very well with social harmony; as we shall have occasion to see hereafter.

Hypothetical A much more serious objection to Gall's distribution of doctrine arises out of the venturesome and faculties. largely erroneous localization of the faculties which he thought proper to propose. If we look at his position, we shall see that he merely used the right, common to all natural philosophers, of instituting a scientific hypothesis, in accordance with the theory on that subject which we examined in connection with Physics. He fulfilled the conditions of this theory; his subject being, not any imaginary fluids, ether or the like, but tangible organs, whose hypothetical attributes admit of positive verifications. Moreover, none of those who have criticised his localization could have proposed any less imperfect, or, probably, so well indicated. The advice of prudent mediocrity, to abstain from hypothesis, is very easy to offer; but if the advice was followed, nothing would ever be done in the way of scientific discovery. It is doubtless inconvenient to have to withdraw or remake, at a subsequent period, the hypotheses to which a science owes its existence, and which, by that time, have been adopted by inferior inquirers with a blinder and stronger faith than that of the original proposers but there is no use in dwelling upon a liability which arises from the infirmity of our intelligence. The practical point for the future is that strong minds, prepared by a suitable scientific education, should plant themselves on the two great principles which have been laid down as the foundation of the science, and thence explore the principal needs of cerebral physiology, and the character of the means by which it may be carried forwards. Nor need there be any fear that the science will be held back by such a method. Nothing prevents us, when reasoning, as geometers do, upon indeterminate seats, or positions supposed to be indeterminate, from arriving at real conclusions, involving actual utility, as I hope to show, from my own experience, in the next volume; though it is evident that it will be a great advantage to the exactness and efficacy of our conclusions, whenever the time arrives for the positive determination of the cerebral organs. Meantime it is clear that we owe to Gall's hypothetical localization our

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view of the necessity of such a course; and that if he had confined himself to the high philosophical generalities with which he has furnished us, he would never have constituted a science, nor formed a school; and the truths which we see to be inestimable would have been strangled in their birth by a coalition of hostile influences.

We see what is the philosophical character of cerebral physiology. We must next inquire what are the indispensable improvements that it demands.

Needed improvements.

Anatomical basis.

First, we want a fundamental rectification of all the organs and faculties, as a necessary basis for all further progress. Taking an anatomical view of this matter, we see that the distribution of organs has been directed by physiological analyses alone,—usually imperfect and superficial enough,—instead of being subjected to anatomical determinations. This has entitled all anatomists to treat such a distribution as arbitrary and loose, because, being subject to no anatomical consideration about the difference between an organ and a part of an organ, it admits of indefinite subdivisions, which each phrenologist seems to be able to multiply at will. Though the analysis of functions no doubt casts much light on that of organs, the original decomposition of the whole organism into systems of organs, and those again into single organs, is not the less independent of physiological analysis, to which, on the contrary, it must furnish a basis. This is established in regard to all other biological studies; and there is no reason why cerebral inquiries should be an exception. We do not need to see the digestive, or the respiratory apparatus in action, before anatomy can distinguish them from each other: and why should it be otherwise with the cerebral apparatus? The anatomical difficulties are no doubt much greater, on account of the resemblance and proximity of the organs in the cerebral case: but we must not give up this indispensable analysis for such a reason as that. If it were so, we must despair of conferring a special scientific character on phrenological doctrine at all; and we must abide by those generalities alone which I have just laid down. When we propose to develope the harmony between the anatomical

and the physiological analysis of any case, it is supposed that each has been separately established, and not that the one can be copied from the other. Nothing therefore can absolve the phrenologists from the obligation to pursue the analysis of the cerebral system by a series of vigorous anatomical labours, discarding for the time all ideas of function, or, at most, employing them only as auxiliary to anatomical exploration. Such a consideration will be most earnestly supported by those phrenologists who perceive that, in determining the relative preponderance of each cerebral organ in different subjects, it is not only the bulk and weight of the organ that has to be taken into the account, but also its degree of activity, anatomically estimated, by, for instance, the energy of its partial circulation.

Next, following a distinct but parallel order of ideas, there must be a purely physiological analysis Physiological of the various elementary faculties; and in analysis of faculties. this analysis, which has to be harmonized with the other, every anatomical idea must be, in its turn, discarded. The position of phrenology is scarcely more satisfactory in this view than any other, for the distinction between the different faculties, intellectual and even affective, and their enumeration are conceived of in a very superficial way, though incomparably more in the positive spirit than any metaphysical analyses. If metaphysicians have confounded all their psychological notions in an absurd unity, it is probable that the phrenologists have gone to the other extreme in multiplying elementary functions. Gall set up twenty-seven; which was, no doubt, an exaggeration to begin with. Spurzheim raised the number to thirty-five; and it is liable to daily increase for want of a rational principle of circumscription for the regulation of the easy enthusiasm of popular explorers. Unless a sound philosophy interposes, to establish some order, we may have as many faculties and organs as the psychologists of old made entities. However great may be the diversity of animal natures, or even of human types, it is yet to be conceived, (as real acts usually suppose the concurrence of several fundamental faculties,) that even a greater multiplicity might be represented by a very small

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number of elementary functions of the two orders. If, for instance, the whole number were reduced to twelve or fifteen well-marked faculties, their combinations, binary, ternary, quaternary, etc., would doubtless correspond to many more types than can exist, even if we restricted ourselves to distinguishing, in relation to the normal degree of activity of each function, two other degrees,-one higher and the other lower. But the exorbitant multiplication of faculties is not in itself so shocking as the levity of most of the pretended analyses which have regulated their distribution. In the intellectual order, especially, the aptitudes have been usually ill-described, apart from the organs: as when a mathematical aptitude is assigned on grounds which would justify our assigning a chemical aptitude, or an anatomical aptitude, if the whole bony casket had not been previously parcelled off into irremoveable compartments. If a man could do sums according to rules quickly and easily, he had the mathematical aptitude, according to those who do not suspect that mathematical speculations require any superiority of intellect. Though the analysis of the affective faculties, which are so much better marked, is less imperfect, there are several instances of needless multiplication in that department.

Examination of historical

cases.

To rectify or improve this analysis of the cerebral faculties, it would be useful to add to the observation of Man and society a physiological estimate of the most marked individual cases, especially in past times. The intellectual order, which most needs revision, is that which best admits of this procedure. If, for instance, it had been applied to the cases of the chief geometers, the absurd mistake that I have just pointed out could not have been committed; for it would have been seen what compass and variety of faculties are required to constitute mathematical genius, and how various are the forms in which that genius manifests itself. One great geometer has shone by the sagacity of his inventions; another by the strength and extent of his combinations; a third by the happy choice of his notations, and the perfection of his algebraic style, etc. We might discover, or at least verify, all the real fundamental

intellectual faculties by the scientific class alone. In an inferior degree it would be the same with an analogous study of the most eminent artists. This consideration, in its utmost extent, is connected with the utility of the philosophical study of the sciences, under the historical as well as the dogmatical point of view, for the discovery of the logical laws concerned: the difference being that in this last case, we have first to determine the elementary faculties, and not the laws of their action: but the grounds must be essentially analogous.

Phrenological analysis has, then, to be reconstituted; first in the anatomical, and then in the physiological order; and finally, the two must be harmonized; and not till then can phrenological physiology be established upon its true scientific basis. Such a procedure is fairly begun, as we have seen, with regard to the two preceding divisions of our science; but it is not yet even conceived of in relation to cerebral physiology, from its greater complexity and more recent positivity.

Pathological The phrenologists must make a much more and Compara- extensive use than hitherto of the means tive analysis. furnished by biological philosophy for the advancement of all studies relating to living bodies: that is, of pathological, and yet more of comparative analysis. The luminous maxim of M. Broussais, which lies at the foundation of medical philosophy, that the phenomena of the pathological state are a simple prolongation of the phenomena of the normal state, beyond the ordinary limits of variation,—has never been duly applied to intellectual and moral phenomena: yet it is impossible to understand anything of the different kinds of madness, if they are not examined on this principle. Here, as in a former division of the science, we see that the study of malady is the way to understand the healthy state. Nothing can aid us so well in the discovery of the fundamental faculties as a judicious study of the state of madness, when each faculty manifests itself in a degree of exaltation which separates it distinctly from others. There has been plentiful study of monomania; but it has been of little use, for want of a due connection and comparison with the normal state. The works that have appeared on the subject have been