forms lovers, that a girl who walks and speaks quickly and distinctly, and plies the teeth rapidly in eating, may, with considerable safety, be presumed to have an active and industrious mind. "Quick at meals, quick at work," says Cobbett," 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, without which a wife is a burden instead of a help." On this the remark was added,-" 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."

By this it was meant, that in cases where vivacity of the muscular system is evinced by habitual quickness of gait, speech, and movement of the jaws in chewing, the brain also will usually be found active; and that Cobbett's advice, that these symptoms of muscular agility ought to be noted by lovers wishing to ascertain whether a girl is likely to be active-minded and industrious, will generally prove sound. The writer in the Lancet, however, understands Cobbett and ourselves to recommend the hasty and imperfect mastication of food. "To our mind," says he, "the advice deserved some criticism like this. • Nature meant teeth to be used, not food to be bolted. Teeth were designed to save trouble to the stomach,-to save it an effort which sometimes it cannot consummate at all. The young woman who deals very quickly' with her food will soon have a slow digestion, and that will end in disinclination to both mental and muscular activity. A time to work and a time to chew,' is a better saying than quick at meals, quick at work,'-a proverb which task-masters may easily make the agent of a gross crime against health. The saying deserves reprobation. We reflect too seldom on the purposes of the teeth." We cordially agree with the Lancet, in thinking that food ought to be thoroughly chewed before being swallowed-and not only so, but that labour of mind and body ought to be refrained from until digestion has made considerable progress. But we do not perceive the slightest incompatibility between a quick and a thorough mastication. It is possible to chew quickly, and yet to "use" the teeth to the fullest extent, so as to avoid bolting." The young woman who bolts her food, is, in ordinary circumstances, likely to do so through sheer laziness; and the Lancet is indisputably right in affirming, that the effect of this will be to augment still more her disinclination to both mental and muscular activity.

66

BEECHEY'S VOYAGE IN THE BLOSSOM.-Can any of our readers inform us what has become of the skulls brought to England from St Lawrence Island, Beering's Strait, by Mr Collie, surgeon of the Blossom? We understand that they were taken possession of by Government, along with all other specimens of natural history collected during the voyage; but of their subsequent fate we are entirely ignorant. They must be comparatively useless to all but phrenologists, and we know that Mr Collie intended them as a donation for the Phrenological Society. That gentleman also, as Lieut. Beechey mentions in a passage quoted in our 34th number, p. 96, gave in his Journal a description of the heads of several Loo-Chooans, which was too long for insertion in the published narrative of the voyage. We hope that some friend will be able to bring to light both the skulls and the description of the heads. The latter, though too long for Lieut. Beechey, would probably suit our pages.

BRAIN OF THE BULL DOG.-Extract from The Field Book, article Dog."The cerebral capacity of the bull dog is sensibly smaller than in any other race, and it is doubtless to the decrease of the encephalon that we must at. tribute its inferiority to all others in every thing relating to intelligence. The bull dog is scarcely capable of any education, and is fitted for nothing but combat and ferocity."

MR LOUDON makes the following sound remark in his " Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture," published in 1834, p. 1124.

"Be

fore we recommend any youth to study Architecture as a profession, we

would endeavour to ascertain, upon phrenological principles or from general observation, whether his organization was favourable for that pursuit. One of the grand causes of the slow advancement of all the arts of taste, and of the great prevalence of mediocrity among artists, is the utter neglect of this preliminary measure on the part of their parents or advisers"

THE LONDON MEDICAL GAZETTE of 7th February contains a most disgraceful and abusive attack on Phrenology, which, for misrepresentation, ignorance, and mala fides, has had no parallel in this country since Dr Gordon's scurrilous production in No. 49 of the Edinburgh Review. The Gazette did not reach us till our pages were full, but we may possibly recur to it.

Among other signs of the times, we notice, that, in the account of Dr Gall just published in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, his history and discoveries are calmly narrated in accordance with the statements of the phrenologists themselves; contrary to the custom hitherto prevalent on such occasions, of misrepresenting and distorting facts. It ought to be remarked also, that the writer preserves the strictest neutrality, declaring neither for nor against the phrenologists; a circumstance which, if taken in connexion with the fact that the editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica is also editor of the Edinburgh Review, must be held as symptomatic of a considerable increase of respect for Phrenology. The article alluded to, however, contains a few trifling inaccuracies. Thus, Dr Gall's christian name is said to be John Joseph instead of Francis Joseph, an error copied from a French biographical sketch. Again, it is erroneously stated, that of his Anatomie et Physiologie du Système Nerveux, &c, only a volume and a half appeared; whereas the work was completed in four volumes. "The most elaborate of his productions, however," we are told, "is Organologie, ou Exposition des Instincts, Penchans, &c., et du Siége de leurs Organes, which was completed in 1825. His Histoire des Fonctions du Cerveau had appeared in 1822, in two vols. 8vo." The fact is, that the Organologie is merely a portion of his work Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, which, in its turn, is but a reprint. with very few additions, of the physiological portion of the Anatomie el Physiologie du Système Nerveux.

MARQUIS MOSCATI-Our readers may recollect, that we took occasion a few numbers back (vol. viii. p. 227), to defend Dr Spurzheim and Phrenology from the misrepresentations of their soi-disant friend the Marquis Moscati. At the time of our notice, we knew him only as the author of the misrepresentations which we exposed. The history of his conversion to Phrenology, which appeared in some of the newspapers shortly afterwards, and was greedily read by many, served only to confirm, by its inconsistencies, the suspicions of gross inaccuracy which his first paper excited in our minds; and at last, about a month ago, the Marquis, as the prosecutor of the Times newspaper, made an appearance in court, which, however characterized by cleverness and savoir faire, has at once and for ever extinguished any little claim which he may have formerly possessed to the attention or favour of the British public.

Mr Combe has completed a second edition of his work on the Constitution of Man, considerably enlarged and improved. It will be published on 1st April. Three new chapters have been added, and many new illustrations introduced into the former text.

Among several articles very reluctantly postponed till next Number, and mostly in types, are a Reply by Mr Carmichael to Mr Macnish's objections to his theory of sleep; a Review of Mr Dean's Lectures on Phrenology; and a very interesting communication, by Dr Barlow of Bath, about the child William Manuel, mentioned at the end of our last Number. If Dr Barlow could, in the mean time, procure a cast of the boy's head, or an accurate note of its dimensions, he would add much to the favour already conferred in transmitting the history and cerebral development of the child, and also increase not a little the value of his highly esteemed communication.

Edinburgh, 1st March 1835.

THE

PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

No. XLIV.

ARTICLE I.

OBSERVATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FANATICISM; illustrated by a Comparison of the Belief and Conduct of noted Religious Enthusiasts with those of Patients in the Montrose Lunatic Asylum. By W. A. F. BROWNE, Esq., Medical Superintendent of that Institution.

THE healthy exercise of the sentiment of Veneration enters so intimately into many of the amenities of social life, and constitutes so important a part in religious creeds and religious observances, that it has become a habit, a fashion, a point of orthodoxy, to regard some of its most erratic and extravagant manifestations as akin to virtue, if not as virtue itself. That sentiment, from which spring filial obedience, patriotic subordination, and the humility of the sincere worshipper, is held to be of too sacred a nature to be susceptible of excess, and of too beneficial a tendency to be susceptible of over-cultivation. It at first appears monstrous and absurd to affirm that the utility of such a feeling may be defeated, and the peace and harmony of society disturbed or endangered, by its predominance in the mental economy. Yet the paradox which seems to be conveyed in the proposition, that the ends and purposes of veneration, in common with those of all other feelings, may be nullified by its exercise and encouragement, is not only reconcilable with history, but is itself a historical truth. The fire which warms, may and must consume us if too largely and liberally fed; and the feeling which is the torch to guide us heavenward may dazzle and dim the inward eye by its intensity, until the path to be pursued or the power to pursue it is lost. We do not here speak of the aggregate sentiment of religion: the rational and practical character by which it is distinguished affords an unexceptionable guarantee

VOL. IX.-NO. XLIV.

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that in it and by it all interests are consulted; and, as human perfectibility is its object, that excess is impossible. We speak of one of its ingredients, of veneration or mere devotional piety, and of its cultivation to the exclusion of that reason which examines and recognises the truths, and of those principles which dictate the duties, of the gospel. Divest a man of the hundred ties of love and friendship, justice and mercy, by which he is bound to his fellow men; strip him of every attribute of reason save a blind and submissive perception of a high and mighty intelligence; and leave but a strong instinct to venerate and worship or do what produces results precisely similar-educate this solitary feeling; teach that in its activity, in acts of adoration, there is supreme happiness; rouse and stimulate it by rewards and punishments; appeal to it by every mode, through every channel by which such a feeling is accessibleuntil the moral equilibrium is destroyed-until the trinity of truth and mercy and praise is disunited-until the counsels of judgment become as inaudible as the "still small voice" of conscience: do all this, and you will have established that condition, that vicious excess of veneration, to which allusion has been made, and of which it is designed to treat.

By a singular perversion of religious education, a great portion of the time and talent of those to whom this trust is committed has been directed to the accomplishment of this very end. This error has proceeded rather from the alliance of religion with a false philosophy, and consequently from erroneous views of the powers which it is intended to cultivate, than from erroneous views of the real objects of religion. Veneration, or the propensity to worship, has been looked upon, and correctly, as the natural effect of spiritual-mindedness: but it escaped observation that this feeling may and does exist, altogether independently of the latter disposition; that it is in no degree commensurate with the strength of that disposition, and accordingly may never warm the bosom, or warm it imperfectly, while that disposition is in constant operation and regulating the whole conduct. It is, in fact, a mere feeling of reverence, abstract from all knowledge or practical excellence; which in uninstructed minds leads to the worship or profound adoration of some being, the nature of which is determined by extraneous circumstances; and which, in minds improperly instructed—that is, taught to consider adoration even as the amount of Christian duty-leads to that fanatical enthusiasm which places the cause upon which it is engrafted in jeopardy. Enthusiasm is the tropical sun of the religious feelings, and fanaticism may be called the fever heat to which the moral temperature will rise.

A whole nation or nations, engaged in ritual observances, in internal experiences, in adoration, to the contemptuous neglect of

:

every other object, would be a striking phenomenon; but it is one which the world has more than once been on the verge of witnessing. Such a catastrophe could only arrive by long per severance in a discipline which would keep this feeling in constant excitement, by making its gratification a part, and the principal part, of the happiness of each individual,-by creating it into the golden way whereby immortality might be attained, and by substituting its dictates for better and nobler guides. What may be styled the religious idiosyncrasies of particular periods have often threatened a visitation of the condition described but, more than all others, the several Crusades, the reign of Charles V., and that of Cromwell, serve to exemplify the features and results of such an event. There appears to have been at those times an epidemic mania of the religious feelings. But, without venturing to insist upon so harsh a construction, it may be stated, that certain periods have become signalised by the supremacy and inordinate activity of the sentiment of Veneration. An excess of devotional feeling is thus created into a pivot upon and around which all previous and succeeding events revolve; and in place of recalling these by allusions, to, or details of, civil and political changes, we speak of the age of the Crusades, of the era of the Reformation-in other words, of Veneration acting as the mainspring in the grand machine of human affairs. Other motives, it is admitted, baser or better, contributed to the production of these and similar religious movements. But while in them, as in all grand and vital agitations of the mass of mankind, there will be found to have mingled, in governing, guiding, modifying, or increasing, all the passions, propensities, prejudices, and degrees of enlightenment under which the component members of that mass ordinarily acted; still the main impulse of the majority can only be recognised in intense devotional feelings. It may be perfectly true that the wars styled Holy, which first assimilated Christianity in spirit to the ferocious creed they were intended to crush, which tinged every river, from the Thames to the Bosphorus, with the blood of the best and bravest sons of early civilization, and which, in seeking the possession of one empty and surreptitious sepulchre, filled hundreds of thousands-it may be perfectly true that these pious emigrations were in keeping with, and emanated from, that spirit of chivalry which distinguished the age, and converted the dominant church into a species of half military, half monastic feudalism. It is not less true, however, that blind, unresisting, unquestioning bigotry-respect for the doctrines, and subjection to the commands of the church-and that deep and romantic reverence which comprehended every tradition of whatever degree of authenticity, every relic, and every spot of earth connected with early Christian history,-in