Buchanan's Journal of Man, June 1887 Part 4

When we study the special organs we determine the special virtues or vices. For example, a head may have a good general development upward, giving many very pleasing traits of character, and yet be so deficient in the region of conscientiousness (while the selfish group that gives breadth at the ears is large) as to produce great moral unsoundness and a treacherous violation of obligations or disregard of principle.

The most delicate task in craniological study, and the most important, is the balancing of opposite tendencies belonging to antagonistic organs; and it was for the want of the knowledge of antagonisms that the Gallian system so often failed in describing character and its representatives before the public have made the most disastrous blunders. Shrewd and honest observers discovered the imperfections of the science.[2]

[2] A letter just received from Australia states that the writer had for many years been a student of phrenology, and had ascertained from examining hundreds of crania that phrenology "stood on a basis of fact, but was wrong as well as deficient in some of its details. But though I could point to several parts of the skull where the readings of professionals as well as myself were always unreliable, I could not discover the real function of the organs in these places."

While the eye readily gives us the contour of heads that have not much hair, there is but little accurate judgment without the use of the hand, which is the first thing to be learned. Not the tips of the fingers, but the whole hand should be laid upon the head gently, to cover as much surface as possible, while with a gentle pressure we cause the scalp to move slightly, and thus feel through it the exact form of the cranium as correctly as if the bones were exposed to view.

If in this examination we find any sharp prominences, which might be called b.u.mps, we attribute them to the growth of bone, which does not indicate the growth of the brain. The latter is indicated only by the general contour.

A little anatomical knowledge will prevent us from being deceived, and enable us to make due allowances. There are no great difficulties in making a correct estimate, and the anatomists who have taught their pupils that correct cranial observations could not be made, only showed their own ignorance of the subject. We must consider the cranium as though all osseous protuberances had been shaved off, leaving the smooth, curving contour of the skull. The princ.i.p.al projection to be removed is the superciliary ridge corresponding to the brow at the base of the forehead. It is formed by the projection of the external plate of the skull, leaving a separation or cavity between it and the inner plate, which cavity is called the frontal sinus, and is sometimes half an inch wide. As there is no positive method of determining its dimensions in the living head, there must ever be some doubt concerning the development of the perceptive organs which it covers. The superciliary ridge at the external angle of the brow extends really as much as three-quarters of an inch from the brain. From this angle a ridge of bone (the temporal arch) extends upward and backward, separating the lateral surface of the head from the frontal and upper surfaces. This ridge is a convenient landmark, but must be excluded from an estimate of development as it is merely osseous. It extends back on the head a little behind its middle. The sagittal suture on the median line of the upper surface usually presents a slight, bony elevation or ridge (see the engraving of the skull, Chapter III.), and the lambdoid suture on the back of the head is frequently rough. A superficial practical phrenologist (of great pretensions) at Cincinnati, in examining the head of a gentleman of mild character, found the lambdoid suture quite rough, and gave him a terrifically pugnacious character, not knowing enough to distinguish between osseous and cerebral development. The occipital k.n.o.b on the median line between the cerebrum and cerebellum, has been already mentioned. The mastoid process, the bony prominence behind the ear is a projection exterior to the cerebellum. Where it starts from the cranium above and behind the cavity of the ear, we may judge of basilar development by the breadth of the head, but the basilar depth which is more important is to be judged by the extension downward, which was ill.u.s.trated in the last chapter by comparing the skulls of J. R. Smith and the slave-trading count.

To judge the comparative strength of the higher and lower elements of character, we look for the height above the forehead and the depth at and behind the ear, which is ascertained by placing the hand on the base of the cranium behind the ears, while the height of the head is best appreciated by placing a hand on the top with the fingers reaching down to the brow.

In a profile view the human head may be divided into three equal parts, the length of the nose being the central part, from the nose to the end of the chin another, and the remainder above the nose the third part. In inferior heads these three measurements are equal, the upper third extending to the top of the head; but in heads of superior character the upper third extends only to the top of the forehead, and the outline of the head rises a half breadth above the forehead, as the following profiles show. In heads of the lowest character the basilar depth exceeds the height, as in the French Count and the Indian Lewis.

The contour of a well-developed head forms a semicircle above the base line through the brow, and its elevation above that line is equal to one half of the antero-posterior length of the head, while in the inferior cla.s.s of heads the elevation is but four-tenths of the length or even less, and is hardly equal to the depth, while in the highest cla.s.s the elevation is one-half greater than the depth or even more.

We obtain another view of the comparative height and depth by drawing lines from the brow to the vertex and the base of the brain and comparing the two angles thus formed. In the good head we observe the great superiority of the upper angle over that formed by the line to the ear, the lower end of which corresponds to the lowest part of the brain, the base of the cerebellum.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

To take an ill.u.s.tration from nature, I would present the outlines of two Indian crania that I obtained in Florida,--Vacca Pecha.s.see, or the cow chief, who headed a small tribe, and bore a good character among the whites, and Lewis, an Indian of bad character in the same neighborhood (on the Appalachicola River), who was shot for his crimes. (I might have obtained many more, but as the Seminole war was not then over, I found that my own cranium was placed in considerable danger by my explorations.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: VACCA PECHa.s.sEE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEWIS]

In Vacca Pecha.s.see the height is to the depth as 11 to 9; in Lewis as 9 to 11. In J. R. Smith the height is to the depth as 12 to 10; in the slave trading count as 9 to 14. This is the correct method of cranial study, for comparing the moral and animal nature.

The basilar depth was entirely overlooked in the old method of phrenologists, and hence they were very often mistaken in judging the basilar energy by breadth alone, of which there has been no more striking example than that of the Thugs of India, whose heads (though a tribe of murderers) were below the European average in basilar breadth. These facts are so conspicuous to any careful observer that I became very familiar with them in the first six months of my study of heads fifty-two years ago.

When the circulation of the brain is vigorous and regular, all portions being in regular activity, the fulness of the circulation being shown in the face, we may be sure that the character is fairly indicated by the cranium. The younger the individual the thinner the cranium, and the less the liability to deception by the thickness of the bones. Female skulls are _generally_ more delicate than male, and also more normal or uniform in their circulation. Hence there is less difficulty in making an accurate estimate of women and of youth. The greater difficulty is found in men of thick skulls and abnormal brains, and these difficulties are in some cases insurmountable by mere measurement. It will become necessary in the depraved cla.s.ses to look at the condition of the circulation about the head, and the facial indications of the organs that have been cultivated. If these are not sufficient to guide us we must fall back upon psychometry.

The morbid condition of the brain is a conspicuous fact, which we must not ignore, and it is important to learn how to detect it in the appearance of the individual, or in his psychometric indications and Pathognomy, which is itself a profound science and important guide to character. (Pathognomy is the science of expression, and has an exact mathematical basis.)

We should bear in mind that it is just as possible to have impaired and unhealthy conditions in any part of the brain as to have them in the stomach, liver, lungs, or spinal cord. Physical diseases are contagious and so are moral. It is generally impossible to preserve the moral organs and faculties of a youth in healthy condition who is allowed to a.s.sociate habitually with the depraved; and it is very difficult indeed for the mature adult to preserve his brain and mind in sound condition when compelled to a.s.sociate with the depraved. To those who are very impressible, the contagion of vice, bad temper, profanity, turbulence, lying, obscenity, sullenness, melancholy, etc., is as inevitable as the contagion of small pox.

Our criminals are generally exposed to the contagion of crime in youth, and as they advance they are immersed in this contagion in prisons, which are the moral pest-houses in which law maintains the intense contagion of criminal depravity. Napoleon was an admirable subject for such contamination, and when we learn how he was reared amid the lawlessness and general scoundrelism of Corsica, we do not wonder that he became an imperial brigand. The low ethical standard of mankind, generally, and especially of historians, has heretofore prevented a just estimate of the character of Napoleon. Royal criminals have escaped condemnation; but the recent review of Napoleon's career by Taine gives a just philosophic estimate of the man, which coincides with the impartial estimation of psychometry.

BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.

The establishment of a new Journal is a hazardous and expensive undertaking. Every reader of this volume receives what has cost more than he pays for it, and in addition receives the product of months of editorial, and many years of scientific, labor. May I not therefore ask his aid in relieving me of this burden by increasing the circulation of the Journal among his friends?

The establishment of the Journal was a duty. There was no other way effectively to reach the people with its new sphere of knowledge.

Buckle has well said in his "History of Civilization," that "No great political improvement, no great reform, either legislative or executive, has ever been originated in any country by its ruling cla.s.s. The first suggestors of such steps have invariably been bold and able thinkers, who discern the abuse, denounce it, and point out the remedy."

This is equally true in science, philanthropy, and religion. When the advance of knowledge and enlightenment of conscience render reform or revolution necessary, the ruling powers of college, church, government, capital, and the press, present a solid combined resistance which the teachers of novel truth cannot overcome without an appeal to the people. The grandly revolutionary science of Anthropology, which offers in one department (Psychometry) "the dawn of a new civilization," and in other departments an entire revolution in social, ethical, educational, and medical philosophy, has experienced the same fate as all other great scientific and philanthropic innovations, in being compelled to sustain itself against the mountain ma.s.s of established error by the power of truth alone. The investigator whose life is devoted to the evolution of the truth cannot become its propagandist. A whole century would be necessary to the full development of these sciences to which I can give but a portion of one life. Upon those to whom these truths are given, who can intuitively perceive their value, rests the task of sustaining and diffusing the truth.

Mrs. Croly of New York remarked in her address to the Women's Press a.s.sociation of Boston. "The general public resents the advocacy of a cause and resists any attempt to commit it to special ideas. A paper that starts to represent a cause must be maintained by individual effort, and often at great sacrifice."

The circulation of the Journal is necessarily limited to the sphere of liberal minds and advanced thinkers, but among these it has had a more warm and enthusiastic reception than was ever before given to any periodical. There must be in the United States twenty or thirty thousand of the cla.s.s who would warmly appreciate the Journal, but they are scattered so widely it will be years before half of them can be reached without the active co-operation of my readers, which I most earnestly request.

Prospectuses and specimen numbers will be furnished to those who will use them, and those who have liberal friends not in their own vicinity may confer a favor by sending their names that a prospectus or specimen may be sent them. A liberal commission will be allowed to those who canva.s.s for subscribers.

Enlargement of the Journal.

The requests of readers for the enlargement of the Journal are already coming in. It is a great disappointment to the editor to be compelled each month to exclude so much of interesting matter, important to human welfare, which would be gratifying to its readers. The second volume therefore will be enlarged to 64 pages at $2 per annum.

COLLEGE OF THERAPEUTICS.

An interesting session closed on the 10th of June. Students attending a second course think they profited as much as by the first. The cla.s.s adopted a strong expression of their high appreciation of the instruction received, and the importance of the new sciences.

Everything was harmonious, intelligent, and successful. Fine psychometric powers were developed in four-fifths of the students. A fuller report will appear in the next JOURNAL. The next course (the ninth) will begin the first week of November next.

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SUNDAY LEGISLATION.

At the annual meeting of the Free Religious a.s.sociation in Boston, "Judge Putnam showed, in a speech which called out much laughter and applause, that the Sunday law is not enforced, for it does not really make our behavior different from what it would be without it, except in so far as it permits rascals to refuse to pay notes signed on that day, or bills for goods then purchased."

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