KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



117 



stillness. At such an hour, it seems as if uni- 

 versal nature were drawing her curtains for a 

 dreamy and deep rest. Then is the season for 

 contemplation — the time to turn aside from the 

 haunts of mirth for those purifying enjoyments 

 which solitude alone can minister. 



Ye in whose bosom still linger the stormy and 

 unhallowed passions which day has excited — 

 come forth to the shadowy twilight, and a por- 

 tion of its serenity shall fall like a heavenly in- 

 fluence upon your spirits. The stern necessities 

 of your lot shall for awhile he forgotten, amid 

 the soothing images which evening gathers 

 around you. Ye shall no longer feel the weari- 

 ness of toil — no longer groan under the stern 

 tasks of morning or mid-day — no longer remem- 

 ber the harrowings of scorn, or contumely, or 

 oppression — for evening hath an " oblivious an- 

 tidote " for all your sufferings. Yea, come forth 

 to the moonlit lawns and the forest dells, and the 

 tranquillity which reigns throughout their seclu- 

 sions shall again be yours. 



For us, individually, the night has more 

 charms than all the other seasons united, — 

 at this period of the year particularly. Starry 

 and stilly night! Thy presence hath for us a 

 Lethean influence. As we gaze upon the mys- 

 terious decorations of thy peaceful domain, the 

 anxieties which the bustle and turmoil of day 

 have gathered to our bosom are banished as by 

 the visitation of an angel. The happy innocence 

 of life's morning hour steals o'er us figain in thy 

 magnificent, thy sublime presentations. Our 

 spirit forgets her humiliating alliance with the 

 sordid and inert dust, as imagination snatches 

 it aloft, and on, far on, — 



Beyond the planet and remoter spheres, 

 And orbs that in their blue abysses gleam 

 Like ocean diamonds brightly, yet unseen, 

 Till earth's wide globe gleams out, a little 



star, 

 And, in the deep'ning azure, fades away. 

 There, on ethereal plains, 'mid mingled hosts 

 Of cherubim and seraphim that strike 

 Their golden harps around th' Eternal's 



throne, 

 She bends in silent awe; till, half assur'd, 

 She catches the high strain and asks a lyre ! 



PHRENOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. 



No. XIX -PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN. 



BY F. J. GALL, M.D. 



{Continued from page 87.) 



I come next in order to treat of — 



The Exposition and Reputation op the 

 different opinions on the origin of in- 

 stinctive forces, moral and intellectual, 

 in man and animals. 



The anatomical and physiological knowledge of 

 the brain, even to our times has been so defective, 

 that no relation could be developed between it 

 and the ingenious aptitudes, the instincts, pro- 

 pensities, sentiments, talents, or, in general, the 



moral and intellectual faculties of man and 

 animals. Hence it has happened, that the ana- 

 tomists and physiologists themselves have pre- 

 sented to the metaphysical philosophers, as so 

 many positive facts, fictitious phenomena, which 

 these last have employed in order to give weight 

 to their false doctrines. Buffon advanced that 

 the brain of the orang-outang does not differ 

 from that of man; Bichat and Sprengel doubt 

 whether the superior parts of the brain or the 

 circumvolutions of the hemispheres contribute 

 in any respect to the moral and intellectual func- 

 tions: these two authors and their followers, go 

 so far as to maintain that we might remove large 

 portions of these parts without the faculties 

 being impaired. We still hear of brains ossified, 

 and even petrified ; of brains, the half of which 

 was reduced to pus; of skulls, the whole cavity 

 of which contained only water, — and it is added, 

 with full confidence, that the will and intellect 

 did not suffer. Willis having found in an idiot 

 a brain five times smaller than that of a man of 

 sound mind, pretended to say, and Sprengel has 

 repeated it after him, that this brain had the 

 same parts as a complete human brain. Even 

 authors who pretend to have made a particular 

 study of comparative anatomy, have yet recently 

 advanced that the brain of mammiferous ani- 

 mals is composed of the same parts as that of 

 man. 



The specious hypotheses, originated and dif- 

 fused by philosophers of the first order, on the 

 influence which the senses and education exer- 

 cise on the source of ideas and faculties, must, 

 necessarily, have contributed to facilitate the 

 adoption of these errors, and to turn away the 

 minds of men from the true origin of our moral 

 and intellectual forces. 



Let us first examine what the influence of the 

 senses can be on our moral and intellectual 

 powers, whether Aristotle was correct in saying, 

 " Nihil est in mente quod non olim fuerit in 

 sensu." 



The senses and the sensations, received by external 

 impressions, cannot give truth to any ingenious 

 aptitude, any instinct, propensity, sentiment, or 

 talent, any moral or intellectual faculty. 



In the first volume of my large work, I have 

 com-ideied, not only the anatom} r , but also the 

 functions of the fie senses. I have asigned to 

 each sense the sphere of activity, which nature 

 has allotted to it. I have rectified the numerous 

 errors which naturalists and physiologists still 

 commit in their works, and in their lectures. I 

 have proved, in opposition to those who make 

 the perfection of the intellectual faculties to flow 

 from the delicacy and the greater perfection of 

 the senses, that these five senses are almost all 

 more delicate, more perfect in the different species 

 of animals, than in the human species. I have 

 there entered into the details of each sense. 



As respects taste, for example, I have proved 

 that birds and fishes possess it, as well as the 

 mammifera. 



As to smell, I have shown that it is the first 

 sense which gives to man and to animals the 

 idea of distance ; that it is not by the sense of 

 smell, that animals find from a distance and 



