Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-16
STUDY OF BUMPS.
How PhrenoioEy Has Become One OF the
Efete Branches of Thought.

Wow PhrenoioEy Has Become One OF tne
Enete Branches OF Thought.
NJ. Dumas, the well-known French
writer, recently delivered the Grafton
at the funeral of NJ. Desbarolles,
who had made a reputation as an cx-
merit in the science so-called of chiro-
nancy. or palmistry. In the course OF
his remarks NJ. Dumas said that Des-
barolles had done for the hand. what
Gall and Spurzheim had done for the
brain. This leads an English paper to
observe: "lf this parallel is to be taken
seriously, it is not too much to say that
the science of palmistry must be re-
gardcd as practically extinct. Phre-
no]ogy to-day is an effete branch OF
thought, We look in vain for any
mention of the word In the induces OF
works for the brain which deal with the
latest information science has elected
respecting the organ of mind. No
one possessing the most elementary
knowledge of the progress science has
made within the last twenty years, in
the matter of the functions Of the brain,
can for a moment accord to phreno)ogy
u stable position in the list of modern
branches and modes of inquiry. 1t is
perchance only breaking a butterfly on
the wheel and Staying the slain to say
so much. But the science of Gall,
Spurzheim and George Combs still sur
| wives in holes and corners among us,
in the shape of'demonstrations by peri.
patetic phrenologists of tho "charac-
ters' of their clients. Busts are still
to be seen and bought in which the
human head is mapped out into spaces
of 'destructiveness' and '~veneration,'
into areas of .amativeness,' form,'
color language and so forth. There
are many persons who still believe that
the mystic faculties of human nature
are all pigeon-holed, as the phrcnolo-
| gist teaches, on the contour of the
brain.
1.-The reading of character and the
constitution of mind would be an extra
ordinarily easy matter were such things
true. The brain, alas! is much too
complex an organ to be so lightly dis
posed of. 1t has taken the best work
of a quarter of a century in modern
physiology to open up the subject of
brain functions, and it will occupy tho
energies of many years before we are
able definitely to sum up clearly and
explicitly the exact nature of many of
| the brain's ways and works. But what
we do know of cerebral structure and
action Stays phrenology more COM
pletely than it has ever been disposed
of before. The work of Hitzig, Fritsch,
Ferricr and others has taught us the
new phrenology-that of experimental
science. It has exploded the old
myths about faculties, bumps and
brain-organs, of which SO much talk
was heard half Il century gone by.
We are able to-day to indicate gener-
ally how the organ of mind works, how
| certain of its parts come to the front
! over others, how there should exist
lower and higher 'centers' in its sub
stance, how one part regulates speech,
ing. In our hospitals for nervous
diseases to-day, the physician, from his
studies in the work of the normal
brain, is able to place his finger on the
region he regards as affected in his pa
| tient, and post mortem inquiry. as well
as evidence of other kind, is brought
into the field of research to confirm
his deductions. Looking back to the
days of palmistry and soothsaying, we
see in the old %phrenology, which still
survives in unlcarned circles, a fit ac-
compartment of the science of hands.
The art of physiognomy, too, may
well be left in company with these an
tique modes of thought. Face and
hands only reflect in a dim fashion,
if they reflect at all, the nature of their
individual possessors. Human nature
is not such an easy study as to be capa-
BILE of being laid bare before the
crowd by the inspection Of palms or by
the manipulation of the head for or
gans' of mind, which have no exist
mel.