Such is an outline of the system propounded by the phrenologists. So far as it shall be confirmed by the mature experience and observation of competent inquirers, the facts and principles which it unfolds must be of great practical value to mankind. The study of the mutual influence of the mind and body has ever been recognized by wise and observant men as one of high importance, though of great difficulty; and certainly Gall and his followers have not only given a strong impulse to that study, but have thrown much light on the diversities of human character, and accumulated a large body' OT facts of a kind which had previously been too much overlooked. Much, it is admitted, still remains to be discovered. " No phrenologist," says Mr. Combo, " pretends that Gall's discoveries are perfect: they-are far from it, even as augmented and elucidated by his followers; but I am humbly of opinion that, in their great outlines, his doctrines are correct representations of natural facts. . . . The future of phrenology will prolv bly exhibit a slow and gradual progress of the opinion that it-is true and important; and only after this stage shall have been passed will it be seriously studied as science. Hitherto this has not been done: the number of those who have bestowed ou it such an extent of accurate and varied observation and earnest reflection as is indispensable to acquiring a scientific knowledge of chemistry, anatomy, natural philosophy, or any other science, is extremely small; and the real knowledge of it, ou the part of such as con tinue, through the in in public lectures, to oppose it, appeals to me scarcely greater than it was m 1815 and 1826," when it was ridiculed in the Edinburgh Bedew.
In considering the claims of phrenology, two questions should not be confounded. One is—How far the functions of the different parts of the brain have been established by observation of extreme instances of their large and small development ?—the other, To what extent the facts so ascertained can be applied physiognomically in practice ? Gail disclaimed the ability to distinguish either ill-defined modifications of forms °Nile skull, or the slighter shades of human 'character (Sur lea Fonetions du Cerveau, iii. 41);
nor, we believe, did he or Spurzheim ever pretend to estimate the size of every Organ in a single brain. By attempting too much in these directions some of their disciples may have helped to prolong the incredulity with which phrenology is still widely regarded.
For the titles of numerous books on phrenology, see GALL (F. J.), &LIMITED' (J. G.), and COMaE (G); also an article in The British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. ix. p. 190. Of other important works bearing on or criticising phrenology, we may mention Dr. Laycock's 3find and Brain, or the 'Correlation of Consciousness and Organization (2 vols., Edin. 1860); his article on phrenology in the 8th ed. of the Eneyc. Brit.; an article on phrenological ethics in the Edinburgh Review for Jan., 1842, vol. lxxiv. p. 376; Aug. Comte's Philosophic Positive, tom, iii. (or Miss Martineau's trans]., i. 466); sir Benj. C. Brodie's Psychological Inquiries, dialogue vi. (Loud. 1834); G. II. Lewes's Biog. Hist. of p. 629 (Loud. 1857); Samuel Bailey's Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 2d series, letters xvi.–xxi. (Load. 1858); and Prof. Bain On the Study of Character, including an Estimate of Phrenology (Loud. 1861). Sir Hamilton's objections, mostly published many years since, and which are now appended to his Lectures on Met aphysics, i. 404 (Edin. 18,59), we\re discussed in the Flinn. Jour., vols. iv. and v., and are remarked on by Mr. Combe in his work On the Relation between Science and Religion, pref., p. xvii. (Edin. 1857).