power of language, and his speeches exhibited great ingenuity and strength of mind. He illustrated his subjects principally by metaphor, and his language was often adorned with the finest bursts of natural eloquence. He was fond of reading “Blair's Grave," "Young's Night Thoughts," and poems of a similar description. He loved applause, and was inclined to be vain of his acquirements and performances.

In argument he was exceedingly subtile, and, when beaten, would seldom at the time acknowledge it in the presence of his opponent. He was very persevering in every thing in which he engaged, and notwithstanding his declining health during the last three years of his life, it was with great difficulty he could be prevailed upon to abandon his plan of travelling into the country every Sabbath to preach-alleging a conviction that it was his duty. His means were limited, but he had habits of frugality which enabled him to be exceedingly liberal upon benevolent occasions, and to ainass a sum of about L.140, to which he added by borrowing a further sum, and laid it out on the purchase of a property. He often lamented his inability to redeem this property, and regarded it as a bad speculation.

The accompanying cast was taken by an inexperienced person. The right side of the back part was not moulded off the head, but merely made up in the casting, and is left in an unfinished state. As we doubt that we may spoil the whole by attempting any thing further, we send it as it is, trusting that as the whole front and rather more than the half of the back is from the real head and very correct, a phrenologist may be enabled to make an estimate of the character, as well as from the finest finished bust. The subject was a man of the Nervous Sanguineous Temperament-uneducated until twenty-one years of age-then self-taught-died at the age of fifty-eight-was twenty-seven years a member of the Wesleyan Methodists' Society, and thirteen years a local preacher of that body. The cast was taken after death occasioned by typhus fever.

Development of Godly-The head is large-very large and high in the coronal surface, and large in the anterior lobes. The occipital region seems very large in the region of Adhesiveness, Philoprogenitiveness, Love of Approbation, and Self-Esteem; but for reasons above stated, it is not entirely to be relied upon. The most striking organs are Benevolence, which is extraordinarily large, and Veneration. Firmness is large, and seems to suit the character. The knowing and reflecting powers are considerably above average, and are quite adequate, with the Benevolence and Veneration to account for the course he seems to have pursued.-EDITOR,

ARTICLE XIII.

SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Essay on the Disorders incident to Literary Men; and on the best means of preserving their Health. By W. NEWNHAM, Esq. London: Hatchard and Son, 1836. 8vo. pp. 36.

THIS essay was appropriately read before the Royal Society of Literature, the members of which may follow with great advantage the excellent advices which Mr Newnham gives them. In an essay on such a subject, little novelty, of course, was to be expected; but the author has been successful in compressing within a small bulk many principles with which literary men ought to be familiar, and by which their daily conduct ought to be regulated. The leading doctrine of the essay is, that as every part of the body requires for its power of healthy action a due supply of nervous stimulus from the brain, the general health must suffer from excessive intellectual exertion, which consumes the nervous energy to an undue extent, and leaves little to be distributed over the body at large. Too intense cerebral action is therefore injurious, and equally so is action too incessant. "Every organ of the body," says Mr Newnham, (meaning, we presume, every voluntary organ) "must have its period of repose, longer or shorter, according to circumstances: none can go on well unless it obtain its allotted portion; and the brain is one of those organs which requires for its restoration a long period of quiet. The literary man, for the most part, does not consider there is any necessity for attention to his brain, till it ceases, perhaps all at once, to yield him its customary obedience. He is for ever engaged in a constant struggle against sleep, and mournfully deplores the interruption occasioned to his studies by this tired nature's sweet restorer," against whose influence therefore he wages perpetual war. The effect of this struggle is always unfortunate; if successful, by the aid of powerful volition, or of some medicinal agent, the brain carries on its actions at the expense of its vital power; and if the contrary, there occurs heavy, congestive, unnatural sleep, and a state of hebetude or of morbid irritability is the result; the organ is now overgoaded, and the individual borders upon that state of disorder which we shall presently describe. If this were only an occasional over-excitement, it would be followed by a state of temporary collapse, and the equilibrium would be restored; but when it is constantly happening, a demand is made upon the constitution, which impairs its vital power, and which is felt upon the brain itself, or upon one of the important organs depending upon it for support, according as the one or the other may be the feeble organ, or the most

predisposed to disease." To the effects of undue exertion of the brain, add those of anxiety and unhappiness from poverty and disappointed ambition, so common among literary men, and the seeds of complicated diseases will become apparent.

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Mr Newnham strongly recommends that the earliest indications of morbid action of the brain should be attended to; and to the question how the commencement of disorder may be recognized, he answers, as soon as the individual becomes conscious that the brain is at work, so soon has he passed the boundary of health, and entered the confines of malady; every instant the organ is becoming more and more unfit for intellectual exertion, morbid physical action has commenced; and if alTowed to proceed uncontrolled, none can calculate where it may be arrested."

The author concludes by offering a series of admonitions, by following which literary men may secure the largest amount of intellectual exertion with the least possible injury to the physical and mental powers. First, says he, seek after contentment and cheerfulness; labour is then a pleasure, and has comparatively little exhausting effect. Secondly, "introduce order into all your pursuits: without this, intellectual labour will be desultory and unavailing, and will soon occasion the feeling of discontent which forms an unconquerable bar to successful study. Let time be methodically divided, so that each section of the day shall bring with it its peculiar and allotted arrangement. The advantages of this will be, not only those mentioned by Mr Newnham, but also increased aptitude and desire for each occupation in its turn, according to the law of periodicity of action of the brain and nervous system which is familiarly exemplified in the return of appetite for food at a certain hour. Thirdly, Avoid great excitement of the passions. Fourthly, Let a frequent intermission and change of employment be secured, this is wonderfully refreshing to the brain. Fifthly, "Cultivate friendly and relative society. It is of the very first importance to avoid that isolation of feeling, that concentration of thought and action, which so frequently attend upon the Titerary devotee, from the nature of his pursuits, and the little sympathy that others shew towards him : and in order to accomplish this, let the connecting links with society be kept clear and distinct; let the social affections be developed, and these will tend, more than any other observance, to preserve him from evil in fact, the exercise of the affective will relieve the burden of the intellectual faculties," Sixthly, Let sufficient bodily exercise be regularly taken, not only as extremely conducive to health, but because the brain is thereby relieved from the tension of uniform and exclusive pursuit. "No time," says Mr Newnham, and all experience bears out the statement, "no time will be ultimately lost from this suspension of labour, since

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by it the health will be preserved, the tone of the cerebral fibre will be sustained, and the brain will be able to accomplish more, far in more, a given time, than it would have been capable of doing in a much longer period than that which would be constituted by the superaddition of time devoted to this important precaution." Seventhly, Let as much sleep be regularly indulged in as is found by experience sufficient to restore exhaustion, but not to produce congestion in the brain. "The individual should awaken light, comfortable, refreshed, with the brain enabled at once to resume its labours with activity and fruitfulness. The author recommends a horse-hair mattress and pillow, and the absence of a night-cap. Literary men ought not to retire to bed until the excitement of composition or study has subsided. Eighthly, Purity of air is essential to the proper action of the brain. This action is most vigorous when the atmospheric pressure is high. The temperature ought to be such as to render the student comfortable. Ninthly, Let him be so clothed as to be comfortably warm. Attention to the capillary circulation of the skin is also necessary; and let all pressure from cravats, garters, and drawer-strings be removed. Tenthly, Care must be taken of the digestive organs, which must be aided by gentle medicine if necessary. Meals ought to be leisurely taken; mastication well performed, and after eating, a period of quiescence should ensue so as to permit the nervous influence to be concentrated about the stomach. Finally, the author gives some advice respecting diet, and discusses the effects of tea and coffee. For his observations on these subjects we must refer to his work.

It cannot be too loudly or too earnestly proclaimed, that he who expects his intellect to be strong and active without conforming to the physiological prerequisites of cerebral vigour, is equally unreasonable with him who should hope to gather a plentiful harvest from a field which he had ill manured, ill ploughed, shaded from the rays of the sun, screened from the fresh breezes of heaven, and scourged by a succession of crops of the same grain.

There is only one point of importance on which we differ from Mr Newnham. Exercise of the brain, says he, does not increase its power, as exercise of the muscles increases muscular strength. Facts against this doctrine, he maintains, are apparent only;" the brain really loses power, though by its increasing aptitude for certain employments it appears to gain power; only because less exertion is required to accomplish the same object; and, therefore," says he," there is less apparent show of power." Now, in the first place, experience demonstrates that exertion made in order to perform any particular act, produces increased aptitude not only for that special performance, but for the performance of every other act within the

sphere of the faculty. And, secondly, if by saying that after practice less exertion is required to accomplish an object, Mr Newnham means that less power is required, we dissent altogether from his proposition. He might as well argue that because a man is able to lift a certain weight with less exertion after practising for several weeks than before, the muscular power has suffered diminution, on the ground that part of the work is accomplished by an "increased aptitude for the employment." Mr Newnham's argument derives no support from the circumstance adduced in its favour, that if employed " beyond a certain point, nervous fibre will lose its power;" he overlooks the equally certain fact that in such circumstances there is a loss also of muscular power. Exercise either brain or muscle within certain limits, and strength is acquired; push the exertion too far, and debility is in both cases the result.

II. Some Account of Phrenology, its Nature, Principles, and Uses, By W. C. ENGLEDUE, M. D. Chichester, 1837. 8vo. pp. 22.

DR ENGLEDUE is one of the most active and intelligent advocates of Phrenology in the south of England, and the present work is an abstract of lectures which he delivered last winter before the members of the Chichester Literary and Philosophical Society. He first expounds the difference between a metaphysician and phrenologist; the former neglecting and the latter scrupulously regarding the influence of organization;—and afterwards proceeds to prove, by the usual arguments and illustrations, that the brain is the organ of the mind-that it consists of a congeries of parts having different functions—that size, cæteris paribus, is a measure of power-and that the external form of the skull indicates the form of the brain. That the brain is the organ of the mind, he remarks, is a truth which

was certainly not first promulgated by phrenologists; because we know that several physiologists, even in remote ages, were fully convinced of the fact; but the full investigation of the truth, the diffusion of the practical results which must follow its application, and the exposure of its neglect in the systems of education, with all the beneficial effects flowing therefrom, must be placed to the credit of phrenological writers alone. It will perhaps be a considerable time before the principles deduced from this fact will receive universal consent; but Lord Bacon long ago said, the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief and distrust,' so that the very course followed by some appears to be natural, and of itself leads us to expect the ultimate reception of this pregnant truth."

Dr Engledue's statement, "that in a perfectly healthy individual, the brain and skull correspond in shape, as much as a plaster of Paris cast corresponds in shape to the mould from which it was taken," is too unqualified. At certain parts men