or anterior to that flattened space, about a dozen of small deep fissured foramina existed in a cluster of six or seven on each side, apparently indicating a fungous state of the dura mater at that place. Some foramina in the middle basilar fossæ of the skull were observed, similar to those just noticed, and evidently arising from the same cause. The exterior surface of the skull was smooth and natural. The skull shewed clearly increased vascularity of the dura mater in the basilar and anterior regions. The anterior fosse were small both in the longitudinal and in the transverse directions. The middle fossæ were of ordinary size; the posterior fossæ very large, wide, and deep. The internal parts corresponding to the frontal protuberances were unequal in concavity; at neither was there any depression corresponding to the great prominences on the outer surface. The two hemispheres were regular and symmetrical. Dr Houston (who dictated to Mr Combe the foregoing description of the skull, which was approved of by all the other gentlemen present) suggested that the extraordinary powers of mind which Swift exhibited on many occasions may have arisen from diseased activity; and Dr Harrison remarked that the appearances were such as he had observed in patients who had been affected with epileptic fits. The dimensions of the skull, and cerebral development indicated by it, are reported by Mr Combe to be the following: * 11. Love of Approbation very large. 30. Eventuality, full. 13. Benevolence, small. 14. Veneration, large. 15. Firmness, large. 16. Conscientiousness, full. 17. Hope, rather full. 18. Wonder, small. 31. Time, moderate. 32. Tune, small. 33. Language, large, (skull very thin.) 34. Comparison, moderate. 35. Causality, moderate, (skull thickened.) * We dissent from this opinion, but have no room to state our reasons.—ED Mr Combe has forgotten to mention the organs of Cautiousness and Colouring. In taking the development he was assisted by Mr Hawkins. There was produced at the examination of the skull an engraving after a portrait painted by Jervis, principal painter to his Majesty, shewing a considerable forehead in the upper region; from which, and the aspect of the skull, it appeared that the head had diminished at the position of the anterior lobe. We received the foregoing information when the last sheet of our present number was on the eve of being put to press, and have been forced to sacrifice other matter on its account. We can fancy the "glorious triumph" the first blush of the facts will give our friends the antiphrenologists, and the delight with which they will hail a skull with small intellectual and large animal indications, as that of the caustic and powerful Swift. But as a triumph founded on error must of necessity be very shortlived, we advise them to make the most of it in the mean time; because the more minutely the case is examined, the more completely will it be found to harmonize in all its features with the phrenological philosophy. At present we have room and time for only a few hasty remarks. state In the first place. After being subject to fits of giddiness and deafness, and to occasional epileptic attacks, from the early age of twenty-one, Dean Swift at last died in October 1745, at the advanced age of seventy-eight, from disease of the brain, of several years' duration, and which, in 1740, 66 rise to a gave of violent and furious lunacy," followed by a total failure of understanding, which sunk him " into the situation of a helpless changeling," and ended only with his life. In reference to this, our readers will recollect, that as the brain decreases in volume in old age, and the skull no longer indicates its form with certainty at that period of life, it is held by Gall and Spurzheim, and all other phrenologists, to be impossible to predicate from the inspection of the skulls of very aged persons what their talents or dispositions were at the time of vigorous maturity; and consequently, although useful as illustrations, such cases are never considered admissible as proofs either for or against Phrenology. For the same reason-that the shape of the skull no longer represents accurately that of the brain,-cases of disease also are excluded; an additional reason being that the relation between organic size and functional power can no longer be depended on, as the morbid action sometimes increases and at other times diminishes mental energy, just as, in the case of the liver, it sometimes excites and at other times diminishes the se-cretion of bile. Applying this principle to the case of Dean Sir Walter Scott's Life of Swift, p. 457, 459. Swift, who is known to have died in very advanced age from water in the brain, the effect of long-standing disease, the phrenologist would not hold himself warranted to infer, from the mere inspection of the skull, what had been the talents and dispositions of its possessor in the prime of life. All he could do would be to point out the relative proportions of the organs as they then existed, and compare them, for the purposes of illustration rather than of proof, with their then accompanying manifestations. Assuming, in the second place, that, for the sake of mere illustration, we may make such a comparison, it is astonishing how closely the development corresponds with the state of mind. In the skull, the intellectual region is small, the animal region large, and the moral moderate, except at Conscientiousness and Veneration, which are larger; and, with respect to the manifestations, we know that Swift was for years idiotic in intellect, and that even so early as 1734 (eleven years before his death) "his memory became imperfect, and his temper, always irritable, was now subject to VIOLENT AND FRANTIC FITS OF PASSION upon slight provocation*;" evidently shewing both the work of disease and the close coincidence with the indications now presented by the skull. If it could be shewn indeed, that in the vigour of Swift's life and faculties his forehead was as small as after years of idiocy, there would be more plausible grounds for maintaining the existence of a discrepancy between his talents and the phrenological indications: but, in the various portraits which have come down to us, including that prefixed to Sir Walter Scott's Biography of Swift, the forehead is uniformly represented of much larger and fuller dimensions; and, in the face of such evidence, it would be arguing on a mere assumption to say that the skull is a fair index of what the brain was in the prime of life. In the third place. The brain is well known to decrease in volume, and the skull to follow its shrinking surface, both in old age and in disease. The constant recurrence of giddiness and deafness, and the liability to epilepsy, with many other symptoms, from which Swift was seldom entirely free,-and lastly, the termination of his ailments in furious mania and idiocy,-shew to how great an extent he was a victim to disease, and prove that the morbid indications presented by the skull are in accordance with the phenomena observed during life, as well as with the other appearances on dissection. There is, in fact, the strongest presumptive evidence that the anterior lobe, or intellectual region of the brain, had actually shrunk very considerably even before the supervention of the "furious lunacy" in 1740. It is, we repeat, * Sir Walter Scott's Life of Swift, p. 442, no new doctrine, that in old age the brain participates in the general decay of the system, and that the skull, which is moulded on the brain, shrinks in proportion. Even the hard and solid bones are familiarly known to decrease in size between maturity and extreme old age, and the large and erect man of the prime of life dwindles into the lean and slippered dimensions of advanced age. In disease this change is often greatly accelerated, and in medical works cases are recorded in which the brain and head diminished with unusual rapidity. In the second volume of this Journal, p. 210, there is an account of a remarkable case, which fell within our own observation in 1819, when studying under Esquirol at the Salpetrière Asylum. The patient, a woman, died after having been four years insane, and at last idiotic. At her entry, her forehead was so large that Esquirol had a drawing of it made on account of its remarkable size; whereas, at the time of her death, the great diminution which it had undergone was so striking as to form a perfect contrast to the portrait. The brain had shrunk even faster than the outer table, as the skull was unusually thick-much more so at the frontal bone than elsewhere. In our fourth volume, p. 495, we have reported another case of chronic insanity, in which the mind was much weakened, and where the diminution of the head became so great as to attract the attention of the patient himself, who, on finding a smaller and smaller hat required in succession, boasted of the circumstance as a proof of his becoming etherealized by the evaporation of the grosser particles of his head. On dissection, we found the forehead not only smaller than it had originally been, but the bones of very unequal thickness and extremely dense. But, to come even closer to the point, we have in our possession a portion of the skull corresponding to the forehead of another patient, who had suffered for many years under an affection of the mind characterized by instability of purpose and deficient power of understanding, and the internal surface of whose frontal bone presents a singular thickening, evidently produced by the shrinking of the contained brain, and similar to what is described above as visible on the inner surface of the skull of Swift. In this instance it was impossible to doubt that the brain had shrunk, and that the inner table of the skull had followed it. If time and space permitted, we could adduce other examples of a simi lar nature. In the fourth and last place. It is curious to notice the coincidence between the development of many of the organs of the propensities and sentiments, and the Dean's habitual manifestations during life. His large Firmness, Self-esteem, and Combativeness, are in accordance with his "stern and unbending pride of temper;" his large Acquisitiveness, with his reputed parsimony and real economy; and his large Destructiveness Combativeness, and Self-esteem, with his caustic severity, passionate temper, and misanthropic spleen. His Ideality is moderate, and he seems to have been altogether indifferent to the beauties of nature (Life, p. 472). Sir W. Scott says of his poetry, that" its elevation of tone arises from the strong mood of passion rather than from poetical fancy" (p. 491); and Dryden told Swift himself, that he "would never be a poet, where power of imagination was necessary for success" (p. 491). Sir Walter adds, that "we look in vain for depth of feeling or tenderness of sentiment; although, had such existed in the poet's mind, the circumstances must have called them forth." This is singularly consistent with the moderate development of Benevolence, and we think it would be easy to trace most of Swift's kindnesses to other feelings than pure benevolence. This organ, however, has evidently decreased in size, as the thickening of the skull occurs immediately over it; but most probably it was never greatly developed. Individuality is very large; and in discussing Swift's intellectual superiority in the great art of verisimilitude, Sir W. Scott justly infers that the secret rests mainly upon "minuteness of narrative," and goes on to prove his position. We have much more to say, but our space is ex hausted. ARTICLE X. CASE OF DERANGEMENT OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE. By JOHN GRATTAN, Esq. Belfast. G—— B——, Esq., aged fifty-six, a gentleman of a highly cultivated and vigorous mind, had, about two years since, and within a short period of each other, several attacks of paralysis, affecting the right side, from which he has only partially recovered. His daughter, to whom I am indebted for the details of the case, and who has perused and confirmed the accuracy of the present report, states that at first his speech was not affected. The first symptom which he manifested of any disorder in the organ of language, was an inability to remember the name of a place in the country, in which he was much interested, and which he called "Red Well," instead of "Red Hall," without appearing to be conscious of the error, as he seemed to be annoyed with his friends for not understanding him. Very shortly after, he became unable to articulate at all. The only words which he can at present pronounce are 66 aye" and "no;" and even in the use of these simple monosyllables he occasional |
