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development also of Form, Language, Eventuality, Comparison, Benevolence, and Veneration. The lower region of the forehead is better developed than the upper, which, however, is by no means extremely defective. The top and sides of the head are represented as covered with long and flowing hair, so that the cranial configuration at Ideality and Wonder is not very apparent. As to the organs at the base of the brain, the portrait gives no information whatever.

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According to Mr Whitefoot, Sir Thomas Browne's " plexion and hair was answerable to his name; his stature was moderate, and habit of body neither fat nor lean." His temperament, therefore, was probably sanguine-bilious.

Although engravings, and even original pictures, are a species of evidence on which perfect reliance cannot be placed, it seems very likely that the indications just mentioned are in the main such as the head of Sir Thomas Browne presented in the vigour of his days.

In the Atheneum of 12th September 1840, p. 117, the following letter to the editor of that journal made its appear

ance

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"NORWICH, September 5, 1840.

SIR, I forward you an account of the recent accidental discovery of Sir Thomas Browne's remains, in the Church of St Peter Mancroft, in this city. Some workmen were employed in digging a grave within the area before the altar, when their pickaxe struck on a hard substance, which turned out to be a coffin-plate, which was unluckily split by the force of the blow. It was a small antique brass shield, bearing the following inscription :·

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Amplissimus Vir Dns. Thomas Browne, Miles, Medicine Dr., Annos natus 77, Denatus 22 Die Mensis Octobris Anno Dni. 1682, hoc loculo indormiens, corporis Spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum con

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"On a closer inspection, the coffin quaintly described above as having been 'transmuted into gold' by the potent dust' of the mighty alchymist,' was found to have been literally converted into a carbonate of lead, which crumbled at the touch, disclosing the bones of its illustrious tenant. There is no truth whatever in the report, pretty widely circulated, that 'the features remained entire.' The flesh had returned · to earth as it was,' but the hair of the beard was in good preservation. A portion of this was compared with its representation in an oil painting of the knight, suspended in the vestry; and the colour of the original corresponded exactly with that of the copy. Now we have the testimony of Sir Thomas

Browne himself, that teeth, bones, and hair give the most lasting defiance to corruption.' The skull was sound, and still contained a mass of brain. Unhappily for the phrenologists, the forehead was narrow, low, and receding; whereas that part appropriated to the animal propensities was unusually large. It may be right, perhaps, to add, that the venerable bones thus fortuitously exposed were seen by few, and were reverently handled. After having slept undisturbed for more than a century and a half, it was reasonable to presume that they had become incorporated with the soil; no sort of blame, therefore, could reasonably attach to the selection of their resting-place for another occupant. I have thus given the true particulars of a circumstance which should not have been made public, had not erroneous reports gone abroad respecting it. I am, &c.

THOMAS D. EATON."

A few impressions were taken from the plate on the coffin by Mr Robert Fitch of Norwich, who presented one of them to the London Antiquarian Society. In his letter to the secretary of that Society, of which I possess a copy in MS., he gives the same account with Mr Eaton of the manner of the discovery, and the state in which the remains were found. "The forehead," he adds, "was remarkably low and depressed; the head unusually long; the back part exhibiting an uncommon appearance of depth and capaciousness. The brain was considerable in quantity, quite unctuous; the hair profuse and perfect, of a fine auburn colour."

Soon after observing Mr Eaton's letter in the Athenæum, I wrote to a gentleman in Norwich, requesting information on various points, particularly whether a cast of the skull had been taken, and, if so, whether a duplicate could be obtained. In reply, he gave me grounds for hoping to receive a cast by and by; and, after a long interval, having succeeded in procuring it, he had the kindness to transmit it to Edinburgh. He has favoured me, also, with one of the impressions from the plate upon the coffin. Subjoined are two sketches of the cast.

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On a careful examination of this cast, I find it neither so ill-shaped as has been represented, nor yet exactly such as might have been expected from the portrait, and from the recorded character of Sir Thomas Browne. But in this I see nothing "unhappy for the phrenologists," as Mr Eaton so confidently expresses himself. The extensive changes which the skull undergoes in old age, in consequence of the decrease of the brain, particularly in the frontal region, are so well known, and so generally recognised by anatomists, that cases of aged people have long been justly excluded from the catalogue of trustworthy phrenological data: phrenologists, as was formerly stated on a similar occasion in this Journal, hold it to be "impossible to predicate from the inspection of the skulls of very aged persons what their talents or dispositions were at the time of vigorous maturity; and, consequently, although useful as illustrations, such cases are never to be considered admissible as proofs either for or against Phrenology."—(Vol. ix. p. 468.) If indeed, it could be shewn that the skull of Sir Thomas Browne, as it now exists, gives an accurate representation of the form of the brain at the meridian of life, Mr Eaton might, with some reason, pronounce the case "unhappy for the phrenologists." In fact, however, we are entitled to consider it merely as a confirmation of the previously ascertained fact, that important changes of the cranial form occur in advanced age. In these circumstances, a very few additional remarks on the head of Sir Thomas Browne will suffice. the organs of his propensities became larger in old age does not seem probable; and from such meagre details as we possess concerning his character (the most significant of which are quoted in the present article), it appears that the propensities generally were of considerable strength. "To take no injury,"

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was a maxim congenial to the "impatient affections" of his youth; and subsequently he found the battle of Lepanto" within the compass of himself-a liability of the frailty of his nature, when unpropped by religious considerations, "upon easy temptation to be induced to forget virtue." The great size of Philoprogenitiveness accords with the indulgence to his children noted by Mr Whitefoot; of Combativeness, with his love of paradox, and the traits above mentioned; of Secretiveness, with his reserve, silence, and suppression of the outward manifestations of emotion: there are parts of his works where it is difficult to say whether he writes as a humorist or gives expression to serious opinions. The moderate size of Amativeness, and the much superior development of Adhesiveness, are in harmony with what has already been noted. The organs of Love of Approbation, Self-Esteem, Concentrativeness, and Cautiousness, particularly the first, appear from the cast to have been largely developed. Benevolence and Firmness are considerable; and between them, in the site of Veneration, a very slight depression is observed. The skull, on the whole, is decidedly above the ordinary size.

III. Cases of Imperfect Perception of Colours.

In the Review Medicale Française et Etrangère, par J. B. Cayot, November 1843, are given a variety of cases of imperfect perception of colours, similar to those already familiar to the readers of this Journal. The first mentioned is reported by Dr Boys de Loury. "M. H. was destined in his youth to follow his father's trade, that of a dyer of cloth. He practised it for several years, but found himself at length compelled to relinquish it, because he could never succeed in suitably matching the colours. Dr Boys tried several experiments with him. He placed before him a piece of cloth of the most different colours, and in the most different arrangements. A beautiful and exceedingly lively orange-colour appeared to him to be simply yellow; the same was the case with an apple-green; he saw only a slight modification or gradation between them. Apricot-colour also appeared to him yellow; the elder, blue; the deepest violet always grey; nevertheless, he distinguished the gradations of them most successfully. Ponceau, madder, and vermillion appeared to

him all alike-violet; he confounded it with blue: the red rose appeared to him a dirty white. A beautiful brown was to him black, &c. Dr Szokalski has published the case of a man who perceived no colour whatever. Every object presented itself to his mind as copper-plate or bas-relief. The sky, the trees, &c., all appeared to him of a grey tint. He could form correct ideas of objects only by feeling." The defect is regarded as hereditary, and the author ascribes it to atrophy of the optic nerve, although not distinguishable by the senses.

It is extraordinary, that at this time of day, medical men should report such cases without taking the trouble to add, whether the organ of Colouring was large or small. They apparently are so perfectly ignorant of its situation and appearances when large and small, that they cannot trust themselves with making any remark on the subject. A conjecture concerning a state of the optic nerve, which they admit to be imperceptible to the senses, is a poor substitute for a positive fact. If they could report that the part of the brain designated by Gall as the organ of Colouring, was amply developed, and in sound condition, in the man who had no perception of colours, how triumphantly would they dispose of that organ!

In the celebrated criticism of Mr Combe's System of Phrenology, which appeared in the Edinburgh Review for October 1826, Lord Jeffrey stated the following objection to the organ of Colouring: "So far is it from being true that we do not perceive colour by the eye, that in reality it is colour, and colour alone, that is the primary object of its perceptions. What we see, indeed, is only light; but light is always coloured (if we include white as a colour), and the different colours are in reality but so many kinds of light." "Colour, in short, is the only quality of light by which we are ever made aware of its existence; and to say that we do not see colour by the eye, is in reality to say that we do not see at all; for the strict and ultimate fact is, that we never see any thing else." Mr Combe replied, that "mere difference of shade is sufficient to enable us to perceive forms by the eye, as is proved by the arts of black-chalk drawing and copperplate printing; and that for the perception of shades, a much lower degree of the combined action of the eye and organ of Colouring will suffice than for acutely discriminating the relations of colours." (Phrenological Journal, vol. iv. p. 48.) At that time no case of a total incapacity to perceive colours was on record, so that the argument was hypothetical on

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