ABSTRACT OP ADDRESS 
AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION 1887-8. 
BY F. H. BALKWILL, L.D.S., 
President. 
Ladies and Gentlemen, — 
There is perhaps no Science which has undergone so 
complete a revolution of late years as that of Metaphysics. At 
one time considered the Queen of Sciences, its methods were 
almost entirely dependent on introspection of the consciousness. 
This position was attacked about the end of last century by 
Gall and Spurzheim's so-called science of Phrenology, which at 
once became popular. 
The cause of this popularity is not far to seek. Phrenology 
was founded to some extent on observation ; so that there was 
considerable vitality in its nomenclature. It recognized and accom- 
modated itself to an infinity of different modifications of personal 
character, which was a position abhorrent to scholastic metaphy- 
sicians, who sought to maintain the doctrine of the absolute unity 
of the mind, and hence an essential identity in the fundamental 
state of consciousness. 
Phrenology also professed to be so applicable that an adept 
could give the approximate mental character of any subject by 
examining the shape of his skull. It thus became at once 
interesting to a great many persons, thanks to a laudable curiosity 
which is not entirely vanity; though it is doubtful if the old 
philosophical admonition, "Know thyself," was intended to be 
thus fulfilled. 
The metaphysicians felt the attack; and later Sir William 
Hamilton, from 1836 to 1845, made numerous observations on 
human brains and skulls, and also those of some lower animals, 
with the view of exposing the fallacy of Phrenology. He 
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