are indicutions of great languor of the bodily and mental functions. Cateris paribus, temperament seems to affect equally every part of the body; so that if the muscles be naturally active and energetic, we may expect also activity and energy of the brain ; and if one set of muscles be active, the like vivacity may be looked for in the others. This principle is practically recognised by William Cobbett, who, whatever may be his merits or demerits as a politician, is certainly a shrewd observer and describer of real life. In his Letter to a Lover, he discusses the question, “ Who is to tell whether a girl will make an industrious woman? How is the purblind lover especially to be able to ascertain whether she, whose smiles, and dimples, and bewitching lips, have half bereft him of his senses ; how is he to be able to judge, from any thing that he can see, whether the beloved object will be industrious or lazy? Why, it is very difficult,” he answers : “ There are, however, certain outward signs, which, if attended to with care, will serve as pretty sure guides. And, first, if you find the tongue lazy, you may be nearly certain that the hands and feet are the same. By laziness of the tongue I do not mean silence ; I do not mean an absence of talk, for that is, in most cases, very good; but I mean a slow and soft utterance ; a sort of sighing out of the words, instead of speaking them; a sort of letting the sounds fall out, as if the party were sick at stomach. The pronunciation of an industrious person is generally quick and distinct, and the voice, if not strong, firm at least. Not masculine; as feminine as possible; not a croak nor a bawl, but a quick, distinct, and sound voice.”_" Look a little, also, at the labours of the teeth, for these correspond with the other members of the body, and with the operations of the mind. Quick at meals, quick at work,' is a saying as old as the hills, in this, the most industrious nation upon earth; and never was there a truer saying." “ Get to see her at work upon a mutton-chop, or a bit of bread and cheese ; and if she deal quickly with these, you have a pretty good security for that activity, that stirring industry, withoul which a wife is a burden instead of a help.” 6. Another mark of industry is a quick step, and a somewhat heavy tread, shewing that the foot comes down with a hearty good will." “ I do not like, and I never liked, your sauntering, soft-stepping girls, who move as if they were perfectly indifferent as to the result."

We are disposed to think that Cobbett's advice will prove sound in all cases where the nervous and muscular systems are equally developed, equally healthy, and equally accustomed to exercise. But if the head be large and the muscles small, the

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individual will be much more inclined to mental than to muscular activity; and, on the other hand, if he have large muscles and a small brain, the activity derived from a sanguine or bilious temperament will have a tendency to expend itself in exercise or labour of the body. The reason of this is, that the largest organs have, cæteris paribus, the greatest tendency to act; their activity is productive of the greatest pleasure ; hence they are more frequently exercised than the smaller organs; and thus the energy and activity of the former are made to predominate still more than they did originally, over those of the latter. Mr Noble remarks, that when the temperament is sanguine, “there is most commonly a disposition to indolence and mental inactivity, in the absence of any very powerful motive;" but this, we suspect, is true only where the cerebral organs are in development and cultivation inferior to the muscles. The sanguine temperament is of itself no way unfavourable to mental activity; on the contrary, its usual effect is to give animation, not only to the muscular system, but also to the affective and intellectual faculties. The remarks now offered in reference to the comparative efficiency of the muscular and cerebral functions, are equally applicable to the cerebral organs, considered in relation to each other. Where two organs are alike in development and cultivation, a nervous or sanguine temperament will render them equally active; but where one is more fully developed than the other, it will excel the latter both in power and in activity. In another brain of the same size and form, but with a lymphatic temperament, a similar predominance of the power and activity of one organ over those of the other will be found; but the absolute power and activity of both will be less than in the other case supposed. Temperament, therefore, besides influencing the activity of the organs, affects their power also, to a greater extent than Mr Noble seems inclined to allow.

Facts, it is on all hands admitted, are still wanted, to place the subject of the temperaments on a completely satisfactory footing.–Ed.]

ARTICLE III. CASE OF DERANGEMENT OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE,

IN CONSEQUENCE OF A BLOW NEAR THE EYE.

A considerable number of years ago, M. De Fouchy read to the French Academy a very interesting account of an accident which he himself had sustained, and which was followed by derangement of the faculty of language. It is quoted by M. Moreau, in the Encyclopedie Méthodique, article MEDECINE MENTALE

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(Paris, 1816; vol. ix. of the Medical Division), and is regarded by that writer as described “ with the courageous, calm, and wise impartiality, which forms the characteristic of a philosopher." M. De Fouchy's narrative is as follows :-" The first of the accidents," says he, “ which kept me absent from the Academy during a considerable time, was accompanied by a circumstance which appears to me worthy of being communicated. On the 24th of March last, leaving the house of M. Anisson, where I bad been assisting at the trial of his new press, I was returning home about seven in the evening, when it was beginning to be rather dark. A projecting part of the pavement tripped my foot, and caused me to fall forwards and a little to one side, with my face on a heap of stones which happened to be there. The blow struck precisely on the vomer, * and on the angle of the right eye ; the skin covering the former was cut, and bled much. I felt at the moment of the blow an acute pain, which extended along the left eye; but I was in no degree stunned, nor experienced any affection of the heart (maux de cæur); and I proceeded on my way, holding a handkerchief on my nose. On reaching home, I washed the wound, which had stopped bleeding, with warm wine, and the pain diminished so much as not to prevent me from sleeping. Next day it was supportable, and I thought I remarked it in two places, namely, on the vomer, and also above the left eye, which had not suffered from the blow.

“ The pain of the vomer was accompanied by a particular circumstance, which lasted a long time, and consisted in thisthat when I moved that bone to the right or left with my finger, I perceived a slight internal crepitation, as if its articulation with the other bones of the face had suffered. Up to this time I had noticed nothing extraordinary. I went out, and returned to dinner, when the following circumstance occurred, which appears to me worthy of much attention.

66 Towards the end of dinner, I felt a slight increase of the pain above the left eye, and, at that very instant, became unable to pronounce the words which I wished. I heard what was said to me, and thought what I wished; but I pronounced other words than those which could have expressed my thoughts, or, if I begun, could not finish them, but substituted other words for them. I had, however, the power of every motion, as free as in my usual state. I did not drop my fork, nor the piece of bread which I held in my band. I saw clearly every object ; and the organs which produce the action of thought were, so far as I could judge, in their natural state. This kind of

paroxysm lasted for a minute, and, during its continuance, I was sufficiently conscious of this singular distinction in the sensorium

• It may be necessary to explain to our non.medical readers, that the vomer is the thin bone which forms the partition of the nose.

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of the mind (sensiorum de l'âme), which had only one of its parts affected, without the others suffering the slightest disturbance.

“ When M. Vicq-d'Azyr read to the Academy on the Anatomy of the Human Brain, I was struck by what he said regarding the nervous filaments which pass from the brain and enter the interior of the nose through the cribriform plate, and I thought I had discovered in them the explanation of my singular state. These filaments, having perhaps received a shock from the blow on the vomer, had transmitted that shock to the brain; but I could discover no reason for the singular phenomenon of the sensorium of the mind being affected in one of its its parts only.

« I confine myself, here, simply to the relation of the fact, which I deemed it my duty to communicate to the Academy, in order that, if deemed expedient, it may be entered in the registers.

“ An observation of this kind must necessarily be extremely rare, since it is requisite that a man of science should be the subject, and that the accident should not be so severe as to prevent him from observing all the circumstances attending it. Notwithstanding, however, all my zeal for the promotion of the sciences which are the objects of the Academy, I trust it will readily pardon me for not wishing to present ii often with similar observations."

The phenomena here described are altogether inexplicable, except on the phrenological principle that the brain is an aggregate of organs, performing different functions; and the appearance of the derangement at the very moment when an increase of pain took place in the situation of the organ of Language, must be regarded as strikingly confirming the function of that part of the brain *

ARTICLE IV.

PHRENOLOGY AND THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its Annual Meeting in Edinburgh on 8th September 1834 and five succeeding days. About a week previously, Mr Combe addressed the following letter to John Robison, Esq., one of the Secretaries :

See, in vol. V. of this Journal, p. 431, a somewhat analogous case, where memory of names was impaired by a fall on the forehead.

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23. CHARLOTTE SQUARE, “ John Robison, Esq.

2d September 1834. “ My Dear Sir,-As I mentioned to you yesterday, I intend to apply to be admitted a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

“ In case a demonstration of the Phrenological Society's collection of national skulls would be acceptable in any of the Sections, I beg leave to express my readiness to give one, on any day except Wednesday 10th September, and I shall take it kind if you will mention this to the Committee. At the same time, I wish it to be understood that I have no individual anxiety for the acceptance of this offer; and that my only motive in making it, is to contribute, so far as lies in my power, to the fulfilment of the objects of the Association. Believe me to remain, &c.

" GEO. COMBE.
Mr Robison returned the following answer :-
My Dear Sir,

3d September. “ I have forwarded your intimation to Mr J. Forbes, for insertion in the list of communications, all of which will be laid before the Sections on their first meeting; and it will lie with them to arrange what order they shall be brought forwardin.”

Mr Combe was duly admitted a member of the Association, and attended meetings of several of the Sections; but he was not honoured with any reply whatever to his offer of a communication. From Mr Robison he received the most polite attention ; and the reason of the silence of the Committee became apparent at the first meeting. Mr Sedgwick, the President for last year, before resigning his office, addressed the Association, in a speech in which he urged most strenuously upon the Association the necessity of keeping in mind the objects of its institution, and to confine their researches to dead matter, without entering into any speculations on the relations of intellectual beings; and he would brand as a traitor that person who would dare to overstep the prescribed boundaries of the institution. If the Society should ever be broken up, which God forbid, he would predict that it would happen by some members imprudently and daringly passing its boundaries *."

It was reported among the audience, that this anathema was directed chiefly against the Statistical Section of the Association, into which it was feared that moral or political discussion might be introduced ; but it obviously applied in an especial manner to Phrenology. Accordingly, in the proceedings of the Association, no allusion was made to our science, except a feeble attempt at ridicule, introduced by Dr Graham in an evening re

Report of Proceedings of the British Association, in Edin. New Phil. Journ. for Oct. 1834, p. 372.