of having betrayed his friends, "No," replied he with marked expression, "before any one could have got the se"cret from me, he must have torn my heart from my breast." His organ of the Love of Approbation was very large, and his Self-esteem was likewise large. He shewed himself greatly alive to the good opinion of others upon many occasions. When he kept a public-house, he always appeared ashamed of his situation. He was vain of his defence; and, upon Hunt remarking to him at the end of the first day's proceedings on the trial, that he had said scarcely a word, replied, "Wait till to-morrow, my boy, and hear me, before you give your opinion, and only see if I don't astonish you;" and, on receiving some compliments on his defence," I think," said he, "I have taken a little of the sting out of "the poisoned shafts that have been levelled against me, and "I know that the lads of the village will be pleased with 66 my conduct." Lamentable! that his Love of Approbation was not directed to the approbation of the virtuous and respectable part of mankind. 66 The size of 9 and 10 must have powerfully excited him to the propriety of demeanour observed during the whole of his confinement, his trial, and execution. It was on his good opinion of himself, and his love of applause, that he split, according to Pierce Egan, when he came to London among the knowing ones. Thurtell flattered himself that he was a knowing clever fellow, and was soon the prey of those more knowing than himself. The last organ stated as very large is that of Cautiousness. This part of his character was displayed in the pains he took to conceal the murder-to hide the body-to remove any risk of the deed, and causing Weare's card to be left at Lord Egremont's, in Sussex, about the time he murdered the man in Hertfordshire. His extreme care in preparing his defence, and in the whole of his conduct after apprehension, need not be dwelt upon. The 8 organs mentioned as large, were-2, Philoprogenitiveness,-3, Inhabitiveness, or Concentrativeness,-10, Self esteem,-14, Veneration,-15, Hope,-19, Individuality,20, Form,-and, 33, Imitativeness. Of Philoprogenitiveness and Inhabitiveness, I have nothing to say. Of Self-esteem I have spoken. Veneration does not necessarily give a disposition to religion, but to a general respect for those who are above Thurtell's behaviour during the whole of his imprisonment was most respectful. His hope of acquittal was unquestionably very great. He professed that he should astonish the world by his defence, but his great Secretiveness and Firmness prevented the effects of his disappointment from being discernible. Imitation is large; and, it is remarkable, we are informed that Thurtell was, at one period, attached to theatricals, and that his imitations of Kean were considered very far above mediocrity. Conscientiousness is certainly full; but 9 organs are very large, and 8 large. He was sensible, but not much alive. In regard to the intellectual faculties, they are, though not very deficient, certainly not large; they are completely outdone by the other organs. Causality and Comparison are rather small; that of Wonder is moderate, and Wit actually small. Individuality is large; and he might have had a quick observation and memory of facts. Language also is full; and we thus see how he remembered and detailed all the facts of which his long defence was composed; but the comparative smallness of the higher intellectual faculties accounts for the total want of sound reasoning in it. This poverty of mind, conspiring with his Love of Approbation, accounts for his learning a long speech by heart, rather than composing it of solid materials, and reading it, and trusting solely to the force of argument. Or if no sound arguments could have been urged, a sound intellect would have perceived the folly of making any defence at all. He was easily over-matched at the gaming-table. In the betting-room he was considered a complete novice among the sporting-people; and whatever knowledge he might have possessed of book-keeping, according to the rule of three, acquired at school, his betting-book has often proved the source of laughter among his companions. In short, as a gambler, he had not talents to win, unless his luck was ready made. I will not detain the reader any longer, but trust enough has been said to show, that if ever head confirmed phrenology, it is the head of Thurtell.-E. END OF NUMBER SECOND Oliver & Boyd, Printers. THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. No III. ARTICLE I. PHRENOLOGICAL ESSAY, BY MR ANDREW COMBE, READ TO THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, NOV. 21, 1823, AND PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION OF THE SOCIETY. This Essay occasioned the very long and animated debate in the Medical Society, on 21st and 25th November, alluded to in our last Number; and we have been induced by this circumstance to solicit the author's permission to give it to the public, which he has kindly granted.-EDITOR. QUESTION,-Does Phrenology afford a satisfactory Explanation of the Moral and Intellectual Faculties of Man ?* MR PRESIDENT, A LATE writer in the Edinburgh Review, in speaking of the mode of inquiry which appeared to him best calculated to advance the progress of mental philosophy, observes, that 66 Speculations regarding the nature of mind seem now "to be universally abandoned as endless and unprofitable;"† for we have at last practically discovered, that mind detached from matter is wholly without the sphere of our faculties. This is one great step in the acquisition of knowledge; but there is yet another and a greater, which, although a direct The Author begs leave to state, that the following Essay was written solely in obedience to a law of the Medical Society, which obliges each Member, in his turn, to write a Dissertation for discussion on a subject selected by a Committee appointed for the purpose, and not with the slightest view to publication. He has, therefore, made a few verbal alterations, but no change of matter or ideas. consequence of the former, seems to have been long overlooked, and is even now scarcely attended to, viz. the necessity this lays us under of studying the human mind as it exists in nature, united with and influenced by its material organ. To the neglect of this important consequence, the slow progress of the philosophy of mind is mainly to be attributed. This oversight is the more astonishing, that it has been so clearly perceived and pointed out by the very persons who have committed it. For while many of the metaphysicians, and, among others, Mr Stewart himself explicitly states,* "That among the difficult articles connected with the natural "history of the human species, the laws of union betwixt the "mind and body, and the mutual influence they have on one "another, is one of the most important inquiries that ever engaged the attention of mankind, and almost equally necessary in the sciences of morals and of medicine;" yet, by some strange fatality, he, as well as the rest, uniformly proceeds, in the face of this admission, to investigate the laws which regulate the operations of mind, with as little regard to the influence of the organization, as if it had no actual existence. Laying aside the legitimate object of inquiry, so clearly laid down by themselves, these philosophers tell us elsewhere, "That the objects of metaphy"sical speculation are the immaterial properties of an imma"terial being;" and aware, as they are, that our senses and powers of observation are totally inadequate to the perception of "immaterial properties of immaterial beings," they have recourse to a mode of investigation, in contradistinction to the ordinary one by observation, which they conceive to be more efficient, viz. Reflection upon Consciousness. "As "all our knowledge of the material world," says Mr Stewart, "rests ultimately on facts ascertained by observation, so all our knowledge of the human mind rests ultimately on facts "for which we have the evidence of Consciousness." And, in his "Essays," || he says, "I have accordingly, in my own inquiries, aimed at nothing more than to ascertain, in the first place, the laws of our constitution, as far as they can be " Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation, Part II. pp. 199, 200. P. 2. |