CHAPTER XLIX.

BRIEF NOTICE OF DR. GALL.

FIGURE XXVI.-HEAD OF DR. GALL.

DR. GALL is thus described by a gentleman who visited him in 1826. "I found him," says the gentleman, "a man of middle stature, of an outline well proportioned, he was thin and rather pallid, and possessed a capacious head and chest. The peculiar brilliancy of his penetrat ing eye left an indelible impression. His countenance was remarkable; his features strongly marked, and rather large, yet devoid of coarseness. The general impression that a first glance was calculated to convey would be,

that Dr. Gall was a man of originality and depth of mind, possessing much urbanity, with some self-esteem and inflexibility of design."

His organization, it will be seen from the drawing, indicates the firm, honest, independent, kind-hearted man, who had great powers of observation and a quick perception of the relation of cause and effect. He was admirably endowed by nature for a discoverer in science, but very little suited to the promulgation of his doctrines. He was learned yet unostentatious, and careless of what was said of him. There was never a particle of quackery about him. It would give me great delight to give a full account of his life and discoveries, but I have room here only to record a few facts concerning him. He was born March 9th, 1757, of respectable parents; and received his medical education at the medical school of Vienna. From early age he was given to observation, as appears from the history of his discovery of the organ of Language. He became physician of the Lunatic Hospital in Vienna, and had charge of many of the hospitals and other public institutions, requiring medical superintendence. His house was open to any, who wished to converse with him upon his peculiar views. In 1796, he delivered his first private lectures. He spoke then of the brain as the general organ of the mind, of the necessity of considering the brain as divided into different special organs, and of the possibility of determining those organs by the development of individual parts of the brain, exhibited in the external configuration of the head. He also spoke of several organs which he had then discovered. The facts which he from time to time collected occupy several volumes, and are soon to be given to the Ameri

can public. In 1802, the Austrian government issued an order prohibiting all private lectures, unless under license. Dr. Gall ceased lecturing till 1805, when he and Spurzheim commenced travelling and lecturing together. Having visited most of the principal cities of Europe, they in 1807 arrived in Paris, where in November Dr. Gall, assisted by Dr. Spurzheim, delivered his first course of public lectures in that city. Here Dr. Gall continued until his death, in 1828, in the 72d year of his age. Here, too, he acquired an honorable reputation as a physician, writer, and philosopher. His remains were followed to the grave by an immense concourse of friends and admirers, five of whom pronounced discourses over it, as is the custom in France.

The character of Spurzheim is so generally known, that in a work of this kind I must omit any particular history of him, and will close this article by quoting a parallel drawn by a writer in the Phrenological Journal. We might say of Dr. Gall, that he possessed the greater genius, while Dr. Spurzheim is the most acute reasoner. [Gall had the larger causality and Spurzheim the larger comparison.] To the former we are indebted for the discovery of a new doctrine, to the latter for its adaptation to useful purposes. Gall astonished us by the vastness of his schemes of mental philosophy, Spurzheim by the attractions with which he adorned it. Gall possessed all the genius that commands respect, and Spurzheim the amiability of disposition that ever ensures it.

CHAPTER L.

REMARKS ON THE BEST METHOD OF

NOTICING

SOME OF

THE PERCEPTIVE ORGANS.

MANY people say that they can easily see the location of the large organs, but declare their inability to give any judgments about the small organs, such as size, weight, color, order, and number. To assist such, as far as I am able, I have given the following enlarged view of an eye and eyebrow, by which the situation of these organs will appear quite distinct.

FIGURE XXVI. AN EYE.

The organs of Size and Weight and Resistance are to be noticed as large, by a prominence or an enlargement of this region of the forehead, making a slight angle at the centre of the eyebrow, and seeming to form a large root to the nose. When Color is large, the eyebrow is greatly arched, and also prominent. Order and Number when large show an angle from the centre outward; and these sometimes appear as prominences.

CHAPTER LI.

CHANGE OF CHARACTER AND TALENTS, AND A SIMULTANE- . "OUS CHANGE OF THE FORM OF THE HEAD.

GREAT changes in moral character and talents sometimes manifest themselves in individuals, and the question is put to the Phrenologist, whether the head changes to a corresponding extent? This question requires a very candid and considerate answer.

1. It is important to remark upon the nature of the change which takes place in character, before we attempt to account for it, by a change in the size of organs.

The first change is that which takes place before the individual arrives at maturity. During this forming period of character, great changes often take place, especially in those who are about equally inclined to good and to evil practices. The different parts of character develope themselves just as circumstances draw them out at the usual age of their manifestation. More than twenty-five of the primitive faculties show themselves during the first eighteen months, others appear at subsequent periods, and different groups claim ascendency at different times. As to all the changes of this period, there can be no question, that the shape of the head will change as the character changes. However, at this period, the organs change much in relative activity, without an equally corresponding change in size. Those organs which have never been excited by their appropriate objects will have been less active, than those which have had abundant exercise; but commence the exercise of the organs by the stimulus of their own objects, and you draw them at once into