The Wonders of Phrenology Revealed, 1841
Between eminently intellectual individuals and idiots the
difference is similar to that which obtains between man and mammalian. Men of
large heads, according to Magendie, have capacious minds; whereas in idiots, as
in the quadrumana, the brain is small, the convolutions few and shallow, and
the anterior lobes but little developed. If, indeed, we extend the comparison
through all the intermediate gradations of intellect, we shall be astonished to
find a corresponding agreement. "The mind of the negro and the Hottentot,
of the Calmuck and Carib, is inferior to that of the European, and their
organization is less perfect,"-"the intellectual characters are
reduced, the animal features enlarged and exaggerated." Even barters have
ascertained that servants and negroes have smaller heads than others. Women are
as unlike men in the form of their heads as in the qualities of their minds. In
men of commanding talents the greater quantity of cerebral matter is anterior
to the ear; but in heads which are truncated before, and largely developed in
the opposite direction, the passions will be found to be stronger than the
understanding. The higher sentiments elevate the calvaria or top of the head;
it is accordingly observed, that from men whose heads are flattened, as in
quadrupeds, "Conscience, virtue, honor, are exiled."
Pope
Alexander the Second is an illustrious example. Other differences might be
enumerated; but to extend our observations farther would be to trench upon the
discoveries of Messrs. Gall and Spurzheim, whose conclusions, indeed, are but
an extension of this comparison founded on observation and confirmed by
experiment.