RELIGION AND SCIENCE are exceedingly harmonious in assisting each
other, but theologians and scientists are exceedingly discordant. Who
is in fault? It is the fault of both. Both are bigoted and
narrow-minded. Neither can see the truths that belong to the other
party; theologians dislike science, not being able to see that science
is a grander and more unquestionable revelation than any they have
derived from tradition, and scientists deride religion and theology,
not being able in their narrowness to recognize the higher forms of
science in the great spiritual truths which have been apparent to all
races from the most ancient limits of history. Of the scientific class
the majority are averse to the religion of the times, partly from
their own sceptical nature, and partly because religion has been
presented in the repulsive forms of an absurd theology.
Prof. E. S. Morse, the president of the American Association, is a
very sceptical agnostic.
Proud Huxley's the Prince of Agnostics, you see,
And Huxley and I do sweetly agree.
At the late meeting of the Association, August 10, at Columbia
College, New York, Prof. Morse made an address in which he is reported
as saying that "Dr. Darwin's theory was accepted by science, although
ecclesiastical bodies now and then rose up to protest against it. He
asserted that the missing links for which there was such a clamor were
being supplied with such rapidity that even the zoologist had to work
to keep up with his science. It was a singular fact that no sooner did
some one raise an objection to the theories of derivative science,
than some discovery was made which swept down the barrier. It was safe
enough for an intelligent man, no matter what he knew of science, to
accept as true what science put forth, and to set down as false
whatever the church offered in opposition. Every theory and
declaration of science had been opposed by the church. The penalty of
original sin, according to a scientific writer, was the penalty of man
being raised to an upright position. [Laughter.] Cannot it be proved
without question that the illiteracy of Spain was the result of
centuries of religious oppression and of the inquisition?"
One of the scientists told a _World_ reporter (says the _Truth
Seeker_) that at last year's convention in Buffalo, Prof. Morse made
an address that was so full of infidelity that the Catholic diocesan
authorities there forbade the clergy from attending the meetings.
However, the Association has a small orthodox element in it, and on
Sunday about one-eighth of the members held a prayer-meeting at
Columbia College, at which allusions were made to the ungodly
character of the majority of their associates, which the said
associates on Monday regarded as a very objectionable proceeding.
In the contests between scientists and theologians it has long been
apparent that the theologians are steadily receding. The time was, two
or three hundred years ago, when fearless scientists were imprisoned
or burned by theologians. Now, the scientists who lead the age treat
theology with contempt and the press sustains them. Meanwhile,
scientific scepticism is invading the pulpit, and all that
distinguishes the Bible from any treatise on moral philosophy is
gradually being surrendered by leading theologians; they are losing
religion as well as theology.
GOOD PSYCHOLOGY.--Prof. Wm. James, of the chair of Philosophy in
Harvard College, and apparently the most philosophic gentleman in that
conservative institution, has published in the _Popular Science
Monthly_ an essay on _Human Instincts_, characterized by a vigorous
common sense and close observation. When he asserts (contrary to the
old metaphysics) the existence of such instincts as fear,
acquisitiveness, constructiveness, play (or, properly, playfulness),
curiosity, sociability, shyness, secretiveness, cleanliness, modesty,
shame, love, coyness or personal isolation, jealousy, parental love,
etc., he shows the spirit of science. But is it not self-evident, Mr.
James, to a man of your fine intelligence, that all strong impulses
(or instincts, as you call them) must have a special nervous apparatus
in the psychic region of the brain; and that loving, blushing,
stealing, and fighting cannot be functions of the same organs
concerned in perceiving color, or comprehending music? If I have
traced these instincts to the special convolutions in which they
reside, and given innumerable demonstrations of their locality, even
in Boston, and before critical observers, why have you not interested
yourself in the question of the cerebral localities and the complete
demonstration of all the instincts by that method?
I have even found an instinct of the _love of truth_ among the higher
sentiments, which, to a few rare individuals, is the predominant
impulse of their lives, though, alas, in college professors, as well
as in other classes generally, it is "inhibited" by a great variety of
opposing instincts, interests, and social influences. Nowhere is it
more completely "inhibited" than in Boston and Cambridge, as I have
been informed by the most intelligent old citizens.
THE FAR-AWAY BATTLE.--In the quiet home the sounds of the far-away
strife are not heard. The war of the cannon is determining the destiny
of empires, but it is unheard in the cottage. The myriad sounds of
commerce in the city do not disturb the quiet of that home. Its quiet
life attracts no attention. But there is something in that home more
important than war or commerce or king-craft--something that concerns
human welfare more profoundly. In that quiet home, a human life is
developing; a human soul preparing for its life work--a work that will
change the destiny of coming generations. In many quiet homes such a
work is in progress, determining a nation's future.
All important movements are quiet and obscure in their origin. As the
magnificent forest was slowly and obscurely germinated in darkness, in
the seeds from which it sprung, so are the great discoveries in
science and philosophy matured in quietness and obscurity. The thinker
hears afar the sound of strife and the agitation of parties warring
for power. He knows the follies and errors that agitate mankind, but
he is withheld from entering the strife, for he has a more important
work to accomplish--a work for the future. It is to such work that the
JOURNAL OF MAN is devoted; laying the foundation of that philosophy in
which future thinkers shall find the principles of social
reorganization. It does not join in the strife of contending parties,
nor does it recognize any existing party as entirely free from error.
It gives its care to new and growing truths, knowing that, as Carlyle
says, "The weak thing weaker than a child becomes strong one day if it
be a true thing."
HOW NOT TO DO IT.--The Seybert commission having made a splendid
failure to find interesting and valuable facts where other
investigators have succeeded, their blundering ignorance is now
assisted by newspaper mendacity. The _New York Times_, of Aug. 22,
concludes an extremely stupid article on this subject, by the
following paragraph, which, if the writer gave any indications of
intelligence, would be set down as a pure specimen of mendacity, but
is more probably a specimen of indolent ignorance:
"If Spiritualists could furnish one clearly-proved case of a
spirit from the other world, seen and tested by those now living
on the earth, there would be some sense and reason in their
claims to be heard; but until they do, the great mass of
intelligent people will refuse to listen, and rightly, too."
There must be an immense mass of the same kind of lazy ignorance in
the community, when such stuff is tolerated in a newspaper. The
contents of daily newspapers show that they expect more patronage from
the debased and ignorant classes than from the intelligent and
honorable.
ROBBERY OF PUBLIC LANDS.--The report of Surveyor General Geo. W.
Julian, of Colorado, shows that of the patented and unpatented lands
referred to, aggregating 8,694,965 acres, it will be safe to estimate
that at least one-half have been illegally devoted to private uses
under invalid grants, or unauthorized surveys.
He thinks it would not be extravagance to say that these land
claimants, with their enormous interests, have exercised a shaping
influence upon Congress. Congress has approved 47 out of 49 of these
claims. In this connection the report calls attention to the action of
Congress in 1860, and the Interior Department in 1879 in the famous
Maxwell land grant case, which he characterizes as a wanton and
shameful surrender to the rapacity of monopolists of 1,662,764 acres
of the public domain, on which hundreds of poor men had settled in
good faith and made valuable improvements. It has been as calamitous
to New Mexico, says the Surveyor General, as it is humiliating to the
United States. The report says:
"During the last Congress several members of both Houses,
including the delegate from this Territory, reported bills for
the confirmation of the Socorro grant, which is one of the most
shocking of the many attempts yet made to plunder the public
domain. I do not say that the men who introduced these bills
intended to make themselves parties to any scheme of robbery,
but their action shows that the hidden hand of roguery is still
feeling its way in Congress for a friendly go-between."
As a remedy for this condition of affairs, Mr. Julian recommends
resurveys of all grants about which there is any doubt, and the
entering of suits to set aside patents obtained by fraud.
LAND REFORM IN ENGLAND.--One hundred and twenty-four members of the
English Parliament are in favor of the following land scheme
propounded by Charles Bradlaugh:
"Ownership of land should carry with it the duty of cultivation.
"Where land capable of cultivation with profit, and not devoted
to some purpose of public utility or enjoyment, is held in a
waste or uncultivated state, the local authorities ought to have
the power to compulsorily acquire such land.
"The compensation is to be only the 'payment to the owner for a
limited term of an annual sum not exceeding the then average net
annual produce of the said lands.'
"The local authorities are to let the lands thus acquired to
tenant cultivators.
"The conditions of tenure are to be such 'as shall afford
reasonable encouragement, opportunities, facilities, and
security for the due cultivation and development of the said
land.'"
LIFE IN EUROPE.--Senator Frye, of Maine, having returned from Europe,
spoke thus to a reporter, at Lewiston:
"We have taken a tour of the continent and of Great Britain, and
although we have seen many places, we have seen no place like
home--no place in all respects equal to America. You will find
in the Old World much that is admirable, but what impressed me
most painfully was the poverty of the masses of the people. Why,
the people in Europe live on the poorest food, and mighty little
of it. I found that laborers in Glasgow work for 2s. 6d. a
day--sixty-two cents. I was charmed with Edinburgh, but when I
saw women drunk and fighting in her beautiful streets, the
modern Athens lost her charms. I cannot convey to you the
picture of the degradation and want throughout Great Britain,
caused by drink. I come back a stouter cold-water man than when
I went away. The drink evil is a horror. Speaking of wages, I
found girls in factories in Venice working with great skill for
from five to twelve cents a day, the most experienced getting
twelve cents a day, out of which they have to live, but how they
live is a wonder. Their chief diet is macaroni. Farm hands all
over Europe--women--earn twenty cents a day. Women do most of
the field work. I saw no improved machinery on the farms of the
continent. I have seen twenty women in one field at work--not a
man in sight. The plain people see no meat to eat once a week on
the continent. The condition of American wage-earners is
incomparably better than that of working people in Europe. It's
the difference between comfort and competence, and discomfort
and insufficient food and clothing.
"Perhaps the most contemptible people one meets abroad are the
Anglicized Americans--the man who apes, both in manners and
language, what he regards as the English aristocracy, affects to
believe everything in England perfect, and seems to be ashamed
to institute any favorable comparison between his country and
that."
EDUCATION IN FRANCE.--The Academy of Medicine has passed a resolution
demanding of the government changes in the hours of study for
children, larger play grounds, removal of schools to the country, and
daily teaching of gymnastics. These suggestions are urgently needed in
France, where children are subjected to a far more rigid and
enfeebling method than in America. The power of the church over
education is destroyed in France, and religious instruction is now
prohibited.
CANADA AND THE UNION.--Rev. W. H. Murray reports a strong feeling in
Canada for annexation. He says:
"A gentleman of great influence in this city, and of established
loyalty to the land of his birth, described the position here
very distinctly in the following words: 'I wish I could make
money and remain an Englishman, but I can't, and hence I propose
to become an American, for I cannot impoverish myself and my
family for a sentiment, however honorable.'
"In the many conversations I have heard on the part of many
people of all classes touching commercial union, it has, in
every case, been assumed that it was only a prelude to political
union also. Many have insisted, as they talked, that the two
countries should come together, and at once; that the feeling of
the country was fast ripening for it, and that what it lacked in
education in this matter would soon be learned. This has
surprised me; for it was not so a few years ago."
WOMAN IN THE MOON.--The discovery of a woman in the moon is announced
by W. H. Burr, in a letter to the New York _Sun_, It was made more
than a year ago by Dr. James H. Thompson, a retired physician of
Washington. It is a profile occupying the west half of the moon, the
dark spot above answering to the banged hair. She faces a little
upward, and has a neck big enough to require a collar of the size that
Mr. Cleveland wears. And yet she is good-looking. The profile may be
seen through an opera-glass.--_Truth Seeker_.
EMANCIPATION FROM PETTICOATS.--"That distinguished Parisienne, Mme. de
Valsayre, has been petitioning the French legislature in favor of the
emancipation of women from petticoats. Her case is that petticoats are
very dangerous, leading to innumerable fatal accidents, and that
trousers are just as decent, more healthy and far less expensive. 'All
this is very true,' says Labouchere, in the _World_, 'though I do not
suppose that if the French women were as free as our own countrywomen
are to dress as they like, they would make much use of their liberty.
Trousers do not afford the same scope for decoration as petticoats.
They cannot be trimmed to any considerable extent, and the effect of
an improver or bustle worn under them would be absurd. I have always
wondered, however, that serious ladies in this country do not set more
store by this branch of progress. If I were a woman I would much
rather have a pair of trousers than a vote or even a university
degree.'"
WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE STREETS.--The lawless freedom with which men
approach or assail women in some American cities, while women on the
other hand are subjected to the meddlesome and domineering
interference of policemen, lends some interest to the case of Miss
Cass in London, one of the victims of police brutality, which has
excited an inquiry and comment in Parliament, and is likely to result
in the punishment of the policeman. The New York _Sun_ says:
"The case of Miss Cass, who was arrested in Regent Street as a
disreputable character, has started in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ a
discussion of the annoyances to which decent women are subjected
in the streets of London. It will be remembered that she was a
respectable girl recently arrived in London, where she had
obtained employment in a milliner's shop, and that while waiting
in Regent Street early in the evening she was arrested by a
policeman, who insisted in regarding her as a professional
street-walker, as which, also, she was held by a magistrate, who
refused, to listen to her denials and explanations.
"Many women have accordingly written to the _Pall Mall Gazette_
to ask why, if a woman is liable to arrest on the mere suspicion
of having addressed a man, men are allowed to annoy and insult
women in the London streets with perfect impunity. The testimony
of them all is that, even in the daytime, a lady with any claims
to good looks, and who walks alone, is always liable to such
treatment, no matter how modest her apparel and reserved her
demeanor. It is not merely of insolent and persistent staring
that they complain, for they have grown to expect that as a
matter of course; but they are actually spoken to by men who are
strangers to them, in the most insinuating and offensively
flattering terms. These men are commonly described as
'gentlemen' in appearance; 'a tall, distinguished,
military-looking man;' 'a youthful diplomat;' 'a government
official, a man holding a lucrative appointment,' and the like.
They are not roughs; from them ladies have nothing of the sort
to fear; but men who think to have the greater success and to
enjoy the complete immunity because they wear the garb of
gentlemen.
"Rev. Mr. Haweis writes that 'you might easily fill the _Pall
Mall Gazette_ with nothing else for months, for we have come to
such a pass as this, that a young girl cannot stand aside at a
railway station while papa takes tickets, nor a girl lead her
blind relative through the streets, nor can a married woman go
twenty paces in a London thoroughfare without the risk of insult
or even assault.'"
These evils are a relic of the old ideas of woman's inferiority, and
their only sure remedy is the destruction of that inferiority by the
industrial and professional education, which will make the woman the
par of her brother, and enable her to maintain her equal rights
everywhere.
A WOMAN'S TRIUMPH IN PARIS.--The public examination of Miss Bradley at
the Ecole de Medicine in Paris is thus described:
When Miss Bradley stepped into the arena, clad in the traditional
garb, the general comment of the audience was:
"How like _Portia_ in the trial scene of the 'Merchant of
Venice.'"
It was known to Miss Bradley's college mates and other friends that
her thesis would be on "Iodism," and that she had taken a year to
write an elaborate book on the subject, which will soon be republished
in England from the original French. For an hour and a half she was
questioned with great shrewdness and ability by four of the leading
professors of the Ecole de Medicine,--Drs. Fournier, Gautier, Porchet,
and Robin. Each of these gentlemen had previously received a copy of
Miss Bradley's bold book, and they had brought their copies to the
examining room, with multitudinous interrogation marks on the margins,
showing that the new treatise had not only been very carefully read,
but had excited much curiosity and attention. Miss Bradley had the
great advantage of an unhackneyed theme, which she skilfully
illustrated by a numerous array of unfamiliar facts.
Her triumph was of a very peculiar character. Her four examiners said
to her, with admiring frankness: "You have been working a new field;
we cannot agree with many of your conclusions; further investigation
may lead either yourself or us to different views; but, meanwhile, you
have presented to the college a thesis which does you uncommon honor,
and for which we unanimously award you the maximum mark of merit."
After the announcement of the award, Miss Bradley was entertained at
dinner by Miss Augusta Klumpke, the first female physician who has
ever been admitted to practice in the hospitals of Paris. Both these
ladies are Americans--Miss Klumpke from San Francisco, and Miss
Bradley from New York.
A WOMAN'S BIBLE.--We have not reached the end of revision. A woman's
translation of the Bible is expected next. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
is the chairman of the American committee having this matter in
charge, and a woman's Bible and commentary are to be expected in due
time.
WORK FOR WOMEN.--Miss Katie Young, of Ironton, Mo., writes _The Voice_
a letter upon the advantages of plating, as a new and pleasant field
of work for women. A relative made her a plating-machine at a cost of
$4; she readily obtained orders for work from everybody in the
neighborhood; the outlay for chemicals, etc., proved slight; and in 22
days she netted $95.45. Her brother, working 24 days, cleared $90.50.
Miss Young states that she is making a collection of curiosities, and
that to any lady sending her a sea-shell, fancy stone, piece of rock,
ore or crystal, an old coin, or curious specimen of any description,
she will be glad to mail complete directions for making a machine
similar to hers, that will do gold, silver and nickel-plating.
F. Henry Greer writes: "Two young gentlewomen are studying electrical
engineering, which profession has not yet been overcrowded. Great
fortunes have been made in its pursuit. If any readers of your
valuable journal are interested, I will freely give them any
information in my power."
MRS. STANTON ON THE JUBILEE.--"If mine has been the one discordant
note in the grand jubilee chorus to the Queen, it is because behind
all the busy preparations for the most brilliant pageant the world has
ever witnessed, of gilded royalty and nobility, my eyes beheld the
dark shadows on the background of homeless, starving men, women and
children, into whose desolate lives would never come one touch of
light or love. There is something to me unspeakably sad in the eager,
gazing multitudes that crowd the streets on these grand gala days.
There is ever a sphinx-like questioning look in their upturned faces
that seems to say, 'Ah! must the many ever suffer that the few may
shine?' As the sun went down on that 21st of June, what a contrast in
the close of the day's festivities between the children of luxury and
want.
"Who that can share in imagination one hour the miseries of England's
impoverished people, can rejoice in a reign of fifty years that has
cost the nation 22,000,000 of pounds sterling in extra allowances to
the Queen and her children, in addition to the legitimate cost of the
royal household and the hereditary property rights of the throne?"
Nevertheless the Jubilee was a fine exhibition, and the _London
Baptist_ says that $4,000 was paid for the use of the windows of one
house to see the Jubilee.
ELECTRICITY seems destined to be the motor power for street cars. In
Montgomery, Alabama, the mule has already been superseded, and there
are fifteen miles of street railways operated by the electric motor.
Some satisfactory experiments have been made on the Cambridge Street
railway. Edison's latest discoveries in the conversion of heat into
electricity are expected to produce important results, dispensing with
the intermediate use of steam, and ultimately getting the power from
the sun's rays.
PROGRESS OF THE TELEGRAPH.--The _London Times_ thus summarizes some of
the statements made by Mr. Raikes, the postmaster-general, in his
speech delivered at the telegraph jubilee the other day:
At first a machine required five wires before it could dispatch
a message. Now on one single wire seven or eight messages can be
sent simultaneously. At first the rate of sending did not amount
to more than four or five words a minute. Now on the latest
machine no less than 462 words a minute can be dispatched. The
number of messages has increased by steady steps, until now,
under the new tariff and with the facilities that have been so
widely extended since the telegraphs came into the hands of the
government, the number is truly portentous. Those sent during
the past year amounted to close upon a million a week--fifty-one
and one-half millions in all. Letters have grown from 80,000,000
in the year of the Queen's accession to more than 1,400,000,000.
According to Mr. Pender, there are some 115,000 miles of cables
lying at the bottom of the sea. The progress in this department
has been constant. The latest scheme, as the new colonial
blue-books show, is for laying a cable under the Pacific Ocean,
from Vancouver to New Zealand. Surely there is no task from
which modern science will recoil.
THE MYSTERY OF THE AGES.--A work recently published at London by the
Countess of Caithness is a work of ability and learning, devoted
especially to a philosophy which is thus defined:
"Theosophy is the essence of all doctrines, the inner truth of
all religions.... God is Spirit, and Spirit is One, Infinite,
and Eternal, whether it speak through the life of Buddha or
Jesus, Zoroaster or Mahommed.... The ideal of the Theosophist is
the at one-ment of his own spirit with that of the Infinite.
This is the essential teaching of all religions, and to obtain
this union you must believe in and obey the voice of your own
higher conscience; for the true Christ is the Divine Spirit
within you, and thus, God manifest in humanity."
PROGRESS OF THE MARVELLOUS.--Mrs. Herbert, of St. Joseph's Hospital,
Joliet, Illinois, as reported Aug. 16, had slept 219 days, sitting in
an easy chair, in a cataleptic state. She rarely moves a muscle, and
if her arm is lifted and not replaced it remains as it was left. Her
hands are cold, and her face very pallid. The food given her daily, it
is said, would only sustain life in a bird, and the doctors are
expecting her death.
Mr. C. J. Helleberg, of Cincinnati, says that a lady of his family has
become developed as a medium, and many messages have been written
through her. Among others, a message from Charles XII. of Sweden
declared that "Sweden will be a republic sooner than any other power
in Europe," and the elections will be easily and honestly managed.
A GRAND AEROLITE.--The _Galt Gazette_ (California) describes the fall
of a meteor in that vicinity, witnessed by Dr. Goodspeed, which fell
in a slough and so heated the water as to kill the catfish that
inhabited it. It lies in the pond, and looks as if a hundred feet
wide. A much more marvellous story has been published of an engraved
meteoric stone falling in an obscure portion of Georgia near Clayton
Court-house, which is a hoax, and has been so pronounced by the
postmaster at Clayton.
Whether the California story is true I have not ascertained, but the
fall of a great meteor in this region has developed a grand meteoric
capacity for lying. The despatch first published by the _Boston
Herald_ described the stone as falling near McAdam Junction, not far
from Bangor, Maine, making the crockery rattle at the Junction, and
plunging into the earth all but about ten feet of the stone, which was
so hot that no one could come within fifty yards of it. It has not
been found at all, for it dropped into the Bay of Fundy; but it
illuminated the whole country for a vast distance, and looked as large
as the moon. It had a long trailing violet light behind it as it fell.
Our meteoric showers generally occur in August, this was on the 15th
of September.
THE BOY PIANIST.--Joseph Hoffmann is considered in London the greatest
young pianist since the days of Mozart. He is coming to America. He is
from Poland.
CENTENARIANS.--The _Rabbi Hirsch_, born in Poland, died a few weeks
ago in Brooklyn, aged 109. He saw Napoleon on his march to Moscow.
Mrs. Paradis of North Grosvenordale, Conn., died Aug. 26, aged 120.
The _Boston Globe_ in making a record of old people in Maine, has
mentioned Miss Betsey Sargent, of Canterbury, aged 100; Mrs. Ellen
Scott, Portsmouth, 100; Mrs. Mary Mann, Oxford, 101; Mrs. Jane Wilson,
Edgecomb, 102; John Chandler, Concord, 102; Mrs. Nancy Chase, Edgerly,
103; Perault Pickard, Colchester, 107; Robert Peters, Berwick, 107;
George McQueen, Portland, 109; Giles Bronson, Castleton, 115; Mrs.
Mary Ludkends, Portland, 117.
Samuel Zielinski, a Pole, who came to the United States after he was
100 years old, is now living a mile from Dubois, Illinois, with his
descendants, at the age of 120.
EDUCATED MONKEYS.--The story comes from Brazil, by way of Panama, that
on a hemp farm seven large monkeys have been taught to work as
laborers, and that they work faster and eat less than negroes. If they
can pull hemp, why not do other work? If this report is confirmed it
may be of some importance.
A correspondent of the _New York Times_ says that monkeys from Cape
Town, Africa, have been introduced successfully into the hemp fields
of Kentucky. One gentleman employs twelve near Shelbyville, Perkins &
Chirsman have eleven, Smith & Murphy twenty-six, and J. B. Park, near
Kingston, who introduced monkey labor, employs seventeen. The monkeys
cost about $60 each, they are docile, easily taught, and cost about
one fourth of human labor.
CAUSES OF IDIOCY.--Dr. T. Langdon Down, inquiring into the causes of
idiocy, has found that intemperance of parents is one of the most
considerable factors in producing the affection. His view is confirmed
by some French and German investigators, one of whom, Dr. Delasiauve,
has said that in the village of Careme, whose riches were in its
vineyards, ten years' comparative sobriety, enforced by vine-disease,
had a sensible effect in diminishing the cases of idiocy. Nervous
constitution and consumption exercise important influence. Of the
professions, lawyers furnish the smallest proportion of idiots, while
they are credited with the procreation of a relatively very large
number of men of eminence. With the clergy, these proportions are more
than reversed. The influence of consanguineous marriage, _per se_, is
insignificant, if it exists.--_Pop. Science Monthly_.
A POWERFUL TEMPERANCE ARGUMENT.--A most powerful argument for
temperance is furnished by the records of the British army in India
for 1886, showing the comparative amount of crime, disease, and death
among 12,807 soldiers, of whom 3,278 were temperate, and 8,828 were
drinking men. The number of cases of crime among the abstainers was
172, among the drinkers 3,988, a difference of one to twenty-three in
number, or more than ten to one in percentage. The temperate had but
4.32 per cent. of crime, the drinkers 45.17 per cent. The percentage
of sickness and death was more than twice as great among the drinkers.
Liquor, therefore, _more than doubled_ the proportion of disease and
mortality, and increased the _criminality more than tenfold_. Of the
numbers tried by court martial there were 120 times as many
proportionally among the drinkers as among the temperate. The
destructive effects of drink are far greater in hot climates, and
perceptibly greater in hot weather.
The Southern States of the Union are in advance of the Northern on the
temperance question. The legislature of Georgia has passed a bill by a
large majority which taxes wine rooms in prohibition counties $10,000.
At present this covers nearly all the State.
The forty-fifth annual report of the Registrar General of England
shows that estimating the average mortality of males in England at
1,000, that of brewers is 1,361, of innkeepers and publicans 1,521.
Scotch reports show the mortality of males engaged in the liquor
business to be 68 per cent. above the actuaries table for healthy
males, and 49 per cent. over the English life table.
SLOW PROGRESS.--It was a long time before lobelia was recognized by
the profession--before anything good was found to belong to it. Now
one of our leading professors thinks lobelia will become the most
valuable of our cardiac sedatives--regulator of the heart's action. I
wrote up the value of lobelia in surgery, obstetrics and practice over
thirty years ago; also the valuable properties of hydrastis can., both
of which were almost unnoticed then and since by regular
practitioners. But now Prof. Bartholow has discovered their great
merits and written the latter up especially, and what I and Prof.
Dodd, (V. S.,) wrote a third of a century ago will be credited to
others. Well, who cares? The tincture of calendule flavas I have tried
to force upon the profession for forty years as a dressing for wounds,
but it will require some one higher in the profession to give it a
hurrah, boys!--_Med. Summary_.
COMMUNITY DOCTORS.--It is manifestly the interest of society that the
doctor should be engaged and paid by the year, so that his interest
would be to keep the people well instead of sick. Moreover, it would
be more economical, as a doctor, secure of steady support, would not
be inclined to make heavy charges, and the patient would not find a
fit of illness making a dangerous inroad on his finances, so as to
double his misfortune. The scheme has been advocated in the
newspapers.
THE SELFISH SYSTEM OF SOCIETY.--The system of antagonism and
competition results in a universal system of plunder by exorbitant
charges, and each man protects himself by overcharging in return.
Plunder by overcharging is so much the custom that no one objects to
it. The _Boston Herald_ says: "There is a baker in New York, who sells
large loaves of bread of the finest quality for five cents a loaf. The
same-sized loaf sells for ten cents in Boston." In like manner,
Americans generally pay ten cents for a loaf about half as large as
that sold for ten cents, in London; yet the London baker has to buy
the same flour after its cost is enhanced by an ocean voyage. This is
the custom of society; the glass of lemonade, costing perhaps two
cents, is sold at all prices, from five or ten cents up to
twenty-five.
The correspondent of a Denver paper says that lumber costing
forty-five cents a hundred feet, is sold at $2.25. These are samples
of the financial disorder of life in all departments.
EDUCATED BEETLES.--Bridgeport, Conn., Aug. 24. Miss Emily Nelson, of
this city, has received a present from Merida, Yucatan, in the shape
of an educated jewelled bug. It has a harness of gold and is jewelled
with precious stones.
The custom is said to have originated among the Spanish nobility
several centuries ago, when the first bug was educated and worn by a
princess. The bug became greatly attached to the maiden, and partook
of her moods and dispositions. When she was sad or disheartened the
bug became sluggish; and when she was joyous and vivacious the bug was
likewise lively in its movements. At her death, the bug pined away and
died, too.
Miss Nelson is very happy and justly very proud of her present. The
insect is about the size of an ordinary black beetle. Around the body
is firmly fastened a gold band. A gold strap is riveted to this and
passes down the back around and under the body, and is welded upon the
under side to the gold belt. Upon the back are tiny jewels set in gold
and fastened into the shell. The coloring of the shell is a brilliant
Nile green, edged with black. The movement of the bug gives flashes of
variegated colors. Upon the under side is fastened a delicate gold
chain which in turn is attached to a brooch. It is educated to eat
from the lips. It understands various whistles and calls, and appears
and disappears at the word of command.--_Globe_.
RUSTLESS IRON is being manufactured in New York by a new process
which, it is claimed, converts the surface of the metal into magnetic
oxide of iron. This is done by subjecting it successively to the
action of highly heated air and carbonic acid gas from coal fires. The
process can be applied with most satisfactory results to water-pipes
and architectural work.
WEIGHING THE EARTH.--Prof. Proctor proposes to repeat in Florida an
experiment to determine the weight of the earth, and mentions the
results of the methods heretofore tried. Newton first estimated the
weight of the earth to be between five and six times as great as that
of water. Such a weight it would have if it were one half iron and the
other half limestone, or half copper and half clay. Evidently the
metallic weight preponderates.
Weighing the earth is accomplished by comparing the effect of its
attraction with that of much smaller bodies. One method is to compare,
by balancing the weight of two balls, one above a globe of lead, as
large as practicable, and the other below it, so as to have the
attraction of the leaden globe pulling up and counteracting the
gravitation to the earth. The effect is very slight and requires
delicate apparatus.
By another, but more inaccurate method, the attraction of the earth
has been compared with that of a mountain--a very indefinite method
indeed. A better method was that of Astronomer Airy and Mr. Dunkin,
who went down into the Harton coal pit 1,260 feet to see how much
difference that depth would make in the movements of a pendulum. It
gained 2-1/4 seconds in 24 hours, and the weight of the earth was
inferred to be over 6-1/2 times as great as that of water; but it is
manifest that such a method could yield nothing much more accurate
than the mountain experiment which indicated a weight 4-3/4 times that
of water. The ball experiment, which is the most reliable, indicated
5-1/2 times the weight of water, thus coinciding with Newton's
astronomical opinion, which is probably true.
HEAD AND HEART.--The popular use of the terms head and heart to
represent thought and emotion, which is contrary to physiology, is
analogous to Dr. Hartmann's statement of the oriental doctrine that
thought alone belongs to the brain, but life and will to the heart.
This ancient _speculation_ (not intuition) is easily refuted. If it
were true, the will power and powers of life would be proportional to
the development of the heart, regardless of the brain, but the reverse
is the fact. Great development of heart does not increase either will
power, or life, but is injurious to both. The enlarged (hypertrophied)
heart is injurious to vital power and will power, and in proportion to
its increase, it tends to shorten life by apoplexy or some other form
of cerebral disorder. It produces no increase of either life, will, or
love. In fact, the stomach is more nearly associated with love than
the heart, for men are much more amiable after enjoying a feast, but
the heart, which is a part of the muscular system, is at its maximum
of action in combat and war.
THE RECTIFICATION OF CEREBRAL SCIENCE, commenced in this number, will
be continued in the November number, bringing the science up to its
present condition, and showing how, after the rectification is
completed, the science attains a grand simplicity, and, instead of
being puzzled by cerebral organology, a very brief instruction will
enable us to master the subject. In 1836 I instructed Prof. Cubi at
New Orleans in the old organology, giving him six lessons in exchange
for his instructions in Spanish. Three lessons would give an equal
familiarity with the new system, though it is four times as extensive.
CHAPTER IX.--RECTIFICATION OF CEREBRAL SCIENCE, CORRECTING THE
ORGANOLOGY OF GALL AND SPURZHEIM.
Approximate correctness and incompleteness of Gall and
Spurzheim--Grand anatomical discoveries of Gall---Reception of
his doctrines--His successors--Omission of Pneumatology and
Physiology by Gall and Spurzheim--Organs and faculties
overlooked--True locations of the faculties they recognized,
Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, Inhabitiveness,
Destructiveness, Combativeness, Secretiveness, Acquisitiveness,
Constructiveness, Cautiousness, Approbativeness, Self-Esteem,
Firmness, Religion, Benevolence, Hope, Marvellousness, Poetry,
Ideality, Imitation, Wit or Mirthfulness, Eventuality,
Individuality, Perceptive Organs, Time, Comparative Sagacity,
Causality, Tune, Constructiveness, Language--Comments on the
Organology of Gall.
The first question that occurs to the enlightened enquirer, when he
learns that the functions of the brain have been positively determined
by experiment, is whether the cranioscopy of Gall and Spurzheim was
successful in locating the cerebral functions, and how nearly their
inferences from development correspond with the revelations of
experiment.
It is with great pleasure that I am able to say that the system of
Gall and Spurzheim was a wonderful approximation to the truth. Dr.
Gall was pre-eminently the scientific pioneer of the nineteenth
century. No single individual ever did so much to enlarge the sphere
of human knowledge, and to establish the permanent foundations of
philosophy. Up to his time, the brain of man was at once the greatest
mystery of anatomy and the repository of a greater amount of wisdom
and truth than all other realms of science which had previously been
explored. But so limited was the knowledge, and so narrow the
understanding of the learned, that the grandeur of cerebral science
was not even suspected, and, even at the present time, it is so remote
from the speculations of the learned that, like a distant star, it has
few practical relations to their life; nor will its magnitude be
realized until an ample literature shall have made its scientific
record.
Into this field of mystery, Dr. Gall advanced with a courage unknown
to his predecessors, and his success was equal to his courage. The
entire plan and constitution of the brain were revealed by his
anatomical genius, and his successors have but carried further and
perfected his anatomical system. His anatomical exposition of the
brain, addressed to the French Institute in 1808, is one of the great
landmarks of the progress of science--the commencement of a new era;
and his exposition of its functions was the solution of a problem
which had defied the genius and learning of all his predecessors. His
discoveries in anatomy were so great that Reil (himself a brain
anatomist of the highest rank, whose name is permanently associated
with anatomy by the name "Island of Reil," which belongs to the
location in which Gall made his first discovery of the faculty and
organ of language), Reil, I say, declared that Dr. Gall had shown him
more in his dissections of the brain than he thought it possible for
any one man to have discovered in his lifetime; and, in fact, some of
the old anatomists, not having been personally instructed by Gall,
professed to find it difficult, if not impossible, to unfold the brain
after his manner.
These discoveries gave Dr. Gall at once a very eminent rank among the
learned, for anatomy being a physical science, there never has been
any opposition, jealousy, or scepticism against its cultivation among
the educated, nor was there anything marvellous in his revelation of
cerebral functions, for he studied only the common familiar faculties
of men and animals, and never looked into the mysterious and
marvellous powers which a more thorough investigation has revealed.
Indeed, his reception at first was quite triumphant, and it was not
until the death of Gall and Spurzheim, leaving no able and competent
representative to carry on their labors, that the drift of medical
scepticism and ignorance arrested the progress of his doctrines. I say
_ignorance_, for the aversion to the doctrines of Gall was due far
more to the ignorance of the profession and their entire neglect of
the craniological method than to any other causes.
Gall had good reason to be satisfied with his first reception, except
as to the hostility of the Austrian government, which suppressed his
lectures and compelled him to go abroad, settling finally in Paris,
where he again encountered governmental hostility in the
unfriendliness of Bonaparte, whose rejection alike of Gall and of
Fulton, who wished to introduce steam navigation, demonstrated that
great military and political ability may co-exist with great
shallowness of mind in reference to all things new, original, and
philanthropic. So it has always been, and so it continues.
In his travels in Germany, from 1805 to 1807, accompanied by Dr.
Spurzheim, "I experienced everywhere (said Gall) the most flattering
reception. Sovereigns, ministers, philosophers, legislators, artists
seconded my design on all occasions, augmenting my collection, and
furnishing me everywhere with new observations. The circumstances were
too favorable to permit me to resist the invitations which came to me
from most of the universities." Thirty-four of the leading cities and
seats of learning enjoyed the visits of Gall and Spurzheim before they
settled in Paris, where, although French jealousy arose against this
German invasion, and the influence of Napoleon prevented their cordial
reception, they nevertheless commanded and retained the respect of
scientists and had many devoted friends, including Broussais and
Andral, who then stood at the head of the medical profession, and of
Corvisart, Napoleon's physician, who could not overcome his master's
prejudice.
In speaking of the great void left by the decease of Gall and
Spurzheim, I do not forget that for a few years George Combe, Dr.
Elliotson, and Dr. Macartney, of England, and Dr. Caldwell, of
America, survived, but these eminent gentlemen were not so identified
with the science, or so competent to sustain it as to wear the mantle
of its founders. My own labors beginning after the death of the
founders were those of investigation and discovery, and never to any
great extent those of propagation. Indeed, for twenty years I entirely
abandoned the scientific rostrum, and almost ended my labors, feeling
that my duty had been done in the way of development and
demonstration. But in accordance with the great law of periodicity, I
resumed my labors in 1877-78.
When we look at the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim in the light of
positive science and philosophy, our first observation is that they
fell very far short of revealing the entire functions of the brain,
and discovering in it all the important spiritual and physical
faculties and energies of life. They did not attempt to explore the
brain as a physiological organ, and determine how or in what special
organs it controls the physiological functions. These may be regarded
as one half, though the lower half, of its capacities, out of which
arises a vast amount of medical philosophy.
As to the psychic half of the cerebral functions, they omitted
entirely that portion which relates to pneumatology. They thought
nothing of the soul as an object of science, and made no attempt to
trace its connection with the brain, and the vast number of phenomena
which lie along the border line between the physical and spiritual,
and which are conspicuous in the phenomena of somnambulism, sleep,
dreaming, hypnotism, spiritualism, clairvoyance, trance, ecstasy, and
religious marvels.
Overlooking these things, they sought the seats of from twenty-seven
faculties (as with Gall) to thirty-five (as with Spurzheim), and did
not appear to realize how many had been entirely omitted. When all
they attempted to locate are located by positive experiment and
assigned their proper localities and limits, we find fully one half of
the cerebral surface vacant for organs of other functions. Indeed, the
first large publication of Gall and Spurzheim, in four volumes folio,
with an atlas of 100 plates, begun in 1809 and finished in 1819, did
not in the cranial map of organs profess to be a complete development
of the functions of the brain. It located organs, but did not
determine the functions intermediate between their boundaries. This
was the map of Gall. In that of Spurzheim the intermediate spaces were
occupied and the entire exterior surface of the brain devoted to
organology, yet still the basilar and interior surface of the brain
remained unknown to Spurzheim, and the exterior regions which he
supposed entirely occupied by his organs were but half occupied by
them. Thus when we consider the unexplored basilar and interior
regions, and that half of its exterior surface which was erroneously
appropriated to the thirty-five organs, as well as the erroneous
location of several, we perceive that _more than half_ of the organs
and functions of the brain remained for investigation.
Turning away from the anatomy to contemplate the psychology, we
perceive that _more than half of human nature_ had been omitted from
the German scheme,--that half of the mental functions which belongs to
the organs of the vacant spaces on the corrected map, and in addition
to these the higher psychic functions, and the lower physiological
functions, neither of which Gall and Spurzheim explored, because they
did not attempt to study the brain as a physiological organ, and they
did not bring the soul and the higher functions of the mind within the
scope of their science.
Gall was a bold, original naturalist and anatomist but not a
psychologist; and the incorrectness of his psychology hindered his
investigations, and prevented him from carrying out a proper
subdivision of faculties and organs. He says in the last volume: "Each
fundamental power, essentially distinct, includes sensation,
perception, memory and recollection, judgment and
imagination,"--disregarding the truth that these are distinct
intellectual powers, belonging to different organs, and therefore
bearing no proportion to each other. One may have an immense memory
without imagination, or a brilliant imagination without much memory.
These, and many other psychological errors, are apparent in the
writings of Gall, and still more in those of Spurzheim.
[Illustration]
In the drawing herewith presented, the thirty-five organs of Spurzheim
are assigned their proper locations and dimensions. The first organ,
AMATIVENESS (made second by Spurzheim), was assumed to occupy the
entire cerebellum. It really occupies only its median and superior
portion, and a small section of the anterior surface of the spinal
cord, adjacent to the encephalon. This error of Gall and Spurzheim did
a great deal to discredit their system. It manifested on their part a
fallibility of judgment, and a dogmatic adherence to first impressions
in the face of evidence to the contrary; for the experiments of
Rolando and Flourens demonstrated a connection between the cerebellum
and the general vital force and muscular action. The relation may not
have been clearly understood, but the facts were decisive, and the
researches of Majendie, with the more recent ones of Ferrier, have
made more clear the relations of the cerebellum to the muscular system
and vital force.
The doctrine of Gall has been abandoned by physiologists because
refuted by many facts, the most decisive of which is that the
cerebellum of castrated horses is larger than that of stallions, which
could not be possible if the cerebellum had only sexual functions.
Moreover, the doctrine of Gall was essentially unreasonable in itself.
To suppose that so large a portion of the brain which is continually
active, being well supplied with blood, could have a function which is
but occasionally active, and which, through the greater part of human
life, is unnoticed or inactive, is extremely unreasonable; and to
suppose that the serious disturbances of animal life and muscular
motion, caused by ablations of the cerebellum, were due to the
disturbance of an organ having only sexual functions, was thoroughly
absurd. The parrot-like repetition of these exploded errors by the
followers of the phrenological system contributed to its discredit in
the medical profession.
The 2d organ of Gall (3d of Spurzheim), PHILOPROGENITIVENESS, was
regarded as one of the best known phrenological organs, but my
unprejudiced study of heads soon assured me of its inaccuracy. The
organ was small in Spurzheim, who was remarkably fond of children, and
I have found it small in ladies who showed no lack of parental love,
but generally well developed and active in criminal skulls. One which
I obtained in Arkansas, of a man named Richmond, had this region large
and active, although he was the one of a group of murderers by whom
the children, or, rather, boys, were killed. This region is _extremely
defective_ in the brains of birds, which are certainly very devoted to
their young. The attachment to children belongs really to an interior
region of the occiput, where the occipital lobes face the median line.
Hence it is that a large occipital development very often coincides
with the love of children; but the true position of the organ renders
it difficult to determine its development in life.
ADHESIVENESS (3d) is located by Spurzheim farther back and lower than
it should be; also, too far back in Gall's map. It belongs to the
vacant space in front of Gall's location.
INHABITIVENESS (5th) is an imaginary definition of the function
located behind Self-esteem. Equally imaginary is the doctrine of the
Edinburgh phrenologists, who call it Concentrativeness. The
observations of Gall led him to regard it as a portion of the organ of
Pride, and as giving to animals a love of lofty locations. Gall was
nearer right than Spurzheim or Combe. The only function I find in this
spot is Self-confidence. The tendencies to a quiet love of home, and
the ability to tranquillize and concentrate the mind, are located,
virtually, above the ear on the temporal arch, the ridge which
separates the lateral from the superior surface of the head.
DESTRUCTIVENESS, the 5th organ of Gall and 1st of Spurzheim, was
located much too high and too far forward by Gall. I am surprised at
this, since it differs so widely from the indications of comparative
anatomy that it is difficult to imagine how Gall was misled. Any one
comparing the skull of a dog with that of a sheep may discover the
error. He called it Murder, or the wish to destroy. Spurzheim, who
does not describe its location, says, "At the beginning Gall placed
the seat of this organ too far behind the ear, but a great number of
observations convinced us that its seat is immediately above the ear."
The truth is that the convolutions which terminate on the temporal
bone over the ear are only on the border of Destructiveness, and
produce only an irritable and impulsive temper. The true
Destructiveness extends fully an inch under the surface of the middle
lobe, along the petrous ridge of the temporal bone, and is manifested
externally just behind the ear by the prominence of the mastoid
process.
COMBATIVENESS (the 6th of Spurzheim, or Courage and Self-defence, the
4th of Gall) is located with tolerable correctness by each and
properly described.
SECRETIVENESS, which is but a modification of Cautiousness, occupying
its middle region, is much too large on the maps, and on that of Gall
it is quite out of place--too far forward and too high up, occupying a
region which produces modesty and refinement.
ACQUISITIVENESS (7th of Gall, 8th of Spurzheim) is still farther
mislocated on the map of Gall, occupying a region of intellectual,
inventive and literary capacity. This is the most _outre_ and absurd
of all Gall's locations. Placing this selfish and grasping propensity
in the front lobe which belongs to intellect, when it really belongs
to the selfish, adhesive, and combative elements of the occiput, is an
error of so extravagant a character as to show that Gall had no
correct psychology in his mind, and no capacity or desire to construct
a harmonious system. Spurzheim's location, much farther back, is
somewhat less erroneous, but both are thoroughly false, and a few
months of my first observations fifty-two years ago satisfied me as to
this error. That it should have flourished unchallenged by
Phrenologists for eighty years, seems to show that when a dominant
idea is once established in the mind, all facts are made to conform to
it. Is is remarkable, too, that the very great difference between the
locations given by Gall and by Spurzheim has not attracted notice. But
in fact the map of Gall has never had any popular currency. Spurzheim
and Combe have been the accepted authors. The true location of
acquisitiveness is anterior to combativeness, and lower than
adhesiveness. Gall was misled by studying the young pickpockets and
thieves of Vienna. The organ that he found suits a low cunning and
dextrous character when the head lacks elevation.
CONSTRUCTIVENESS, Spurzheim's 9th (Bausinn, or aptitude for mechanical
arts, of Gall No. 19), is decidedly mislocated by Spurzheim. Instead
of being placed in the purely intellectual region adjacent to
calculation, order, and system, it is carried back and down into the
region of somnolence and sensitive impressibility. Gall's location is
a little worse because lower, being carried out of the intellectual
region into the middle lobe according to his published map. It is very
easy to detect this error in examining a number of heads, and it was
quite apparent to me in my first year's observations. In impressible
persons the touch upon this locality produces nothing but a dreamy
influence, and a disposition to close the eyes. Carried farther, it
produces the mesmeric sleep.
CAUTIOUSNESS (the 10th of both Spurzheim and Gall) was too far back in
Spurzheim's map, occupying space that belongs to adhesiveness. It runs
downward along the course of the lateral convolutions, and its more
timid and gloomy functions are developed near the ear, differing
widely from the functions of its upper portion.
APPROBATIVENESS (the 11th of Spurzheim, and 9th of Gall) is located
with substantial correctness, covering, however, more functions than
that term expresses. Gall's location and definition are also
substantially correct.
SELF-ESTEEM (the 12th of Spurzheim, 8th of Gall) is well located and
described with approximative correctness.
FIRMNESS, RELIGION (Veneration or Theosophy), and BENEVOLENCE are so
well located and described by both Gall and Spurzheim as to need but
little comment at present. The four superior organs on the median
line, and the organ of CONSCIENTIOUSNESS were more correctly located
and described than any other large portion of the brain.
HOPE is not adjacent to Conscientiousness, but parallel to Religion.
MARVELLOUSNESS has a preposterously large space assigned it, being
really a small organ at the summit of Ideality, which exercises a more
intellectual and less superstitious function than has been given it.
Marvellousness, Hope, Conscientiousness, Time, Order, Weight, Size,
and Individuality are the eight organs discovered and added by
Spurzheim, not having been recognized by Gall. The exterior portion of
Spurzheim's Marvellousness occupies the space devoted by Gall to
Poetry.
POETRY, recognized by Gall, is brought lower by Spurzheim and called
IDEALITY. Both locations are substantially correct. The location of
Gall is the seat of Marvellousness, Imagination, and Spirituality;
that of Spurzheim is well expressed by the term Ideality, and the
description given, but the word Poetry is rather too limited as the
definition of Gall's organ. It gives brilliance to prose and to
oratory, or even conversation, as well as to poetry.
IMITATION, adjacent to Benevolence, is somewhat better located by Gall
than by Spurzheim, who gives it too much breadth anteriorly.
WIT or MIRTHFULNESS is a confused and erroneous statement. The two
faculties are distinct, Wit being intellectual and occupying a small
space adjacent to Causality or Reason, while Mirthfulness, or the
sentiment of the ludicrous, is just above it, and should properly be
called Humor. The mirthful or playful faculty is in the posterior
region adjacent to Approbativeness, and may be quite conspicuous when
there is neither wit nor humor in the mirth. Imitation, Mirth or
Humor, and Wit follow each other in a line. The so-called organ of Wit
(Gall) or Mirthfulness (Spurzheim) is the seat of the most profound
reasoning faculty, while the CAUSALITY of Spurzheim, the METAPHYSICAL
DEPTH of thought of Gall, though it gives a clear analytical
intelligence has really less profundity and ability in reasoning than
the organ which they have misnamed Wit and Mirthfulness, which is
pre-eminently the organ of profound reasoning.
EVENTUALITY and INDIVIDUALITY are confounded as one organ by Gall,
calling it Educability, or Memory of Things but rightly separated by
Spurzheim, as the observation and memory of events are distinct from
the observation of things. Though I do not use the word Individuality,
it is not an objectionable expression, as it suggests the fine
perceptive power of its location. Both Gall and Spurzheim had a
practically good idea of the region of Eventuality, which Gall first
called the memory of things. Spurzheim's description is good; but when
the organ is analyzed, it yields consciousness and observation on the
median line, memory more exterior, extending to Time.
PERCEPTIVE ORGANS--The most marvellous feature of the old
phrenological system, is the accuracy with which the smallest organs
of the brain have been discovered, located, and described. The organs
of Form, Size, Weight, Color, Order, and Number, or Calculation, were
so accurately located and described by Spurzheim, that little remains
to be said about them. Gall discovered only Form, Color, and Number,
and the latter he located in the position which belongs to Order.
These organs were but little developed in Gall, whose great success
was due to his philosophic originality and independence. He was not a
close observer, and there was a sternness in his nature which
prevented him from accepting readily the suggestions of Spurzheim, who
with less boldness of character and greater accuracy of perception,
was better fitted for minute observation and anatomical analysis. His
own cranium has been preserved, in which I found these perceptive
organs distinctly marked by their digital impressions on the
superorbital plate over the eye. It is a remarkable fact that the
intellectual faculties have been most easily understood and located,
while their antagonists in the occipital region have proved the
greatest puzzle in psychic and cerebral investigations. Gall failed,
and left a vacant space in the occiput. Spurzheim failed, but covered
the ground incorrectly, and it was many years after I discovered
cerebral impressibility before I attained a satisfactory view of the
psychology of this region. The location and definition of LOCALITY are
substantially correct.
The organ of TIME, another of Spurzheim's discoveries, was very
correctly located and defined by him. It lies just above the organ of
Color.
COMPARATIVE SAGACITY, or Perspicacity, as Gall called it, was a better
term than Comparison, which was introduced by Spurzheim. Direct
perception of truth is its leading character. Illustration by
comparison belongs to the breadth of the forehead, to the Ideal and
Inventive region, and is the characteristic of poetry. Spurzheim's
description, however, is substantially correct. It qualifies for clear
statement, but not for comprehensive or ingenious reasoning. The
portion on the median line has still more penetration, in consequence
of which it perceives the nature and tendencies of everything, and is
enabled to exercise foresight. Still farther in on the median line are
located the powers which are more intuitive, and transcending ordinary
foresight are entitled to be called prophecy.
The CAUSALITY of Spurzheim, or Metaphysical Depth of thought of Gall,
was defined with approximate correctness. The immediate perception of
causation lies just above the organ of Time, and the special organ of
Reason extends therefrom upwards. If the reflective organs of one side
of the forehead are divided into an interior and exterior group by a
vertical line from the pupil of the eye, the interior group would
represent a comprehensive understanding possessing sagacity and
judgment, while the exterior would represent profound ingenious
thought and originality, a capacity for discovering truth by reason
and meditation, by analysis and synthesis, while the interior would
discover it only by direct perception. In the exterior group would be
included the misnamed organ of Wit or Mirthfulness, which is really a
source of philosophy and originality.
TUNE and CONSTRUCTIVENESS have really reversed their positions in the
maps of Spurzheim and Gall. The inventive faculty of musical composers
was what Gall discovered as Music. The sense of Melody and Tune lies
behind the brow in connection with the _sense of hearing_, at the
anterior portion of Sensibility, which forty years after my discovery
is beginning to be recognized in consequence of the experiments of
Ferrier on animals. The organ of hearing which he demonstrated in the
monkey, occupies the same position in the superior temporal
convolution, behind the eye, which I have given it in man, which
brings it into close connection with the organs of Language and Tune.
Its close connection with the region of impressibility called
Somnolence explains its supreme control over our emotions.
The organ of LANGUAGE, the first discovery of Gall, has been the first
to receive its demonstration from pathology and vivisection. But the
pioneer teacher to whom contemporaries are unjust has to wait very
long for an honorable recognition. The existence of an organ of
Language at the junction of the front and middle lobes, at the back of
the eye-sockets, has become established in our physiology from the
developments of disease and autopsies, without mentioning in
connection that it was the discovery of Gall. Perhaps the authors of
the text-books may not even know the location of Gall's discovery in
the brain, and think only of the external sign, the prominence of the
eyes, produced by the convolution at the back of their orbits.
Dr. Spurzheim simply located the external sign of the prominence of
the organ at the eye, while Gall recognized the talent for languages
as lying further back than that for verbal memory, and consequently
being manifested lower at the eye. Nevertheless Gall made a correct
observation, as he noticed that a full development was indicated when
the temples were broad behind the eye. The true location of the organ
externally is just behind the outer angle of the eye, a position
central to Gall's observations, and corresponding in the brain to that
junction of the front and middle lobes in which the organ has been
demonstrated by pathology, though not so accurately defined as in my
experiments.
Perhaps in twenty or thirty years more my demonstrations having been
brought before the public may attract the attention of the laborious
vivisectors in Europe, who have done so much to verify them, and who
will find that their labors do not refute but do confirm what I have
discovered by methods so much simpler, easier and more pleasant.
In the second volume I propose to show in detail how much the
pathologists and vivisectors have done to illustrate and corroborate
the new Anthropology.
[Illustration: ORGANOLOGY OF GALL, 1809.
1. Instinct of Generation.
2. Love of Offspring.
3. Friendship, Attachment.
4. Courage, Self-Defence.
5. Murder, Wish to Destroy.
6. Cunning.
7. Sentiment of Property.
8. Pride, Self-Esteem, Haughtiness.
9. Vanity, Ambition.
10. Cautiousness, Foresight, Prudence.
11. Memory of Things, Educability.
12. Local Memory.
13. Memory of Persons.
14. Verbal Memory.
15. Memory for Languages.
16. Colors.
17. Music.
18. Number.
19. Aptitude for Mechanical Arts.
20. Comparative Aptitude for Drawing Comparisons.
21. Metaphysical Depth of Thought, Aptitude for Drawing Conclusions.
22. Wit.
23. Poetry.
24. Good Nature.
25. Mimicry.
26. Theosophy, Religion.
27. Firmness of Character.]