Phrenology proved, illustrated, and applied : accompanied by a chart : embracing an analysis of the primary, mental powers in their various degrees of development, the phenomena produced by their combined activity and the location of the phrenological organs in the head : together with a view of the moral and theological bearing of the science / by O.S. & L.N. Fowler ; assisted by Samuel Kirkham.
- Orson S. Fowler
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Phrenology proved, illustrated, and applied : accompanied by a chart : embracing an analysis of the primary, mental powers in their various degrees of development, the phenomena produced by their combined activity and the location of the phrenological organs in the head : together with a view of the moral and theological bearing of the science / by O.S. & L.N. Fowler ; assisted by Samuel Kirkham. 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.)
24/433
![genera], correspond—a proposition which is not only a mat ter of observation, and which is demonstrated by almost every scull upon which we can cast our eyes, but which is already proved to our bands by such men as Cuvier, Magendie, Charles Bell,* and others of equal learning and authority, and, moreover, which is susceptible of physical demonstration ? It remains, then, for the phrenologist merely to ascertain what portions of the brain are employed to manifest the vari- ous faculties, and, also, what are the indications upon thw scull of the relative size of these organs, (which, indeed, has already been done by the most critical and extensive observation,) and then he will have sufficient data from which to determine even the minutia. of the character and talents, and of the various mental qualities, of any and of every individual. In this connexion may be mentioned the fact, that the thickness of the scull may be determined by its vibrations in speaking, the tones of the voice, &c. VII. The history of the discovery of phrenology, fur- nishes ample demonstration of its truth. Like all the other exact sciences,! every portion of it was discovered, and brought to its present state of perfection, entirely by induc~ lion—by an observation and a classification of facts. It originated with Dr. Gall, a celebrated physician of Vienna, who noticed, in the first place, a uniform connexion between full and prominent eyes, and a talent for committing to mem- ory. By this happy circumstance, he was led to look for In Charles Bell's Anat. II. 390, we are furnished with the following passag* • Thus we find, that the bones of the head are moulded to the brain, and the pe- culiar shapes of the bones of the head, are determined by the original peculiari- ty in the shape of the brain. It is also added in a note, I have seen one striking instance of the scull's decreasing with the brain. It occurred in an individual who died at the age of thirty-two, after having laboured under chronick insanity for upwards often years, and whose mental weakness augmented in proportion to the diminution of the brain and the shrinking of his scull. The diminution o! his head in size, attracted his own attention during life. Cuvier is still more ex- plicit upon the same point. He says, In all mammiferous animals, the brain is moulded in the cavity of the cranium, which it fills exactly : so that the description of the osseous part, affords us a knowledge of, at least, the external form of the medullary mass within. Magendie says, The only way of estimating the volume of the brain in a living person, is to take the dimensions of the scull, &c. Other authors might be quoted ; but these are sufficient for our purpose ; so that anat- amisls and physicians, at least, cannot, with any appearance of consistency, ques- tion this proposition: and no others have any right to do so. Its correctness stands, then, unshaken. t So many phrenological facts, all, like the converging rays of the concave mir- ror, tending to the same focus, all establishing and confirming the same general principles as the great law of nature, have been collected and classified, that, until their opponents, upon whom the burden of proof is thus thrown, explai» lh«se facts upon other than phrenological principles, phrenologists have an un- disputed right to number it among the other exact sciences.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21120444_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
