that part of the body. In a certain sense, therefore, Gall may be said to have had precursors. But his turn for observation, and fondness for natural history, having led him to choose the medical profession, instead of that of the Church-for which his father had destined him-he was the first to perceive that the form of the head can have no physiological value unless it agrees with the development of the brain, and throws light on the functions of that organ, to which he devoted his full attention. It was indeed mainly through his labours that the old erroneous way of studying the anatomy of the brain by cutting off successive slices from the top, and noting the parts and appearances thus presented to view-to which strange names, from their fancied resemblances, were given-was abolished, and the physiologically sound method of investigating the fibrous structure of that organ, by commencing at the bottom, at its connection with the spinal cord, became generally adopted. As regards insight into the fibrous structure of the brain, however, Gall likewise had precursors, particularly Varol; and our Willis, in the middle of the seventeenth century, deserves mention for having called attention to the convolutions and their covering of grey matter. But that the teachings of the schools on the anatomy of the brain were mainly reformed through Gall's labours, I have been assured by eminent physiologists

in Germany. Modern researches into the anatomy of the brain, whilst they have increased our knowledge of that organ, especially of its development-history, are, as will be shown, nowise opposed to the general principle of its functions as taught by Dr. Gall.

I must now more fully explain what it is that Gall did to place the study of the human mind on the basis of natural history and physiological experience. Although before him the brain had been often regarded by physiologists, naturalists, and students of human nature, to be the material instrument by means of which certain mental powers are manifested, yet these powers themselves were held to belong to an immaterial mind or soul, and to be subjects of conception and demonstration quite independently of the body. I here must allude, however, to the fact, that, practically, many great poets and dramatistsShakespear in particular-in their delineations of human nature, have used the terms mind and brain as equivalent or convertible, and that in the sayings and proverbs of every civilised people there are many allusions to the head, to its size and shape, as indicative of mental qualities.

The German language is especially rich in such allusions, several of which, moreover, in connecting particular dispositions and talents with particular forms of the head, very nearly coincide with Gall's experiences. However, it belonged, in his days, I

repeat, to the doctrines of the schools of mental philosophy, that the human mind—not, I must emphatically state, an abstract conception of mind or spirit per se-could be studied apart from matter, and that its attributes or powers are something essentially different from all those physical actions which are known to be functions of bodily organs. Thus it belonged to the doctrines of the schools that 'memory,' 'judgment,' ' imagination,'' consciousness,' 'sympathy,' 'attention,' 'the will,' &c. are powers or faculties of the mind-for these terms have been, and indeed still are, used indiscriminately-and Gall was the first to show, by appealing to experiences and historical data, that such so-called powers are only general abstractions, giving no insight into the concrete, into particular kinds of memory, imagination, volition, &c. and the special capacities for the same in different human beings. For example, following out the lessons of his youth, the experiences he had gained amongst his schoolfellows of their individual aptitudes and dispositions, he called attention to such facts as that a man may have a fine perception and vivid consciousness of musical sounds and their combinations, great memory, judgment and imagination concerning them, yet have a poor perception, memory, &c. in regard to the external forms or configurations of objects, which in another man may be powerful. To such extent, in fact, do these

natural gifts of perception, memory, &c. vary, that the one man may be born a genius for music, the other for plastic art. In like manner, he pointed out that memory, judgment, &c. are connected with capacities for languages, for mathematics, mechanics, or other branches of science which, whenever successfully pursued, are usually regarded as special talents. And not only were intellectual powers closely observed and investigated by Gall, with reference to their elementary nature and organic conditions; but all strong manifestations of natural dispositions, passions, propensities, &c. were studied by him in a similar way. Gall was an uncompromising hater of mere theorisers and systematisers1-ideologists, as he called them; and it was well it was so, for had he been imbued with the doctrines of any particular school of psychology, he could not have been the acute and unbiassed observer he proved himself to be. Instead of regarding the human mind from a transcendental point of view, he boldly adopted the natural-history method of investigation, upheld the principle of man's connection with the animal world in general, and sought insight into the lower and simpler forms of mental life, before extending his researches into the higher and more complex. As he

1 'Je suis plus glorieux de la découverte de la plus mince vérité que de l'invention du plus brillant système.'-Gall, Sur les fonctions du cerveau, etc. tom. vi. p. 502.

likewise carefully noted the form of the head in every instance of prominent talents, dispositions, &c. that came under his observation-and, whenever possible, procured plaster casts of remarkable heads, the skulls of murderers, suicides, &c.—his researches throughout maintained an objective character, unobscured by subjective speculations based on inward consciousness, such as naturally have given rise to great variety of doctrine and frequent controversies in the schools of mental philosophy. Thus, by degrees, as his experiences accumulated, and by the inductive method of reasoning, he gained insight into faculties of the mind which he called primitive or fundamental-the main sources of human actions— and into their connection with particular forms of brain-development. Many of these faculties, Gall, by referring to natural history, to the instincts, propensities, &c. of animals, showed to be possessed by them as well as man; others, as the power of articulate language, to belong to man alone; others, again, as the power of abstract reasoning, and the moral sense, if not to be altogether denied to some of the higher animals, yet to exist in them only in a rudimentary state. These views he further found confirmed by the comparative anatomy of the brain.

Gall's teachings respecting man's moral nature have given more offence to metaphysicians and theologians than his views about man's intellectual