ARTICLE VII,

AN ESSAY ON THE APPLICATION OF PHRENOLOGY TO THE INVESTIGATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF INSANITY. By DANIEL NOBLE, Esq., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and President of the Manchester Phrenological Society.

IF Phrenology, as a science, were not susceptible of practical application, its investigation as a philosophical pursuit could not be insisted upon. Hence the inquiry, What are the uses of Phrenology? is nowise impertinent: only it should be remembered, that the answer must always be preceded by the proof, or by the assumption, of its truth; and that a fair understanding of its great principles, and of its leading details, must exist in the mind of the inquirer, before the explanation of its utility can be rightly appreciated. And when it is clearly and satisfactorily perceived that Phrenology is the true philosophy of the mind and the true physiology of the brain, the extent and importance of its practical application will readily be understood; for indeed, without assuming too much, Phrenology may be truly designated as the science of the moral and intellectual nature of man. Upon a former occasion I had the honour of reading to this Society a paper, wherein I attempted to explain the true extent to which Phrenology is fairly applicable in the estimate of human character, in which process the healthful manifestations of the mental faculties are observed, in dependence upon the physiological conditions of the brain; and in the present paper I shall attempt to demonstrate, that the science which we are cultivating is not less applicable in the investigation of the phenomena of insanity-in the study of the depraved manifestations of the human mind, in connection with the pathological condition of the brain.

Phrenology having proved, what previously was but a wellgrounded hypothesis, that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that, in accordance with the analogy of all nature, a diseased condition of the organ must necessarily tend to the depraved manifestation of function, a flood of light has at once illuminated that hitherto obscure path pursued in the investigation of mental derangement; and Phrenology bids fair, if assiduously cultivated, to remove the intricacy and mystery from this once dark subject of inquiry, for so many ages the opprobrium not only of the professors of medicine, but of the whole of civilized mankind. In what manner, then, it will be asked, has the subject of insanity been placed in a more advantageous point of view, as a matter of philosophical investigation, by the discovery of Phrenology? Precisely in this way-by enabling the

student of insanity to prosecute his inquiries on the same rational principles upon which in these days scientific pursuits are for the most part based; and by enabling the medical inquirer, and the medical practitioner, to regard mental disease, as it has improperly been called, in the same light that he regards the diseased manifestation of any of the corporeal functions, and, from the analogy afforded by the actual condition of medical science, to deduce those leading principles of treatment in the management of the insane, which were for so long a period most ignorantly and most wofully disregarded.

By demonstrating that diseased manifestation of mental function is connected with corresponding derangement of the material organ; by analyzing the human mind, and defining its primitive powers and inclinations; by shewing the organic connection between special parts of the brain and the special faculties of the mind; by satisfactorily proving that the phenomena of insanity are invariably and necessarily dependent upon disease of the brain,-Phrenology offers, for the first time, a distinct clue to a system of cerebral pathology and cerebral medicine, as rational as that afforded by any of the other branches of the healing art.

The grand points to be held in view, and the great objects sought to be attained, in the study of disease, by the scientific inquirer, are to know well the ordinary and natural manifestation of all the functions of the human body, and the organic conditions upon which this depends; to observe accurately the deviation from such manifestation, with its kind and extent; to ascertain, so far as is practicable, the precise state of the organ whose function is disturbed; and, with philosophical caution, to deduce the connection between aberration in function and change of structure. And, in the prosecution of these main objects of medical inquiry, a proper understanding should exist of the relation between the corporeal organs and the agents by which they are influenced; and the conditions, in this respect, must be investigated in each particular object of inquiry. In this way is the study of medicine rendered a scientific and rational pursuit, in opposition to the empirical procedure of administering medicaments with the mere expectation of a fortunate result, without reference to the known adaptation of the remedial agency to that alteration in structure or function upon which disease depends; and Phrenology affords the materials for a similar process of investigation of the phenomena of mental derangement.

It is greatly to be regretted that the most vague and indefinite notions as to the real nature of insanity have for the most part prevailed up to the latest period. Nor can our wonder be excited by this circumstance; for, as sound notions of physiology

must necessarily precede the cultivation of true pathology, it is clear that a right understanding of the phenomena of insanity could not possibly precede the discovery and the practical application of Phrenology. And, on referring to the history of this formidable malady, we shall find that it was for ages a subject of the greatest possible mystery and confusion, alike to the physician and to the metaphysician: the former looking in vain for satisfactory evidence as to the actual essence, the extent, or the locality of the affection: and the latter being bewildered in the attempt to define the nature of a morbid condition of an immaterial principle. Thus many physicians of the ancient schools of Europe and Asia taught with perfect gravity, and most oracular self-complacency, that the stubborn intractability and innate grossness of matter was the source of all that was unamiable, disordered, or imperfect, in every order of thinking beings; that every thing of a refined or celestial nature was attributable to the ascendency of the etherial essence of the soul; and that the predominance of the qualities of grossness and intractability in the material principle constituted the essential condition of every mental imperfection. The magi and the metaphysicians of antiquity would discourse most learnedly of ideal forms, immutable essences, the transmigration and community of spirits, and other most incomprehensible matters, in discussions of this subject, with the attempted precision with which in these days we discuss the exact or the physical sciences. In some instances, it was believed that mental derangement was brought about by the malignity of demoniacal influence; and in others, where the change of character was very complete, it was believed that an actual exchange of the immaterial spirit had been brought about -from which notion the term alienation of mind is supposed to have had its origin. These ludicrously vague philosophisms relative to the nature of insanity prevailed for the most part anterior to the era in which Hippocrates, the father of medicine, began to flourish. The giant mind of this illustrious philosopher appears to have been the first to glance even at the true nature of this afflicting disorder; his views, however, in the absence of correct data, are nccessarily imperfect, and in most respects erroneous. Nevertheless, he distinctly recognises the brain as the organ of the understanding; and, mixing up his pathology of the humours with their effects upon the brain, he accounts for the phenomena of irregular or undue manifestation of the mental faculties. Notwithstanding, however, the clew afforded by Hippocrates to the true advancement of this branch of science, but little progress was made for centuries; and minstrels, itinerants, and astrolo. gers, maintained the principal reputation in its humiliating his tory. Since the days of Hippocrates, a succession of writers have discussed the subject of insanity, professedly and inciden

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tally, and yet, up to the present century even, without any very useful contribution to its history, or improvement in its modes of management; and this unsatisfactory result may readily be traced to imperfection in the data upon which the investigations or theories have proceeded. Even amongst more modern writers, who have had the advantage of an improved condition of medical science, the greatest lack of precision, and most imperfect modes of observation of the phenomena, may be noticed, where the guidance of Phrenology has not been sought; and their definitions and classifications of the phenomena of insanity may be taken as evidence of the actual state of information upon the subject, where the advantages afforded by Phrenology have not been obtained. Thus I will take the definition of insanity as given by an author named Harper, who wrote upon this subject about the end of the last century, and who is quoted with great respect by the celebrated Pinel:-He says, “I will take upon me to define and pronounce the proximate cause and specific existence of insanity, to be a positive immediate discord in the intrinsic motions and operations of the mental faculty, exerted above the healthful equilibrium, its exact seat to be in the prime movement, and its precise extent just as far as the nervous power conveys its influence." As a specimen of classification, I may allude to the division of the celebrated nosologist Dr Mason Good, wherein he attempts to establish six genera, fifteen species, and twenty-seven varieties, of insanity; of which classification, that most able and truly useful author Dr A. Combe, in his admirable work on Mental Derangement, observes" Most of them are symptoms not peculiar to one form of disease, but common to many, and depending, not on dif ferent kinds of affections, but chiefly on the particular part of the brain which is in fault; and, in short, they are symptoms which may change into others, or even disappear entirely, and yet the disease remain active and unchanged."

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In these instances, and in these historical illustrations, we have a fair specimen of the mode in which the subject of insanity was for ages regarded. Diseased manifestation of the mental faculties was attempted to be defined and explained before the character of the healthful manifestation was understood; and any speculations as to the physical conditions of insanity were necessarily futile, in ignorance of the proper organic connexion between the faculties of the mind and the structure of the brain. And under such circumstances, it is plain that any other result was not to have been looked for.

The history of the general science of Medicine affords almost a precise parallel, in its progress, to that of the particular branch at present under consideration. In the earlier periods of medical inquiry, little theoretical information was possessed or sought

for; the administration of popular specifics, and the employment of magical incantations, constituted its main features; and it was not until the time of Hippocrates that we have any well recorded evidence of the existence of any system of medicine: hitherto all had been empiricism and degrading superstition; and he is said to have been the first to be fully aware of the fundamental truth, that in medicine, as much as in any other science, the source of all our knowledge must be in the accurate observation of actual phenomena, and that a careful classification and comparison of these phenomena should alone be the foundation of all our reasoning. But notwithstanding the science of medicine was thus grappled with by such a Colossus in philosophy, the grand source of error and retardation existed in the proceeding of Hippocrates. For he studied, applied, and taught the pathological conditions of the human system prior to the investigation of anatomy and physiology; and hence, however brilliant and captivating his doctrine of the humours and the temperaments, and notwithstanding its long-continued reign and popularity, it has been doomed to fall beneath the scythe of advancing science. Galen is supposed to have been the first who attempted to erect the superstructure of medicine upon the basis of anatomy and physiology; and although, by his mixture of merely hypothetical views with inferences fairly deduced, his doctrines of disease were of a nature to enjoy no permanent reputation, yet his having been the first to begin at the right end, so to speak, will for ever insure to him no ordinary fame. However, although the example of Galen was well calculated to produce an important and satisfactory advance in medical science, it yet appeared, for centuries, as if mankind were satisfied with what had been achieved; and with the obscuration of literature at the destruction of the Roman Empire, the science of medicine, as a subject of rational inquiry, ceased almost to be prosecuted, and during the middle ages, opinion and authority seemed to hold unbounded sway. Medical practitioners of those days most commonly enlisted themselves under the banners of some philosopher of the ancient schools, and, by implicitly adopting particular theories, they constituted rival sects in medicine, almost as prominent in its history as political parties are in our own day. There were the chemists and the alchemists, the Galenists and the Hippocrateans-so designated, not so much from their methods of investigating disease, as from the peculiar doctrines which, when once adopted, they acted upon and defended with all the acuteness and subtlety with which perverted ingenuity would supply them. Each rival sect would support its tenets, as though the leading facts of medicine had been definite and settled, and but needed refining by the subtleties of scholastic logic; whilst, in point of fact, the state of me