96 



ON THE MENTAL QUALITIES, &C 



consider the nature of my subject a sufficient excuse. 

 Phrenology is not inductive ; the evidence on which it rests 

 is not cumulative, but disjunctive, and consequently all its 

 propositions must be combated individually. 



I have shown that the term instinct has been grossly 

 misunderstood by phrenologists, — that all attempts to show 

 an analogy between cerebral development and mental qua- 

 lities have proved unsuccessful when applied to birds, — that 

 it is impossible to detect minute differences in the form of 

 the brain, by outward inspection of the cranium, — that the 

 absence of convolutions militates against the doctrines of 

 phrenology, — and that in a clamorous appeal to nature her- 

 self, as a last and unfailing resource, its dogmas are seen 

 by every unprejudiced person to vanish before the meri- 

 dian splendour of truth itself, at whose touch all false rea- 

 soning, and hypothetical conclusion, are resolved into 

 their original constituents, — prejudice and error. 



[In order to satisfy the reader that the observations which serve 

 as the basis of the preceding remarks have not been derived from the 

 examination of a few species only, I may state that my collection 

 of skulls of birds (commenced in the autumn of 1838 for phrenolo- 

 gical purposes) already consists of specimens of 239 species, belong- 

 ing to 115 genera, and contains representatives of the principal fa- 

 milies of that class of animals: — all which specimens have been com- 

 pared with each other, in connexion with the known habits of the 

 birds, before I ventured to draw the conclusions stated in this paper.] 



