On the philosophy of medicine : on quackery, &c., being the last of a course of lectures delivered in the School of Medicine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne / by R. M. Glover.

  • Glover, Robert Mortimer, 1816-1859.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the philosophy of medicine : on quackery, &c., being the last of a course of lectures delivered in the School of Medicine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne / by R. M. Glover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    established on insufficient grounds; to pin his faith to certain dogmata as matters of beliefs and to square all facts which come in his way to the principles of his creed. I have not space to enter into the estimation of the amount of truth which there may be in phrenology, by which I mean the doctrine of Gall, Spurzheim, and Mr. Combe.* But I shall make some general objections, which will show how far I am in error in terming it on the whole a false scierice. From the very beginning it was easy to observe the ten- dency of phrenologists to take note of all positive facts, and to disregard negative ones, to avail themselves of whatever favoured their doctrines, and to ignore all that was opposed to them. If a man had a certain part of the skull which they call an organ (for corresponding organs in the brain there are none) largely developed, and a corresponding manifestation of the mind or propensity belonging to it, then the fact was loudly proclaimed, and that without much reference to any- thing that might account for the character in the tempera- ment, circumstances, or education of the individual. But if the contrary were the case, if the development of the alleged organ and its manifestation did not coincide, then everything which could be brought to bear was dragged forward, in order to account for the discrepancy. Many instances of this kind might be cited. I shall quote one as an example, and an illustration of the kind of proof, as regards application to facts on which phrenology reposes. And here it may be remarked, that it is of little use trying to prove or disprove phrenology from the evidence afforded by ordinary characters, since it is almost impossible to tell what an ordinary man's real or native character has been amid the influences to which we are all subjected. The very thief in jail may have been a better man naturally than a lord mayor of London, or a monarch upon the throne. The best evidence of the kind we can get, is that perhaps which is derived from the study of history; * I had delivered before many of the audience two lectures on phreno- logy, some time before, in the same place.