REVIEW OF DR. VIMONT'S WORK ON COMPARATIVE PHRENOLOGY. (Continued from page 130 of this Journal.) A Treatise on Human and Comparative Phrenology, accompanied by a Grand Atlas 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, 1836, 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 prépare 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. The ninth chapter is a commentary on the anatomical propositions of Gall and Spurzheim, and a critique on those of Serres. In the following chapter, the author presents to our notice the successive developement of the cerebro spinal system of man and vertebral animals, and the changes which are induced by age in this system, and consequently in the functions dependent on it. The rapid growth of the brain in the first few months after birth, corresponds with that of the cranium in the same period. More especially are these changes evident in the parts situated at the base of the cranium: those, in fact, which are in direct anatomical connection with the senses, and some of the nutritive viscera and the locomotive organs; and also those at the inferior and anterior part of the frontal bone, which are the organs of those perceptive faculties that are soon to be called into activity in the child. In the period between the first dentition and the seventh year, the increase of fulness and consistence of the cerebro-spinal system of the young subVOL. II.-13 ject is most manifest. It is at this time, also, that the intellectual and affective faculties exhibit more distinct features; and a close observer may already distinguish those which will characterise the future man. There is an obvious but less rapid augmentation in the size and consistence of the cerebro-spinal system of youth in the period between the seventh and fifteenth year from birth. With a remarkable developement of the posterior region of the encephalon, and of the corresponding portion of cranium at the expiration of this period, which is the epoch of puberty, there is also a manifestation of new feelings; notably of those which prompt to sexual intercourse, and at the same time a more decided expression of countenance and manner than before. The intellectual faculties, though far from having acquired the power and latitude of range which they manifest at a later period, indicate with tolerable distinctness the extent of which they are susceptible in manhood. It is only, continues Dr. Vimont, in the period between the eighteenth and fortieth year of his age that the cerebro-spinal system in man attains its entire developement; it is also during this interval that the lineaments of the intellectual and moral being are distinctly defined, and that the affective faculties in particular have most power and duration. After forty years of age, the system in question begins to lose its activity, as it does to be gradually diminished in volume, at the same time that it is increased in density. There are of course great differences among individuals as to the readiness with which these changes take place, and the mental faculties manifest a decline. On this text Dr. Vimont gives a short dissertation, which would go to show that progression in the sciences, and in human knowledge generally, has been sadly retarded by the undue ascendency which persons advanced in life have acquired by their being placed or retained at the head of literary and scientific institutions. "Where is the man, of information and sincerity, who will not agree with us that the ideas and acquirements of those who have passed the sixtieth year of their age always turn in the same circle-that all their actions are purely mechanical and in routine." In making the application of this fact to the state of mind of those who oppose phrenology, we do not mean to enquire into the age of the certifiers of Dr. Sewall's anatomy and philosophy; but we may venture, without much risk of error, to say, that these gentlemen are too far advanced in life to begin a series of observations and enquiries in a new science, and to carry out the numerous and diversified induction from these, which are either in opposition to the creed of their earlier years, or are essentially foreign to their earlier studies and associations. Unacquainted with anatomy and physiology, how can they know whether Dr. Sewall's lectures are penned in ignorance, or with superficial knowledge, or intention to mislead? Ignorant, also, of the innate faculties of the mind, they never having studied man in reference to this important truth, nor noted the connection between organisation and function, between matter and mind, how can they be supposed, either to be able to appreciate the doctrines of phrenology, or to begin the study of them at this time? There was, indeed, a course which age in its wisdom is commonly supposed to be able to set to youth, and by which it rebukes youthful rashness and impetuosity; it is in a prudent forbearance to give an opinion until all the facts are present and studied, and compared during a suitable time and with becoming industry. It is an interesting comparison, one full of instruction, that between the state of the brain of old persons, marked by its decay, its subjection to paralysis, congestion, and apoplexy; and of very young ones, marked by the increase of its growth, its vascularity, active circulation, and susceptibility; and then for us to note the diminution and feebleness of the faculties, the want of common sensibility, the difficulty of creating new impressions, or of stirring up the affections and exercising the intellect in the former, in contrast with the agitation, eagerness for novelty, ardour of feeling, and quickness of intellect in the latter. All this belongs to the physiology of observation-it is part of the study of the philosophy of mind, the truth of which cannot be either rejected or maintained by closet reveries and metaphysical jargon. What are we to think, then, of the piety of those persons, who can see naught in the study of the functions of the brain but "a subtle form of materialism and an auxiliary to infidelity?" for in these terms is phrenology spoken of by a president of a college, a D. D., whose name we forbear to repeat here, although he has gratuitously exposed his own ignorance and illiberality in the expression of his opinion of Dr. Sewall's lectures. It would comport admirably with this reverend doctor's metaphysical abstractions, and his idea of physiology, if a lecturer were to attempt to prove that the structure and organisation of the eye had nothing to do with optics and vision, and that the function of digestion could be very well understood without the least reference to the stomach. And yet neither of these propositions is a whit more absurd, and more adverse to inductive philosophy, than that which this reverend president of a college (save the mark!) would inculcate, viz. a study of the faculties of the mind without taking the brain into the account. If orthodoxy and piety are to be measured in the inverse proportion of a knowledge of the circumstances under which our mental faculties originate, and are modified and educated, either to good or to evil, then indeed should the reverend doctor be sought after as the guardian of faith, and the fount of morality. Dulness would then be the presiding deity, and ought to be invoked in the words of the poet : "O ever gracious to perplex'd mankind! Still spread a healing mist before the mind; Dr. Vimont has studied the progressive growth of the cerebrospinal system of animals from birth to maturity, as he had in the case of this system in man. The author devotes a chapter, 1st, to diseased crania; 2d, to alterations of the cerebro-spinal system and its membranes. He considers the diseases of the cranium as of three kinds: 1st, Malformation, or vice in the configuration; 2d, An increase or diminution of the calcarious matter entering into the composition of the lines of the cranium; and 3d, An unusual number of the bones of which it is formed. Of the first, or vices of configuration, the two chief varieties are, an atrophy or deficient growth of the cranium, coinciding with a similar state of the cerebral hemispheres, and an opposite condition of things in which there is excessive enlargement of the cranium, following that of the contained brain. The defective growth of the cranium may amount to an almost entire absence of this part, as in acephalous fœtuses, or to a deficient developement, as in congenital idiots. In its morbid developement in chronic hydrocephalus, by which the ventricles are gradually distended with fluid, and the convolutions effaced, so that the brain assumes the appearance of a large membrane of a globular figure filled with fluid, the cranium follows the developement of the brain on which it seems to be moulded; and in some cases the size of the head is very great. Dr. Vimont mentions the case of a young man, eighteen years of age, whom we have ourselves seen, at the Hospice de Perfectionnement, whose head measured two feet nine inches in circumference. Spurzheim describes one three feet in the same direction. These abnormal variations, in addition to the illustrations which they furnish of the functions of the brain, show also how closely and accurately the growth and configuration of the skull are dependent on, and coincident with, these states of its contained organs. Dr. Vimont, under the present head of abnormal configuration of the cranium, refers to the flat heads of the Caribs, the round heads of the Turks, and to other national peculiarities in this respect, which we have not room to introduce here. The bones of the cranium may exhibit different degrees of density or thickness without any change in the configuration externally. This state may be either natural, the effect of certain general affections which influence the nutrition of the whole osseous system, or the consequence of disorders of the brain, and particularly of those marked by derangement of the intellectual faculties, or insanity. In some individuals of an athletic make, in whom the limbs, including the hands, are large, and the bones prominent, the cranium is also, Dr. Vimont thinks, notably developed, owing, in part, to its great thickness. This was the case with the skull of Dr. Gall himself. But, however the observer may be misled from such a cause, in the opinion which he might entertain of the size of the brain beneath, the configuration and general proportions of the former are still indicative of the proportional developements of the latter. A large frontal region, for example, will not cover a deficient intellectual organ; although it might indicate a larger endowment of these than is actually possessed. Age causes increase of thickness and of density of the skull, as do chronic diseases of the brain and of its membranes. Rickets, scurvy, and syphilis, also modify the state of this bony case. Dr. Vimont states that he has in his possession the skull of a young man, who died of pulmonary consumption of three years' duration, which towards the conclusion assumed a scorbutic character. The entire cranium does not weigh more than ten ounces; the external table is not more than a quarter of a line thick, and at some points had been completely absorbed. Syphilis, peculiarly destructive in its advanced stage to the osseous system, attacks, of course, at times, the cranium, producing great inequality of its surface, riddling its tables, as it were, and in parts increasing the hardness and thickness of its bones. The accounts which some of the older anatomists have related of ossified brain are fabulous; and had their origin in confounding exostosis, or bony tumour projecting from the inner surface of the skull, with the brain itself. Dr. Vimont thinks that alterations in the osseous structure of the cranium of animals are of rare occurrence, although their existence on occasions is not denied. The second section of this chapter takes cognisance of the alterations of the cerebro-spinal nervous system and of its membranes. Of these, we may notice the congenital deficiency of cerebral structure in idiots; the convolutions of whose brains are less dis |