is said, by those who have seen her, to illustrate the peculiar expression of the features in a very satisfactory manner, and in this light it has considerable value in the eyes of the Phrenologist.

ARTICLE IV.

DR PRITCHARD AND PHRENOLOGY.

WE have repeatedly heard it stated as an indirect objection to Phrenology, that Dr Pritchard, in his late excellent publication on Nervous Diseases, not only dissents from its truth, but maintains such views of the mutual connexion between mind and brain, as, if true, must prove directly subversive of the foundations of our science; and, it has been hinted, that the silence of the Phrenologists regarding these arose from a lurking suspicion of their truth. To shew that no such fear could possibly enter the mind of any one, who was at all acquainted with Phrenology, and that Dr Pritchard's opinions have really no just claim to serious notice, it will be quite enough to quote some of them from the short "Physio"logical Survey of the Functions of the Nervous System" prefixed to his work.

Dr Pritchard agrees with us, and most other physiologists, in regarding the brain as that part of the animal system which is most immediately connected with the operations of mind. But he differs from them in believing the instrumentality of that organ to be essential for the operation of some of the faculties only, and not of all." It ap"pears certain," says he, "that every sensation of which the "mind is conscious, as well as every subsequent act of appre"hension or perception, of recollection or memory, of conception "and imagination, although in itself an affection of the soul, or "immaterial part of our system, must always take its rise, or "commence, with an operation in the organic structure of the

"nervous system.”"-P. 41. So far we are perfectly agreed; but, in common with almost all observers, we totally differ from him, when he goes on to say, that "the consequent "operations of judgment or the rational faculty, as well as the phenomena of passion or emotion, desire or aversion, love or "hatred, are mental processes or affections of the soul, with "which I think it must be concluded, that we have no proof of "the connexion of any co-operating organic process. And this "conclusion," he continues, may be drawn perhaps more confidently with respect to volition."

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By comparing cerebral development with mental manifestations, the Phrenologists have succeeded in demonstrating what was generally believed, but never before satisfactorily proved, and what is directly in opposition to Dr P.'s view, viz. that the reasoning faculty, and the propensities of Amativeness, Destructiveness, Combativeness, Adhesiveness, &c., which are the sources of Judgment, and of the passions of love, hatred, desire, aversion, &c., are connected with, and dependant upon, the cerebral organization, as immediately and inseparably as those powers, whose modes of activity and different combinations give rise to the various kinds of sensation, perception, memory, and imagination. Undeniable proofs of this assertion abound in all the phrenological writings, and it is amply illustrated and supported by the Society's collection of casts, and by all living and healthy heads. When, in opposition to this, we mention that Dr Pritchard founds his extraordinary opinions, not on facts at variance with these observations, but on unsound arguments alone, our readers will admit, that, as refutations of our science, they are unworthy of notice, and might still have been passed over in silence, but for the reasons already assigned.

So far from considering the propensities and sentiments, or pathemata, as he calls them, as dependant upon, or connected with, any part of the brain, Dr Pritchard states, that he is "acquainted with no fact, either in physiology or pa"thology, which furnishes any ground for presuming that those "mental phenomena take place through the instrumentality of any "corporeal process whatever."-P. 30. We hope that we have not a single reader, who is able, conscientiously, to make a

similar declaration. Setting aside the multitude of observations, which every one has it in his power to verify, all tending to prove, that in the state of health the energy of each of the propensities and sentiments bears a direct and certain relation to the size of a particular portion of the brain, we have only to adduce a single case of diseased feeling or passion, co-existing with integrity of intellect, in order to disprove Dr P.'s view. Dr P. admits such cases to exist, and he himself puts the question," Are these ex"amples of disorder and perversion in the active principles in"duced by morbid states of the nervous system? If this be the "case," he adds, "it must be allowed that those actions of "mind which belong to this department (pathemata), are so "closely connected with certain processes carried on in the cere"bral texture, that when the latter are thrown into disorder, the "mental operations are liable to be disturbed."-P. 37.

Dr P. feels the necessity of coming to this conclusion, and, with a view to evade it, immediately says, "I believe "most of the facts, which appear to lead to this inference, ad"mit, when strictly examined, of a different explanation." Such apparent examples of disordered sentiments and affections, Dr P. thinks," are often, if not always, dependent on some hal"lucination. The insane mother, who neglects her offspring, "only feels aversion for little imps or demons, which she imagines "to have been substituted in the place of her own children, "when they were cruelly torn from her. The irascible madman "is the victim of some vexatious disappointment or mortification, "which is continually harassing him," &c. This is, no doubt, both plausible and ingenious reasoning, but facts, stubborn facts, are against it. Many insane mothers hate their children, knowing them to be their own, and many irascible madmen furiously attack those, who, they are at the time perfectly conscious, are full of kindness and sympathy towards them, and whom, on that very account, they esteem and admire, and struggle to save. In the following case from Pinel, there is no hallucination, no harassing mortification, no vexatious disappointment, nothing, in short, but purely diseased propensities. On the invasion of the paroxysm, the patient was seized with a "fureur forcéné, which drove him, "by an irresistible impulse, to lay hold of whatever instrument came in his way, and to attack the first person he met." He VOL. II.—No V. ·

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stated to Pinel," that he felt an incessant internal struggle be"tween this ferocious impulse and the horror with which it inspired "him. There was no wandering of memory, imagination, or of "judgment. The propensity to commit murder was absolutely "forced and involuntary," and led him to attack his wife, whom he tenderly loved, as well as the superintendant of the hos pital, who treated him with great kindness. If this had been the result of hallucination, or of disappointment, or of any thing different from purely diseased propensities, surely the patient, instead of struggling against the impulsion, would have gladly obeyed it,-just as the mother, who sees imps in place of her children, would gladly put them to death.*

"I am

So very far is Dr P. behind in his researches, that he professes utter ignorance of the functions of the brain. "sanguine enough," he says, " to hope that the time will arrive "when we may be enabled to ascertain the nature of the cere"bral functions, and, perhaps, to understand thoroughly the "whole of the process which is carried on in this part of our "bodily fabric. At present, however, we must confess that we are not in possession of one fact that belongs to it."-P. 41. This single sentence stamps the value of Dr P.'s dissent from the truth of our science. He is not in possession of one fact regarding the cerebral functions, and yet his mere gratuitous opinion is seriously set up in opposition to four quarto volumes of unrefuted and undeniable facts, published by Dr Gall, and to as many octavo volumes of unquestioned facts, published in our own country; and, to crown the whole, the Phrenologists are daily accused of presumption and impudence, for daring to believe and to teach on the evidence of facts, what others disbelieve and reprobate on the evidence of ignorance!! Our readers will now know what weight ought to be attached to the following declaration by Dr Pritchard, contained in a note to p. 35, being the only place where Phrenology is directly alluded to :

He says, "The conclusion, to which I have been led by the "foregoing considerations, is directly at issue with the inferences which Drs Gall and Spurzheim have deduced from their "observations; they insist, as it is well-known, on the corre

* Pinel, Sur l'Alienation, p. 103.

spondence of certain protuberances or projections of the cra"nium, (from which a greater than usual development of the subjacent portion of the brain is inferred) with the prevalence "of particular propensities. Although I entertain a high re"spect for the latter of these gentlemen, as well on account of "his known qualities as his talents, and the services he has ren"dered to anatomy and physiology, I must take the liberty of doubting altogether that part of his system which refers to cranioscopy."

"Dr Gall, in his work on Craniology, has mentioned some "pathological observations, tending to evince the depend"ance of various active as well as intellectual powers on the "brain, its organization and condition. Some of these refer "particularly to the propensities. I shall cite his account of "one incident, which is adduced with this view, in which a dis"order of the propensities is stated to have followed an injury "of the head."

"The accident happened to a boy in Copenhagen, who, until "between his fourteenth and fifteenth years gave but very lit"tle promise of future abilities. At this epoch, however, he "fell over a staircase from the fourth story, and subsequently "to the fall he displayed great intellectual acuteness. Nor was "this the only change. Nobody was previously aware of any "bad qualities in his disposition; but after this accident he dis"played a depraved moral character which eventually proved "the cause of his ruin."

"A relation of this kind proves nothing. That an individual "at the age of this youth should begin to display the influence "of powerful passions on his mind is nothing extraordinary. If "stories of this kind gain credit, the College of Surgeons may "expect one day to march in triumph, and take possession of "the vacant seats of the criminal judges; and we shall proceed "forthwith to apply the trepan, where now the halter and gibbet "are thought most applicable."

The appropriate answer to the first part of this note will be found in what we have already said, and need not now be repeated. Dr Pritchard requires no apology for presuming to doubt the truth of Drs Gall and Spurzheim's doctrines. It would be the height of absurdity in any rational being to adopt principles as true, without due examination and experience of their uniform consistency with nature, and as Dr P. has never entered into the examination of the facts and observations upon which Phrenology rests, he could not do otherwise than doubt. All the favour that we ask of him is, that, before deciding either for or against, he will diligently use the means of converting his doubts into certainty. We care for