Statistics of phrenology : being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands.

  • Watson, Hewett Cottrell, 1804-1881.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of phrenology : being a sketch of the progress and present state of that science in the British Islands. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    41/262 (page 26)
    'Ici=ignatpd, met tlie attack of his reviewer w itli that per- fect coolness which springs from conscious superiority and the certainty of success. His r-ply was complete; — it would have been held triumphant, liad there been aught bevond a name to triumph over ;—and from tliattime the antiphrenological authority of the Edinburgh Review waned away. A feeble attempt at rejoinder, on one or two points, appeared in the succeeding number of the Re\-iew ; which was promptly set aside by Mr. Combe. It 15 unnecessary here to discuss the arguments brought against phrenology in this celebrated review of the System. Several of them will be found under the title of Objec- tions to Plirenology, in the after pages of the present work; and the Edinburgh Review (Nos. 88 and 89), and Mr. Combe's Letter in reply, are accessible to all who may be interested in the controversial history of the science. The latter constitutes the first article in the fourth volume of the Phrenological Journal, and was also published as a sepai-ate pamphlet.* Decisive as the reply of Mr. Combe was in the eyes of those who impartially examined both sides of the question, the reviewer had one great advant>ige over the author of the System. The Edinburgh Review Mas a periodical both powerful and popular, while the Phrenological Journal was very much inferior in the latter respect; and this inferiority could not be at all compensated by the circulation given to a controversial pamphlet. Hence it happened, that the attack was read probably by six times as many persons as were likely to see the reply ; and there cannot be a doubt that a large projiortion of these readers 1>ecame prejudiced against phrenology, and that its difFu- ^ion Wiis thus much interfered witli. It is from the effect produced on those who read the System, and from the • Readers desirous of knowing ilic- diircrcnt jilirunological contro- vi-rsies, may find a list of references to tlurn iu tlio Christian Pioneer, No. 10, of the New Series— October, )h:i5.