is a woman of large sympathies and great and active interest in the general welfare. She could not confine her sympathies to her own family or her own circle, but must be actively engaged in good works according to her means. Few are capable of taking a more calmly just view of things than she is. Her intellect is a very clear and practical one. She has great common-sense, and, although she has taste and an eye for adornment, is not led away from the practical by the merely ornamental. She is a good manager; is exceedingly orderly, and must have everything done to time; has a great faculty for business; is firm and decided, especially in matters of principle; very energetic when necessary, and capable of sustaining herself under great trials and difficulties; quite domestic, fond of home, strongly attached to friends, and most devoted in her affections. of family in which many have lived to be of great age, and, barring accidents, she will be likely to follow their example.

Is

R. H. (S. Shields).-Indicates rather an imperfect physiology. There appears to be a tough streak in her, but she will suffer a good deal from ill-health, or from a lack of robust health. There appears to be a strong domestic nature. She may be inclined to stay at home too much; could easily get into the habit of narrowing the circle of her acquaintances and of her sympathies. Her affection will be accompanied by some jealousy on that account. The moral faculties appear to be strong, but not broad. The intellect is good and quite practical, but the memory rather poor (partly probably through ill-health.) Very firm, decided, sensitive, and loving. Coitfure bad for phrenological purposes.

P. E. (Leeds).—This lady has a remarkably strong organization. She comes of a family noted for their vitality and ability to live against all odds; there is almost a feline tenacity about them. She is very vivacious, sprightly, buoyant, active, and excitable; people do not go to sleep where she is; is active on her feet, and should be able to dance all night, and do a hard day's work on the morrow; possesses many of her father's peculiarities, and is, like him, a lover of outdoors and of healthy animal nature, a warm and ardent lover, but not one to break her heart quite over a disappointment, and one capable of sympathizing with men and their labours more than with women. She is very fond of music, and should be able to sing well. The intellectual and moral organs appear to be fairly well represented, but call for no special remark.

G. C. H. (Prahran, Melbourne).—The photograph you send is rather small for phrenological purposes, but it indicates a good deal of general strength of constitution and intellectual ability. You cannot do better than train and cultivate your intellect all you can, so as to make the most of yourself. You are adapted to farming, horticulture, surveying, contracting, or anything in that line. You should not get into an in-door occupation.

M. W. (Leicester).—You are almost too tender-minded, if not too tender-hearted; need to harden yourself, and strengthen your con

stitution; little things affect you too much, both physically and mentally. To improve yourself you need to encourage observation, memory (of details), order, calculation, and application. Your mind passes so quickly from one thing to another that you do not reap the full benefit of your reading and experience; hence there is a kind of "halting" in your knowledge. You have good powers of understanding and judgment, however, and your religious and moral emotions are influential. People will call you "old-fashioned," and you will be about as young and as nimble in your faculties at fifty

as now.

P. G. (Hartwell).—Of course we could say much more than we do about the photographs; but we cannot afford the space to give characters fully. We point out the leading traits.

E. H. (Leicester).—This lady has rather an evenly-developed head, and should manifest a correspondingly harmonious character, chiefly remarkable for the following traits: Great neatness and order, musical talent, memory, especially of things seen, experienced, or understood; more than common artistic ability and general ingenuity ; considerable wit and mirthfulness of disposition, and good powers of expression, with much critical acumen. She may be put out at times, probably is, but her general disposition is one of great amiability. Is very sympathetic, kind-hearted, and willing to work for the good of others, generally hopeful, although somewhat inclined to magnify difficulties; exceedingly cautious and circumspect, and very anxious to please and get the good opinion of people; not proud enough; firm in matters of principle, very sociable, and possibly a little jealous.

S. H. (Carnforth).-You are not adapted to a sharp business in trade, nor to one requiring great hardship; are scarcely ingenious enough to make a mechanic, where you would have to understand the principles of mechanism, but could work by the eye successfully. Can compare one thing with another, sort out, classify, and arrange goods, etc. If in a museum or library, you could easily show your gifts in doing the work required there. Are favourably qualified to oversee, and to have charge and responsibility, but, not knowing anything about your education, habits, health, and sphere of life, we can only speak abstractedly of what the organs indicate.

J. M. (Hawarden).-You are in some respects an intellectual oddity. Your strength does not equal your desire, or you would be able to command success. You have great power of work, but are rather easily exhausted. Have great intellectual curiosity, and, though your mind covers almost too much ground to allow you to be very thorough in all you take hold of, yet you will, before you finish with life, manage to amass an immense deal of varied information. You are not only naturally qualified for the study of science, but of philosophy; and you cannot do better than work away at your studies as opportunity allows, and watch your chances. It would take all the space we can afford under this heading to treat your peculiarities alone.

THE

Phrenological Magazine.

MAY, 1883.

THOMAS A. EDISON: THE ELECTRICIAN AND INVENTOR.*

HIS portrait indicates an organization of remarkable activity. The mental element predominates greatly in the physical constitution, and so contributes to his energy of thought and facility of action.

His brain is broad between the ears, indicating that he possesses force of character in a high degree, which is exhibited in his disposition to be doing-to find opportunities for the employment of his hands, or mind, or both. He has courage to work out his plans and purposes when obstacles present themselves. Earnestness characterizes his efforts in any chosen direction; and this, coupled with his mental intensity, renders him very thorough-going. Whatever engages his attention so far as to make him a worker, either as principal or assistant in its promotion, receives no half-way attention. He throws himself vigorously into its methods. Back of his efforts lies Ambition, which is indicated by the width and fulness of the upper back part of the side-head and crown. He has ever entertained high aspirations; to achieve whatever he may attempt has been an uppermost quality in his mental character.

His intellect is characterized by a large proportion of the reflective element. He has also very strongly-marked Constructiveness and Ideality. There the faculties are closely associated, and have impressed his whole intellectual career. The brain is well developed in the moral region, giving a strong sense of duty, an appreciation of honour and respectability. He is also sympathetic and confiding, yet possessed of so much impressibility and sensitiveness as to show irritability, and people who do not understand him may think he is impatient and fretful. His extraordinary mental activity

The following notes on the phrenology of Mr. Edison are taken from the American Phrenological Journal.

VOL. IV.

works off his physical force with great rapidity; so that, unless he orders his habits in accordance with the requirements of physiology and hygiene, he will become exhausted and break down. We would suggest, for the sake of the career which has been already so grandly opened by him, and for the achievement of further and even greater successes, that he take special precautions for the invigoration and safety of his health.

Thomas Alva Edison, the subject of this sketch, was born in Milan, Erie County, Ohio, U.Š.A., on the 11th of February, 1847. His father's people came from Holland, and settled near Newark, N.J. His father's mother was an Ogden, from a branch of the New York family of that name. The Ogdens were of English descent. When Edison was about eight years of age, his parents removed to Port Huron, Michigan, from which time he appears to have begun to earn his own living. He was then a newsboy, and, at the age of twelve, obtained an exclusive contract for the sale of newspapers on the Detroit division of the Grand Trunk Railway. Here his energy and determination to excel began to exhibit itself. He employed several boys to aid him, and continued to travel and sell newspapers until seventeen years of age.

Meanwhile, he purchased a small printing outfit, which he carried on the train, and with which he printed a small weekly paper, called The Grand Trunk Herald In this office he was editor, manager, typo, and all within himself. Articles were contributed by the employés of the railroad. The printing was done by hand pressure, and the paper issued with regularity. Mr. Edison finally abandoned the printing business, and set up instead a travelling chemical laboratory, consisting of innumerable bottles and packages of chemicals and drugs, which he carried in a large chest on the train, experimenting with them during his leisure hours. This enterprise came to sudden grief by the spontaneous combustion of several ounces of phosphorus, and the consequent firing of the baggage car in which they were carried.

Upon the breaking out of the war in the South, the enormous increase in newspaper traffic confined his attention solely to that branch of industry, and offered opportunities for the exercise of his original genius to meet the eager demand for news-a demand which Mr. Edison noticed could ill brook the tedious movement of the trains. He conceived the idea, and had constructed large bulletin boards, one of which he placed at each station along the line. Upon these boards he caused to be chalked, by telegraph operators and station

agents, the news headings of his papers, which he telegraphed in advance of the trains. This device was noticed and characterized by the press as a "thoughtful idea of a newsboy," and was speedily adopted on other roads.

The relations young Edison thus formed with the telegraph awakened a desire to understand it, which he gratified by very soon learning to operate it. Not content with the ordinary opportunities offered by the railway telegraph stations, he, in conjunction with a neighbour having similar inclinations,

built a line of their own, one mile long, through a wood dividing their houses. Edison constructed the instruments, but having no battery, and doubtless no money to purchase one, was at a loss to know what to do. A novel expedient soon occurred to him, but its application resulted in total failure. Having noticed that, by rubbing a cat's back, electric sparks were generated in the fur, he tried the experiment of fastening the wire to the cat's legs, and rubbing Tabby briskly, watched for an effect upon the instrument, but none