FIFTH, The liver, which secretes or manufactures the bilious fluids, is supplied with blood almost entirely from the veins, and in this respect is an exception to all the other organs of the body.

SIXTH, The venous system is developed in different degrees in different persons.

SEVENTH, The venous system becomes more full as people grow older, and at the same time the arteries shrink. Certain climates also give greater activity to the venous system.

We can now understand why persons of this temperament are found to possess the following peculiarities:

FIRST, Thy are slower in bodily and mental action than those of the nervous or arterial temperament.

SECOND, They are not so easily excited nor so soon exhausted.

THIRD, Their feelings are not so warm and ardent, but more enduring.

FOURTH, They are of a dark brown or yellow complexion, with black hair and eyes.

FIFTH, They are more subject to liver complaints, and are said to have a bilious look; this is probably the reason that it has acquired the name of the bilious temperament.

SIXTH, They are not so fond of muscular action—they are not so lively and changeable in their thoughts and feelings as arterial temperaments.

When you wish to learn the temperament of any person, first observe his osseous system, if that is fairly developed— if he is not too tall for his breadth-if his chest is capacious enough to allow of a pair of lungs of the common size—if there is nothing essentially disproportioned in his frame, you will pass to the muscular system, and see if the frame is well covered with flesh; if so, then observe the consistence of the flesh, see if it is as firm as ordinary; next turn your atten

tion to the fineness and color of the hair, and the sharpness or roundness of the features, and the size of the head, in order to ascertain the degree in which the nervous system is developed, compared to the muscular. Next observe the three nourishing systems, and see whether the digestive, the arterial, or the venous, predominates.

We rarely see an instance of any temperament pure; two, and sometimes three systems frequently combine to produce a mixed temperament: and here it is necessary to use much discrimination, as every person whom we examine will present a new combination, or a different degree of the same temperament that we have observed before.

Black eyes and hair, and a yellowish neck, combined with red cheeks, indicates a combination of the venous and arterial, or rather a struggle for predominance.

Sharp features, with a lean body, and a dark complexion, indicate a combination of the nervous and venous.

Sharp features and lightness of flesh, with red cheeks, blue eyes and light hair, indicate a combination of the arterial and nervous.

It is

Heavy round features and form, with a dark complexion, indicate a combination of the digestive and venous. not necessary to enumerate and describe all the combinations and their effects, as a discerning mind will soon discover them by the application of the foregoing principles.

Dr. Caldwell, of Kentucky, has written a very interesting essay upon temperament, in which he bases the three principal temperaments upon the three great cavities, the cranium, the thorax, and the abdomen. According to him, if the cranium is most capacious, we have the cerebral or mental temperament. If the thorax is large, the sanguineous system will predominate; and the muscular system being well nourished with blood, will be powerful, of course. the abdomen predominates, and the chest and head are small,

If

then the lymphatic temperament will be the consequence; and all other temperaments are combinations of these three. Dr. Caldwell's treatise is more philosophical than any preceding one on this subject; but it is, notwithstanding, very imperfect, as he passes over in silence the bilious temperament, and gives but an unsatisfactory account of the muscular; he is not sufficiently analytical. The fact is, the size of the head is one evidence of the degree of the nervous temperament--and the size of the chest is an evidence of the perfection and predominance of the arterial and venous systems. But it affords no clue to the relative size of the venous and arterial; nor does it by any means follow that the muscles are large when the chest is capacious. It is true that the muscles are nourished by the blood, but so also are the nerves and the brain, yet no one pretends that the size of the brain depends upon the size of the thorax.

The developement of the abdomen is also some indication of the activity of the digestive system, and it is useful to attend to the relative size of the three great cavities; but we can generally perceive in the countenance, indications of the different temperaments, even when there is no apparent disproportion between the cranium, thorax, and abdomen.

Disease frequently produces effects which are mistaken for natural temperaments, but observation and comparison will soon correct us on this point; and besides, it is not the province of the phrenologian to explain the effects of disease.

Some phrenologists have suggested that there may be a fine quality of brain, independent of temperament, and that this fine quality is indicated by the fineness of the external hair, skin and features; the same general causes operating* on the whole constitution alike. If the exterior is of an excellent quality, so also is the interior, and therefore we may expect more firm, active, and energetic manifestations from

a brain which is surrounded by flesh, features, and hair of a fine vigorous appearance, than when the whole outward man is of a coarse texture.

There is some plausibility in this doctrine, but it seems to me very easy to explain the fineness or coarseness of structure by reference to peculiar combinations of temperament, caused by climate, occupation, &c.

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL PIRNCIPLES OF PHRENOLOGY.

FIRST, the brain is the organ of mind. This is a proposition which no person of common intelligence at the present day pretends to deny. The ancients entertained different opinions on this subject. Some believed, or rather suspected, that the brain was the seat of the mind; others, with Plato, considered the heart as the seat of the passions, and the brain the habitation of the higher and nobler sentiments. Hipocrates regarded the human brain as a sponge which imbibed the moisture of the body. Aristotle, on the contrary, viewed it as a humid mass intended to temper the heat of the body. Descartes believed that the pineal gland, a part about the size of a pea, at the centre of the brain, was the habitation of the mind. Some, again, pre

tend to think that the brain was merely to balance the face, and prevent it from inclining too much forward; and that the mind resided in every part of the body.

Although this is a fundamental principle of phrenology, yet it was fully established in the minds of scientific men before the time of Dr. Gall. To this great man is due the credit of having first discovered and demonstrated the

Second principle, that the brain is constituted of a number of organs. Admitting the first principle of phrenology, it seems impossible to avoid the second. For if the brain is the organ of the human mind, the same is true of other animals. How, then, shall we account for the superiority of man, unless we admit that he has more and higher organs?

Again, in examining the brains of animals, we find them more complicated, and containing additional parts, as the animal manifests more faculties.

Different faculties are manifested at different ages.

Some persons are great geniuses in some things, and almost idiots in others.

Some are insane on one class of subjects and perfectly reasonable on all others.

In dreaming, some faculties are active and the rest asleep. It is easy to account for these phenomena, on the principle that the brain is constituted of a number of organs, which are possessed in different degrees by different persons and at different ages, and that the lower animals possess some of them and are destitute of others. One organ may be diseased and the rest sound. may be asleep or at rest, and others awake and active. But if we deny this

One

phrenological principle, we have no means of explaining these phenomena. Besides the evidence thus derived from the necessity of admitting a plurality of organs, phrenologists have an abundance of proof resulting from observation.

A third principle of phrenology is, that the power of an