The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-07-23
Pllrenology.

From tha Philadelphia Inquirer.
NJ. Dumas recently delivered the
funeral oration Of one Desbarolles,
professor of palmistry, and in the
course of his remarks spoke of Des.
barolles os having done for the hand
what Gall and Spurzheim had done
for the brain. Ii this parallel is to be
taken seriously it is not too much to
say that the science Of palmistry must
be regarded as practically extinct.
Phrenology to-day is an eifete branch
OF thought. We look in vain for any
mention of the word in the indices OF
works on the brain which deal with
the latest information science has elic-
tied respecting the organ of mind. No
one possessing the most elementary
knowledge of the progress science haa
made within the last twenty years, in
the matter Of the functions Of the brain,
nfor moment accord to phrenology
q stable position in the list of mod
ern branches and modes OF inquiry.
1t is, perchance, only breaking q but
teriiy on che wheel and Staying the
slain to say so much.
But the science of Gall, Spurzhelm
and George Combe still survives In
holes and corners among us in the
shape of demonstrations by peripate.
tic phrenologists of the characters"
OF their clients. Busts are still to be
seen and bought in which the human
head is mapped out into spaces Of
destructiseness" and generation"
areas of ''amativeness, form,
color" Language, and so forth.
There are many persons who still be.
lieve that the faculties OF human nature
are all pigeon-holed, as the phrenologist
| teaches, on the convour Of the brain
The reading Of character and the
constitution of mind would be an ex-
traordinarily easy matter were such
things true. The brain, alas is much
too complex an organ to be SO lightly
disposed of. 1t has taken the best
work OF q quarter of acentnry in mod
ern physiology to open the subject Of
brain functions. ant it will occupy the
energies of many years before we are
able definitely to sumsup clearly and
explicitly the exact nature Of many oil
the brains ways and works.
| But what we do know OF cerebral
structure and action Stays chronology
more completely than it has ever been
disposed of before The work Of Hit.
zig, Fritsch, Ferrier and others has
| taught us the new phrenology that oi
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 1t has explod-
ed the old myths about faculties,
bumps" and brain organs, of which
| so much talk was heard half a century
gone by. We are able to-day to indi.
cate generally how the organ Of mind
works, how certain Of its parts come
| to the front over others. how
| there should exist lower and
| higher sscentersn in its sub!
stance, how one part regulates speech
and another seeing and another hear.
ing. In our hospitals for nervous dis
eases to-day the physician, from his
study in the work of the normal brain,
is able to place his finger on the region
| he regards as effected in his patient,
and post-mortem inquiry. as well as
evidence of other kind, is broughtinto
the fed Of research to confirm his de-
auctions, Looking back TO the day Of
| palmistry and soothsaying we sea ia
the old phrenosogy, which still sur-
! wives in unlearned circles d fit accom-
! paniment of the science Of hands.