Education: its elementary principles, founded on the nature of man / by J.G. Spurzheim ... With an appendix by S.R. Wells, containing a description of the temperaments, and a brief analysis of the phrenological faculties.

  • Spurzheim, J. G. (Johann Gaspar), 1776-1832.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Education: its elementary principles, founded on the nature of man / by J.G. Spurzheim ... With an appendix by S.R. Wells, containing a description of the temperaments, and a brief analysis of the phrenological faculties. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In this latter signification alone, the answer is affirmative. Such a perfectibility exists in all living beings. Certain qualities of plants, for in¬ stance, may be strengthened, increased, weakened, or diminished. Fruit trees may be modified as to their growth, or fruit, their produce. Each part of the bodies of animals is subject to great variations. Animals, also, are not confined to actions which their preservation requires. They modify their conduct according to the situation in which they may be placed ; hence they are sus¬ ceptible of a kind of education beyond their wants. Monkeys, dogs, horses, bears, &c. can be instruct¬ ed to play various tricks. They have also a recollection of what has happened to them, and modify their conduct accordingly. An old fox which has escaped several snares, and knows that he is watched, takes greater precautions, and proceeds with more slyness, when he approaches the habitations of man, with a view of stealing poultry. A bird, whose nest has been destroyed in a frequented place, conceives the necessity of placing it, in future, in a more retired situation ; and the construction of the second nest is also more solid and more perfect than that of the first. A dog resists its instinct to run after a hare, be¬ cause it recollects the beating it has previously received on that account. The horse avoids the stone at which it once has stumbled. There are even facts on record of learned pigs and learned canary birds. Similar examples are within the