DR. GALL.
(For the Mirror.)
The loss which the scientific world has lately sustained by the death of Dr. Gall, will be longer and more deeply felt than any which it has experienced for some years. This celebrated philosopher and physician was born in the year 1758, of respectable parents, at a small village in the duchy of Baden, where he received the early part of his education. He afterwards went to Brucksal, and then to Strasburgh, in which city he commenced his medical studies, and became a pupil of the celebrated Professor Hermann. From Strasburgh he removed to Vienna, where he commenced practice, having taken the degree of M.D. In this capital, however, he was not permitted to develope his new system of the functions of the brain; and from his lectures being interdicted, and the illiberal opposition which he here met with, as well as in other parts of Austria, he determined to visit the north of Germany. Here he was well received in all the cities through which he passed, as well as in Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, and explained the doctrines he had founded on his observations from nature before several sovereigns, who honoured him with such marks of approbation and respect as were due to his talents. In the course of his travels he likewise visited England, and at length, in 1807, settled in Paris, where his reputation had already preceded him, and which, from its central situation, he considered as the fittest place for disseminating his system. In this city, in 1810, he published his elaborate work on the brain, the expenses of which were guaranteed by one of his greatest friends and patrons, Prince Metternich, at that time Austrian minister at the court of France.
It was natural to expect that the system of Dr. Gall, which differed so widely from the long confirmed habits of thinking, and having to contend with so many prejudices, should encounter a large host of adversaries; for if phrenology be true, all other systems of the philosophy of the human mind must consequently be false. The brain, which, from the earliest periods, has generally been considered as the seat of our mental functions, Dr. Gall regards as a congeries of organs, each organ having a separate function of its own. This system, first promulgated by him, is now rapidly advancing in the estimation of the world; and its doctrines, which a few years since were thought too extravagant and absurd for investigation, are now discussed in a more liberal and candid manner. The test for the science of phrenology, and a test by which its validity alone can be tried, consists in an induction of facts and observations; and by this mode it is that the disciples of Gall and Spurzheim challenge their antagonists.
After a life of the most indefatigable industry and active benevolence, Dr. Gall breathed his last at his country house at Montrouge, a short distance from Paris, on August the 22nd, 1828, at the age of seventy-one. The examination of his body took place forty hours after death, in the presence of the following members of the faculty:—Messrs. Fouquier, J. Cloquet, Dauncey, Fossati, Cassimir-Broussais, Robouane, Sarlandière, Fabre-Palaprat, Londe, Costello, Gaubert, Vimont, Jobert, and Marotti. The exterior appearance of the body presented a considerable falling away, particularly in the face. The skull was sawed off with the greatest precaution; the substance of the brain was consistent, and this organ was firm and perfectly regular.
The funeral of Dr. Gall, which was conducted with as much privacy as possible, took place at Paris on the 27th of August. He was interred in the burial-ground of Père la Chaise, between the tombs of Molière and La Fontaine, being attended to the grave by several members of the faculty. Three eloges, or oraisons funèbres, were delivered at the place of interment by Professor Broussais, Dr. Fossati, and Dr. Londe.
Broussais informs us, that Dr. Gall possessed most of the social virtues, particularly beneficence and good-nature—qualities, he observes, precious in all ranks of society, and which ought to make amends for many defects; but for Gall, they had only to palliate a certain roughness of character, which might wound the susceptibility of delicate persons, although the sick and unfortunate never had to complain; and, indeed, the doctor ought, in strict justice, to have more merit in our ideas, from never having once lost sight, in his writings, of either decency or moderation, particularly when it is remembered how severely he was attacked in propagating his favourite doctrine.
T.B.