An attempt to establish physiognomy upon scientific principles ... / [John Cross].

  • Cross, John, 1790-1850
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An attempt to establish physiognomy upon scientific principles ... / [John Cross]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Arsoven much has been written, and much more spoken on the subject of physiognomy, and although all men, in their intercourse with one another, are practical physiognomists, yet a fair commencement has scarcely been given to this interesting science. That a science so interest- ing and so useful should have lagged so far behind, can scarcely be attributed to that pro- hibitory statute, Geo. II. c. 5. 1741, which de- nounces ‘‘all persons,” ‘pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palmistry; or like crafty science,” to be “rogues and vagabonds,”’ and as such to be liable to punishment (Hutch. Just. Peace, vol. 4th, page 157th.); for able philosophers have not been deterred from the _ investigation, but by their failure have done what the statute could not do,—have thrown a discouragement in the way of others, and a halo of suspicion around the science itself, as if A