1805.] 
tion, more proper for great development 
of the intelleflual faculties, or the habit 
of generous actions ; yet we cannot dif- 
femble, that, if each modification of the 
heart and underitanding were regarded as 
a diftinst faculty, and as dependent on a 
particular organ, there would no longer 
exill any morality in the actions of man- 
‘kind. The faithlefs wife and the adul- 
terer, the thief, the robber, or even the 
murcerer, being fuch only in confequence 
af the empire of their organs, namely, 
thofe of phyfical love, cunning, theft, and 
fanguinary propenfities, would eafily jufti- 
ty themfelves by accufing nature, 
Thefe confequences are, doubtlefs, ter- 
rible ; but as dangerous truths are never- 
thelcis truths, thefe confequences would 
be but feeble objeGlions ; and if Dr. 
Gall’s Syftem could not be attacked in 
another and a.more direct manner, it 
ought, as Fontenelle faid of philcfophic 
truihs in general, to be fhut up in the 
hands, or at leaft in the minds and the 
books of the wife. But if we apply to 
the examination of Gallifm the principles 
effablifhed by Condillac, in his Treatife 
on Syltems, and the method with which he 
overthrew the hypothefes formed by the 
luminous imaginations of Defcartes, Leib- 
nitz, and Mallebranche, we fhall find that 
the new Theory of the Brain is unfound- 
ed, or at kalt that its bafes, as Profeffor 
Chauffier remarks, are nothing lefs than 
folid or grounded upon anatomy. To 
prove this aflertion, let us fix all our at- 
tention on the firft principle of Galiifm, 
that is, on the fuppolition of the. indepen- 
dence of the different intelle€tual faculties 
and paifions, 
Is this fuppofition founded ? Are cou- 
rage, prudence, the imagination, the me- 
mory, faculties as diftinct as thofe of fight, 
talte, and hearing ? Or ought we not ra- 
ther to regard the paffions and intclieétual 
fundlions as mere modifications of fenfa- 
tion and thought? Wedo not pretend 
to decide this important queftion ; but the 
anatomical and phyfiological facts brought 
forward by Dr. Gall as the ground-work 
of his doétrine, do not appear to us as fa- 
vourable to his Syftem, as he imagines ; 
and thefe examples of faculties and difpo- 
fitions fuddenly deltroyed, fufpended, or 
developed, by different accidents, only 
prove that the fmalleft changes in the 
functions of the brain and the action of the 
nerves neceffarily occafion great differences 
and akind of revolution in the develop- 
ment of fenfibiliry. 
Similar effects are even fometimes pro- 
duced, for a fhort interval, by exciting 
2 
Criticifin of Dr. Gail's Syftem of Craniology. . 
13 
caufes, and ceafe with their ation. Thus 
opium taken, in different’ dofes, by the in- 
habitants of the Eaft, produces very dif- 
ferent effects, and fpontaneoufly warms 
the imagination, or infpires them with 
courage, fury, or even fanguinary propen. 
fities. The opiate pill taken by Kamp. 
fer at a Perfian feltival, occafioned fymp- 
toms no lefs extraordinary, and brought 
on adelirium, during which his elevated 
imagination carried him into the celeiiial 
regions, and condutted him to the very 
manfions of the Gods. 
The exaltation of the nervous aCtion 
caufes changes and phenomena of the fame 
kind in various circumitances of dileafe. 
Profeflor Pinel dces not even feruple to 
affert, that in mental derangement, the 
accefs of mantacs frequently’ produces the 
higheltdegree of development and fecun- 
dity of the imagination, without its ceaf- 
ing to be reguiar. ‘* I fometimes ftop- 
ped with pleafure (fays that phylician) 
at the cell of a literary man, who, during 
the acces of his diiordcr, fpoke of the 
events of the Revolution with the utmoft 
force, dignity, and purity of language,— 
At any other time he was a man of a very 
ordinary ftamp.”’ : 
In other cafes, a courage not to be 
daunted by danger, adeftructive inftinG, 
and an involuntary propenfity to murder, 
contitute the principal circumftances of 
the accefs of maniacs. 
In other cafes of delirium and derange- 
ment, perfons fuddenly manifeft facuities 
and difpofiiions, which had never before 
been obferved in them. One of thefe in- 
fiances may be found ts the malady of an 
_ unfortunate batchelor, mentioned by Buf- 
fon, whole forced and unnatural chattity 
produced a delirium, during which he fud- 
denty began to draw plans of the country 
and of fortifications, though before his 
derangement he had never employed him- 
felf with drawing or taétics. 
In perfons whofe reafon is not injured, 
a ftaie of fuffering, a febrile movement, 
cr nervous affection, likewife excite and 
develope the intellceétual faculties. Rouf- 
feau was an eloquent and fublime hypo- 
chondriac. Genuine poetic infpiration is 
almoft always accompanied with a certain 
degree of fever, and melancholy is in ge. 
neral confidered as a difpofition favourable 
to the exercife of the imagination. 
All thefe faéts, which may be compared, 
toa certain point, with thofe mentioned by 
Dr. Gall, and the obfervation of which is 
equally important to the phyfician and 
philofopher, prove, that the nervous ac- 
tion, and the organ which is the feat of it, 
: are 
