those circumstances' are of which he speaks so positively and so slightingly? More especially, has he ever thoroughly examined them?" The reviewer then gives an ample detail of the "circumstances" by which Gall's conclusions regarding the function of the cerebellum are supported. These form a body of evidence than which it is difficult to imagine any thing more conclusive; and we regret that their nature excludes them from our Journal, intended as it is for the perusal of general as well as professional readers. Some medical journal ought to take up the subject.-Dr Jackson's reference to the experiments of Flourens, leads the reviewer to denounce as altogether unphilosophical, the practice of turning physiology into pathology, and health into disease of exquisite acuteness, by the mutilation of living animals. The experimenters on the cerebellum, says he, “mutilated and destroyed the nervous matter, to learn its healthy and natural mode of acting!! No wonder if they did not discover the truth they sought for. It would have been wonderful if they had." "We fully concur with Charles Bell," he adds, "that it is doubtful whether the contradictory practice of cultivating physiology, by the cutting up of living bodies, and thus throwing them into a pathological state, has not propagated more error than truth. As evidence in favour of this view of the subject, it is well known, that it is a rare occurrence for any two of these experiments to agree in their results."

3dly, With regard to the "similar opinions," clearly announced by "many distinguished writers,"" this, says the reviewer, is true; and Gall has himself not only acknowledged it, but has named the individuals, to whom Dr Jackson refers as having made the annunciation *. But it is no less true, that the opinions' of those individuals, distinguished' as they were, scarcely deserve so reputable a name. They were but notions or hypotheses, unsustained by any thing that deserved to be called evidence."

"As to originality; to what discoverer does it belong, in the true sense of the term-especially if primitiveness of conception or supposition be included in it? To none now living, or known to history. The existence of a western continent had been imagined long before Columbus discovered it. Faint notions of the circulation of the blood had been entertained ages anterior to the time of Harvey. Newton was not the first to talk about a principle or power of gravity; and the identity of electricity and lightning had been a subject of conjecture and discussion many years before Franklin established the fact. Gall, then, is as much of an original discoverer as either of those illustrious

* Gall's work, in fact, is the source from which certain antiphrenologists derived many of the facts and arguments which they have published as objections to his doctrines.-ED.

oracles in science. This our author himself virtually acknowledges, when he says that he (Gall) sustained his views by reasons so conclusive and forcible, by facts and observations so numerous and undeniable, that he embodied them into a beautiful and consistent system.""

4thly, The following is a portion of the reviewer's remarks on the proposition probably more curious than useful.'

Why does Dr Jackson deny or doubt the possibility of recognising, on the exterior of the cranium, the seats of the particular organs' within? Because he cannot do it himself. And why can he not do it? Because he has never thoroughly tried. He has neither studied the science nor practised the art. No wonder, therefore, that he is deficient in both. It would be wonderful were the case otherwise. Nor has he any ground to question the efficiency of others in the art, merely on account of his own inefficiency. This is to place the skilful and the unskilful on the same footing,-to compare himself, who has never pursued the art or the science at all, with Dr Spurzheim, who pursued them for more than thirty years, and with Mr Combe and Mr Deville, who have followed them ten or twelve! As well might he compare himself in operative surgery with Cooper or Dupuytren; or in war, with Wellington or Napoleon! In a word, he must either admit the truth of Craniology, or charge with mendacity a number of the most distinguished and honourable men of the day. Men of this description have reported, in confirmation of it, innumerable facts which fell under their own observation. Such are some of the evils which result from our making our own competencies a standard by which to measure the competencies of others. Or the doctor may have witnessed the blunders of some craniological pretenders, and thence inferred the fallacy of the art. Is this fair?”

NOTICES.

EDINBURGH.-We mentioned in last number that a junior Phrenological Society had been established in Edinburgh. Its title, as finally adopted, is "The Edinburgh Ethical Society, for the Study and Practical Application of Phrenology." It has met in Clyde Street Hall, every Monday evening during the summer, and much spirit has been displayed in its proceedings. The number of members is now between forty and fifty, and there has been no lack of well written essays, followed by animated discussions. The members are mostly young gentlemen pursuing their studies, or engaged in professional or mercantile business. A small but well selected library of phrenological works has been formed, and the books are much in request. As it is in the rising generation chiefly that we look for the fruits of Phrenology, these facts are to us extremely gratifying. The meetings will be resumed on Monday the 4th of November. We understand that Dr R. Harrison Black was the projector of this society, and the individual by whose exertions it was instituted. The following gentlemen have been elected honorary members, and are requested to accept of this notice as sufficient intimation of their elec tion:-Dr Otto, Copenhagen; Dr Elliotson, London; Dr Vimont and M.

Bouillaud, Paris; Messrs George Combe and James Simpson, and Drs Andrew Combe and R. Harrison Black, Edinburgh.

The article CRANIOSCOPY, by Dr Roget, in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, has been omitted in the new edition of the Encyclopædia, now in the course of publication. This, though it does not indicate any favourable opinion of the conductors towards Phrenology, certainly shews that they consider Dr Roget's arguments unsound and inconclusive, and therefore unworthy of being reprinted; for it cannot be said that Phrenology has now become defunct, and that a refutation is no longer necessary.-Dr Roget, as the reader may recollect, was answered in the second number of this Journal.

Dr E. Milligan of this city, who has long and indefatigably kept up a skirmishing warfare against the phrenologists, and who, as he himself is thoroughly convinced, has repeatedly overthrown them by dint of an algebraic formula and otherwise, makes a fresh attack in the first volume of "The Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association," just published. The frontal sinus and non-parallelism of the tables of the skull, are the weapons he employs—weapons so extensively used by “small authors" during the last fifteen years, and so frequently in contact with the tough and unyielding armour of the phrenologists, that they are now altogether blunt and pointless. He also borrows from Sir Charles Bell the argument commented on in the present number of this Journal. We quote from the Lancet of 6th July (No. 514, p. 463,) the following critique on Dr Milligan's esssy :-" We are rather surprised," says our contemporary, “that the paper was allowed a place in the volume. It contains flashes of a temper which should have excluded it from association with the papers of gentlemen who hold widely different views. Dr Barlow, the author of the preceding essay, is a zealous phrenologist. Yet no consideration as to the company in which Dr Milligan was on the eve of appearing, hinders him from calling Phrenology a superstition,' and speaking of it with terms of high contempt, nor from designating the phrenologists a sect with whom it is impossible to be serious without becoming ridiculous.' Dr Milligan proves the truth of this latter assertion. He is at once very serious, and truly ridiculous. Was ever such nonsense penned, for instance, as is comprised in the following lines?-'The elegant ideas of Blumenbach on the nisus formativus, and of Hunter on the diffused matter of life, brought reasonable men to see that the formation of all such parts (the projections on the surfaces of bones) is comprehended in the original design of the author of the animal microcosm, and for the evolution of which, certain springs or forces have been impressed from the beginning upon the embryotic mass, which act as truly in response to their time and object, as the compound forces which exhibit and preserve the harmonious movements of the heavenly bodies, and of the developments of which, in fine, the muscles are not the cause, but the humble, though frequently the modifying, instruments.""

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DUBLIN. Our accounts of the state and progress of Phrenology in Dublin are very favourable. The Dublin Phrenological Society concluded its summer session on 23d July; on which occasion Dr Harrison, one of the Professors of Anatomy and Physiology to the Royal College of Surgeons, gave an eloquent and powerful discourse on the peculiarities of the cerebral developments and characters of different nations. Some excellent discourses have been given also by Mr Evanson and other gentlemen of talent. All the recent meetings have been crowded to excess. The number of members continues to increase: among others, the Solicitor-General has lately joined. The Provost of Trinity College, and several of the Fellows, attended Mr Evanson's discourses on two successive nights, and are, we understand, well disposed towards Phrenology.We solicit a detailed account of the Society's proceedings.

LONDON. A twopenny weekly publication, entitled "The Phrenologist," and edited by Mr Louis Henry Ehn, was commenced at London in February last. Its contents are partly original, but chiefly compiled from the standard works on Phrenology. We have seen the first six numbers, which give us a

favourable opinion of the Editor's knowledge. Though it may be doubted whether detached fragments are well calculated to give the ignorant a just notion of Phrenology, we are always happy to see publications whose object is to diffuse information on this important subject.

DUNDEE. The Members of the Mechanics' Phrenological Society of this town continue to prosecute the study of our science with much zeal and assiduity. A considerable time ago they hired a room for their own use, where a phrenological library was established, to which, for the last eighteen months, readers have been admitted at the small charge of sixpence a quarter. The number of readers has seldom been less than sixty; at present it is much greater, in consequence, probably, of the interest excited by public lectures, which have been occasionally given by individual members. One of these "On the Application of the Principles of Phrenology in the Formation of Marriages," from the pen of Mr Smart, the Secretary of the Society, has been sent to us for publication. It is clearly and forcibly witten, and shall, if possible, appear, either entire or condensed, in next number.

GERMANY.-A translation of the third edition of Combe's System of Phrenology has recently appeared at Leipsic.

It is cheering to have it our power to report, that, while some contemporary scientific journals experience no small difficulty in getting their pages filled, articles and communications, on subjects connected with Phrenology, have continued to crowd upon us so rapidly during the last twelve months, that, after completing this number, we find ourselves in possession of matter more than sufficient to occupy another. Our surplus materials remaining on hand after each publication, have for a considerable time been regularly on the increase. Do these facts indicate any thing like the approach of decease either to our Journal or to the science which it advocates and expounds? When this Journal started, the anti-phrenologists confidently predicted its sudden and premature death: nevertheless we venture to say, that neither it nor Phrenology was ever in a more vigorous condition than at the present moment. In what has now been stated, our correspondents will perceive the reason why several months occasionally elapse before their communications appear.-Several articles, which have been many months in our possession, are still postponed for want of room. Among these is a review of Dr Epps's Life of Dr Walker, which shall certainly be printed in next Number. The American editions of Dr Spurzheim's" Phrenology," ," "Philosophical Principles," ‚” “Manual of Phrenology," and "Sketch of the Natural Laws of Man," (Boston, 1832), have now reached us. The first two have been greatly enlarged, and allusions to the works of the Scotch Phrenologists are much more frequent than in former editions. The function of the organ Inhabitiveness or Concentrativeness is discussed by Dr Spurzheim at great length; but we think he has still been unable to form a just conception of the nature of the faculty ascribed to it in this country. This topic, among others, shall be more fully adverted to hereafter. We understand that Mr Combe's System and Elements are about to be reprinted at Boston.

Our best acknowledgments are due to the Editor of the Medico-Chirurgical Review, for the high commendation bestowed on our labours, in the last number of his Review, and for his unsolicited attention in so frequently extracting from our pages. To the Editor of the Lancet, also, as well as to the conductors of several widely circulated Scotch newspapers, we have to express our gratitude for their equally unsolicited attention.

We thank our Taunton correspondent, H. C., for his communication. He will find some discussion on the subject of it in Article XXI. of the 5th number of this Journal, and in Article IV. of the present. His views are not sufficiently mature and definite, and we think he runs too much into the field of mere speculation.

Inquiries have been instituted in the west regarding the subject of Mr J. L. Levison's letter.

EDINBURGH, 1st September 1833.

THE

PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

No. XXXVIII.

ARTICLE I.

THE LIFE OF JOHN WALKER, M. D. late Director of the Royal Jennerian and London Institutions, &c. &c. By JOHN Epps, M. D. Director of those Institutions, &c. Second Edition. London: Whittaker, Treacher & Co., 1832. 8vo, pp. 342.

To the reflecting phrenologist, a well executed biographical work is full of interest and instruction. He sees detailed in its

pages the manifestations of an individual mind as they appear in the diversified circumstances of actual life; and, by perusing a faithful account of these, obtains a greater addition to his knowledge of human nature than if he had perseveringly waded through the metaphysical productions of a whole century. In fact, without the study of biography, as well as minute and extensive personal observation of character, it is altogether impossible to become a sound practical phrenologist. "Of abstract life," as is well observed by Dr Epps, " of abstract intellectual and moral power, and of abstract religious feeling, little or no knowledge is possessed. The mind of man is so constituted as to associate every principle, of which, in its separate state, it has no defined notion, with the being or thing through which that principle is active. Does any one wish to teach what morality is, he seeks out the good and the virtuous. Does any one desire to instruct wherein religion consists, he selects the man who walks humbly with God. Instruction, it is well known, is imparted better by example than by precept. One reason why God himself condescended to put on the human nature was, that we might follow the example set in his humanity. Biography stands in the same relation to instruction. It presents principles embodied in their forms; it gives a tangibility to thought and to feeling; excites emulation by showing what man once did or has

VOL. VIII.-NO. XXXVIII.

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