The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-01-18 00:00:00

CRANIOLoG:
FAPI. AN AT lON or, AND CRITICISMS ON, VAL SYSTEM
OF Dlt. GALL, RELATIVE TO THE CAUSE AND AR
PRESSIO.: OF THE PkINCIT AL • 01FPZILEHCES 01'
Tilt ti•OLESTANDING AND PASSIONS.
BY J. L. MOREAU DL LA SARTHr..
Helvetius, who was for denying every thing to
Nature, in order to grant the more IQ the iiowee of
educe:ion, thnugat it possible to demonstrategiat
the org inisatinn of ey,:ry individu il, as far as re-
lates to 4he understanding, is originally the same;
that it differs only iu consequenee of the accidental
causes of improvernmr and alterathai, and that, ac-
cording to circnms:ances, every weli-infoimed
par-
son may become, indiscriminately, a great poet, a
distinguished philosopher, or a man of profound
learning.
Dr. Gall, a German physiologist, who has, withia
those few years, obtained great celebrity by the sin-
gularity of his opinions, has adopted ideas direaly
cortrary to those of lielvetitts, as the basis of a
system to which he has given his !Same. He not
only thinks that the differenceS in the stature of the
understanding and the passions depend on the or-
ganisation, but he likewise pretends to demonstrate,
that the intelle&ual fun ions and inclinations are
faculties as distina as those of sight and heariii!.,
that those faculties have their several organs in the
interior of the head ; that the variations of alder-
standing and charaaer result from the different de-
velopment of these organ's, the combination of
which forms the brain ; and lastly, that as the skull
exhibits externally, and, as it were, in relief, the ex-
pressions of thiz,e internal differences, you may, by
inspeaing it, discover great energy of vital power,
a propensity to sensuality, coquetry, and cunning,
constancy and affeCtion, courage and prudence,
imagination, the different kinds.uf memoir, un-
common aptitude for the att. of drawing and
music. &c.

p.
i

'1 he manner in which Dr. Gall distributes these
different faculties in the brain is very ingenious;
vitsi power occupies the center, the part which is
Most profound .and best protefted ; the organs of
sense are nearly in the same direftion. Those of
the other intelleftual funflions are placed succes-
sively, and from the interior to the exterior. The
'iriteheenal functions being, according to this ar-
rangement, the most external and the most ele-
vated, their stevelopement is neces'arily annonncesl
by the great convexity of the forehead, and the ob-
tuseness of the facial angle, which the Greek artists
ha►e not increased in their ideal beauties, with-
out giving them the expression of a divine in-
telligence, and all the appearance of a supetior

nature.
Dr. Gall, in particular, asserts, that the portion
of the brain.torming what is termed by anatomists
its arcuravolutions, appears proper to support his
new dorarines ; and, without suffering himself to he
guided by the- opinions of those ph s, who
have imagined that this region of the b•.tin contri-
butes in a particular manner to the ex seise of
thought, he has there discovered a no iltirtidii of or-
gans, to which the various propensities and the diffe-
rent intelltilual faculties correspond.
We shall now proceed to describe the manner
in which he divides the brain; and, though this
distribution may appear rather singular to anato.
mists, it forms the basis, and the tirst part of Dr.
Gall's system.
Part I. The upper part of the spinal marrow
must be considered as the particular organ of vital
power. It is a well known fact, that, in -rations
parts of Germany, butchers employ no other me-
thod of killing their oxen than to thrust a sharp in-
ssrument between the first and second vertebra of
the brain.
Not far from the organ of vital power, and near
the upper extremity of the posterior part of the
brain, are situated, according to Dr. Gall, two pro-
minences, which are the organs of procreative paw-
n; so that the principal organ of life is next to those
which nature has more particularly charged with
transmitting hy.
The cerebral organs of the senses, that is, these
parts which form the origin of the nerves p aticu-
lady concerned in sensation, are placed anterior to
Apse of vital and procreative power : but as their
developernent cannot he perceived externally, Dr.
Gall does not introduce the consideration a them
into his system.
jsloarer the circumference, and round the central
parts above mentioned, Dr. Gall's system places dif-
ferent organs adapted to various fundions, which
are the less closely corinefted with purely animal
life, the farther they are removed from the medul-
lary and internaljodis. According to this hypo-
thesis, bet Neer the organs of procreative power, but
higher. is situated all organ, the predominance of
which produces nervous and spasmodic aff.:Clions ;
above this, again, is another organ, whose develope-
ment contributes to the energy of the tender and
henevalent affeetions ; whereas, on the sides, and at
different distances, are placed the organs of courage,
of cinating, ar.d of deception.
The different kinds of memory, and the aptitude
for music and the arts of drawing or painting, have
organs situated in the anterior part of the brain r
those belonging teethe aptitude for mechanical arts
are towards the sides; lastly, those of meditation
and observation arc placed rather higher. These
are separated by kindness; above them is imagina-
tion, and below the latter, and rather towards the
si.!es, ASe the organs of sagacity, of wit, the external
expression of which is said to he ye: y perceptible in
the skull of the poet Blumauer, which forms part of
Dr. Gall's museum.
According to the principles of Gannett, the brain
contains several organs, which perform different
funftions in the manifestation of the passions, and in
the exercise of thought.
In tad, a person may use one of lots intellalual
faculties, while he suffers all the others to lie at
rest ; and thus forget the fatigue of any labour, by
means of a new employment, proper for bringing
into a3inn those funaiarts of the understanding,
which the p. eceding occupation had not employed.
It is thus that by varying the Mbjeft, our studies
may easily be prolonged ; and a head, fatigued by
scientific meditations, may be refreshed by reading,
and by those labours which give more employment
to the imagination. Besides, a . great number of
cases might be mentioned, in which different per
sun.; Lave beensittri to I,st one or more of their in