DR. SPURZHEIM, the celebrated subject of our present memoir, was born on the 31st December 1776, at Longuich, a village near Treves, on the Moselle. We are told that his parents cultivated a farm of the rich abbey of St. Maximin de Treves, and that he received his college education at the university of that city.

He was destined by his parents to become a clergyman; but in 1799, when the French invaded that part of Germany, he went to Vienua to study medicine, where he became acquainted with Dr. Gall. He entered with great zeal into the consideration of the new doctrine; and, to use his own words," he was simply a hearer of Dr. Gall until 1804, at which period he was associated with him in his labours, and his character of hearer ceased."

Having completed his medical studies, he and Dr. Gall quitted Vienna, in 1805, to travel together, and to pursue, in common, their researches into the anatomy and physiology of the whole nervous system. In the period which elapsed between the introduction of Dr. Gall's lectures in 1802, and the time when he and Dr. Spurzheim left Vienna, the doctrine had made a rapid progress, not only in general diffusion, but in solid and important additions; a fact of which any man may be satisfied, by comparing the publications

by Dr. Gall's auditors, with those of his hearers in the different towns in Germany, which he visited in the course of his and Dr. Spurzheim's travels.

From 1804 to 1813, Dr. Gall and Dr. Spurzheim were constantly together, and their researches were conducted in common. They left Vienna on the 6th of March 1805, to go direct to Berlin, and afterwards visited Potsdam, Leipsic, Dresden, Halle, Jenna, Weimar, Goettingen, Brauerschweig, Copenhagen, Keel, Hamburg, Bremen, Munster, Amsterdam, Leyden, Dus seldorf, Frankfort, Wurtzbourg, Marbourg, Stuttgard, Carlsruhe, Lastall, Freybourg en Brisgaw, Doneschingue, Heidelberg, Manheim, Munich, Augsbourg, Ulm, Zurich, Bern, and Bale. This tour commenced on the 18th of March 1805, and ended on the 24th September 1807. In June 1813, Dr. Spurzheim paid a visit to Vienna, from which he proceeded to Britain, and arrived here in March 1814. During his stay he published, "The Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim," in 8vo. ; an outline of the system, in 12mo.; and a work showing the application of phrenology to the subject of insanity. He also delivered lectures in London, Bath, Bristol, Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. He returned

to London in 1817; delivered again a course of lectures, became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and, in the month of July of the same year, returned to Paris. He has lately given lectures in London, and is, we believe, at present in Paris.

The object of phrenology is to discover certain relations between certain portions of the brain and certain faculties, as well of the mind as of the body. Hence the phrenologists maintain, that it is only through an attention to the conformation of the skull that we can arrive at a knowledge of the mental faculties. Their adversaries, on the contrary, maintain, that no relation whatever exists between the form of the skull and the internal powers. For our parts, we must candidly say, that we believe both parties are in error. The phrenologists are egregiously mistaken to suppose, that an attention to the form of the head is the proper means of ascertaining the nature of the mental powers. All we can derive from this attention is the knowledge, that certain mental powers more strongly predominate in certain individuals than any of the other mental powers; but unless we know antecedently to the study of phrenology what the mental powers are, their connection and modes of operation, we shall never become acquainted with them through the medium of phrenology. And yet the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh maintain, in a late work which they have published on the subject, that the philosophy of the human mind can only be known through the philosophical arrangements of the phrenologist. What philosophical blindness !— Through what organ of the brain can we arrive at a knowledge of simple ideas, of abstraction, comparison, analysis; of moral, speculative, or practical principles; of primary and secondary qualities; of contemplation, memory, attention, &c. &c.? Phrenology can never make us acquainted with metaphysical science, though it may indicate, from a certain conformation of head, that a certain individual has a metaphysical turn of mind. Dr. Gall says, for instance, that a prominent

forehead, such as the ancient artists gave to Jupiter, denotes a metaphysical genius; but admitting this to be true, which no doubt it is, does it follow that the phrenologist must be a metaphysician himself, because phrenology enables him to discover the metaphysical organ in another. If so, he is a perfect Proteus, and may become what he pleases. If he discover, for instance, the organ of "time" in any individual, he instantly becomes acquainted with the science of music, and can amuse himself with a display of his newly acquired art. If he discover the organ of "amativeness" in another, he becomes immediately attached to sensual pleasures and the fair sex, though his head should even be hoary with age. Now, if these sorts of transformations be possible, if a benevolent man becomes bent on mischief the moment he discovers the organ of combativeness, or on murder when he discovers the organ of destructiveness, an engineer or an architect when he discovers the organ of constructiveness, we readily admit, that the study of phrenology is not only the surest way of becoming acquainted with the philosophy of the mind, but that it saves the trouble of learning any art or science whatever, because according to his own reasoning, by knowing phrenology he knows every thing, and is at once a philosopher, an artist, an engineer, an architect, a musician. metaphysician, geometrician, in a word, a Jack of all trades:-but if phrenology cannot produce these surprising effects, how ridiculous and uuphilosophical must it be in the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh to attempt founding phrenology on the ruins of metaphysics, and to maintain, that a knowledge of the latter science can only be obtained through the medium of phrenology! Locke knew nothing of phrenology, and was a profound metaphysician.

In the work above alluded to, published by the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, and edited, it seems, by one of its members, the editor observes, that "the object of the investigations of Dr. Reid, Mr. Stewart, and Dr. Thomas Brown, has been to present an analysis of the human faculties, with the view of exhibiting a just system of men