CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF BIRDS. 7* 



upon the dark and uninviting shadows of metaphysical re- 

 search ; and when applied to a subject, which the investi- 

 gations of some, and the hypotheses and theories of others, 

 have rendered so fraught with interest both to the meta- 

 physician, the physiologist, and the naturalist, this observa- 

 tion will be found to hold good. As phrenology is pro- 

 fessedly a science of pure induction, and is stated by its 

 advocates to rest on facts, H to deny the truth of which," 

 according to one of their body, " is to put in doubt the ex- 

 istence of the best established phenomena,"* it behoves us 

 to examine the facts for ourselves, and our task thus pro- 

 mises to be easy, and our conclusions highly satisfactory. 



Although the writings of Gall and Spurzheim abound in 

 passages relating to comparative phrenology, all, as they 

 imagine, illustrating the general principles of the science, 

 and confirming the seats of the different faculties in several 

 species of the lower animals, yet how little dependence is 

 placed upon their assertions, even by phrenologists them- 

 selves, is evident from such passages as the following : — 

 " Spurzheim had so little studied the anatomy of the 

 skull of animals, as to place the organ of Courage, (Com- 

 bativeness), in the dog, upon the point of insertion of the 

 posterior muscles of the neck."t And in another place he 

 points out the same organ in the horse, exactly upon the 

 bone of the lower jaw, as Gall had done before him. Nor 

 has the founder of phrenology himself been less fortunate 

 in escaping the critical acumen of Vimont, his former pu- 

 pil, whom we find saying, " If Gall had only studied the 

 anatomy of the skull and brain upon a dozen species, with 



* See Combe's Phrenology, p. 885, 4th edit. 



•f See plate VII. of Spurzheim's Phrenology, 3d edit. 



