ployed in sawing wood, in washing, cooking, and performing every variety of duty, superintendents being present wherever several were engaged together; but so completely did these men identify themselves with their patients, that in several instances a sharp scrutiny was necessary to tell which was the patient and which the keeper. At the opposite side of the town, Dr Pienitz has a private asylum for patients of the higher orders. For L. 100 Sterling per annum he provides the very best possible accommodation for them, including the maintenance of a servant and every thing else. He has here individuals from all parts of Germany, and lately had an Englishman, who recovered.

These two institutions speak strongly in favour of the enlightened humanity of the Saxon Government. I wish, however, that they would improve the roads leading to them, and indeed in general throughout Saxony. They have stones in superabundance, yet their roads are greatly inferior to those of Prussia, Austria, and Baden, on all of which I have travelled.

The weather all over Germany was exceedingly cold in spring, but from the 1st to the 30th of June it was warm. The crops are good, although late. It has again set in cool, if not cold. In some places the crops are destroyed by inundations of the Elbe in spring. I am, &c.

GEO. COMBE.

ARTICLE IX.

THE PRESENT STATE OF PHRENOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

THERE is an article in the Phrenological Journal which briefly mentions Dr Spurzheim's lectures on Phrenology at the University of Cambridge, about the year 1827. It is there stated that they were attended very well by the resident members, and by most of the tutors and lecturers of Colleges.

The seed, however, appears to have been sown in this case on too rich a soil, for in this "seat of learning" (called so, we will hope, not by courtesy), Phrenology certainly did not then succeed in striking deep root, and in a few years Dr Spurzheim's visit became but as a tale that is told, and from 1830 to 1836, no other champion appeared to lift the banner of Phrenology, much less was an army to be found in readiness to come forth and rally round their leader.

Here and there, however, some solitary student amused him

self in his hours of ease with perusing the pages of Gall or Spurzheim, or their living representative, and perhaps made the "New Theory of the Brain" a subject of discussion with some combative" opponent," in lieu of the more familiar and drier" arguments" on "The Theory of Couples," or " Undulatory Theory of Light." Oh! the light that would then burn forth in our advocate's eye, as he carefully threaded his way through the intricate combinations of the organs, and, borne forward triumphantly by Hope and Firmness, overthrew successively his opponent's outworks, and even dared, with impious hand, to attack the strongholds of metaphysical dogmas, even in the bosom of an University!

But such a bold adventurer as he whom we have imagined, is not of those favoured sons whom Alma Mater most" delighteth to honour." The fellowship, bestowed with liberal hand on the plodding mathematician, who, without in any way distinguishing himself, either in the College or University examinations, has, by dint of ink by day and oil by night, "crammed" himself within the list of wranglers, is not for such as these. No, "they are conceited fellows," "would not take advice," "thought they could do without reading," and "we are well rid of them;" and thus, indeed, the University is doubtless "rid" year by year of some of her most enlightened sons; and thus, perhaps, may the problem best be solved why Phrenology has not struck root in Cambridge; for, that it is known there, as at least a "dreamer's dream," if you please, and that the varying tenants of the University are not incapable of judging for themselves of its merits, we presume are 66 postulates" which no one will refuse us. And yet the truth cannot be withheld, that, until within the last ten months, the subject was as dormant as the folios in the College * libraries, or the Senior Fellows at any other hour but that of meals.

About the time, however, which we refer to, a new impulse appears to have been given to the science, and even, oh horrible! our pages have found their way (certainly unsolicited, unbribed, without intrigue or corruption), into this abode of the Muses. But hold, we must not boast too much; it is true "All's well that ends well," and when we can say with truth that the agitation of our merits or demerits as a periodical has ended in the sale of some half dozen copies quarterly in Cambridge, we have not much to complain of. Nevertheless, we must be honest, and tell of our defeats as well as of our victo

Besides the University Library, which is open (though not so freely to the Students as it ought to be), each College possesses its own private collection of books, which it preserves with great veneration and care, neither using them itself, nor allowing the Under-graduates (who would use them) admission to this "sacred heap."

ries, a candour, by the bye, which our antagonists, we are sorry to find, are invariably wanting in. It was proposed that the Phrenological Journal should be taken into the reading-room of the Philosophical Society, it being already thought not unworthy of a place on the shelves of the Public Library, and so, according to form, we were duly suspended for fourteen days, to await the sentence of that justly celebrated and learned body—and we were by that body rejected. Our proposer was one of the leading characters in the University, and whose deserts we are happy to learn have since pointed him out as the object of Ministerial patronage. We will take the opportunity here to observe, that if Phrenology were universally, or even generally cultivated, desert would, nay must, always be the first ground not only of Ministerial patronage, but of patronage of all kinds, and hence of University patronage; and hence the bitterness against us among certain persons: Hinc illæ lacrymæ! Oh, let Phrenology become the rule upon which Fellows are to be elected, how would ⚫ and "Quos ego! sed motos præstat componere fluctus ;" let us calm our waves; it is neither our wish, nor consistent with our principles of universal philanthropy, to lose our temper, or to be angry with any one, because they wont read our articles. Still we wish they would, for their own sakes; it would do their Self-esteem good to see "Se quoque principibus permixtos"; to see themselves thus represented to the life, veluti in speculo; to hear that whispered to them by a friendly ear in their closet, which they will never hear from their abject menials, their bowing gyps," ," and hat-touching" bed-makers", or the independent but tongue-tied under-graduates.

66

and

But to return; we had to deplore our Addresses Rejected. Some six-and-thirty names, we were informed, kindly put the white calculus into the urn, and to them, singly and collectively, as wholly unknown to us, we take this opportunity of returning our hearty thanks; but some six-and-twenty honourable members-so, indeed, are they all, all honourable members -condemned us by dropping the black bean (Oh, Pythagoras, thy sage counsel !) into the immitem urnam, and thus we lost* the day, but have gained many a friend. Opposition and persecution certainly, where founded in error and injustice, will always fail in attaining their object; nay, more, will invariably conduce to the forwarding the very end they aim at preventing. So has it ever been in nature, and Phrenology being nature, is, as all things else, amenable to nature's laws. "Victa tamen vinces," conquered we have been, but to bring our conquerors

* The rule of the Society being, we believe, that two-thirds of the names must approve of the proposed publication before it can be placed on the table of the Society.

under our yoke; nor did the overthrow of Troy more directly lead to the establishment of the Roman supremacy, than shall this (si quid habent veri natum præsagia) to the weaving of the brightest crown of Phrenology from the laurels of the Academic Grove.

We are already informed, from authority on which we can rely, that our science is at this present moment a favourite theme of discussion with the rising generation of the University; that the younger part of the Medical profession are satisfied of its truth, and observers of its conclusions; that collections of some extent are made by individuals* both of casts and skulls, with heads of animals; and that though all will not confess themselves" believers in Phrenology," it is a rare thing to meet with an open and confessed " unbeliever."

It is naturally a great satisfaction to us to receive such intelligence, especially that we are courted by the younger part of the students. Doubtless, this age is one of wonderful advance in the practice as well as theory of education, and we have good hope that we, too, may bear our share in directing (even if we be denied the honour of originating,) the rapid march of mind. To the universities we look, with the affection of a Briton to his second parent, as to those bodies which must give stability to each improvement as it rises on the horizon of the moral as well as political hemisphere; and while we regret their slow adoption of anything new, (and we are new ourselves, being but children of a quarter of a century,) we cannot but consider this property of inertness a most valuable corrective to the mercurial tendency to innovation often miscalled by the name of improvement. But let once any change, moral, phy. sical, or political, receive the stamp of authority which these bodies must confer where they approve, and we are sure that this sanction, arising from judgment and conviction, and not from haste or folly, will be durable; and we hail the tardy accession of our last ally with greater joy than that of the ninety and nine, who earlier, but not more sincerely, tendered us their allegiance. Hence our dreams of conquest,-and yet not of conquest but of peace; we extend the branch of olive, and, with Harmodeus, sheath our sword in a myrtle bough; may it never again be drawn but in concert with the sons of learning.

* We have heard of one member of a College possessing in his private museum from seventy to eighty casts, principally of living members of the University.

ARTICLE X.

DR LEWINS AND MR CRAIG versus PHRENOLOGY.

SCARCELY had we told our readers in the notices appended to our last number, that neither Dr Craigie nor Mr Craig had ventured to publish any answer to Mr Combe's evidence on the change of temper consequent on disease in the organ of Combativeness, in the case of Mr N., narrated at page 352 of No. L., when, on looking into the appendix attached to the third and last part of the late Dr Fletcher's "Rudiments of Physiology" just then brought out, we were surprised to meet with a letter from Mr Craig, apparently intended as an answer, and embodied in a very gratuitous attack on Phrenology and phrenologists, by Dr Lewins of Leith, and the latter written in a spirit of acrimony and ignorance of the subject in dispute, which was common twenty years ago, but which we hoped had long disappeared never again to revive. Dr Lewins is the editor of the part of Dr Fletcher's Rudiments referred to, and it is rather curious that his zeal should so far have outrun his better judgment as to have led him to solicit a reply from Mr Craig, when the latter was so little inclined to the contest as to preserve silence in the only two journals where the facts of the case were narrated, and where, consequently, the readers could form any opinion of their own. Mr Craig, however, has followed a very judicious course; 1st, because he has published where no reply can be given; and 2d, because his letter contains merely a reiteration of his former assertions unsupported by a shadow of additional proof, and is therefore wholly undeserving of notice. But as neither the wrath of Dr Lewins nor the simple reiteration of assertions by Mr Craig, constitutes logical evidence in a question of philosophy, we did not intend to bestow upon their joint lucubrations any other remark than an announcement among our "notices" of their existence. A correspondent, however, who was long a diligent pupil and admirer of the late Dr Fletcher, has sent us the following able communication, to which, in justice to the memory of Dr Fletcher, we think a place is due, and we give it accordingly with great pleasure.

It is proper to premise here, that the only ostensible exciting cause of Dr Lewin's wrath, is an alleged statement by the phrenologists, (where, and by what phrenologists, Dr Lewins does not specify,) that Dr Fletcher was favourably disposed towards Phrenology, and considered its principles as philosophical. Dr Lewins denounces this statement as calumnious and unsupported by any thing that Dr Fletcher ever said, did, or wrote; and