KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



295 



interesting fact — and it should lead those who 

 speak lightly of Phrenology, to reconsider their 

 assertions, and to adopt a course of conduct 

 more in accordance with modesty and justice. 



The history of science, like the political history 

 of nations, exhibits to us, at longer or shorter 

 intervals of time, men of a superior order, who 

 conceive a great idea, develop it largely, apply 

 it boldly, and who leave behind them an indeli- 

 ble impression. 



Such a man was Gall. That great discoverer 

 is no more; but his genius survives in the 

 science which he has created. We owe it to him, 

 that henceforward we shall study the intellect 

 and passions of man, the intelligence and instincts 

 of animals, not entrammeled in our views by 

 blind superstitions, and metaphysical subtleties 

 and prepossessions, but guided by the light of 

 reason, and bound by no rule but the induction 

 of pure philosophy. In the system of Dr. Gall, 

 we find organic and physiological facts, which, 

 for the first time, enable the naturalist to draw 

 the line of distinction between man and the 

 lower animals, and by which man is demon- 

 strated to be immeasurably the superior of the 

 whole animated creation. Let us for a moment 

 look back on the previous state of our knowledge 

 of human nature. 



The abstract study of man, as pursued by the 

 ancients, has been the source of the most inex- 

 plicable contradictions, and pernicious conse- 

 quences to the human race. That abstract 

 philosophy, which, originating in the East, 

 obtained so great a reputation in Greece, and 

 was supported by so much zeal in the new 

 capital of Egypt, abounded with lofty concep- 

 tions, and with the sublime creations of a poeti- 

 cal fancy. But to what did it lead? The un- 

 happy fruits of its popularity were the most 

 intolerant dogmatism and desolating scepticism; 

 while the system was rendered imposing, only by 

 a cloak of mysterious importance thrown over it 

 by the mad enthusiasm of its professors. 



It is difficult now to conceive, how, during the 

 lapse of so many ages, so many attempts should 

 have been made to arrive at a correct theory of 

 the human mind, without the idea having ever 

 occurred to any one of the celebrated philosophers 

 of past times, to take the brain as the ground- 

 work of their labors ; that organ whose functions 

 they were engaged in studying, but whose con- 

 nection with those functions they never recog- 

 nised. It is indeed true, that some of them took 

 notice of the wonderful structure of the cerebral 

 mass, and even undertook the dissection of the 

 brain, to whicn they professed to attach a high 

 degree of importance ; but their labors were 

 nearly fruitless, for to them the brain appeared 

 but a single homogeneous mass, undivided into 

 separate organs. " What is the use of observa- 

 tion," said Bichat, " if we know not the seat of 

 the disease?" What in the same way could be 

 the value of observations made by men, who not 

 only were ignorant of the seat of the different 

 faculties, but to whom the idea had not even 

 occurred as possible, that each of those faculties 

 might depend for its manifestation on a particular 

 portion of the cerebral substance ? Thus did 

 these great anatomists make no real progress in 

 the study of the human intellect and passions. 



Succeeding ages were not more successful in 

 founding a system which should substitute close 

 observation of facts for mere arbitrary hypo- 

 thesis. 



[The intense interest excited in the Public 

 mind by tjie introduction of these articles, is 

 very pleasing to us ; inasmuch as it proves that 

 there is a great thirst after a knowledge of 

 Truth. A few evenings since, at a Soiree 

 given by John Amok, Esq., of New Bond Street, 

 which was numerously attended, there were many 

 new converts made to the science of Phrenology. 

 A lady present, Mrs. Gerald Massey, who had 

 never before seen us, described with the nicest 

 discrimination, on passing her hands over our 

 head, every leading feature in our character,— 

 individualising many of our " little amiable 

 weaknesses" with the most wickedly-provoking 

 accuracy. This lady (her age not exceeding 

 twenty years !) possessed also the gift of 

 " thought reading ;" and she revealed to us with 

 great courtesy some of the most marvellous phe- 

 nomena connected with the human brain (her 

 own in particular) that were perhaps ever wit- 

 nessed. The residence of Mrs. Massey, should 

 any of our readers be desirous of testing her 

 singular " gift," is 75, Great Charlotte Street, 

 Fitzroy Square. It is of course needful that the 

 card of any intending visitor should be for- 

 warded previous to an interview being granted. — 

 Ed. K. J.] 



Waste of Life. 

 There is the very best ground for believing 

 that the lives annually sacrificed by a neglect of 

 sanatory measures do not fall short of the appall- 

 ing number of 35,000 in England and Wales, 

 and 60,000 in the United Kingdom. But such 

 a waste of life pre-supposes a proportionate waste 

 of health — a proportionate amount of unneces- 

 sary sickness. It is not easy to ascertain the exact 

 relation which the one bears to the other ; but if 

 we take the estimate of Dr. Lyon Playfair, that 

 for every unnecessary death there are twenty- 

 eight cases of unnecessary sickness, there will be 

 every year in England and Wales one million of 

 cases, and in the United Kingdom one and three- 

 quarter million of cases of unnecessary sickness. 

 If you find it difficult to realise so enormous a 

 waste of health and life, you have only to ima- 

 gine a town of 35,000 or 60,000 inhabitants 

 swept away every year front the face of the 

 earth, over and above those who would die in the 

 course of nature, if sanatory measures were in 

 universal operation. To form a vivid idea of the 

 amount of unnecessary sickness in the United 

 Kingdom, you must imagine that in a city the size 

 of this metropolis, every man, woman, and child 

 which it contains, is the subject of one attack of 

 sickness every year over and above the sickness 

 which would occur in the course of nature under 

 a wise system of preventive measures. 



Scandal. — Of all our aversions, scandal is 

 the chief. So will it ever be of all those who 

 patronise " Kidd's Own Journal : — " 

 Believe not each aspersing word, 



As most weak persons do ; 



But still believe that story false 



Which ought not to be true. 



