The primal laws applied to the brain--The four directions--The
elements of good and evil--The horizontal line of
division--Frontal and occipital organs and vertical dividing
line--Preponderance of the front in certain heads--Gall,
Spurzheim, and Powell--Contrast of frontal and
occipital--Latitude, longitude, and antagonism--Location of
Health and Disease, of Benevolence, Conscientiousness,
Acquisitiveness and Baseness, Energy and Relaxation or
Indolence, Patience and Irritability--Duality of the brain and
its important consequences--Errors of old system--Self-respect
and Humility--Modesty and Ostentation--Combativeness and
Harmony--Love and Hate--Adhesiveness and Intellect, median and
lateral--Religion and Profligacy--Laws of arrangement and
Pathognomy--Physiological influences of basilar and coronal
regions--Insanity--beneficial influence of coronal region.
To feeble minds, that excel only in memory, an arbitrary statement of
facts to be recollected may be satisfactory, but to those who are
capable of fully understanding such a science as Anthropology,
arbitrary details, void of principle and reason, are repulsive. A
chart of the human brain, without explanation of its philosophic basis
and relations, embarrasses even the memory, for the memory of a
philosophic mind retains principles rather than details.
After many years of experimental investigation, I have long since
fully demonstrated that the human constitution is developed in
accordance with the universal plan of animal life, and the human brain
is organized functionally in accordance with those higher laws of
life, which control all the relations of the spiritual and material
worlds,--all interaction between mind and matter. These primal laws
are easily comprehended, and their application to the brain removes
all the perplexing complexity of organology.
Their application to the brain may be stated as follows: The upper
legions of the brain, pointing upwards, relate to that which is
above,--to the spiritual realm, to love, religion, duty, hope,
firmness, and all that lifts us to a higher life. The lower regions
point downwards, and expend their energy upon the body, rousing the
heart and all the muscles and viscera, developing the excitements,
passions, and appetites.
The maximum upward tendency is at the middle of the superior region,
and the maximum downward tendency at the middle of the basilar region,
while organs half-way between them are neutral between these opposite
tendencies. Hence every faculty or impulse has a location in the
brain, higher or lower, as it has a more spiritual or material
tendency, and as its influence on the character inclines to virtue or
vice. The better the faculty, the higher its location,--the more
capable of evil results, the lower it is placed. The higher position
given to the nobler faculties accords with their right to rule the
inferior nature, the predominance of which is evidently abnormal, and
the effects of which, in this abnormal predominance, are expressed by
terms full of evil, although their functions in due subordination are
useful and absolutely necessary.
In applying this principle, we realize that such a faculty as
Conscientiousness must be near the very summit, and that propensities
to theft and murder must belong to the base. That such propensities
exist in many, we know, and it is an absurd optimism which would
ignore such facts because they are abnormal. The world is full of
human abnormality, because it is not yet above the juvenile age of its
growth, which is the age of feebleness and folly, disease and crime.
The imperfect organism of childhood is incapable of resisting either
temptation or disease. The twenty-five millions destroyed by the black
death, in the fourteenth century, and the countless millions destroyed
by war in all centuries, including the present, show how little we
have advanced beyond the spirit of savage life. The ferocity of
nations is as much the product of their cerebral organization, as the
ferocity of the tiger, and springs from the same region of the
brain,--lying on the ridge of the temporal bone,--a region that
delights in fierce destruction, and is large in all the carnivora. It
would be contrary to the spirit of science to ignore the fact that man
has an element of ferocity similar to that of the tiger, because in
the fully developed man that fierce element is overruled by the higher
powers and confined to the destruction of that which does not suffer.
The unwillingness to recognize anything evil comes not from the spirit
of science, but from the _a priori_ assumptions of sentimental
theology, which presumes that it thoroughly comprehends the Deity (who
is beyond all human comprehension), and, out of its imaginative
ignorance, fabricates _a priori_ philosophies and doctrines that
everything in man is good, or that everything in man is evil.
Anthropology has not thus been evolved from _a priori_ speculation,
but presents its systematic doctrines as generalizations of the facts
and experiments which have been carefully acquired and studied through
the last half-century. The facts and experiments are too numerous to
be recorded and published now, and had no channel for publication when
they occurred.
Everything in the lower half of the brain has a tendency to evil, in
proportion to its over-ruling power, and everything in the upper half
operates in proportion to its elevation with that controlling
influence against evil, which uplifts him toward angelic or divine
superiority.
The brain may be divided by a horizontal line from the center of the
forehead into its coronal and basilar halves, and by a vertical line
from the cavity of the ear, into its frontal and occipital halves.
The vertical line separates the more passive and the more active
faculties. The posterior half of the brain is the source of the
backward forces by which the body is advanced, as the anterior half is
the source of the forward movements by which our progress is checked.
The posterior half would make blind, unceasing, irrepressible
action--the anterior half would produce a state of relaxed and feeble
tranquillity and sensibility--the condition of a helpless victim. The
concurrence of the two is indispensable to human life, and the
necessity of their more or less symmetrical balance is so great that
nature balances the head upon the condyles of the occipital bone, at
the summit of the neck, which are so located as to correspond very
nearly with the opening of the ear.
The contour of the head is very nearly that of a semicircle, with its
center an inch or more above the cavity of the ear. Thus wisely has
nature arranged in well-balanced individuals the symmetrical
proportion between the active and passive elements of life. In the
head of the writer there is a preponderance of the passive over the
active elements, which gives him the attraction to a studious, rather
than active or ambitious life.[1] In nations or races of ambitious
character, the head is long, or _Dolico-cephalic_, and the occipital
measurement is larger than the frontal, but in those of peaceful,
unambitious character, like the ancient Peruvian and the Choctaws of
the United States, the occipital measurement is less than the frontal.
[1] The head of Dr. Gall shows the same frontal preponderance,
which led him to the pursuits of intellect instead of
ambition, but also shows an immense force of character
derived from its extreme breadth and basilar depth. The head
of Spurzheim, whose skull I have often examined, shows even
a greater preponderance of the front, and a predominance of
the coronal over the basilar region, producing his marked
amiability, with sufficient basilar breadth to give him
physical force.
Each had a large brain. In Dr. Wm. Byrd Powell, who had a
long head, and who was a man of restless ambition and fiery
energy, the occipital predominated over the frontal
development decidedly, producing, although the frontal
development was not large, much activity and force, or
brilliancy of mind, but not the calm temperament most
favorable to philosophy. His opinions were more bold and
striking than accurate. Dr. P. made a valuable collection of
crania, and was almost the only American scientist who gave
much attention to the _cultivation_ of phrenology.
From these remarks the reader will understand that force belongs to
the occiput and gentleness to the front. The occipital region is
associated with the spinal column and the limbs, in which regions the
vital forces reside. Hence the occipital action of the brain generates
vital force and diffuses it in the body, while the frontal region, in
its aggregate tendency, expends the vital force--the greatest tendency
to expenditure being in the most extreme frontal region. Both the
front lobe and the anterior extremity of the middle lobe tend to the
expenditure of vital force and destruction of health, and it is
absolutely necessary to life that the action of the front lobe should
be suspended one-third of our time by sleep, without which it would
exhaust vitality.
We shall therefore find that organs are located farther backward in
proportion to the energy and impelling power of the faculty, and farther
forward in proportion to their delicacy and intellectuality--the
extreme front being the region of maximum intelligence.
With these two rules, giving the latitude by the ethical quality and
the longitude by the active energy, I have been accustomed to require
my pupils to determine the location of the various elements of human
nature, bearing in mind that organs of analogous functions are located
near together, and organs of opposite or antagonistic functions occupy
opposite locations in the brain; and thus in proportion as one is
above the horizontal line the other is below it, and in proportion as
one is forward the other is backward,--in proportion as one is
interior or near the median line, the other is exterior or toward the
lateral surface.
With this introductory explanation, I begin by asking, Where should we
locate the faculty which has the maximum degree of healthy influence,
and is therefore called Health? They will readily decide that it
belongs to the posterior half of the head, but not the most posterior,
as it is not of restless or impulsive character. Then as to its
latitude they readily decide that it must be considerably above the
middle zone and in the upper posterior region where, after comparing
locations, they generally agree that its position corresponds to the
spot marked by the letters He.
[Illustration]
We then inquire where the faculties should be located which give us
the least capacity to resist disease, the least buoyant health, and
the greatest liability to succumb to injuries. This being opposite to
the last faculty must be located diametrically opposite, in a position
anterior and inferior, which would bring it to the anterior end of the
middle lobe. As this organ gives so great a sensitive liability to
disease, it is not improper to call it the organ of Disease, if we
recollect that that is its abnormal action, as murder is the abnormal
action of Destructiveness. Its normal action gives a very acute
interior sensibility by means of which we understand our physical
condition and are warned of every departure from health.
The pupils generally locate this organ very nearly as is shown by the
letters Di.
We have now gained an additional rule for guiding the location, viz.,
that in proportion as a faculty is of healthy tendency it is located
nearer to Health, and in proportion as it is of morbid tendency it
must be located nearer to Disease.
Let us now take two such faculties as Benevolence or good will and
Integrity or Conscientiousness. They will readily decide that
Benevolence must be in the superior anterior region, as it is a virtue
of the weak or yielding class, and that Conscientiousness, which makes
us just and honest, must be among the highest organs, much farther
back than Benevolence but not so far back as Health. There is no
difficulty in agreeing upon the locations, shown by the letters Be.
and Con.
If now we seek for the opposite faculties, which lead to selfish and
dishonorable action, the antagonist of Benevolence will be unanimously
located below and behind the centre, where it is represented by the
letters Ac., as Avarice or Acquisitiveness is the leading
manifestation of the selfish faculty.
As the faculty of Conscientiousness gives us the control of our
impulses and selfish or sensual inclinations to qualify for the
performance of duty, its antagonist gives the vigor to the sensual,
violent and selfish passions, and prompts to the utter disregard of
duty. The one being vertically above the centre of the brain, the
other must be vertically below it; one being on the upper the other
must be on the basilar surface. This brings it below the margin of the
middle lobe, which is above the cavity of the ear. Hence through the
cavity of the ear we reach underneath the basis of the middle lobe,
where it rests on the petrous ridge of the temporal bone, and the
external marking would correspond to the cavity of the ear or meatus
auditorius. For this organ and faculty, the name which would express
its unrestrained action is Baseness, as it would lead to the
commission of many crimes and the violation of all honesty and
justice. For its moderate and restrained activity, the term
Selfishness would be sufficient as it induces us to heed our selfish
appetites, interests, and passions, in opposition to the voice of
duty. Its more normal activity is to invigorate our animal life
generally and prevent us from going too far in the line of duty,
patience, forbearance and benevolence. Let it be marked Ba. Its
position will be recognized on the vertical line between the frontal
and occipital, as it is not an element of energy and success, nor of
debility, but simply an element of debasing animalism, which is not
destitute of force.
There are in the human constitution the opposite elements of untiring
energy or industry, and of indolent relaxation. To the former we must
give an exalted position, as it is the sustaining power of all the
virtues; and it must evidently be farther back than conscientiousness
as it is of a more vigorous character. It is favorable to health and
therefore near that organ, and being free from selfishness it is not
far behind Conscientiousness. The letters En. show its location.
Energy being thus behind Conscientiousness, its antagonist Relaxation,
the source of indolence, must be anterior to Baseness, where we locate
the letters Re.
The opposite elements of Serenity or Patience, and Irritability are
easily located; the former is obviously entitled to a high position.
From its quiet nature it cannot be assigned to the occiput, and from
its steady, unyielding and supporting strength, it cannot be assigned
to the frontal region. It must, therefore, be in the middle superior
region, where the letters Pa. locate it. Irritability must be on the
median line of the basilar range (and antagonizes Patience on the
middle line above), but not as low as Baseness, for one may be
honorable though irritable and high-tempered, but such temper is not
compatible with very strict conscientiousness.
In locating organs we are to remember that the brain is not a single
but a double apparatus--a right and a left brain, each complete in all
the organs; consequently, we are in this instance locating our organs
in the left hemisphere alone, in which the median line where it meets
the other hemisphere is on its right side, and the exterior surface is
on its left. An organ located at the median line, or inner surface, as
Patience, must have its antagonist at the external or lateral surface,
as Irritability.
The right hemisphere has the organs of the left side along the median
line, and the organs of its right side on the exterior surface. The
left hemisphere has the reverse arrangement. Consequently, the right
side of each hemisphere and the left side of the other are identical
in function. How then does the right side of one compare with the
right side of the other, and the left side with the left? Dr. Gall and
his followers have overlooked these questions, and fallen into very
great errors in consequence. Gall, for this reason, was mistaken in
the natural language of the organs, as will be hereafter shown, having
spoken of it as if we had a single brain, and also mistaken in many of
the organs concerning which a knowledge of the relations of the two
hemispheres to each other would have corrected the errors. There is a
striking analogy, or coincidence of function between the two right
sides and between the two left sides never suspected prior to my
investigations and experiments.
Let us next look for the sentiment of Pride, or Self-respect, which
has been called Self-esteem. It is a sentiment of conscious ability.
Its character is dignity, rather than selfishness. We readily perceive
that it must be in the upper region, but considerably behind the
vertical line, where we place the letters S.R.
The question may now arise whether it should be nearer to the right or
the left side of the hemisphere, its inner or outer surface. The law
governing this matter is that organs of external manifestation are at
the median line, but those of more interior and spiritual character
are generally at the lateral or exterior surface. Self-respect, or
Pride, is an organ of strong exterior manifestation, and is,
therefore, at the median line between the hemispheres. Its antagonist
must, therefore, be sought at the external or lateral surface, as far
below the horizontal division, as Self-respect is above it, and as far
forward as Self-respect is backward. Hence we find Humility where the
letters Hu. are located.
The idea of a specific antagonist to Self-esteem was never entertained
in the phrenological school, but it is obviously indispensable, for
Humility, which gives an humble or servile character, and disqualifies
for any high position, is as positive an element as the opposite, and
is very common in the dependent and humble classes of society. This
organ diminishes our psychic energy in proportion to its distance in
front of the ear and qualifies for submission instead of command.
If we look for the seat of Modesty, we should look in front of the
ear, but not so far forward as for Intellect. We would look near the
horizontal line, not to the upper surface, and would see the propriety
of locating it in the temples at the letters Mo. For its antagonism in
Ostentation we should look to the occiput. That species of modesty
which produces a bashful and yielding character will be found just
below the horizontal line, while that form of modest sentiment which
produces the highest refinement rises into connection with love at the
upper surface. The organ thus runs obliquely upward, corresponding to
the position of the convolutions. The antagonist, Ostentation, extends
above and below the letters Ost. on the occiput.
If we seek the organs that impel to contention and combat, we would
naturally look to the lower posterior region, but not the lowest. We
find Combativeness behind the ear, marked Com. Its antagonist, which
shuns strife and seeks harmony, must evidently be in the superior
anterior region, and near the intellectual organs which it resembles
in function by facilitating a mutual understanding, and giving a
spirit of concession. The location is marked Har. for Harmony. It
embraces a group of organs of harmonious tendency, such as Friendship,
Politeness, Imitation, Humor, Pliability and Admiration, as the
Combative group is hostile, stubborn, morose and censorious.
For the sentiment of Love we look to the upper surface of the brain as
the seat of the nobler sentiments. Being a stronger sentiment than
Harmony, it should be located farther back where we place the letters
Love. Its antagonism must be on the basilar surface, and a little
behind the vertical line, as Love is before it. This antagonistic
faculty would domineer and crush. Its extremest action would result in
Hatred. Its location is marked by the letters Ha. and Do.
Upon the principles already stated, the intellect occupies the extreme
front of the brain--the anterior surface of the front lobe. Its
general character will be represented by its middle--the region of
Consciousness and of Memory (Memory). The faculties that relate to
physical objects, the intellect common to animals, would necessarily
occupy the lower stratum along the brow (Perception), while the higher
species of intellect would occupy a higher position at the summit of
the forehead. Sagacity, Reason, and other similar forms of intellect,
marked Understanding, are above--physical conceptions below--Memory,
which retains both, lying between them.
The perceptive power, with the widest exterior range, is at the median
line, where we find clairvoyance; and the interior meditative power,
such as Invention, Composition, Calculation, and Planning, belongs to
the lateral or exterior surface of the forehead, according to the
principles just stated. Adhesiveness (Adh.) is the centre of the
antagonism to the intellect.
Religion, which relates to the infinite exterior, to the universe and
its loftiest power, must evidently be upon the median line and in the
higher portion of the brain, farther back than Benevolence, as it is a
stronger sentiment, but not so far back as Patience and Firmness.
Its antagonism must be at the lower external surface, behind
Irritability, (as Religion is before Patience,) but before
Acquisitiveness. The tendency of such a faculty must be toward a
lawless defiance of everything sacred, a passionate, impulsive
self-will and selfishness, resulting in lawless profligacy. Profligacy
would, therefore, be the name for its predominance (Pr.), while
executive independence and energy for selfish purposes would be its
more normal manifestation.
Thus we might go over the entire brain, showing that all the locations
of functions which have been learned from comparison of crania with
character, and which have been absolutely demonstrated by experiments
upon intelligent persons, are arranged in accordance with general laws
which are easily understood. The perfection of divine wisdom is made
fully apparent when we see the vast complexity of the psychic
phenomena of man.
"A MIGHTY MAZE BUT NOT WITHOUT A PLAN,"
subjected to laws of arrangement and harmony that make it so clearly
intelligible. Far more do we realize this when we master the science
of PATHOGNOMY, and discover that all the attributes or faculties of
the human soul, and all its complex relations with the body, are
demonstrably subject to mathematical laws.
I do not propose in this sketch to go through all the details of the
localities as I might with the anatomical models before a class, but
would refer, in conclusion, to the location of the physiological
functions of the brain.
Its basilar surfaces, pointing downwards, have their normal influence
upon the body. Behind the ear they act upon the spinal cord and
muscular system. Hence basilar depth produces vital force and muscular
power. But as the basilar functions, which use the body, are opposite
to the coronal functions which sustain our higher nature, it follows
that excessive use of the body, either for exertion or for sensual
pleasure, is destructive to our higher faculties, operating in many
respects like the indulgence of the lower passions. Hence mankind are
imbruted by excessive toil as well as by excessive sensuality and
violence.
While the basilar region behind the ear operates upon the posterior
part of the trunk, that portion in front of the ear operates more
anteriorly, affecting the viscera, in which there is no muscular
vigor, and the tendency of which is toward indolence. Thus the
vertical line separates the indolent from the energetic basilar
functions, and all the enfeebling, sensitive, morbid faculties that
impair our energies are in the anterior basilar region.
The normal action of these organs, however, is necessary to life, and
sustains the visceral system in the reception of food and expulsion of
waste. But as it is the region of sensibility to all influences, it
renders us liable to all derangements of body and mind, unless we are
strongly fortified by our occipital strength. The tendency to bodily
disorder has been explained by reference to the organs of Disease and
Health. Insanity, or derangement of the mind and nervous system,
belongs to a basilar and anterior location, which we reach through the
junction of the neck and jaw (marked Ins.). It is more interior, but
not lower than Disease, in the brain. Its antagonism is above on the
temporal arch, between the lateral and upper surfaces of the brain,
marked San. for Sanity. It gives a mental firmness which resists
disturbing influences.
The coronal region or upper surface of the brain has the opposite
influence to that of the basilar organs in all respects, withdrawing
the nervous energy from the body, tranquillizing its excitements, and
attracting all vital energy to the brain, especially in its upper
region. By sustaining the brain, which is the chief seat of life, and
by restraining the passions, the coronal region is more beneficial to
health and longevity than any other portion. In the posterior part it
not only has this happy effect, but by sustaining the occipital half
of the brain, gives a normal and healthy energy to all the powers of
life. Such is the influence of the group of organs in which Health is
the centre.
[Illustration]
It is obvious, therefore, that the study of the brain reveals laws
which give us the strongest inducement to an honorable life as the
only road to success and happiness.
To show the facility with which organs may be located upon general
principles, I present herewith the locations actually made by a small
class of pupils when I first proposed to have them determine locations
according to the general laws of organology. None of these locations
would be called erroneous, the most incorrect of all being
Adhesiveness, located a little too high. They are Be. Benevolence, Ac.
Acquisitiveness, Phi. Philanthropy, Des. Destructiveness, Lo. Love,
Ha. Hate, Hu. Humor, Mod. Modesty, Os. Ostentation, Con.
Conscientiousness, Ba. Baseness, Pa. Patience, Irr. Irritability, For.
Fortitude, Al. Alimentiveness, Her. Heroism, Sen. Sensibility, Hea.
Health, Dis. Disease, Ad. Adhesiveness, Co. Combativeness, Ar.
Arrogance, Rev. Reverence, Ca. Cautiousness, Ra. Rashness.
The suggestion cannot be too often repeated that the nomenclature of
cerebral organology can never adequately express the functions of the
organs. The brain has in all its organs physiological and psychic
powers, which no one word can ever express fully. Sometimes a good
psychic term, such as Firmness, suggests to the intelligent mind a
corresponding influence on the physiological constitution, but in the
present state of mental science the conception of such a
correspondence is very vague.
Moreover, even the psychic functions are not adequately represented by
the words already coined in the English language for other purposes,
and I do not think it expedient at present to coin new terms which
would embarrass the student. The word Sanity, for example, answers its
purpose by signifying a mental condition so firm and substantial as to
defy the depressing and disturbing influences that derange the mind.
It produces not the mere negative state, or absence of insanity, but a
positive firmness, and self-control, which is the interior expression
of firmness. The cheerful, stable, manly, and well-regulated character
which it produces, disciplines alike the intellect and the emotions,
and shows itself in children by an early maturity of character and
deportment, and freedom from childish folly and passion.
If a new word should be introduced to express this function, the Greek
word SOPHROSYNE would be a very good one, as it signifies a
self-controlled and reasonable nature. The verb ANDRISO, signifying to
render hardy, manly, strong, to display vigor, and make a manly effort
of self-control, would be equally appropriate in the adjective form,
ANDRIKOS, and still more in the noun ANDRIA, which signifies manhood
or manly sentiments and conduct. It would not, however, be preferable
to the English word, MANLINESS, which is as appropriate a term as
Sanity or ANDRIA.