The Causality of Spurzheim, or Metaphysical Depth of thought of Gall, was defined with approximate correctness. The immediate perception of causation lies just above the organ of Time, and the special organ of Reason extends therefrom upwards. If the reflective organs of one side of the forehead are divided into an interior and exterior group by a vertical line from the pupil of the eye, the interior group would represent a comprehensive understanding possessing sagacity and judgment, while the exterior would represent profound ingenious thought and originality, a capacity for discovering truth by reason and meditation, by analysis and synthesis, while the interior would discover it only by direct perception. In the exterior group would be included the misnamed organ of Wit or Mirthfulness, which is really a source of philosophy and originality.
Tune and Constructiveness have really reversed their positions in the maps of Spurzheim and Gall. The inventive faculty of musical composers was what Gall discovered as Music. The sense of Melody and Tune lies behind the brow in connection with the sense of hearing, at the anterior portion of Sensibility, which forty years after my discovery is beginning to be recognized in consequence of the experiments of Ferrier on animals. The organ of hearing which he demonstrated in the monkey, occupies the same position in the superior temporal convolution, behind the eye, which I have given it in man, which brings it into close connection with the organs of Language and Tune. Its close connection with the region of impressibility called Somnolence explains its supreme control over our emotions.
The organ of Language, the first discovery of Gall, has been the first to receive its demonstration from pathology and vivisection. But the pioneer teacher to whom contemporaries are unjust has to wait very long for an honorable recognition. The existence of an organ of Language at the junction of the front and middle lobes, at the back of the eye-sockets, has become established in our physiology from the developments of disease and autopsies, without mentioning in connection that it was the discovery of Gall. Perhaps the authors of the text-books may not even know the location of Gall’s discovery in the brain, and think only of the external sign, the prominence of the eyes, produced by the convolution at the back of their orbits.
Dr. Spurzheim simply located the external sign of the prominence of the organ at the eye, while Gall recognized the talent for languages as lying further back than that for verbal memory, and consequently being manifested lower at the eye. Nevertheless Gall made a correct observation, as he noticed that a full development was indicated when the temples were broad behind the eye. The true location of the organ externally is just behind the outer angle of the eye, a position central to Gall’s observations, and corresponding in the brain to that junction of the front and middle lobes in which the organ has been demonstrated by pathology, though not so accurately defined as in my experiments.
Perhaps in twenty or thirty years more my demonstrations having been brought before the public may attract the attention of the laborious vivisectors in Europe, who have done so much to verify them, and who will find that their labors do not refute but do confirm what I have discovered by methods so much simpler, easier and more pleasant.
In the second volume I propose to show in detail how much the pathologists and vivisectors have done to illustrate and corroborate the new Anthropology.
Organology of Gall, 1809.
- Instinct of Generation.
- Love of Offspring.
- Friendship, Attachment.
- Courage, Self-Defence.
- Murder, Wish to Destroy.
- Cunning.
- Sentiment of Property.
- Pride, Self-Esteem, Haughtiness.
- Vanity, Ambition.
- Cautiousness, Foresight, Prudence.
- Memory of Things, Educability.
- Local Memory.
- Memory of Persons.
- Verbal Memory.
- Memory for Languages.
- Colors.
- Music.
- Number.
- Aptitude for Mechanical Arts.
- Comparative Aptitude for Drawing Comparisons.
- Metaphysical Depth of Thought, Aptitude for Drawing Conclusions.
- Wit.
- Poetry.
- Good Nature.
- Mimicry.
- Theosophy, Religion.
- Firmness of Character.