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

Vol. 1: [front matter], Intro, Nervous 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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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.

THE European public has recently taken a great and commendable interest in moral statistics ; and in France several valuable works have been published on the subject. I have perused with much interest the " Essai sur la Statistique Morale de la France, par Mons. A. M. Guerry,"¹ and Mons. Quetelet's excellent work " Sur L'Homme et le développement de ses faculties, ou Essai de Physique Sociale."² The object of all works on moral statistics should be to bring to light the causes of human happiness and misery, with a view to enable mankind to increase the former, and diminish the latter. Tables shewing the average weight and strength of the body at different ages ; the average weight of children of different ages employed in manufactures, compared with that of children not so employed ; the average strength of men and women at different ages ; the number of beats of the heart, and of inspirations of the lungs in a minute ; and other similar facts, founded on observations made on numerous individuals, and reduced to average results, are interesting and useful, because the facts brought to light may direct the efforts of society in devising circumstances calculated to promote the increase of valuable qualities, and to abate that of tendencies which are injurious. But great difficulties present themselves when an estimate is attempted to be made, in a similar way, of the moral and intellectual qualities of man, founded on mental manifestations alone, without reference to the cerebral development of the individuals observed. Mons. Quetelet, for example, in pursuing his inquiries into the development of the moral and intellectual qualities of man, presents Tables of the number of plays

 

¹ Paris, 1832. ² Paris, 1835.

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of the first rank produced by authors of different ages in France and in England ; Tables of the numbers of insane in relation to the population in several countries of Europe ; Tables of the numbers of suicides ; of men who have fallen in duels ; and of criminals. He exhibits also in his Tables the influence of Education, of Professions, of Seasons, of Climates, and of Sex, on the tendency to crime. These researches are very valuable as means of establishing the existence of moral facts ; and should lead subsequently to the investigation of the causes from which they originate : Until the causes are brought to light, the facts are insufficient to lead to practical results.

The following Table represents the number of Insane in relation to the whole population in several countries in Europe.

" In Norway," says M. Quetelet, "" the Idiots constitute one-third of the total number of the Insane, and" one-half in Scotland and Wales. It is the great number of Idiots which renders the number of Insane in Scotland so large compared with the number in England. It is generally observed that in the mountains there are more Idiots than in the plains ; and in plains devoted to agriculture there are more Idiots than in cities. In France and New York the number of Idiots is inconsiderable.

The advantage of knowing these facts is indisputable, but

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we must go farther. In order to diminish the number of Idiots, we must discover the causes which produce the condition of brain of which idiocy is the outward symptom. The superabundance of Idiots in Norway and Scotland, for instance, may be supposed to be owing to a variety of causes : -1st, To the coldness and dampness of the climate. The remedy for this would be draining and improving the soil, building warmer houses, and providing better clothing for the people. Or, 2dly, To the imperfect nourishment of the people. To remove this cause, we should prescribe the introduction of capital and industry. Or, 2dly, To the intermarriages of near relations for successive generations, arising from a thin population scattered over a great extent of territory. To remedy this evil, instruction of the people in the functions and laws of health of the brain would be necessary, with the inculcation of the duty of their extending the sphere of their alliances. Railroads and steam-boats, by extending the circle of social intercourse, may tend to remove this cause.

That the third is probably one great cause of the evil, may be inferred from the following facts. Mr Brown, factor to the Duke of Hamilton, who had charge, for a number of years, of several of the smaller islands lying on the west coast of Scotland, told me, that he found by a census, that the number of idiots, in proportion to the total population, was greater in the islands than in the mainland, which he attributed to intermarriages of near relations, resulting from their insular situation. Secondly, Among the royal, noble, and aristocratical families of Europe, who frequently marry near relations, idiots are generally said to be more numerous in proportion to their total numbers than among persons in the humbler ranks of life. Thirdly, The inhabitants of cities have a wider range of choice, and in general are less giving to marrying with blood-relations than the inhabitants of the country ; and the fact that fewer idiots are produced among them, supports the principle here contended for. It is not enough, therefore, for practical purposes, to know the

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proportion of idiots to the general population. We must discover the causes of idiocy before they can be abated ; and as the brain is the organ of the mind, every one of them will be found to affect directly or indirectly its size or its condition. In addition to these statistical tables, we want facts relative to the size and condition of the brain in the insane, and statements of all causes, physical and moral, which are known to act injuriously on its development and activity.

The Statistics of Crime have been treated in great detail by the authors before named. Mons. Quetelet presents us with the following Table relative to crime in France :-

" Thus," says Mons. Quetelet, " although we do not yet possess the statistical returns for 1830, it is highly probable that we shall find for that year also 1 person accused out of about every 4463 inhabitants, and 61 condemned out of each 100 accused. This probability becomes less for 1831, and less for the succeeding years. We are in the same condition for estimating by the results of the past, the facts which we shall see realized in the future. This possibility of assigning beforehand, the number of the accused and condemned which should occur in a country, is calculated to lead to serious reflections, since it involves the fate of several thousands of human beings, who are impelled, as it were, by an irresistible

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necessity, to the bars of the tribunals, and towards the sentences of condemnation which there await them. These conclusions flow directly from the principle, already so often stated in this work, that effects are in proportion to their causes, and that the effects remain the same if the causes which have produced them do not vary."¹

In the section entitled, " On the influence of Instruction, of Professions, and of Climate, on the tendency to Crime," Mons. Quetelet presents the following Table.²

Tables are also given in the same form for each department of France and Belgium, and Mons. Quetelet sums up the results in the following words :³-.

" 1. The greatest number of crimes against persons and

¹ Sur L'Homme, &c. tome ii. p. 168. ² Lib. Cit. tome ii. p. 197.

3 Lib. Cit. tome ii p. 197.

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property, take place in the departments which traverse or border on the Rhone, the Rhine, arid the Seine, at least in their navigable portions. " 2 The smallest number of crimes against persons and property are committed in the central departments of France, in those which are situated in the west, towards the ocean, from the Lower Alps to the Channel, and those which traverse towards the north, the Somme, the Oise, and the Meuse. " 3. The shores of the Mediterranean and neighbouring departments shew, other things being equal, a more marked tendency towards crimes against the person, and the northern part of France towards crimes against property. " After having established these facts, if we seek to mount up to the causes which produce them, we are at once arrested by numerous obstacles. Indeed, the causes which influence crimes are so numerous and so various, that it becomes almost impossible to assign to each its due degree of importance. It frequently happens, also, that causes which appeared highly influential, disappear before others, to which one scarcely dedicated a thought at first. I have particularly experienced this in actual researches. Perhaps I was too much pre-occupied with the influence generally allowed to education as a means of extinguishing the propensity to crime. It appears to me that the common error on this subject arises from the expectation of finding less crime in a country because more children in it are sent to school, or because a greater proportion of the common people are capable of reading and writing. Account should rather be taken of the extent of moral instruction ; because frequently the education which is received in schools, affords only additional facilities for committing crime."¹ "Poverty, also, is generally regarded as leading to crime ; nevertheless, the department de la Creuse, one of the poorest in France, is that which pre-

¹ " Mons. Guerry has arrived almost at the same time with me at similar conclusions, in his Essay ' Sur la Statistique Morale de la France,' p. 5i," and he has expressed them nearly in the same terms. The results have been obtained also in England, in Germany, and in the United States.

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sents, in every respect, the greatest morality. In like manner, in the Low Countries, the most moral province is that of Luxembourg, where the greatest poverty reigns. It is necessary, however, to define what is meant by the word Poverty,-which is used here in a sense that may be regarded as improper. A province is not poor because it contains less wealth than another, if its inhabitants, like those in Luxembourg, are sober and active.-If, by their labour, they succeed in providing securely for their wants, and satisfying their tastes (which are the more moderate in respect that inequality of fortune is less common, and offers fewer temptations), they may properly be regarded as enjoying a modest competence. Poverty makes itself felt in provinces where great richess are amassed, as in Flanders, Holland, the department off the Seine, &c., and above all in manufacturing countries, where, by the least political commotion, or obstruction in. the usual outlets of commerce, thousands of individuals pass suddenly from a state of comfort to one of misery. These rapid transitions from one state to another give birth to crinne ; especially if the individuals who suffer are surrounded by objects of temptation, and find themselves excited by the constant spectacle of luxury, and of an inequality of fortune which drives them to despair.''

" It appears to me, that one of the first distinctions to be made in this study, is that of the different races of men who inhabit the country which we have under our consideration. It is, as we shall immediately see, of the highest importance, although it is not that which first presents itself to our observation.^" These are wise and profound remarks, and I commend Mons. Quetelet for having directed attention to them, which he does by quoting the following passages from Mallet Brunei's Précis de la Geography Universelle, liver 159. " The population of France," says Malte Brun, " belongs to three principal races : the Celtic, which constitutes nearly three-fifths i of its inhabitants ; the Germanic, which comprehends those" of the ancient provinces of Flanders, of Alsace, and of a part of Lorraine ; and the Pelasgian (named by Dr Spurzheim the Phenician) spread in the neighbourhood of

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the Mediterranean and in Corsica. Changes of manners, and the progress of civilization, may alter the character of a people, but may not change it entirely." Mons. Quetelet proceeds to remark, that if we cast our eyes over the chart representing crimes against the person, this distinction of races makes itself felt in a very remarkable manner. " We see that the Pelasgian race, spread on the borders of the Mediterranean and in Corsica,, is particularly addicted to crimes against the person. Among the German race, which extends over Alsace, the Duchy of the Lower Rhine, part of Lorraine, and of the Low Countries, where the dense population and abundance of property afford more opportunities for committing crime, and where the general use of intoxicating liquors more frequently occasions excesses, there are generally a great number of crimes against both property and person. The Batavians and the Frisons, who also belong to the German race, are addicted particularly to crimes against property. Finally, the Celtic race appears to be the most moral of the three which we have considered, especially in regard to crimes against the person. It occupies the greater part of France, and the Walloon portion of Belgium. It appears, moreover, that frontier countries, where the races are intermixed, where there is generally more agitation, and where lines of custom-house officers are established, are the most liable to demoralization."

The differences in the tendency to crime observable in different races must have causes, and we are led by observation to believe, that the most important among these is development of brain. The influence of the brain on the mental dispositions is fundamental ; that is to say, it so far modifies the effect of external circumstances, that the real operation of these on the mental manifestations cannot be understood until the development of the brain of the individual exposed to them be comprehended. Individuals possessing a predominating development of the moral and intellectual organs, like Melancthon (vol. i. p. 141), or Eustache (p. 142), rise superior to circumstances. No condition could be more un-

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favourable to virtuous conduct than that of Eustache, when he was a slave, associated with slaves engaged in a war of extermination against their masters ; yet such was the preserving power of a high moral and intellectual organization, that he nobly discharged his duty to both belligerents, and triumphed over temptations which would have proved irresistible to a less favourably constituted brain. On the other hand, when the moral and intellectual organs are remarkably deficient, and those of the propensities predominate, no external circumstances, short of physical restraint, are sufficient to preserve the individual from vicious practices. The heads of Hare, vol. 1. p. 141, and Gottfried, p. 142, are examples of this combination, and their lives shew an appetite for atrocious crime, which sought its own gratification in circumstances the most dissimilar. It is only on brains in which the three regions of propensity, sentiment, and intellect, are nearly equally balanced (of which Maxwell's head, vol. ii. p. 310, is a specimen), that external circumstances produce a powerful and decided influence. All inquiries into the development of the animal, moral, and intellectual faculties of nations, therefore, in which the influence of the brain is omitted, must necessarily be defective.

In making these remarks, I repeat that I am far from undervaluing the importance of the facts brought to light in the foregoing tables, even regarding them merely as facts apart from any opinions regarding their causes. To know the existence and magnitude of any evil is the first step towards the investigation and eventual removal of its causes ; and the public is deeply indebted to statistical observers for presenting the phenomena of the moral world in tangible masses, measurable by figures, and capable of being generally understood.

The uniformity of results established by the researches of Mons. Quetelet and other enquirers, proves the existence of stable and uniform causes of mental phenomena ; and instead of charging these authors, as some opponents have done with subverting the freedom of the human will and moral

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responsibility, (as if they had created en occasioned the facts which they have only investigated and reported), the philosophic mind should direct its energies to the discovering of the causes, and to the removal of such of them as produce evil. Crime appears to me to stand in a similar relation to the mind that disease does to the body ; it is the indication that the faculties of the individual, through original defect in his brain, or from exposure to unfavourable external influences, or from both combined, have departed from the healthy condition ; and as we endeavour to cure disease by removing its causes, so should we try to diminish crime by a similar mode of proceeding. That crime arises from steadily operating causes which lie far deeper than the voluntary or fitful aberrations of individual minds, seems to be established beyond dispute. The next step, therefore, should be to unfold these causes, and to remove them. Defective cerebral organization, want of moral and religious training and intellectual instruction, with defective social institutions, will probably be found to constitute the chief sources whence criminal actions spring. While these are permitted to continue, punishment of individual criminals will fail in putting an end to crime. The representation by Sir George S. Mackenzie to Lord Glenelg, Secretary for the Colonies, printed in the appendix, will shew one mode in which Phrenology may be made subservient to the proper treatment of criminals.¹

¹ An attempt has been made by Dr Kombst of Edinburgh, in his " Ethnographic Map of Europe, or the different nations of Europe traced according to Race, Language, Religion, and Form of Government, 2d Edit., Edinburgh, 1843, W. & A. K. Johnston," to give a synoptical view of the different races inhabiting Europe. They are pointed out on the map by different colours, the Celtic by blue, the Teutonic by yellow, the Sclavonian by red, the Finnian by brown, and the Mongolian by purple. The notes, which are added, consist of three sheets of printed matter, and are classed under eight different heads, all treating on the physiological, moral, and intellectual character of the different races. The work embodies in a brief space a vast amount of interesting and accurate information, and will be found to be a valuable assistant to the student of the History and Institutions of Europe.

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Vol. 1: [front matter], Intro, Nervous 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].