of Nero, is the record of his deeds; and the loftiest eulogy of Washington, is the simple story of his life. Exaggeration implies a consciousness of the weakness of our theme, as truly as proffered help arises from a knowledge of its need. In the prosecution of his design, the writer of these pages will keep fully in his view the sentiments just expressed. The portrait which he shall sketch, will owe to itself alone its power to please. As a faithful delineator, his business is with the subject before him. His province is to represent an action, not to adorn it. In doing this, he must speak of things as they are, and trust to their own efficacy for the result. If he is faithful to his theme, embellishments are needless; and if he is not, they are entirely out of place. He who would sketch an Apollo, needs no other ornament than that which his subject naturally supplies; and he who speaks of an important truth, or details a great achievement, will find that the only excellence in language is clearly to exhibit the one, and faithfully to record the other. Beyond this, to indulge in polished sentences, or gorgeous imagery, is like adorning a splendid statue, by loading it with the gaudy tinselry of fashion. Amongst the distinguised names of the founders and earliest promulgators of phrenology, that of Professor Charles Caldwell holds a prominent place. It was from his teaching that a knowledge of its doctrines was first gained in the United States. His seed-ground has been the west, more particularly Kentucky, in which, for nineteen years, he has laboured with untiring assiduity. His efforts have been directed to the great end of extending the bounds of human knowledge, and of expounding the laws which govern the operations of the human mind. They have had for their object the improvement of his race, and posterity will bestow a just reward. After his return from Europe, in the summer of 1821, Professor Caldwell delivered to his class, in the medical department of Transylvania University, his first course of phrenological lectures. Up to that time, the science had been unknown in this country; or if heard of, its name was used only as a subject for ridicule, and a mark for the pointless arrows of a bastard wit. But, influenced by a love of truth, and making the laws of nature his only argument, he opposed a dignified silence to contempt, and the reasonings of a sound philosophy to the shallow sophisms of the objector. Thus, among those who heard him, the impression was unavoidable, that they were in the presence of a great mind, discussing great principles. And by this means he has been able to accomplish far more for phrenology than has fallen to the lot of any other man-at least in this country. From that time, every successive winter has found him repeating his course to his class, and thus spreading the truths of phrenology through the entire west and south. But this is not all. In the spring of the following year (1822), he delivered a popular course of his lectures to the citizens of Lexington, Ky. In the following year, that course was repeated in Louisville, Ky. Nor were his labours confined to oral teaching. He called in the press to aid him in disseminating a knowledge of the principles of the science to which he had so warmly devoted himself, and, in 1824, he published, by invitation of his class, a summary of the lectures previously delivered to them. Of this work, which was reviewed in the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal with marked approbation, it is but justice to say, that for clearness, strength and profundity of argument, and perspicuity and richness of expression, it has no superior. This will be readily admitted by those who remember, that, next to a great conception, the highest effort of mind is, correct condensation. In the same year, he visited Nashville, Tenn., and delivered a course of lectures to the inhabitants of that city. In 1825, he lectured to the citizens of Baltimore. The result of these lectures, was the formation of a phrenological society in the latter place. At the close of this course, he, by invitation, delivered another in the city of Washington, which led to a similar result. Before this society, and by its invitation, he repeated his course in 1826. he produced two papers on the phrenology of the Indians, compared with that of the Caucasians. which were published in the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal, my present plan forbids me to say more than that they were worthy of their theme; and that theme was a great and important one. In the same year, In 1827, he published a second and greatly enlarged edition of his "Elements of Phrenology." To this he prefixed, in the form of a preliminary discourse, a reply to Mr. Jeffrey's attack on that science, employing, for the most part, the weapons of resistless argument; but sometimes using, with great effect, the lighter missiles of wit and satire, he left his antagonist completely foiled, on the field from which he hoped to bear the trophies of a victory. And he was far from being a common foe. In 1828, he extended his labours to New England, and delivered his first course there, to a Boston audience, in that year. This was four years before the arrival of Dr. Spurzheim in this country. So that Professor Caldwell had been labouring, as we have seen, most efficiently for eleven years before the voice of the great pupil and co-labourer of Gall was heard on our shores. This statement is due alike to each of those distinguished men. Nor would any one resent, more indignantly, the injustice of an attempt to build for himself a reputation on the labours of another, than the ingenuous and nobleminded Spurzheim. In the following year, he published his "New Views of Penitentiary Discipline and Moral Reform." This paper was reprinted in Europe, with the most decided approbation. It is one of those efforts which will perish only when truth shall cease to interest mankind, and a recognition of the laws of nature no longer be considered as requisite to a sound philosophy. In 1831, he published, by request of his class, an "Essay on Temperament," considered in its relation to phrenology. In the following year, he produced an essay, for the Transylvania Medical Journal, on "Mental Derangement;" and another, entitled "Thoughts on True Epicurism." This last was published in the New England Magazine, at Boston. During the same year, he delivered, by appointment, in Lexington, Ky., an "Address on Intemperance." In this address, he gave a view of the phrenology of that vice. In 1833, he published an essay on "The true Mode of Improving the Condition of Man." The subject is of vital importance to our race, and the essay is imperishable, because it is true to the subject. During the same year, he also published an essay on "Moral Medicine," which subject he considered in its relation to the principles of phrenology. And in an essay on the " Study of the Greek and Latin Languages," published in the New England Magazine, and republished in Europe, he gave a phrenological analysis of mental cultivation. The Transylvania Journal of that year contained, from his pen, a review of the "Principles of Medicine," by Professor Jackson, of Philadelphia, in which he retaliated, with just severity, on that author for a wanton and feeble attack which he made on phrenology. In the following year, he published an address, delivered by request, to a convention of teachers, held at Lexington, Ky., on the subject of "Physical Education." The subject was treated phrenologically, and with singular ability. This essay was also reprinted in Europe. During the same year, he published two articles, entitled "Phrenology Vindicated." Of these, one was written at the request of the phrenologists of Boston, in reply to an abusive attack on the science in the North American Review, and was published in the Annals of Phrenology, a periodical issued at Boston, Mass.; the other was published in the New England Magazine, in reply to an anti-phrenological article in the same work. In November, of the same year, he delivered, by appointment, at Lexington, Ky., an "Address on Gambling," in which he gave the phrenology of that vice. In 1835, he delivered a second course of lectures in Louisville, Ky., and also in Nashville, Tenn. During the same year, he published, in the Annals of Phrenology, an article entitled "Phrenology Vindicated," in reply to an attack made on the science by Lord Brougham. Under the same title, he also published a reply to a very virulent attack on phrenology in the "Boston Christian Examiner." All must concede that, in whatever point of view it may be considered, this reply is a master effort. Its strength of argument is equalled only by the keenness of its repartee. And the highest praise of the whole is, that truth gives its power to the one, and justice imparts its vigour to the other. In that year, he delivered, by appointment, and subsequently published, by request, two addresses of a phrenological character: one at Nashville, Tenn., on the "Spirit of Improvement;" the other at Lexington, Ky., being a second "Address on Gambling." In 1836, he gave a course of lectures in Natchez, Miss., which was immediately succeeded by another at New Orleans. During the same year, he delivered, by request, an academical address on "Popular and Liberal Education." This was also subsequently published. In the following year, being in Philadelphia, he delivered, by invitation, a course of lectures to a class of the Summer Medical Institute; and in 1838, and also by invitation, he delivered a course before the Phrenological Society of New York. While in that city, he published, by request of that society, a volume containing two essays one entitled "Phrenology Vindicated, and Anti-Phrenology Unmasked," being a reply to two lectures by Dr. Sewall, in opposition to that science; the other, the "Phrenology of Falsehood, and its Kindred Vices." During the same year, he delivered at Jeffersontown, Ky., by invitation, an "Address on Education," in which the subject was treated phrenologically. In the following year (1839), he published, in pamphlet form, a letter to the editor of the American Phrenological Journal, on the "Connection between Phrenology and Religion." In the same year, and as a communication to the same journal, he published an excellent essay on "The most Effective Condition of the Brain, &c.;" and also another very able essay in " Vindication of the Science against the charges of Materialism and Fatalism." We have thus briefly sketched the history of the introduction of phrenology in the west. Important as it is in itself, and momentous as it is destined to be in its results, it is, in fact, the history of one man. If we have not indulged in tropes or figures, it is because our subject did not need them. The flowers of rhetoric can add no beauty to the wreath of fame. The dignity of our theme is its highest ornament, and studied eulogy can no more add to its worth, than the carpings of envy can detract from its truth. To conclude. With an energy that has never wearied, and a resolution that has never failed in the most trying emergencies, Professor Caldwell has continued his labours for the advancement of the cause of truth up to the present time. Of his numerous publications, the majority were, by his liberality, distributed gratuitously in the Valley of the Mississippi, for the diffusion of the science of which they treat. And if the unreserved devotion of a rich and powerful intellect to the great cause of nature and of truth, be a sure basis for a reputation which time can never overturn, then is his a name which the most distinguished might be proud to own. ARTICLE IV. CHRONIC DISEASE OF THE BRAIN.* Chronic diseases of the brain have been too long considered, both by physicians and the public, as not coming within the pale of medicine, and remain to this day the most prominent of the opprobriæ medicorum. This has undoubtedly arisen from the obscure notions which we have had of the physiology and pathology of the brain; but the late labours of a Bichat, a Spurzheim, and a Bell, have unfolded to us the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, while its pathological relations have been as minutely and extensively exposed, by the indefatigable researches of a Meckel, a Lobstein, and a Broussais, so that we are now enabled to detect its diseases, and apply our remedies with as much accuracy and certainty of their remedial powers, as we can to any other internal organ of the body. These reflections, and a strong desire to see a physiological system of treatment established, have induced me to forward for your Journal the following case :— Mrs. S., of B., Me., aged about twenty-six years, while on a visit to her relations in this city, last July, was attacked with derangement of intellect. The attack was preceded with pain in the head, principally confined to the anterior part. At this time, she was treated by Dr. Page, a respectable physician of this city, with a variety of depleting remedies, and with marked benefit; her symptoms became so mild, * From Vol. II, No. 24, of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. |