S22 



CRANIOSCOPY 



Organs pe- 

 culi ir to 



[he human 

 cranium. 



faculties are possessed by the same individuals ; and the 

 evident superior strength of certain organs, which 

 causes one man to be a poet, another a statesman, or a 

 general, &c. 3. The loss of certain faculties and powers 

 of mind, from wounds, diseases, &c. affecting certain 

 parts of the brain. The functions of the brain are three- 

 fold ; 1 . organic life ; 2. sensitive life; 3. intellectual 

 life Gall to each of these assigns a particular organ : 

 it is in consequence of the size of the hemispheres (the 

 part appropriated to intellectual life) that man has the 

 largest brain : and not because the size of the human 

 brain is greater in proportion to the rest of his body, 

 nor on account of the comparative thickness of the 

 nerves, as Soemmering has observed. The hemispheres 

 of the brain are developed, in different classes of ani- 

 mals, in proportion to their intellectual faculties, and 

 they are more perfect in man than in any other animal 

 hitherto discovered. This assertion, that man is en- 

 dowed with the largest brain, ought not to be mistaken; 

 for the elephant and several other animals, have a much 

 greater brain than man ; Gall only asserts, that the he- 

 mispheres in man are larger in proportion to his size ; 

 and that the nerves are always in proportion to the 

 economy of the animal to which they belong ; thus the 

 optic nerve is much larger in graminivorous than in 

 carnivorous animals, whereas the olfactory is much 

 stronger in the latter ; hence it appears, that animals 

 are furnished with such organs as are necessary or best 

 suited to their mode of life, and are consequently born 

 with certain dispositions and inclinations, for the exer- 

 tion of which they have received certain instruments, 

 by means of which they hold an intercourse with the 

 external world; these organs reside in the brain, the 

 place of rendezvous of all the single organs ; each in- 

 nate disposition having an organ of its own, which is 

 increased in proportion to the power residing in the 

 disposition, and are expressed in the surface of the 

 brain, and form certain protuberances in the exterior 

 osseous cover of the cranium, by which the existence 

 of these organs may be ascertained under certain restric- 

 tions ; and from these observations the system of era- 

 nioscopi/ arises. These dispositions may, in some mea- 

 sure, be further developed by education and connection 

 with the world, but can by no means be created by 

 them ; or certain organs which would be productive of 

 evil to the individual possessing them, may in a great 

 measure be repressed ; for instance, if a young man 

 has a melancholy turn of mind, full of nervous sensi- 

 bility, conscious, and scrupulous, in whom also the 

 organ of theosophy is found, Gall would recommend 

 him not to follow the bent of his inclination, the pro- 

 fession of divinity, but to lead an active life, and 

 to mix much with gay society ; and this he asserts, 

 would in a short time effect a change and permanent 

 cure. 



The organs peculiar to the human cranium are, ac- 

 cording to Gall, twenty-seven in number. These he di- 

 vides into three classes. 



I. Those by which man is enabled to enter into con- 

 nection with the external world. 



II. Those by which we are enabled to acquire a more 

 intimate acquaintance with the world, or with certain 

 objects which are made known to us by means of the 

 external senses. 



III. Those which constitute the peculiar prerogative 

 of the human race, and which raise man more eminent- 

 ly above all other animals in the creation. All these 

 lie on the vertex and glabellar portion at the os frontis, 

 that feature considered by the poet as the glorious cha- 



racteristic of humanity. The forehead rises in animals 

 as they are advanced in the scale of intellect ; but it is 

 in some species of men alone that the glabella assumes 

 that graceful swell, which Blumenbach observes is no 

 less beautiful to the eye of taste, than significant to the 

 physiognomist. 



Particular Organs of the Brain. 



1. The impulse to propagation, or organ of sensual Particular 

 love ; Avhich is the most important, resides in the ce- or g a " s ?* 

 rebellum, and comprises that part of the occipital bone, brain > 

 which lies below the linea semicircularis inferior, to- 

 wards the great occipital hole : it is discoverable in li- 

 ving subjects by the thickness of the neck, and is al- 

 ways more prominent in the male than in the female. 



As the sensual passion arises, this part is developed; 

 and when by castration the purposes of nature are de- 

 feated, this organ ceases to grow. In such as undergo 

 the operation at an early age, the back of the head 

 ceases to grow ; the neck is narrow, and the voice 

 looses its manly vigour. The thickness of the neck, in 

 consequence of the large size of the cerebellum, is par- 

 ticularly observable in the bull and stallion. It is 

 farther observed, that ossification increases as the brain 

 diminishes; thus, if the horns of a stag be cutoff in the 

 rutting season, the animal loses its power of procreation, 

 in the effort of nature to reproduce this substance ; and 

 it does not recover its generative power till the antlers 

 are reproduced. Many phenomena, in cases of disease, 

 tend to prove the existence of this organ : wounds of 

 the back of the head will produce inflammation, and 

 sometimes impotence ; and in hydrops cerebri the power 

 of generation remains undisturbed, whilst all the other 

 functions of the brain are deranged ; from a very na- 

 tural cause, the cerebellum suffers least in this disease. 

 Cretins, who are notorious for their lasciviousness, but 

 scarcely possess the common intellectual powers, have 

 their cerebellum remarkably large. The bust of Ra- 

 phael, which was made from an impression in Paris 

 plaster, has a very large protuberance behind, announ- 

 cing that tendency of his constitution, to which he fell 

 an early victim. Gall relates the case of an insane man 

 who had a fixed idea that he had six wives, and his ce- 

 rebellum was found remarkably distended at his death; 

 and states, that on entering an hospital in which he had 

 never been before, he heard a woman uttering the 

 grossest obscenities : he desired his assistant, Dr Spurz- 

 heim, to examine her head, declaring that he would re- 

 linquish his doctrines, if her head was not found re- 

 markably large behind, and he was not deceived. 



2. The organ of parental love and f Hal affection, is 

 placed at the upper part of the occiput, and is most in- 

 timately connected with the impulse to propagation, 

 and hence the organ of parental love is situated imme- 

 diately above it. It is found in all animals that are 

 fond of their young, but is always more apparent in the 

 female than the male. It is so evident in the human 

 species, that the sex of a child at birth may be known 

 by this single criterion. This organ is also expressive 

 of filial love, and is in some measure developed hi 

 boys : it however dwindles away in time, in the same 

 proportion as the affection of parents decreases for their 

 children. 



We now leave the inial part of the head, and proceed 

 by the lower plane of the brain to that part of it which 

 is" situated in the glabella, where nature has placed 

 those organs which the new-born animal needs, to get 

 more immediately acquainted with exterior objects. 

 These organs are placed near each other, and the inch- 



