question, taken in connexion with the cases actually observed, is perfectly legitimate. The effects are similar; and it is reasonable to conclude, that the causesare the same. In the case of Mr Milne's relations, it is ascertained by observation that all the individuals who inherit the defect are deficient in the organ of colouring, while those who perceive colours have the organ fully developed.

How the organ of Colour was affected in the way mentioned is more difficult to account for. Many persons see different colours better than others; and two gentlemen, to whom I read Mr Scott's letter, have told me they perceive some colours well, and others indifferently. This imperfection may possibly arise partly from the formation of the eye, and partly from that of the organ of Colour. From whatever cause such a varied power of sight may arise, the case of Mr Scott is an ample and curious proof of a mental defect, which could not be accounted for till Phrenology was discovered. It shews that colour, form, size, and distances, are not perceived by one faculty alone.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Liverpool, 11th November, 1825.

WM. H. ATHERTON.

ARTICLE V.

THE PRESS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY has lately attracted a considerable portion of public attention; but for some months past certain of its doctrines have fallen under the displeasure of the newspaper press, and attempts have been made to bring the science itself and its advocates into contempt. The points principally attacked have been Mr M'Culloch's doctrine of Irish absenteeism and the repeal of the combination laws. It is not our intention, on the present occasion, to discuss

these controversies, or to maintain that political economists are sound in all their views, but simply to notice a "fallacy," as Mr Bentham would call it, by which the public mind is frequently misled, and which Phrenology enables us clearly

to expose.

There are two orders of intellectual faculties;-the knowing and reflecting. The knowing faculties, whose organs are situated in the lower region of the forehead, take cognizance of things that exist and of occurrences, with their more ob vious relations. A mind, in which these faculties predominate, is well adapted for becoming learned by reading and observation, and also for attaining expertness in practical business. Accordingly, lawyers, and physicians of extensive practice and no mean reputation, and merchants, frequently possess these organs in a predominating degree; and, what is more to our present purpose, editors of newspapers, magazines, and other periodical literary publications, are generally found to excel in the practical department of their duty in proportion to the degree in which the knowing organs are developed, in combination with a favourable endowment of the propensities and sentiments. The knowing faculties give them that capacity for varied information, that ready tact in arranging and disposing of details, and that Argus-like power of observation, which enables them to seize the passing occurrences of life, and present them, in all the freshness of actual existence, to their readers.

The second order of intellectual faculties is the reflecting, -comprehending Comparison, Causality, and Wit, which take cognizance of the more recondite and abstract relations of objects and events. The relations perceived by them are completely beyond the sphere of the senses and the knowing faculties; and one of the great distinctions between man and the lower animals is the want, in the latter, of the organs of these powers. Their abstract functions may be illustrated by a simple observation. On one of the hottest days of last summer, we saw a cow in a field, in which there was no na

tural spring of water, but in which a well had been dug, and a pump erected to supply the defect. The cow had enjoyed many a delicious draught from a trough placed beside the pump; but, on the occasion alluded to, it was empty, while the thirst of the animal was fiercely excited by a burning sun; she first anxiously examined the trough, then put her nose to the spout of the pump, as if endeavouring to suck out the water, which she seemed distinctly to know issued from that aperture. This effort also was in vain; she then moved round to the handle of the pump, which was so low that she could have moved it with her teeth, or by her horns; she laid her head along it, as if recollecting the fact that water came when it was moved; but as nature had denied her organs of Causality, she was utterly blind to the relation between the motion of that piece of wood and the flow of water, and she continued standing and suffering without making the least attempt to perform the operation of pumping. In this instance there was the strongest desire for the water; there were eyes, and other organs of sense, capable of seeing and feeling as acutely as those of man, and there was an obvious manifestation of observing faculties; for she had noticed and recollected the phenomena which attended the supply of water; but there was a complete destitution of the feeling of relation between the motion of the handle and the effect which she so ardently desired. Every human being, who is not insane or idiotic, possesses all the organs to a greater or less extent; and, in the most deficient, there is still enough of reflecting power to give rise to the feeling of relation between such obvious instances of cause and effect as this the moment the phenomena are presented in conjunction to the mind; and hence there is an unmeasurable gulf between the lower animals and man, which the lower creatures can never pass without a fundamental change of their natural constitution.

But, although the power of perceiving the relation of cause and effect in simple occurrences is possessed by all, the talent of tracing it, in difficult and complicated phenoVOL. III-No IX.

D

mena, is bestowed on comparatively few; and the more numerous and intricate the causes are whichcombine to wards producing an effect, the more highly gifted in this talent must the mind be which shall be capable of tracing all their relations. In short, the highest development of the upper portion of the forehead is then indispensably necessary to

success.

It happens, however, that individuals, who, by the predominance of the knowing organs, are admirably fitted for observation, and for handling details, are, by the very same circumstance, little calculated to discover or appreciate the more profound and difficult relations of causation. Hence such "practical men," as they style themselves, have uniformly been the opponents of every new doctrine in science that required a profound and comprehensive intellect to trace its foundation, relations, and results. Abstract truths appear to such minds vague and impalpable; and their conception of them is at the best feeble and incomplete. They imagine that this arises from the nature of the propositions themselves, and hence regard them as uncertain and unsafe. When at length abstract doctrines have been reduced to practice, they are capable of appreciating them in their results; but, while they remain creatures of the mind alone, their intellects cannot reach them.

The clamour against Political Economy, and the repeal of the Combination Laws, has, we have perceived, emanated from these knowing heads alone. The speculations which they have given forth on those topics have been characterized by a destitution of every thing resembling Causality; they have seized the surface-views of the questions, the first results, as it were; and, incapable of tracing the distant consequences, they have dogmatized in all the arrogance of selfesteem, unenlightened by real penetration. Every judgment embraces two circumstances-the facts presented to the intellect, and the character of the intellect itself. The last element is almost uniformly overlooked by persons who have

not attained to the practical discrimination conferred by Phrenology; and yet it is nearly as important as the first. If every author were required to print a correct account of his cerebral development in his preface, a great saving of discussion might be effected. We would then acknowledge as authorities only such individuals as possess talents calculated to comprehend the subjects on which they write.

ARTICLE VI.

ON THE SEAT AND NATURE OF HYPOCHONDRIASIS AS ILLUSTRATED BY PHRENOLOGY.*

ON seeing the title prefixed to this article, some of our readers may be disposed to ask, how a disquisition upon Hypochondriasis, or any other disease, happens to find a place in the pages of a Phrenological Journal? A sufficient answer will, we hope, be found in the following considerations.

Hypochondriasis, under its various forms of Vapours, Low Spirits, Ennui, &c. is of so frequent occurrence in this country, that it has been long known on the continent by the appellation of the Maladie Anglaise, first affixed to it by Dr Cheyne. It is indeed so generally prevalent, especially in times of public vicissitude and general adversity, and is so often seen even in the midst of the greatest worldly prosperity, that we question whether we have a single reader who has not, either in his own person, or in that of some near relation, tasted of its pains. In severity also, as well as in frequency, it is often sufficiently formidable. For the misery which accompanies a serious attack, although generally regarded by the ignorant as causeless and imaginary, is, in reality, not inferior in poignancy to any to which mankind is liable; and the dreadful suspicions and gloomy forebodings

* We are indebted for this article to Dr A. Combe.