to him as executor. In short, the law of France, while giving Dr Verity the power to obtain possession of the testator's funds, refuses even to hear the case of legatees prepared to establish their right to the greater portion of them. We understand that an application has been made to the British Government, with the view of procuring, through its influence, an alteration of the barbarous law in question. In Britain, the law gives its aid to foreigners and natives alike; and it is not to be imagined that any civilised country can now persist in retaining the odious distinction.

The third article is entitled "Answer to the Objections of Messrs Flourens and Leuret to Phrenology, by Dr Casimir Broussais, Professor of the Val de Grâce, Vice-President of the Society." "The first of these objectors," says Dr Broussais, "attacks us in the name of what he calls good philosophy; the other combats us with comparative anatomy." It will suffice our readers to know, that both objectors make fools of themselves, according to custom, and receive a very complete quietus from Dr Broussais. Phrenology, according to M. Flourens, commits the following atrocities, namely; it destroys "the unity of intelligence, the unity of our identity (l'unité du moi), our reason, freedom of will, morality, and religion." "These are grave accusations," says Dr Broussais; they are not novel, it is true; it is true that they have been often answered; but it may be that the author of l'Examen de la Phrenologie relies upon them as proofs new and convincing? We shall see.” Our readers have seen it all, and much more equally weak, already. With regard to M. Leuret, we need only say, that Dr Broussais apologises for wasting the time of the society with a detail of his extravagancies, and suddenly stops in disgust. We shall take the hint, and avoid beginning.

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The fourth and last article is entitled "The Dramatic Art, as illustrated by Phrenology; Appreciation of Mr Kemble, and of Mmes. Adelaide and Fanny Kemble, English Tragedians, from the busts of M. Dantan Jeune. By Dr Charles Place." After some rather long, and not very new, general observations on the principles of tragedy and comedy, and the histrionic art, which, it is truly said, depends chiefly on Imitation and Secretiveness, aided by many other faculties, the author proceeds to the busts of the three Kembles above named. He finds in that of Mr (we presume Charles) Kemble the organisation for the vigorous and manly characters of Shakspeare; in Miss Adelaide's the powers required by the musical drama, in its highest walk; and in Miss Fanny Kemble, the author-not unassisted, we presume, in her case,

as in the two preceding, by the well-known facts-finds an excellent combination of organs, all lending their aid to form the tragedian.

The Report of which we have attempted a description, serves to shew that the Phrenological Society of Paris were in 1841-2 alive and active. We hope that they are so still, and that they are destined to strike out new paths of instruction and delight in the boundless fields of Phrenology.

IV. Our Library Table.

1. Blackwood's Magazine, Sept. 1844.-This Magazine, twenty years ago the arch-foe and unsparing satirist of Phrenology, in whose pages "fool and phrenologist" were pronounced to be "terms as nearly synonymous as can be found in any language,"-nay, which even applied to us the polite appellation of "these infernal idiots, the phrenologists,"-now gives such strong symptoms of relenting, as actually to proclaim, not only that the subject ought to be investigated, but that the fundamental principles of Phrenology are sound! In a review of Dr Prichard's Natural History of Man, in the September Number, we find the following passages:-" How far, then, has the outward form been altered by the changes induced by domestication? how far are instincts acquired by such changes capable of hereditary transmission? and is there any, and what, connexion between the changed instincts and the changed structure? These questions, involving, among other things, the infant and difficult science of Phrenology, Dr Prichard has left very much to conjecture. Whether he considers the data too imperfect, or is afraid of trusting himself with any decided expression of opinion on a subject which has been so obscured by charlatanry, and which is open to so much misapprehension, does not appear; but it certainly is an apparently striking defect, that where a large portion of the work is devoted to the explanation of the different forms of the cranium in the inferior animals, and in man, and to which the largest portion of his pictorial illustrations apply, he should give us so little insight into his opinions as to what extent Phrenology is fairly entitled to credibility. His having taken so much pains in collecting facts and drawings on this point, necessarily leads to the inference, that he attaches much value to the craniological distinctions."-Pp. 315-16. And again :-" With regard to the skull, the value of the distinctions in its form and structure, depends upon their connexion with the size and organization

of the brain-involving the question, whether this has any, and what, influence upon the powers and habits of the creature. Dr Prichard, as we have already stated, blinks the question of Phrenology, though he makes some inferences. which prove him to have a general belief in the connexion between mental power and physical formation; nay, further, in the appropriation of different portions of the brain to dif ferent faculties. Few will, we believe, in the present day be disposed entirely to deny, that, cæteris paribus, the external formation of the skull, or rather the shape of the brain, as shewn by the formation of the skull, is a general index of the mental power of the individual to whom it belongs. Look over a collection of busts or portraits of eminent men, and, with scarcely an exception, they will be found to have high and capacious foreheads; while uncivilized races, and born idiots, are lamentably deficient in this respect. The difficulties of Phrenology exist in its details, which by many have been carried out into degrees of subdivision, certainly not warranted either by the anatomical structure of the brain, or by any empirical data as to the form of different crania, and the biography of the individuals to whom they have belonged. Where, in the existing state of our knowledge, the proper mean may be, it is perhaps difficult to say; but it would have been well, we think, had Dr Prichard given us a little more explicitly his opinions as to what extent Phrenology (we use the word in its broadest sense) may be fairly relied on. As far as we can gather from the scattered passages in his book, he seems to take a rational view of it; but a little less caution would certainly have been more instructive to his readers, not only on the subject of Phrenology, but on many of the connexions between physical structure and the habits to which such structure is adapted. This is a hiatus in Dr Prichard's work, the filling up of which would add much interesting matter, and serve to weave together facts which at present are disjointed and isolated, giving the book a dry character, and preventing its arresting the attention of the reader."-Pp. 320-21. We add an excellent suggestion by the same writer, as to the study of the infant mind :-" The psychological development of infants is a subject which has been strangely neglected by philosophers. A clever Italian authoress, who has written an anonymous work upon education, gives as the reason for the dearth of writing on this subject, that philosophers are not mothers, and that mothers are not philosophers. Be this as it may, few theorems appear to us more promising of interest. The struggle of internal force with external resistance, the feelings manifested in the acquisition

of new powers, the impressions made by objects seen for the first time, and first questions asked, form grounds for induction as to the psychology of man, which, thanks to the chartered tyranny of nursery-maids over philosophers, have been grossly neglected."-P. 322.

2. Essay on Musical Composition. Biography and Phrenological Analysis of Cherubini, with Notes and Cranioscopic Plan. Read to the Phrenological Society of Paris, 27th May 1842. By CH. PLACE. Paris, 1842. 8vo, pp. 28.-This essay is noticed in the Report of the Phrenological Society of Paris, of whose proceedings we have given a summary in the present Number. It is short, but written with spirit and eloquence. It takes the phrenological view of musical talent, and treats ably of Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm. It does not go so deeply into the subject as several writers in our Journal have done, yet it gives pleasure to the reader by much elegant illustration, and is the work of an accomplished mind. The biography of Cherubini is well written, but is scarcely connected with Phrenology. His name and works are well known to musicians. We must not follow the author into his examination of Cherubini's bust. It may suffice for our readers to know, that the organs and their combinations are shewn by the author to correspond closely with the character of that great musician. The essay was well received by the Society, and has had considerable success with the public.

3. The Phrenological Almanac, or Psychological Annual. No. IV. for 1845. Edited by D. G. GOYDER. Glasgow: J. and G. Goyder. 8vo, pp. 76.-The title of " Almanac" is rather unhappily applied to a work of which not a twelfth part has such a character. Not to dwell on this, however, we are glad to find a decided improvement in the present Number as compared with the last, and have no doubt that in its own sphere it will do good service for Phrenology. In the first article, entitled "Man, as a physical, moral, and intellectual being, considered phrenologically," some inquiry is made into the earliest condition and subsequent career of the human race. The writer maintains the original state to have been that of civilisation, from which the race declined; but the question must be viewed much more comprehensively, before satisfactory conclusions can be drawn. For our own part, we think the opposite hypothesis considerably more plausible than that of the author, whom we would refer to a work reviewed in our present Number, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, section on the "Early History of

Mankind." The general opinion of philosophers coincides with ours; but on the other side are Dr David Doig, Bishop Sumner, Archbishop Whately and his disciple Dr W. Cooke Taylor, and, lastly, Mr Stark of Edinburgh, in whose ingenious paper "On the supposed Progress of Human Society from Savage to Civilised Life" (Trans. of Royal Soc. of Edin., vol. xv. 177), an elaborate exposition of the arguments in favour of the original civilisation of man will be found.-In Article II. the natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous, origin of language is briefly and soundly maintained. -Article III. is an exposure of the quackeries of certain itinerant manipulators of heads, and, in particular, of the flatteries and absurdities of a Mrs H-, whose full name it is not difficult to conjecture. The bad effects of phrenological quackery are, not only to induce ridicule and disgust towards the science, but to confirm self-esteeming fools in their overweening estimates of their own talents, and to mislead parents into the idea that their children are prodigies. Article IV. is entitled "Cases illustrative of the different Hypotheses of Phreno-Mesmerism, by Spencer T. Hall." These cases strongly support the author's conclusion, that although mental communion or sympathy on the one hand, and suggestive dreaming on the other, are, each in its own place, perfectly true, Phreno-Mesmerism, or the excitement of mental faculties by contact over their organs in the head, is, in its place, not less true. Some remarks which he adds on the amplification of the list of the faculties and organs deserve the attention of those who, like ourselves, are not yet prepared to admit that such amplification is inevitable. Let the subject be fully investigated by those who have leisure, opportunity, and sufficient qualifications; and let all parties receive thankfully the results, whatever they may be, of properly conducted experiments.-Article V. contains an account of "the Liverpool District Provident Society," an admirable and useful institution, having for its object the bringing of the intelligent and benevolent portion of the community more into contact with the poor and indigent, for the purpose of improving the worldly means and the morals of the latter-of giving them the habits of industry and sobriety-of raising up in their minds a spirit of independence and of assisting and educating their children. -Article VI. is a pungent and clever criticism, by Dr James C. L. Carson of Coleraine, of the article "Phrenology" in the Popular Encyclopædia; where, it seems, sundry stale objections and misrepresentations have been re-cooked and served up. The next paper is "Remarks upon, and extracts