Phrenological Transaction...
The Times, 1824-03-11T00:00:00

le'e ha:c ionkec: in upon a gentlemnan-Dr. Wl'illis, if we recollect. fight-who is givineg lcctures on phrenology in Prince's-street, Lei- cester-square. A speculation of this kiind, well conducted, might become popular. Craniology (that is, the original system) embraccd a somethi ng of that faculty of di:wnition which has been so constant a denidicratunm in all times a'sd among all nations; and t'nere seems to be nio re wson why one should not tell people's tbrtunes out of the bunips upon their heads, just as well as was ever done by the lines in their hanlds, with to thi full as rmch certainty as re-irds hic itste of the party practised upon. and with rather more securitv (as the law stands) on the p3rt of the predicator. In pliain terms, subject alwavs to the e'rialty-we mnust bear it-of being treated as intidels, we hazve very little faith in phsrenological dicta. Sotinc worshippers of the scienre humifbug themselvcs. T.hc. are some, we suspect who (a little) humnbug Qthers. Btit the whole practice is husnbug on oce side or the other. Not that we questioni the advantage of the tihinr, if it couild be done; but we think that it cannot. Nothino in nature could be more pleasant than for the father of a family to foresee. for i:istance, for twenty y-eaLrs, which of his soils was to be hanged. Witilin half a centurY. no man would dream to mArry, without takiltg a cast of hi: wvife's head, and having a " consulta- tion" upon it. We shioulsl he found reftisinz to hire even a foot. manv, wi:hout he had a "character" from a professor of phrenology we shou ld take a peep at the position of a traveller's car be- fore we ventured to get into the same stage-coach with him and ifs paisoner's guilt were donibtftul on a trial at the Old Bailevy evi- tlenre wou^ld be rule. admissible, to show whetlier lie ought or ought inot to be hanged " craniolozi~allv." But, while we admit the entir. convenience of all this, if it could be effected, it behoves phrenologists to cansider Nviwat terrible mnischief they mav do by sttinlg all the world to act upon principles which are fall acioi ! Suppose an old imaid. for exanmple, convicted of " amativeness." who hiad never been in love in all lier life !-or a clerk at a bank- ing-hiotle of" secretiveness," and so tuirned out of his place !-a man with a ihigh forelicadl mistaken tfor a conjurer, although lie had ilever comprehlended wvhy two and two make four !-or a gentleman compelled to beat *- the watch" every ni4rht, beccaise he was sos. 'ccted not to possess the organ of " combativeness !" We have not leisure here to examine the facts, and still less to nu7nt the principles tupon which the craniologists, especially the later professors among them,rest tIe creditof tieirart.Thiere has been agreat deal of new light, and consequently a good deal of backing out, since the theory of Gall and Spurzheirn was iirst promulgated. Gall's proposition was a plain one-that it was possible to ascertain, bv re. terence to the outside of a man's skull, what was likely to be passtngg on the in. The question then coTies as to the degree of certainty with which the fact, or flacts, could be ascertained; and here again, like bezinners. G;all and Spurzheim go straight to the point ; thev find the " organt," or indication ef propensity, existing and (Ioh that they can infer, with tolerable confidence, as to the act. 'this course, hl wever, was too simple, and consequently too easily de- tected whlen in err'r ; and later practitioners, therefore, have cilang- ed the for-n fromn " he will" to " Le ntv-"-vour " may" beiag almost as valuable in prophecy, as your '1 if" is in a quarrel. WVe 1ovw heat that an * ocean"- may exist, so slightly developed as to be im perceptible. This is, poin't for retreat the first. Then, we are told that an " organ" may be most stronely dIeveloped and vet that other *- or4ans" (uerhapsisuperceptible ?) may counteract its opera. tion. Tit is, cover for bilinders the second. An " organ"_ third-*nay be so absolutely less a cause than an effect, that a very idle young man, not two years since, having been induced to forsake marbles for literature, in only eighteen months a par- ticular part of his head had protru;dedl itself nearly half an inch ! (These projections on the head have long been believed to occur to I people now and the.n, but in earlier times; but they were ascribed to other causes titan the stidies of the sutfr'rer.) Andl fromt this, we go on to mystification upon mystification ! Comparison-analysis- deduction -and qualification " Organs," like " muscles"-the instruments, and not the moving power. Coonstruction and action ot the mind, whiy not analogous to that of the body ? No fatalism- no materialism-bhit all (after all) governed by the soul! The wihole art, in truth, resolving itself, ihen the philo4opher is driven well into a corner, into the power of sayitg,-man (the given man) " mav" do so and so, which nobodv will dispute ; with a most al- manackc-like caution as to saying thiat-mats (the given man) " mav' rust" do aniy acts su-zgested; atid with just tile coinmon chances of prophecy, as it seems to us, attendant even upon such an edict, tehen pronounced, either one way or the other. There are however, (wihout going into this science either ana. tomically or metaphysically) a fewv principles maintailied in support of it so obviously abrurd, as to show, with very trifling ex- posisre, the hloplelessness of any general satisfactory reault. The Professors are transparettly making dispositions to retreat into nothingiless. They renounce every tangible point. Even tile " bumps" (that seti could get hold of) are no lnger a necessary part of their systemn. But still it i5 not until they ate closely pushed t argument that they avowedly abandon the hight pretension. Pass by tieir experiihnents upon the " livitig subject," which most of thei claim, certaitily, to miake under correction ; and let us look at their demonstration by the dead-their ordeal by the " bust," w,hich cannot speak to contradict theni. Take a cast fromn the head of a man whose course in life may, up to a given point, be ascer- tained. Wave the possible fraud (whichl we don't, tor the general, at all impute) of shaping the opinlen by the knowledge of the facts; but assuimie fairly that, phrenologically, " this mait should or should not have done tbus;"artd even tiien we protest against the man's real conduct being held conclusive, or evell material, for or against the given opinion. For, if a mart's act be to have any force in such a matter, yous must first sbiowe that he was indep-ndent of circuim- stances-a frce agent-as how many men in a hundred, as society is constititted. can be considered ? Can we pronounce,that such a parti- cular skull slsows the organ of " destructiveness ;" and then say the act has been responsive to the organ, because the owner was a butrher ? Or that such a man's head has the organ applicable to " music," approved, because he was a fiddler in Covent.gar. den orchestra? Can we talk such. trash as this, unlcss we are to retreat upon " the developinent of an orgaii by its habitual exertion," when we know that a mants calling in life, nine times in ten' mAregulated merely by the circumstances in, which his a- ;ents Isappen to be placed. Mill anybody (buta a p1lwnologist) be little or no ' ear"'at all f ;". still more glaring absuArdity nrisesOlit 'no, thIgiiaeY'tievt consider wh0t, ic, da-fco, the el agency4he -absuriyof at tributing the same given act tuniversAllt,o' WFejen otmosuly to the- samegiven propensity. (Gall, who spoke 4ut, anid whona. hi's foll lowers arc obliged therefbre constantly to put i."sn.error"_it s whinmsicall to see the monstrosities into which(G3all runs- UpoS tibs point. The doctor calls boys fromn the street Into his apartm.-t, and makes them fight. 5emne like fighting, and somc do not. and, in those who like fighitrg, the doctor di,c *vers- the organ of " co n- bativeness." All this is pretty safe, becauae, as Dennis Brn7,er'nf- dc7y savs, it iu " prophesving the thing after it has happened ;" but still we know that the same boy fights well at 12 yearsold, who bad not, perhaps,foundouit thathecould fight,at t l.Butthedoctor.followsnp hisI discovery with an exneriment upon dog9. Ile finds some that tear one another readily; and some that run away. But did he neyer hear that the same dog, constantly, who fears to fight with an anmal of his own species, will attack a cat, or a badger, or a fox, with great readinems and apparent courage ? Of course, in the dqgs that fdght, the doctor discovers the befitting " organ ;" but what follows is (as it seemss to us) the verv keystone of craniology; and let an un- prejudiced creature say, for himself, wMhat it is worth? GaIt says " X afterwards" (wve quote from memory, but we believe in his own words) " I afterwards found} the same protuber.nce" hespeak? now of the organ of combativeness) " in the heads of duellltts q.'rel some st2sdents, and eminent warrior2." N6I , becausc achair has four legs, and a horse has four legs, is, tllercfre, a chair a horse? Because a shoe is not a shillng, and a salmon l.s not a shilling, i; tilerefore a salmon a shoe? Is it the same " organ" thot p. e coat upon the back of a general officer, and of a posma i Wtill any one believe that it is a tuarrtls e dispositio w mnal;cs nen enpincnt war';^}i or tna. dueihstc, 1le dogs, fight r'omi ah i'gauc disposition to ,hed blood ? Does not every body nowv, on the contrary, that such terqnns are stimilated, nine times in ten. bv another of Dr. Gall's ' organs"-"the love of approba- tion r" Whity one laughs at such a questioR, or even at theidea of ascribing crimes wlich may arise from fifcy different feeings, and perhaps fromn the recess, indeed, of any feeling, to the agency (ne. cessarily) of any one propensity implanted in the heart of man, and ascertainable (its existen'ceor non-existence) by ocular reference to his person. A few words more, and they must be very few, (in spite of our organ" of small printing,) upon. the " facts" of these gentlemen craniologists and their materiel of eshibition. We have witnessed one or tvo of their experiments, by adepts, upon tlhe heads of living individuals; and besides repeatedly findinv them, upon all material points, totally mistaken, we could not shut our eyes as to the manner in which, generally, predictions were delivered. No. thing can be more obvious than the difficulty of detecting blunders, in ordinary, while the partv predicted upon, and he alone, can be the final judge of truth or falsehood. We listen to a gentleman's cha. racter, given in his presence, by a phrenologist. If the dicta be un- favourable, the man will not contradict frQm modesty, if favour- able, his vanity will hardly allow him to doubt their truth. A poet will scarcely assert his owv '- fancv," or a duxll rogue be inclined to deny it. A soldier cannot claim his " organ" of " combativeness :" and the most conscious coward will not disavow it. In fact, we have seen a man set down for a mathematician by a phrenologist, who scarcely ever knew so much of figures as to work the rule of three; and the organ of ' acquisitiveness" foundl prominent in another, whose fault was carelessness almost to proditality. Rut of course it is not very often that cautious speculators will be led into failures so lecide(d as these. There is a line upon which the merest tyro mayg " craniologize" with almost perfect security. He is not bound to so out of his way to run the hazard of extremne cases. He need not find. even the bua of the gallows upon a man's brow, mucll less the beauteous flower. But he may ascrilie-the organ of niusic-and who slhall deny it ? Of personal courage-and who shall rebuke it ? ldeality-mcunory-benevolence-power of calculation-recol. lection of places-why, we minght go on " divining" att this rate for ever; every one has suclh faculties in a greater or less degree. And if the patient should by accident deny one of them, why he has it, but it has not yet shown itself. Mark holw the bold assertion ttlls some- times (up6n mere probabilities) of the Gipsy ; and her chiance of missing-for she must speak to ovcrt acts -is as twenty to one com- pared with that of the craniologist, vho speaks, at farthest, only to dis'os'.tion. A1gain-for we must lump some of these follies, or we shall never get to an end-can any thing be inore ridiculous than the " facts" or " instances" (so called) upon wlhich the professor; of this ?cience rely ? They produce a given niumber of " heads," (casts) selected (can any one doubt it ?) to suit the purposes Of their own particular arzurnent and unless a man has a percontra bat- tery of east heads in hqis packet. they challenge his hint of impossibi- lity with a reference to facts! They xhow a head-" This is Dr. No-natter who_posvessed of every acquirement and every virtue." Then tney show a second head-" This is the head of a prize fighter, pissessed neither of acquiremcnt nor virtue." But we may not be disposed to admit, perhaps, that Dr. No-matter-who does possess all these virtues and acquirements. And even if he does, we doubt if we should not be able to pick out a prize-fihter, with as virtuous a head (craniologically) as ever was on the lDoctor's shoulders. In the sanie way these gentlenen produce you the head of an idiot, an(d thc head of a man of faculty as dissimilar as though they were portions of two creatures of a di rent species. But low many of us have saen monstrous fools, who looked very like other people; and sons inheriting the features and proportions of their fathers, without any thing like an equality, and sometimes witlotit even a glinmmering of the same talents ? One more cir- cumstance only as to thc management of the phrenologists in the se- lection of their " heads." and we shall conclude upon the assertion with whrl,c it is connected. There are people who talk about this scienec, and ad'ect to say, in the year 1824, that there is a peculiar ascertained position (dehlrs thearra,i,tements usual as to hisdeath)- a peculiar position for the " car" of every nlan who gets himself hanged. Phrenologically, tbev say, the ear of a hanged man Will be found to have a situatton di&ferent from that in which the ear is usuallv found. Of mone than 2U0 heads of criminals,collected " impar- tially," notoneinstanee(according totheir statement) haLsbeen disco- vered of exception. Now,thc form ofthe head thus ascribed tonnalefac- tors is thatin which the animal propensities are phrenologically stated to prevail. It is so utterly incompetent to the exhibition of virtue or considerable nmental acquirements, that we must admit that no cir- cumstances ever did or ever can drive a man of feeling, or of talent, to do an] act for which he might stiffer death by law. We will not go back here to the som^what perhaps unfair que5tion-what becomes of men wchio have hap pened to be hangedl innocently ? because, had the general characters of such people been sans. iaccc, the thing would scarce have occurred; but these phrenologists, on their absurd principle of referring the one consequence always to the one cause, actualy sho.w the same location of ear (that wvhich leads a man to the Old Bailey) in the hcad of Dr. Dodd, who wm hanged for for- gcrv [I; acquisitiYeness"j, and in that of Mrs. MI'Ginnis, of Edin- burgh, who was hanged for [' destructiveness"] nmurder ! M'e guard ourselves against being suspected of any inclination to arrest the march of' cience ; but the *' philosopher's stone"-moral or phvsical-is hardly at this timie of day a plsilosophical pursuit. 'lVc deny the right of anv man, when we tell him that up 13ond-street is not the road to the moon, to challenge us to pronounce which is the road to the moon. A man's natural ropensities, apart from circumstances, can, in civilized life, have but a confined influence upon his fate. Society is made up of a resistance to natural propensities. Do we nOt know that the sa,me unbenling spirit wvhichi seems graceful in a gentleman, may throw a carpenter out of employ, and lead him to the gallows ? Do we not know that the very same taste which makes a sportiman of the squire, makes his tenant's son a poacher, and conducts hini to Botany Bay ? Do we not know that the answer of the pirate to Alex;ander the Great is unanswerable? In spite of the 200 "hanged heads" which the phrenologists have collected, they will scarcely make the world believe that a vicious man must have ' vicious" written on his forehead. Every observer of CIrcum- stances knows, though he mnay not have proof of it " in chalk," that individuals of ability and mental acquirement have been hanged , and that very stupid logs (wlhatever cranaiologists May say) ate, not at all unfre4uently, verv goo:l-looking fellows. "n jutice to Dr. ihhis, we should relieve him from any imputa- tion of having uttered in our presence, a tithe of. the follies above quoted. li'e hearcd him only for a short time. He defeats himself sometines by eforts to be rhetorical: but he appears to have read, and considerably, upon the subject which he talks about. PZIRE.NAOLOGI CA!, TEA4 NrS. C TIO.Nv.Y