Statistics of phrenology : being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands.

  • Hewett Watson
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of phrenology : being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    • of phrenological doctrines. Mr. Alicnictliy, — no slight nuthority in matters connected with medical science,— immediately afterwards wrote in reeonimendation of the philosophy of mind, naturally flowing out of the physio- logical discoveries of Gall and Spurzheiui ; but, strangely enough^ he declined to examine tlie evidences and physio- logical details. It must be kept in mind that the Edinburgh reviewer had pronounced the anatomical, j)liysiological, and phy- siognomical doctrines to be a thorough piece of (juacken,- from beginning to end. Nevertheless, we find Forster, Leach, Mackenzie, Parry, Lawrence, EUiotson, and Abernethy, — all authors and men of science, and the major part of them belonging to the medical profession,— giving testimony in support of the physiology or philoso- pliy of the new system, each according to the extent of his knowledge. Let us then pause here to ask who will be hardy enough to affirm that these persons were likely to be imposed upon by quacker}' in the subjects of their own particular pursuits or professions ? Naturalists, surgeons, and physicians, are surely amongst those least likely to be imposed upon by quackery ! Meanwhile, the anatomical discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim had become pretty generally admitted bv the medical profession and the scic iitifie ])art of the public^ That their anatomical views should liave been early re- ceived by many of those withholding assent to the physio- logy and philosophy, is readily ex])licable from the fact of a single brain, well dissected, sufficing to prove the ana- tomical department of phrenology ; while numerous and long-continued observations, impartially carried on by men of ability and knowledge, were rcijuired to establish the phv>iological and philosophical eonclusions. Yet the ana- tomical discoveries, easily verified as they might be by others when once announced, had to struggle against con- tradictions, and were received unwillingly by many pejr-
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