From these remarks the reader will understand that force belongs to the occiput and gentleness to the front. The occipital region is associated with the spinal column and the limbs, in which regions the vital forces reside. Hence the occipital action of the brain generates vital force and diffuses it in the body, while the frontal region, in its aggregate tendency, expends the vital force—the greatest tendency to expenditure being in the most extreme frontal region. Both the front lobe and the anterior extremity of the middle lobe tend to the expenditure of vital force and destruction of health, and it is absolutely necessary to life that the action of the front lobe should be suspended one-third of our time by sleep, without which it would exhaust vitality.
We shall therefore find that organs are located farther backward in proportion to the energy and impelling power of the faculty, and farther forward in proportion to their delicacy and intellectuality—the extreme front being the region of maximum intelligence.
With these two rules, giving the latitude by the ethical quality and the longitude by the active energy, I have been accustomed to require my pupils to determine the location of the various elements of human nature, bearing in mind that organs of analogous functions are located near together, and organs of opposite or antagonistic functions occupy opposite locations in the brain; and thus in proportion as one is above the horizontal line the other is below it, and in proportion as one is forward the other is backward,—in proportion as one is interior or near the median line, the other is exterior or toward the lateral surface.
With this introductory explanation, I begin by asking, Where should we locate the faculty which has the maximum degree of healthy influence, and is therefore called Health? They will readily decide that it belongs to the posterior half of the head, but not the most posterior, as it is not of restless or impulsive character. Then as to its latitude they readily decide that it must be considerably above the middle zone and in the upper posterior region where, after comparing locations, they generally agree that its position corresponds to the spot marked by the letters He.
We then inquire where the faculties should be located which give us the least capacity to resist disease, the least buoyant health, and the greatest liability to succumb to injuries. This being opposite to the last faculty must be located diametrically opposite, in a position anterior and inferior, which would bring it to the anterior end of the middle lobe. As this organ gives so great a sensitive liability to disease, it is not improper to call it the organ of Disease, if we recollect that that is its abnormal action, as murder is the abnormal action of Destructiveness. Its normal action gives a very acute interior sensibility by means of which we understand our physical condition and are warned of every departure from health.
The pupils generally locate this organ very nearly as is shown by the letters Di.
We have now gained an additional rule for guiding the location, viz., that in proportion as a faculty is of healthy tendency it is located nearer to Health, and in proportion as it is of morbid tendency it must be located nearer to Disease.
Let us now take two such faculties as Benevolence or good will and Integrity or Conscientiousness. They will readily decide that Benevolence must be in the superior anterior region, as it is a virtue of the weak or yielding class, and that Conscientiousness, which makes us just and honest, must be among the highest organs, much farther back than Benevolence but not so far back as Health. There is no difficulty in agreeing upon the locations, shown by the letters Be. and Con.
If now we seek for the opposite faculties, which lead to selfish and dishonorable action, the antagonist of Benevolence will be unanimously located below and behind the centre, where it is represented by the letters Ac., as Avarice or Acquisitiveness is the leading manifestation of the selfish faculty.