Unquestionably, the hypothesis of the author is far from being proved to be true; but he has invested the principle of evolution or development of animal existence with so much importance and plausibility, that we venture to predict that it will henceforth command much more of the serious attention of philosophers than it has hitherto done; and that this work will lead either to its refutation, or to its establishment on sufficient evidence, and thus equally confer a benefit on science. In the mean time, the work is a valuable contribution to philosophy in the right direction. It gives a strong support to the doctrine of the government of creation, animated and inanimate, by general laws designed by the Creator from the first. It shews (even allowing its leading idea not to be established), that we live in the midst of a system of universal causation, to which we must accommodate our conduct, if we wish to enjoy life. In the words of the author:·----- "It will be of no avail to sit down and expect that things are to operate of their own accord, or through the direction of a partial Deity, for our benefit; equally so were it, to expose ourselves to palpable dangers, under the notion that we shall, for some reason, have a dispensation or exemption from them: we must endeavour so to place ourselves, and so to act, that the arrangements which Providence has made impartially for all may be in our favour, and not against us; such are the only means by which we can obtain good and avoid evil here below." P. 381. The tendency of all science is to lead us to the same conclusions; and some of the practical results of such views are already beginning to manifest themselves. The movements in Britain for obtaining well-drained and well-ventilated dwellings, and also baths, and open parks for air and exercise, for the people, all proceed on the principle of realizing the natural conditions of health as a preliminary to enjoying it. But this is only a beginning: our religion, our laws, our literature, and our social habits, all need a reformation, in which effect shall be given to the already ascertained influences of causation. The present treatment of paupers and criminals, for example, is at variance with every notion of the world's being governed on the principle of cause and effect: We deliberately allow all the natural conditions calculated to produce and multiply these unfortunate beings to flourish around us, and then wonder at the increase of crime and destitution; nay, we go farther, we wreak our vengeance on offenders against the law for becoming what our treatment has tended to make them; for what can be the effect of short imprisonments of young delinquents in com

mon jails, but to ripen the beginners into mature and dangerous criminals?

"The sum," says the author, " of all we have seen of the psychical constitution of man is, that its almighty Author has destined it, like every thing else, to be developed from inherent qualities, and to have a mode of action depending solely on its own organization. Thus the whole is complete on one principle. The masses of space are formed by law; law makes them in due time theatres of existence for plants and animals; sensation, disposition, intellect, are all, in like manner, developed and sustained in action by law. It is most interesting to observe into how small a field the whole of the mysteries of nature thus ultimately resolve themselves. The inorganic has one final comprehensive law-GRAVITATION. The organic, the other great department of mundane things, rests, in like manner, on one law, and that is-DEVELOPMENT. Nor may even these be, after all, twain, but only branches of one still more comprehensive law, the expression of that unity which man's wit can scarcely separate from Deity itself."

III. Société Phrenologique de Paris. Séance Annuelle de 18411842. Publication de la Société. Paris Chez J. B. Baillière. 8vo. Pp. 100.

This Report of the proceedings of the Phrenological Society of Paris, is alike creditable to the talent, and the zeal and industry, of the members of that institution. It consists of a preface and four articles, each of considerable length, especially the second and third. The preface, dated 25th January 1843, has the signature of Dr Marchal de Calvi, the general secretary. It asserts the marked progress which Phrenology has made in public opinion. There are few medical men, it observes, who do not admit its truth, to at least a limited extent. To lead them to an avowal, Dr Marchal forces them to shew the grounds of their opinion; and he always finds the most sturdy negators the most imperfectly informed, and the most engrossed by the pursuit of their own selfish interests. This description, we can bear witness, is not confined to France in its applicability. He adds, that the labours in the physiology and pathology of the nervous system, daily confirm the phrenological views, often against the wish of the investigators. He mentions another proof of the progress of Phrenology in France, namely, that a thief was acquitted by a Court of Assize, on the evidence of medical witnesses

that the accused was afflicted with the monomania of theft and had the acquisitive organ very largely developed. Dr Marchal most properly condemns the acquittal of so dangerous a person; but thinks the evidence quite sufficient to have warranted his being put under proper restraint and treatment. In this, every phrenologist, who entertains just views on the subject of criminals and their treatment, will concur. The Doctor concludes by remarking that it is the unceasing conquests of the science without parade that chiefly irritate its adversaries. This kind of triumph, says he, is to them more annoying than that which comes by enthusiasm.

The first article is a discourse by Professor Bouillaud, member of the Chamber of Deputies, and president of the Society. This discourse most of our readers would consider rather elementary for their state of progress. It analyzes Phrenology as a science of mind and man, and not, as it is vulgarly supposed to be, a mere handling of heads to discover bumps (bosses). It repels the charge that Phrenology leads to atheism, and quotes Gall's arguments, actually drawn from this science, for the existence and attributes of God. It then goes into the question of the localization of the organs, which the author illustrates by the heads of known great men ; adding a candid avowal, that, notwithstanding the immense extent of the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim, there is much yet to be done before Phrenology shall have arrived at the rank of a certain science. He concludes with a compliment to ce beau pays," France, the Queen of civilized nations," from whom Phrenology, like the Revolution of 1789, is destined to spread over the world, and by whom Gall, persecuted in his lifetime, shall have a statue erected to his memory.

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The second article is an account of the labours of the Phrenological Society during the years 1841-2, by the secretary, already mentioned, Dr Marchal de Calvi. After some justly severe remarks upon the ignorance of the enemies of Phrenology-especially of Napoleon, whose imperial condemnation of the doctrine of Gall he exposes as especially silly -the secretary gives a sort of precis of the communications of the session, in none of which is there any thing new to the experienced phrenologist: for example, there is a case of a woman attacked with apoplexy, who, on recovery, was found to have retained every faculty but that of Language; she pronounced half words, and misapplied them, in the way well known to our readers. After some observations on the place of the organ of Language, the secretary cites a memoir by M. Bouillaud the president, which divides the facts in evi

dence of the organ of Language, no less than sixty-five in number, into three categories. In the first are three facts, shewing that if, as a symptom of a disease, the faculty of Language can be alone suspended or abolished, it must exist independently of all other faculties, and have a special organ. In the second category are sixteen facts to prove that the organ is in the anterior lobe of the brain.* The facts of the third category are forty-six in number, and comprise the negative proofs the preservation of the faculty of Language in cases where the anterior lobe of the brain remains uninjured, the rest of the brain being generally injured.-Dr Casimir Broussais furnishes a curious paper, entitled an Analysis of Huarte's Examination of the Geniuses fit for the cultivation of the Sciences,-a work of the sixteenth century, and dedicated to Philip II. of Spain. Huarte was remarkable for assigning a local site in the brain to each faculty which, in his age, was supposed to belong to the human mind; of course, a very imperfect localisation. Ambrose Paré also attempted a localisation of organs, as did some others.-The same Dr Broussais, the son of the deceased Dr Broussais who did so much for Phrenology in France, gives an analysis of the “Medicine of the Passions," by M. Descuret.-Papers are read on the manifestation of mental powers by the blind-on Phrenology applied to the drama.-Dr Fossati, with whose name we are familiar, brings before the society some communications from America on the subject of Phreno-mesmerism, of which all that the secretary says is, that they gave great amusement to the society.-Dr Fossati communicated papers on the application of Phrenology to education and government, and on comparative Phrenology.-The society congratulate themselves on an experiment of M. Voisin, which they call grand and solemn-the result communicated to the Royal Academy of Medicine-on 400 young criminals in the penitentiary of La Roquette, a commission of the Academy being the judges. The result of the examination of the heads was allowed by the officers of the establishment to be entirely satisfactory, in regard to the mental qualities inferred.-Dr Place furnished a paper on the development and character of the celebrated Cherubini, which the doctor published separately. A copy lies before us, and will be separately noticed.-Two sittings of the society were devoted to the consideration of Idiotism, to which Drs Gaubert and Seguin have devoted much attention. The general

* See a notice of some of M. Bouillaud's cases, in our eighth volume, p. 255. Pathology, we must add, gives discordant indications respecting the functions of this as of other parts of the nervous system.-ED, VOL. XVIII.-N. S. NO. XXIX.-JAN. 1845.

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opinion was, that imbeciles, who are not utterly fatuous, are educable physically and generally, an opinion in which we are much disposed to concur.-The secretary makes many indignant allusions, as he goes along, to the unfair treatment, and even persecution, which Phrenology meets with on the Continent, and considers it a most courageous act in one of the members of the society to have defended Phrenology publicly at the Scientific Congress at Strasbourg.* He adds,

that candidates for offices have failed because they were phrenologists, and young men have been advised by their sage friends to desert the cause of Gall, as fatal to their prospects in life. In this country we are past that stage. The phrenological philosophy has too extensively mingled with, and elevated, human affairs, to be longer pleaded against its disciples. The casts of certain atrocious criminals are judged of by the society, and found to correspond in development with their history. Fatalism and materialism are disposed of according to the phrenological views of these subjects, with which our readers are familiar.-This summary of the labours of the society of Paris concludes with acknowledging the cooperations, in extending the science, of other societies, both at home and abroad. The labours of Scotland and America are highly complimented, and the progress of the science in Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, alluded to. Edinburgh is chiefly distinguished; and this curious statement is made respecting our friend Mr Combe: "In Edinburgh flourishes George Combe-George Combe, who would this day have been professor of philosophy in that ancient Scottish university, but for an intrigue hatched in Paris!" This notion is quite new to us, and appears to be utterly groundless. In a note, allusion is made to Dr Verity (without naming him), as having, before the French tribunals, founded on the supposed cessation of the existence of the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, as a pretence for withholding from that body an important inheritance. This monstrous wrong, to the extent of fifteen thousand pounds, is still unredressed, in consequence of the unjust, the absurd law of France, as applicable to foreigners,-a law which is a disgrace to a civilized country. Could any one have believed that the French courts would solemnly declare themselves incompetent to try questions where both parties are foreigners? Such, however, is the fact; and Dr Verity sets at defiance even an order (which is all that the courts find themselves authorised to grant) to deposit for safety in the Bank of Consignation a portion of the funds entrusted

* See our sixteenth volume, p. 356.