REYIEWS. 
295 
subject of an atmosphere through space, and on the question of electric 
induction, are most ingenious, but we fear that is all that can be said in 
their favour. The book itself deserves to be read, it is full of instructive 
matter and is well written. 
PHRENOLOGY.* 
W E have no objection whatever to the idea of Phrenology in the abstract. 
The tendency to localization of function may probably hold good in 
the brain as it does elsewhere in the animal kingdom, but as we do not know 
yet of how many separate parts mental phenomena consist, and as we are 
certainly in the most profound ignorance as to what portions of the brain 
are directly associated with any individual mental operation, we must scout 
the idea of the u popular phrenology ” of Dr. Donovan’s school as the merest, 
the wildest chimera, and we must regret its existence because of the stupid 
nonsense which it helps to spread. But of all the essays on Phrenology 
which we have seen, this one of Dr. Donovan’s has the least claim to be 
regarded as scientific. It is really the most utter rubbish, so far as its 
scientific value is concerned, and the fact that its appendix contains letters 
testifying to the author’s skill in detecting the aberrations of the upper 
table of the skull (which by no means correspond to the contour of the 
brain) shows that the work is a mere advertisement by a person who 
practises phrenology as a profession. 
CURIOSITIES OF TOIL.f 
S OME time ago a writer to the Daily News made the acute suggestion 
that a man who has a faculty for the device of u taking titles ” should be 
permitted to possess a copyright entitling him to a reward for his in- 
genuity. The idea is not at all so extravagant as may at first appear. 
Publishers know well the value of a u catching name ” for a work or perio- 
dical, and we know of one eminent dealer in books in London, who having 
made a journal a success simply through its title, left the originator of that 
title no remuneration whatever beyond the verbal recognition of his tact. 
We can only hope that some day the Daily News' scheme will be carried out 
and that it will be made wholesomely retrospective. If it should be, we are 
certain that a small fortune will accrue to the author of the highly interest- 
ing volumes before us, for if there be a writer among us who has a happy 
knack of hitting upon pithy, successful, attractive titles for his books, that 
writer is Dr. Andrew W} r nter. The two volumes which Messrs. Chapman 
& Hall have issued are the reprint of several articles’ which the author 
* “ A Handbook of Phrenology.” By C. Donovan, Professed Phrenologist. 
London : Longmans, 1870. 
t il Curiosities of Toil” and other Papers. By Dr. Wynter. 2 vols. 
Chapman & Hall, 1870. 
