Thirty-third annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1860.

  • James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-third annual report of the directors of James Murray's Royal Asylum for Lunatics, near Perth. June, 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Scale of size of “ Organs.’ Fundament¬ al proposi¬ tions of Phre¬ nology. person of ordinary or average intelligence can surely satisfy himself as to the comparative or approximative truth or value, at least, of the leading features of Phrenology. We do^not presume to offer the re¬ marks or statistics which follow as either conclusive or exhaustive, but simply as contributions to a subject the elucidation of which is attended with no little difficulty and labour, and which is hence not often attempted. Taking into consideration the tenor of our remarks on the place and value of statistics, it will not surprise us to be told that fal¬ lacies lurk, where we do not at present suspect them, in the results to which our inquiries have led us. Nor will it surprise us that many of the facts which appear to us either non-corroborative of, or opposed to, the doctrines of Phrenology, or the statements of phrenologists, are re¬ garded by the latter as confirmatory or corroborative. If so, the facts in question are cordially placed at the service of phrenologists, equally with non-phrenologists and anti-phrenologists, our object being not to conceal or pervert, but to expiscate and expose, the truth. It is right here to mention that some of the illustrations which we anticipated would prove of considerable value and interest have been lost, in conse¬ quence of the patients refusing to permit their heads to be examined. The remarks which follow must, in great measure, merely bear refer¬ ence to, or be abstracts of, our Statistical Tables; and the latter might have been greatly extended in number and minuteness were it not that the space at our command does not permit of this. Some of the tables, therefore, such as Table IV., contain only selected illustrations. In tabulating the relative size of the cerebral “ organs” which are recog¬ nized by phrenologists, we have adopted a somewhat simpler standard than that generally made use of in treatises on Phrenology [and which is given in the article “Phrenology” in Chambers’s “Information for the People,” already referred to, p. 355]; inasmuch as, for our present purpose, it is unnecessary to be so minute and precise. The scale we have adopted consists of five terms—1, Very large ; 2, Large; 3, Mode¬ rate ; 4, Small; 5, Very small. Moderate is used when there is neither a marked prominence nor depression on the skull at the supposed or alleged site of a particular “organ;” large when there is a decided and visible prominence ; and small when there is as decided or visible a de¬ pression. The “ rather small” of phrenologists is included in our term small; the “ rather full” in our moderate ; “ full and rather large” in our large. There are certain fundamental propositions or principles laid down in phrenological treatises, which our own investigations do not altogether bear out or homologate as correct. But we do not feel warranted, on this account alone, in pronouncing them necessarily incorrect; for we are guaging the propositions of Phrenology by investigations which are on the one hand limited in extent, and on the other may be imperfect in