genuity before, except in fabricating idle stories, in concealing the truth, and in deceiving young women."

The age of Adam at the time of the murder was thirty-one; that of Jean Brechin about fifty. He is described as " a tall, handsome man." His marriage was solemnized at Laurencekirk, on the 11th of March, by Dr Cook the minister of that parish, well known as an ecclesiastical historian. The pair then proceeded to Inverness, and shortly afterwards the murder was perpetrated. A cast of Adam's head was taken by Sir George S. Mackenzie, assisted by Dr Nicol and Provost Cameron of Dingwall. Owing to an accident which happened to the mould on one side, the cast is to be regarded as only approximating closely in form to the actual head.

1.

Before being made acquainted with the details of Adam's life and character, and having merely heard that he had committed a very brutal murder, we naturally anticipated to find in the cast a representation of the worst form of head-broad, low, and largely developed in the occipital region. The organs of the propensities, however, we found, though in general amply developed, not so to a very inordinate extent; while in the coronal region a considerable development of Benevolence and Veneration appeared. Such being the case, we instantly concluded, that, however atrocious the act for which he suffered, the tenor of Adam's life would prove to have been of no extraordinary kind, and that the murder would be found to have been perpetrated from strong motives in addition to that arising from Destructiveness, and not for the gratification of mere love of slaughter. This anticipation we afterwards had the satisfaction of seeing fully confirmed by the Reverend Mr Cannan's

account.

We subjoin three views of the cast, and, as a contrast to them, three views of the head of John Linn, an Irish pugilist and parricide.

The following is a table of the dimensions of the cast of Adam's head, and development of the different organs.

1. Dimensions.

Greatest circumference of Head,

Inches. 22

From Occipital Spine to Individuality, over the top of the head, 14

...

Ear to Far vertically over the top of the head,

Philoprogenitiveness to Individuality,

Concentrativeness to Comparison,

Ear to Philoprogenitiveness,

Individuality

Benevolence,

Firmness,

Destructiveness to Destructiveness,

Secretiveness to Secretiveness,

Cautiousness to Cautiousness,

Ideality to Ideality,

Constructiveness to Constructiveness,

Mastoid process to Mastoid process,

774

13

7

7

4

15. Firmness large,

19 33. Language rather large,

16

16. Conscientiousness rather full, 13 34. Comparison rather full,

12

17. Hope rather full,

1335. Causality rather full,

12

SCALE. Idiocy, 2; very small, 4; small, 6; rather small, 8; moderate, 10; rather full, 12; full, 14; rather large, 16; large, 18; very large, 20.

Murderers may be divided into three great classes. The first comprises the naturally blood-thirsty-men directly actuated by an overpowering Destructiveness. Many instances of this class of criminals are on record. Several are quoted in our last number, p. 500, and the following particulars mentioned by Dr Caldwell in his New Views of Penitentiary Discipline, furnish a good illustration of it. "In some individuals," says he, "the instinct of Destructiveness is like that of a tiger. Nothing can appease it but blood. We possess the skull of a man who was executed, at the age of about thirty, for the last of nine murders, the whole of which he acknowledged he had committed from an inherent love of slaughter. He murdered as an amateur. The flowing of blood he declared to be delightful to him. Hence he never failed to cut, from ear to ear, the throat of his victim. In the case of his last murder, he would probably have escaped detection, had it not been for this horrid sanguinary propensity. After having proceeded several miles from the place of his felony, he turned back to cut the throat of him whom he had murdered, and was apprehended. His whole animal compartment, but especially in the region of Combativeness and Destructiveness, was unusually large." The character of Linn is of a like description, and the shape of his head corresponds. The basilar and occipital regions, in which are situated the organs of the animal propensities, are extremely large, while the top of the head is comparatively deficient. We intended to insert an account of Linn in the present article, but are compelled by want of space to reserve it for our next number.

1;

In the second class of murderers may be included those who are blood-thirsty from circumstances; that is, whose Destructiveness, though not in itself habitually of inordinate strength, is roused by provocation, or disagreeable affections of other organs generally, according to a law expounded and illustrated at great length in our 45th number, article third. In such cases, the passion usually has the form of resentment, which subsides with the disagreeable sensations that produced it. David Balfour, executed at Dundee on 2d June 1826, for the murder of his wife, belongs to this class of criminals. His head, of which there is a cast in the collection of the Phrenological Society, indicates no extreme preponderance of the organs of the propensities over those of the moral powers. In fact, although always a man of strong feeling, he bore a respectable character for many years; and he was goaded to the commission of the crime by his wife's long-continued misconduct, which preyed grievously upon his mind.* Othello may be referred to as another illustration. Jealousy-indeed every intensely disagreeable emotion-has the effect of rousing Destructiveness:

"Jealous he grew; and jealousy supplied
His mind with rage, unsoothed, unsatisfied."

Crabbe.

The third class of murderers is composed of persons who commit the crime, not from the excitement of passion, or any purely destructive impulse, but as the only or readiest way of removing an obstacle to the accomplishment of a much desired end, such as obtaining possession of money, or effecting an escape from confinement or annoyance. The Thugs or Stranglers of Central India, whose profession it is to murder travellers for the sake of plunder, exemplify this class well.+ David Haggart, executed at Edinburgh on 17th July 1821, for the murder of the jailor at Dumfries, may be taken as another, though less striking, example. His purpose was not to murder, but merely to stun his victim, in order to facilitate escape from the prison; and, on hearing a boy tell that the blow had been fatal, his better feelings suffered dreadfully. "The words," says he, " struck me to the soul; my heart died within me; and I was insensible for a good while: on coming to myself I could scarcely believe I had heard them; for the possibility of poor Morrin's death had never entered into my mind." Benevolence was well developed in Haggart's head, and Destructiveness was not excessive.

It appears to us that Adam's case partakes of the character of the second and third classes, chiefly the third. That he does not fall within the first, is abundantly obvious from the statements of Mr Cannan and Dorothy Elliot, and also of the person by whom he was employed as a labourer at Dingwall. All these concur in representing his habitual temper as the reverse of ferocious. " From his childhood up to the nineteenth year of his age," says Mr Cannan, " he was generally considered mild, peaceable, obliging, merry, free from malice, honcst, forgiving, and not addicted to swearing or intemperance;" and his employer, in the evidence given at the trial, represented him as having been, during the preceding twelve months while in his service, "a steady, industrious, sober, harmless, and inoffensive man; witness never saw a frown on his face." We are farther told by Mr Cannan, that, when his mother scolded him, " he never said any thing harsh in return." These are not indications of a mind naturally and inherently savage; and we are of opinion, that the idea of murdering his victim arose much less from any direct malevolence or cruelty towards her personally, than from his being unable to devise any better way by which he could rid himself of an obstacle to the gratification of his selfish desires. There is too much Destructiveness and too little morality to have revolted at such a way of attaining his end; and his mind may have been reconciledto it by her age and homely appearance. Macbeth murdering Duncan is an analogous case. The two motives, unconnected with Destructiveness, by which Adam was chiefly actuated, appear to have been, 1st, a desire to get possession of the woman's money; and, 2dly, a wish to free himself of her society, which was far inferior in attractions to that of Dorothy