tion, and conventional usages, will be published in twelve parts; each part will be complete in itself." The Fallacy of Phrenology forms part first, and the subject of the second part will be The Fallacies of restricted Trade and Monopoly." Though "London" is on its title-page, the pamphlet is evidently from an American press. Judging from the profound ignorance of the simplest principles of physiology and mental philosophy, as well as of phrenology, which pervades this work-from the disregard of truth, consistency, and reason, which are displayed in it-and from the tone of self-conceit and arrogance which runs through every page we cannot conceive a greater mischief happening to Free Trade, than that Messrs Byrne should become its advocates. Punch lately remarked that the calamities of un. happy Ireland were about to be consummated by the author of The Great Metropolis writing a book about it! In the lowest depths there is a lower still. Let the Messrs Byrne write a book in defence of Ireland, and her cause will be ruined for ever. As a specimen of their facts we select the following:"The theory of Phiz. has long since ceased to be advocated; but the protuberances on the cranium seem to be on the meridian in America; though, in Europe, Phrenology has descended far below the horizon, and can be seen by reflection only"! (P. 5.) The French, German, and British works on Phrenology, noticed in our last and present numbers, will serve as an answer to this assertion. As an example of their ignorance of physiology and their powers of reasoning, we take at random the following remarks: "Now, the very idea of making the mind of man depend* merely on the increase or diminution of any part of his body, is, indeed, self-contradictory; it brings man below the brute; for it approaches to the vegetative. Again, to conceive such a tender and delicate substance as the brain forcing out such a hard and durable material as the skull at a mature age, in particular places, is almost argument enough to upset this anagram of a science in its first commencement." Nothing can exceed the illogical inconsequence of these propositions ; while the authors, at the same time, appear not to know that it is a recognised law of physiology, that the soft parts give form to the hard; or that the "particular places" of the skull receive their form from the brain, not, in the general case, as here stated, "at a mature age," but in youth, when the brain and skull are both increasing. But even in mature age the *Here they omit, what phrenologists constantly include, the words, "for the power of manifesting itself in this life." VOL. XVII.-N. S. NO. XXVIII.-OCTOBER 1844. 2 c soft parts give form to the hard. Did they never see a hydrocephalic head, in which the "tender and delicate brain," when distended by water, had enlarged the "hard and durable material of the skull ?" Did they never hear of the ribs falling in, when the lungs decayed, and were no longer able to support them, although the lungs are as tender and delicate as the brain? There is no proof, say these critics, that "the brain is the organ of the mind; it is not self-evident; it only amounts to a conjecture, and one of the lowest degree; because it rests on the argument that the premises assumed cannot be disproved!" This needs no comment. Again they say," It is a fundamental doctrine in Phrenology, that every faculty is originally good; and that the legitimate exercise of every faculty is virtuous.' If this be one of the axioms of Phrenology, instead of being self-evident, it is not true, nor has it even plausibility to support it!" (P. 41.) What, then, becomes of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator? On page 57 they inform us that "There is a curious fact, not irrelevant to the present subject, as it illustrates the nature of the brain; at least, as far as regards the lower animals. Naturalists have discovered that large flies sometimes enter the brain of the elk (or generate there), and eat the brain almost away before the animal dies." They do not mention how this illustrates the nature of the brain;" but we may infer, that, as they deny it to be "the organ of the mind," and do not assign to it any other function, they mean us to understand that it is a fungus created for the purpose of feeding flies—“ at least, as far as regards the lower animals." We suspect, moreover, that Thomas Moore is the "naturalist" on whose authority they rely for the fact itself; at least he is the only one quoted by them. He says: "In the woods of the North, there are insects that prey Oh, Genius, thy patrons, more cruel than they, First feed on thy brains, and then leave thee to die." As Messrs Byrne are discussing the talents of men and animals, we recommend to their notice, as an important contribution to their next edition, another fact, resting on an authority in natural science, which they seem to have deeply studied, although we do not observe that they have anywhere honestly quoted it. "The trout and salmon They played backgammon, Now, if the "trout and salmon," with their notoriously small brains and sloping foreheads, be capable, as mentioned in that very accurate record of natural phenomena, The Groves of Blarney, of playing at the complicated game of backgammon, why should the phrenologists try to "gammon" the world, with their nonsensical doctrine, that size in the organs, cæteris paribus, is a measure of power in the manifestation of the mental faculties ? This feat of the "trout and salmon" refutes it completely-" at least, as far as regards the lower animals." 66 No With one piece of friendly advice, we leave Messrs Byrne in full possession of the field. Let them, in future, write with less disrespect to the public than is implied in their candid enough announcement, that the present pamphlet was composed from facts that chanced to linger in the recollection, as a kind of evening recreation, succeeding days employed in playing [plying?] the irksome task of public instruction." " reader of sense will submit to be insulted by the substitution of "facts" which chance to linger in the recollection of men jaded by irksome professional employment, for extensive and accurate knowledge, gained by patient study, and communicated by a writer who brings to his task a fresh and vigorous understanding. III. The Medical Journals. The Medico-Chirurgical Review.-In No. LXXIX. (Jan. 1844), p. 83, the following instances of change of character, in consequence of injuries of the head, are given :-"The remarks of Pinel and others have shewn that a sanguinary instinct may be accidentally developed in the most virtuous man, and may carry him often irresistibly, without any reasonable motives, to the most terrible excesses. Other instincts may be similarly developed. It has been stated of the notorious duellist, 'fighting Fitzgerald,' that, previous to a wound in the head, he was a mild and amiable man. Be that as it may, injuries of the head produce curious modifications of character, just as concussions of the body from gunpowder have been observed in some instances to have brought on obesity and a general stoutness. We were acquainted with two officers who attributed their extraordinary size after the event to the circumstance of being blown up, the one in Madras Roads, and the other in storming a fort. One person, who received a severe concussion of the brain by a fall from his horse, became soon after capricious and cold to old friends, with whom he had been formerly most cordial. Another gentleman, who, up to his 40th year, had been noted for steadiness, respectability, and sobriety in his profession (the law), was severely wounded and concussed by a fall from his horse-and became an incurable drunkard. The recollection of such things ought to make us charitable towards our neighbours' failings. We know not what may be at the root of them!"-In No. LXXX., p. 328, there is quoted from Mr Curling's recent work on the Diseases of the Testis, a case where injury of the back of a soldier's head was followed by loss of sexual desire, and wasting of the reproductive organs. Mr Curling quotes similar cases from Larrey, Hennen, and Lallemand, and thinks "they go far to prove the essential dependence of the functions of the testes upon the cerebral organ."* To the last three Numbers of the British and Foreign Medical Review we can do little more than refer. In No. XXXIII. (Jan. 1844) the reader will find some instructive remarks on the brain and mental functions in old age, p. 103; on derangement of the functions of the brain, &c., without any apparent disease of structure, p. 126-7; quantity and pressure of blood in the brain, p. 127; judicious and successful improvements lately made in the treatment of the patients in Haslar Naval Lunatic Asylum, p. 285. In No. XXXIV., on the importance of the study of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system (on which subject the writer says,-" Mental philosophy or metaphysics must henceforth be cultivated as a portion of the physiology of the nervous system," p. 380); the sense of the amount of contraction of the muscles, p. 413; spectral illusions * See a notice of Dr Budge's Experiments on the Cerebellum, in the British and Foreign Medical Review, April 1844, p. 402; also an article on the Structure of the Cerebellum, by C. Handfield Jones, in the Medical Gazette, 29th March 1844, p. 866; and a notice of a work entitled "The Principal Offices of the Brain and other Centres, by Joseph Swan,” in the same publication, 12th April, p. 52. "The cerebellum," says the writer of the notice referred to, Mr Swan does not agree in considering, with the French anatomists, as the part which regulates or co-ordinates motion. It is much rather an appendage of the brain, he says, than of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord, the acknowledged seats of the motory power. It does not correspond with the number and size of the sensitive and motive nerves; it is not required for the intellect, the special senses, common sensation, or volition; nor is it concerned in digestion or assimilation; and is not proportioned to the heart, lungs, chest, or any organ, nor yet to the reproductive faculty generally, although it must be confessed that this faculty is very active in the porpoise, where the cerebellum is very large (p. 11). We rather think that Gall was right in his estimate of the function of this part after all.” ("Neither increased nor diminished sensibility of the optic nerve," says the reviewer, "can be considered as in any way connected with spectral illusions; their site is undoubtedly cerebral," p. 415); hypochondria (which, in the reviewer's opinion, manifestly "depends on a local neurosis of the cerebrum," and the morbid anxiety characterising which, is, “in fact, but a modification of that morbid state usually termed mental depression," p. 419); psychical spasms, "the imitated movements' of English writers, and on which," says the reviewer, "as well as on the vertiginous affections, animal magnetism may be expected to throw some light. The subject, he adds, “is one of the most important in cerebral physiology, and has a decided bearing on education, morals, and social economy. Epidemic fanaticism, tarantism, the leaping ague of Scotland, and other well-known examples of this kind of disease are mentioned [by Professor Romberg, whose Manual of Nervous Diseases is the book reviewed]. This imitative propensity appears sometimes as a chronic affection. We have been consulted concerning a girl of five years, who, when spoken to, gave no answer, but repeated what was said to her like an echo. Professor Romberg, who terms this form echo,' states that he has observed it in many individuals, and in variously diseased states of the brain." P. 422. The following scraps are selected from No. XXXV:-"We recollect hearing of a physician of celebrity, who would not continue to attend any patient who had any weight upon his mind; probably from feeling that his visits were useless." P. 59.-"A prize having been offered by the Royal Society of Copenhagen, for the best essay upon the advantages and results which have accrued to physiological science from the recent microscopical investigation of the nervous system,' Dr Hannover became a candidate for the honour," and a work reviewed at p. 140 is the result of his labours. He states that the brain and spinal cord consists of two principal elements-cells and fibres; the cells being vesicles, consisting of a membrane enveloping fluid contents, with one or more nuclei, and the enveloping membrane a very fine-grained substance. "The cells of the brain are to be found wherever the cerebral substance is not entirely white; but in the purely white substance there is not a single cell." Dr Hannover confirms, by the microscope, the observations of Remak and Baillarger, that the superficial grey matter of the brain is composed of several layers. In the brain of large mammals, and of the human species, the grey substance is seen to consist of six layers, which Dr Hannover has figured. The fibres run horizontally on the convolutions in the external or first layer, which is exceedingly thin." The same 66 |