IN ITSELF? Mr Owen represents it as a passive ;* we, on the other hand, hold it to be an EMINENTLY ACTIVE Compound, susceptible at the same time of some modification from external causes-and how different will our methods for improving it be, according as we conscientiously hold one or other of these views! Mr Owen, we know, will tell us, that an infant an hour old is NOT active, and we grant him this position; but our doctrine is, that at this age the mind contains principles which time alone will render active, and which cannot be eradicated, changed, or prevented from unfolding themselves, except by the death or physical restraint of the being. He, on the other hand, to be consistent, must deny the existence of all principles ever tending to action; because the moment he admits a single. active disposition, his whole fabric, reared on the basis of man's passive nature, falls to the ground, and he must himself perceive the necessity of inquiring into the character and tendency of the active powers, before forming schemes for directing human conduct.

Vehement disputes have been maintained by philosophers about the influence of nature and education, as forming the character of individuals; one class maintaining that nature does all, and another that education, in this respect, is omnipotent. Mr Owen, although in words he disclaims alliance with the latter, appears to us, if he were consistent with himself, to belong to it. The phrenologist steers a middle course between the two; man, as revealed to him by his science, is endowed with active powers, which in some individuals, such as Fairfax's sons, are so energetic as to form the leading features of the characters through life, but which in others are susceptible of control and direction, so as to render them liable to receive important modifications from without.

A passive compound, which can move in no direction till it be acted upon; that is, till a thought or idea come into the mind; which thought or idea comes into his mind independently of any power which man can command, and leads him along as decidedly as if he were drawn by force, and boasting of his freedom-he is thus led, as it were, "by the nose," from the cradle to the grave.-O.

54

OBSERVATIONS ON SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS,

AND OTHER ILLUSIVE PERCEPTIONS OF THE KNOWING ORGANS WHEN IN MORBID EXCITEMENT; ILLUSTRATED BY A RECENT CASE.

*

IN vol. i. of the Phrenological Journal, p. 551, a phrenological explanation is given of the phenomenon of Spectral Illusions, to which I beg leave to refer the reader. Drs Gall and Spurzheim have observed, that when the organ of Wonder is in great development and high excitement, there is a tendency to see visions, or to experience Spectral Illusions. In the Journal, a theory is suggested, that this sentiment, when in a state of extreme exaltation, may stimulate the Knowing and Reflecting Faculties to conceive objects fitted to gratify it; and that spectres, apparitions, spirits, &c. are the kind of ideas suited to please an inordinate Wonder. I wish particularly to remark, that the organ of Wonder is here considered as not sufficient per se to produce the illusions of spectres, but that the cooperation of the Knowing Organs is held as also requisite. This view will be greatly strengthened by a new and important case, which forms the chief object of the present communication. To understand it distinctly, an acquaintance is necessary not only with the functions of the different Knowing Faculties, but with the situations of their organs. The following brief sketch may be useful in recalling them to the recollection of the reader :

1. Individuality is situated between the eyebrows, immediately over the root of the nose. The faculty perceives material existences, without perceiving their qualities.

2. Form is situated between the eyes, on the two sides of the crista galli. The faculty distinguishes the quality of form.

3. Size is situated in the inclined curve which connects the eyebrows with the root of the nose, and the faculty gives the perception of extension. The organs of Individuality, Form, and Size are in juxta-position.

By James Simpson.-Vol. ii. No. 6, p. 290. Read before the Phrenological Society on 3d February 1825.

4. Weight, as it has hitherto been called, lies next to and outward from Size, and the faculty appears to me to produce the perception of gravitation, or more generally force, and to enable all animals to preserve equilibrium and regulate their movements.

5. Colouring is situated next to Weight in the superciliary ridge or eyebrow, and its faculty gives the perception of the quality of colour.

6. Locality, or the faculty which judges of the relative position of fixed objects, has its organ in the forehead immediately above Size.

7. Order is situated outward of Colouring, close to but within the angle of the frontal bone, or near the outer extremity of the eyebrows. The faculty takes cognizance of arrangement, is pleased with regularity, and displeased with confusion in physical objects.

8. Number has its organ at the very external extremity of the eyebrow, and extending a little downward after passing the angle of the frontal bone. Its higher function is calculation, but its simple is probably the perception of number as distinguished from unity.

9. Time is situated immediately above Colouring. It is marked as only probable in the books, and the faculty gives the perception of intervals of duration. Recent facts appear to render it certain.

10. Tune is situated in the immediate neighbourhood of, but distinct from Time, and appears in its more moderate endowment to produce the power of distinguishing different sounds, without regard to their harmonious or even melodious relations. When highly developed, melody and harmony are perceived.

11. Language is situated immediately above the middle. of the supra-orbitary bone, or above the middle of the eyeball. It produces the power of using artificial signs for thoughts.

All these organs are placed in one region of the forehead, forming a group; and that they, as well as the organ of Wonder, were excited in the recorded cases of Spectral Illusions, appears obvious from the description given of the apparitions themselves. Thus Nicolai, the Berlin bookseller, saw the form as of a deceased person within eight steps of him, vast numbers of human and other forms, equally

in the day and night, crowds of both sexes, people on horseback, birds and dogs, of natural size, and distinct as if alive, of natural colour, but paler than reality. He then began to hear them talk. On being blooded with leeches, the room was crowded with spectres; in a few hours their colour began to fade, and in a few more they were white. They dissolved in air, but fragments of them were visible for some time. Dr Alderson of Hull furnishes the two next cases. Mr R. left his wife and family in America, but saw them and conversed with them in this country; saw trains of living and dead persons; in a bright brass lock again saw his transatlantic friends, and always in that lock; had violent headach. A pothouse-keeper in Hull saw a soldier in his cellar, whom he endeavoured to seize, but found an illusion; attempted to take up oysters from the ground, which were equally unreal; saw crowds of the living and dead; scarcely knew real from spectral customers; suffered repeated flogging from a waggoner with a whip, which was an illusion. In the second volume of the Phrenological Journal* is given the case of a man in the west of Scotland with a large organ of Wonder, who sees inanimate things and persons in visions; had a spotted carpet for a long time before his eyes, a funeral, a log of wood on wheels. His son has the same tendency; he followed a beggar, who glided and vanished into a wall. All these perceptions are clearly referable to the Knowing Organs.

The positions and functions of the cerebral organs have been discovered and established by comparing the power of manifesting the particular mental qualities with the size of the various parts of the brain; but some of them have received additional support from the phenomena of disease. Thus, in the case recorded by Mr Hood in the Phrenological Transactions, loss of the memory of words was preceded by pain in that region of the head where the organ of Language is situated; pain has been experienced in the cerebellum in concomitance with over-excitement of the peculiar function connected with it; and in the Phrenological Journal† it is mentioned, that a gentleman in London, "when asked whether he experienced any sensation in the head when afflicted with visions? pointed to the Page 111. + Vol. i. p. 554.

*

pot on each side where the organ of Wonder is situated, and said that he felt an uneasy sensation there.” Concomitance of pain in the precise seats of the organs, with disorder of their functions, forms a striking feature in the following case, to which I may proceed :—

Miss S. L., a young lady under twenty years of age, of good family, well educated, free from any superstitious fears, and in perfect general health of body and soundness of mind, has, nevertheless, been for some years occasionally troubled, both in the night and in the day, with visions of persons and inanimate objects, in almost all the modes and forms which we have already related. She was early subject to such illusions occasionally, and the first she remembers was that of a carpet spread out in the air, which descended near her and vanished away.

After an interval of some years, she began to see human figures in her room as she lay wide awake in bed, even in the daylight of the morning. These figures were whitish, or rather grey and transparent like cobweb, and generally above the size of life. At this time she had acute headachs, very singularly confined to one small spot of the head; on being asked to point out the spot, the utmost care being taken not to lead her to the answer, our readers may judge of our feelings as phrenologists, when she touched with her forefinger and thumb each side of the root of the nose, the commencement of the eyebrows, and the spot immediately over the top of the nose, the ascertained seats of the organs of Form, Size, and Individuality! Here, particularly on each side of the root of the nose, she said. the sensation could only be compared to that of running sharp knives into the part. The pain increased when she held her head down, and was much relieved by holding her face upwards.* Miss S. L. on being asked if the pain was confined to that spot, answered, that some time afterwards the pain extended to right and left along the eyebrows, and a little above them, and completely round the eyes, which felt often as if they would have burst from their sockets. When this happened, her visions were varied precisely as the phrenologist would have anticipated, and she detailed the progress without a single leading question.

Quere,-Does not this look like a pressure of blood on that region of the brain?