exulceration. The Macedonian boy that kept the coal in his flesh, and would not shake his arm, lest he should disturb the sacrifice, or discompose the ministry before Alexander the Great, concealed his pain to the honour of patience and religion but the Spartan boy, who suffered the little fox to eat his bowels, rather than confess his theft, when he was in danger of discovery, paid the price of a bold hypocrisy. That is the dissimulation reprovable in matter of manners, which conceals one sin to make way for another."-W. B. H.

Linn, the Belfast parricide.-In the 49th Number of the Phrenological Journal, we published the case of John Linn of Belfast, who, after committing parricide, was confined as a lunatic, and, by lulling suspicion, eventually made so effectual an escape that no trace of him could be found. We have since learned from a paragraph in a Dublin paper (Saunders's News-letter of 3d September 1836), that Linn reappeared there, having been brought to the head police-office, after committing an additional murder in Liverpool. The particulars given are the following: "Informations were sworn before Alderman Darnley on Thursday, that a most determined and desperate lunatic, named John Linn, who had escaped from confinement, was in Dublin, and that his being at large would be attended with considerable danger to individuals." After mentioning the murder of his father and subsequent confinement, the paragraph proceeds to say, that after escaping he had gone to Liverpool, whence he had returned to Ireland a few days before his apprehension. Two officers who were sent to secure him found him in an eating house, When asked his name, he said it was M'Gouran, and after some conversation the officers seized him. He struggled greatly, and made an attempt to take two loaded detonating pistols from the breast of his coat. He was with difficulty conveyed to the watch-house in Fleet Street, and twelve watchmen could not put hand-cuffs on him. From Linn's own confession, it appeared that he had taken a place some days before in a vessel bound for America, but that it was forced to return to Liverpool, where he went on shore. Some information having been given, the police of the port went to arrest him, but he shot one of them, and fled to Dublin. The magistrates of the head-office gave orders for the transmission of the prisoner to Kilmainham, and the police, it is added, were obliged to get a float to convey him, for no force could have got him into a coach. Linn stated that his intention in returning to Ireland was to proceed to Belfast, in order to murder his wife and children, and then kill himself.R. C.

Proceedings of the Phrenological Society of Aberdeen.—

Aberdeen, 30th March 1837.-Mr Combe, before finishing his course of lectures on Phrenology, delivered here in October last, gave a lecture on Education, the proceeds of which were handed over to aid in the formation of a Phrenological Society in this city. The sum realized was very handsome; and the persons who took an active part in getting the society established were consequently enabled to purchase the large collection of casts which Mr Combe brought with him for the purpose of illustration in the course of his lectures; and also to fix the entry-money and yearly contribution to the society on a scale as moderate as that it should be accessible to all who might choose to become members. The ignorant opposition against which every new discovery has had to contend, was manifested in a small way against the establishment of a Phrenological Society in Aberdeen. One said the science of Phrenology was subversive of religion—another that it destroyed human responsibility-a third that it overturned all the received principles of mental philosophy-a fourth that it was not capable of producing either good or evil, and therefore was unworthy of investigation. None of these wiseacres, however, when brought to the test by interrogation, seemed to possess any knowledge of Phrenology except what they had gathered from the ex parte statements and misrepresentations of the Edinburgh Review, and other uncandid critics, who, like the Irishman, prefer deciding before hearing the evidence. It would be difficult to say whether any individuals have been deterred from becoming members of the Aberdeen Phrenological Society on account of the objections? above enumerated; but, at all events, the society, both as to the number of members and the respectability of talent, has exceeded rather than come short of what was anticipated. There are now about fifty members belonging to the society, and the number is gradually increasing. The society meets once a fortnight, commencing on the first Tuesday of October, and continuing for six months; and at these meetings essays are read and questions discussed on all subjects connected with mental science. The society was only constituted in the beginning of December last. Since that time four essays have been read in the society: On 20th December, an introductory essay on the truth of Phrenology; on its superiority, even as a theory, over every other system of mental philosophy; and on the advantages to be derived from a practical application of its principles: on 17th and 31st January, essays on taking development, and on the experience requisite, and caution necessary, to be used in order to avoid errors :-and on the 28th February, an essay on causation, and on the organ of Causality. This last essayist pointed out a difficulty which, in the present state of Phrenology, does not seem to be very easily accounted for.

"It is acknowledged on all hands,” said he,

"that Dr Brown had the organ of Causality large, and that he manifested the faculty throughout his writings; but in his definition he excludes-solemnly excludes the very feeling of the mind which, according to Phrenology, is connected with the organ." The essayist could not think of any solution to the problem, but by supposing that the function of Causality had a broader basis than that assigned to it by phrenologists. The other evenings of meetings were spent in examining the casts, and in discussing questions connected with Phrenology.

Letter on the Functions of Locality-Wiveliscombe, May 4. 1837.-SIR, I am much obliged to you for your remarks at the end of the paper on Locality, in the last number. Perhaps, if have a spare corner in your "Short notice" page, you you will be kind enough to insert this letter, or the substance of it. I have never seen the paper in the fourth volume of the Phrenological Journal to which you allude, and am therefore to a great extent ignorant of Dr Gall's opinion of the nature of the faculty called Locality. A special faculty for the position of objects seems to me an unnecessary multiplication of faculties, which is of course, to my own mind, prima facie evidence that none such exists; and besides, I think it wants the essentials of a fundamental faculty. I knew that some phrenologists had traced the recollection of places to its supposed fundamental faculty of relative position, and my object was an attempt to prove that the recollection of places does not depend entirely upon relative position, and that relative position itself is not a fundamental faculty, but is dependent upon that which Mr Edmonson calls " Verticality," and what I would designate by the more comprehensive term of Direction, meaning by that a perception of straight lines in all their relations and directions. I have been looking out for contradictions to the theory, but have as yet found none. Your obedient servant, W. HANCOCK Jun.

Remarks on Tune as the Organ of Sound.-No one will object to Mr Simpson's assertion, that there must be a faculty of Sound, or probably to his analysis of the nature of Sound. Possibly also the organ called Tune may be that of Sound, but there seem good grounds for disputing his idea that the perception of sounds, and of the harmony of sounds, is the same. Mr Simpson must surely have overlooked the fact that some of the inferior animals have the most exquisite sense of hearing, combined with little or none of harmony; this seems almost conclusive that sound and tune cannot be the same. Those who have the best emphasis and most pleasing intonation in speech, are by no means always cæteris paribus the best singers, or the fondest of music. Nor is there any connection between fondness for music and good accent in a foreign language, which there inevitably

would be, if Mr Simpson were correct. Many persons who do not know one tune from another, speak foreign languages with excellent accent. The fondest of music have not the greatest facility of knowing persons by their voices. Mr Simpson says, "all sounds are musical;" if, then, sound and tune are the same, what can make any simple sound disagreeable? If it be musical, it cannot offend tune, and if it do not offend tune, it cannot offend sound, they being the same. If tune be but a higher degree of sound, the exercise of the faculty of sound, even on the most disagreeable simple sounds, must directly improve tune. Would it not be thought preposterous to attempt the cultivation of harmony or melody by the rumbling of the miller's mill, or the strokes of a blacksmith's hammer? And yet, if the perception of harmony and melody be but the higher degrees of the faculty of sound, such a proceeding would seem to be strictly philosophical. All these things appear to support the prevailing idea, that the perception of sounds in themselves, and of the harmony of sounds in combination, are distinct faculties. Can there be an organ whose special faculty it is to harmonize, or rather to perceive, harmony in general? There certainly is a harmony of colours, and as certainly a harmony of sounds. There seems to be a harmony of forms, and order seems something like harmony in the arrangement of objects. All these, except music, are loosely accounted for, by reference to the very undefined thing called taste. Dr Kitchener would probably comprehend the harmony of flavours (this might certainly be referred to taste); and a man great in perfumes would not scoff at a harmony of odours. Without joking, there may be laws for both. The splendid work of M. Vimont contains the following observations, which go directly against Mr Simpson's theory, 2d part, page 270:-" The ear apparatus is generally very complicated among quadrupeds. În describing the temporal bone, I mentioned the great development of the cavity (caisse) in several species, such as the beaver, the hare, the rabbit, &c. It is probable that the great volume of this bony portion contributes to make the sense of hearing more delicate among these animals. We may add, that in the hare and rabbit the ear forms a sort of horn, admirably adapted by its construction to receive and reflect sounds. All the family of nocturnal birds, and that of the genus Cervus, have a very extensive hearing apparatus," (none of these, surely, shew any peculiar sense of harmony). Of man he simply says, "The essential point for phrenologists is to know, that man is among the most favoured of animals in this respect ;" and, in alluding to the very point in question," Experience shews, that men who possess an extremely delicate sense of hearing frequently manifest no taste for music, whilst great musicians are often found with but a feeble sense of hearing. Those birds which have the most com

plicated acoustic apparatus, nocturnal birds for example, have no musical talent. The acoustic apparatus is absolutely the same in some species, and yet the male is a beautiful songster, whilst the female sings less perfectly, or not at all." We must then conclude, that the auditive apparatus has for its especial function the transmission of sounds to the brain, and that the transmission of sounds is much facilitated by the arrangement of its different parts; but that the appreciation of sounds (Tappreciation de sons) must be attributed to a particular cerebral organ, the great development of which, in man and in singing birds, constitutes musical talent.

ofr. 729. A Curious Dream. The following is a curious dream which

happened to a friend of mine :-Mr S. dreamt that he was in his parlour with a friend, and that a piece of black cloth was lying upon the table, but which his friend happened to remark was flesh-colour. Hereupon arose a discussion as to the colour of the cloth, Mr S. maintaining that it was black, and his friend as strenuously insisting that it was flesh-colour. The dispute became warm, and Mr S. offered to bet that it was black; his friend offering also to bet that it was flesh-colour. Mr S. concluded the bet, when his friend immediately exclaimed, “And is not black the colour of more than half the human race ?" thus completely stealing a march upon Mr S., and winning the bet. Mr S. declares, that the idea of black being entitled to the name of flesh-colour had never before occurred to him. The extraordinary part of this dream is, that two operations were going on at the same time in the mind of Mr S.,-the workings of each apparently quite concealed from the other. For instance, the part of the brain which personated himself had no knowledge whatever of the loop-hole which the part of the brain personating his friend had in reserve to close the argument. On the contrary, he says that he was utterly abashed by the remark, immediately thinking to himself how foolish he was not to have been in possession of the idea. A phrenological solution of the mental operation of this dream would probably be very interesting, for there certainly appears to have been two trains of argument carried on at the same time in the same brain, each not only unconscious of the other, but with an effectual barrier of concealment placed between the two.

Dinner of the Dublin Zoological Society.-On Tuesday May 2, the subscribers and friends of this truly interesting Society dined together in Morrison's Great Room. There were 150 noblemen and gentlemen present, and it was truly delightful to see the elite of our resident nobility and gentry, of various shades of political opinions, thus assembled round the festive board, casting aside for once the rancour of party, and acknowledging no