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KTDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



PHRENOLOGY FOE THE MILLION. 

 No. LIL— PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN. 



BY F. J. GALL, M.D. 



(Continued from Page 40.J 



I have said, — and I repeat it, — that I con- 

 sider it my duty to direct special attention to those 

 extremely complicated cases, where we find great 

 difficulty in determining the degree of moral liberty 

 and responsibility of the individual. Such are the 

 many cases of infanticide, into which I have so 

 closely inquired.* Let us now speak of certain 

 circumstances, hitherto little remarked, which con- 

 tribute to affect our reason, and consequently to 

 impair our freedom. 



Certain aliments, and especially spirituous 

 liquors, produce on many persons peculiar 

 irritations, which are the effect of a species of 

 ehriety, though not accompanied with the ordi- 

 nary symptoms of that state. We know that 

 wine and brandy render a man courageous, 

 quarrelsome, eloquent, sincere, amorous, sad, or 

 gay. When the robber Peter Petri was sober, he 

 seemed plunged in a state of dulness and 

 apathy. They could then do what they would 

 with him. But, after drinking a few glasses of 

 brandy, he was a very tiger, who threw himself 

 without distinction upon friends and enemies. 

 A woman at Bamberg, whenever she had drank 

 brandy, felt a strong desire to set tire to some 

 house ; but no sooner had the excitement passed, 

 than this woman was filled with horror at her own 

 previous state. As, however, she was not always 

 on her guard against the enticements of her fa- 

 vorite beverage, 6he actually committed arson in 

 fonrteen instances. 



The most embarrassing case in regard to culpa- 

 bility, without reference to the laws, is that in 

 which a peculiar quality acquires by itself, and in 

 consequence of the organisation, so great a degree 

 of energy that it forms the ruling passion of an 

 individual. I have already shown, that all the 

 faculties, and all the propensities, may arrive at this 

 degree of energy. If this takes place in regard to 

 a matter, which is indifferent or laudable, we may 

 felicitate the individual, without making it a sub- 

 ject of commendation. Many persons are natu- 

 rally inclined to devotion ; others would be forced 

 to do great violence to their nature, if they dis- 

 missed without aid an abandoned child, or a 

 friendless old man. Many men have an especial 

 inclination for building, travelling, disputing; one 

 is inflamed with an insatiable desire of glory ; 

 another cannot spare his best friend when a bril- 

 liant sarcasm rises in his mind. We found in a 

 house of correction a young nobleman, extremely 

 proud, who was confined there because he was 

 ashamed of every kind of work. Even there, he 

 would only condescend to speak to persons of dis- 

 tinction, and his questions discovered uncommon 

 penetration. The nervous systems of certain 

 external senses may also acquire such an extra- 

 ordinary degree of activity and energy, that they 

 determine, as it were, the principal character of 



* These cases are extremely interesting to medi- 

 cal men, and to ourself individually ; but we do not 

 consider it needful nor prudent to discuss so pain- 

 ful and delicate a subject in the columns of Our 

 Journal. The reason will be obvious. — Ed. K. J. 



an individual. This kind of energy is even some- 

 times hereditary. In a certain Russian family, the 

 father and the grandfather early became victims of 

 their propensity to drunkenness ; the son, though 

 he foresaw the consequences of this perverse habit, 

 continued to abandon himself to it, in spite of his 

 exertions ; and the grandson, a boy of five years, 

 at the time of the publication of the first edition 

 of this work, already manifested a decided propen- 

 sity for spirituous liquors. 



Why should not this imperious activity some- 

 times take place, also, in other organs, which, by 

 the excess of their action, lead to evil? The 

 reality of such exaltation is proved by so many 

 examples, that any objection dictated by prejudice 

 or superstition, would be absurd. The individual 

 who experiences this exalted energy, is governed 

 by a single sensation or idea, in which his whole 

 soul is centered. If this violent action is not con- 

 trolled by some superior force, the man becomes 

 its slave. If faculties of a superior order act at 

 the same time in a contrary direction, there thence 

 results an obstinate struggle between the unhappy 

 propensities of the individual, and the painful 

 opposition of his reason. Is it then surprising 

 that evil propensities often gain the mastery over 

 the good ; the flesh over the spirit? This state, 

 it is true, is not a real alienation of the mind ; it 

 is rather a partial exaltation, a subjection of the 

 soul, and it offers an incomprehensible contrast 

 between man and the animal in man. If the 

 exaltation takes place in a quality, whose too 

 energetic activity leads to criminal acts, a state 

 can hardly be imagined more unhappy for the 

 individual, and more perplexing to the judge ; 

 for this state produces effects in appearance so 

 contrary, that, on the one hand, it is scarcely 

 possible to distinguish it from the state of reason ; 

 and, on the other, it seems to confound itself with 

 madness. Let us examine some of these incli- 

 nations, beginning with the propensity to theft. 



Violent Propensity to the commission of Theft, 

 destroying the Moral Freedom. 



Victor Amadeus I., King of Sardinia, was in 

 the constant habit of stealing trifles. Saurin, pastor 

 at Geneva, though possessing the strongest prin- 

 ciples of reason and religion, frequently yielded to 

 the propensity to steal. Another individual was, 

 from early youth, a victim to this inclination. He 

 entered the military service, on purpose that he " 

 might be restrained by the severity of the disci- 

 pline ; but, having continued his practices, he was 

 on the point of being condemned to be hanged. 

 Ever seeking to combat his ruling passion, he 

 studied theology, and became a capuchin. But his 

 propensity followed him even to the cloister. Here, 

 however, as he found only trifles to tempt him, he 

 indulged himself in his strange fancy with less 

 scruple. He seized scissors, candlesticks, snuffers, 

 cups, goblets, and conveyed them to his cell. An 

 agent of the government at Vienna had the sin- 

 gular mania for stealing nothing but kitchen uten- 

 sils. He hired two rooms as a place of deposit; 



* " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 

 the spirit against the flesh, and these two are 

 contrary the one to the other, so th.at ye cannot 

 do the things that ye would." — St. Paul to Gal., 

 chap, v., verse 17. 



