In 1805, Dr. Gall, the celebrated phrenologist, visited the prison of
Berlin in the course of his experimental travels to establish his
theories. On April 17, in the presence of many witnesses, he was shown
upwards of two hundred culprits, of whom he had never heard till that
moment, and to whose crimes and dispositions he was a total stranger.
Dr. Gall immediately pointed out, as a general feature in one of the
wards, an extraordinary development in the region of the head where the
organ of theft is situated, and in fact every prisoner there was a
thief. Some children, also detained for theft, were then shown to him;
and in them, too, the same organ was very prominent. In two of them
particularly it was excessively large; and the prison-registers
confirmed his opinion that these two were most incorrigible. In another
room, where the women were kept apart, he distinguished one drest
exactly like the others, occupied like them, and differing in no one
thing but in the form of her head. "For what reason is this woman here,"
asked Gall, "for her head announces no propensity to theft?" The answer
was, "She is the inspectress of this room." One prisoner had the organs
of benevolence and of religion as strongly developed as those of theft
and cunning; and his boast was, that he never had committed an act of
violence, and that it was repugnant to his feelings to rob a church. In
a man named Fritze, detained for the murder of his wife, though his
crime was not proved, the organs of cunning and firmness were fully
developed; and it was by these that he had eluded conviction. In
Maschke, he found the organ of the mechanical arts, together with a head
very well organized in many respects; and his crime was coining. In
Troppe he saw the same organ. This man was a shoemaker, who, without
instruction, made clocks and watches, to gain a livelihood in his
confinement. On a nearer inspection, the organ of imitation was found to
be large. "If this man had ever been near a theatre," said Gall, "he
would in all probability have turned actor." Troppe, astonished at the
accuracy of this sentence, confessed that he had joined a company of
strolling players for six months. His crime, too, was having personated
a police-officer, to extort money. The organs of circumspection,
prurience, foresight, were sadly deficient in Heisig, who, in a drunken
fit, had stabbed his best friend. In some prisoners he found the organ
of language, in others of colour, in others of mathematics; and his
opinion in no single instance failed to be confirmed by the known
talents and dispositions of the individual.--_For. Q. Rev._
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