PHRENOLOGY EXAMINED.
BY P. FLOURENS,
MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY, PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL ACADEMYOF SCIENCES (INSTITUTE OF FRANCE), MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETIES OFLONDON AND EDINBURG, OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OFSTOCKHOLM, OF MUNICH, AND OF TURIN, ETC. ETC.
PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY AT THE NATURALHISTORY MUSEUM AT PARIS.
“J’ai un sentiment clair de ma liberté.”
BOSSUET, Traité du Libre Arbitre.
Translated from the Second Edition of 1845, by
CHARLES DE LUCENA MEIGS, M.D.
MEMB. AMER. PHIL. SOC. ETC. ETC.
PHILADELPHIA:
HOGAN & THOMPSON.
1846.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,
By CHARLES D. MEIGS, M. D.
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.
My dear sir:
Perhaps I have taken too great a liberty insending to you in this public manner, and inpraying you to accept a copy of M. Flourens’ingenious work. I have a very sincere desirethat you should read the Inquiry; for I feelsure, that if you approve of it, the studiousportion of our countrymen who may peruse it,will concur in the opinion of a gentleman sojustly distinguished as yourself in every goodword and work, and so capable of judging as[vi]to the salutary or evil tendency of the productionsof our teeming press.
Inasmuch as many of our countrymen haveheretofore felt, and many do now feel, desirousto know the truth as to the question of themultiple nature of the human mind, I havehere translated the Examination, in order thatthey might have an opportunity to learn whatis thought of Gall’s doctrines by one of thebest and most precise thinkers in Europe.
Professor Flourens, by his writings on thebrain and nervous system, by his courses oflectures at the Jardin des Plantes, by numerouswritings on various scientific subjects, by hisposition in the Institute, has acquired a placeamong the literary and scientific celebrities ofthe present age. The amiable and elegantmanners, and the fine disposition of this distinguishedcharacter, coincide with his acknowledgedlearning, and exactness, and zeal, toaccumulate upon him the public respect and[vii]esteem. It is therefore with great confidencethat I present to you this copy of his criticismupon Phrenology, since I suppose that everywriting of so good a man might prove acceptableto you, and to the studious portion of ourcountrymen generally.
I invoke your approbation of what I cannotbut deem a masterly criticism of the doctrinesof Gall. So highly have I appreciated it, thatI cannot readily suppose it possible to risefrom its perusal, without being convinced thatGall was wholly mistaken in his views ofthe human mind; and of course, that all thecranioscopist