
THE LINGERING ADMIRERS OF PHRENOLOGY. 581 
of injuries and diseases of the brain in disturbing the intelli- 
gence, its larger size in the higher than in the lower classes 
of animals, and more especially its distinctively great de- 
velopment in man: these circumstances, together with the 
indubitable frequency of finely proportioned heads among 
persons of distinguished talent, and the tendency of the eye 
to dwell on clumsy or forbidding proportions, when occurring 
in persons brought under notice as stupid and depraved, all 
seemed, though vaguely, to point out that a scrutiny of the 
amount of the brain and shape of the cranium was likely to 
afford an index of the strength and qualities of the mind. 
Gall propounded his theory that different portions of the 
brain were the organs of different mental faculties, and that 
according to the size of those different parts of the brain, so 
the mental qualities varied ; and making continual observa- 
tions on the heads and characters of those with whom he 
came in contact, he covered the surface of the cranial vault 
with a map, which at once professed to indicate the correct 
analysis of the mental faculties, and to assign to each of 
these its proper habitation. The psychological difficulties 
of their pursuit do not seem to have weighed heavily on 
either Gall or his followers ; and as for the exceedingly great 
obstacles in the way of estimating the proportions of even 
large masses of the brain by observation of the surface of 
the skull, not only did the phrenologists strangely ignore 
them, but we are constrained to say that even anatomists 
have been very slow to appreciate them.  Phrenology, how- 
ever, supplied a want which the publie felt, seeming to fur- 
nish an answer to questions which were continually obtruded 
before them, and giving preeision to the notions founded on 
faet which had previously possessed their minds: this, we 
believe, is the principal reason why phrenology became so 
popular as it did, and why it is not yet eradicated from the 
publie mind. 
Probably scientific men, in déaling with phrenology, have 
been too much in the habit of contenting themselves with 
