MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

application of the science to educational purposes, was especially interesting and useful. In this lecture it was shewn how Phrenology aids education by pointing out those mental abilities which instruction and exercise may more beneficially develope, as well as by discovering the more dangerous propensities, to the power of which any individual may be constitutionally subject. Considered in this light, the science is of practical value, and is intimately (indeed in the opinion of some ESSENTIALLY) connected with the best plan of conducting education;-so strongly do several adopt this opinion, that they consider any system of education as radically defective which acts independently of the aid which phrenological science affords.-Cork Evening Herald, 8th April 1836.

PARIS.-Extract from a letter from Dr James Cox, dated Paris, 17th April 1836::-" Dr Broussais has commenced a course of lectures on Phrenology from pure zeal, and the amphitheatre is crowded to suffocation. Two thousand were estimated to have been at the first lecture. delivered. Never were such crowds seen at phrenological lectures before. Three have been The professor who lectured immediately previous to Broussais, finding him. self interrupted by the crowds of students who poured in during his lecture to be ready for Broussais, ordered the doors to be bolted on the day following. When the crowd gathered they broke down the doors, and one individual was nearly crushed to death. Indeed no one can attend who has not great strength of ribs. The lectures are very good."

accurate.

DERANGEMENT OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE.-The case of Janet Whyte, reported by the late Mr William Gibson, surgeon, Montrose, in our 46th Number, p. 515, is commented on by our esteemed contemporary the Medico-Chirurgical Review, January 1836, p. 208. "It seems clear to us,' " says our contemporary, "that it was not the intellectual function that was injured, but the power of directing the tongue that was impaired. The patient said that she knew well enough what words she ought to use, but that she could not get them expressed. If the conception and remembrance of language had been lost, she would not have known what words to use...... We make these remarks because loose observations and indefinite statements are seldom of benefit to science." As the report stands, these remarks are unquestionably well founded; but an obvious inconsistency in it affords rea. son for suspecting that the statement alluded to by our contemporary is inFor Mr Gibson expressly says, that when the patient began to utter sentences," they were very unconnected and unmeaning, the different words being either wrong or strangely jumbled together." From this it is evident, that she had the power of expression, and that the defect was in the faculty of Language alone. In order to get at the bottom of the matter, we communicated this suspicion to Mr W. A. F. Browne of Montrose, and added the following request: "Could you conveniently see the woman, and ascertain what she exactly meant by saying that she knew perfectly what words ought to be used? Probably she told Mr Gibson that she knew the words perfectly, but somehow could not recollect them;' just as we say of any person that we are sure we know his name, but cannot recal it at the moment." Mr Browne's reply, dated 25th April 1836, is satisfactory and conclusive. "On Saturday," says he, " I had a long conversation with Janet Whyte, the subject of Dr Gibson's short paper. Her statements confirm your opinion, and are as follows. She was seized with headach, which she knew continued for some hours, but subsequently to this she lost all consciousness. She remained insensible and speechless for some days. She then recovered so far as to recognise objects, but she could not yet name them. On attempting to do so, she could speak with perfect ease,—that is, she could pronounce words; but she failed in applying the words to the things signified, in selecting the words requisite to express her meaning. (the illustration is her own), she could distinguish her husband from a chair, For instance but she could not name either the one or the other. She repeatedly and distinctly averred to me and Mr C. Watson, that this difficulty arose from her total inability to recollect the proper terms, and not from her inability to utter

them. What places the truth of this beyond a doubt is, that she still occasionally labours under the same affection, She cannot conjure up words to express her meaning, and is obliged to leave her sentences incomplete. What classes of words are thus forgotten she could not tell. Her husband, whom I likewise examined, corroborated all that she communicated. Both parties are highly respectable, and their testimony may be relied upon."

CIRCULATION OF BLOOD IN THE BRAIN.-Nearly twenty years ago we bad frequent opportunities of witnessing some interesting phenomena in a robust young man, who lost a considerable portion of his skull by an accident, which had almost proved mortal. When excited by pain, fear, or anger, his brain protruded greatly, so as sometimes to disturb the dressings, which were necessarily applied loosely, and it throbbed tumultuously in accordance with the arterial pulsations-Medico-Chirurgical Review, October 1835, p. 366.

THE "TIMES" ON THE PHRENOLOGISTS.-Dull-witted and half.educated men always seek some by-way of notoriety, having just sagacity enough to discover that they have no chance of acquiring any reputation in the regular field of art and science. Among the most offensive of these quacks may be classed the phrenologists, or "bumpologists," as they are more appropriately called. Everybody knows what blunders these blockheads made over a supposed skull of Raphael, which turned out to be the head of a gravedigger; and we have already noticed some impertinent trash which has been poured forth respecting the skull of Dean Swift, which was pulled from the body and subjected to the scrutiny of these pedantic dunces. We see in more than one quarter that this disgusting folly is still at work: we cannot waste our time nor that of our readers by any detailed exposure of the absurdities which have been published, but we give one specimen as a decisive sample of the rottenness of the bulk. These worthies, then, have discovered, and are ready to prove, by the size of the " organs of wit and ideality" in Swift's skull, "both small," to adopt their jargon, that the world must be totally mistaken about the Dean of St Patrick's, and that the author of the Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels had neither brilliancy nor originality! And there are gaping simpletons who swallow these crudities, and call them science !-Times of 30th December 1835.

EDINBURGH PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM-We have been favoured by Dr Smith, the physician to this establishment, with a copy of his Report upon it for the years 1833-4-5, and have perused it with much interest and satisfaction. We hope that his strong representation of the defects of the asylum will induce the managers to adopt immediate measures for providing a new establishment, more in keeping with the advanced state of some other asylums for pauper lunatics in Britain. The following passages are extracted from the Report: The leading feature in the management is humanity, and a ready attention to whatever is likely to promote the recovery or alleviate the distress of the patients. A system of mild yet firm discipline is maintained, which, with the great regularity observed in the various domestic arrangements, exerts a soothing and salutary influence over the minds of the patients; in confirmation of which I may mention, that it is not uncommon to have, out of sixty-eight patients (the average in the establishment), not one under restraint. And in proof of the humane and kind treatment exercised towards the patients, instances are occurring from time to time of their returning to the asylum to express their gratitude for the attention they had experienced."-"The patients are furnished with properly selected books, and they are encouraged to amuse themselves at different games. The wo men are employed in sewing and knitting, and assist in the work of the house. The want of employment for the male patients is much felt. But not the least improvement is the introduction of public worship inso the asylum; this measure, which was adopted at the suggestion of Dr Brunton and Mr Johnston in October 1827, has proved a source of great comfort and consolation to the patients selected to attend. And as my further experience goes to strengthen the favourable opinion expressed on this subject in former reports,

I would take the liberty of repeating it, by saying, that, through the introduction of public worship, a due respect for religion is not only kept up, but a power is brought into action, which seems capable of calming in a wonderful degree the disturbed and troubled feelings of the irascible maniac,-of breaking in upon the fixed despondency of the despairing melancholic, and of interrupting for a period the mazy reveries of the confirmed lunatic; and that therefore attendance upon public worship is to be viewed as a powerful means in the cure of insanity, and one from which much benefit is to be expected.""The proportion of the cures is considerably greater in the females, being at the rate of forty in ninety-six, or about forty-two per cent.; whilst amongst the males it is only as twenty in eighty-six, or twenty-three per cent. This disparity may, I think, be accounted for from the disease in females being often of a milder character, their greater sensibility of constitution rendering them more liable to be acted upon by slighter exciting causes, the effects of which are less permanent and more easily removed, whilst at the same time the disease in them is rarely combined with apoplexy, epilepsy, and palsy. The women have likewise the advantage of occupation, which the men have not."-" Opium in full doses has been found to answer well in many cases of insanity, accompanied with feelings of dread on account of some supposed impending calamity, after fever and irritation had been subdued. By keeping the patient under the influence of it for several days, the train of incoherent and false ideas seems to be broken, and very often the patient is convalescent by the time the effect of the opium has gone off."

MODESTY OF THE LITERARY GAZETTE. The following letter has been addressed by Mr Combe to the Editor of the Literary Gazette:—“ Edinburgh, 23d May 1836. Sir,-In your number 'ONE THOUSAND,' you say that We could, were we vain enough to wish it, make a list of those (the authors whose first works we encouraged by our praise), with our comments on their upspringing from the shades of obscurity, which would be a remarkable document. On the contrary, we could oppose it by another list of those it has been our painful duty to censure and condemn; often when upheld by the most influential of our contemporaries: and we would put the challenge, Where are they now? Where honest, just, impartial, and fearless criticism set them at once; and whence no favour or delusion can ever raise them more, even for a moment.' Allow me to mention, that I have the honour to belong to the class of authors whom you have fearlessly condemned, ridiculed, and abused,' from my first publication in 1819 to the last; but you will judge by the testimonials which I herewith send you, whether your criticism was as 'honest, just, and impartial,' as it was fearless; and whether I am where you set me, in the shades of oblivion. I am," &c.

We understand that the second volume of Dr Vimont's Treatise on Human and Comparative Phrenology is now either published or on the eve of being so. This work, with its splendid atlas, has been reprinted in Brussels, at about one-eighth of the original cost. Messrs Carfrae and Son, South Bridge Street, have favoured us with a sight of the Brussels edition. The plates, though not quite equal to the originals, are very good, and such of them as we have compared with those in the Paris edition are, with one exception, perfectly accurate. We are no admirers of the system pursued by the Brussels printers, of thus unfairly competing with French authors; but having learned from good authority that nearly the whole of the Paris edition of Dr Vimont's work has been sold, we trust that the cheap reprint will not be materially detrimental to his interest. The plates are excellently adapted for illustrating lectures, and every phrenological society ought to be in possession of them. We shall review the work as soon as the second volume is received.

Owing to a press of matter, it has been found necessary to add a sheet and a-half, or twenty-four pages, extra limites, to our present number. Nevertheless several articles intended for it are postponed till our next.

Edinburgh, 1st June 1836.

THE

PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

No. XLIX.

ARTICLE I.

INSANITY AND CRIME.

THE progress of civilization in the present age, is strikingly indicated by the energy with which the generous and humane feelings of society act in favour of slaves, factory children, criminals, the poor and destitute, and, in short, of all who suffer, and have no efficient protectors. There still remains a wide field for the exercise of enlightened philanthropy, in shielding the insane from many unnecessary sufferings; and, although this is a subject to which we have adverted before, it may be useful again to solicit the attention of our readers, for a brief the condition of that unfortunate class of persons.

space, to

Questions of insanity come before courts of justice in various forms. One individual is accused of crime, and his defence is mental derangement: another has executed a deed, which his relatives attempt to set aside on account of defect or disorder of judgment: a third wishes to exercise some privilege, as tutor to a minor, and is passed by because he is insane. Judges, jurymen, lawyers, and witnesses, act a part in deciding the fate of these unfortunate men; and yet, when we inquire what qualifications they possess for forming a sound judgment, we find that they are avowedly ignorant of the philosophy of mind in a state of health, unacquainted with the effects of organization on the mental powers, and strangers to the causes and appearances of their derangement ;-in short, they are unprepared by previous knowledge and experience, for giving a decision which is to affect the life, character, and property of the individual who is brought before them, and to involve the disgrace or respectability of a whole circle of relatives.

These remarks are illustrated by many cases that have been brought before criminal courts of late years, both in France and

in Britain; and which, if considered at all in a right frame of mind, and with a sense of the deep interests involved in them, would not fail of arresting public attention to the serious evils arising to society from the existing ignorance of every thing connected with mind. Instead of wondering at the discrepancy of opinion as to the mental condition of the accused, which so generally presents itself at every trial, unanimity or consistency seems to us to be in such circumstances a moral impossibility.

In any other department of knowledge, it would be thought preposterous to expect a valuable opinion, on which life, character, and property might be staked, from persons who had never made the subject their study; yet so deep is the obscurity in which the whole science of mind, sound and unsound, is involved, that the contradictory testimony and opinions of learned physicians, divines, lawyers, and others, given before courts of justice in questions of lunacy, instead of exciting regret, shame, and mortification, mingled with feelings of compassion, actually call forth ridicule, without any one advancing to the conclusion, that there is moral culpability in discountenancing and obstructing, by such levity, the serious subject of a study so painfully interesting to mankind.

We have been led to these reflections particularly by the cases above alluded to, of which we now proceed to lay the details before our readers.

I. In November 1821, the Court of Assizes at Metz was occupied with the trial of JOHN SCHMITT, a parricide. The details of the crime were of the most revolting nature, and the sang froid which the culprit shewed, both in the commission of the deed and in his public and private examinations, together with his extreme youth (he was not yet seventeen), which seemed to render such a consummation of wickedness almost incredible, concurred to render the trial an object of very general curiosity.

Before enumerating the principal facts in the indictment, it ought to be mentioned that Schmitt manifested from the earliest age a proneness to mischief, and even to ferocity. As soon as he was able to walk in the street of his village, in the middle of which flowed a rivulet, he waited till some of his neighbours were conducting their cattle across it, and then amused himself with throwing stones to wet and to hurt them, and several persons were injured in this way; but they were satisfied with recommending to his father to watch him, for already he was generally named the madman.

The sister-in-law of John Schmitt, who lived with her husband in the house of his father Joseph Schmitt, had infected all the family with the itch, which often occasioned violent quarrels between her and John; quarrels which sometimes proceeded to