Phrenology applied to painting and sculpture / By George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology applied to painting and sculpture / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    not know it without having learned it, either at school or by subsequent study. Nay, in consequence of the connexion of the brain with the mind not being understood as a practical truth, thousands of intelli- gent persons on reading the words of this opinion, which are confined to criminal legislation and prison discipline, will be unable to perceive their implied bearing on the whole subject of the influence of the nervous system on the mental powers in every depart- ment of life. A similar reception of the views propounded in this work may be expected from professors and amateurs of art, and for a similar reason. Comparatively few of them have studied Phrenology as a science ; they can- not apply it or judge soundly of its applications without knowing it; and in the present state of public opinion, few of them find sufficient inducements to qualify themselves by study for understanding and applying its principles. Before these principles can become practical in any sphere, a new generation must come on the stage, to whom they shall have been taught in schools as elementary truths. And apparently the parents of that generation are not yet born; for as- suredly the fathers and mothers of the children now existing, with a few honourable exceptions, strenu- ously resist communicating to them such knowledge. One great cause of this repugnance is to befoundinthe defective education of the parents themselves. Mr Fara- day, in his lecture on table-turning and spirit-rapping, raised the veil, and showed how sadly modern educa- tion neglects instruction in scientific facts and prin- ciples. Generally speaking, even a high education is confined to languages, writing, mathematics, arith- metic, algebra, geography, and religion; and so little