The Study of the Comparative Development of the Brain through
the Cranium--Importance of Cranioscopy--First Step--Facial
organs--Miller, Pestalozzi, Danton, Mirabeau--Caricatures--Upper
and lower parts of face--Female faces--Mode of comparing
organs--Mode of manipulation--Bony irregularities--Profile
comparison of height and depth--Vacca Pechassee and Lewis--Old
errors--Difficulties in estimation--Morbid
conditions--Criminals--Napoleon--Negro murderer.
[Illustration: HUGH MILLER.]
[Illustration: PESTALOZZI.]
[Illustration: DANTON.]
[Illustration: MIRABEAU.]
The reader now understands the conformation of the brain, and the
general character of its different regions. It is important that he
should as soon as possible begin the study of heads, and learn to
judge correctly their development. When he can do this, he has an
inexhaustible source of knowledge continually with him, and every new
acquaintance becomes an interesting study in ascertaining the
indications of his head and comparing them with his daily conduct and
manners. The more thorough and careful the study, the greater the
satisfaction and delight that it yields. The good cranioscopist
continually grows in knowledge, and solves all the problems of
character presented in society. But he who simply studies the elements
of character or organic faculties, and does not become acquainted with
the organs and their measurement, soon finds his knowledge too
abstract and remote from his daily life; and, instead of increasing
his stock of knowledge on this subject, he continually loses more and
more of what he has gained. It was for this reason, mainly, that the
medical profession gradually dropped the discoveries of Gall, which
would never have ceased to interest them if they had learned to apply
them to the study of men and animals.
I hope that no reader will neglect this chapter, or fail to reduce its
instructions to practice, for on that it depends whether he shall
become a practical master of cerebral science, and be able to read
every character with which he meets.
The first step in studying a head is to observe its general
contour,--whether the forehead projects far in front of the ear, to
indicate intellect; whether the upper surface rises above the forehead
sufficiently to indicate the nobler qualities, and whether it is
balanced or overpowered by the breadth and depth of the base of the
skull and thickness of the neck. In connection with this, we may
observe that the base of the brain is also expressed in the lower part
of the face which corresponds to the organs for the expression of
animal force, while the upper part of the face is devoted to the
expression of the upper and anterior parts of the brain. The
expressional faculties shown in the face do not always coincide
exactly with the real power of the organs thus expressed; but if they
do not, they at least indicate their activity and habitual display;
for faculties habitually indulged will show their organic indications
in the face, while those which are suppressed or restrained will be
less conspicuous in the face.
The reader will understand that organs located for observation on the
face are organs of the brain lying behind the face, which may be
reached and stimulated through it, as other organs are reached and
stimulated through the cranium and integuments. The contour of the
face cannot reveal the organs behind it by physical necessity, as does
the contour of the skull, yet observation induces me to rely upon
estimates based on facial development. I think there is a
correspondence of development between the brain and face, based upon
vital laws, and also a direct influence of each organ upon the surface
that covers it, so that when the organ is excited the surface becomes
flushed, and when it is kept inactive the surface becomes pale and
withered. This may be most readily observed at the organ of Love of
Stimulus, immediately in front of the cavity of the ear. The surface
presents a shrunken appearance after many years of rigid abstinence,
but becomes plump, bloated, or high-colored, in those whose habits are
intemperate. I have also observed an itching sensation at the surface
when the organs behind it were active. Any one may observe a warmth
and fulness in the upper part of the face when the social sentiments
are very active. In the act of blushing, the flush comes upon the part
of the face associated with modest and refined sentiments, the centre
of which is below the external angle of the eye, at the lower margin
of the cheek-bone.
The contrasting development of the upper and lower parts of the face
may be seen when we compare such characters as the enthusiastic
philanthropist and educational reformer, Pestalozzi, and the
high-principled and intellectual Hugh Miller, the Scotch geologist,
with such as Danton, the terrible demagogue of the French revolution,
and Mirabeau, the brilliant but unprincipled orator.
No skilful artist in caricature fails to observe these principles.
When he would degrade a character, he magnifies the lower part of the
face; and when he would represent a more refined character, the lower
part of the face becomes correspondingly delicate.
When _Puck_ would represent, a miserable wretch, he presents such a
head as the following; and when a New York journalist desired to
caricature an opponent as a saloon politician, he diminished the upper
and developed the lower part of the head, as presented here.
[Illustration: WRETCH.]
[Illustration: SALOON POLITICIAN.]
All observers of countenance and character unconsciously act upon
these principles and recognize a great difference in the expressions
of two faces,--one predominant in the lower and the other in the upper
portion of the face. That there was any scientific basis for this was
entirely unknown before my discoveries of the organs behind the face,
which modify its development and expression. My lectures upon this
subject in 1842 were attended by the physiognomical writer, Redfield,
who derived from them many important suggestions.
When the lower part of the face is massive, broad, and prominent,
while the basilar region is broad and deep, with a stout neck, we know
the great force and activity of the animal nature, and unless the
upper surface of the brain is well developed all over, we may expect
some excess in the way of violence, temper, selfishness, perversity,
sensuality, dishonesty, avarice, rudeness of manners, moral
insensibility, slander, contentiousness, jealousy, envy, revenge, or
some other form of wickedness, according to the especial conformation.
In the faces of women, we find the activity of the amiable sentiments
marked by the fulness and roseate color of the upper part of the face,
while the lower portion is more delicate than in the masculine face.
But although the facial developments generally correspond with the
activity of the organs expressed, the rule is not invariable, as the
reader will learn hereafter that the facial developments may be
moderate when the character is not excitable or demonstrative.
If the upper surface of the head is sufficiently high, we know that
great capacity for virtue exists, capable of restraining evil
inclinations, and producing admirable traits of character, according
to the organs especially developed.
When we study the special organs we determine the special virtues or
vices. For example, a head may have a good general development upward,
giving many very pleasing traits of character, and yet be so deficient
in the region of conscientiousness (while the selfish group that gives
breadth at the ears is large) as to produce great moral unsoundness
and a treacherous violation of obligations or disregard of principle.
The most delicate task in craniological study, and the most important,
is the balancing of opposite tendencies belonging to antagonistic
organs; and it was for the want of the knowledge of antagonisms that
the Gallian system so often failed in describing character and its
representatives before the public have made the most disastrous
blunders. Shrewd and honest observers discovered the imperfections of
the science.[2]
[2] A letter just received from Australia states that the
writer had for many years been a student of phrenology, and
had ascertained from examining hundreds of crania that
phrenology "stood on a basis of fact, but was wrong as well
as deficient in some of its details. But though I could
point to several parts of the skull where the readings of
professionals as well as myself were always unreliable, I
could not discover the real function of the organs in these
places."
While the eye readily gives us the contour of heads that have not much
hair, there is but little accurate judgment without the use of the
hand, which is the first thing to be learned. Not the tips of the
fingers, but the whole hand should be laid upon the head gently, to
cover as much surface as possible, while with a gentle pressure we
cause the scalp to move slightly, and thus feel through it the exact
form of the cranium as correctly as if the bones were exposed to view.
If in this examination we find any sharp prominences, which might be
called bumps, we attribute them to the growth of bone, which does not
indicate the growth of the brain. The latter is indicated only by the
general contour.
A little anatomical knowledge will prevent us from being deceived, and
enable us to make due allowances. There are no great difficulties in
making a correct estimate, and the anatomists who have taught their
pupils that correct cranial observations could not be made, only
showed their own ignorance of the subject. We must consider the
cranium as though all osseous protuberances had been shaved off,
leaving the smooth, curving contour of the skull. The principal
projection to be removed is the superciliary ridge corresponding to
the brow at the base of the forehead. It is formed by the projection
of the external plate of the skull, leaving a separation or cavity
between it and the inner plate, which cavity is called the frontal
sinus, and is sometimes half an inch wide. As there is no positive
method of determining its dimensions in the living head, there must
ever be some doubt concerning the development of the perceptive organs
which it covers. The superciliary ridge at the external angle of the
brow extends really as much as three-quarters of an inch from the
brain. From this angle a ridge of bone (the temporal arch) extends
upward and backward, separating the lateral surface of the head from
the frontal and upper surfaces. This ridge is a convenient landmark,
but must be excluded from an estimate of development as it is merely
osseous. It extends back on the head a little behind its middle. The
sagittal suture on the median line of the upper surface usually
presents a slight, bony elevation or ridge (see the engraving of the
skull, Chapter III.), and the lambdoid suture on the back of the head
is frequently rough. A superficial practical phrenologist (of great
pretensions) at Cincinnati, in examining the head of a gentleman of
mild character, found the lambdoid suture quite rough, and gave him a
terrifically pugnacious character, not knowing enough to distinguish
between osseous and cerebral development. The occipital knob on the
median line between the cerebrum and cerebellum, has been already
mentioned. The mastoid process, the bony prominence behind the ear is
a projection exterior to the cerebellum. Where it starts from the
cranium above and behind the cavity of the ear, we may judge of
basilar development by the breadth of the head, but the basilar depth
which is more important is to be judged by the extension downward,
which was illustrated in the last chapter by comparing the skulls of
J. R. Smith and the slave-trading count.
To judge the comparative strength of the higher and lower elements of
character, we look for the height above the forehead and the depth at
and behind the ear, which is ascertained by placing the hand on the
base of the cranium behind the ears, while the height of the head is
best appreciated by placing a hand on the top with the fingers
reaching down to the brow.
In a profile view the human head may be divided into three equal
parts, the length of the nose being the central part, from the nose to
the end of the chin another, and the remainder above the nose the
third part. In inferior heads these three measurements are equal, the
upper third extending to the top of the head; but in heads of superior
character the upper third extends only to the top of the forehead, and
the outline of the head rises a half breadth above the forehead, as
the following profiles show. In heads of the lowest character the
basilar depth exceeds the height, as in the French Count and the
Indian Lewis.
The contour of a well-developed head forms a semicircle above the base
line through the brow, and its elevation above that line is equal to
one half of the antero-posterior length of the head, while in the
inferior class of heads the elevation is but four-tenths of the length
or even less, and is hardly equal to the depth, while in the highest
class the elevation is one-half greater than the depth or even more.
We obtain another view of the comparative height and depth by drawing
lines from the brow to the vertex and the base of the brain and
comparing the two angles thus formed. In the good head we observe the
great superiority of the upper angle over that formed by the line to
the ear, the lower end of which corresponds to the lowest part of the
brain, the base of the cerebellum.
[Illustration]
To take an illustration from nature, I would present the outlines of
two Indian crania that I obtained in Florida,--Vacca Pechassee, or the
cow chief, who headed a small tribe, and bore a good character among
the whites, and Lewis, an Indian of bad character in the same
neighborhood (on the Appalachicola River), who was shot for his
crimes. (I might have obtained many more, but as the Seminole war was
not then over, I found that my own cranium was placed in considerable
danger by my explorations.)
[Illustration: VACCA PECHASSEE]
[Illustration: LEWIS]
In Vacca Pechassee the height is to the depth as 11 to 9; in Lewis as
9 to 11. In J. R. Smith the height is to the depth as 12 to 10; in the
slave trading count as 9 to 14. This is the correct method of cranial
study, for comparing the moral and animal nature.
The basilar depth was entirely overlooked in the old method of
phrenologists, and hence they were very often mistaken in judging the
basilar energy by breadth alone, of which there has been no more
striking example than that of the Thugs of India, whose heads (though
a tribe of murderers) were below the European average in basilar
breadth. These facts are so conspicuous to any careful observer that I
became very familiar with them in the first six months of my study of
heads fifty-two years ago.
When the circulation of the brain is vigorous and regular, all
portions being in regular activity, the fulness of the circulation
being shown in the face, we may be sure that the character is fairly
indicated by the cranium. The younger the individual the thinner the
cranium, and the less the liability to deception by the thickness of
the bones. Female skulls are _generally_ more delicate than male, and
also more normal or uniform in their circulation. Hence there is less
difficulty in making an accurate estimate of women and of youth. The
greater difficulty is found in men of thick skulls and abnormal
brains, and these difficulties are in some cases insurmountable by
mere measurement. It will become necessary in the depraved classes to
look at the condition of the circulation about the head, and the
facial indications of the organs that have been cultivated. If these
are not sufficient to guide us we must fall back upon psychometry.
The morbid condition of the brain is a conspicuous fact, which we must
not ignore, and it is important to learn how to detect it in the
appearance of the individual, or in his psychometric indications and
Pathognomy, which is itself a profound science and important guide to
character. (Pathognomy is the science of expression, and has an exact
mathematical basis.)
We should bear in mind that it is just as possible to have impaired
and unhealthy conditions in any part of the brain as to have them in
the stomach, liver, lungs, or spinal cord. Physical diseases are
contagious and so are moral. It is generally impossible to preserve
the moral organs and faculties of a youth in healthy condition who is
allowed to associate habitually with the depraved; and it is very
difficult indeed for the mature adult to preserve his brain and mind
in sound condition when compelled to associate with the depraved. To
those who are very impressible, the contagion of vice, bad temper,
profanity, turbulence, lying, obscenity, sullenness, melancholy, etc.,
is as inevitable as the contagion of small pox.
Our criminals are generally exposed to the contagion of crime in
youth, and as they advance they are immersed in this contagion in
prisons, which are the moral pest-houses in which law maintains the
intense contagion of criminal depravity. Napoleon was an admirable
subject for such contamination, and when we learn how he was reared
amid the lawlessness and general scoundrelism of Corsica, we do not
wonder that he became an imperial brigand. The low ethical standard of
mankind, generally, and especially of historians, has heretofore
prevented a just estimate of the character of Napoleon. Royal
criminals have escaped condemnation; but the recent review of
Napoleon's career by Taine gives a just philosophic estimate of the
man, which coincides with the impartial estimation of psychometry.