eresting study in ascertaining the
indications of his head and comparing them with his daily conduct and
manners. The more thorough and careful the study, the greater the
satisfaction and delight that it yields. The good cranioscopist
continually grows in knowledge, and solves all the problems of
character presented in society. But he who simply studies the elements
of character or organic faculties, and does not become acquainted with
the organs and their measurement, soon finds his knowledge too
abstract and remote from his daily life; and, instead of increasing
his stock of knowledge on this subject, he continually loses more and
more of what he has gained. It was for this reason, mainly, that the
medical profession gradually dropped the discoveries of Gall, which
would never have ceased to interest them if they had learned to apply
them to the study of men and animals.
I hope that no reader will neglect this chapter, or fail to reduce its
instructions to practice, for on that it depends whether he shall
become a practical master of cerebral science, and be able to read
every character with which he meets.
The first step in studying a head is to observe its general
contour,--whether the forehead projects far in front of the ear, to
indicate intellect; whether the upper surface rises above the forehead
sufficiently to indicate the nobler qualities, and whether it is
balanced or overpowered by the breadth and depth of the base of the
skull and thickness of the neck. In connection with this, we may
observe that the base of the brain is also expressed in the lower part
of the face which corresponds to the organs for the expression of
animal force, while the upper part of the face is devoted to the
expression of the upper and anterior parts of the brain. The
expressional faculties shown in the face do not always coincide
exactly with the real power of the organs thus expressed; but if they
do not, they at least indicate their activity and habitual display;
for faculties habitually indulged will show their organic indications
in the face, while those which are suppressed or restrained will be
less conspicuous in the face.
The reader will understand that organs located for observation on the
face are organs of the brain lying behind the face, which may be
reached and stimulated through it, as other organs are reached and
stimulated through the cranium and integuments. The contour of the
face cannot reveal the organs
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