Another cause of infirm health in children, which ought not to be overlooked, is great disparity of years in the two parents. When one of the parents is very young and the other already advanced in life, the constitution of the offspring is very rarely sound; but it is sufficient to call attention to the fact.

Another and very influential source of delicacy in children, is an habitually deteriorated state of health in the parents, not exactly amounting to active disease, but arising chiefly from mismanage. ment or neglect, and showing itself in a lowered tone of all the animal functions, and a general feeling of not being well. Of all the causes of this description, perhaps the most frequent and deteriorating to the offspring is habitual indigestion. Sir James Clark has shown very clearly, in his admirable work on consumption, that the appearance of scrofula in the families of persons not themselves tainted by it, is generally owing to the hurtful influence of dyspepsia in the parent, brought on and kept in activity by irregularities of regimen. It is in this way that many persons pass years of their lives in a constant state of suffering from "bilious" and "stomach" complaints, induced solely by inattention to diet, exercise, pure air, cleanliness, or other equally removable causes; and unthinkingly turn over a part of the penalty upon their innocent offspring. Not aware of the real consequences of their conduct, they cannot summon resolution to give up the indulgences to which they have accustomed themselves, or to take the little trouble required for the preservation of their own health; and they are surprised when assured, that while thus trifling with their own comfort, they are sporting with the welfare and fate of those on whom their whole affections are one day to be centered. Yet such is the fact !

It is a very common saying, that clever men have generally stupid children, and that those of men of genius are little better than fools; and the inference is drawn, that the constitution of the father has very little influence on that of the children. I admit the fact that the families of men of genius are rarely remarkable for talent; but deduce from it a directly opposite conclusion, and maintain that these very cases are proof of the reality of the father's influence on the constitution of his descendants, and consequently direct warnings for our own guidance. If we consider for a moment the state of health, and general mode of life of men of genius, what can be farther removed from the standard of nature? Are they not, as a race, enthusiastic, excitable, irregular, the sports of every passing emotion, and, almost without exception, martyrs to indigestion and often to melancholy? And are these the seeds from which nature has designed healthy vigour of mind and body to spring up in their

offspring? Take into account, also, the influence of the mother, and the well-known fact, that men of genius rarely select the highly-gifted in the opposite sex for their partners through life, and then say whether high talent can reasonably be expected to emanate from parents, one of whom-the mother-rises at best only to mediocrity, and the other-the father-falls temporarily to or below it, from sheer exhaustion of mind and broken health. Would it not rather be wonderful, if, in such untoward circumstances, the genius were to descend in unabated splendour even to the first line of the posterity? It is not from such materials that living genius has sprung, and never will be; for even were the child to inherit all the father's fire, he would receive along with it a morbid delicacy, and irritability of temperament, which would render it impossible for him to survive the period of early infancy. A genius might, in some favourable moment, be born to such a father; but he would die before the world could tell that a genius had lived. The circumstances in which the highest order of minds most frequently appear, are, where the father is healthy and active, and the mother unites an energetic character with vigorous bodily health, or with some high and sustaining excitement, animating all her mental and bodily functions. The mother of Bonaparte was of this description; and the mothers of most of our celebrated men will be found to have been more or less distinguished for similar characteristics; and, accordingly, how often in the biographies of men of genius do we remark, that it was the mother who first perceived and fanned the flame which burst into after brightness! Taking the whole circumstances, then, into consideration, the influence of the father, although often less strong than that of the mother, remains unquestionable, and the exception in the case of men of genius is not real, but only apparent from being imperfectly understood.

The last conditions which I shall mention as affecting the health of the future infant, are the state of mind, health, and conduct of the mother during pregnancy-conditions which are very little taken into account, but which are so vitally important, and so directly within the scope of the present work, that I shall devote a separate chapter to their consideration.

ARTICLE VII.

THE PRINCETON REPERTORY versus PHRENOLOGY.

This quarterly contained, about two years since, a most violent and abusive attack upon phrenology. Among other charges brought against the science, it was asserted by the writer, that if its principles were true, they could be of no use, because there were so many faculties, and their combinations being so numerous and diversified, they could never be applied. This same charge has also been brought against it from other sources. Mr. O. S. Fowler has very handsomely answered this objection in the following note, appended to a new edition of his work on phrenology :

"A would-be-mathematico-anti-phrenological writer in the Princeton Review for April, 1838, page 313, employs the following knockdown argument against phrenology. He says,

"Now the possible permutations of thirty-five different quantities surpass our powers of conception; the number which expresses them contains forty-one places of figures. The difficulty of proving that any particular one out of this infinite number of possible permutations in the organs is actually marked upon the skull, is so great that we may, without presumption or discourtesy, pronounce it insurmountable. Ages upon ages of observation would be necessary to verify any particular hypothesis; and in the mean time, phrenology is not entitled to assume at best any higher character than that of a lucky guess.'

"Now let us apply this same argument, 'mutatis mutandis,' to the other natural sciences. Will the mathematical professor who penned this article please inform the world how many stars there are throughout the vast fields of space, and also ALL the motions and distances of each, together with every thing appertaining to each ? You find the difficulty insurmountable,' do you? Then, by parity of reasoning, astronomy is no science, and all its predictions as to the rising, setting, eclipses, distances, &c. &c. of the sun, moon, planets, and all the heavenly bodies-all its predictions touching their courses, revolutions, motions, &c. are only so many lucky guesses.' Suppose all the phenomena of nature, all the chymical and philosophical, all the geological and botanical, and all the other changes, and conditions, and operations of nature, animate and inanimate, that ever have occurred, or are daily occurring, or ever will or can occur, with all their actual and possible modifications

and conditions, were enumerated, think you that the number which expresses them would be contained in' twice 'forty-one places of figures?' Would not all these not merely possible but actual 'permutations' of nature, equally with those of the phrenological organs, 'surpass our powers of conception?' And if so, are not chemistry and natural philosophy, geology and natural history, together with all the established laws and operations of nature, equally with phrenology, and for the same reason, too, 'entitled to assume at best no higher character than that of lucky guesses?' and do they not also equally require 'ages upon ages of observation to verify their hypotheses?' The plain fact is, that all God's works are infinite, whilst man is finite, and therefore incapable of comprehending the whole of any one branch of them. Your argument would unscience every science, rendering all our knowledge of astronomy, of chemistry, of natural philosophy, of anthropology, of phrenology, each and all equally merely lucky guesses;' and we rejoice that this is no more true of phrenology than it is of every work of God.

"Will this same mathematical professor please inform us how many different shades and phases of ideas and emotions, of sentiments and desires, of opinions and practices, of likes and dislikes, of feelings and talents, a single son or daughter of Adam is capable of experiencing, and actually does experience, in all the changes in regard to family, friends, property, objects of desire and pursuit, and ways and means of effecting his ends, throughout a long life of threescore years and ten? How many emotions throb through his heart? how many thoughts flit across his breast? how many desires and feelings arise in his mind, both musing, and walking, and talking, and sleeping? Hundreds of millions, to say the least. Another has a set of ideas, opinions, likes, repugnances, feelings, &c. entirely different throughout.

"Now, sir, with these data for the basis of your mathematical problem, will you decipher the SUM TOTAL of ALL the different feelings and mental manifestations of every nation, and kindred, and tongue under heaven' that ever has existed, or now exist, or may live hereafter, and then subtract from it your 'forty-one places of figures,' and tell the world the remainder? Tell us how many more changes are capable of being rung on the thirty-seven faculties than actually is, and has been, and can be rung upon the cords of the human heart. The fact is, your estimate falls far short of both the phrenological conditions and the mental manifestations, thereby forming an argument for phrenology instead of against it. How vastly more philosophical the phrenological hypothesis that this almost infinitude of mental phenomena should be exercised through thirty-seven media,

compounded with, and modified by each other, than through their own boasted single medium? Phrenology is bound to make provision for all these phenomena, even though the phrenologist may be unable to observe all the conditions on which they depend."

MISCELLANY.

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Thoughts on the Action and Influence of the Nervous System, and on the means of strengthening and improving them. By CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.

This is the title of an excellent essay in the Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery for September, which we can here only briefly notice. Dr. Caldwell, after making some general observations on the relative importance of the brain and nervous system, remarks:-"It is plain, therefore, that the improvement of the nervous system, to the utmost pitch of which it is susceptible, should constitute the leading object of all sorts of education and training. And on the attainment of that object depend the future standing, achievements, and happiness of our race, and the prosperity and glory of the world." Dr. C. here proceeds to point out the means by which so desirable an object may be attained; and that is, by a proper cultivation and exercise of the brain. This organ must be supplied with wholesome, and well arterialised blood, and every distinct portion of it must be duly exercised on its own appropriate objects. The most certain and effectual way to elevate man in the scale of intelligence and civilisation, virtue and morality, is by correctly understanding and obeying the laws of organic matter as connected with mind.

The relation which the brain sustains to the arterial system, and the necessity of the former's being well nourished with blood from the latter, is also discussed at some length. Dr. C. then considers the reciprocal influence which the exercise of the mental faculties has on the body, both in health and disease. The faculties of the mind operate as most powerful agents, either as cases or remedies of disease. And it is of the highest importance that every physician should be correctly and thoroughly informed on this subject. The opportunities for applying such knowledge are frequent and varied, and sometimes with the most beneficial results, when all other medicinal agents have proved entirely useless. Dr. C. introduces many interesting facts, where the state of the mind, or rather the exercise of certain mental faculties, proved effectual, either in preventing or curing various diseases. He attributes to this source, the remarkable cures which many quacks in medicine perform; it is effected by operating chiefly on the feelings of their patients. He calls such agents moral remedies," and considers, other things being alike, that they "act more powerfully and successfully on persons of an active temperament, whose organs of Hope and Wonder, Benevo lence, Ideality, and Firmness, are largely developed. Hence, as respects this form of practice, the beneficial effects of an acquaintance with phrenology. It enables the physician to detect in his patients their greater or less fitness for moral treatment."