Phrenology makes to-night to your selfish interests.

I wish now to draw a distinction between Phrenology and Physiognomy, because I don’t believe I ever went into any community to lecture in my life, that I did not hear some old fossil say that he believed in the science of Physiognomy, but he didn’t take much stock in Phrenology. Now I beseech you, as friends of mine (and after I have lectured to an audience for twenty minutes I always feel that I have so many friends in it that I am personally interested in the welfare of each one) that if you have ever made that remark, you will not expose your ignorance of scientific terms in that way again. I’ll excuse you for what you have done  heretofore, but if you make that remark after hearing my lectures, I shall feel ashamed of you, just as I always feel humiliated when any friend of mine makes a fool of himself.

Physiognomy is the science of external appearances. The etymology of the word signifies the knowledge of nature derived from examination or observation. We may speak of the physiognomy of a landscape, of a country, a state, a continent, or an individual, and by that we mean the external appearance, that which conveys a knowledge of the character of the object to the eye. We judge the character of the thing by its appearances; and in the relation which Physiognomy bears to character-reading, we judge the character of the man by the external appearances. We study the size and form of the body, its color, its texture, its temperament, the expression of the face and the contour of the head, all of which are physiognomical. We draw certain conclusions from this inspection of the physiognomical signs, and these conclusions are phrenological, for every variation of color, form or size indicates a corresponding variation in a particular kind or intelligence possessed by the individual. Physiognomy, therefore, is the grand channel through which we draw our phrenological conclusions, and in this relation physiognomy forms a part of the grand science of Phrenology,  inseparable from it, and bearing about the same relation to it that addition does to arithmetic.

There are those who advertise themselves as delineators of character, under the term Physiognomists. I believe that such persons do so because they lack the ability and learning to comprehend Phrenology, and are unable to combat the prejudices of the ignorant. I have never seen a so-called “Physiognomist” who was not an empirical mountebank of the purest stamp, and who did not trim his sails to pander to the silly sentiment which I have just exposed. The delineations of such persons are worse than valueless, because they are pure guess-work. They pursue a shadow while they reject the substance.

Having thus established our definitions, we may proceed to state the principles of Phrenology. And I believe that I can best do so by taking you through the successive steps of a phrenological examination, and by thus practicing the art, illustrate the science.

In forming an estimate of the character of any person, the practical phrenologist proceeds upon the following physiological postulates, which I shall not stop to demonstrate, because they may be regarded as established facts upon which all physiological authorities are agreed, viz:

1. The brain is the keyboard of the body and the central seat of intelligence.

  2. The power of the brain depends upon the anatomical and physiological condition of the body which supports it.

3. The character of any object depends upon its physical attributes, viz: Size, weight, color, form, texture, density, etc.

In applying these postulates to a delineation of character before we pass to an examination of the brain itself, we must notice three great modifying conditions. Without taking these modifying conditions into account, a correct estimate of brain-power is impossible. And it is because these modifying conditions have been ignored by many professed teachers of Phrenology, and but poorly expressed by others who did recognize them, that many eminent physiologists have condemned phrenology hastily, as having no sound basis in physiology. The exponents of Phrenology are themselves to blame for this. They have been too content to rest under the imputation of feeling heads for bumps. They have not been sufficiently versed, in many instances, in physiological science to dare to debate the ground with high authorities. I challenge the world to bring one single natural fact to militate against the principles here announced. I will debate the question with any skilled medical, legal or clerical authority, and I claim, without fear of contradiction, that the world does not hold a head whose character will differ from that which Phrenology ascribes to it,  when the developments of the brain are measured in the light of these modifying conditions.

When I was lecturing in Indiana in 1885, Gov. Will Cumback of that state, propounded this question:

“Professor, what would you do if you found a man whose head, in the light of Phrenological principles, showed a certain character, and you found on intimate acquaintance and positive proof that he, in fact, possessed a character radically different.”

“My dear Governor,” I replied, “I would wait until the sun rose in the west, and then watch to see what you would do and follow suit. Such men do not exist, they never have existed, and they never will exist until the order of nature is reversed.”

These three great modifying conditions which must be taken into consideration before we estimate the brain itself, are as follows:

1st. The State of the Health.

2nd. The Quality of the Organization.

3rd. The Temperament of the Constitution.

And we will consider them in the order named, therefore first,

THE STATE OF THE HEALTH.

It is a great fact in the constitution of man, that whatever affects the body, affects the manifestations of intelligence, and conversely, whatever affects intelligence affects the body. The body is the harp of a  thousand strings, manifesting its intelligence by different degrees of vibration. If either the musician or his instrument is out of order, the music will be discordant. It is not necessary for me to argue that a man must be in perfect health to exhibit perfect mentality. But as perfect health is the exception and not the rule, we rarely find mentality even approximating perfection. We are obliged, in our estimate of the character of men, to allow for various bodily infirmities, in a word, for the eccentricities of disease. These diseases may be inherited or acquired since birth; they may be acute or chronic in their stages; they may be mild or malignant in type; they may produce long, continued illness, terminating in death, or they may be only what we call a temporary indisposition, like that of the country boy, who went to Boston for the first time to see the sights. As he wandered around he became hungry, and, entering a restaurant began to experiment with strange dishes. He ate first a porterhouse steak, then some fried oysters, then a lobster salad, a lot of pickles, ice cream, cake and bologna sausage, drank a bottle of champagne and retired to his lodgings, and dreamed that he was lying on Boston Common, and that the devil was sitting on his stomach, holding Bunker Hill monument in his lap.

If you eat an indigestible meal, you are unable to perform good brain-work after it. If you feed the body  on material that will not nourish it, the brain refuses to work. If you are in the clutches of disease, we cannot expect of you a high measure of