Phrenology, or, The doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body / by J. Spurzheim.

  • Spurzheim, J. G. (Johann Gaspar), 1776-1832.
Date:
MDCCCXXV. [1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Phrenology, or, The doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body / by J. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    the brain and nervous system have been but a succes- sion of errors, ever conformable to the prevailing phi- losophical system of the day. Besides the natural difficulty of inquiring into the causes of the functions, there are many artificial obsta- cles.—The metaphysical notions of the schools have impeded improvements in psychology greatly. By substituting such metaphysical opinions, on all occa- sions for data which the observation of nature would have furnished, physiologists, and even anatomists, came to regard these opinions as sacred. The school- men, for example, say, the soul is simple, and there- fore its material residence must be simple also, and all the nerves must end in a point; in other words, the nerves can have only one origin, because each in- dividual has but one soul. Bonnet, Haller, and others, having extended its seat to the whole substance of the brain, were contradicted by the metaphysicians, who did not reflect, that a little more or less room could not enable them to explain the nature of the soul any better ; nor that, according to the remark of Van Swieten, Tiedemann, and others, a material point, in which all ideas and sensations should centre, is in- conceivable, in consequence of the confusion and dis- order which would result from such an arrangement. It appears indeed ridiculous, that the naturalist should be guided in his researches and inductions by such frivolous speculation. If metaphysicians, on the con- trary, would observe facts and ascertain the conditions with which these are coupled,—on which they depend.