AND CRANIO GNOMY. 



441 



allotted to their control, should be peculiarly forward and active, such divi- 

 sions must necessarily grow more abundant, and give some external token 

 of such abundance by a constant pressure against those particular portions 

 of the cranium under which they are immediately seated, and which, by un- 

 interrupted perseverance, and especially in infancy and early life, when the 

 bones of the cranium yield or are absorbed easily, they must elevate and ren- 

 der more prominent than any other part.* And, thirdly, he conceived, that 

 every man having some faculty or other more marked or active than the rest, 

 or, in his own phraseology, more sensibly manifested, from which, indeed, his 

 peculiar disposition or propensity takes its cast, must necessarily also have 

 some peculiar prominence, some characteristic bump or embossment, by 

 which his head is distinguishable from all others, or at least from all others 

 of a different temper, or attracted by different objects of pursuit ; and that 

 nothing more is necessary than to determine the respective regions of the dif- 

 ferent faculties which belong to the brain, in order to determine, at the same 

 time, from the external bump or prominence, the internal propensity or 

 character. 



These premises being in his own mind satisfactorily established, Dr. Gall 

 next set to work with a view of deciding the relative parts of the brain 

 possessed by the different faculties or their respective sentient organs. 

 And having settled this important point to his own thorough conviction, he 

 immediately made a map of the outside of the head, divided it into cor- 

 responding regions, and was able, in his own opinion, to indicate to a demon- 

 stration the characteristic temper or tendency of every man presented to him 

 by a mere glance of the eye, or a mere touch of the finger. For, in the lan- 

 guage of Dr. Spurzheim, " in order to distinguish the developement of the 

 organs, it is not always necessary to touch the head ; in many cases the eye 

 is sufficient."! 



Let me not, however, do injustice to the talents of the inventor of this 

 hypothesis. For he is not only possessed of a lively ingenuity and fancy, as 

 his speculation, thus far unfolded, must suggest to every one, but he is also a 

 man of learning, and of patient and indefatigable research. And such is the 

 plausibility of his scheme, that he has contrived to enlist under his banners 

 not a few philosophers and physiologists of considerable eminence and merit, 

 among whom I may especially mention Dr. Bojames, who was one of the first 

 to publish an account of this singular line of study to the world, and, as 

 already observed, Dr. Spurzheim, who is at this moment lecturing upon the 

 subject in this metropolis. J 



The allotments of the different parts of the brain, and the consequent lay- 

 ing down of the outside of the cranium into a superficial map of mental qua- 

 lities or sensations, was a work of great patience and investigation. To 

 accomplish it, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of human sculls, of known cha- 

 racters and propensities, were examined, and their peculiar impressions, whe- 

 ther prominences or indentations, were noticed and arranged. These were 

 afterward compared with the respective tempers and inclmations of the par- 

 ticular subjects while alive ; and the whole tried by the craniognomy, as it 

 was called, of other animals celebrated, in common language, for the acute- 



* " It seems to me, that at least a great part of every organ lies at the surface ; and that if the part of 

 any organ be well developed, the whole participates of this developement." Spurzheim, Physiognora 

 System, p. 264.— In p. 240, he admits, ho\vever, " that the organs are not confined to the surface." 



t Physiog. System, p. 261. 



i This lecture was delivered at the time of Dr. Spurzheim's first visit to England, for the purpose of 

 Illustrating his hypothesis, which has certainly posyessed every advantage of which it is susceptible from 

 his exertions and talents. Yet it is well known, that scarcely an individual among the more distinguished 

 anatomists or physiologists of our own country have been led to adopt his views. To the discrepancy of 

 Sir Everard Home's conceptions the author wH\ have occasion to advert in a subsequent note. The fol- 

 lowing is the opinion of Mr. Charles Bell in his very excellent paper oii the nerves of the orbit of the eye, 

 as contained in the Philosophical Transactions for 1823, p. 306 :—" But the most extravagant departure 

 from all Itie legitimate modes of reasoning, though still under the colour of anatomical inves-tigation, is 

 the system of Dr. Gall. It is sufficient to say, that, without comprehending the grand divisions of the 

 nervous system ; without a notion of the distinct properties of the individual nerves; or, without having 

 made any distinction of the columns of the spinal marrow ; without even having ascertained the difference 

 of cerebrum and cerebellum. Gall proceeded to describe the brain as composed of many particular an4 

 Independent organs, and to assign to each the residence of some special faculty." 



