and gradually extending it; by exciting the brain and abdomen, in short, at the expense of the thorax. It is the thoracic constitution that is peculiarly subject to inflammation, to rheumatism, &c., and that bears blood-letting without injury.

The abdominal temperament is the most unfavourable, and its subjects are generally inactive and feeble-minded. When it is perceived in early life, it may be diminished or remedied by removing abdominal, and employing thoracic and cerebral stimuli. Frugality, slender repasts, fibrinous meats, drinks which excite the brain, especially active physical exercises, short sleep, and forced study, properly managed, produce the best effects. Every disease in this temperament is complicated with abdominal disturbance. The other compound temperaments may be estimated and regulated from the preceding observations.

The length to which this article has already extended prevents us from saying more than that it is an incalculable advantage to arrive at the causes on which temperaments and their varieties depend, as it is only then, for the first time, that we can adopt rational measures for securing the advantages, and modifying the imperfections, attendant upon each. Our own experience is strongly in favour of Dr Thomas's accuracy; and already we can perceive innumerable applications to be made of his principles to the purposes of education, medicine, and philosophy; and without quarrelling at all with him for not being a phrenologist, in the limited sense of that word, we cannot but express our obligations to him for much useful knowledge, and, in terminating our analysis, transfer to our pages the following practical remarks on the mode of changing one temperament into another. They rest entirely on the principle of exciting the weaker organs which we wish to predominate, and on condemning to repose those which are already too strong.

1. The change of temperament is most easily obtained at the time when the period of life naturally modifies it. In man, the cranio-abdominal child easily becomes cranial between 7 and 14, or cranio-thoracic between 15 and 25, or mixed or thoracic between 25 and 35, or thoracico-abdominal between 35 and 45.

2. The development of a particular temperament is ob

tained with a facility proportioned to the natural proximity of the one sought for to that already existing. It is diffi cult for us to make an abdominal become encephalic; but it is not so difficult to convert a mixed into a decidedly thoracic.

3. The organs to be developed must be exercised gradually, and in proportion to their natural force. If too little or too much exercised, they become diseased, languid, or exhausted.

4. That one organ may be developed by exercise, all the rest must be as much as possible in a state of repose. There are even some organs that cannot be exercised freely if the others are not in repose; the activity of the encephalon, for instance, deranges very speedily and powerfully the digestive organs, when both are exercised at the same time, and, if persevered in, soon induces disease.

5. The more numerous and powerful the causes which favour or determine the exercise or repose of an organ, the more will that organ be disposed to exertion or repose, and consequently to develope itself or to diminish.

The

Dr Thomas's theory, it will be observed, explains very easily the changes that take place in the temperaments at different periods of life. Thus the infant is said to be lymphatic. This arises from the predominance of the abdominal organs, and the consequent activity of nutrition producing a deposition of fat and cellular membrane. temperament of the same individual may at 18 be no longer lymphatic, but what is called sanguine. This would arise from the thoracic organs having become relatively more developed than the abdominal, and in the same way all the other changes may be perfectly accounted for, and connected with their physical causes; whereas, on the old system, we often have a person lymphatic in infancy, sanguine in youth, and melancholic in mature age, and yet no one could tell how or why all these metamorphoses have happened.*

* Farther observations on Dr Thomas's theory of the temperaments will be found in a subsequent part of this volume of selections.

140

RESULT OF AN EXAMINATION, BY MR JAMES DE VILLE, OF THE HEADS OF 148 CONVICTS ON BOARD THE CONVICT SHIP ENGLAND, WHEN ABOUT TO SAIL FOR NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE SPRING OF 1826.*

SEEING that no pretension of Phrenology has been more derided than its direct application to the affairs of life, without which it would be a barren and useless discovery, we cannot do more good to the cause than by publishing examples of its practical application. When the male convicts, 148 in number, were assembled for transportation on board the ship England in spring 1826, under the charge of Dr Thomson, a navy surgeon,† Mr De Ville was induced to go on board, and examine the whole gang overhead. The experiment was suggested by Mr Wardrop of London, whom we are pleased to see adding a manly avowal of the new science to his other claims to professional distinction. Dr Thomson was not previously acquainted with the subject. Mr De Ville furnished him with a distinct memorandum of the inferred character of each individual convict, and pointed out the manner in which the dispositions of each would probably appear in his general conduct on the passage. The desperadoes were all specifically noted, and a mode of treatment to prevent mischief suggested. One man in particular was noted as very dangerous, from his energy, ferocity, and talent for plots and profound dissimulation. His name was Robert Hughes.

The history of the voyage is minutely detailed in Dr Thomson's Journal, deposited in the Victualling-Office; and, by the politeness of Dr Weir of that office, we were, in compliance with our request, not only immediately presented with the Journal, but permitted to take extracts and publish them. From different parts of a log of above four months, we extracted all that concerned the conduct of the convicts, as follows:

By James Simpson.-Vol. iv. No. 15, p. 467.

This charge, for the sake of economy, is committed to navy surgeons who will undertake it; and it embraces the entire management as well as the medical treatment of convicts on the voyage.

"Log and Proceedings of the Male Convict Ship England, during a Voyage to New South Wales in 1826. 148 Convicts on Board.

"9th May. Convicts disposed to be disorderly; read to them my authority to punish; and threatened to act upon it, if they did not conduct themselves in a more orderly manner.

" 16th

Same complaint, and difficulty to get them to keep their berths and clothes clean.

"20th

Punishment by flogging for plundering and

violently assaulting each other.

"30th 31st

Symptoms of mutiny among the convicts. Received a letter from W. E. Taylor, requesting me to send for him as soon as possible, as he had something to communicate to me privately of the utmost importance. I immediately sent for him, when he informed me, that John George Munns had that morning come to him at the hospital very early, before he or the other convicts were out of bed, and told him privately that there was a conspiracy formed to murder him (W. E. T.) to prevent his giving any alarm, and then to murder me, and all who would not assist them to secure the ship, and run her into South America. That ROBERT HUGHES and Thomas Jones were at the head of it, and it was their intention to carry it into effect the first time the ship was in a squall. In consequence of this information, the following memorandum was given by me to W. E. T. in the form of a protection, to be shewn to such men as he could trust. As two-thirds of the convicts are the most depraved and desperate of characters, and robust athletic men, in order to prevent their taking any alarm, and assassinating in the prison during the night, as they had threatened to do, or at any future period, however distant, those convicts who should divulge their wicked intentions, every necessary precaution was privately taken, until the ringleaders could all be discovered, and safely secured without violence. Mem. Dr Thomson will thank W. E. Taylor and other well-disposed men to be on their guard, and, if possible, to get such evidence as will enable Dr T. to act against the malcontents. Dr T. promises protection, and his best services with the governor of New South Wales, to such

men as may appear to him to deserve it.' Some of the soldiers had heard in prison what induced them to expect soon to be employed against the convicts. This they reported to Dr Thomson.

"1st June. Hughes, for assaulting Daniel Dean, was secured and double-ironed on deck under a sentry. Munns applied for protection from being strangled or assassinated as was threatened. He gave the names of those principally concerned; Robert Hughes (always the first), Thomas Jones, William Brown, James Hawkes, and James Norman. Jones gave himself up, observing, he was not the first bullock that had been sold, and hoped he would have a fair trial. He was double-ironed and handcuffed. Brown, Hawkes, and Norman, were all handcuffed, and placed under the sentries. Other arrangements followed for safety. Crew armed with cutlasses, &c.

"29th September. Landed at Sidney. Court of inquiry on 24; Robert Hughes, Thomas Jones, &c."

We have not seen the evidence on the trial, but are informed that the facts of the conspiracy, and the shocking depravity of the mode of the intended murders, were proved beyond all doubt, and that the share each person had in the matter was in very close accordance with the notandum of character affixed to each name by Mr De Ville. Hughes was especially marked by him as a person capable of ruthless murder and deep-laid plots. We have not seen Mr De Ville's memorandum, but subjoin with great pleasure Dr Thomson's letter to Mr Wardrop.

Extract from a Letter of G. Thomson, Esq. Surgeon of the Ship England, to James Wardrop, Esq.

"SYDNEY, October 9. 1826.

"I have to thank you for your introduction to De Ville and Phrenology, which I am now convinced has a foundation in truth, and beg you will be kind enough to call on Dr Burnett, whom I have requested to show you my journal, at the end of which is Mr De Ville's report, and my report of conduct during the voyage; and likewise the depositions against some of the convicts, who you, with your usual tactus eruditus, discovered would give me some trouble during the voyage, and I think the perusal of them will make