in ancient times, so it steps forward, in our day, to justify falsehood on the great scale, prostitution of the mind, debauchery of the body, over-strained pretensions of luxury and fashion, and the requirements of a false honour." We should say that, in this country, and we hope in Germany also, morals have made so great an advance that reason no longer defends such practices as right, but merely apologizes for them as inevitable. Mr Von Struve proceeds :

"The foundations of true religion are the sentiments of Veneration, of Hope, and of Wonder, acting in harmony with enlightened intellect. These sentiments cannot be excited and nourished by learning religious precepts by heart, or by flexions of the body. The aspect of the great in nature and in history, and the direct works of God, are the proper and efficient excitants and food of these emotions. The view into futurity and a fairer and better world animates Hope, and the great secrets of nature call forth our admiration." "Trust in God, the love of Him, and strenuous endeavours to act according to his will, are the evidences of religious emotion."

The fourth article is a communication on Phreno-Magnetism drawn from the English journals.

The fifth article consists of an answer by Mr Noel to Volkmann's objections against Phrenology, published in Dr Rudolph Wagner's Handwörterbuch der Physiologie v. Gehirn. The only interest attending Professor Volkmann's objections, is the evidence they afford of the similarity of the working of the human mind in different countries in similar circumstances. Moralists have often remarked, that the great majority of individuals are more influenced in their habitual conduct by social opinion (Love of Approbation), than by either moral or religious principles (Conscientiousness, Benevolence, or Veneration). In science, the same fact holds equally good. Scientific and literary men who write for the press, appear to be directed towards truth and utility much more by their fear of an enlightened and critical public, than by a just regard for these objects on their own account. No man of average understanding will write on Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Botany, or Geology, without some reasonable knowledge of the subject; but if we may judge from the conduct of Dr Gordon the Edinburgh Reviewer of Phrenology, of Dr Barclay, Dr Roget, Dr Rudolphi, Dr Volkmann, and many others, who have written well on sciences which they understood, it is clear that such men, when not writing for an instructed public, will not hesitate to discuss subjects invested with a popular interest from their novelty,

without any accurate knowledge or serious study of them whatever. We are led to infer that it was their own professional acquirements, and the fear of detection and loss of reputation, that led them to truth and reason in their own departments, while they proceeded confidently and recklessly to set both at defiance when addressing an uninformed public on the subject of Cerebral Physiology. Dr Volkmann does so precisely what these previous authors had done, viz., mistakes and misrepresents Phrenology, and so much in the forms and terms, that one would almost infer that he had borrowed his objections from them, and reproduced them in utter unconsciousness that they had been answered, pronounced by the public to be untenable, and given up by every inquirer, except the single individual himself who produced them. Mr Noel answers Dr Volkmann's remarks ably and temperately; but we venture to say, that if any one would take the trouble to translate the objections, and place beside them those already discussed in our Journal, our readers would be amused by the coincidence. If Professor Volkmann had conceived that he was addressing a public as well informed in regard to Phrenology as the readers of this Journal in general are, he would no more have printed such lucubrations as those before us, than he would have misrepresented, combated, and denied the generally received doctrines concerning the functions of the anterior and posterior columns of the spinal cord. He advances not only erroneous representations of facts and principles, but gravely urges downright contradictions of his own propositions, as arguments against Phrenology. For example, He first lays it down as an admitted truth, that "in the higher classes of animals, the brain is the exclusive organ of the mind, the seat of the passions and the affections; and that the brains of man and of the vertebrated animals present an analogical process of development, in virtue of which the brain in the higher order of animals, and still more decidedly in man, attains the greatest degree of development, while the inferior orders remain at the bottom of the scale." "The more," he adds, 66 we descend from man into the lower grades of animal life, the brain, in its earlier embryotic forms, is more and more deficient." If these words have any meaning, they express the law as a general one, that the larger the quantity of brain, the greater is the extent of mental power in the various classes of animals. Nevertheless, he, in the next place, proceeds to state, as an objection against Phrenology," that the brains of apes present the greatest similarity to the human brain, while elephants, horses, and dogs are not inferior to apes in their mental capacities;'

that "the brain of the dolphin is extremely well developed without being accompanied by great talents, while the brain of the skilful and tameable beaver remains very little expanded." Our readers are familiar with the answers to these objections, viz., that the object of Phrenology is to discover the functions of the particular parts of the brain, and that this end cannot be attained by comparing the absolute size of the brain with the mere aggregate mental qualities either in man or animals; farther, that Phrenology is founded on observations of the relation existing between particular parts of the brain and particular mental powers in man, and, therefore, can neither be overturned nor proved by general observations on the brains of the lower animals; thirdly, that in studying comparative Phrenology, the observer must compare particular parts of the brains of the lower animals with the particular instincts manifested by them, before he can draw any useful conclusions; and lastly, that it is only after the functions of the particular parts of the brain in man, and those of the particular parts of that organ in each species of animals, have been ascertained by these or some other legitimate means (if any such exist), that the two can be profitably compared and sound deductions made. All this has been stated again and again, and supported by multiplied arguments and illustrations in the standard works on Phrenology; but Dr Volkmann, apparently through sheer ignorance, omits all reference to such principles, and advances the statements before alluded to as his weightiest objections. They not only do not in the least touch upon the merits of Phrenology; but they are self-contradictory. If the general fact be, as he states it, that the more the brain is developed the higher are the mental powers of animals, including man, how does he reconcile with this law, his alleged instances in which large brains are present with slender mental capacities? He either does not perceive the inconsistency of his own statements, or, intent only on assailing Phrenology, he is disposed to wield every weapon against it, even although it should be a two-edged sword that cuts in pieces his own propositions as well as those of his opponents.

His blindness to logical consequences is apparent in another of his objections. He says that "the thickness of a book, cæteris paribus, may as well be given as an index of its worth, as the size of the brain, cæteris paribus, be stated as the measure of its energy.' Mr Noel is not so successful in answering this, as in dealing with several others of his remarks; the short reply is—that the case is even so-it is exactly as he states it. If all other conditions be equal, a

volume of two hundred pages is more valuable than a volume of one hundred; or six of the best books of Homer's Iliad are more valuable than three; or ten of the best plays of Shakspeare are more valuable than five. If you say that three of the best are worth more than five of the worst, this is granted; but here the condition cæteris paribus does not apply.

This number contains a variety of shorter articles which are interesting to the German reader, but do not afford matter for particular comment here.

II. On Superstitions connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery. By THOMAS JOSEPH PETTIGREW, F. R. S., &c. London: Churchill, 1844. 8vo, Pp. 167.

The subjects here treated of by Mr Pettigrew are Alchymy, Astrology, Early Medicine and Surgery, Talismans, Amulets, Charms, the Influence of the Mind upon the Body, the Royal Gift of Healing, Valentine Greatrakes' Cures, and Sympathetical Cures. The details given, are, for the most part, of merely antiquarian interest; but some of them exemplify very well the strong effects of faith, hope, and other mental emotions, in the cure of diseases. The chapter on "the Influence of the Mind upon the Body," is, in our opinion, the most valuable portion of the volume. Its motto is the sentence of Dr Reid, that "Medical cannot be separated from Moral Science without reciprocal and essential mutilation." To the same effect is the following quotation made by Mr Pettigrew from Plato:" The office of the physician extends equally to the purification of mind and body; to neglect the one is to expose the other to evident peril. It is not only the body that, by its sound constitution, strengthens the soul; but the well-regulated soul, by its authoritative power, maintains the body in perfect health." Sir A. Crichton, in like manner, observes, that "the passions are to be considered, in a medical point of view, as a part of our constitution, which is to be examined with the eye of a natural historian, and the spirit and impartiality of a philosopher."

As confidence in the influence of charms and amulets is in proportion to the ignorance and superstition of the patient, their efficacy among European nations is now much less than it was in earlier and less enlightened times. But the faith and hope inspired by other means are still found to aid most essentially the efforts of the physician. The cures

which followed the application of Perkins's metallic tractors, and the well-known case in which a paralytic patient, who mistook for a curative agent the thermometer placed under his tongue by Sir Humphry Davy, are referred to as illustrations; and the following example is not less remarkable. "Professor Woodhouse, in a letter to Dr Mitchill of New York, has given a recital, which also tends to shew what singular effects can be caused if the imagination be previously and duly prepared for the production of wonders. At the time that nitrous oxide excited almost universal attention, several persons were exceedingly anxious to breathe the gas; and the professor administered to them ten gallons of atmospherical air, in doses of from four to six quarts. Impressed with the idea that they were inhaling the nitrous oxide, quickness of the pulse, dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, difficulty of breathing, anxiety about the breast, a sensation similar to that of swinging, faintness, weakness of the knees, and nausea, which lasted from six to eight hours, were produced-symptoms entirely caused by the breathing of common air, under the influence of an excited imagination." In a treatise on tonic agents, by Dr A. T. Thomson, these are expressly divided into mental and material. "With regard to the first," says he, "experience has demonstrated that confidence and hope are powerful tonics. Every practitioner who has had many years' experience, knows well the paramount importance of confidence in the treatment of diseases, and the great advantages derived by gaining ascendency over the mind of a patient. In the same manner, hope operates as a powerful tonic. Deprive a patient of this solace, even after his disease is removed and debility alone remains, and there can be no solid assurance of his recovery to perfect health; inspire him with the hope that his recovery is certain, and the prognostic will seldom fail to be realized. It is much easier to demonstrate the power of these mental agents than to explain their mode of action."—(Cyclopœdia of Practical Medicine, vol. iv., page 683.).* And in the

* "We shall give," says a late writer, "two cases, which came under our own observation, which, we think, will illustrate the effect of the mind over disease. One was a case of hysteria, that of a young lady, who had lost the use of her lower limbs in consequence of the hysterical affection, and had not been able to walk for a long period. Having been recommended change of air and scene, she merely went, for a short time, on a visit to an agreeable family of her acquaintance, and quickly recovered. The other was that of a gentleman, who was seized with hemiplegia of the right side from apoplexy: after having been for some time submitted to treatment, he recovered the use of the lower extremity, but his arm continued for some time paralyzed. One morning,