bodily and mental action : I refer to Martin Luther. In speaking of his boyhood, Luther writes-" My parents used me very harshly, and rendered me very timid. They thoroughly believed that they were doing me good: but they could not discriminate between minds differently constituted. My mother chastised me one day so severely that the blood issued for some time." According to Merle D'Aubigne, he was treated even more harshly at school; for although fond of study, he was equally fond of play, and sometimes preferred rambling in the woods of Eisenach to learning his lessons. To repress this truant disposition, Luther was flogged almost daily on one occasion punishment was inflicted fifteen times successively. At first the organ of Cautiousness was alone affected; and he, who afterwards laughed at the thunders of the Vatican, shrunk from the presence of a superior, and drew his breath inly when addressed by his teacher. Referring to this period in after-times, he said—" My heart was doubtless rendered timid by the threats and tyranny of my master to which I was exposed." But at length this impression wore off; repetition of punishment steeled him against fear or disgrace; and he was accustomed to ascribe his remarkable firmness of character to the power of repressing his feelings which he acquired at school. The teacher of Luther observed the change-how the boy, fond of praise, became careless of censure-but, like many teachers in the present century, unable to perceive that they themselves have trained the animal organs, exclaimed"It is of no avail that Martin is flogged; for he only becomes the more obstinate the more he is chastised." But let not us, who peruse this chapter, in the life of the monk of Wittenberg, forget that if his animal organs sometimes became ungovernable, at least his teachers had done nothing to tame his fiery spirit. It is in vain for us to treat men like brutes, and expect that they shall act like angels.

I have thus described the effects of school-flogging on boys of various and opposite dispositions; and shewn that in every instance the result has been unmitigated evil. It does not enter into my view to consider the question in all its varied aspects; but in shewing that it enfeebles the mind, that it trains men to become wild beasts, and that it consigns thousands to a premature grave, I have adduced sufficient evidence to prove that its infliction is most hurtful, and that John Locke, who shrunk from the idea of school-flogging as men shrink from a venomous reptile, was not actuated by any unreasoning impulse. Let these facts have but due weight, and flogging must cease without, as it already has within, lu

natic asylums. Remembering that the will to do, and the power to do, are not necessarily combined, kindness will supplant force, and we shall train rather than coerce; and it will be found, as it has ever been found in past ages, that, to use the eloquent language of Dickens," men are best ruled by the strong heart, and not by the strong, though immeasurably weaker, hand!"

BRUNSWICK TERRACE, ISLINGTON,
October 1843.

II. Mr Spencer Hall and the "New Organs." By Mr W. R. Lowe, Wolverhampton.

For the last two years few subjects have more agitated the public mind than Mesmerism; and in consequence of the alleged ability to excite the various cerebral organs during the mesmeric trance, without the consciousness of the subject operated upon, phrenologists, as a body, have perhaps felt more interested in the investigation of mesmeric phenomena than any other class of individuals. There are doubtless believers in Mesmerism who are not phrenologists; and, vice versa, that there are phrenologists of highly respectable character and attainments who are not mesmerists, is equally undeniable. There are also believers in both sciences (if Mesmerism, in its present little understood and unsystematized condition, can lay claim to that appellation), who yet refuse to believe the applicability and importance of the one as means of confirming the other. Still it may, I imagine, be stated as a fact, that the great majority of those who have paid attention to the two subjects, consider them not only to be closely allied, but to shed a reciprocal light upon each other; the mesmeric excitation of different portions of the brain, and the correspondent evolution of the mental manifestations without either the will or consciousness of the party operated upon, proving alike the reality of that abnormal condition called "the mesmeric trance," and the correctness of the phrenological localization of the various mental organs. This class of investigators (to which, after much examination and thought, though once perhaps something more than a sceptic, I must now confess my adherence), deem mesmeric excitation, if not the only, at least the best, means of discovering and actually demonstrating the functions of the various portions of the mind's central apparatus,-the grand tribunal before which the claims of every candidate for admission into the list of the primitive faculties can best be examined,-the

experimentum crucis which will decide more satisfactorily than the most elaborate reasonings, the number and nature of those various simple organs, which, in the complicated machinery of the brain, forge and evolve our various thoughts, feelings, and emotions. That the greatest caution is necessary in observing the phenomena presented, as well as the precise portion of the cranial surface on contact with which those phenomena are produced, is of course admitted; and that imagination should have as little, and the most jealous reasoning as much as possible to do in drawing conclusions from the phenomena observed, is with equal readiness conceded. Still, after witnessing many, and performing some experiments on this subject (all of which tend to the same conclusion), I am led to believe with Mr Spencer Hall, that the number of the primitive cerebral functions is very considerably greater than phrenologists generally have been in the habit of imagining. That this number is as large as Mr Hall considers it, I am certainly not prepared to admit ; not, however, from want of confidence in that gentleman's observations, but because I have not been privileged to witness all the experiments by which he has been led to his conclusions and on a subject so mysterious and startling as this, it is prudent at least not to believe more than one's own opportunities have afforded the means of testing. If it be an error at all, it is, in matters of scientific research, erring on the right side, to believe too little rather than too much; though, in all probability, had my means of observing been as great as Mr Hall's, my belief might have increased in the same ratio. The object of this article is, however, not to speak of belief, but to detail (and that not in a dogmatical spirit) some few experiments which I have witnessed, and which certainly prove one of two things; viz. either that Mesmerism does not confirm Phrenology at all, or that, if it does, it establishes, in addition, the subdivision of most of our present organs. Take, for instance, that of Colour. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr Hall's experiments on one of his patients in Wolverhampton, and this not one of his co-travelling subjects (for these, however respectable themselves, are always unsatisfactory when they afford the only evidence adduced), but a very respectable gentleman from this immediate neighbourhood, whose character for trustworthiness was far better known to many of the spectators than to Mr Hall himself. On the organ of Colour being touched (combined, I think, with Language), he suddenly exclaimed, "It's black; all black;" but on the operator very slightly moving his finger, he said “No, it's blue;" and on the tip of his finger being again slightly moved, and the operator saying interrogatively, "Oh! it's blue,

I

is it?" he replied with a smile, "No; who ever heard talk of a blue rose? It's red, to be sure.' So with a highly accomplished lady, with whom I was successful in inducing mesmeric sleep, and calling forth the cerebral manifestations; on touching the same organ, she exclaimed, "What a beautiful rose! Oh! what a lovely red!" and on immediately moving the apex of the little finger which was in contact with the organ, she continued in the same breath,-" And what splendid green leaves!" Other similar cases might be adduced, but it is needless to multiply examples. Now, the only conclusion which the writer's Causality enables him to draw from these cases is this;—that if the fact of the perception of colour being excited on touching the appropriate organ, establish the correctness of the localization of that organ, so it with equal force establishes the second view likewise, viz., that particular portions of that hitherto-considered single organ, are engaged in the perception of single or individual colours. This idea, too, supposing it to be correct (which further investigation must determine), seems to explain a series of cases, quite inexplicable by Phrenology as at present generally received. allude to those of individuals who can perhaps perceive and appreciate colours generally, but whose perception of some one particular shade (green, yellow, or other) is alone defective. It is well known that such cases are of frequent occurrence; and in discussing with the opponents in this neighbourhood the phrenological doctrine, that the fact of some persons being able to discriminate forms, but not tunes— or forms and numbers, but not colours (as in Mr Milne's case, for example) was at variance with the idea of the brain being a single organ, and only explicable by supposing these distinct kinds of perception to be dependent on distinct organs, I have frequently been met by the anti-phrenologists with a reference to this class of cases; it having been argued by them that phrenologists should admit the little portion, designated the organ of Colour, to contain really a distinct organ for every colour, or else that their whole reasoning on the subject of distinct kinds of perception requiring distinct organs must fall to the ground. The former inference was considered by them a reductio ad absurdum; but if the idea suggested by the mesmeric excitation of this portion of the head prove correct, then not only do these cases not militate against Phrenology, but they may be rationally explained thereby; for if the perception of distinct colours be dependent upon distinct portions or fibres of that part of the cerebral mass called the organ of Colour, then the inability to perceive particular colours may be consequent upon a deficient development of some of those

particular fibres or subdivisions, while the others may be of average or even unusual capacity.

Alimentiveness may next be mentioned. On touching the lower portion usually assigned to this organ, the feeling of hunger is excited, and the patient calls for food, or imagines himself eating; but on moving the finger slightly upwards and forwards, hunger gives place to thirst, and instead of food, the patient earnestly desires to drink. It must be observed, further, that these manifestations do not vary, but appear to be uniform on touching the same parts in different persons; at least, in each of the four cases which I have had an opportunity of scrutinizing such has been the fact, and Mr Hall informs me that he has found it universally so. If, then, the first fact, that, on touching the organ of Alimentiveness, its function is called into exercise, be considered a proof of the correctness of the function attributed to that portion of the brain, then, by parity of reasoning, the second fact, that two separate portions of that organ manifest two separate functions, is conclusive as to the view here contended for, viz. that Alimentiveness in reality includes two organs, the one bearing reference to meat and the other to drink. If it prove anything, it proves both.

Once again, Philoprogenitiveness may be adduced. On touching, during mesmeric sleep, the lower portion of the space marked "No 2," the patients have in every case that I have yet witnessed, manifested Philoprogenitiveness properly so called; but on raising the finger slightly, instead of fondling or nursing imaginary children (as in the former manifestations), it has been obvious that some favourite animals-dogs, cats, or some others have been the objects engaging their attention and affections. Here again, then, if any importance whatever be attached to mesmeric excitation, the only inference which we are justified in drawing seems to be, that these two portions of brain have separate functions, the one bearing reference to children, and the other to pet animals, &c. Of course, further experiments are necessary, either to confirm or overthrow these discoveries; but should they be established, which I have no reason to doubt, a considerable amplification of the organs already recognised by phrenologists must be the result.

In connexion with this supposed "pet organ," I may mention, in confirmation, an interesting non-mesmeric fact which came under my own observation. At a dinner party in this neighbourhood, the subjects of Phrenology and Mesmerism being introduced, a Swedish gentleman who happened to be present, and of whom I knew nothing, requested me to feel