will be disposed of during the present year. This annual, though small in itself, and seemingly unworthy of notice, is nevertheless calculated to make very strong impressions on the common mind.

Annals of Phrenology.-This was a quarterly publication, and conducted by a committee of the Boston Phrenological Society. It was commenced in 1834-circulated about three hundred copies annually, and continued only two years.

Dr. Charles Caldwell.-This gentleman has ever been a most able and efficient advocate of phrenology. His writings in its hehalf have been very numerous; if they were all collected and published together, they would constitute three or four large octavo volumes. His labours and merits will be more appreciated, as well as held in greater respect, by posterity than by the present generation.

Crania Americana, by Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia. -This magnificent work (recently published) is designed to present a comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America. It is printed on large fine letter paper, in folio form, and accompanied by seventy-eight plates, beautifully lithographed-each plate presenting the drawing of a skull of the natural size. An able and learned essay on the varieties of the human species, constitutes the introductory portion. It also contains, in the form of an appendix, an excellent essay by Mr. George Combe, on the relation between the Natural Talents and Dispositions of Nations, and the Developement of their Brains. By means of this dissertation, together with the descriptions and measurements given in the body of the volume, its bearing on phrenology can readily be shown. The anatomical and phrenological measurements are very numerous and valuable. The number of distinct measurements in the phrenological tables, exceeds seven thousand five hundred. This work is one of the most important on the natural history of man that has ever been published, and will long remain an honour to the science of our country, as well as a monument of the labours and genius of its author.

Phrenological Societies.-There have been formed at different times in the United States, between forty and fifty phrenological associations. Some of them have been conducted with much zeal and ability, and greatly promoted the interests of the science; while others have been merely nominal in their character, and proved quite inefficient in their labours. Past experience renders it doubtful whether societies can permanently flourish which are organised exclusively for the cultivation and advancement of phrenology.

Craniological Specimens.-The largest collection of crania in the United States, is possessed by Dr. S. G. Morton, of Philadelphia.

A part of his cabinet is deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences. His whole number of specimens amounts to one thousand; there being over five hundred crania of animals, and nearly the same number of human skulls. This, with one or two exceptions, is the largest and most valuable collection of crania that can be found on the globe.

Cabinet of the Boston Phrenological Society.-This museum numbers about five hundred, and is made up mostly of the specimens which Dr. Spurzheim left in Boston. There are many rare and valuable phrenological specimens in this cabinet, though it is to be regretted that no better use or appropriation has been made of them for some years past. Mr. O. S. Fowler, of Philadelphia, and his brother, L. N. Fowler, of New York, have each large and valuable cabinets of skulls, casts, busts, &c. The whole number of their specimens will not fall much short of eight hundred. They have made some important improvements in the art of taking casts and busts. They are now able to take with ease and safety, fac-similes of the living head, as correct almost as life. These gentlemen have already taken the busts of more than two hundred of our leading and distinguished men. The specimens used by Mr. Combe, in his lectures on phrenology in this country, are deposited in the hall of the medical department of Yale College, and constitute a large collection. The Albany and Buffalo Phrenological Societies have each a very respectable cabinet of skulls, casts, busts, &c. There are also numerous other phrenological collections of less note, connected with institutions and societies, or owned by private individuals.

It is impossible to estimate the number of believers in phrenology in this country. They may be found in every state of the union. For a few years past, the science has been rapidly advancing, as well as gaining in character and popularity. Many of the leading periodicals of the day, particularly the medical journals, take a decided stand in its favour; while others generally allude to it, whenever occasion requires, with candour and respect. The science is now embraced by large numbers in the medical profession, especially among the younger portion. It is also favourably received by many members of the legal and clerical professions, and is beginning to be introduced and respectfully treated in our literary, scientific, and medical institutions. The day of its final triumph and general adop

tion cannot be far distant.

MISCELLANY.

Medico-Chirurgical Review and Phrenology.-This is one of the oldest and ablest medical periodicals in Great Britain. It is published at London, and conducted by Dr. James Johnson, whose name is well known as high authority in the medical profession. The Medico-Chirurgical Review has always taken a decided stand in favour of phrenology. The October number for 1840, contains a very able and elaborate review of Dr. Morton's Crania Americana, which is treated upon strictly phrenological principles, and is a masterly performance. This review extends over thirty pages, in fine type, and compliments the industry, research, and acquirements of Dr. Morton in the highest terms. There are several important points discussed, that we should be glad to notice, and may refer to hereafter; but, for the present, must satisfy ourselves with one or two brief quotations, which will convey to the reader some idea of the ground occupied by the writer in relation to phrenology. In speaking of the structure of the brain, and its relations to the skull, the reviewer remarks as follows:-" After the same manner, we retrace the mental characters through the shape, size, and other conditions of the brain, as indicated by the peripheral forms of the head and skull. We may fairly contemplate the brain as an aggregate of organic instruments, and the mind as an aggregate of powers or faculties; and assured are we, that the cerebral instruments and mental faculties are co-existent and severally co-operative-each individual of the latter naturally using its own peculiar one of the former, in the exercise of its appropriate functions. Hence, on these principles we may seek to trace the mental characters of disposition and capacity by inspection of the head, and the accuracy of the results is susceptible of trial by their correspondence with the mind's manifestation-in thought and feeling, discernible by reflection on consciousness; in speech and composition, in act and conduct, discernible by observation. We are desirous, in fine, of seeing the head and its constituent organs adopted, in their forms, relations, and conditions, as the source of elementary principles in the anthropological and psychological systems." Again: The reviewer, in referring to Dr. Morton's Introductory Essay, says-"We feel reluctantly obliged to limit our observations to a few cursory notes, selected from his pages with a view to elucidate that natural correspondence which subsists between the shape of the head and the character of mind in actual life, which we regard physiologically as constituting the most important fundamental principle in mental science-not useless in education, government, and legislation, or moral, religious, and medical philosophy." We have here eight pages illustrative, and, in proof of the above principle, chiefly made up of notes from the Crania Americana, which is carrying out more fully and completely a proposition which we suggested, and actually commenced, in a review of the same work in this Journal last year.

De Ville's Phrenological Cabinet.-Mr. De Ville, of London, who was for a time associated with Dr. Spurzheim, has a very extensive collection of casts and busts, amounting to about twenty-four hundred specimens. At the late meeting of the British Phrenological Association, he gave the following description of his cabinet. He began by

stating the causes which led to the formation of such a large collection. When his attention was first drawn to phrenology, many of the organs were marked as conjectural only, and it was desirable to collect facts to prove or disprove the existence of them. About five hundred casts were collected for this special purpose. It was also desirable to obtain specimens of every organ, very large and very small, from persons living, and well known. About seventy are of this description. Another point was to obtain casts of youths, where difficulties occurred in educating them for particular occupations, and also where knowledge was easily acquired with little or no instruction. At least seventy were taken for this purpose, many of whom were interesting cases. About one hundred and fifty casts also were taken of pious persons, devoted to religion, several of whom had abandoned other occupations for theological pursuits. There are also forty casts of artists, painters, sculptors, &c. many of them of celebrity. Of navigators and travellers, there are about thirty casts. Of poets, authors, and literary characters, about eighty. Of musicians, composers, and amateurs of music, upwards of seventy, Of pugilists, there are twenty-five. There are also in the collection about one hundred and forty casts, showing change of form of the head to have taken place, corresponding to the altered studies and habits of the persons at various ages-many of the changes occurring after thirty and forty years of age. Besides all these, there are upwards of three hundred and fifty casts of distinguished persons, noblemen, legislators, judges, banisters, lawyers, astronomers, engineers, actors, &c. &c.

The second part of the collection consists of criminals, cases of diseased brain, and national crania. The criminals are not confined to the united kingdom, about one third being from foreign countries; some of them state criminals, and others of extraordinary character. The diseased cases are those of idiots, imbeciles, insane persons, and of malformations. This part comprises one hundred and twenty. The national crania consist of about five hundred; one hundred and fifty being real skulls, and the rest moulds and casts, of well authenticated persons. Said Mr. De Ville, I am much indebted to the late Baron Cuvier for permission to take casts from all the well authenticated skulls in his splendid museum. I have also made a large collection of busts of ancient philosophers and great men, taken from the marbles originally in the Louvre, Florentine, and Prussian galleries, and private collections; and it is surprising how their phrenological developements bear out the biographical accounts of them. In addition to all this, there is a large collection of the skulls of animals and birds. Mr. De Ville concluded his very interesting account by stating that the collection had always been accessible to phrenologists, and all literary and scientific men, as well as to all persons of eminence; and that he had the consolation of knowing, that the most distinguished individuals, both native and foreign, consider the collection as an extraordinary mass of evidence in support of the truth of a science which has already effected so much to mankind.

Dr. Morton's Collection of Skulls.-We have before us a catalogue of the skulls of man and the inferior animals in the collection of Dr. S. G. Morton, of this city. This is the most extensive collection of crania in the United States, and is not surpassed, in number and variety of specimens, by more than one in Europe, viz. that of the late Professor Blumenbach, of Gottengen; and even this exception is doubtful. There

are in Dr. Morton's cabinet more than five hundred human skulls, collected from all parts of the world. He has a very great variety of Indian skulls, and a large number of Mexicans and ancient Peruvians. There are about one hundred skulls of the ancient Egyptians, obtained from the catacombs of Thebes and Memphis, and are supposed to be more than four thousand years old; some of these possess great interest, in a phrenological point of view. There are also about the same number of skulls of native-born Africans, or negroes; these, in their cranial developements, present quite a contrast with the preceding class, and evidently show that their possessors must have belonged to an entirely different race, or at least had characters essentially different. At some future time, we may give a description of the more rare and valuable human crania in Dr. Morton's collection.

The number of animal skulls, including quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and reptiles, is equally extensive, exceeding five hundred specimens. The receptacle of such a collection may very appropriately be named "Golgotha," a "place of skulls." "The principal object," says Dr. Morton, "in making the following collection, has been to compare the characters of the skull in the different races of men, and then again with the skulls of the lower animals, and especially with reference to the internal capacity of the cranium, as indicative of the size of the brain." That magnificent work, the "Crania Americana," is already, in part, the fruit of Dr. Morton's researches in this department of science, and we are happy to learn that he is still prosecuting his inquiries with the view of farther contributions to the public.

Pathological Fact.-The May number of the American Journal of Medical Sciences, for 1840, contains an interesting pathological fact confirmatory of phrenology. "A young man accidentally fired his rifle when its muzzle was pointing towards his face; the bullet first entered the left nostril, and laid it open so far as the nasal bone; it then penetrated the skull at the inner angle of the left superciliary ridge, and emerged from the cranial cavity, through the frontal bone, at a point about two inches above the place of entrance." "Particles of brain were found lying upon the floor." After proper medical treatment, he completely recovered, and appeared, at the time this account was written, to be in the full possession of all his faculties, says Dr. H. Janson, the attending physician, "except, perhaps, a slight imperfection of those organs, phrenologically, ranged in the course of the ball."

Progress of Phrenology.-We are glad to learn that a series of letters from the pen of Mr. M. B. Sampson, on Criminal Jurisprudence, in relation to Mental Organisation and Social Responsibility," are now in course of publication in the London Spectator. It is well known that this is one of the most influential of the English periodicals, and the insertion of these letters in its columns cannot fail very materially to accelerate the progress of our science.

English Phrenological Journal.-This journal, which has been published at London for the last three years, is transferred the present month back to Edinburgh.