the bones, contribute much to their formation; and gradual increase in hardness.

The remains of the cartilaginous in the young bones, will, in the sixth and seventh month, decrease in quantity, harden, and whiten, as the bony parts approach perfection. Some bones obtain a certain degree of firmness in much less time than others; as, for example, the scull bones, and the small bones within the ear. Not only whole bones, but parts of a single bone, are of various degrees of hardness. They will be hardest at the place where the kernel of ossification began, and the parts adjacent; and the rigidity increases more slowly and insensibly, the harder the bones are, and the older the man is. What was cartilage will become bone; parts that were separate will grow together, and the whole bones be deprived of moisture.

Anatomists divide the form into the natural or the essential, which is generally the same in all bones in the human body, how different soever it may be to other bodies; and into the accidental, which is subject to various changes in the same individual, according to the influence of external objects, or, especially, of the gradations of age.

The first is founded in the universality of the nature of parents, and the circumstances which naturally and invariably attend propagation. Anatomists consider only the designation of the bones individually; on this, at least, is grounded the agreement of what they call the essential

form, in distinct subjects. This, therefore, only speaks to the agreement of human countenances, so far as they have each two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and other features thus or thus disposed.

This natural formation is certainly as different as human countenances afterwards are; which difference is the work of Nature, the original destination of the Lord and Creator of all things. The physiognomist distinguishes between original form and deviations.

Each bone hath its original form, its individual capacity of form. It may, it does continually alter; but it never acquires the peculiar form of another bone, which was originally different. The accidental changes of bones, however great, or different from the original form, are yet ever governed by the nature of this original individual form; nor can any power of pressure ever so change the original form, but that, if compared to another system of bones that has suffered an equal pressure, it will be perfectly distinct. As little as the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, whatever be the changes to which they may be subject, as little can the original form of any bone be changed into the original form of any other bone.

The

Vessels every where penetrate the bones, supplying them with juices and marrow. younger the bone is, the more are there of these vessels-consequently the more porous and flexible are the bones, and the reverse. The period when such or such changes take place in the

G

bones, cannot easily be defined; it differs according to the nature of men in accidental circumstances.

Large and long and multiform bones, in order to facilitate their ossification and growth, at first consist of several pieces, the smaller of which are called supplemental. The bone remains imperfect till these become incorporated. Hence their possible distortion in children, by the rickets, and other diseases.

CHAP. XIII.

Suggestions to the physiognomist concerning the Scull.

THE scientific physiognomist ought to direct his attention to the distortion of the bones, especially those of the head. He ought to learn accurately to remark, compare, and define, the first form of children, and the numerous relative deviations. He ought to have attained that precision that should enable him to say, at beholding the head of a new-born infant, of half a year, a year, or two years old," Such and such will be the form of the system of the bones, under such and such limitations;" and on viewing the scull at ten, twelve, twenty, or twenty-four years of age, "Such or such was the form, eight, ten, or twenty years ago; and such or such will be the form, eight, ten, or twenty years hence, vio

lence excepted." He ought to be able to see the youth in the boy, and the man in the youth; and, on the reverse, the youth in the man, the boy in the youth, the infant in the boy, and, lastly, the embryo in its proper individual form.

Let us, O ye who adore that Wisdom which has framed all things! contemplate, a moment longer, the human scull. There are, in the bare scull of man, the same varieties as are to be found in the whole external form of the living

man.

As the infinite varieties of the external form of man is one of the indestructible pillars of physiognomy, no less so, in my opinion, must the infinite varieties of the scull itself be. What I have hereafter to remark will, in part, shew that we ought particularly to begin by that, if instead of a subject of curiosity and amusement, we would wish to make the science of physiognomy universally useful.

I shall shew that from the structure, form, outline, and properties of the bones, not all, indeed, but much may be discovered, and probably more than from all the other parts.

Objection and Answer.

What answer shall I make to that objection, with which a certain anti-physiognomist has made himself so merry?

"In the catacombs near Rome (says he) a number of skeletons were found, which were supposed to be the relics of saints, and, as

such, were honoured. After some time, several learned men began to doubt whether these had really been the sepulchres of the first christians and martyrs, and even to suspect that malefactors and banditti might have been buried there. The piety of the faithful was thus much puzzled; but if the science of physiognomy be so certain, they might have removed all their doubts by sending for Lavater, who with very little trouble, by merely examining and touching them, might have distinguished the bones of the saints from the bones of the banditti, and thus have restored the true relics to their just and original preeminence."

"The conceit is whimsical enough (answers a cold and phlegmatic friend of physiognomy;) but, having tired ourselves with laughing, let us examine what would have been the consequence had this story been fact. According to our opinion, the physiognomist would have remarked great differences in a number of bones, particularly in the sculls, which, to the ignorant, would have appeared perfectly similar; and, having classed his heads, and shewn their immediate gradations, and the contrast of the two extremes, we may presume, the attentive spectator would have been inclined to pay some respect to his conjectures on the qualities and activity of brain which each formerly contained.

"Besides, when we reflect how certain it is that many malefactors have been possessed of extraordinary abilities and energy, and how un