The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-04 00:00:00

PRHENOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

At each of the meetings of the London Ibrenological I
Society, during the past two months, papers were read
communicating observations of phenomena, which were
supposed to corroborate the doctrines of phrenology by
Mesmeric illustrations. Curious and interesting as the
proceedings of the Society have been, but little space
could be afforded ter - them in a newspaper whilst the
business of Parliament was so pressing and im-
portent. On Monday last we gave a report of
the meeting, at Which Mr. Atkinson informed the
Society of the wonders which he believes accident to
have revealed to him. At a subsequent meeting (Dr.
Elliotson, the Presidat, in the chair) Mr. Synis read a
communication from Mr. Brookes, of Birmingham, de-
tailing the case of Sarah Badger, a young girl, who,
having been subject to epileptic fits in her infancy, be-
came about the time 'of puberty decidedly insane, and
was for 12 months confined in a lunatic asylum, where
(it is consolatory to learn) she was very kindly treated,
and was permitted, !though a pauper patient, to enjoy
herself with music and dancing, in the " ladies"
convalescent gallery. After her release she was
engaged by. Mr'. Brookes as housemaid, but
her fits returning, the parish officers, who seem to have
been her guardians'(!), insisted upon taking her into the
workhouse, where She had been ill-used, and would not
restore her to the Asylum, where she had been well used
and happy. Mr.
,Brookes, with laudable feeling, pre-
ferred keeping her in his own house at his own expense,
and would not allow her to be again exposed to the per-
secutions, which, from his statement of her revela-
tions, during the paroxysms of her disease, may rea-
sonably be considered, acting on so delicate a sys-
tem, the cause of .her insanity. This inference is
the Reporter's—all that Mr. Brookes states, leads
to it inevitably. In her fits she would sometimes
imagine she was in the workhouse, and then she was
furious and malicious, and called the persons around her
by the names of those at whose mercy she was in the
hated dwelling, fancying that Mr. Brookes was her
" reverend persecutor —the fitness of the epithet we
cannot appreciate, nor do we answer for it. In the
course of her fits she exhibited, in numerous instances,
an isolated and strongly marked excitement of the seve-
ral organs of Time and Tune especially, and occasion-
ally of Colour and other organs—and this excite-
ment was succeeded by pain in the region of
the brain, in which those faculties are said to
reside. All this occurred in 1837, but Mr. Brookes,
having consulted a medical friend in the town, resolved
to keep his observations secret, on account of their ex-
traordinary and incredible character. The girl was at
length re-admitted to the Lunatic Asylum, and after
twelve month's confinement there was released, cured
apparently of her' insanity. Mr. B. took her again into
his service, and finding her in a high degree susceptible
of the Mesmeric :influence, produced in her all the
Mesmero-phrenological phenomena, which were ex-
hibited in the American cases, and in those of Mr.
Atkinson, alreadydetailed.

MARYLEBONE . VESTRY. —On Saturday, at the
w,lekly meeting of the vestry, Mr. Soden proposed a
resolution, of which he had given previous notice, to the
effect that the vestry clerk write to the rector, Dr. Spry,
to appoint one or more clergymen to assist the Rev. Mr.
Wharton in performing the burial service at St. John's
Wood Cemetery, he remunerating such clergyman or
clergymen out of the fees received by him for such
burials, and in the'event of his refusal to do so, that the
vestry complain to the Bishop of London respecting it.
He knew it was no pleasant thing for a man to bring him-
self •into elision with the church, nor would he (Mr.
Soden do s did he not believe that the rights of the
) o,
poor and of Christians were affected by this question.
The abusive power, of the rector of that parish enabled
him to receive from. 500/. to 600/. a year for burial fees
alone in St. John's Wood Cemetery, without doing a
single thing for it. The service was performed by Mr.
Wharton, the minister of the chapel, and it was no un-
common thing to see from twenty to twenty-five corpses
wo•vaeirt i nwgh
ifeohr
the
intermenteeem aton
yone
was
simaell orneaa
dSautn
once
c ea
.f afternoon,
onno,
matter what the weather, many were kept on the ground
from twenty to twenty-five minutes before the minister
-was ready to read the funeral service over them. Several
cpther members having spoken for and against the mo-
tion, it was eventually carried with but one dissentient.
i,