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The results which our author lays down are eafily comprehended and learnt; the rules are simple and short; and tho' the application of them may not be easy to unprofessi onal men; nor any reliance be placed upon the vague observations of unpractised persons; still the man of scientific observation will not fail to avail himself of them. Our author states facts, not of individual observation and tare occurrence only, in which cases the utmost precision of statement, and the fullest evidence are essential to the worth of the communication: but he affirms certain universal laws of nature; every observer therefore will naturally renew the experiment stated. He will not try Gall's doctrines by the evidence G. himself brings forward; but by the proof which the nature of things brings with it, and which lies before him as well as Gall. The student of nature, when a new phænomenon is pointed out to him, does not require very exact information, in order to induce him to open his eyes and see: it is enough that the suggestion is not altogether frivolous and ridiculous. And he will be less disposed to apply these epithets, the more extensive and varied his knowledge of nature may be.

This is true in the sciences of mere curio

sity; but how strongly does it apply when the discovery professes to suggest new remedies for the most dreadful disease which af fects our frame, insanity: and to instruct us concerning the ultimate cause and direct impulse to the most horrid crimes and calamities of life, nurder and suicide!

These remarks have no other object, than to dispose the general reader to a candid and liberal perusal of these sheets; and the professional man to a willingness, to try the observations within the sphere of his practice: for to professional men alone does the duty of judging belong, tho' the general reader will find much that is interesting to him.

Concerning Gall himself a few words more ought to be said. It is now many years since he has busied himself in those pursuits and speculations which are to be the subject of the following statement. As soon as the first vague notions were formed by him, he very laboriously employed himself in collecting skulls of every description, (which is much more easy in Germany than in England.) He caused models to be taken in Gypsum of living characters of eminence. He made great collections also of skulls of animals, and founded a cabinet of great extent and worth, As his ideas became more

exact, he gradually made them known; and delivered lectures on the subject. At length his fame reached the court; and the Austrian government (under that fatal administration of bigotted and weak priests, which has at length brought down destruction upon it, and threatens to involve the ruin of all civilised Europe) thought it right to interfere: Gall was interdicted lecturing; because his doctrine was said to lead to materialism and atheism!!! However he had already a numerous party of adherents, who had interest at court; some foreign ambassadors, it is said, interested themselves in his favor, and he was allowed to read before foreigners only; that is, Austrian subjects were prohibited attending his lectures.

At length, various unauthorized publications having been spread about the northern states of protestant Germany, and the public curiosity being excited, Gall resolved to deliver his lectures at the principal universities and large cities in the north of Germany. In his tour he delivered lectures at Dresden, Berlin, Halle, Jena, Weimar, Göttingen, Hamburg, &c, He was every where receceived with the distinction men of letters enjoy in Germany; and was invited to table at the little courts where he remained;

(in Germany a sort of criterion determining the rank and respectability of an individual.) Thus he fulfilled the double purpose of enlarging the field of his own observation, and conferring with professional men concerning his doctrines. That these latter gentlemen were in general not forward to oppose or confirm his theory in his presence, may be readily conceived. The contest generally began when the professor was departed. Every where, a contest arose; but I believe in most places the majority were against our lecturer.

It was in the course of this tour that the present reporter of his doctrine, attended his lectures; of which he was furnished with copious minutes, collected and collated by several medical students.

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These minutes, he has further compared with three little publications by other hearers, Gall has declared his resolution not to write till he shall have completed a series of expensive and laborious engravings which are preparing, when he 'purposes to give to the world a voluminous, splendid, and as he thinks, decisive work. Of these little books by far the best is that by Professor Bischoff

of Berlin; to which Dr. Hufeland, already

known here by his Macrobiotic, annexed his

opinion in detail.

This opinion I have

thought

thought it right to translate entirely, tho' I could have wished it had been more compressed in its stile, and more confined to the medical and anatomical parts of the subject. The first of the following chapters, and the appropriation of the several organs to their seat on the skull, by the technical words. used in osteology, I have also translated from Dr. Bischoff,

I have endeavoured to give as correct and copious a statement as my materials afford, without pretending to have any ultimate opinion on the doctrine; tho' I cannot avoid saying thus much of the teacher. He seems to possess the faculty of observation in a much higher degree than that of reasoning. He has acuteness in observing the individual appearances of nature, but is not always happy in the formation of general notions; and I fear too that he is abnoxious to the poet's couplet.

"To observations which ourselves we make

"We grow more partial for th' observer's sake."

He forms his premises readily, but he makes his deductions incorrectly. As to the doctrine itself,

VALEAT QUANTUM VALERE POSSIT.

London, November, 1806.