The above cuts are designed to present two different views of the head of Gesche Margarethe Gottfried, who rendered herself notorious as a murderess. She resided at Bremen, Germany, and was executed in September, 1830. Dr. Hirschfeld took a cast of her head, and forwarded it to the Edinburgh Phrenological Society, from whose collection Mr. George Combe brought a copy to this country, and from which the above cuts are drawn. The developements of the cast are so striking, and the character of the individual which it represents is so notorious, that it serves as a most interesting specimen to prove and illustrate the principles of phrenology. extended article on the subject may be found in the thirty-second number of the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal, the mere substance of which can here only be presented.

The father of Gottfried was a tailor in Bremen, of active and industrious habits, but of a stingy and selfish disposition. Gesche was an only daughter. In the seventh year of her age, she became addicted to stealing, and continued committing thefts at every convenient opportunity through life. When about twenty, she was married to a man by the name of Miltenberg, who is represented to have treated her with much kindness and affection. But she had been married to him only four months before she fell in love with

Gottfried, her future

husband, and soon after, with another man by the name of Kassou. She determined to kill Miltenberg, in order to marry Gottfried, but was defeated in several of her first attempts. At last she seized an opportunity, when he was sick, to give him some poison, which took effect and produced his death. But now two serious obstacles stood in the way of her union with Gottfried: 1st, Her parents interfered, and forbid the match; and 2dly, He objected to the marriage on account of her children-having had three by her first husband.

About this time, her parents came to reside with her, both of whom she poisoned, and soon after this, each of her children followed in quick succession-the victims of her cruelty. But here, unexpectedly, another obstacle rose-her brother, who had long been absent on a military campaign in Russia, came home unwell, and opposed her marriage. He soon, however, met with the same fate. Thus, within a few months, she destroyed the lives of six persons, who were bound to her by the nearest and dearest relations in life.

Her marriage with Gottfried proved unhappy, and he, within one year from their union, became also the victim of her cruelty. After this, says her biographer, "she began to poison her acquaintances, without any visible motive: a child came to congratulate her on her birth-day, and received a dose on a piece of biscuit; a friend called one forenoon, and also received a dose; and she tried the strength of her poison on another of her friends, on whose face it caused blotches to appear." At different times, she had many suitors, several of whom she murdered, besides others of her acquaintances. She was finally detected, convicted, and condemned to death, for murdering thirteen individuals, most of whom were related to her in life by the strongest possible ties of consanguinity and friendship.

The phrenological developements of Gottfried were very marked and striking, as may be seen by the cuts. The chief portions of her brain were located in the lower and posterior regions of the head, giving very strong selfish feelings and animal propensities. There was a great deficiency of brain (as the cuts very clearly indicate) in the frontal and coronal regions, showing that she was almost entirely destitute of the moral sentiments. Her strongest faculties appear to have been Amativeness, Secretiveness, Acquisitiveness, Destructiveness, Firmness, and Self-esteem; and those most deficient, were Benevolence, Conscientiousness, Adhesiveness, and Philoprogenitiveness. The cut presenting a back view of the head, shows very great breadth of head over the ears, indicating exceedingly strong Secretiveness and Destructiveness; and the great size and breadth of the neck indicates very large Amativeness. The cuts also show

that the organs of Benevolence and Conscientiousness were very small, and that the organs of Firmness and Self-esteem were extremely large. The reader is referred to the location of those organs, as indicated by the cuts. We deem it unnecessary to enter into any farther analysis of Gottfried's character, or to attempt to show the harmony existing between her phrenological developements and actual life; our object is simply to present the facts in the case, and leave the reader to make the requisite applications, or to draw his own inferences.

"Progress of Phrenology.-Sinee Mr. Combe took his departurefor Europe, very little is said on this heretofore engrossing topic. Still, a few individuals are devotedly pursuing investigations, and accumulating important facts illustrative of the leading principles of the science, which will be regarded, at some future period, with interest by philosophers. Mr. L. N. Fowler, of New York, and his brother, O. S. Fowler, who resides in Philadelphia, are collecting cabinets of casts, which embrace fac-similes of the heads of men, women, and children, who have been distinguished for qualities out of the common order of mankind; and the stranger who visits their collection, is positively astonished at the results of their unobstrusive industry in this department of nature. Through the politeness of Dr. Bond, we had an opportunity of inspecting the Philadelphia Phrenological Museum (for such it actually is) the other day-the rarest assemblage, perhaps, on this continent of unique skulls, and casts of persons now living. Each one is characterised by some developement either a little out of the ordinary course, or so strongly marked by peculiarities as to be considered nearly, if not wholly, unparalleled in the series of cranioscopal formations.

"The art of taking casts has been greatly improved by the Messrs. Fowler. Some of their work is quite equal to the best specimens of clay modeling by Clavenger or Ives. The bust of Dr. Reynell Coates was admirably finished, and altogether superior to any method before known to artists, or, at least, practised by them, in New England. If the progress of phrenology depends on accuracy in copying nature, in amassing specimens of her handy work, in connection with the study of mental phenomena, the science is surely losing nothing in the United States."-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, July 8th

ARTICLE III.

REVIEW OF MORTON'S CRANIA AMERICANA.

(Continued from page 397 of this Journal.)

If, then, there be reason to believe that different parts of the brain manifest different mental faculties, and if the size of the part influence the power of manifestation, the necessity is very evident of taking into consideration the relative proportions of the different parts of the brain, in a physiological inquiry into the connection between the crania of nations and their mental qualities. To illustrate this position, we present exact drawings of two casts from nature: one, figure 1 (next page), is the brain of an American Indian; and the other, figure 2, the brain of an European. Both casts bear evidence of compression or flattening out, to some extent, by the pressure of the plaster; but the European brain is the flatter of the two. We have a cast of the entire head of this American Indian, and it corresponds closely with the form of the brain here represented.

It is obvious that the absolute quantity of brain, (although probably a few ounces less in the American,) might be the same in both; and yet, if different portions manifest different mental powers, the characters of the individuals, and of the nations to which they belonged, (assuming them to be types of the races,) might be exceedingly different. In the American Indian, the anterior lobe, lying between A A and B B, is small, and in the European it is large, in proportion to the middle lobe, lying between B B and C C. In the American Indian, the posterior lobe, lying between C and D, is much smaller than in the European. In the American, the cerebral convolutions on the anterior lobe and upper surface of the brain, are smaller than in the European.

If the anterior lobe manifest the intellectual faculties-the middle lobe, the propensities common to man with the lower animals-and the posterior lobe, the domestic and social affections; and if size influence power of manifestation, the result will be, that in the native American, intellect will be feeble-in the European, strong; in the American, animal propensity will be very great-in the European, more moderate; while in the American, the domestic and social affections will be feeble, aud in the European, powerful. We do not state these as established results; we use the cuts only to illustrate the fact that the native American and the European brains differ VOL. II.- -35