3. The Skull and Brain
their Indications of Character and Anato- mical Relations. :Author: Nicholas Morgan. London. (Pp. 208.)
One of tlie chief desiderata of modern thinkers is the reconciliation of the old and new philosophies?a via media between the creed which holds intelligence to be altogether independent of matter, and that which holds mind to be a function of the brain?a fusion between the pure metaphysicians and the ultra-psychologists. And, now when animals are declared to be automata, Avhen the onward movements of the headless water-beetle and of the vivisected centipede, evidently depending upon impulses imparted to the general nervous system previous to or at the moment of decapitation or dismemberment, in virtue of the same law which leads to the growth of the nails in the dead, have become the gage of battle between such combatants as Huxley, Carpenter, &c., the necessity for such a reconciliation has become more clamant. Mr. Morgan’s work seems calculated, in a certain measure, to promote this union: for, although he proclaims the doctrine that mind is connected with the brain, that all psychical acts depend upon or are influenced by the integrity and condition of the nervous system, a doctrine which few will repudiate who have traversed the wards of a Lunatic Asylum, or who have had a friendly mind dulled or darkened by a blow on the head, or a friendly voice silenced for ever by a structural change in a small convolution, he shows very clearly that the division of mind into classes of faculties or powers, and the localisation of these, very slightly, if at all, affect the analysis of their nature and scope, or the results obtained by observation and experience. His chapters on the ” Exposition of the Will ” and on the ” Science and Attributes of Mind ” demonstrate that there is a meta- physics of Phrenology, and that its principles do not differ more widely from those upon which other systems of philosophy are founded than these do from each other. As may be inferred from the title of the work, large portions are devoted to the consideration of the objections urged against the principal dogmas of Phrenology; of the recent cor- roborations of its truth derived from collateral sources, such as the observations and experiments of Turner, Ferrier, and Ecker; of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and its dependencies, as affording direct support to these truths; of the classification and combinations of intellectual, emotive, and instinctive faculties; and of the practical application of the external cranial signs of these faculties in under- standing the character and conduct of individuals and nations, and in elucidating the complexities and difficulties which are involved in every social and domestic relation. The book is not, however, a mere Phre- nological Vade-Mecum, although it may serve as such, but a lucid exposition of mental conditions in relation to matter, which should in- terest, inasmuch as it affects, every individual. To those who barely know the rudiments of phrenology the volume may prove a valuable elementary treatise ; to those who are more advanced in the study and knowledge of the science, there will be afforded much information, and many new views as to the present state and the future development of what must ultimately become, although perhaps in a somewhat modified form, the trustworthy exponent of the attributes and capacities of human nature.
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