The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-02 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

stanced the cobbler, who, we contended, if his mind were so di-
-reefed; was capable of-attaining aa-muctrperfection in fiddling
as in cobbling. At this Mr. Rumball affects to laugh. klovs -
ever, we wit! inquire into it: We think it will be.grant-
ed that all men have a capacity for doing all things, it' their
minds be trained to any one of these things; and that the dif-
ference in -mei, is but 111 cbe degree in which they ran attain
perfection in anything. PhrenolOgists grant, and in fact there
is abundant proof of it, that the brain enlarges with exercise
.like any .other part of the body. to which continual exertion
drives continual large streams of blood. "Practice Makes per-
fect," has also become a proverb. We do not for ail Instant
deny that some men are born with greater capacity than others
—a greater degree of comprehensiveness; and souse with a
greater power than other men of exercising their iminds—a
kind of innate energy WhiCh never lets the mind be indolent,
a.and that when these two qualities are combined, we have
geniuses and men of extraordinary acquirements and ability.
That men, some from.accideut, some from choice, and some
from a violent inclination which surmounts all obstacles; fre-
quently apply their whole minds to some one study and occu-
pation; and the natural result is perfection in that to-Which
they apply themselves, in• proportion to the zeal' and perse-
verance of the application. The phrenolOgist denies this. Un-
less a man has the developed faculty, he never can become
eminent in. the art which that faculty takes cognizance of.'
What does this amount to? That a man with very small con-;
structiuviess, (or instance, can never build a hut, yet if he
tries to do it, the brain does grow; if he exercises coristi ucticeness
the blood will flow there, and constructiveness Will grow till it
becomes a big hunipz•awl then the man who never could build a
.hut, will. be able to build palaces ! Therefore, practice creates
the faculty. The cobbler if he fiddles, may as reasonably ex-
pect to fiddle well as to 'cobble welt, or, in other words, a man
has only to-turn his attention to anything, whether' he has the
faculty for it or not, and he will attain perfection in it in pro-
portion to the intensity of his attention. But the phrenologist'
will say, he will not be able to give thUattention unless he has
the faculty? • This we deny,.,as •we shall show. What was it
made Demosthenes an orator but this?. What makes the blind
capable of doing the same things as those with sight, but that'
the brain in its unity devoid of the means of perception, applies
itself with double intensityto the senses that remain. Again,
ac-
'cording to the phrenologist's theory, all'l'ltrks4nust be geniuses
in every thing; poets; musicians; engineers, 'architects; and in
the lower propensities must be complete geniuses- in that wa'y,
.or,be the perfection of everythina vicious: For Aare brain lie
as it were alielb, bedding out faculties, all over its surface,.
which is the doctrine of the phrenologists, the Turk who
possesses a perfectly round head, must of necessity possess all
faculties fully and equally developed. Whitst on the other
hand, 'if we turn our . attention to the continent of Ame-
rica, the- Peruvians have their occiput completely flat-
tened, therefore have no amativenes and no Philoproye-
nitiveness ; yet the race continues! Again, the whole of
the forehead is flattened back towards the top of the head,'
which is' cone shaped 'thereby, and vet these people are 'nht
' wanting in intelligence or intellect, but history tells are a high
minded, and 'intellectual race. But what has here become
of the faculties Of the phrenologist ? It is true, that this shaped
head is brought on by artificial ineans—bycompreision. but yet,
where are the faculties ? ' They are kept in the bulb of the
' brain ; like Yorick's starling, " they can't get out;" 'but yet
they act as well inside the brain as out. Is not this an argu-
ment against phrenOlogy—that compress facultiei as you Will,
you cannot compress the brain itselfsinaller, which acts in unity,
whether squeezed out of its natural shape Or *not. Mr. Rum-
ball-affected to make very light' of Dr. Macartney's fact of a
than being no worse in intellect, for having had a pitch fork run
up his nose, and into the'top of the skull, and losing a quantity
of brain, and said; '" the reason why.his mental faculties were
not disturbed was, beeeuse the other parts of the brain could
perform their faculties." Just so. But if the phrenological
theory be true, the man's reflective powerS; and his perceptive
powersonust-have been totally deranged, and the rest of his
brain only would act was well as ever. In writing on this sub-
ject, Dr. Roget, of London, who, we believe, is a member of
-the tew London University, says, "The truth is, that there is
not a single part of the encephalon which has not, in' one case
or other, been impaired, destroyed, or found defective, without
any apparent change in the sensitive' intellectual, or moral fa-
culties." Does this not go to move, that'the whole brain in its
unity is only affected by injury in degree, and that a small part
of the bruin is capable of all the functions of the whole brain,
as proved by Flourens, hi his experiments, and that injury only
affects or impairs its power? and that on the " Newtonian doc-
trine of deduction from facts" the phrenological theory falls to
the ground. Mr. Rumball challenges the opponents 'of the
phrenological hypothesis to bring forward facts as Gall and
Spurzheim have done, and then they will be entitled to deny
their theory. This has been done over, and over again, and
triumphantly, but this affects not the phrenologists; they go
stumbling on, blinded boa theory with which they are fully pos-
sessed, and having which, they think, they alone can see. We
brought forward a few facts, tending to show the unity of both
the cerebrum, and the cerebellum in their separate functions,
and we will bring forward a few more. The phrenologists have
given the faculty of amativeness to the cerebellum. M. Flourens'
experiments-on pigeons tended to show that it was the brain
which regulated motion ; that on cutting a small portion of it
away, the pigeon staggered, but could walk; on cutting more,
that it had to balance itself with its wings and tail, until at
length, as he took away more, and more, it became incapable of
any motion, though its other faculties of hearing, seeing, &c.,
were not at all affected. Therefore, this is the brain of motion.
Now, then, as to its being the organ of arnatieettess. The frog of
all reptiles, has been found most unequivocally to exhibit .this
feeling, and in the frog the cerebellum has.been-found so exceed-
ingly 'small, that its • very existence has been, till lately a
matter of dispute. Now, this is the beit defined organ the
phrenologists have.' 'Either it is the organ of amativeness,
or it is not; if it is the organ,' the frog isamative without it, and
must therefore have some other faculty for it, and in that ease
phrenology is wrong; and if it is not the organ as the frog-
'would lead us to conclude, the phrenologists' theory says it is,
and is therefore wrong. At the late Meeting, of the British As.
&relation. Dr. Crlisle exhibited several remarkable mal-formd-
lions of the human cerebellum. He produced 'the cast of the
cerebellum of a female of weak intellect, which was remarkably
small, not larger than the size of an ordinary walnut, and which
was completely inferior to the cerebrum, or buried beneath it,
and therefore could give no actual developement of the organ
of amativeness, but the female exhibited unequivocal signs of
the possession of the faculty to an estraiirdinai v degree. The
small cerebellnm therefore aid-not show the want of intuitiveness
in this instance, whichis.contrary to phrenology. 'The woman
was wanting in intellect and she was wanting in cerebelluntond
the natural conclusion would he, on Gall's theory, the cerebel-
lum was therefore the organ of intellect. Dr. Carlisle produced
another cast of:the cerebellum of a man, one half of which was
completely deficient, and the other half very small; arid yet.
there was surgical evidence to prove that the animal passions of
the individual were strong. Dr. Carlisle also cited a great
number of cases in which there was a deficiency of cerebellum,
and at the same time the existence of extraordinarily strono-
animal passions. What do these cases' tend to prove? that the
theory of the phrenologists that the passion of amativeness is
lodged inthe cerebellum is not on the Newtonion principle of
deduction from facts. The phrenologists state that the skull. is
formed on the brain and takes its shape, and that therefore the
protuberances on • the skull indicate similardevelopements of
brain underneath. This we deny ascontrary to anatomical
fact. The skull is much thicker at the parts where ossification
commences, and protuberances will appear there where
there are, none underneath. The anatomist. also discovers a
large frontal sinus, or receptacle for the blood from the brain,
the size orwhich must.be according, to the size of the arteries
which supply the brain, and therefore the space which it occu-
pies between the brain and the skull the phrenologist cannot
tell, and by consequence, the brain underneath it is not deve-
loped in its exact shape on the skull. Mr. timbal' cited an
instance of extraordinary affection in a mother for her son, and
on her death an abcess was found in her organ of philoprogeni-
tiveness.. This was conclusive that the phrenological theory
was right. In his Tuesday's lecture he cited a case which came
under his own observation of a man who fancied he was
twelve miles from the place where he actually was, and al-
though he heat d the tower bells he was persuaded' he was
not in London, though in other respects sensible. On
his death he found a large hydatid occupying the space of
erentuallity. " W hy," asks Mr. 'tumbril!, "did not this by-
datid destroy other parts of the mind, and interfere with colour
and form ? Simply because one part of the brain manifests one
faculty, and another another." Dr. Haslem has cited a case
of a young woman, aged twenty, who was mad, and whose
madness was occasioned by religious enthusiasm and a too fi 0-
quent attendance on conventicles. She was continually terrified
with the most alarming apprehensions for the salvation of her
soul and sang, wept, and prayed alternately. After continuing
in this state for some time she died. Her head was examined,
and it was found -that the pia mater, or membrane investing the
different convolutions of the brain was inflamed, and an extra-
'sevated blotch, about the size of a shilling, was seen upon the
membrane, in the middle of the lateral part of the right lope of
the cerebrum. To what conclusion does this lead? Simply that
if there be any faculties at all, secretiveness is the proper faculty
of veneration, for secretiveness was diseased; and secondly, that
there is no duplicity of organs, or secretiveness on the left side
would have properly carried on the functions of the part whilst
its duplicate organ was diseased, on the right, as in the case of
the eyes, when one is diseased the other acts for both. There-
fore on both these points phrenology is without foundation.
Mr. Stone, in 1829, read before the medical society of Edin-
burgh, of which he was president,' a paper containing "Some
observations on the phrenological developement of Burke,
Hare, and other atrocious murderers; also, measurements of
the most notorious thieves confined in the Edinburgh gaol and
bridewell, and of various individuals, English, Scotch, and
Irish, -presenting an extensive series of facts subversive of
phrenology." He demonstrated. that in fifteen murderers, se-
lected chiefly for-their notorious blood-thirstiness and depravity,
every one of them had the organ of destructiveness absolutely less
than the average of ordinary heads ; that thirteen of theni had
it relatively less, when compared'with the whole contents of the
_skull. He further showed that twelve of these men had the or-
gan of benevolence more largely developed than the average,
4hat their conscientiousness was also full, and.that the skulls ge-
nerally exhibited no remarkably deficiency of brain before the
ear, or preponderance of deYelepernent in the region to which
the animal propensities are referred. He took the measurements
of the skull of Dr. David Gregory, who had been Profressor of
Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, and who was
subsequently appointed Savilian ProfesSor of Astronomy at Ox-
ford, and who was the distinguished friend and companion
of, Sir Isaac Newton, and the learned author of several valuable
workson mathematical science, and amen of high moral, and in-
tellectual virtue. In his skull the organ of destructivenleysds
e was
sd n
,
a eits real size, larger than the same organ in the heads of the mur-
derers included in the induction, and in proportion to the gene-
ral
Anderson,sizeof the
Glen,
brain,
Balfour,large
Pepe,r than
Mortimerthe saute
Collins,i Burke,
c Hoggart,
and Divan. His organ of combativeness was larger than every
one .of the murderers. His organ of acquisitiveness was Abe
same as Balfour's, and larger than the same organ in Gordan,
M'Kean, and Haggart, who were noted thieves. His organ or
secretiveness was larger than each of the murderers. 13iirke
had the organ of benevolence in absotuter size, the same as the
professor; .four other murderers nearly the same, and seven
others actually larger; and in proportion to the size of the
entire brain, eleven nut of the twelve had benevolence larger'
than the learned, and virtuous professor! Clydesdale, and
Kerr, had the organ of conscientiousness larger than the profes-
sor, and in proportion to the entire brain, Burke, Anderson,
Gordan, and several of the others had it greater than the Doctor.
Four of the murderers had the intellectual organs the same as

the professor, three •nearlf the same,' and three absohnely
larger.. Haggart, Scott, Anderson, Glen, Balfour, Macmillan,
and several other degraded men, and murderers, had causality,
the organ of reasoning, larger than the professor: and the same
men were found to have the animal propensities less developed !
Mr. Stone then moved, !hat according to the phrenologists'
doctrine of faculties, Voltaire should have been a better mur-
derer titan Thurtell. and a .greater theif thau Haggart; and
that Haggart possessed more wit than Sheridan. ThidThurtell,
with veneration large, benevolence very large, and adhesirenes.,
very large, must have been a religious, pions, and amiable man,
totally incapable of outraging the laws of God, or murdering_
one, whom he had so long considered, and called his friend !
Yet, phrenologists, in the Phrenological Journal, vol. 1. p. 331,
have attempted to reconcile Thurtell's actual character with
these eeveloitements. according to their theory; and this is it:
`•'l'he murder committed by Tlturtell was a predetermined, cold

blended deed ; nnthin can justify it. Revenge against Weary,
for having gambled tiro successfully, and, as he imagined, un-
fairly with him, prompted it ; but there is every probability that