to be. He formerly stole from all the boys, but latterly has ceased to rob them. He has been flogged innumerable times in vain. When punished, he calls out "Forgive me!" Never reproaches, but declares he will not steal again; and steals again directly. He is otherwise very obedient and well behaved; not quarrelsome, mischievous, or passionate; so that the nurses, till lately, would not believe that he stole of his own accord, but that he was the tool of others. He never shews gratitude or attachment even to the nurse, who is as kind to him as a mother."

Dr. Elliotson said he had advised them never to beat him, but to punish him otherwise; to reason with him, and work upon his kindly feelings: and was informed that kindness succeeded best with him. After giving him some money and obtaining a promise from him that he would not steal again, Dr. E. called again in a month, and found that he had stolen twice, taken a rule from one boy, and kept a penny which it was his business to give to another.

The boy's conduct therefore agreed with the development of Cunning and Love of Property. The disagreement between it and the development of Attachment and of Destructiveness was possibly to be explained by the more tardy activity of these organs than of the two former, and probably their manifestations will at length be equally strong.

February 21st.

J. Milton, Esq., and R. H. Church, Esq., having severally been duly proposed and ballotted for, were elected ordinary members of the Society.

An address was read by Thomas Uwins, Esq., containing some remarks upon the case of the boy, the cast of whose head was exhibited at the preceding meeting.

"Sir,-The interesting case of the boy, a cast of whose skull was exhibited at our last meeting, who with many good dispositions had an unfortunate propensity to stealing, indicated by the large development of the organ of Acquisitiveness, led us all to reflect on the possibility of correcting this propensity by some course of moral treatment. Experience has abundantly shown that punishment will do no good, and it was quite consistent with your character, sir, as a phrenologist, to recommend leniency instead of rigour, and kindness in preference to coercion. But is this all? But is this all? Can nothing be

D

done to save such a child from crime and its dreadful consequences? Is he to grow up to be rather a curse than a blessing to society? I waited most anxiously for some member to suggest the process by which this good was to be effected. One worthy member was right, as far as the caution went, in recommending his friend not to take as a servant a girl of pleasing appearance, in whom he discovered a large development of the organ of Acquisitiveness. But Phrenology has done little good in the world if it only teaches cautiousness and leads to suspicion. Benevolence sighs to accomplish greater things by an agency so powerful, and looks to education as the point of all its hopes. Before the brain has attained its full growth may not the better portions be stimulated to increased activity? This accords with all the improvements of natural culture, and falls in with all the aphorisms applied to mental and moral character. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined," &c. These are truisms to which all will assent; but my present object is to go a step farther. And here I would ask those members of the Society who have connected Mesmerism with their Phrenological studies, whether some light is not thrown on the capabilities of moral culture by the discoveries that are rapidly brought under our notice in this wide field of new speculation? It is with this investigation in view that I now venture to lay before the meeting some results I have recently obtained from experiments made on the same individual whose case your indulgence allowed me once before to offer to your notice. I stated formerly that I had relieved this person by mesmerism from the effects of a disorder of the stomach, to which she had been long a martyr. It happened however that her friends, some of whom are medical, laughed her to scorn for supposing any amelioration of her suffering could be consequent on measures so ridiculous; and when her disorder again returned, she was persuaded to consult a young surgeon from the north, whose charges for attendance proved greater than her purse would bear, or than her condition in life warranted. The doctor's bill brought her back to me in spite of the derision of her family and friends. Regular practice demanded regular payment, but my quackery cost her nothing. I had not seen her for a long time, when she came looking very pale and ill. She complained of sickness, loss of appetite, and, what alarmed her most, she could not draw a long inspiration without a catching pain, that reminded her of a friend

who had died of consumption. I put her into the mesmeric trance, and kept her in deep sleep for a quarter of an hour, during which time I used the ordinary methods for her relief. I then brought her into the sleep-waking state, and found that her pain had entirely left her. I had all along suspected that some mental uneasiness was at the root of her bodily malady; and on questioning her while she was still asleep, I found she had been suffering from some cruel reports and misrepresentations which she had no immediate means of counteracting, and waiting for the slowly unveiling of truth was too much for her patience. Of these things I had heard nothing till mesmerism produced the exposure. I had now to minister to a mind diseased,' 'to pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,' and to cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous matter that weighs about the heart.' To this business I applied myself. I brought into great activity the organs of Hope and Benevolence, going from time to time to Veneration and Conscientiousness, but always coming back especially on Benevolence. After some time I got her again into conversation on her troubles. My end was attained. She became perfectly indifferent about things that had before afflicted her. She assured me of her entire tranquillity, and seemed anxious to have an opportunity of doing good to the very persons she had before named as her detractors and enemies. After keeping her some time in this excited state of active Benevolence, I put her back again into deep sleep; from which I at length awakened her. On coming to herself, she tried the various tests of her malady, but could find no traces of the deadly disorder that had so much alarmed her. It was quite ridiculous to see the determined energy with which she drew in a long inspiration,-resolving if possible to get at the pain; but pain there was none. Against her prejudices, against her doubts, almost against her will, she was convinced! Her malady was gone however, and away she went full of delight. I told her to let me know if her disorder returned, but I purposely avoided telling her that I had directed my attention, during her trance, to relieving her mental uneasiness. It was a fortnight after this before I again saw her, and then accidentally. She was now an example of cheerful health. No return-not the smallest symptom-of her malady had come back upon her; and what was more extraordinary, she said, her mind, which had before been depressed almost to madness, was calm and serene. She now first told me that she had come to me smarting under supposed injuries, and secretly wishing for revenge on those she considered her enemies: but on leaving

my house, things that had before assumed a serious character became trifles light as air; and so far from visiting evil for evil, she was anxious contrariwise to confer blessing. You will judge, sir, of my astonishment at this moral effect of mesmerism. This could be no delusion. The patient knew nothing before or after her sleep of my intentions or my object. If it is demoniac agency (as some good men say), the devil must have changed his character. He must be going about seeking to do good instead of to destroy and to devour. To my mind the result of the experiment is a clear proof of a decided change in moral condition produced by mesmerism, or rather by phrenological experience acting in conjunction with the mesmeric influence.

"You, sir, will perceive the inference I am about to draw from these, to me, most interesting facts. Could not the child whose cast you presented to us last meeting be so operated on? Will not repeated transient effects become permanent? Is not this the treatment indicated? Might not mesmerism be brought in medically to assist other courses of education and training? For answers to these questions I look to you, sir, and to other gentlemen whose profession leads to the consideration of such cases. My time is occupied in other pursuits. I wish it always to be understood that I come to these meetings not to teach, but to learn."

III. Review of "Observations on the Religious Delusions of Insane Persons, and on the practicability, safety, and expediency of imparting to them Christian Instruction, &c. By NATHANIEL BINGHAM, Surgeon."

IF there be one thing more requisite than another in an author, it is that he should divest himself of all superfluous enthusiasm and feeling, retaining a sufficiency only to give a due effect to his arguments. Mr. Bingham may be assured, that "those ministers" who can speak of nothing else but "the love of Christ, free grace, and the privileges of the gospel" to the insane, are wholly unfit to hold communion with them, and must be regarded as "ministers" only of evil. To expect "judgment and discrimination" from such men, is too lofty a flight of imagination, for even Mr. Bingham himself, we should presume. We are disposed to look on all kinds of religious advice or instruction in reference to the

insane, and regarded as a curative means, as a remedy of too potent a nature to be administered except under the direction of the medical attendant. He can best "minister to the mind diseased," or understand the kind of sedatives or excitants required by an abnormal portion of cerebral matter. He can alone judge of the dose to be administered, and of the propriety of its repetition. For our own parts, we should as soon think of putting a lancet or a bottle of morphia into the hands of the chaplain of a lunatic asylum, as of allowing him a free and unrestrained intercourse with its patients. Discrimination in a matter of this kind can hardly be expected in him. All those whose education has been unhappily confined to mere words and not things, whose religion is based on feelings and not philosophy, and, at the present day, such is rather the rule than the exception,-may be not inaptly compared to the well-known tanner, who, when the city was threatened by the enemy, earnestly recommended to the authorities a fortification of leather. The desires, no less than the pursuits, of such individuals partake for the most part of too monomaniacal a character, to prove useful to a class of patients who require at our hands every possible variety of treatment,-whether medical, moral, or general,—to meet the endless modifications of change to which they are subject.

Contrary to the opinions of Mr. Bingham, we not only feel sure that very many insane persons owe their affliction to religious fanaticism, but that moreover it is among the most fertile causes of the disease: at the same time, we are ever ready to admit that in many instances the religious excitement occurs in the progress of insanity. We have patients at this moment under our care answering to both descriptions of cases. In many we consider it absolutely necessary to "forbid all religious reading," prefering rather to substitute agreeable occupations and amusements, wherewith to call into health and activity the varied powers of the intellect and feelings, and thus imperceptibly to consign the patient's religious extravagancies to that oblivion so much to be desired. It has been observed by us, in a few well-marked cases, that an improvement of the general health has been quite sufficient in itself to banish the fanatical fancies of the insane. The physical condition of the brain under such circumstances of course partakes of the general improvement of the body, of which it is a part only, and as a consequence the feelings become subservient to the intellect.

It is sometimes not only necessary to "interdict for a TIME all such things as have any connexion with the patient's