“We

arising from Wonder, and some other faculties, have," says Mr SCOTT, in an admirable Essay on this propensity, "too much humanity ourselves to put a man to death. But, if a man is to be killed, we have no objection to witness the fact, or, if I may be allowed to say so, to enjoy the pleasure of seeing it performed."-" Were Destructiveness wanting, and Benevolence favourably developed, in persons present at an execution, they would be terrified, not delighted, by such a scene.”—Phren. Trans. p. 147.

In children, and even in adults, Destructiveness frequently vents itself in destroying inanimate objects. The people destroy mile-posts, bridges, statues, and public buildings, wherever they can get access to them; and "no object of art, or even of utility," says a late writer, "is safe from their depredations." He ascribes this tendency "to the spirit of pure mischief,”—a correct designation for unguided Destructiveness. The statute 3d Geo. IV. chap. 71., which ordains, "That, if any person or persons shall wantonly and cruelly BEAT, ABUSE OR ILL TREAT, any horse, mare, gelding," &c. he shall pay certain penalties to the King, is clearly directed against the abuses of this propensity, and, of course, supposes its existence. The adjectives severe, harsh, angry, cruel, fierce, ferocious, savage, brutal, barbarous, atrocious, indicate states of mind all originating from it.

Metaphysical authors in general do not treat of any power resembling this faculty. Accustomed to reflect in the closet more than to observe actions, they were not likely to discover it. At the same time, it is surprising that the contemplation of the pages of history did not suggest a tendency of this kind to their mind. CALIGULA is represented cutting out the tongues of his victims,-delivering them to be devoured by wild beasts,-forcing individuals to assist in executing their relations,-torturing and putting to the rack unhappy wretches as an amusement to his own ferocious mind,—and finally expressing a wish that the Roman people had but one head, that he might cut it off by one

blow. Turning our eyes to NERO, we discover him indulging in equal atrocities, causing BRITANNIA to be poisoned, -murdering his own mother,-setting fire to Rome in four quarters at once, and ascending a tower to enjoy the spectacle of the conflagration. In modern times, we are presented with the horrors of the Sicilian Vespers, the carnage of St Bartholomew's, and the massacres of the French Revolution. These actions are inexplicable, on the supposition that no propensity of Destructiveness exists; and, if the metaphysicians had applied their systems to human conduct, they must have discovered that they contained no principle, capable of accounting for the transactions alluded to. In the ancient busts of NERO, the organ of Destructiveness is represented as enormously large.

The organ is large in the heads of cool and deliberate murderers. It is very large, and Benevolence small, in the skull of BELLINGHAM, who murdered Mr PERCIVAL. The temporal bones protrude at least half an inch in the situation of the organ of Destructiveness, on each side, and the frontal bone presents a receding surface at the organ of Benevolence, where the skulls of individuals remarkable for benevolence generally rise into an elevation of half an inch or more. A cast of BELLINGHAM'S skull may be inspected in the Phrenological Society's Collection. The organ of Destructiveness is also largely developed in the skull of GORDON, who accompanied a poor half-fatuous pedlar boy, and, in the middle of a muir, beat out his brains with the heel of his clog, and robbed him of his pack, not worth twenty shillings. The skull itself is in the Society's Collection, and the bones protrude nearly half an inch on each side at the region in question. It is large in CHARLES ROTHERHAM, who pulled a stake from a hedge and beat out the brains of a poor woman on the highway, and robbed her of some very trifling articles. It is large also in the skulls of HUSSEY, NISBET, and LOCKEY, who were executed for murder. It is very large, with deficient moral organs, in BURK and HARE, who murdered sixteen human beings, for the sake of the price of their dead bodies as subjects

for dissection. It, and the organ of Acquisitiveness, appear to have been very largely developed in the head of HEAMAN, executed at Edinburgh for piracy and murder; also in the head of ROBERT DEAN, executed for murdering a child without any rational motive; and in the head of MITCHELL, executed for murdering a young woman whom he had seduced. In the heads of DAVID HAGGART and MARY MACINNES, executed at Edinburgh, and of BOOTH, a poacher, executed at York, all for murders committed on the impulse of the moment, it appears considerably developed ; while in them Combativeness is also very large.

The Society possesses casts of the skulls of five Charibs, who are well known to be a ferocious tribe, and in all of them the organ of Destructiveness is decidedly large. On the other hand, Dr GEORGE MURRAY PATTERSON, surgeon in the Honourable East India Company's Service, mentions, as the result of three thousand actual examinations, that the organ is small in the heads of Hindoos in general, who are known to be extremely tender in regard to animal life. In the skulls of fourteen Hindoos, twelve of which were presented to the Society by this gentleman, and two by Dr J. S. COMBE of Leith, the development of the organ will be found to be decidedly less than in the skulls of Europeans in general. The figures represent the skulls of BELLINGHAM and a Hindoo.

When excited by intoxication, the organ sometimes becomes ungovernable; and hence arises the destruction of glasses, mirrors, chairs, and every frangible object at the close of many a feast. Hence also the temptation, often almost irresistible, experienced by many a worthy citizen,

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when inebriated, to smash a lamp in his progress home. One gentleman assured me that the lamps have appeared to him, when in this state, as it were twinkling on his path with a wicked and scornful gleam, and that he has frequently lifted his stick to punish their impertinence, when a remnant of reason restrained the meditated blow. In him Destructiveness is decidedly large, but, when sober, there is not a more excellent person.

The organ is also liable to excitement by disease, and then the propensity is manifested with irresistible vehemence. The author of Sketches in Bedlam, describes the case of PAT. WALSH, a ferocious maniac, who has been deranged altogether about twelve years, and has, it is said, uniformly evinced a character of desperation, vengeance, and sanguinary cruelties, scarcely conceivable even in madness. Notwithstanding every precaution that was taken, he has killed three persons since his confinement. "His propensity to mischief, malice, and personal abuse, is as incessant as his taste for bloodshed and slaughter. He has contrived, notwithstanding his restriction of hands and feet, to break about seventy panes of glass within the last two years, in the dining-room windows, although guarded on the inside by a strong iron wire lattice-work. This amusement he contrived to effect by standing on a form placed at some distance from the windows, and, taking the bowl of his wooden spoon in his mouth, he poked the handle through the meshes of the wire-work, and thus broke the pane." As this man is said to be confined in an iron cincture that surrounds his waist, with strong hand-cuffs attached to it, I infer that he is the same whose head I examined in Bedlam in 1824, and in whom the organs of Combativeness and Destructiveness were inordinately large.

When this organ and Combativeness are very large, combined with great deficiency in the moral and intellectual organs, there is an innate disposition to mischief and violence which renders the individual dangerous to society. In visiting the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in Dublin, in 1829,

a man was presented to me by Dr CRAWFORD, substitute physician, and I wrote down the following remarks:

Of the moral organs

Intellectual organs

Conscientousness

Benevolence is rather well developed.
Rather well developed.

The patient was withdrawn, and Mr COMBE added: This is the
worst head I ever saw. The combination is worse than Hare's.-
Combativeness and Destructiveness are fearfully large, and the mo-
ral organs altogether very deficient: Benevolence is the best de-
veloped of them, but it is miserably small compared with the or-
gans of Combativeness and Destructiveness. I am surprized that
that man was not executed before he became insane.

Dr CRAWFORD had previously written down, and then exhibited, the following observations:

Dr CRAWFORD's Remarks.

Patient E. S., aged 34. Ten years since first admission.
Total want of moral feeling and principle, great depravity of charac-
ter, leading to the indulgence of every vice, and to the commission
even of crime. Considerable intelligence, ingenuity, and plausi-
bility; a scourge to his family from childhood; turned out of the
army as an incorrigible villain: attempted the life of a soldier; re-
peatedly flogged; has since attempted to poison his father.

In preparing a report of this and other cases for the Phrenological Journal, I sent the proof sheet to Dr CRAWFORD for revisal, which he returned along with a letter to the following effect: "I have a few remarks to make on the lunatic, lettered E. S. You observe in your own notes,