

KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
PHRENOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. 
No. XLVITI.—PHYSIOLOGY or raz BRAIN. 
BY F. J. GALL, M.D. 
(Continued from Page 168.) 

I HAVE PROVED, THAT IT IS ONLY BY ADMITTING 
different organs for the different qualities and facul- 
ties, that we conceive how an organ can excite to 
certain actions ; while other organs produce move- 
ments and ideas precisely opposite ; and that we 
thus comprehend how man, when evil propensities 
are stirring within him, can, either within himself 
or without, find opposite motives, and adopt a con- 
trary resolution. But where shall man find opposite 
motives within him ?—how shall he be capable of 
receiving those which come from without, if the 
principle of his propensities, his desires, his facul- 
ties—in fine, of all his sensations and thoughts, 
resides in a single organ, or in the whole body? 
When the blood cries for vengeance, what integrant 
part of the temperament shall give to man tran- 
quillity, or the power of vanquishing himself? We 
may, then, affirm that moral liberty can only exist 
on the supposition of a plurality of organs. 
There is, again, a new difficulty, of which Ger- 
man authors have spoken. From observations 
which I have made in the prisons, it results that 
I have determined in the prisoners, not only the 
dispositions of the soul and mind, but also the 
actions of these same prisoners. Might not one 
be tempted to conclude, that I regard the actions 
for which our organisation gives us a propensity 
as inevitable ? 
My reply to this question can only be completed 
by discussions, which will find their place in the 
foliowing volumes. I limit myself, at this moment, 
to the general explanation of some of my principles. 
It will suffice to make my procedure in this respect 
intelligible, and to set aside any false interpretation. 
The different primitive faculties of the soul belong 
to different parts of the brain, in the same manner 
as the various functions of the senses are attached 
to different nervous systems. 
The functions of the senses, whose organs 
are more considerable, more sound, and more 
developed, or which have received a stronger irri- 
tation, are, for that reason, more lively. The same 
phenomenon is produced in the faculties of the soul; 
the organs of these faculties act with more energy, 
if they are more excited, or more developed. On 
the other hand, there are several organs whose 
greater development shows itself im convolutions, 
thicker and more enlarged and prolonged on the 
surface of the brain; and these convolutions are, 
in their turn, represented by elevations on the ex- 
ternal surface of the cranium. 
If to this be added, what I shall demonstrate for 
each organ in particular,—namely, that I have 
found means to determine that such or such part of 
the brain is the organ of such or such a faculty of 
the soul, it will then be understood how, from a 
considerable and determinate elevation of the cra- 
nium, it has been found possible to infer a greater 
development of a portion of the brain, and con- 
sequently the greater energy of a determinate 
faculty. 
If, in social life, I perceive in any one the ex- 
ternal sign of a well-developed organ, I can say 


229 
of the faculty which belongs to this organ is 
stronger than the dispositions of his other qualities. 
But, | am ignorant whether circumstances have 
permitted this individual to devote himself to the 
pursuit to which this principal disposition would 
direct him. Birth, condition, education, laws, 
customs, and religion, have the greatest influence 
on the occupation, exercise, and perfection of the 
organs, as well as on the moral character of the 
man; it would be rash, therefore, to conclude, 
that the actions of an individual correspond to the 
faculty to which we remark a predominant dis- 
position. On seeing the organ of tones, or that of 
the mechanic arts, very much developed, we may 
affirm that the individual has a great disposition or 
talent for music, or for the mechanical arts; that in 
his youth he must have had more success in these 
arts than his comrades; and that, probably, next 
to the duties of his calling, he makes these his 
favorite occupation ; but I cannot say that he is 
actually a musician, or a mechanic. If the ques- 
tion concerns propensities capable of leading to 
mischievous actions, contrary to the laws, I abstain 
from judging ; because I admit that sane and rea- 
sonable men are capable, by nobler motives, and 
by the effect of fortunate habits, of controlling 
these propensities, or of employing them in a lawful 
manver. For this reason, I do not pursue such 
researches in my social relations ; especially where 
there can result from them no valuable informa- 
tion. 
In a prison, on the contrary, errors are less easy. 
I can, by the inspection of a greatly developed 
organ, the abuse of which leads to crime, pronounce 
with sufficient confidence on the nature of an 
offence. First, it is on account of a crime that 
the individual is imprisoned ; next, we know that 
man, excited by energetic propensities, if not re- 
strained by powerful motives, ordinarily abandons 
himself to his naturalinclination. There is, then, 
great reason to suppose, that the offence for which 
he is punished is that for which we find in him a 
marked disposition. We may, indeed, be mistaken; 
fortuitous circumstances may, sometimes, for the 
time urge a man to acts for which he feels himself 
no very strong propensity. We often meet robbers 
and assassins, in whom the organs for theft and 
murder have not acquired an extraordinary de- 
velopment. But, in this case, the malefactor has 
been drawn in by seduction, by misery, by unruly 
passions—such as jealousy, resentment, a quarrel, 
or other unfortunate occurrences. We are rarely 
deceived when the question relates to incorrigible 
malefactors, or persons who, from their childhood, 
have manifested evil dispositions, or criminal pro- 
pensities ; in these the development of the organ 
is evident. If the features, the gestures, mien, or 
language, betray want of education, or of the ex- 
ercise of the intellectual faculties—if the rest of 
the organisation of the brain is not favorable, it 
will almost always happen that the actions will 
accord with this unfortunate organisation. 
It was in conformity with these maxims, that at 
the conciergerie (stadtvogtey) of Berlin, I pro- 
nounced not only on the nature of the crimes of a 
prisoner, but also on the great difficulty of correct- 
ing his obstinate propensity to theft. I declared 
that this prisoner, named Columbus, was the most 
dangerous robber among the adults that they had 
with confidence that, in this man, the disposition | presented to us. Columbus was afterwards sen- 

