The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences, vol 4: 

Medical and Philosophical Intelligence.

Phrenological Society of Philadelphia.

Though of recent formation, this Society embraces a number of the respectable and intelligent gentlemen of the city, and if we may judge from the wide field of investigation which it opens, rill doubtless be of considerable utility, by leading to a more precise and observing study of the physical and moral nature of man.
Assuming as the basis of its inquiries, the great physiological truth, that all the phenomena of animated nature are displayed through organization in general, and that all the intellectual phenomena are evidenced by means of the brain in particular, the Society, in admitting the plurality of mental faculties, and corresponding cerebral organs, proposed to pursue 'the study of the operations of mind as depending on proportional development of the brain.' With this view, it will of course call in Comparative Anatomy and Natural History to its aid, by observing the coincidence between the various instincts of animals and their cerebral organization and development--and when furnished with illustrations from this quarter, will extend the examination to all the varieties of our own species, and see how far national and individual character may have received their first impress by peculiarity of cerebral structure.
It would, perhaps, be premature to speak of the proposed practical application of the Society's labour, to a nicer discrimination between feelings, and propensities, and intellect, so as to direct, with a prospect of success, that great moral engine, Education: and also, by a classification of primitive faculties, enable us to note more accurately their modifications, constituting individual character, and their diseased action, producing insanity.
The officers of the society were: President--Philip Syng Physick, M.D.; Vice-Presidents--William E. Horner, M.D. and Clement C. Biddle, Esq.; Curators--Wm. P. S. Barton, M.D. and Aaron B. Tucker, M.D.; Corresponding Secretary--John Bell, M.D., Recording Secretary--Benjamin Coates, M.D.; and, Treasurer--Joseph Cabot, Esq.


From: John van Wyhe, The History of Phrenology on the Web (http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/)