Copy 1, Volume 1

A system of phrenology / By George Combe.

  • George Combe
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of phrenology / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    years, many competent judges admit that there are satisfactory proofs for several of the larger organs. During all this time, there has been no restriction of the limits, and no important variation in the doc- trines, of Phrenology: The change that has taken place has been in public opinion ; and it has arisen from the greater degree of attention with which the public, or the individuals whom it recognises as its guides, have devoted themselves to the study of the principles, and to the observation of the facts, on which the doctrines are founded. Nor will this on- ward progress stop at its present point: I rest con- fident, that, at the end of the next seven years, still more of the details will be admitted to be true. In- deed, it appears to me, that the great facts and in- ductions of Phrenology, like those of many other sciences, will be ultimately received into the cate- gory of established truths, not in consequence of any rigidly scientific demonstration presented in the form of recorded evidence, but by general ac- quiescence, founded on the testimony of men on whose talents, judgment, and opportunities of ob- servation, public reliance will be placed. Far from either denying or undervaluing the im- portance of accurately reported evidence as a means of advancing the doctrines to the rank of an Es-
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