The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-08 00:00:00

DISCUSSION ON PHRENOLOGY

As we intimated on Tuesday, a discussion was commenced
on Monday evening, between Messrs. B timbal' and Brindley,
on this much-contested subject. Mr. Crisp took the chair.
Mr. RumBALL commenced by observing, that they had
met to discuss one of the most important questions that could
agitate the mind of man; they were met to consider whether
we knew anything of ourselves or not ; for phrenologists de-
clared that if their science was false there was no science, no
philosophy extant which gave man an insight into his own.
nature.
his He had the honour to profess his belief in phreno-
logy ;opponent declared that it was unfounded in fact
and pernicious in consequences, and he having done so pub-
licly, he felt he (Mr. Rumball) had a right to call upon him
to establish the assertions he had put forward. As a phre-
nologist he (Mr. Rumball) believed in the immortality of the
soul. Throughout all nature we found that form was indica-
tive of quality ; and, if man's mental results were influenced
by their transmission through his body, it was a matter of
moment to ascertain in what part the transmission took
place. The brain, in man, was the special organ of the
mind, and in proportions to the size and quality of that brain
would be the power of it. Size was power throughout the
world, every thing being equal; but phrenologists said, fur-
ther, that the brain was not one organ but many, and that
the whole of it acted in every mental operation. The brain
was a congeries of organs; and it was comprised of many
elementary faculties which were developed as the man grow
up, and they constituted his individuality of character. Cer-
tain parts of the brain were adapted to the manifestation of
them, and the size of that particular part of the brain would
beindicative of its power. If we looked at the history of
phrenology, it would shew the means whereby the powers
of the various portions of the brain bad been discovered. A
sketch of Dr. Gall and Dr. Spurzbeim's history was
given by Mr. Rumball, in support of this proposition,
and
he narrated a number of their investigations. His own in-
troduction to the science was founded upon facts. He had
attended Spurzbeim's lectures, and was convinced of the
truth of phrenology. After that he became a pupil of Beth-
lehem Hospital, and took the portraits of 80 patients as well
as he could, and on referring to the physicians' books, lie
found that their configuration corresponded exactly with the
description of insanity therein entered. The last proposi-
tion he should advance on this occasion was, that the size of
the brain could be told from the skull, and this proposition
it would be for his opponent to overthrow. On this subject
he explained that craniology might be false, yet phrenology
true ; in the course of which he stated that the froi?tal
sinus
which was thought by Combe to furnish some objection to
phrenology, in fact aided to prove it. One hour having
elapsed
A

3RINoLEY then came forward. He said that he had
been c.ptivated by the doctrines of phrenology, but that on
investigaring them more closely he had come to the conclu-
sion that it was not a system based in truth,, and that it had
no scientific accuracy upon which it could be maintained.
He had next directed his attention to the grand rules laid
down by phrenologists, namely, the examination of persons
endowed with peculiar powers, and comparing those powers
with the peculiar form of their heads, and this examination had
led him to the same conclusions. The question would be,
was phrenology a sound and fair system. He was not bound
to take any new view which Mr. Rumball had thought
proper to advance ; and he had expected he would have laid
down a little more clearly what were the fundamental princi-
ples of phrenologists, as laid down in their books. He,
therefore, was not bound to take any new system which Mr.
Rumball might lay down. The phrenologists had not dis-
covered a true system of mind, or Mr. Rumball would have
proved what he had not had yet proved, that the brain was
composed of many organs. There was no proof at present
that phrenologists admitted the immateriability of the
mind ; but he (Mr. Brindley), in some of their writings had
read that they denied it. He denied altogether that it could
be shown, that animals exhibiting peculiar instructive powers
had corresponding brain organs that would warrant the
judgment they had those powers. Mr. Rumball next said
that the skull was an index to the brain. He admitted this
was pretty nearly correct, but this was not the point in de-
bate. The point was whether the skull was a correct index,
in their minute shades of difference, to the 37 organs, and
this proposition he combatted :at considerable length. Mr.
Brindlev's hour having expired,
Mr. RUMBALL, in a reply of a quarter of an hour, con-
fined himself to a reply to the objection that phrenologists
did not explain the true system of the mind. He contended
that they did not make any such profession; nor did phre-
nology lead to materialism.

Mr. BRINDLEY rejoined, calling upon Mr. Rumball for
his proofs of organology.
Each of the disputants occupied another quarter of an
hour, and the discussion closed until Wednesday.