230 



KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



feed almost entirely on insects and fruit ; 

 but in confinement, they may be taught to 

 feed on several other things, but the more 

 insects they have given them the better. I 

 believe it is impossible to keep them in per- 

 fect health without a frequent supply. The 

 food that I find agree with them best, for a 

 constancy, is an equal proportion of bruised 

 hempseed and bread, mixed up in the fol- 

 lowing manner : — I first put some hempseed 

 in a little pan, and pour some boiling water 

 on it ; then, with a stick flattened at the 

 end, I bruise it as fine as possible, and add 

 the same quantity of soft bread, which must 

 also be bruised up with it, so that the oily 

 milk from the seeds may be mixed with the 

 bread till it is of the consistence of a moist 

 paste. Of this mixture they are all very 

 fond; but it should be mixed up fresh every 

 day, particularly in summer, or the stale 

 food may injure their health and make them 

 dislike it altogether. I also give them a 

 little boiled milk and bread for a change, 

 and some fresh raw meat, cut in small pieces. 

 Some of the species like the fat best, but 

 the greater part prefer the lean. 

 {To be Continued.) 



PHRENOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. 



" He who opposes his own judgment against the con- 

 sent of the times, ought to be backed with unanswerable 

 Truths ; and he who has Truth on his side is a fool, 

 as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it because of 

 the currency or multitude of other men's opinions."— 

 Defoe, 



No. VII.—THE LIFE OF DR. GALL. 



In 1809, Gall and Spurzheim commenced 

 publishing their magnificent work, entitled " The 

 Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System 

 in general, and of the Brain in particular ; with 

 Observations upon the p>ossibility of ascertaining 

 several intellectual and moral Dispositions of Man 

 and Animals, by the Configuration of their Heads, 

 4 volumes, folio, with an Atlas of 100 plates" 

 [Price £40.]. 



This great work was continued by the joint 

 exertions of Gall and Spurzheim, to the com- 

 pletion of two and a-half "volumes, and was 

 ultimately finished by Gall in 1819. They 

 continued their researches in common till 1813, 

 when Spurzheim left Paris to visit Vienna and 

 Great Britain. During Dr. Spurzheim's absence, 

 Dr. Gall discontinued his lectures. After his 

 return (1817), he delivered one Private Course 

 in his own house, and two Public Courses gratis, 

 one " a VEcole de Medecine," and the other in a 

 hall u de L f institution pour les Aveugles." 



In 1819, Dr Gall, at the request of the Minister 

 of the Interior, commenced lecturing for the 

 benefit of the medical students in Paris. The 

 lectures were, like others, delivered gratis; but 

 he was provided with the use of the operation 

 and lecture room in the Hospice de Perfectionne- 

 ment, for his First Course, and afterwards, on 

 account of that being too small, with the large 



examination room of the Institution des Jeunes 

 Aveugles, which is well fitted for the purpose. 

 His audience amounted to betwixt 200 and 300 ; 

 and so eagerly was he attended, that many more 

 tickets were applied for at each Course than 

 could be given, and the apartment was regularly 

 crowded half an hour before the lecture began. 

 The physiognomical expression of some of the 

 English students, who were present at Blainville's 

 Lectures, and who probably knew nothing of 

 Phrenology but through the English Reviews, 

 was truly ludicrous. They appeared to relax 

 their features for a laugh when the name of Dr. 

 Gall first escaped the lips of the Profassor; but 

 when they heard him spoken of with respect, and 

 his doctrines declared to be true, the expression 

 changed into wonder in some, and in others to 

 absolute contempt. 



The French savans listened to him with the 

 same interest as those of Germany had done, and 

 the celebrated Corvisart was, among others, one 

 of his most enthusiastic admirers. But, alas! 

 an absolute ruler governed France at that epoch, 

 and he held philosophy in horror. Nothing more 

 was required to induce the courtiers, and some 

 literary men, to declare themselves the enemies 

 of the doctrines broached by the German doctor. 

 Hence the ridicule and the ignoble pleasantry 

 which degraded the Journal de P Empire, and 

 most of the secondary journals of Paris — most 

 unworthy means, certainly, of discussing a science 

 so important as that which treats of the powers 

 of the mind and functions of the brain, — means 

 which never reached the elevated mind of the 

 philosopher against whom they were employed, 

 but which contributed greatly to prevent the 

 study and propagation of the truths which Gall 

 had announced. At last however, his Works ap- 

 peared, and several of his eminent contemporaries 

 hastened to do him justice, and still follow the 

 line of investigation so successfully marked out 

 by him. 



From 1822 to 1826, Dr. Gall published an 

 edition of his work, s ' Sur les Fonctions du Cer- 

 veau," &c. in six volumes, 8vo. 



In March, 1828, at the conclusion of one of 

 his lectures, Dr. Gall was seized with a paralytic 

 attack, from which he never perfectly recovered, 

 and which ultimately carried him off the 22nd 

 August, 1828,in the seventy-second year of his age. 

 His remains were followed to the grave by an 

 immense concourse of friends and admirers, five 

 of whom pronounced discourses over his grave, 

 as is the custom in France on such occasions. 

 His death gave rise to a succession of eulogiums 

 and attacks in the French newspapers that had 

 scarcely ever been paralleled, and public sen- 

 timent was warmly and loudly expressed in his 

 favor. In proof of this, I may be allowed to 

 quote a few lines of a letter lately received 

 from a French friend, with whom I was intimate 

 in Paris, but who is no phrenologist, and whose 

 testimony is therefore impartial. After speaking 

 of the political relations of France, he adds, 

 " You will, I am sure, be more affected by the 

 death of Dr. Gall, than by any political events. 

 In truth, it is an immense loss to science. What- 

 ever opinion we may form of the system of that 

 illustrious man, it must be acknowledged that he 

 has made an immense stride in the sciences of 



