Phrenology applied to painting and sculpture / By George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology applied to painting and sculpture / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    their admitting the truth of Gall's discovery, but of the change which has taken place in opinion among eminent physiologists concerning the importance of studying the connexion between the mind and the brain. Lord Jeffrey lived long enough to appreciate this progress of opinion, and omitted the above quoted article in the collection of his contributions to the Review, published some years before his death. But the testimony of these physiologists, viewed merely as expressive of their belief in a general con- nexion between the mental functions and the nervous system, is still far in advance of public opinion on the subject; and in consequence, it is nearly as inopera- tive for good as Gall's doctrines themselves. When presented to the Professors of our Universities, as a reason for their connecting the physiology of the ner- vous system with their prelections on mental philoso- phy ; to a bench of Justices, as an inducement to them to conduct prison discipline on the principles of phy- siology ; or to teachers, as an apology for recommend- ing to them to teach physiology and the laws of health to their pupils, or even to take into their own consi- deration the dependence of the mental faculties on the condition of the brain, in ventilating their school-rooms, in varying the objects of study, in not overtasking the immature organisms of their pupils, and so forth, the authority of these eminent men is received by many with ridicule, indifference, or stolid resistance. Indeed the result could scarcely be different; for, generally speaking, the functionaries now referred to do not know physiology in such a way as to be capable of applying it. It is with them a tvorcl or name ; and although sufficient for discourse, is not so for action. We must know a thing hefore tve can a]p])ly it to use ; and we can-