ance. In the course of my researches, my attention was arrested by a very handsome young woman, who, from her childhood, had been fond of dressing herself in male attire, and going secretly out of doors to fight with the blackguards in the streets. After her marriage, she constantly sought occasion to fight with men. When she had guests at dinner, she challenged the strongest of them, after the repast, to wrestle with her. I likewise knew a lady, who, although of small stature and delicate constitution, was often judicially summoned, because of her custom of striking her domestics of both sexes. When she was on a journey, two drunk waggoners, having lost their way in the inn during the night, entered the chamber where she was sleeping alone: she received them with such vigour with the candlesticks, which she hurled at their heads, and the chairs, with which she struck them, that they were forced to betake themselves to flight. In all these persons, I found the region in question formed in the manner above described, although the heads were shaped in other respects quite differently. These observations emboldened me, and I began thenceforward to speak, in my lectures, of an organ of courage, as I then called it." The existence of this organ has since been fully established.

Let us now attend to its manifestations in a state of disease. Pinel mentions several cases. One of these is that of a man affected with a very inveterate periodical mania. "His paroxysms," says Pinel, "generally continue for eight or ten days every month, and seem to present the most perfect contrast to his natural state. During his lucid intervals, his physiognomy is calm--his air mild and reserved-his answers to questions put to him timid and proper. He manifests urbanity of manners, rigid probity, and even a desire to oblige others, and expresses the most ardent wishes for the cure of his disease; but on the return of the paroxysm, particularly when marked by a certain redness of the face, excessive heat in the head, and a violent thirst, his walk is precipitate, his tone of voice is strong and arrogant, his look is full of audacity, and he experiences the most violent propensity to provoke those who approach him, and to fight with them furiously.+"

When the organ of Combativeness is deficient, the character is altogether pacific; the individual hates contention, and never willingly gets into a brawl. To this branch of the subject I shall have occasion to advert at greater length hereafter.

Gall and Spurzheim confine their remarks on Combativeness almost entirely to what may be termed its physical functions; the consideration of its effects in a moral point of view being

Gall sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, tome iv. pp. 3-6.

Pinel sur l'Aliénation Mentale. Seconde Edit. p. 101, sect. 116,

dismissed in a single brief sentence. "Learned men who find every where occasion for bitter controversy, and impassioned pleaders, have probably," says Gall," this organ very much developed." To this topic, also, I shall afterwards return.

Having thus seen the effect of great vigour of the organ No. V., both in health and in disease, let us proceed to inquire what is the elementary faculty which prompts to the performance of actions such as those above described.

The attention of Dr Gall having been at first always fixed on the extraordinary manifestation of a quality or faculty, and consequently on the result of an excessive development of an organ, it is obvious that it was impossible for him to discover any fundamental power in its primitive destination. "In certain cases," as he himself observes, "it is much more easy to discover the organ which determines a certain mode of action, than the fundamental quality or faculty itself. Actions which are the result of the extraordinary activity of an organ are much more obvious than the primitive destination of that organ, and its ordinary manner of acting. It is for this reason that at first I observed almost all the organs, and all the faculties, in their excessive activity. When faculties are once recognised as peculiar and independent, it is possible thence to infer, by degrees, the primitive destination of an organ.+" Courage, we have seen, was the name which Dr Gall at first gave to the propensity now under discussion. Afterwards, however, he substituted for this name that of Quarrelsomeness, and then that of the Instinct of Self-Defence and Defence of Property (Instinct de la Defense de soi-même et de la Propriélé; penchant aux rixes; Courage), which appellation he retained till his death. None of these designations of the faculty met the approval of Dr Spurzheim. "Physical courage," says he, " and the capacity to meet and repel attack, is necessary to animals, as soon as they are attached to females, to progeny, to dwellings, or to friends; for, according to the arrangements of nature, it is necessary to fight in order to defend. Such a propensity must therefore exist for the purposes of defence; but it seems to me that it is, like all others, of general application, and not limited to self-defence: I therefore call the cerebral part in which it inheres the organ of the Propensity to Fight, or of Combativeness.‡'

With all deference, it appears to me that Dr Spurzheim here falls into an error of the same kind, though perhaps not the same in degree, with that which he points out in the appellation bestowed on the organ by Gall. To employ-mutatis mutandis—the expressions used by himself in objecting to Gall's appellation of

Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, tome iv. p. 14. + Ibid. tome iv. p. 1. + Spurzheim's Phrenology, section on Combativeness.

another primitive faculty,-the organ No. V. is certainly essential to fighting, but it often acts without there being any intention to fight, and is also satisfied in various ways not necessarily connected with such a purpose. "We do not usually speak," says Dr S., "of the nerves of the instinct of nutrition, but of those of hunger and thirst. The same language should be used when speaking of the organ in question, Gall's name does not express the whole sphere of activity of the faculty. Now, I constantly insist on the importance of adopting titles which do not designate determinate actions."*

To the soundness of these principles I cordially assent, and Dr Spurzheim seems to have applied them successfully in analyzing the faculty No. VII. which Gall termed Cunning, but to which he gave the name Secretiveness. "I grant," says he, "that this power too often acts as cunning, but I do not think that this name indicates the special propensity itself. This was to be determined without considering the objects upon which, and the manner in which, it acts; and in considering the proceedings of sly animals and cunning men, and all the functions depending on this power, I conceived it to be the propensity to conceal-to be secret in thoughts, words, things, or projects."

I cannot avoid thinking, that Dr Spurzheim somewhat overlooks his own principles, when he speaks of an "organ of the propensity to fight." On the one hand, this name, to use his own phrase," does not express the whole sphere of activity of the faculty;" and on the other, it is very like an expression which "designates a determinate action." Fighting, in the case of man, is most frequently the result of the faculty when ill regulated or too energetic; or rather, as I shall afterwards endea vour to shew, it is the effect of such an endowment, in combination with another propensity-Destructiveness. "The most exalted action of an organ," however, as Dr Gall well remarks, "is merely a gradation of the fundamental power, but not that fundamental power itself. The fundamental quality or faculty," says he, "is common to all the individuals of the species; but the degrees of its manifestation vary in one individual and another, according as the organ is more or less developed. If we disregard all the accidental modifications, and pay attention only to what in that quality is common to all individuals, we shall have found the fundamental quality or faculty." This, I am persuaded, is the only mode in which elementary faculties can

Phrenology; section on Amativeness.-Gall's term is "The instinct of propagation."

Phrenology; section on Secretiveness.

Tome iv. p. 20, 21.-Gall adds: “ As, in this matter, much is left to the sagacity of each philosopher who devotes himself to it, there will always be a great diversity of opinions, even among organologists, on the subject of the denomination of the fundamental qualities or faculties."

be arrived at; and before the phrenological nomenclature can be accurate, we must designate each faculty by a term which, in the words of Dr Spurzheim, already repeatedly cited, shall “express the whole sphere of its activity."

It appears to me that both Gall and Spurzheim have failed to discover, or at least to expound, what in the faculty under discussion" is common to all individuals." This elementary, ultimate, primary, or fundamental quality or faculty, I have been led by much reflection to conclude, is, when stripped of all its"accidental modifications," neither more nor less than THE INSTINCT OR PROPENSITY TO OPPOSE; or, as it may be shortly expressed, OPPOSIVENESS.

The word OPPOSE I use both in its primitive and in its secondary sense; applying it to acts both physical and moral. TO OPPOSE literally signifies to set one's-self against. According to Dr Johnson, it means, to act against; to be adverse; to hinder; to resist; to place as an obstacle: And OPPOSER he explains to be one that opposes; antagonist; enemy; rival. OPPOSITION may be either aggressive or defensive we may act against another either by attacking or by resisting.

Let us now examine how far OPPOSITION characterises the actions to which, according to Phrenologists, Combativeness leads. Mr Scott's acute and comprehensive essay on this faculty, in the Transactions of the Phrenological Society, may be selected as the best subject for comment. That gentleman has the merit of having first clearly elucidated the moral functions of the faculty.

"By itself," says Mr Scott, "it is a blind impulse, delighting in OPPOSITION for its own sake."-Obs. Every faculty delights in the performance of actions prompted by itself.

Mr Scott." A restless spirit of contention, without end or object."-Obs. Contention is the action of two or more parties in OPPOSITION to each other. There can be no contention without OPPOSITION and resistance.

Mr Scott. Under the direction of higher powers, it gives boldness and force to the character, and enables these to act with energy and effect."-Obs. Here, also, there must be orPOSITION. "Boldness" is an impulse to face dangerous objects; to set one's self against them. Large No. V. enables a man to meet them without shrinking, nay even with pleasure. It matters not whether the dangerous object be a living creature or an inanimate object. In swimming against a rapid stream, persons in whom this faculty is weak will speedily become fainthearted, if indeed they venture into the water at all; while they who are amply endowed will continue, so long as their muscles are capable of resisting the torrent, to

"buffet it

With lusty sinews; throwing it aside,

And stemming it with hearts of controversy.”

Mr Scott." It does not shew itself in fighting only. In all cases where we have difficulties to encounter, where a severe struggle is necessary to command success, this power is of eminent use; and nothing can supply or make up for it, if it is wanting." Obs. We set ourselves against the difficulties, or rather against the persons causing them. We resist them. The word "struggle" may be defined, Strenuous OPPOSITION, either offensive or defensive, to an adversary-an intense degree of

OPPOSITION.

Mr Scott. In the ancient games, it was the same internal impulse which strained to the utmost the speed of the racer," and gave force to the arms which wielded the disc or the cestus." -Obs. The rivalry of OPPOSITION is here: the racers and quoit-throwers were antagonists and rivals, contending for victory and applause. This faculty gives to the sports of foot-ball, wrestling, &c., and also to card-playing, backgammon, and the like, a large share of their attractions. Set a man to play against himself, and this will quickly become obvious.

Mr Scott." It is of use not merely in the contests of the field, but in the collisions of civil life, whenever our views happen to clash with, or be opposed to, those of others. It may display itself in the bloodless contests of the bar or the senate, and even among the softer sex, in the rivalries of the boudoir and the ball-room, no less than in the arena or in the field of battle." Obs. The words "collision" and "clash" are strongly expressive of OPPOSITION. When very large, the organ prompts to litigation, the very essence of which is oProSITION; one party is versus the other. Contest and rivalry likewise imply OPPOSITION.

1

Mr Scott." In every contest, he who is endowed with this power dashes through obstacles, and struggles on to the last." Obs. He sets himself against the obstacles; he OPPOSES and resists them.

Mr Scott." He who has it not is easily discomfited; and with every desire to get forward, feels himself worsted, baffled, and beat down in every quarter, by those more highly endowed with Combativeness than himself."-Obs. He has little propensity to OPPOSE: he cannot resist: he sinks before an antagonist. The words here employed by Mr Scott to describe the inconvenience occasioned by deficiency of Combativeness, are felicitous and expressive. The utility of this faculty in the business and bustle of life is indeed very great. It enables its possessor to meet and struggle with obstacles, to put forward and support boldly his just pretensions, and to repel the encroachments of selfish