place, and had every minutiae of its history detailed; then to the departure of the Prodigal Son, on the one side, and next to the Fatted Calf on the other, till I had seen the head in all its bearings. To feel was unnecessary. Having made up my mind regarding his most prominent propensities, I waited the arrival of my expected friend.

When he and the individual first mentioned came in, I told them whose son I was. Having never seen either of the parties before, both claimed school acquaintance of my father, and as there appeared a shade of familiarity between my new friends, I begged them to sit down. The landlord withdrew, when my premier acquaintance of the face sagess made an apology for leaving me so long; but remarked, the landlord's stories would find me amusement. I told them I had been very much entertained and amused with the landlord, who I conceived to be a man of very peculiar habits and disposition. I then described his general and strongest propensities; his deficiency in the finer feelings; his extreme selfishness; his passionate irritability and savage ferocity of countenance when in anger; and even when his immediate profit induced him to act the part of benevolence, his demeanour was so awkwardly constrained and reluctant, as to satisfy me that benevolent actions were not the natural feelings of his mind.

Mr expressed his astonishment at my intimate acquaintance with the landlord, and wondered I had never called on him before, and made his house my home, as I must have been often in the neighbourhood, and in company with the landlord to know them so well. I assured them I had never seen him before to my knowledge, that I never was in the place but once, and that only passing rapidly through it. It is impossible to describe their astonishment: their looks at one another would have befitted the pencil of Hogarth or Tim Bobbin. At last one remarked, that "I might be very thankful I had not lived in the days of Beatty Laing, or I might have adorned a pile or fat tar barrel."

To satisfy them of my having never seen the landlord, I begged them to call him. Mr did so, and asked him why he did not inform them that this was a most intimate acquaintance of his own. "An acquaintance of mine!" he exclaimed in suspicion; "it's impossible. I never saw the gentleman before in my life-not I."

AN OBSERVER OF NATURE.

ARTICLE V.

REPORT ON THE CAST OF JOHN PALLET,

EXECUTED AT COLCHESTER FOR THE MURDER OF MR JAMES MUMFORD.

READ AT THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY, APRIL 1824.

THE cast which is now before the Society was presented by Dr Elliotson of London. It is that of John Pallet, who was executed in December last for the murder of Mr James Mumford. Pallet had formerly been employed as a labourer on the farm of Mr Mumford's father; but, in the course of last autumn, was discharged for misconduct, and shortly afterwards had his pigs seized in payment of a fine which he had incurred for riot and drunkenness; and, as he conceived these misfortunes to have been brought upon him solely in consequence of the interference of Mr J. Mumford, he ever after bore him a grudge, and swore that he would have his revenge. About three weeks before the murder he was even heard to say, that "he would not mind hacking his "whistle for him, and that he would be damned but he "would smash him." For some time no opportunity presented itself for carrying his threats into execution; but on 8th December, 1823, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, one of the Walden coaches from London, in which Mumford was an outside passenger, unfortunately drove up to the Coach and Horses tavern in Quendon, where Pallet had spent the afternoon in drinking, in company with one Kidman, a huckster, and at the door of which he was at that moment standing, when his attention was attracted by

the arrival of the coach. The night was too dark for him to be able to distinguish the features of any of the passengers, but he very soon discovered Mumford to be one of them by hearing him give directions about his luggage, as he was to leave the coach at a cross-road a little farther on, in order to walk home; and also by hearing some one remark, that "it was a dark night for Mr Mumford to walk "to Widdington;" and in consequence his resolution was soon taken.

The propensities of Self-esteem, Combativeness, and Destructiveness, which lead to the feeling of revenge, naturally powerful in Pallet's mind, were now glowing under the additional excitement of half intoxication, and when he recollected that his victim had to walk through a long, lonely, and sequestered lane, where no one could observe or interrupt him, he could not resist the opportunity which he had so often longed for of taking immediate vengeance upon him for all his wrongs. He, therefore, set out along with Kidman at a quick pace, in order to reach the lane before the coach should come up, and they were scarcely arrived at the spot when they perceived Mumford alight. Pallet and Kidman now separated, and the latter, ignorant of Pallet's intention, proceeded on his way, after having got back a knife which Pallet had borrowed from him to cut the stick with which he committed the murder. Pallet followed, and by striking across a field soon came up with Mumford, and at a convenient place attacked him, and struck him repeatedly on the head till he fell. He then rifled his pockets of their contents, and finding him not yet dead, he attempted to cut his throat with a knife taken from his pocket. The night being very dark, and Mumford very near-sighted, he did not discover Pallet till he received the blow; and even had he known his intention, his weakness and diminutive size were such as to have given him no chance in coping with the strong coarse built frame of his murderer.

Such is an outline of the horrid deed for which Pallet suf

fered; and if ever a murder was committed under the most brutal and ferocious impulses of our nature, unrestrained by intellect or moral sentiments, it was unquestionably this one; and consequently if there is truth in our science, it is in such a case as that of Pallet's that the Phrenologist may safely and confidently predicate a development of the most unfavourable kind. Accordingly, a moment's inspection of the cast now before us will satisfy even the most incredulous as to the striking resemblance which it bears to the worst specimens of that class of criminals to which he belongs.* In him, as in the other murderers, the quantity of brain posterior to the meatus auditorius is more than equal to that lying before, showing a very decided preponderance of the animal propensities. The coronal surface rises a little in the middle, but it wants the broad expansion which indi

• The measurement and development of the cast of the head of Pallet is as follows:

From occipital spine to lower Individuality,

Concentrativeness to Comparison,

Meatus auditorius to Philoprogenitiveness,

7 inches. 61

13. Benevolence, moderate, or rather 30. Comparison, small.

cates a full development of the organs of the moral sentiments, and in the frontal region a great and lamentable deficiency exists. To estimate this properly it is of importance to remark the breadth and filling up of the occipital region, compared to the sloping and narrowness of the forehead; since it is no uncommon thing to meet in society with very worthy and excellent men, in whom the mea surement behind equals that before the ear, but with this great difference, that, besides the much superior moral development which they possess, we shall generally find the breadth of the posterior region to be a great deal less, and that of the frontal region a great deal more in such individuals, than in criminals.

In Pallet the breadth and general size of the posterior far exceeds that of the interior part of the head. The forehead is indeed broad at the base; but it is narrow, low, and retreating above; thus presenting rather a full development of the knowing organs, but a miserable endowment of those of Ideality, Language, Comparison, Causality, and Wit. No endowment even of moral sentiments can effectually compensate such a deficiency in directing the conduct, where the propensities are also strong. It is the reflecting faculties alone which set before us the nature and consequences of an action, and which lead us to anticipate whether the different sentiments will approve or disapprove of our intended acts before performing them. Where the intellect is weak, the faculties most excited for the moment command our conduct, and it is only after the deed is done that the sentiments feel pleased or dissatisfied; for a weak intellect is unable to represent to the mind an hypothetical case so strongly as to excite the different sentiments, to form a judgment of its propriety. The intellectual faculties thus enter largely into the production of a rational will. Without them we act upon the first impulse which rises in the mind, and the next moment under a different impulse we act in opposition to what we did before; but this will be best understood by stating an hypothetical case.

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