A guide to human and comparative phrenology / [Henry William Dewhurst].

  • Dewhurst, H. W. (Henry William)
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to human and comparative phrenology / [Henry William Dewhurst]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were directed to a minute study of the form of their heads. Little by little, I ventured to flatter myself that I could perceive one con- stant shape in the head of every great painter, of every great musician, of every great me- chanic, &c. severally denoting a decided pre- disposition in the individual to one or other of those acts. {nthe meantime I had commenced the study of medicine, where I heard much about the functions of the muscles, viscera, &e. but not a word about the functions of the brain. My former observations then recurred to me, and led me to suspect, what I after- wards proved, that the form of the skudl is entirely due to the form of viscus it contains. From that moment I conceived the hope of being able one day to determine the ‘ moral and intellectual faculties of man, by means of his cerebral organization, and to establish a physiology of the brain. I therefore re- solved to continue my researehes, until I should attain my object, or find it impossible. The task would have been less difficult, had I abandoned myself entirely to nature; but ] had already learned too much of the errors and prejudices then taught upon those sub- jects, not to be biassed by them; and I was still further entangled by the doctrines of the metaphysicians, who teach that all our ideas come fromthe senses, and that all men are born alike, that education and accident alone
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