BUCHANAN’S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

The Oriental View of Anthropology.

In the following essay, Dr. F. Hartmann , an enlightened author of the Theosophical and Occult school, presents the mystic or Oriental view of man, in an interesting manner, deducing therefrom a philosophy of the healing art. My readers will no doubt be interested in his exposition, and, as the ancient doctrine differs materially from the results of experimental investigation, I take the liberty of incorporating my comments in publishing the essay.

A RATIONAL SYSTEM OF MEDICINE.

All lovers of truth, progress, and freedom of thought must be grateful to Dr. J. R. Buchanan for his discovery of the science of SARCOGNOMY . His system brings us nearer to a recognition of the true nature of man, his origin and his destiny, and of the relations which he bears to the Divine Source from which he emanated in the beginning, and to which he will ultimately return; for the enlightened ones of all nations agree that the real man, who resides temporarily in the physical human body, who feels through the instrumentality of the heart, and thinks through the instrumentality of the brain of the external body, does not originate in the womb of the mother from which the physical body is born, but is of a spiritual origin, again and again re-incarnating itself in physical masks and forms of flesh and blood, living and dying, and being reborn, until, having attained that state of perfection, which renders the inner man capable to exist in a state of spiritual consciousness without being encumbered by a gross earthly organization, which chains him to animal life.

[It should here be remarked that the great majority of those who are considered enlightened, and to whom the world is indebted for the sciences which it now possesses, do not accept this theory of re-incarnation. As commonly stated, it is liable to many decisive objections, and these objections, which I have clearly stated in the Religio-Philosophical Journal, have not been, and I think will not be, removed by the teachers of re-incarnation.]

It may perhaps not be premature to examine how far the doctrines of Dr. Buchanan correspond with the doctrines of occult science; that is to say, with that science which is based upon a perception and understanding of certain facts, which, to be perceived, require spiritual powers of perception, such as are not yet developed in the majority of mankind, but which are only in possession of those who have mentally risen above the sphere of external phenomena and accustomed themselves to look at spiritual things with the eye of the spirit. It is not my intention to enter at present into an elaborate review of the most prominent writers on occult subjects, and to quote passages from such authors to support the views expressed in the following pages, but rather to give a short statement of their doctrines in regard to the omnipotent power of Will and Life; both these powers being fundamentally identical; both being merely different modes of actions, or functions, of that universal, eternal, and divine Central Power of the universe, which is beyond the conception of mortals, and which the latter call God .

The ancient religions, as well as reason and logic, tell us that there is, and can be, only one supreme God, or First Cause of the universe, and that from this one first and fundamental Cause or Power every secondary power and everything that exists has come into existence, or been evolved within it and through its eternal activity. The whole of the universe with everything contained therein, man included, is and can be nothing else but a manifestation of this internal fundamental power, or, as it has been expressed by the ancient philosophers, the universe is the product of the Divine Imagination (thought) of the First Great Cause, thrown into objectivity by its eternal Will.

We see, therefore, the great unmanifested One manifesting itself in its own Substance (Space) by means of two powers, Thought (imagination) and Will (the Word or Life); both powers being fundamentally identical and merely two different modes of activity or functions of the One Eternal, internal Principle, called God. According to the Bible , God said, “Let there be light,” and through the power of this outspoken “ Word ,” the world came into existence. This allegory, expressed in modern language, means that by the active Will of the universal First Cause, the images existing in its eternal memory were thrown into objectivity and thus produced the germs from which the worlds with all things existing therein were evolved and grew into the shapes in which we see them now. The Brahmins say that when Brahm awoke from his slumber after the night of creation (the great Pralaya) was over, he breathed out of his own substance, and thus the evolution of worlds began. If he in-breathes again, the worlds will be re-absorbed in his substance, and the day of creation will be over.

[God being essentially and self-evidently inconceivable by man, all attempts of Brahmin, Christian, or any other theologians to explain his existence and his methods of creation can be recognized by the scientific mind only as hypotheses unsusceptible of verification, and, therefore, incapable of becoming a proper basis of Philosophy.]

Thus we find, on examining the doctrines of all the greatest religions of the world, that they all teach the same truth, although they teach it in different words and in different allegories. They all teach that there exist two fundamental powers, originating from the absolute One , namely, Thought and Will ; and it logically follows that if a man were a complete master over his thoughts and his will, he could become a creator within the realm to which his thought and imagination extend; he could, consequently, by the power of his will and thought, control all the functions of his organism, the so-called involuntary ones as well as those which are voluntary. He could—if he possessed a perfect knowledge of his own constitution—restore abnormal functions to their normal state, and restore diseased organs to health.

[The mode of expression used in this paragraph is rather misleading. One may have a complete mastery of his thoughts and will, while both thought and will are very feeble and ineffective. It requires great POWER in the will and thought to acquire such control over bodily functions, and any expression leading persons of feeble character to suppose they can attain such results would be delusive. Many persons of feeble character have been led by current speculations to aspire far beyond their ability.]

Another fundamental doctrine of Occultism is that man is a Microcosm, in which is germinally (potentially) contained everything that exists in the Macrocosm of the universe. [An unproved hypothesis.] As the will and thought of that universal and divine internal power, which is called God, penetrates and pervades the whole of the universe; likewise the will and thought of man, if he has once attained perfect mastery over himself, extends through all parts of his organization, pervades every organ, and may be made to act consciously wherever man chooses to employ it. But in the present state of man’s condition upon this earth, no one but the adepts have acquired this power. In them thought and will act as one. In the vast majority of human beings thought and will are not yet in entire harmony, and do not act as one. In the regenerated one (the adept) heart and head act in perfect unison. The adept thinks what he wills, and wills what he thinks. In unregenerated humanity will and thought are divided and occupy two different centres. In them the will has its seat in the blood (whose central organ is the heart), and their thought or imagination has its seat in the brain. In them heart and brain are often not only not in perfect harmony, but even opposed to each other. But the will and life being one, and identical, we see that the central seat of life is not, as has been maintained by Dr. Buchanan, the brain , but the primary source of all life is the heart .

We see, therefore, a discrepancy between the doctrines of Dr. Buchanan and the occult doctrines in regard to Anthropology; but this discrepancy is of no serious consequence; because the moon (the intellect ) is in our solar system as necessary as the sun (the will ), and as the vast majority of people have a considerably developed intellect, but only a very little developed will, and live, so to say, more in their brains than in their hearts, they may be looked upon as receiving their powers and energies from their brains, while the brain receives its stimulus from the heart. The ancient Rosicrucians compared the heart to the sun , the intellect, or brain , to the moon. The moon receives her light from the sun, the centre of life of our solar system. If the sun were to cease to exist, the moon would soon lose her borrowed light; likewise if the sun of divine love ceases to shine in the human heart, the cold, calculating intellect may continue to glitter for a while, but it will finally cease to exist. If the brain vampyrizes the heart, that is to say, if it absorbs the greater part of the life principle, which ought to go to develop love and virtue in the heart, man may become a great reasoner, a scientist, arguer, and sophist; but he will not become wise , and his intellect will perish in this life or in the state after death. We often see very intellectual people becoming criminals, and even lunatics are often very cunning. That which a man may call his own in the end, are not the thoughts which he has stored in his perishable memory; but the fire of love and light which he has kindled in his heart. If this fire of life burns at his heart it will illuminate his mind, and enable the brain to see clear; it will develop his spiritual powers of perception, and cause him to perceive things which no amount of intellectual brain-labor can grasp. It will penetrate even the physical body, and cause the soul therein to assume shape and to become immortal.

It is not to be supposed that the above truths will be at once accepted by every reader of the Journal , except by such as have given deep thought to the true nature of man. Neither are they a subject for scientific controversy or disputation. A knowledge of the truth is not produced by disputations and quarrels, but only by direct perception, experience, and understanding. The conclusions which man arrives at by logic are merely productive of certain opinions, and these opinions are liable to be changed again as soon as the basis from which his logic started, changes. A real knowledge of spiritual truths requires a power of spiritual perception, which few men possess. Nevertheless, even our logical deductions, taking as a starting point that which we know to be true, will help us to arrive at the same conclusions at which the Hermetic philosophers arrived by the power of spiritual perception.

[In the foregoing passage, Dr. H. professes to state doctrines derived from intuition or spiritual perception by the ancients, and also recognized to-day by spiritual perception. To me they appear as the results only of that sort of ancient SPECULATION , which recognized earth, air, fire, and water as the four chemical elements of all things. I do not find them sustained by the spiritual perception of those who have the intuitive powers to-day, nor by scientific investigation. The substance of the heart is not the seat of life . It is a merely muscular substance, and ceases all action when separated from its controlling ganglia. The vitality of the heart lies in its ganglia—in other words, in the nervous system, in which alone is life , and of which the brain is the commanding centre. That life resides exclusively in the nervous system is one of the established principles of physiology, which cannot be disturbed by any theories descending from antiquity, before the dawn of positive science. That the will resides in the blood and the heart, is about as near the truth as Plato’s doctrine that the prophetic power belonged to the liver. If the region of Firmness in the brain be large, it will be strongly manifested, even though the heart be feeble, and as easily arrested as Col. Townsend’s. But if the upper surface of the brain be diseased, or sensibly softened, the will power is almost destroyed, even if the plethoric, hypertrophied heart is shaking the head with its power. Many an individual of a delicate frame, has overpowered by firmness and courage stout, muscular men of far larger hearts. That the brain is the organ of thought alone, is a very old crudity. It contains every human emotion and passion, which we may stimulate in the impressible, or suspend instantly by a slight pressure on the brain. There is no intense exercise of any of the emotions or passions without a corresponding warmth and tension in the portion of the brain to which they belong, the development and activity of which determine their power. The will and life are not identical , as Dr. H. suggests, for if they were, we should not have these two words with different meanings. If will is an attribute of life, that does not constitute identity . The speculations of Rosicrucians are of no authority in science. The divine love or influence is in direct relation to the brain, the central organ of the soul, and not to a muscular structure of the body, which is far below the brain in rank. It would be just as reasonable to affirm that courage belongs only to the muscles. That illuminating love which Dr. H. ascribes to the heart, belongs to the upper region of the brain, and is never found when that region lacks development, or is in a cold, torpid condition. I deny entirely that these mystic theories are the product of true, spiritual perception. They arise from the fact that the thoracic region sympathizes with the seat of true love and will in the brain. This secondary effect has been felt and realized by those to whom the functions of the brain were unknown. Spiritual perception, now guided by the spirit of investigation, discovers the whole truth—that all human faculties and impulses belong to the brain, but have a secondary influence on the localities of the body to which SARCOGNOMY shows their relations.]

If we believe in one great spiritual cause of all, and conceive of it as the great spiritual Sun of the universe (of which our terrestrial sun is merely an image or reflection), we find that spiritual man (the image of God) can be nothing else but an individual ray of that spiritual sun, shining into matter, becoming polarized and forming a centre of life in the developing human fœtus, and causing this fœtus to grow in a living form of human shape, according to the conditions presented to it by the maternal organism, and when it is born, and becomes conscious, the illusion of self is created within that individual form. Besides the gross, visible, external form, more ethereal internal forms are evolved, which are of a longer duration than the outward physical form, but of which it is not necessary to speak at present.

At all events, all that we positively know of man, is that he is an invisible internal power, which evolves an outward shape, which we call a human being. The material through which the organism is built up is the blood, and the centre from which the blood flows into all parts of the body and to which it returns from all parts, is the heart. The heart is consequently the centre from which that power which builds up the organism of man emanates, and as this power can be nothing else but Life, the heart is the centre of life. The heart and the brain stand in the most intimate relation to each other, and neither one can continue to live if the other one ceases to act; but according to the doctrines of the ancient and modern occultists the heart is of superior importance than the brain. A man may live a long time without thinking, but he ceases to live when his heart ceases to beat. The heart is the seat of life, the brain the seat of thought, but both are equally necessary to enjoy life; there is no intellectual activity without life, and a life without intelligence is worthless. That the force which constructs the organism of man emanates from the heart, appears to me to be self-evident; that the power which guides this construction emanates from the brain has been demonstrated by Dr. Buchanan.

[This is quite incorrect. The heart may cease acting, as in apparent death while the processes of thought and feeling are going on, and the individual is conscious that he is going to be buried, but incapable of giving the alarm. On the other hand the action of the brain may be suspended, as in apoplexy, while the heart is beating vigorously. In such cases, though the action of the cerebrum is suspended, the physiological brain or cerebellum sustains physical life. We cannot say that the heart is superior to the brain, because it supplies the brain with blood for its growth, any more than we could say the same of the lungs, which supply oxygen, without which the action of the brain is speedily arrested. We might even extend the remark to the stomach and thoracic duct, which supply the material for making a brain, which certainly does not prove their superiority. The action of the brain is far more important, for the quickest death is produced by crushing the brain, or by cutting it off from the body in the spinal cord of the neck, when heart, lungs, and stomach are promptly arrested by losing the help of the brain. If prior development in growth proved a superiority of rank, the ganglionic system which accompanies the arteries and precedes the evolution of the convoluted cerebrum would hold the highest rank, although it is destitute of consciousness and volition, which belong to the brain alone.]

But what is this power which emanates from the brain, and which guides the organizing activity of the soul, but the power of life which is transmitted to the brain from the heart, and which is modified in its activity by the peculiar organization of the latter? Man in his present state does not think with his heart, but with his brain; nevertheless, the heart is superior to the brain, for the brain has been built up by the power which came from the heart; and it is a universal law of nature, that no thing can produce anything superior to itself. During its fœtal existence the brain of the child is built up by the blood of the mother; after man is born his brain receives its power of life through the heart, and in spiritually developed man the thought-force created in the brain reacts again upon the will in the heart, controlling its desires and entering into harmonious union with the latter. The ancient alchemists say: “If the Sun (the heart) enters in conjunction with the Moon (the brain) then will Gold (Wisdom) be produced.”

We see, therefore, in man two centres of life, the heart and the brain, and it may properly be said that the brain is the seat of life, only it may perhaps be added, that it is the secondary seat, while the principal seat is, or ought to be, in the heart. [Dr. H. identifies will with life, yet every one knows that all acts of volition proceed from the brain alone, and never from the heart; hence by his own statement the brain is the seat of life.] According to the doctrines of the Hermetic philosophers, God is the invisible central fire in the universe from which the Light of the Logos (Christ or the celestial Adam) emanated in the beginning. Man being a Microcosm, contains in his heart the image of that internal and invisible central fire of Love , which sends the light of thought to the brain and illuminates the mind of the seer. We are at present not living in the age of Love, but in the age of Thought (not the age of Reason , but the age of Reasoning and Speculation), and by the law of heredity, life has become pre-eminently concentrated in the brain; while in a more advanced age, when the principle of universal Love and Benevolence will be generally recognized, life will become more strongly concentrated at the heart. Men will then not only think, but feel and become able to recognize the truth by that power which is known to us in its rudimental state as Intuition , but which, if developed, will be far superior to that uncertain feeling called Intuition, and become a Sun within the heart, sending its rays far up into the regions of thought. Then, as their Love for the supreme Good increases, will their knowledge increase, and as their knowledge expands will their Will become powerful and free.

[The physiology of this passage is all erroneous. In the ages of animalism and barbarism the heart is more powerful, like the rest of the muscular system to which it belongs. In a more humane and refined condition the brain is more predominant. The female heart is not as well developed as the male. The moral superiority of women is due not to the heart but to the superior region of the brain, to which we owe all elevation of individuals and society.]

It has been said above that Will and Life are identical, and there are sufficient facts to prove that they are one. A man may prolong his life by an effort of will, or he may cease to live if he wills to die. A loss of will-power in a limb is identical with paralysis of the latter. If the will (conscious or unconscious will) ceases to act, man ceases to live. No amount of thought exercised by the brain will raise a limb of a person, unless the person has the will to raise it; no amount of imagination on the part of the brain will execute an act, unless the will guided by the imagination causes the act to be executed. In the blood,—the representative of the animal life-principle (Kama-rupa) is the seat of the will, its central office is the heart. There the will or life-power acts consciously or unconsciously, sending its rays to the brain, where they become more refined, and from thence they radiate again back through the organism, causing the unconscious or conscious processes of imagination and thought. The way in which these processes take place, has been well described in Dr. Buchanan’s “Therapeutic Sarcognomy.” Love, Will, and Life are ultimately one and the same power; they are like the three sides of a pyramid ending in one point, or like a star emitting a light of three different hues. Without the fire of divine Love at the centre there will be no good and powerful Will, without Will man is a useless being, without virtue and without real life, an empty shell or form kept alive by the play of the elements, ceasing to exist when the form falls to pieces. But he who possesses a strong love for the good, the beautiful, and true, grows strong in Will and strong in Life. His heart sends a pure current of life to the brain, which enables the latter to see and grasp the ideas existing in the Astral light. The purer the will the more pure will be the imagination, and the more will the latter be able to rise to the highest regions of thought, while these exalted thoughts will radiate their light back again to the heart and stimulate the heart as the heart stimulated the brain.

A consideration of the above will go to prove that Love (Will or Life) and Thought (Imagination or Light) are the forces by which the soul forms and regenerates the external body, and that he who obtains mastery over these forces within his own organism will be able to change and remodel his body and to cure it of all ills. The fountain of life is the will, and if the will is good and pure and not poisoned by the imagination, a pure blood and a strong and healthy body will be the result. If the imagination (thought) is pure, it will purify the will and expel from the latter the elements of evil. The fundamental doctrine of the most rational system of medicine is therefore the purification of the Will and the Imagination , and every one carries within his own heart the universal panacea , which cures all ills, if he only knows how to employ it. The purification and strengthening of the will by acts of love and human kindness and by leading a pure and unselfish life, should be the principal object of all religious and scientific education. The Bible says: “If the salt (the will) of the earth is worthless, wherewith shall it be salted?” If the fountain from which all life springs is poisoned by evil thoughts, how can the soul and body be healthy? The best blood-purifier is a pure will, rendered pure by pure and holy thoughts.

This fundamental and self-evident truth is continually overlooked in our present age. The education of the intellect for the purpose of attaining selfish interests is made of paramount interest and the heart is neglected and left to starve. 1 The life-energy which ought to be employed to educate the heart and to render the will good and pure, is wasted in the top story of the temple of man in idle speculations about external and worthless things, in scientific quarrels and dogmatic disputations, which have usually no other object but to tickle personal vanity and to give to ignorance an external coat of learning. Many of our modern scientific authorities resemble ants, which crawl over a leaf which fell from a tree: they know all about the veins and cells of that leaf, but they know nothing whatever of the living tree, which produces such leaves, and moreover flowers and fruits. Likewise the rational medicine based upon reason and understanding, the science springing from a true knowledge of man will forever remain an enigma to the legally-authorized guardians of the health of humanity, as long as they know nothing of man except his external form and refuse to open their eyes and to see the eternal internal power, of which the external form is merely an evanescent image, a transient manifestation.

Hoping that with the appearance of the Journal of Man a new era of truly rational medicine will begin in progressive America,

I am yours truly and fraternally,
Franz Hartmann , M.D.

Kempten, Bavaria , April 7, 1887.

[While reaching my conclusions in a different manner by careful and prolonged experimental investigation, and expressing them differently, I agree with Dr. Hartmann in his most important principle,—the importance of love as the best element of life, in sustaining health and intelligence, and the necessity of its culture in education, which has been so long neglected, and which I have endeavored to enforce in the “New Education.” The structure and functions of the brain demonstrate that its love region is the chief support of its life, that it supports both will and intelligence, and that it not only sustains the highest health of him in whom it is developed and exercised, but ministers also to the health of all whom he meets, and is the great healing power in those whose presence or touch relieves the sick. The existence of this beneficent power in the human constitution, more restorative and pleasant than all medicines when present in sufficient fulness, is rapidly becoming known throughout our country, and is made intelligible as to its origin, nature and application by Sarcognomy, as I am teaching in the College of Therapeutics. Medical colleges, in their ignorance and jealousy, unwisely exclude and war against this nobler and more ethical method of healing, thus compelling its development and practice as a distinct profession, which is rapidly undermining their influence and diminishing their patronage by showing that, in many cases where drug remedies have totally failed as applied by colleges, the psycho-dynamic faculty of man may accomplish wonders.]

Miscellaneous Intelligence.

Chapter IX.—Rectification of Cerebral Science, Correcting the Organology of Gall and Spurzheim.

Approximate correctness and incompleteness of Gall and Spurzheim—Grand anatomical discoveries of Gall—-Reception of his doctrines—His successors—Omission of Pneumatology and Physiology by Gall and Spurzheim—Organs and faculties overlooked—True locations of the faculties they recognized, Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, Inhabitiveness, Destructiveness, Combativeness, Secretiveness, Acquisitiveness, Constructiveness, Cautiousness, Approbativeness, Self-Esteem, Firmness, Religion, Benevolence, Hope, Marvellousness, Poetry, Ideality, Imitation, Wit or Mirthfulness, Eventuality, Individuality, Perceptive Organs, Time, Comparative Sagacity, Causality, Tune, Constructiveness, Language—Comments on the Organology of Gall.

The first question that occurs to the enlightened enquirer, when he learns that the functions of the brain have been positively determined by experiment, is whether the cranioscopy of Gall and Spurzheim was successful in locating the cerebral functions, and how nearly their inferences from development correspond with the revelations of experiment.

It is with great pleasure that I am able to say that the system of Gall and Spurzheim was a wonderful approximation to the truth. Dr. Gall was pre-eminently the scientific pioneer of the nineteenth century. No single individual ever did so much to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge, and to establish the permanent foundations of philosophy. Up to his time, the brain of man was at once the greatest mystery of anatomy and the repository of a greater amount of wisdom and truth than all other realms of science which had previously been explored. But so limited was the knowledge, and so narrow the understanding of the learned, that the grandeur of cerebral science was not even suspected, and, even at the present time, it is so remote from the speculations of the learned that, like a distant star, it has few practical relations to their life; nor will its magnitude be realized until an ample literature shall have made its scientific record.

Into this field of mystery, Dr. Gall advanced with a courage unknown to his predecessors, and his success was equal to his courage. The entire plan and constitution of the brain were revealed by his anatomical genius, and his successors have but carried further and perfected his anatomical system. His anatomical exposition of the brain, addressed to the French Institute in 1808, is one of the great landmarks of the progress of science—the commencement of a new era; and his exposition of its functions was the solution of a problem which had defied the genius and learning of all his predecessors. His discoveries in anatomy were so great that Reil (himself a brain anatomist of the highest rank, whose name is permanently associated with anatomy by the name “Island of Reil,” which belongs to the location in which Gall made his first discovery of the faculty and organ of language), Reil, I say, declared that Dr. Gall had shown him more in his dissections of the brain than he thought it possible for any one man to have discovered in his lifetime; and, in fact, some of the old anatomists, not having been personally instructed by Gall, professed to find it difficult, if not impossible, to unfold the brain after his manner.

These discoveries gave Dr. Gall at once a very eminent rank among the learned, for anatomy being a physical science, there never has been any opposition, jealousy, or scepticism against its cultivation among the educated, nor was there anything marvellous in his revelation of cerebral functions, for he studied only the common familiar faculties of men and animals, and never looked into the mysterious and marvellous powers which a more thorough investigation has revealed.

Indeed, his reception at first was quite triumphant, and it was not until the death of Gall and Spurzheim, leaving no able and competent representative to carry on their labors, that the drift of medical scepticism and ignorance arrested the progress of his doctrines. I say ignorance , for the aversion to the doctrines of Gall was due far more to the ignorance of the profession and their entire neglect of the craniological method than to any other causes.

Gall had good reason to be satisfied with his first reception, except as to the hostility of the Austrian government, which suppressed his lectures and compelled him to go abroad, settling finally in Paris, where he again encountered governmental hostility in the unfriendliness of Bonaparte, whose rejection alike of Gall and of Fulton, who wished to introduce steam navigation, demonstrated that great military and political ability may co-exist with great shallowness of mind in reference to all things new, original, and philanthropic. So it has always been, and so it continues.

In his travels in Germany, from 1805 to 1807, accompanied by Dr. Spurzheim, “I experienced everywhere (said Gall) the most flattering reception. Sovereigns, ministers, philosophers, legislators, artists seconded my design on all occasions, augmenting my collection, and furnishing me everywhere with new observations. The circumstances were too favorable to permit me to resist the invitations which came to me from most of the universities.” Thirty-four of the leading cities and seats of learning enjoyed the visits of Gall and Spurzheim before they settled in Paris, where, although French jealousy arose against this German invasion, and the influence of Napoleon prevented their cordial reception, they nevertheless commanded and retained the respect of scientists and had many devoted friends, including Broussais and Andral, who then stood at the head of the medical profession, and of Corvisart, Napoleon’s physician, who could not overcome his master’s prejudice.

In speaking of the great void left by the decease of Gall and Spurzheim, I do not forget that for a few years George Combe, Dr. Elliotson, and Dr. Macartney, of England, and Dr. Caldwell, of America, survived, but these eminent gentlemen were not so identified with the science, or so competent to sustain it as to wear the mantle of its founders. My own labors beginning after the death of the founders were those of investigation and discovery, and never to any great extent those of propagation. Indeed, for twenty years I entirely abandoned the scientific rostrum, and almost ended my labors, feeling that my duty had been done in the way of development and demonstration. But in accordance with the great law of periodicity, I resumed my labors in 1877-78.

When we look at the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim in the light of positive science and philosophy, our first observation is that they fell very far short of revealing the entire functions of the brain, and discovering in it all the important spiritual and physical faculties and energies of life. They did not attempt to explore the brain as a physiological organ, and determine how or in what special organs it controls the physiological functions. These may be regarded as one half, though the lower half, of its capacities, out of which arises a vast amount of medical philosophy.

As to the psychic half of the cerebral functions, they omitted entirely that portion which relates to pneumatology. They thought nothing of the soul as an object of science, and made no attempt to trace its connection with the brain, and the vast number of phenomena which lie along the border line between the physical and spiritual, and which are conspicuous in the phenomena of somnambulism, sleep, dreaming, hypnotism, spiritualism, clairvoyance, trance, ecstasy, and religious marvels.

Overlooking these things, they sought the seats of from twenty-seven faculties (as with Gall) to thirty-five (as with Spurzheim), and did not appear to realize how many had been entirely omitted. When all they attempted to locate are located by positive experiment and assigned their proper localities and limits, we find fully one half of the cerebral surface vacant for organs of other functions. Indeed, the first large publication of Gall and Spurzheim, in four volumes folio, with an atlas of 100 plates, begun in 1809 and finished in 1819, did not in the cranial map of organs profess to be a complete development of the functions of the brain. It located organs, but did not determine the functions intermediate between their boundaries. This was the map of Gall. In that of Spurzheim the intermediate spaces were occupied and the entire exterior surface of the brain devoted to organology, yet still the basilar and interior surface of the brain remained unknown to Spurzheim, and the exterior regions which he supposed entirely occupied by his organs were but half occupied by them. Thus when we consider the unexplored basilar and interior regions, and that half of its exterior surface which was erroneously appropriated to the thirty-five organs, as well as the erroneous location of several, we perceive that more than half of the organs and functions of the brain remained for investigation.

Turning away from the anatomy to contemplate the psychology, we perceive that more than half of human nature had been omitted from the German scheme,—that half of the mental functions which belongs to the organs of the vacant spaces on the corrected map, and in addition to these the higher psychic functions, and the lower physiological functions, neither of which Gall and Spurzheim explored, because they did not attempt to study the brain as a physiological organ, and they did not bring the soul and the higher functions of the mind within the scope of their science.

Gall was a bold, original naturalist and anatomist but not a psychologist; and the incorrectness of his psychology hindered his investigations, and prevented him from carrying out a proper subdivision of faculties and organs. He says in the last volume: “Each fundamental power, essentially distinct, includes sensation, perception, memory and recollection, judgment and imagination,”—disregarding the truth that these are distinct intellectual powers, belonging to different organs, and therefore bearing no proportion to each other. One may have an immense memory without imagination, or a brilliant imagination without much memory. These, and many other psychological errors, are apparent in the writings of Gall, and still more in those of Spurzheim.

In the drawing herewith presented, the thirty-five organs of Spurzheim are assigned their proper locations and dimensions. The first organ, Amativeness (made second by Spurzheim), was assumed to occupy the entire cerebellum. It really occupies only its median and superior portion, and a small section of the anterior surface of the spinal cord, adjacent to the encephalon. This error of Gall and Spurzheim did a great deal to discredit their system. It manifested on their part a fallibility of judgment, and a dogmatic adherence to first impressions in the face of evidence to the contrary; for the experiments of Rolando and Flourens demonstrated a connection between the cerebellum and the general vital force and muscular action. The relation may not have been clearly understood, but the facts were decisive, and the researches of Majendie, with the more recent ones of Ferrier, have made more clear the relations of the cerebellum to the muscular system and vital force.

The doctrine of Gall has been abandoned by physiologists because refuted by many facts, the most decisive of which is that the cerebellum of castrated horses is larger than that of stallions, which could not be possible if the cerebellum had only sexual functions. Moreover, the doctrine of Gall was essentially unreasonable in itself. To suppose that so large a portion of the brain which is continually active, being well supplied with blood, could have a function which is but occasionally active, and which, through the greater part of human life, is unnoticed or inactive, is extremely unreasonable; and to suppose that the serious disturbances of animal life and muscular motion, caused by ablations of the cerebellum, were due to the disturbance of an organ having only sexual functions, was thoroughly absurd. The parrot-like repetition of these exploded errors by the followers of the phrenological system contributed to its discredit in the medical profession.

The 2d organ of Gall (3d of Spurzheim), Philoprogenitiveness , was regarded as one of the best known phrenological organs, but my unprejudiced study of heads soon assured me of its inaccuracy. The organ was small in Spurzheim, who was remarkably fond of children, and I have found it small in ladies who showed no lack of parental love, but generally well developed and active in criminal skulls. One which I obtained in Arkansas, of a man named Richmond, had this region large and active, although he was the one of a group of murderers by whom the children, or, rather, boys, were killed. This region is extremely defective in the brains of birds, which are certainly very devoted to their young. The attachment to children belongs really to an interior region of the occiput, where the occipital lobes face the median line. Hence it is that a large occipital development very often coincides with the love of children; but the true position of the organ renders it difficult to determine its development in life.

Adhesiveness (3d) is located by Spurzheim farther back and lower than it should be; also, too far back in Gall’s map. It belongs to the vacant space in front of Gall’s location.

Inhabitiveness (5th) is an imaginary definition of the function located behind Self-esteem. Equally imaginary is the doctrine of the Edinburgh phrenologists, who call it Concentrativeness. The observations of Gall led him to regard it as a portion of the organ of Pride, and as giving to animals a love of lofty locations. Gall was nearer right than Spurzheim or Combe. The only function I find in this spot is Self-confidence. The tendencies to a quiet love of home, and the ability to tranquillize and concentrate the mind, are located, virtually, above the ear on the temporal arch, the ridge which separates the lateral from the superior surface of the head.

Destructiveness , the 5th organ of Gall and 1st of Spurzheim, was located much too high and too far forward by Gall. I am surprised at this, since it differs so widely from the indications of comparative anatomy that it is difficult to imagine how Gall was misled. Any one comparing the skull of a dog with that of a sheep may discover the error. He called it Murder, or the wish to destroy. Spurzheim, who does not describe its location, says, “At the beginning Gall placed the seat of this organ too far behind the ear, but a great number of observations convinced us that its seat is immediately above the ear.” The truth is that the convolutions which terminate on the temporal bone over the ear are only on the border of Destructiveness, and produce only an irritable and impulsive temper. The true Destructiveness extends fully an inch under the surface of the middle lobe, along the petrous ridge of the temporal bone, and is manifested externally just behind the ear by the prominence of the mastoid process.

Combativeness (the 6th of Spurzheim, or Courage and Self-defence, the 4th of Gall) is located with tolerable correctness by each and properly described.

Secretiveness , which is but a modification of Cautiousness, occupying its middle region, is much too large on the maps, and on that of Gall it is quite out of place—too far forward and too high up, occupying a region which produces modesty and refinement.

Acquisitiveness (7th of Gall, 8th of Spurzheim) is still farther mislocated on the map of Gall, occupying a region of intellectual, inventive and literary capacity. This is the most outre and absurd of all Gall’s locations. Placing this selfish and grasping propensity in the front lobe which belongs to intellect, when it really belongs to the selfish, adhesive, and combative elements of the occiput, is an error of so extravagant a character as to show that Gall had no correct psychology in his mind, and no capacity or desire to construct a harmonious system. Spurzheim’s location, much farther back, is somewhat less erroneous, but both are thoroughly false, and a few months of my first observations fifty-two years ago satisfied me as to this error. That it should have flourished unchallenged by Phrenologists for eighty years, seems to show that when a dominant idea is once established in the mind, all facts are made to conform to it. Is is remarkable, too, that the very great difference between the locations given by Gall and by Spurzheim has not attracted notice. But in fact the map of Gall has never had any popular currency. Spurzheim and Combe have been the accepted authors. The true location of acquisitiveness is anterior to combativeness, and lower than adhesiveness. Gall was misled by studying the young pickpockets and thieves of Vienna. The organ that he found suits a low cunning and dextrous character when the head lacks elevation.

Constructiveness , Spurzheim’s 9th (Bausinn, or aptitude for mechanical arts, of Gall No. 19), is decidedly mislocated by Spurzheim. Instead of being placed in the purely intellectual region adjacent to calculation, order, and system, it is carried back and down into the region of somnolence and sensitive impressibility. Gall’s location is a little worse because lower, being carried out of the intellectual region into the middle lobe according to his published map. It is very easy to detect this error in examining a number of heads, and it was quite apparent to me in my first year’s observations. In impressible persons the touch upon this locality produces nothing but a dreamy influence, and a disposition to close the eyes. Carried farther, it produces the mesmeric sleep.

Cautiousness (the 10th of both Spurzheim and Gall) was too far back in Spurzheim’s map, occupying space that belongs to adhesiveness. It runs downward along the course of the lateral convolutions, and its more timid and gloomy functions are developed near the ear, differing widely from the functions of its upper portion.

Approbativeness (the 11th of Spurzheim, and 9th of Gall) is located with substantial correctness, covering, however, more functions than that term expresses. Gall’s location and definition are also substantially correct.

Self-Esteem (the 12th of Spurzheim, 8th of Gall) is well located and described with approximative correctness.

Firmness, Religion (Veneration or Theosophy), and Benevolence are so well located and described by both Gall and Spurzheim as to need but little comment at present. The four superior organs on the median line, and the organ of Conscientiousness were more correctly located and described than any other large portion of the brain.

Hope is not adjacent to Conscientiousness, but parallel to Religion.

Marvellousness has a preposterously large space assigned it, being really a small organ at the summit of Ideality, which exercises a more intellectual and less superstitious function than has been given it. Marvellousness, Hope, Conscientiousness, Time, Order, Weight, Size, and Individuality are the eight organs discovered and added by Spurzheim, not having been recognized by Gall. The exterior portion of Spurzheim’s Marvellousness occupies the space devoted by Gall to Poetry.

Poetry , recognized by Gall, is brought lower by Spurzheim and called Ideality . Both locations are substantially correct. The location of Gall is the seat of Marvellousness, Imagination, and Spirituality; that of Spurzheim is well expressed by the term Ideality, and the description given, but the word Poetry is rather too limited as the definition of Gall’s organ. It gives brilliance to prose and to oratory, or even conversation, as well as to poetry.

Imitation , adjacent to Benevolence, is somewhat better located by Gall than by Spurzheim, who gives it too much breadth anteriorly.

Wit or Mirthfulness is a confused and erroneous statement. The two faculties are distinct, Wit being intellectual and occupying a small space adjacent to Causality or Reason, while Mirthfulness, or the sentiment of the ludicrous, is just above it, and should properly be called Humor. The mirthful or playful faculty is in the posterior region adjacent to Approbativeness, and may be quite conspicuous when there is neither wit nor humor in the mirth. Imitation, Mirth or Humor, and Wit follow each other in a line. The so-called organ of Wit (Gall) or Mirthfulness (Spurzheim) is the seat of the most profound reasoning faculty, while the Causality of Spurzheim, the Metaphysical Depth of thought of Gall, though it gives a clear analytical intelligence has really less profundity and ability in reasoning than the organ which they have misnamed Wit and Mirthfulness, which is pre-eminently the organ of profound reasoning.

Eventuality and Individuality are confounded as one organ by Gall, calling it Educability, or Memory of Things but rightly separated by Spurzheim, as the observation and memory of events are distinct from the observation of things. Though I do not use the word Individuality, it is not an objectionable expression, as it suggests the fine perceptive power of its location. Both Gall and Spurzheim had a practically good idea of the region of Eventuality, which Gall first called the memory of things. Spurzheim’s description is good; but when the organ is analyzed, it yields consciousness and observation on the median line, memory more exterior, extending to Time.

Perceptive Organs —The most marvellous feature of the old phrenological system, is the accuracy with which the smallest organs of the brain have been discovered, located, and described. The organs of Form, Size, Weight, Color, Order, and Number, or Calculation, were so accurately located and described by Spurzheim, that little remains to be said about them. Gall discovered only Form, Color, and Number, and the latter he located in the position which belongs to Order. These organs were but little developed in Gall, whose great success was due to his philosophic originality and independence. He was not a close observer, and there was a sternness in his nature which prevented him from accepting readily the suggestions of Spurzheim, who with less boldness of character and greater accuracy of perception, was better fitted for minute observation and anatomical analysis. His own cranium has been preserved, in which I found these perceptive organs distinctly marked by their digital impressions on the superorbital plate over the eye. It is a remarkable fact that the intellectual faculties have been most easily understood and located, while their antagonists in the occipital region have proved the greatest puzzle in psychic and cerebral investigations. Gall failed, and left a vacant space in the occiput. Spurzheim failed, but covered the ground incorrectly, and it was many years after I discovered cerebral impressibility before I attained a satisfactory view of the psychology of this region. The location and definition of Locality are substantially correct.

The organ of Time , another of Spurzheim’s discoveries, was very correctly located and defined by him. It lies just above the organ of Color.

Comparative Sagacity , or Perspicacity, as Gall called it, was a better term than Comparison, which was introduced by Spurzheim. Direct perception of truth is its leading character. Illustration by comparison belongs to the breadth of the forehead, to the Ideal and Inventive region, and is the characteristic of poetry. Spurzheim’s description, however, is substantially correct. It qualifies for clear statement, but not for comprehensive or ingenious reasoning. The portion on the median line has still more penetration, in consequence of which it perceives the nature and tendencies of everything, and is enabled to exercise foresight. Still farther in on the median line are located the powers which are more intuitive, and transcending ordinary foresight are entitled to be called prophecy.

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.

1. Instinct of Generation.
2. Love of Offspring.
3. Friendship, Attachment.
4. Courage, Self-Defence.
5. Murder, Wish to Destroy.
6. Cunning.
7. Sentiment of Property.
8. Pride, Self-Esteem, Haughtiness.
9. Vanity, Ambition.
10. Cautiousness, Foresight, Prudence.
11. Memory of Things, Educability.
12. Local Memory.
13. Memory of Persons.
14. Verbal Memory.
15. Memory for Languages.
16. Colors.
17. Music.
18. Number.
19. Aptitude for Mechanical Arts.
20. Comparative Aptitude for Drawing Comparisons.
21. Metaphysical Depth of Thought, Aptitude for Drawing Conclusions.
22. Wit.
23. Poetry.
24. Good Nature.
25. Mimicry.
26. Theosophy, Religion.
27. Firmness of Character.