rowing, climbing, descending, pulling, pushing, lifting, dropping, shooting, spearing, crouching, springing, childishness, &c.; and if phrenologists wish to retain their character for sanity unimpaired, it really is quite time for them, as a body, publicly to disown and denounce the extravagancies which such visionaries as Dr Buchanan in America, and Mr Spencer Hall in this country, have appended to their science.

The simple state of the case is, that the natural language of every emotion of which man is susceptible, every gesture and act he is capable of performing, can be readily elicited by pointing the fingers to any part of the head of the patient, or even to any part of his body, nay, without any pointing or manipulation at all, provided the operator either wills or expects such manifestations to ensue; the patient being, in fact, for the time, a mere automaton, a passive instrument vibrating obedient to the volition, or in unison with the emotions, of others. That this is the true explanation of the phenomena exhibited, every fact connected with the subject goes to prove; for, considering the extraordinary and almost superhuman powers of perception developed during the magnetic state, I attach but little importance to the futile and inadequate precautions, by which some experimenters have sought to ensure themselves from the possibility of being deceived as to the cause of the phenomena.

Whilst, then, admitting that, a priori, I can see no ground for supposing it to be impossible, during magnetic sleep, to excite special organs to activity, by stimulating the portion of the surface of the head corresponding to their seat, I contend, that the absurd nature of the actual results obtained proclaims them to have had another origin; and that, when we see the grossest absurdities supported by a certain species of evidence, such evidence (even admitting, which I do not, that its fallacy cannot be detected) is worthless, and insufficient to establish any proposition whatsoever. Perhaps it may be argued, that the phenomena may be produced in two ways, and that, whilst they are sometimes the result of the intimate relation between the patient and operator, at others their efficient cause must be sought for in the manipulations employed. All in tractable and absurd results may thus be most conveniently disposed of, by being referred to the first agency; whilst such as are rational and consistent may be claimed for the second. This supposition, however, is more ingenious than probable What becomes of the power of local stimulus, when an operator excites the organ of Benevolence by placing his finger upon Destructiveness? If the touch of the finger of the operator possessed the power of exciting the organs, independently

of volition, then, in such a case, we ought to have both organs excited-Benevolence, in obedience to the will of the operator, and Destructiveness, in consequence of the local manipulation. No such result, however, takes place. Where also, I would ask, are those grand additions to our science, which the employment of such a splendid engine of phrenological discovery as that comprised in the power of exciting unknown organs by laying our finger on them, would have bestowed on us, supposing we really possessed it? Above all, how are we to explain the fact, that hundreds of individuals have practised Mesmerism during the last fifty years, and thousands of persons been mesmerised on all parts of their bodies, without the peculiar phenomena of the excitation of the cerebral organs once occurring till the operators became phrenologists? How is it that, amongst the extensive records of continental Mesmerism, we have never been greeted with some such announcement as the following?" During the second sitting, andwhilst the Marquis of Puysegur was employed in mesmerising the side of the head of his patient, the latter, a man of great muscular power, suddenly, and without any assignable cause, appeared to become possessed with the most uncontrollable fury; with one blow of his fist he felled his mesmeriser to the ground, and was in the act of repeating his attack, when the Marquis's domestics, alarmed by the noise, fortunately came to the assistance of their master," &c. &c.

Amongst the criteria I have enumerated for testing the claims of Phreno-Magnetism, I have purposely omitted to notice that which would be afforded, by the discovery of some well-established phrenological organ by a magnetiser and patient entirely ignorant of the science. Could we, in such a case, assure ourselves of the existence of the requisite conditions, I can imagine none which would be more convincing and conclusive; but when we come to reflect on the universal diffusion of busts marked with the organs, and couple this with the astonishing memory frequently displayed by magnetic patients of events long past, and no longer remembered by them when in their natural state, we shall find a degree of uncertainty thrown over this species of testimony, which must ever prevent its being deemed satisfactory.

I would also observe, that a case of this kind is at once rendered worthless as evidence, by the presence of any phrenologist during the experiment. A friend of mine lately informed me that he could vouch for the fact of the manifestations of well-established phrenological organs having been elicited, by an operator and patient both unacquainted with the science; adding, that the circumstance was regarded as quite decisive,

in establishing the reality of the phreno-magnetic doctrines, by all who witnessed it, and ought to remove all further scepticism on the subject from my own mind. On enquiry, however, I found not only that there were many phrenologists present, but that the whole of the phreno-magnetic experiments were directed by one of the number requesting the operator to touch the various parts of the head he indicated. The explanation of this case is very simple, and is to be sought for in the mental relationship of the patient with other individuals present besides the operator, a phenomenon of every-day occurrence in Mesmerism. A gentleman once interrogated a patient of mine for half an hour, respecting the furniture of his house; every query was answered correctly; yet the patient had never been within many miles of his residence, and I was equally ignorant on the subject. This gentleman was only present at the séance as a spectator, and no means whatever had been employed to place him en rapport with the patient, to whom he was an entire stranger. I give this case merely as an illustration, having seen innumerable others of the same kind; and plenty of a similar description may be found in the works of the continental writers on Mesmerism. My own belief is, that the power of reading the thoughts of the operator, and often those of others, is one of the most frequently developed phenomena which attend the mesmeric trance; and that it is in reality the true explanation of ninetenths of the supposed cases of ultra-vision and other marvels, though its possession is generally very reluctantly admitted by the patients themselves-a circumstance which need not surprise us, if we consider what an embarrassing avowal it is for them to make.

In making the preceding observations on Phreno-Magnetism, I have been actuated solely by a desire to arrive at the truth; and I am not conscious of the existence in my mind of any prepossession on the subject likely to bias my judgment, or induce me to treat the question unfairly; indeed, my feelings might be supposed to draw me in the opposite direction, not only as being a warm supporter both of Phrenology and Mesmerism, but as being also the first person in the country, to whom the idea of exciting the cerebral organs during the trance, by magnetising their localities, occurred, and the first*

* My experiments preceded Mr Atkinson's, yet this gentleman has recently put forward a claim to be considered the discoverer of PhrenoMagnetism in this country. Were the discovery, however, a reality, and not a delusion, precedent and common sense alike dictate that the credit of it should be given to Messrs Mansfield and Gardiner, as being the first who published it to the world.

who made experiments on the subject;-experiments I was only led to discontinue, from a perception of those sources of fallacy, which I am still of opinion invalidate all the results hitherto obtained on the subject.

SOUTHAMPTON, January 1844.

II. CASES AND FACTS.

I. Observations on the Connection of Insanity with Diseases in the Organs of Physical Life.-Illustrated by a Remarkable Case. By J. CowLES PRICHARD, M.D., F.R.S., &c. (From the Provincial Medical Journal, Jan. 27, 1844.)

In most of the necroscopical researches into the causes of mental aberrations which have been set on foot, either in England or in France, the principal, if not the almost undivided attention of anatomists has been directed to the discovery of morbid changes in the brain. Our German neighbours, who have been thought, in many other departments of knowledge, to take wider and more comprehensive views, though not to be more practical or sound in judgment, than either the French or English, have, in the pursuit to which I have adverted, taken a different course. The school of Nasse, in particular, have, in numerous publications,* directed the attention of pathologists to connections which are often to be traced between the different manifestations of insanity and various morbid phenomena discovered after death in the organs subservient to physical life. The same path has been followed more recently by Jacobi, whose various works on subjects connected with insanity, equally remarkable for the practical sense as for the deep philosophical investigation which they display, entitle their author to the highest rank among the living writers of this class. Jacobi even goes so far as to call in question the established opinion of this time, which regards the disorders of the vascular, the gastric, the enteric, the hepatic, and the progenitive systems, as associated with morbid states of the mental faculties in a remote and secondary degree; while affections of the brain are looked

* In a variety of papers in the Zeitschrift für Psych. Aerzte, 1818, and the following years.

+ In Dr Max. Jacobi's Beobachtungen über die Pathologie und The.. rapie der mit Irreseyn verbundenen Krankheiten. Elberfeld, 1830, Also different papers in the Zeitschrift für die Beurtheilung und Heilung der Krankhaften Seelenzustände, von Max. Jacobi und Fr, Nasse. Berlin, 1838 u, s, f.

upon as immediately and essentially connected with the manifestations of disordered intellect. Jacobi has not expressed his opinion precisely in this manner; but it would appear, from a variety of passages in his works, that he looks upon effects produced upon the sensorium and the mind, through the medium of the stomach, or any of the viscera of physical life, as not less immediately brought about by the action of the material organism on the intellectual or sensitive power, than the impressions produced in the mind by a blow on the head, or by any powerful agency exerted immediately on the brain.* This sequence, as he thinks, is more easily understood, as it is more frequently or more distinctly exemplified in a variety of phenomena, both healthy and morbid, connected with the state of the feelings or moral faculties, and their manifestations. The phenomena of moral insanity, or of a disordered state of the affections and moral feelings, without any corresponding lesion of the understanding, or of the reasoning faculties, furnishes, or appears at least prima facie to furnish, a firm ground whereon to maintain the negative position in regard to the participation, or, at least, the primary influence of the brain, in the development of an extensive series of psychological phenomena.t Herein Jacobi assents to the opinion which I ventured some time since to put forth; and which was, at first, thought extremely improbable ;-that a mental disorder exists, fully to be recognised by particular trains of symptoms, in which the moral, not the intellectual, part of the human mind is essentially disturbed. To this I affixed the name of moral insanity; while, to another class of mental disorders, consisting in irregular affections of the will, or in unaccountable voluntary impulses, without motive or rational design, the designation of instinctive impulses, or instinctive insanity, is equally applicable.§ I shall not attempt, at present, to enter into the

Zeitschrift, B. 1. S. 78.

† Such a position can be maintained only by those who persist in regarding the brain as a single organ.—ED. P. J.

‡ The existence of moral insanity was recognised by Pinel and others long before Dr Prichard published his views; indeed, he himself has stated this in the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine. To phrenologists, moral insanity has long been familiar.-ED. P. J.

§ This last is the disorder described by Pinel, under the title of“ Manie sans delire." It was observed by M. Esquirol, in his last work, that this affection is totally distinct from that which I have described first in the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine. The term moral insanity is now in common use among the superintendants of lunatic asylums, both in Britain and in the United States, as the distinguishing term for this species of mental disease. It is said that, in some of the United States, nearly one-eighth of the whole number of lunatics committed by the courts belong to this class.