Swedenborg. He informed me, that a few days before that time, he had attended the funeral of one of his countrymen, into the vault under the Swedish Ambassador's Chapel, in Prince's Square, Ratcliffe Highway, and that he remained there a short time, with others, looking at the inscriptions on various coffins. That, on reading the name of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg, and observing that the coffin lid was loose, he was seized with the idea of making a large sum of money, by taking the skull, and selling it to one of Swedenborg's followers, who, he had heard, amounted to many thousands in this country, and amongst whom, he imagined, there would be much competition for the possession of so valuable a relic. He watched his opportunity, lifted the lid of the coffin, took out the skull, wrapped it in his pocket handkerchief, and carried it out of the chapel unnoticed.

'I informed Captain Granholm, to his great disappointment, that the members of the New Jerusalem Church reprobated the possession of any religious relic, and more particularly a part of a dead body, which, they believe, will never more come into use, the soul remaining, after death, a complete and active man in a spiritual body, not to be again fettered with material flesh, blood, and bones.

"Captain Granholm died a few months afterwards in London, without having disposed of the skull, and without having left this country, so that several particulars of the account in your paper of the 31st ult. are erroneous.

'A very curious circumstance occasioned the coffin lid to be loose. About the year 1790, a Swedish philosopher, then in London, who was a great admirer of Swedenborg's philosophical writings, but had no relish for his theological, became acquainted with some of the members of the New Church, and warmly opposed Swedenborg's tenet—that the soul takes a final leave of the material body at death, and enters on its new scene of superior activity in a spiritual body, more suited to obey its energies. The learned Swede endeavored to persuade them, that all great philosophers had, by virtue of their profound wisdom, the power of taking with them, into the world of spirits, their natural bodies; and he asserted his full conviction, that Swedenborg, whom he considered one of the first philosophers, had taken away his body out of the coffin.

'In order to convince the Swede of his error, leave was obtained to have the coffin opened; when, to the utter confusion of the philosopher, the body of Swedenborg was presented to view. The lid was merely laid on, without being re-fastened; and thus was afforded the facility of which Captain Granholm availed himself twenty-seven years afterwards.

'Pentonville, April 3.'

'J. I. HAWKINS.

'TO THE EDITOR.

'SIR-Two different statements having lately appeared in your journal, concerning the re-interment of the skull of this extraordinary individual, neither of which is exactly correct, I take the liberty of presenting the following to your notice :

E. Swedenborg died in London in the year 1772, and was interred in the vault of the Swedish church, in Princes Square, Ratcliffe Highway. His death having excited considerable sensation among his numerous followers, one of them, a native of. America, came over to England for the purpose of ascertaining the truth of the fact, being convinced, it is said, that such a spiritual man (if, indeed, he had left this lower world) must at least have gone alive to heaven. The parish clerk was bribed, the vault opened, and the coffin pointed out to him. The admirer of Swedenborg could not, however, even then persuade himself that the mortal remains of the venerated man were deposited there, till the coffins were opened, and the mephitic vapours did at the same time expel the sceptic and his doubts upon the subject. Thus the fact is related in Mr. Broling's Travels in England,' edited in Stockholm, 1816 or 1817. Be this, however, how it may, it is a well ascertained fact that Emanuel Swedenborg's coffin had been opened before (1816), when the skull was taken out. It is true, that this violation of the tomb was not perpetrated by a follower or admirer of Swedenborg, the number of whom among his countrymen is very small indeed. (No prophet is honored in his own country.) It was committed by a person who did not admire Swedenborg, but Gall, and who expected to fix the organ of imagination beyond any doubt; but it is incorrectly stated by the Rev. Mr. Noble, that "the person who committed this singular (infamous, if you please) robbery, is now residing in London." No, Sir, this violater of the grave having (no doubt greatly against his expectation) been obliged to lay his own head to rest a few years after, the above skull was found among his property by a gentleman who prevented its being carried away, though claimed by the friends of the deceased abroad, and in whose possession it since remained. It is true, that a noble Countess much interested herself in this affair, and that the skull, agreeably to her desire, was lately restored to its former abode, (a cast having previously been taken;) but it is equally certain, that such a measure had been agreed upon, long ere the interference of the noble Lady alluded to. 'I am, Sir, yours respectfully,

'April 4.'

"TERTIUS INTERVENIENS.

I give the letters as they successively appeared, without any comment. I may, however, here observe, that at the time of Gall's residence in Vienna, a perfect panic seized

upon the more respectable part of the community against his researches. Every one considered his skull to be in danger, and clauses were inserted in wills to protect the skull from the craniological doctor. In Gall's letter to Baron Retzer, he says, 'Men, unhappily, have such an opinion of themselves, that each one believes that I am watching for his head, as one of the most important objects of my collection. Nevertheless, I have not been able to collect more than twenty in the space of three years, if I except those that I have taken in the hospitals, or in the asylum for idiots.’

This incident, however, of Swedenborg's skull, furnishes me with the opportunity of giving some account of Gall's discovery, together with an outline of his life. My account is compiled from the Transactions of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society,' 1824, from the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal,' from the Journal de la Societé Phrénologique de Paris,' and from the Biography prefixed to the American edition of Gall's Works, 1835.

Francis Joseph Gall was born in a village of the Grand Duchy of Baden, on March 9, 1758. His father was a merchant, and Mayor of Trefenburn, a village two leagues distant from Pforzheim, in Swabia. His parents, professing the Roman Catholic religion, had intended him for the church, but his natural dispositions were opposed to it. His studies were pursued at Baden, afterwards at Burcksal, and then were continued at Strasburg. Having selected the healing art for his profession, he went in 1781 to Vienna, the medical school of which university had obtained great reputation, particularly since the times of Van Swietan and Stahl.

From an early age Gall was given to observation, and was struck with the fact, that each of his brothers and sisters, companions in play, and school-fellows, possessed some peculiarity of talent or disposition which distinguished him from others. Some of his school-mates were distinguished by the beauty of their penmanship, some by their success in arithmetic, and others by their talent for