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necessity of exercise to strengthen the mind, and of the close dependence of it on the state of the organisation—a point which, I am afraid, is not sufficiently kept in view. If the intellect is not provided with

interests external to itself, it must either be inactive and become weak, or work upon the feelings and become diseased. In the former case, the mind becomes apathetic, and presents no ground of sympathy or fellowship with its fellow-creatures; in the latter, it becomes unduly sensitive, and shrinks within itself and its own limited circle, as its only protection against every trifling occurrence or mode of action which has not relation to itself. A desire to continue an unvaried round of life takes strong possession of the mind, because to come forth into society requires an exertion of faculties which have been long dormant, which cannot awaken without pain, and which are felt to be feeble when called into action. In such a state, home and its immediate interests become not only the centre, which they ought to be, but also the boundary of life; and the mind being originally constituted to embrace a much wider sphere, is thus shorn of its powers, deprived of numerous pleasures attending their exercise; the whole tone of mental and bodily health is lowered, and a total inaptitude for the business of life and the ordinary intercourse of society comes on, and often increases till it becomes a positive malady.

If the parents or guardians of young persons so situated be themselves possessed of talent, but want either the knowledge of human nature, or the tact requisite for drawing out the faculties of those under their charge, the evil is aggravated rather than diminished, because the natural veneration which the young feel for talent in their seniors, keeps them too far from that equality which is essential to friendly confidence and encouragement. Girls of a sensitive mind thus situated, will often suppress their own thoughts, and do injustice to their own powers, when with more confidence they would have displayed much energy, and engaged in many active pursuits. From timidity, and the want of independence which it engenders, such persons rarely act up to the limits of their faculties, and yet are habitually judged of as if they did. In accordance with this observation, it is no rarity to see them, on the occurrence of circumstances which call forth their faculties, evince a degree of activity and vigour of judg ment which previously no one suspected them to possess.

That exercise of the various feelings and intellectual powers is one of the most efficient tonics to the nervous system, is proved by another striking fact. Every person who has either attended invalids, or been an invalid himself, must often have remarked, that the visit of a kind and intelligent friend is highly useful in dispelling uneasy sensations, and in promoting recovery by increased cheerfulness and

hope.

The true reason of this is simply, that such intercourse interests the feelings, and affords an agreeable stimulus to several of the largest organs of the brain, and thereby conduces to the diffusion of a healthier and more abundant nervous energy over the whole system. This, in fact, is an important medical principle, according to which medical men endeavour to act systematically, when they often seem to be merely passing the time; and it is this which makes it so desirable, even for his own power of relieving disease, that the medical man should be always the friend as well as the professional adviser of his patient. The extent of good which a man of kindly feeling and a ready command of his ideas and language can do, is much beyond what is generally believed; and if this holds in debility arising from general causes, in which the nervous system is affected not exclusively, but only as a part of the body, it must hold infinitely more in nervous debility and in nervous disease; for then, indeed, the moral management is truly the medical remedy, and differs from the latter only, that its administration depends on the physician, and not on the apothecary—on the friend, and not on the indifferent attendant.

What, therefore, seems most wanted, in addition to judicious exercise, regimen, and other points on which I cannot touch here, to strengthen the nervous system and general health of delicate and nervous young ladies, is a mode of life and of occupation that shall give full scope to the intellectual powers, and healthy excitement and activity, and a right direction to the affective faculties or feelings; and in forming any arrangements for this purpose, we must take for our guide the grand rule of exercising the faculties we wish to employ upon their own immediate objects, as no other stimulus is half so efficacious or grateful as this. It would be as absurd to think of cultivating our powers of vision by listening attentively to sounds instead of looking upon the face of nature, and examining the colours, forms, and qualities there presented to the eye, as it would be to think of cultivating Causality by reading poetry, or Benevolence, Justice, and Veneration, by studying logic. The intellectual powers, therefore, must be applied each to their own objects; and the moral sentiments and propensities must be kept in activity by contact and communion with the sentiments and propensities of our fellow-men, and not left to the listless dulness to which either seclusion or fashionable society would condemn them.

MISCELLANY.

Outlines of Physiology, with an Appendix on Phrenology, by P. M. Roget, M. D.-This is the title of an octavo volume of 516 pages, recently issued from the press in this city. It is composed of two articles, originally prepared by Dr. Roget for the "Encyclopædia Bri tannica." Their present republication is introduced to the public with a brief preface and numerous notes, by an "American editor." The article on phrenology, including nearly fifty pages, appears in the form of an appendix. Dr. R. has been an unbeliever in phrenology ever since its first introduction into Great Britain; and it would be very strange, if a man of his age, circumstances, and relations to the public, when once having committed himself decidedly and unequivocally against it, should take any other ground but that of an open opposer to the science.

In his treatise on physiology, page 449, Dr. Roget states the fact, that no physician over forty years of age would admit the truth of Harvey's celebrated discovery of the circulation of the blood; so in relation to the truth of Dr. Gall's discovery of the functions of the brain, though there may be many honourable exceptions to the above historical fact, yet we presume Dr. Roget will never be enrolled among that number.

Notwithstanding Dr. R.'s objections to phrenology have been repeatedly answered in Great Britain, yet they are republished in this country with the evident design of prejudicing the public against the science-a thing which they are peculiarly calculated to effect, both from the well-known reputation of their author, as well as from his misrepresentations and plausible mode of reasoning. Since this is the fact, we shall present a thorough and extended review of the work in a future number of the Journal. We are gratified to find that it has already met with some strictures in the September number of the Eclectic Journal of Medicine.

The Literary Examiner and Western Monthly Review, published at Pittsburg, Pa.-The August number of this periodical contains a critical and able review of Dr. Sewall's lectures against phrenology, as well as an extended notice of the famous letter of J. Q. Adams. The writer displays a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and phrenology ; and completely exposes the sophistry and misrepresentations of these two anti-phrenologists. We should be pleased to notice this review at length, did our limits permit, and had not the same subjects already been discussed in this Journal; and, as it is, we cannot refrain from copying the ⚫ following excellent paragraph in commendation of Phrenology:

"This science studies man only as a living agent, confining its enquiries to his organisation and its resulting phenomena. Strictly Baconian in all its parts and processes, it pushes its investigations no farther than the safe ground of observation and experience, and pretends only to examine the proper subjects of rational enquiry. Of all the systems of mental philosophy that recognise the truth of the Christian Scriptures, it alone deserves the high praise of rejecting all ontological hypotheses, and reverently leaving to revelation its proper province of unfolding the condition of the soul in a future state. It is the only science of mind which consists exclusively of facts and phenomena, and their classified arrangement, dealing only with the certainties which sense and reflection are competent to attain, and walking cautiously by

the sound rule, that first causes and the intimate nature of things is the wisdom of God-observation and legitimate deduction, the proper knowledge of man.”

Southern Literary Messenger.-This monthly periodical, which is deservedly popular, and has an extensive circulation in the southern states, is furnishing its readers with the full reports of Mr. Geo. Combe's lectures on phrenology, as they first appeared in the New Yorker. Each number contains a report of one lecture. We doubt whether the editor of the Messenger could select matter more interesting and instructive to the great mass of its readers; and in confirmation of this remark, we observe that several papers, in their recent notices of the work, have spoke of its value in high terms, with special reference to the full reports of these lectures.

W. Lawrence, F. R. S., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, London, makes the following statement in his lectures on physiology:-"I consider the difference between man and animals, in propensities, feelings, and intellectual faculties, to be the result of the same cause as that which we assign for the variations in other functions, viz. difference in organisation; and that the superiority of man in rational endowments, is not greater than the more exquisite, complicated, and perfectly deveJoped structure of his brain, and particularly of his ample cerebral hemispheres, to which the rest of the animal kingdom offers no parallel, nor even any near approximation."

Usefulness of Phrenology to the Treatment of Insanity.-Very great improvements have been made within twenty years in the treatment of the insane, and in the management of lunatic asylums. It is now generally admitted, that mental derangement of every kind and degree is the result of a diseased state of the brain; and it has been found, by actual experiment, that this disease, like others, is curable to a very great extent by the application of proper remedies. Nearly all cases of mental alienation, if taken in season and properly treated, are now found to result in the restoration of health to the body, as well as of sanity to the mind of the patient. Once the insane were regarded universally as incurable, and comparatively no exertions were made to promote their happiness or prolong their lives. The important changes which have been brought about in this respect, are attributable in no small degree to the lights which phrenology has shed upon medical science. But this unfortunate class of our fellow-beings, as a body, have scarcely yet begun to enjoy its healing and beneficial influences. The next fifty years will witness far greater changes and improvements in the treatment of the insane, than have occurred during the last half century.

For some time past, several lunatic asylums in Great Britain have been under the superintendence of medical gentlemen who have availed themselves of the helps of phrenology. And it has been found, we believe, in every instance, that the number of cures has been greater, and the general management better, in these institutions, than in those superintended by persons entirely ignorant of the science. There is evidence to believe, both from experience as well as philosophy, that, ultimately, all hospitals and asylums for the insane will be managed by superintendents who understand the principles and application of phrenology. Dr. James Scott, of the Royal Hospital at Haslar, England, recently gave, in a public document, the following testimony of the utility of the

science:-"I unhesitatingly give it as my deliberate conviction," says he, “that no man, whatever may be his qualifications in other respects, will be very successful in the treatment of insanity in its various forms, if he be not well acquainted with practical phrenology; and I will add, that whatever success may have attended my own practice in the Lunatic Asylum of this great national establishment, over which I have presided as chief medical officer for many years, I owe it, almost exclusively, to my knowledge of phrenology."

Phrenology in Louisiana.-It appears that there is a strong and increasing interest on the subject of phrenology in various parts of this state. At Jackson, where is located the college of Louisiana, a large and flourishing Phrenological Society has for some time existed, which embraces the president and professors of the college, as well as many of the students. In No. 10, Vol. 1, of the Journal, we presented our readers with an excellent address, delivered before this society by President Shannon; and we have the pleasure of presenting them with another address from the same source in the present number of the Journal.

We learn, also, that Professor H. H. Gird delivered, last year, an address before the Phrenological Society of the same institution, which is spoken of in high terms. Will some friend of the science send us copies of the Feliciana Republican for February, 2, 9, and 15, containing this address? Meanwhile we copy for our readers its concluding paragraph from an exchange periodical:

"For this trait, for its tendency to diffuse the noblest kind of knowledge, I am a warm friend to phrenology. It shuts not itself in the scholar's cell, its sphere is not the narrow bounds of the professor's lecture-room; it goes forth strong in the consciousness of its truth and simplicity, and addresses itself to all who are willing to hear. It calls men together, it teaches them to study themselves and their fellow-men, and to apply their knowledge to useful and benevolent purposes under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of Christianity. It is not extravagant, then, to apply to its authors and propagators the eulogium bestowed on Socrates. Like him, they have brought philosophy down from heaven, and caused her to dwell once more in the abodes of men."

The celebrated Dr. Physick, who for many years stood at the head of the medical profession in this country, was, in the year 1821, President of the Philadelphia Phrenological Society.

A very scientific gentleman recently stated, in a public lecture, that, from a critical examination of paintings, statues, busts, &c., he was fully convinced of the truth of this fact: viz. that all the signers of the Declaration of American Independence were men possessing large heads. Can any one furnish us with definite information, respecting the general size or particular development of the above class of individuals, or of any of the great leaders in the American Revolution?

Several interesting articles on phrenology have appeared in the recent numbers of the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," which we shall notice more particularly hereafter.

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