of South Lat., before the arrival of the present Indian population, which, in its physical characters, its customs, &c. offers many analogies with the Asiatic races of the old world *." The Phrenological Society possesses a skull from the neighbourhood of Arica on the coast of Peru, to which Mr Pentland's description applies. Its form differs in a remarkable manner from that of the skulls brought from Lima, which are very broad in proportion to their length. We have a paper in progress respecting the skulls and character of the Peruvian Indians, and shall advert in it to Mr Pentland's observations, which are published in the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science for July 1834. We exhibited the Arica skull to Mr Pentland, and understood him to say that he regarded it, though found in a burial place on the coast, as having belonged to a native of the interior, one of the race now extinct. He was unluckily called away before we could inquire into the reasons on which this conclusion was founded. On 13th September, Dr Abercrombie concluded the business of the Medical Section by a very excellent address, in which, after expressing his confidence in the zeal of the members in following out the investigations which had been recommended to them, and impressing on them the necessity of cultivating pathology, he proceeded to make some observations on the interest and importance to the medical profession of the study of mental philosophy. "In alluding to this subject, he said he was aware of the objections which had been brought against admitting the philosophy of mind as one of the regular Sections of the Association; and to a considerable extent he admitted their truth, as it might be difficult to preserve such discussions from those hypothetical speculations by which this important science had been so much obscured and retarded in its progress. But, by treating it as a branch of Physiology, he trusted this might be avoided, by rigidly restricting the investigation to a careful observation of facts, and the purposes of high practical utility to which they might be applied. Keeping in view the importance of these rules, he earnestly recommended the subject to medical inquirers, as capable of being cultivated on strict philosophical principles, as a science of observation, and as likely to yield laws, principles, or universal facts, which might be ascertained with the same precision as the laws of physical science. For this purpose, however, inquirers must abstain from all vain speculations respecting the nature and essence of mind, or the mode of its communication with external things, and must confine themselves to a simple and careful study of its operations. Some of these Dr Abercrombie alluded to under the following heads :the laws of the succession of thoughts, and the remarkable in Edin. New Phil. Journ. October 1834, p. 433. fluence of association:-the voluntary power which we possess over the succession of thought, the due culture of which lies at the foundation of all sound mental discipline :-the influence of habit upon mental processes, and the means of correcting injurious habits:-the important relation between voluntary intellectual processes and moral emotions, and between such intellectual processes and the result of evidence in producing conviction :the laws of reason or judgment-the means of cultivating it— and the ruinous effects which result from the neglect of such culture. In concluding these observations, Dr Abercrombie alluded briefly to the moral phenomena of the human mind, and the impressions which we derive from them, with a feeling of absolute certainty, respecting the moral attributes of the Crea tor. 66 Respecting the means of cultivating the Philosophy of Mind as a science of rigid observation, Dr Abercrombie alluded to the study of mental phenomena and mental habits in ourselves and in other men; and the whole phenomena of dreaming, insanity, and delirium, and the mental conditions which occur in connexion with diseases and injuries of the brain. The subjects of dreaming and insanity, which have hitherto been little cultivated with this view, he considered as capable of being prosecuted on sound philosophical principles, and as likely to yield curious and important results respecting the laws of association, and various other processes of the mind. "The practical purposes to which mental science may be applied, Dr Abercrombie considered briefly under the following heads-(1.) The education of the young, and the cultivation of a sound mental discipline at any period of life. In all other departments, we distinctly recognise the truth, that every art must be founded upon science, or on a correct knowledge of the uniform relations and sequences of the essences to which the art refers; and it cannot be supposed that the only exception to this rule should be the highest and most delicate of all human pursuits, the science and the art of the mind. (2.) The intellectual and moral treatment of insanity, presenting a subject of intellectual observation and experiment, in which little comparatively has been done, but which seems to promise results of the highest importance and interest. (3.) The prevention of insanity in individuals in whom there exists the hereditary predisposition to it. He gave his reasons for being convinced that in such cases, much might be done by a careful mental culture, and that irremediable injury might arise from the neglect of it. (4.) Dr Abercrombie alluded to the importance of mental science as the basis of a Philosophical Logic, but did not enlarge on this part of the subject. He concluded his address by some observations on the dignity and importance of medicine, as one of the highest pursuits to which the human mind can be directed; as it combines with the culture of a liberal science the daily exercise of an extensive benevolence, and thus tends at once to cultivate the highest powers of the understanding and the best feelings of the heart." * In conclusion we remark, that although the British Association, under its present constitution, may perhaps be right in excluding discussions on the relations of intellectual beings, it must be humiliating to the philosophers of the nineteenth century to make the public acknowledgment which we have quoted, of the entire absence of any philosophy of mind which can be included among the sciences, and discussed with temper and judgment, and without "imprudently and daringly passing the boundaries of the Association." We must be permitted also to tell them, that they will make a sorry figure at the bar of posterity, when Phrenology shall be recognised as the very philosophy of which they stood in need, and when it will be universally acknowledged that their narrow-minded prejudices alone prevented them from investigating and adopting it. ARTICLE V. CASE OF IDIOCY. Ar a meeting of the Manchester Phrenological Society in September last, Mr G. Wilson, the President, read a paper on a remarkable case of idiocy, illustrated by a cast of the individual's head. This paper we regard as a valuable contribution to phrenological literature. A copy of the cast having been presented by the society now mentioned, to the Phrenological Society in Edinburgh, we are enabled to give a sketch of it on page 128. For the sake of contrast, a view of the head of Rammohun Roy, on the same scale, is likewise inserted. This individual, as we learn from Mr Wilson's paper, is the son of a labourer in moderate circumstances, and was born near Prestwich, in October 1814; so that he is now twenty years of age. He is the third of five children, and is in perfect health. The integuments of the skull are very thick and loose, so that the brain is not so large as might be supposed by one who has not manipulated the head. The hair appears to have been of considerable length when the cast was made. The stature of the individual is about five feet six inches, and he weighs about nine stones. His father states, that for a considerable time after birth he Edin. New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1834, p. 443. old was remarkably small and helpless, and that he was three years old before he could be taught to walk. Up to this period he displayed no intellectual faculties, his actions being merely regulated by animal instinct. Afterwards he learned to recognise individuals and to say "mother," a term which he applied also to his father and every member of the family. As he grew up, his favourite habits were to walk into the garden and to amuse himself by digging or scraping holes, either with his hands or more especially with bits of wood. When about seven years he became very passionate and learnt to swear, which, when enraged, he does freely. The next child to him was also an idiot; she died about two years ago; her head was larger, and she displayed more general power, and had the command of a greater number of words. This girl and he were constant companions, and were seldom separate from each other. They always rambled and slept together, and for a short time after her death he looked very solitary, and even now he is more attached to a girl of the same name where he resides than to any other member of the family. His habits now are to arise from bed when called, having taken no more rest than the others; and as he is incapable of dressing himself, his godmother performs this office for him. He remains at home till breakfast, with which, as well as every other meal, he never appears to be satisfied or to have taken sufficient. After this he rambles with company sometimes miles from home, though generally returning with those who induced him away. During his rambles he is, of course, subjected to the perpetual annoyances of mischievous children, and often of those whose years should render them more humane; yet he immediately forgets all and is soon happy. He frequently accompanies horses and carts, and can drive with the whip pretty well. His partiality for horses is very striking, and was manifested early in life. A few weeks ago a gentleman was riding on a small pony in the neighbourhood, and as this, from some cause or other, displeased him, he seized hold of the pony's tail and pulled with all his strength; this with the gentleman's weight were sufficient to stop the pony, at which the gentleman was so enraged that he jumped from the saddle and laid the whip so freely upon the poor boy's shoulders, that his cries were heard at a great distance, and the castigator narrowly escaped being mobbed by the whole neighbourhood. He spends a great portion of his time at a retail beer shop in the neighbourhood; and as he is exceeding ly fond of drink, and almost all who frequent the place know him and invite him to taste with them, he gets intoxicated sometimes for days together. It requires more than an ordinary quantity of beer to intoxicate him; and when he is taken home in this condition, he appears satisfied all is not right, and that he has merited the scolding which invariably follows from his godmother. When the storm has subsided, and he reads in her countenance returning peace, he usually sets up a loud laugh, and under the excitement of the liquor remains very merry during the remainder of the evening. He is very fond of sweetmeats, and on one occasion when Mr Wilson presented him with some wrapped in a paper, he devoured the paper and contents indiscriminately. Some peas also he eat without shelling them. The general volume of his head is very small. This will appear from the following note of the dimensions of the cast, (in inches), which we contrast with those of the head of Rammohun Roy. From Individuality to Philoprogenitiveness, .... Philoprogenitiveness................ .........Firmness,... Idiot. Rammohun Roy. 61 4% 82 42 Destructiveness to Destructiveness,..... 4 The feebleness of his mind is commensurate with the smallness of his head. So little force of character, indeed, does he possess, that he willingly submits to be governed by a little girl, and to endure the torture of boys to whom he is vastly superior in muscular power. Now, what explanation," asks Mr Wilson, "besides the phrenological one, can be given of his imbecility? If the mind can act independently of material organi 7 |