, to one special object^ in a bird, to a particular form of nest, 

 in the beaver, to a special fashion of hut; in the bee, to an uner- 

 ring form of cell, — these animals being deficient in the generaliz- 

 ing and directing powers conferred on men. The organ is indis- 

 pensable to all who follow operative mechanical professions. 



8. Acquisitiveness. This organ is situated at the anterior infe- 

 rior angle of the parietal bone. Spurzheim first called it covetive- 

 ness. The faculty produces the tendency to acquire, and the de- 

 sire to possess in general, without reference to the uses to which 

 the objects, when obtained, may be apphed. The idea of prop- 



