The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-09-16


ferences in their facial expression and the
general getup of their heads, and surely
he could not have noticed this long with
out noting in rude way that on the gen.
eral average they acted as they looked,
When they had observed cases enough to
make general rule phrenology was born
but they did not know it by that name.
You cannot grow a whale in a mud
puddle" This ancient proverb gives us q
good hint for the explanation of the SEEM
ing paradox that so many people ridicule
a science and yet order their conduct in
strict accordance with it, Take the most
sarcastic lecturer who ever ridiculed
phrenology into group of low browed,
square headed fellows, men whose brains lie
chiefly back of their ears, and you will never
hear him enter into an intellectual dis
course with one of them. He will never
once think Of asking their views on the
entity of space" or 'the relatively of mat
ter and force" and the combined judg-
ment Of a thousand such men on tariff and
free trade would not influence his opinion
a particle.
Why, then, is there SO much ridicule of
phrenology2 Simply because of its too
earnest opponents, who have pushed the
bump theory" to an absurd extreme and
have almost persuaded themselves that
man is not responsible for his acts because
he was "born So" BE that as it may, how
ever, this happy capacity of man to talk
one way and act another is so well known
that when General Adlai Stevenson, Dem
ocratic candidate for vice president, sub
mitted his head to a phrenologist and al
lowed the latter's opinion to be published,
there was much curiosity to read the
"chart" and much ridicule of the idea, and
yet those who ridiculed it were to the full
as curious as the rest. Unconsciously they
admitted the truth and the science.
Well, according to this manipulation,
General Stevenson Is a man of superb
mold, both in body and mind. Though
six feet in height and weighing over 200
pounds, his build is quite symmetric. "His
head is typically masculine and his tenn
permanent is well balanced and would, ac-
cording to the old writer's, be called nerv-
ous-bilous, or in the modern classification,
the mental motive This temperament is
conducive to great activity both of mind
and muscle. The circumference of the
head on the center of the occiput is 22sI
inches"
Now let us trace the processes by which
phrenologists have arrived at their conclu-
sions, for the history is really quite curious.
In the years 17GS-10 and thereabout Ger
man schoolboy noticed that while he could
"scc into things" as quickly as any one IN
his class, he could not memorize, and that
the boys noted for their memories and
readiness in the use of words all had full
eyes and rather smooth, round foreheads.
In fact, this little German philosopher and
keen observer had unconsciously laid the
foundation of science. This was Joseph
Franz Gall, born at Tiefenbronn, Baden,
March 8, 1858.
Aften leaving the school for BOYS he
went to Strasburg to study anatomy, and
then to Vienna, where he received his di-
ploma as physician and went to work in
the hospitals. He soon noted that a GER
tain shape of the head was correlative
with the practice of vices that led to GER
tain diseases, and even before he wrote a
line on the subject he had diagnosed the
"drunkard's head" and the weak volup-
tuary's head" The correspondence was
not uniform Of course, for moral training
and general strength of character count
for much; still the tendency was marked.
After twenty years of study in hospitals,
asylums, prisons and institutions of learn
ing he claimed to have proved that the
brain Is the seat of the mind, and defined
the location of some twenty faculties. He
published his theory in 1901, and began lee
turing thereon in Vienna in 1896. He soon
made convert of DR.. Johann Gaspar
Spurzheim, who was born in 1776, and they
went on vigorously with their work till
the church came down upon them. In
1902 the Austrian government forbade the
teaching of the new doctrine as "inimical
to religion" and they had to go to other
countries. DR.. Gall died near Paris in
1928, and DR.. Spurzheim in Boston in 1882.