History of Phrenology on the Web

Organs

George Combe's A System of Phrenology, 5th edn, 2 vols. 1853.

Vol. 1: [front matter], Intro, N ervous system, Principles of Phrenology, Anatomy of the brain, Division of the faculties 1.Amativeness 2.Philoprogenitiveness 3.Concentrativeness 4.Adhesiveness 5.Combativeness 6.Destructiveness, Alimentiveness, Love of Life 7.Secretiveness 8.Acquisitiveness 9.Constructiveness 10.Self-Esteem 11.Love of Approbation 12.Cautiousness 13.Benevolence 14.Veneration 15.Firmness 16.Conscientiousness 17.Hope 18.Wonder 19.Ideality 20.Wit or Mirthfulness 21.Imitation.
Vol. 2: [front matter], external senses, 22.Individuality 23.Form 24.Size 25.Weight 26.Colouring 27.Locality 28.Number 29.Order 30.Eventuality 31.Time 32.Tune 33.Language 34.Comparison, General observations on the Perceptive Faculties, 35.Causality, Modes of actions of the faculties, National character & development of brain, On the importance of including development of brain as an element in statistical inquiries, Into the manifestations of the animal, moral, and intellectual faculties of man, Statistics of Insanity, Statistics of Crime, Comparative phrenology, Mesmeric phrenology, Objections to phrenology considered, Materialism, Effects of injuries of the brain, Conclusion, Appendices: No. I, II, III, IV, V, [Index], [Works of Combe].

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4.--ADHESIVENESS.

THIS organ is situated at the middle of the posterior edge of the parietal bone, on each side of Concentrativeness, higher up than Philoprogenitiveness, and just above the lambdoidal suture. When it is very large, annular protuberances will be observed there ; or a general fulness, if the neighbouring organs be large : when the organ is small, that part of the head is narrow or depressed.

Dr Gall was requested to mould for his collection the head of a lady, who was described to him as a model of friendship. He did so, more through complaisance than in expectation of making any discovery. On examining the head, he found two large prominences, in the form of a segment of a sphere, at the sides of the organ of Philoprogenitiveness. These prominences, which he had not previously observed, were symmetrical, and manifestly formed by parts of the brain ; and he therefore concluded that they indicated organs. But the question was, What are their functions ? He inquired at the friends of the lady concerning her dispositions and talents, and also obtained her own opinion of the feelings and capacities which she most strongly possessed. All the information concurred in regard to the fact, that she was distinguished by inviolable attachment to her friends. Although, at different periods of her life, her fortune had undergone great changes, and on several occasions she had passed from poverty to riches, her affection for her former friends was never forgotten. The idea naturally presented itself, that the disposition to attachment might be connected with a particular part of the brain. This inference acquired greater probability from the circumstance, that the prominences on the head of this lady were placed in the immediate neighbourhood of the organs of Amativeness and Philoprogenitiveness, and that the three feelings have obviously some analogy to each other. Many subsequent observations

238 ADHESIVENESS.

confirmed Dr Gall's conjecture, and the organ has long been regarded as established.

The faculty gives the instinctive tendency to attachment, and causes us to experience delight in a return of affection. Those in whom it is strong, feel an involuntary impulse to embrace, and to cling to any object which is capable of experiencing fondness. It gives ardour and a firm grasp to the shake with the hand. In boys, it frequently displays itself in attachment to dogs, rabbits, birds, horses, or other animals. In girls, it adds fondness to the embraces bestowed upon the doll. The feelings which it inspires abound in the poetry of Moore. He beautifully describes its effects in the following lines :-

" The heart, like a tendril accustomed to cling,

Let it grow where it will, cannot flourish alone ; But will lean to the nearest and loveliest thing, It can twine with itself, and make closely its own.''

It also inspires the verse-

" The heart that loves truly, love never forgets,

But as truly loves on to the close ; As the sun-flower turns to her god as he sets, The same look that she turned when he rose."

The old Scotch ballad, " There's nae luck about the house," breathes the very spirit of this faculty.

The organ is generally larger, and the faculty stronger, in women than in men ; and the extreme constancy with which, in general, they adhere to the objects of their attachment may be attributed to this faculty. " Man boasts of his capacity for friendship," says Mr Scott, " and falsely speaks of its joys as the purest of all human enjoyments. But it is only in the heart of feeling, confiding, generous woman, that friendship is to be found in all the fulness of perfection. It was part of the doom pronounced upon her at the fall, that ' her desire should be to her husband, and that he should rule over her ; ' and, conformably to the first clause

ADHESIVENESS. 239

in this sentence, we find Adhesiveness to be, in general, far more powerful in the woman than in the man. The most generous and friendly man is selfish in comparison with woman. There is no friend like a loving and an affectionate wife. Man may love, but it is always with a reserve, and with a view to his own gratification ; but when a woman bestows her love, she does it with all her heart and soul."¹This great proneness to, and ardour in, attachment on the part of the female sex, render those men doubly guilty, who, on the false hypothesis that affection readily and warmly bestowed may be lightly withdrawn and directed to another, sport with this beautiful trait of female nature, and gain the affections of women, to betray their honour, or to gratify a silly vanity in being loved.

There is a great difference among individuals in regard to the strength of this feeling. Some men have many acquaintances but no friends ; while others remain attached to certain individuals during every change of circumstances, and do not readily enlarge the circle of their intimates. When the organ is large, delight is felt in friendship and attachment, the idea of distant friends often presents itself, and the glow of affection rushes into the mind with almost the warmth and vivacity of a passion. Those in whom it is small care little for friends ; out of sight, out of mind, is their practice. We frequently see individuals of very different dispositions and talents, lastingly attached to each other. Adhesiveness, strong in both, seems to be the bond of union. They perhaps feel many points of repulsion, and are not happy if too long and too closely united ; but still, on being separated, they experience a longing for each other's society, which makes them forget and forgive every thing to obtain its gratification. There are husbands and wives who cannot live together, and who yet become miserable when long separated. I conceive this to arise from strong Adhesiveness in both, combined with other faculties in each, which do not harmonize.

¹ Phren. Journ. vol. ii. p. 280.

240 ADHESIVENESS.

This faculty is distinguishable from Benevolence, for many persons are prone to attachment who are not generous. It, however, has a more extensive influence than the production of friendship among individuals, and appears to give rise to the instinctive tendency to congregate, whence society has originated. Man is created obviously with a view to the social state. His feelings of benevolence, love of praise, and justice, need intercourse with intelligent beings for their gratification, as indispensably as the stomach requires food to enable it to perform the process of digestion ; and Nature, by means of this faculty, seems to give the instinctive tendency to associate, by means of which the whole powers of the mind may find scope for exercise. If this view be correct, deficiency in the organ must be essential to an anchorite or hermit.

Some of the lower animals possess this propensity as well as man : It is remarkably strong in the dog ; and horses and oxen sometimes become sick and pine, when deprived of accustomed companions. " It is to be observed, however," says Dr Spurzheim, " that the instinct of being attached for life, and that of living in society, are not mere degrees of energy of the faculty of attachment. For there are animals which live in society without being attached for life, as the bull, the dog, cock, &c. ; others which live in society, and in families, as starlings, ravens, crows, &c. ; and others again which are attached for life without living in society, as the fox, magpie, &c." The instinct, therefore, of living in society, and that of living in family, he regards as modifications of the faculty in question ; just as smell and taste, although the same senses in herbivorous and carnivorous animals, are modified in the former to relish vegetable substances, and, in the latter, animal fibre and effluvia. " Man belongs to the class of animals which is social and attached for life ; society and marriage are consequently effects not of human reflection, but of an original decree of nature." *

Dr Gall does not coincide in the opinion that attachment

¹ Phrenology, p. 152.

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for life in man and animals results from this organ. It appears to him, as far as his knowledge of natural history extends, that, in all species where both the male and female concur in rearing the young, marriage for life exists ; and that, on the other hand, where the unaided female is sufficient for this end, the connection is temporary. At the same time, he speaks with much reserve on the subject, and is not prepared to decide, whether there is a separate organ for attachment for life, or whether it is the result of a combination of several organs, or a modification of Adhesiveness.¹

Dr Vimont considers " union for life " to result from a fundamental faculty, and not from a modification of Adhesiveness. He observes, that the dog is attached to his master, yet he does not live in a state of attachment to the female for life. Wolves, stags, and wild-boars, live in troops, and yet are not attached for life. The fox, although trained by man from the first, never becomes attached to any individual ; nevertheless he unites himself to the female for life. The roe-buck and the marten, as well as the fox, among quadrupeds ; the crow, the magpie, the swallow, and the sparrow, among birds, live in flocks, and are attached to a particular female for life. These facts, says Dr Vimont, shew that the instinct of attachment and that of attachment for life, are not the same. In observing the posterior margin of the cerebral hemispheres, from the point where the one touches the other, all along to the exterior margin of the posterior lobe, this last portion will be found to be much more developed in the brains of those species which are attached for life, than in the brains of those which are not so attached.²

Excessive energy of this faculty produces extreme regret at the loss of friends, or at leaving our country. Nostalgia is supposed to result from disease of the organ.³

¹ See a Letter on Marriage, in the Phrenological Journal, ii. 178.

² See Dr Vimont's views stated on p. 211 of this work. See also his " Traité de Prenologie," vol. ii. p. 217, 220.

³ Some interesting observations on the insanity of Adhesiveness, will be found in Dr Andrew Combe's Observations on Mental Dérangement, pp. 167, 248.

242 ADHESIVENESS.

Mr Stewart¹ and Dr Thomas Brown² admit this tendency as a primitive instinct of our nature, and concur in general with the views of phrenologists in regard to it.

J. J. Rousseau founds his celebrated Essay on the Origin of the Inequality of Ranks, which obtained the prize from the Academy of Dijon, on the non-existence of such a propensity in the human mind. He views man in his natural state as an isolated and wandering animal, satisfying his hunger by the chase or by the fruit of the forest, and quenching his thirst at the spring or the brook, and having no more need or desire of society with his kind than the eagle or the wolf. He conceives, that the individual who first enclosed a spot of ground and called it mine, and who first cajoled his fellow-men to settle around him. and assist him in his projects, was the author of all the evils with which human nature is now afflicted. Many volumes have been written in answer to this absurd lucubration ; but I submit, that Phrenology, by shewing that those who have this part of the brain large, are inspired with an instinctive tendency to associate with their fellows, affords a brief and satisfactory refutation of the hypothesis.

The great activity of this organ disposes persons to embrace and cling to each other ; two children in whom it is active will put their arms round each other's necks, and lay their heads together, causing them to approach in the direction of the organ of Adhesiveness, or assuming this attitude as nearly as possible. A dog, when anxious to shew his attachment, will rub his head at the seat of this organ on his master's leg. When two persons, in whom this organ is very large, meet, they feel an involuntary attachment springing up in their minds toward each other, unless their other faculties be very incongruous.

The organs of Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, form the group of the domestic affections. A physician mentioned to me that he had a patient who came from London in bad health, and died, in his brother's

¹ Outlines, p. 87. ² Lecture 67-

COMBATIVENESS. 243

house in Edinburgh, apparently of pulmonary consumption. His lungs were found to be partially diseased ; but as no intellectual aberration had been observed in him by his medical attendants, his brain was not at first examined. His brother, however, requested that his head should be opened. The physicians were then surprised to discover twenty-seven abscesses in the brain and cerebellum, of which eleven were in the cerebellum, and ten or eleven in the posterior lobes. There was only one, in the anterior lobe, devoted to intellect, and it was situated in the organ of Time, on the left side. He had made his will two days before his death, and to his physicians his mind seemed to be entire. His brother, however, now assigned as the reason why he desired the brain to be examined, that he had observed, that, before his death, the deceased had manifested an almost total loss of affection for his wife and children, to whom, when in health, he had been tenderly attached. The coincidence between the seat of the disease, and the decay of the domestic affections, is striking. This case elucidates the remarks formerly made, that before pathological cases can be successfully observed and reported, medical men must know the healthy functions of the different parts of the brain. The organ is regarded as established.

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The History of Phrenology on the Web