ARTICLE III.

ON THE PRESENT MODES OF MEASURING THE HEAD, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF A NEW INSTRUMENT.

For the American Phrenological Journal.

As the human head-exclusive of the face-differs in most individuals and especially in children-but little in magnitude, and still less in form, from the encephalon, it is a problem of some interest to determine the exact size and shape of the former. The instruments already in use, and even the eye of the practised observer, will give an approximation sufficiently near to establish the main doctrines of phrenology. But the problem is not solved as rigidly as it must be, if phrenology is to take a place among the more exact sciences. Who can state, numerically, the position of a single organ? I am acquainted with no instrument hitherto used, with which this is professed to be determined. How, in geodæsical operations, do we determine the figure and magnitude of the earth? The mere measurement of linear distances on its surface affords no sufficient data. It is necessary to combine this measurement with that of the angular position of different stations. The callipers for measuring the head, are like a chain, without a theodolite or transit instrument, for measuring the earth. It does not even approximately determine the length of any cerebral fibres, except those which have a low and lateral direction, and terminate near the ears. The craniometer which has been used, supplies this deficiency, but is equally destitute of any provision for determining the position of parts. The positions of organs are often defined by their contiguity to others; and a description of the head too much resembles that of land in some deeds of our American ancestors-every man's farm bounded by those of his neighbours.

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If the mental powers are modified by the depth of the convolutions, or the thickness of cineritious substance, or the texture of the brain, these modifications would equally affect the conclusions to be drawn from any mode of measurement. So far are they from rendering an exact and proper mode objectionable, that it is by this alone that the existence and total amount of such modifications-separately indeterminable as they are during life-can ever be arrived at.

A plate of this instrument may be seen in Combe's smaller work on phrenology.

The upper extremity of the medullar oblongata being the radiant point of the encephalic fibres, if as is generally maintained by Combe and others the powers of the different pyramidal bundles, or organs, have a relation to the lengths of the axes and the areas of the bases of these spheroidal pyramids, these are the data important to be determined by measurement. The ordinary craniometer-an instrument too much neglected-determines the length of the axis at any point of the surface assumed to be the centre of the base of an organ. But suppose phrenologists to differ, and the views of all to change in regard to the number and location of organs-and this has taken place to a certain extent-then the recorded numerical results of previous measurements are not available for comparison with subsequent ones, nor those of one phrenologist for comparison with those of others.

But if, in addition to the indications furnished by cerebral prominences, and the somewhat vague and empirical reference to certain great landmarks on and near the skull, we determine and record the angular distance of each station of measurement from two determinate co-ordinate planes at right angles to each other, we then have three times as many data as are furnished by the ordinary craniometer, and are able to deduce from them the three grand numerical results required by phrenology as an exact science; to wit: 1st, the lengths of the axes of the pyramids; 2d, their positions; 3d, the distances between the middle points of their bases, and, consequently, the extent of the bases. The ordinary craniometer gives but one single result; viz. the length. The callipers give but one; viz. the base.

An instrument which I have constructed, and exhibited to the New York Phrenological Society, determines the position on the same principle as the astronomer determines that of a star, by its altitude and azimuth, its right ascension and declination, or its latitude and longitude.

Without a precise reference to co-ordinate plans, uranography could not have become an exact science, but must have remained with few other guides than the more empirical ones of the early astrologers, the uncouth figures of men, animals, and monsters, still seen-to use Mr. Herschell's expression-" scribbled over" artificial globes. I will not compare these to phrenological maps and busts, as it regards their utility or the artificial character of the divisions, but I must in regard to their availableness for the purposes of numerical comparison.

My instrument consists essentially of two graduated semicircles in planes at right angles to each other. The one answering to the ungraduated semicircle of the ordinary craniometer. The other is

attached to the axis of the former; and the centre of this additional semicircle, or circle, (for this may be a complete circle,) corresponds to a point in the axis of revolution of that which sweeps over the head, and by the graduations of which the angular distances from its extremities are indicated. The graduations on the smaller semicircle indicate the angular positions of the plane of the larger semicircle from a determinate plane of reference. The larger semicircle is made sufficiently large to sweep over the head, when the direction of its axis of rotation passes through the point of divergence of the encephalic fibres. This position of the axis may be given by two rods, sliding at the extremities of the semicircle, and pressing respectively at the root of the nose and at a point near the occipital protuberance, The contrivance necessary for fixing them in this position need not be detailed. Instead of this, the rods may be introduced into the ears; but the anterior posterior position of the axis appears more eligible than the transverse one through the meatus auditorius, for two reasons; viz. the axis may be made to pass more nearly through the point of divergence of the cerebral fibres, and the application of the instrument is not disagreeable. For similar reasons, the mastoid proeesses are eligible points of application. This instrument may also be employed as callipers. In using it as a craniometer, its radius must be known; and then the length of the fibres at any part-plus the thickness of the skull and the integuments-is ascertained, simply by reading off, on a graduated sliding rod, the complement of the distances between the head and the circumference of the large semicircle. The position of the plane of the latter is read off on the smaller graduated semicircle, a dot place on the forehead or temple being used as a fixed index.

With this instrument, the true lengths of the fibres or organs are given in inches and parts of an inch, and their positions in degrees; and a comparison of these two classes of results will give the breadth of the base of an organ, or at least the half sum of two contiguous bases, also the direction and distance of the centre of the base of any organ from that of any other organ, or from any point so considered in the present state of phrenology. A great variety of interesting conclusions may be expected to result from such comparisons.

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In the phrenological reports, as usually given, one of two methods is adopted, and both have some disadvantages. One is to express the size of the organs by such vague terms as full, large, rather full, full +," &c. The other is to give the linear distance between different points on the surface of the head. The statements of the former have no reference to an invariable standard, and are essentially

vague. The measurements of the latter are liable to several objections. The distances are by some measured in a straight line; by others, along the convex surface of the head. By some they are measured from one point, by others from another; so that scarcely any two are comparable. The ear is not unfrequently selected, and is one of the most advantageous points on the surface; but this does not give the measure of the organs. One of the most usual methods is to give the distance between the corresponding points of opposite sides, as from Cautiousness to Cautiousness, Ideality to Ideality, &c., and no doubt many readers are led into the belief that these are the measures of those organs, for I see no care used to guard against such a conclusion. Whereas, in fact, this only gives double the base of a right-angled triangle, of which the hypothenuse is the length of the organ, and the other side unknown. The problem of course not only remains unsolved, but indeterminate for want of data which such measurements can never furnish.

Such an

In deducing inferences from measurements of the same head in different directions, allowance is of course to be made for the normal and average difference between the lengths of the different fibres. For example, those of the cerebellum are much shorter in almost every individual than those of the anterior lobes of the cerebrum. The standard human head is not a sphere; and allowance for its deviation from this form, is always required in estimating the relative power of different cerebral organs in the same individual, and equally required whether we have aimed at arriving at the lengths by a perfect or imperfect instrument, or by no artificial instrument at all. instrument as I propose, appears to be necessary for determining, by numerous observations, the very data which phrenology requires in making these allowances, and which-if phrenology were out of the question-would form an interesting addition to our knowledge of the anatomy of the head. I allude, of course, to the mean proportions of the lengths of the different fibres. A comparison in this respect might be made between races, sexes, and ages, as well as individuals. The use of such an instrument as the above, in connection with observed mental manifestations, would contribute to the solution of several other interesting problems. One is the effect on the powers of any organ, produced by the relative deficiency of circumjacent organs, and the consequent narrow prominence or bump, which forms an essential element in the vulgar conception of phrenology, and the precise influence of which, as compared with that of absolute length of fibre, even scientific phrenologists have never, so far as I know, attempted to determine. In the present state of phrenology, this

instrument, considered with reference to the application of the science instead of its advancement, will be at first chiefly useful in measuring the corresponding parts of the brain, or organs of the same name in different hands.

B. F. J.

ARTICLE IV.

REVIEW OF DR. VIMONT'S WORK ON COMPARATIVE PHRENOLOGY.*

A Treatise on Human and Comparative Phrenology, accompanied by a Grand Allas in folio, containing 120 Plates, executed in the best style. By J. VIMONT, Doctor of Medicine of the Faculty of Paris, Honorary Member of the Phrenological Societies of Paris and of London. (With an Epigraph.) Second edition. Brussels, 1936, pp. 558, royal octavo.

La

L'orgueil, la superstition, la crainte, ont embarrassée la connoissance de l'homme de mille préjugés que l'observation doit détruire. religion est chargée de nous conduire dans la route du bonheur qu'elle nous prepare au-delà du temps. La philosophie doit étudier les motifs des actions de l'homme pour trouver de le rendre meilleur et plus heureux dans cette vie passagère (G. Leroy, Lettre Philos. sur l'homme et les animaux). Second edition. Bruxelles, 1836.

As we are not aware that either a full review, or an analysis even, of Dr. Vimont's great work on Human and Comparative Phrenology, has yet been given by any journalist on this side of the water, we shall endeavour on the present occasion to supply this omission, making, the while, such incidental remarks as may seem to grow out of the subject before us. If, in the performance of this latter part of our task, we should press a little hard upon certain doctors of law and divinity, judges and politicians, including an ex-president, we hope to be excused on the plea of self-defence against those who, for the nonce, have taken into their heads to masquerade, in the garb of philosophy, and under their assumed characters, to elbow somewhat rudely those who differ from them in opinion.

Dr. Vimont, a physician of Caen, in Normandy, and the author of the work before us, gives, in an introduction, the causes of his beginning the course of study and the series of observations which ended in his adoption of the doctrines of phrenology. These we shall present to our readers as briefly as possible.

From the Eclectic Journal of Medicine for August, 1839, edited by Dr. John Bell.