The Sun. — 1866-10-10 (London, England)

THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.  SlR,—When Muller was executed a reporter for a morning paper stated in his report that no cast of the culprit's head was taken, and added that such nonsense—or some like term—was no longer permitted by the authorities. The gentleman was doubly in error. Whilst he was penning his report  (probably) I was, by special permission of the Sheriffs, taking a cast of Muller's head, and I well remember the expression of Mr. Sheriff Dakin when his permission was asked—that he deemed it his duty to give every aid in his power to scientific researches. Iu a like spirit I have been answered on recent occasions by the Sheriffs of Essex and Kent. To throw dirt at a new science is much easier than to try to understand its principles. llluller was legally guilty of causing the death of Mr. Briggs, and was justly executed. But Muller's cerebral organisation stands out in broad relief from that of the type now generally recognised as the unduly animalised. And if phrenology can be taken as a guide iu so intricate a question its evidence is on the side of Muller's innocence of premeditated murder, or, indeed, of actual murder by his own hand. His confession was not of guilt in this respect. I did it " can be taken to mean only the commission of a criminal act, but not of murder. The doubt in his case makes the cast of his head doubly interesting. With ready courtesy I have been permitted to take a cast of the head of Jeffreys after his execution, and beg to offer you the following report : The head of Jeffreys has no resemblance to the typos that presented themselves so plentifully when Phrenology was first broached in this country. Then witnesses came forward with obtrusive frequency. Messrs. Burke, Hare, Williams, Bishop, cam muitis alas, presented their cerebral organisations, and left to anti-phrenologists only a wordy warfare. Neither has the face of Jeffreys anything of a ferocious, coarse, or pugilistic expression. His features wore regular, proportionate, and nicely chiselled, giving an appearance of breed, ancestral decency, and such refinement as education tends to bestow. The head is small, being only 24 inches round This, and a great defect in the refieeti_vo organs, are its chief faults. There is no lack of height in tho corona' or moral regions, no basilar coarseness, no marked disproportion between the animal and the specially human regions. The moral arches, particularly that of conscientiousness, are not well developed ; but there is none of the flatness— little of the Gothic straightness of line in these arches, so obvious in the heads of what may bo termed the chronically criminal class. The student of Phrenology must over keep in mind the hardening, soul-deadening influences with which but too many of the lowlyborn are surrounded, from childhood to adult years. Original type and development of brain go a long way in the constitution of mental character ; but Jeffreys spent his earliest years probably, and certainly many years of his manhood, under the most unfavourable circumstances. His "unlucky deeds" no one would seek to extenuate. Ho seems to have loved "not wisely, but too well," and, like Othello, became "perplexed in the extreme." Ile gave himself up to justice. His last days were not impenitent. He prayed frequently and fervently, and spent his latest hours becomingly. Jeffreys' intellect was quick, clear, and practical. He could not have failed to be a very clever workman. The fact that he was prone to commit excesses in drink is of itself sufficient to account for any amount of gradual demoralisation and of ultimate recklessness and brutality. He was one of the millions of victims to King Alcohol.  C.