keeps them under its dependence, regulates their functions, gives them animation, or moderates their activity. Without the brain, nothing is right,— all languishes; if it be wholly wanting, life cannot exist; if it fail partly, life is but a species of vegetation. When this organ is but slightly developed anteriorly, life is possible, but the individual is imperfect, he is an idiot; he has feelings and propensities, and may receive a certain degree of education, but is ever condemned to a secondary rank, a species of intermediary between man and brute.

Man is not, however, wholly in his organization; "he is," says Villermé," as much the produce of his physical and moral atmosphere, as of his organization;" and it is the happy circumstance of being modified by surrounding objects, which gives so much influence to education and power over the ulterior acts of life.

But if we have admitted, that in the physical education of the organs of motion there exist such an individual state, as required on the part of the physician special application, we must also admit that the brain not being equal, neither is the degree of intelligence equal. It, therefore, follows that education is and can be but relative, or its results will nearly always be irregular,sometimes opposite. Thus, while education has most marvellous effects in one child, its results are trifling with another who is an idiot; consequently there must be something to study prior

to the system of education,-there is an organization, more or less regular, more or less susceptible of development and improvement. The indispensable condition of all normal and harmonious functions is the healthy state of the organ. Man is as an instrument that we must know ere we can draw sounds from it. In vain, should we say, with Hamlet,

Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music."

The reply would probably be, like that of Guildernstein,

"I have not the skill."

-which skill consists in first knowing the instrument, and then how to draw forth the sounds.

Education being, therefore, the art of giving value to man, and of developing in the individual all the perfection of which he is susceptible, it will differ according to the state of the organization. The brain, therefore, requires to be studied as well as the other organs.

The deformities of the skull, and the deviations from a medium state are very common; the head is either too large for the body, or it is too small; it is depressed at the top, or there is absence of symmetry in the different parts; in

each of these cases, the brain undergoes various alterations. It is compressed wholly or in part, and its functions are disordered-sometimes even to madness, at other times brought to the lowest degree of idiotcy.

The attempts hitherto made to determine the dimension, shape and weight of a medium head, to serve as a comparison to the deformities and deviations from this type, are far from being conclusive, but these attempts may however, be considered as a progress. It remains for us to examine, if the intellectual and moral state may be appreciated by the external configuration of the skull, so as to be for us as useful a sign as those by the aid of which we could recognize spinal deviations; and in this case what advantage could be derived in the education of the affective and intellectual faculties. These two questions are of the highest importance, and lead us to the appreciation of phrenology, which has already attracted so great a share of public attention; as well as that of orthophreny, which is scarcely known.

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CHAP. II.

Phrenology.

AN enthusiastic eulogium on phrenology will not be found here. Putting aside the works of Gall, on anatomy and physiology, we have to consider phrenology in its connection with education. Gall is chiefly known by his craniologic system, from which so much good was expected to be derived in the education of youth; and to this system we shall, therefore, confine our observations.

Is it considered as an acknowledged fact, that a large head is the privilege of those endowed with a high degree of intelligence, and that the protuberances felt on the skull absolutely correspond with the faculties attributed to them by phrenologists? Then again, what advantages can education derive from cranioscopy? We shall endeavour to solve these questions, as they comprise that part of phrenology, offering the greatest general interest.

Gall has laid down as a general and absolute rule, that the development of the intelligence is according to the size of the head. Without refering to Aristotle, who did not admit the preeminence of large heads, numerous facts daily occur, to shew that this rule can by no means be considered absolute: cerebral development

compared to development of the body, is a contradiction to it; as the more the child grows, the smaller is the brain in proportion to the rest of the body; yet it is beyond doubt, that the functions of the brain progress with the general growth.

We must, therefore, reject the opinion that the size of the organ is in proportion to its power, or else we must admit that intellectual power is greater during childhood than at any other period, as the nervous system, according to the observation of Bichat, and all anatomists, is proportionately more considerable than in the succeeding years.

The facial angle of Camper, the occipital anglé of Daubenton, and the comparison of the facial superficies of Cuvier, tended to appreciate by induction, the development of the human intelligence, but too many facts formed an exception to these rules, to allow even authors themselves to consider their system in as absolute a manner as Gall and his school.

Camper, who only sought in the facial line a character of beauty, fixed the extreme term at ninety degrees; according to Esquirol there are idiots, whose facial line exceed this number, and rational beings, whose facial lines do not amount to eighty. If facts of this nature suffice to affect the system of Camper as well as others, we must acknowledge that the works of Parchappé, Leurét, Lelut, and the numerous, though scattered