494 
made in the manner above defcribed, de- 
duce the faculties and difpofitions of thofe 
perfons, and endeavour to difcover, with 
prudence, whether the confequences you 
have drawn {rom the examination are ve- 
rified. ; 
Precept 4. You muf then endeavour to 
-procure a colle&tion of fkulls of perfons 
with the hiftory of whofe lives you are 
accurately acquainted. This is an object 
very dificult to be accomplifhed ; and Dr. 
Gall, notwithftanding all the pains he has 
taken, pofleffes as yet but afew, among 
which, however, are fome very intereft- 
ing ones, as General Wurmier’s, Blu- 
mauer’s, and Alxinger’s,* &c. together 
with thofe of fome fools, whofe imbeci- 
lity was fuch, that they were inceflantly 
occupied with one fingle idea. Since it is 
{o extremely difficult to procure fuch a fe- 
ries of heads, it is neceflary to be con- 
tented with buffs, which fhould be mould- 
ed with the utmof accuracy. To this 
colle@ion fhould be added the fkulls of all 
the animals that can be obtained, in order 
to compare them with the human heads. 
The ikulls of animals which poflefs very 
firiking qualities fhould, in particular, be 
examined. ; 
Precept 5. The lat method, which is 
ef great importance for difcovering the 
organs and their feat, confifts in obierv- 
ing, with the moft {c1upulous attention, 
the different fymptoms that take place in 
difeafes and injuries of the brain. 
In conforming to thefe principles, and 
diffecting the brains of a great number of 
perfons of his acquaintance, Dr, Gall 
deciares that he has conftantly obferved a 
fhiking conneétion between their cerebral 
organs and their principal and charaéterif- 
tic faculties: he therefore thinks himfe!f 
juftified in aligning, in an experimental 
and pofitive manner, a particular inftru- 
ment and theatre to each of the modifica- 
tions of the heart and underftanding. He 
adds, with a view to increafe the number 
of proofs in favour of his diftribution of 
the region of thought, that our intellec- 
tual and moral faculties are diflinét, or 
even independent; that it is poffible to 
exercife them alternately, and that the de- 
velopment, the fuperiority, or even the 
extinGion of one of them, frequently pro- 
duces no effe& on the others, which may, 
confequently, be fuppofed to have their 
feat in different regions of the brain. 
In fact, a perfon may ufe one of his’ 
intelleGtual faculties, while he fuffers all 
the others-to lie at reft; and thus forget 
igo Th tt Rilash al 3 ee mere 
* A celebrated comic poet of Vienna, 
Explanation of Dr. Gall’s Syftem of Craniolgy, [Jan. 1, 
the fatigue of any labour, by means of a 
new employment, proper for bringing © 
into action thofe functions of the under- 
ftanding, which the preceding occupation 
had not employed. It is thus that by 
varying the fubjeét, our ftudies may eafily 
be prolonged; and a head fatigued by 
{cientific meditations, may be refrefhed 
by reading, and by thofe labours which 
give more employment to the imagina- 
tion. Befides, a great number of cafes 
might be mentioned, in which different 
perfons have been feen to lofe one or more 
of their intelle€tual faculties, while they, 
preferved the others uninjured. 
A few years fince, I was myfelf con- 
fulted in a fimilar cafe. The patient 
had, in confequence of a paralytic attack, 
almoft entirely loft his memory, and had 
retained only the words Yes, uo, very, 
very well, not at all, it is true, right, 
wonderfully, and others of the fame kind. 
M. Villers, in his explanation of Dr. 
Gall’s fyftem, mentions an inftance equal. 
ly extraordinary of a lady who, in confe- 
quence of an accident fhe met with dur- 
ing her fir lying-in, lof the recolleétion 
of every thing that had occurred fince her 
marriage. Such was her forgetfulnefs, 
that the pufhed afide her hufband and her 
child, that was prefented to her. This 
lady has never recovered the remembrance 
of the firft year of her marriage, nor of 
the events that happened in it. Her re- 
lations and friends at length fucceeded, 
by argument and the weight of their af- 
furances, in perfuading her that fhe was 
married, and had given birth to a fon, 
She believes them, becaufe the would ra- 
ther imagine that fhe has loft the recol- 
lection of a year, than confider all around 
her as impoftors. But the believes them - 
on their word only; fhe looks at her 
hufband and her child, without being able 
to conceive, by what magic the has ob- 
tained the one, or given birth to the other. 
Inftances have been feen, when blows 
on the head, fhocks, the operation of tre- 
panning, and different injuries of the brain, 
have entirely annihilated or fuddenly de- 
veloped certain faculties. ‘Thus Fabri- 
cius de Hilden mentions a young man, 
who, by a fall on the head, was rendered 
completely filly; and Haller an idiot, 
whom a wound in the head reftored to his 
underftanding. It is well known, that to 
the operation of trepanning, Father Ma- 
biilon owed a fudden increafe of his intel- 
iectual faculties. 
According to Dr. Gall, therefore, 
refearches both anatomical, pfycholo-~ 
gical, and medical agree in proving, 
that 
