Phrenology, a lecture delivered before the Woodville Lyceum Association / by Mariano Cubí i Soler.

  • Marià Cubí i Soler
Date:
1840
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology, a lecture delivered before the Woodville Lyceum Association / by Mariano Cubí i Soler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    vorite theory, whether religious, moral, or political, be really- correct, they must necessarily be in harmony ; for all truth emanates from God, and God cannot be inconsistent. By mind is understood that which in us hopes, fears, loves, hates ; in short, that which in us perceives, thinks, and feels. Whether this be the effect of a purely spiritual es- sence, or the result solely of physical organization, it is not the province of Phrenology to investigate, much less to de- termine. Phrenology has nothing to do with the essence of mind ; it only collects facts concerning the manifestations of mind as connected with the brain. Upon these facts, which constitute Phrenology, there are established three great fun- damental principles, as the origin or basis of all phrenological doctrines. The first of these principles, or general truths, is, that the mind acts through the brain. The second is, that the mind employs, variously, different portions of the brain. And the third and last, is, that size of brain is a chief ele- ment of mental power. That the mind acts through the brain, or, which is the same thing, that the brain is the organ or machinery of the mind, appears from evidence and demonstration, which our senses cannot repel. An injury of the brain always, invariably, without exception, is accompanied by a correspondent affec- tion of the mind. If the brain be influenced by any narcotic or by alcohol, the mind partakes of, and manifests, the same influence. Fever, or a blow on the head, says Dr. Xeil Arnott, will change the most gifted individual into a maniac, causing the lips of virgin innocence to utter the most revolt- ing obscenity, and those of pure religion to speak the most horrible blasphemy ; and most cases of madness and eccen- tricity can now be traced to a peculiar state of the brain. * The common sense of mankind has placed in the head f the operations of mind. In all the languages with which I am acquainted, not even excepting local dialects, we find exr pressions equivalent to numbskull, thick-headed, addle- pated, badly furnished in the upper story, and many others of the same import, used to designate stupid persons. On the other hand, individuals possessed of uncommon mental pow- * Quoted from Combe's System of Phrenology, p. 0. Boston ed 8vo L835. t llrad, thus used, means always the inside and outside of it, that is, the brain and the skull.
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