ism, and fatalism, we know not where these characteristics are to be found; and that such sentiments annihilate all moral distinctions between truth and falsehood, vice and virtue, is too obvious to need comment." Again :

"The moral aspect of phrenological doctrines is, that, however, which renders the humbug the most mischievous and deplorable. Multitudes go to the science for the purpose of easing a loaded conscience, by learning that their delinquencies and views are constitutional, and depending wholly on organization. Such find a false peace an imaginary comfort in the doctrine, that virtue and vice are alike the result of organs implanted by the Creator, and thus persuade themselves into the disbelief of human accountability. * * * * *

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Hence, a man is religious or otherwise, by reason of a physical necessity, since the prominence, or the depression of the top of the head, where the organs of Veneration, Theosophy, and Marvellousness are located, must irresistibly result in one or the other character."

On this vile and offensive outpouring of ignorance and prejudice, mendaciousness and malice, (for they are all concerned in the production,) my comment shall be brief. The charges contained in it have nothing new in them, and do not therefore belong to the author of the "Humbugs." They are the property of the fire-andfaggot guerilla party, whose standard he has joined; and are as old as the crusade, waged against Phrenology, in the last years of the last century, by the fanatics of Vienna, and continued by their auxiliaries, down to the present day, under the influence of a spirit of bigotry and injustice, falsehood and vindictiveness, that has no

parallel in modern times. Or if it has any, it is in the case of Gallileo, who was placed under the ban and discipline of the church, and threatened with the tortures of the inquisition itself, on account of his sublime discoveries in astronomy. Nor can it be held doubtful, that those who now pursue an inquisitorial process against character and opinion, would, in the seventeenth century, have done the same against life and person. It is times and manners, not bigots and fanatics, that have undergone a change. In the narrow minds and ruthless tempers of many pretenders to piety and christianity, the inquisition still exists. Give them sway, and they will re-erect it in the dungeon. And the advocates of Phrenology would be its first victims; because, in the discovery and diffusion of liberal science, they are in the lead.

Did not other considerations forbid the measure, neither time nor space permits me at present to reply to the charges of materialism and fatalism, immorality and impiety, preferred against Phrenology, by those who are ignorant of it, or hostile to it through the influence of sinister motives. For the science has but two classes of opponents; those who have never studied it, and do not therefore understand it; and those who feel themselves in some way personally interested in its refutation and overthrow. And they have been already scores of times answered to the satisfaction of all such as are actuated by candour, amenable to reason, and the possessors of common sense. To repeat the arguments, therefore, in defence of the science, on the present occasion, would be altogether superfluous in me.

Let not the author of the "Humbugs" however,

imagine that I have any disposition to decline a contest, of a becoming and beneficial character, in behalf of Phrenology, should any thing occur to render it necessary. Though no professed knight-errant in the cause, yet on one condition I will cheerfully break a lance with any writer, whose name and standing entitle him to a meeting. And the condition, which is an honourable one, is as follows: The champion must deport himself with knightly courtesy, bear TRUTH on his banner, and present in the tourney some new ground of challenge - I mean some new charge against the soundness and merits of the science. In that case he shall be met in a corresponding style of courtesy and respectfulness. Not otherwise. To no charge or challenge, stained with untruth, stale and trashy in its character, or dictated by a spirit of bigotry or fanaticism, invective or abuse, will an answer be returned. And of such unmanly and unchristian description is every imputation, by which phrenology has been hitherto assailed. By neither Justice nor truth, magnanimity nor decency, nor by the slightest discoverable wish to benefit science, or promote the true interests of the human family, has even one of them been characterized. Nor has any of the assaults which Phrenology has sustained, committed a more profligate outrage on truth and manliness, morality and religion, than Dr. Reese's Humbug.

I shall only add, that one of my motives for noticing the "New-York Humbugs" in this place, is, that their rude and discourteous author may find himself associated in recompense with the author of the "Two Lectures," with whom he has asociated himself in a plot against science. For thus associated the two writers

are, in bestowing encomiums on each other's productions, and in that way endeavouring to extend their circulation, and give weight to their matter. I have thought proper therefore, to impale them both on the two horns of the same dilemma, that, as they have been platonicly united in their lives and labours, they may not, in the fitness of their reward, be divided.

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NOTE.

THE frontispiece plate is designed to exhibit a fair average of the thickness of the human skull, especially that of the Caucasian race, in healthy individuals in the prime of life. And no pains have been spared, in examination and comparison, to render the view accurate.

At different periods of life, and in different states of health, the condition of the cranium, in these respects, varies: In childhood the skull is thin, and the frontal sinuses so small, as to be scarcely perceptible. In adult life, the sinuses are more developed, and the skull is thicker. Still however, in persons who are healthy, and have never suffered from protracted affections of the head, their average does not exceed that represented in the plate. I doubt whether the average of the sinuses equals it. Those cavities furnish therefore, as every one must perceive, no serious impediment to the detection of the development of the brain in that region.

In advanced age the condition of these parts is different. So it is in protracted insanity, and other chronic cerebral affections. In these cases the brain diminishes in size, the skull becomes thicker, and the frontal sinuses more capacious. The causes of these changes need not be mentioned. By all well-informed physiologists they are sufficiently understood.