THE LINaERING- ADMIRERS OP PHRENOLOGY. 
385 
patieut. The symptoms are perfectly irrespective of the part 
of the hemisphere affected. 
Not only, however, are the hemispheres not divided into 
organs, but, supposing that such organs existed, it would be 
impossible to tell their size by the phrenological method. The 
bulging of any portion of the cranial vault does not indicate an 
increased thickness of the grey matter at that part, or give any 
clue to the degree of development of the convolutions opposite 
to the spot. Indeed, the shapes of skulls indicate differences of 
form in the central white matter of the hemispheres, rather than 
local differences of development of the grey matter on the sur- 
face. The sheet of grey matter is disposed with tolerably even 
thickness over great tracts, and always reaches its greatest com- 
plication of structure in the same region — -namely, towards the 
back part. 
It is not necessary to dwell at length on what has been dis- 
cussed ad nauseam long years ago, — how one-half of the sur- 
face of the hemisphere, namely, the part looking to the middle 
line and to the base, is beyond the reach of all phrenological 
observation ; and how the most minute organs have been 
crowded by phrenologists over a part of the skull whose con- 
figuration is certainly not in the slightest degree affected by the 
form of the brain, namely, the line of bone immediately over 
the nose and eyes. But the accompanying figure speaks for 
itself. It has been obtained by tracing from a horizontal sec- 
tion of a skull, made half an inch above the orbit, dividing 
the phrenological organs of individuality, size, weight, colour, 
and order, as indicated by Spurzheim, and passing quite above 
three still more nonsensical organs, viz. that of form, lying 
on the nasal cavity, calculation, which is never anything but 
the solid external orbital process of bone, and language, the 
so-called large size of which is an appearance of the eye de- 
pendent on want of projection forwards of the face bone on 
which it rests. 
Turning now to the less special but more generally diffused 
notions respecting localisation of different faculties in different 
parts of the skull, a few words may be said about fine fore- 
heads. It may be freely granted that a handsome forehead is a 
beautiful feature, and one frequently, though by no means 
always or exclusively, met with in persons of talent ; but a 
spacious and well-shaped forehead by no means necessarily indi- 
cates preponderance of the frontal lobes of the hemispheres over 
the others. This, with some other interesting points, will best 
appear by considering the general shape and mode of growth of 
the cranium. The cranial cavity, as has been already said, 
is originally the upper part of a long cylinder, the remainder of 
which becomes the spinal canal ; and it may be regarded, even 
CCS 
