CHAPTER IV.

BOSTON.

Phrenology-Dr Spurzheim-Social Customs in Boston-Lectures on Phrenology-Temperance- Fifteen-Gallon License Law-Grievances converted into " Political Capital"- Mount Auburn-Dr Spurzheim's Monument-Lowell-Statistics of Lowell Manufactures-Sunday in Massachusetts-The Honourable Daniel Webster-Mr Catlin's Indian Gallery-Manners in New England— The Church-The Brain and Skull in the Savage and Civilized Families of Mankind-Medical Jurisprudence-Moral InsanityAmerican Inns-Ventilation-Statue of Washington-State of Dr Franklin's Trust-Fund for granting Loans to Industrious Young Men-Fantastical Bequest to the City of Boston rejected by the Incorporation-Sunday-Educational Convention-Ships of War.

1838.

PHRENOLOGY.-Dr Spurzheim.-On the 20th of June 1832, Dr Spurzheim sailed from Havre for the United States, and arrived at New York on the 4th of August. On the 17th of September, he commenced a course of eighteen lectures at the Athenæum Hall, in Boston, and, soon after, another course at the University, Cambridge, three miles distant. He delivered, besides, in the afternoon of every alternate day, a course of five lectures before the Medical Faculty, and other professional gentlemen of Boston, on the anatomy of the brain. "His lectures, both in Boston, and at the University, excited great and lively interest: they attracted alike the fashionable and the learned, the gay and the grave, the aged and the young,

the sceptic and the christian. Our most eminent men, as well as humble citizens, were early at the hall to secure eligible seats; and they were alike profoundly silent and attentive to the eloquence and philosophy of the lecturer."*

The climate of the United States is felt by most British travellers to be highly stimulating. The air is drier, and it appears to me to be more highly charged with electricity than that of Britain. The habitual state of the American people, also, is one of much higher mental excitement than that of the inhabitants of Britain. Dr Spurzheim speedily fell a victim to these combined influences. In addition to the labours of lecturing here enumerated, he was engaged during the day, in visiting the various institutions of the City of Boston, and in the vicinity. "His time and presence were in constant demand. There was hardly an hour in the day after nine o'clock, A. M., during which he was not engaged either in receiving company or making visits. This was not all. The little time which he had after the close of his lectures, of almost every evening in the week, was claimed, and he too often yielded to the invitations of his numerous friends."

Dr Spurzheim was a tall and strongly constituted man. His lungs and brain were both amply developed, which gave him a love, at once of mental and of muscular activity. He was the most temperate of men in diet, and scarcely tasted wine. When ill,

* Biography of Dr Spurzheim, by Nahum Capen (p. 113). Boston 1836.

he generally took no medicine, but limited the quantity of his food, and said, "the natural laws have been violated, and I must suffer the penalty; I must live simply, and nature will correct the evil." During the progress of his lectures, he manifested symptoms of disease, but believing that nature would restore him, he declined to take repose, or to resort to medical advice. "His lectures were nearly finished, and he had a most ardent desire to close them before he rested." His audience increased so much in numbers, that he had found it necessary to remove from the Hall of the Athenæum to that of the Masonic Temple, for the two concluding lectures of his course, which were on the subject of education. On the evening of his first lecture in that place, it was very apparent that his illness had increased. "He greatly exerted himself to edify his hearers, but they seemed to be more concerned for his health than interested in his subject. They rather sympathized with the sick man, than listened to the philosopher. It was ascertained, at the close of the lecture, that the hall in the Temple could not be had for the next evening, and he, wishing to consult the convenience of his audience, asked with one of his benignant smiles, ' In what place shall we meet next time?" He never met them again! He returned to his lodgings which he never left, and died on the 19th of November 1832. He received the greatest possible attention from the medical gentlemen of Boston during his illness. Night and day they, in succession, tended him, and their highest skill was applied, but in vain, for his restoration. Dr

Jackson, in an instructive report of the progress of his disease, says "It is interesting to many persons to learn the exact name of his disease. It may be called a continued fever, in which the nervous symptoms were predominant. There were no symptoms of putrescency, and no strong inflammatory symptoms. If it were called a pure typhus, the name would mislead many. It may rather be called a synochus, though not without dispute. Those who are accustomed to my teaching on this subject, know that I do not place a value on these names, not believing that nature recognises the specific distinctions which they are intended to designate. To those persons, I should describe Dr Spurzheim's disease thus: It was continued fever, in which the symptoms of the access came on insidiously, and were alone for many days; the symptoms of the other stages never became very prominent; those of a crisis never appeared. There was not evidence of inflammation in any organ of the body. If inflammation did exist, it must be called latent. At this time, October 30. he was really in the third week of fever, though he had not been confined to the house so much as one week. The disease was fastened on him. I was convinced that it was too far advanced to be removed by medicine. Dr S. avowed to me his strong aversion to medicine," and Dr Jackson directed the treatment according to these principles till his death.

A deep sensation was produced in Boston by Dr Spurzheim's death. A public funeral was awarded to his remains, and a handsome monument was erected to his memory.

Social Customs in Boston.-The fate of Dr Spurzheim served as an instructive lesson to myself. I speedily became acquainted by experience with some of the causes which had occasioned his death. From the first day that my arrival in Boston was announced in the newspapers, I was waited upon at every hour between 8 A. M. and 10 P. M. by a succession of visiters, many of whom called without introductions, and kept me in a state of constant and fatiguing cerebral excitement; and this continued for day after day. Many of these visits were most gratifying to me, but some of them were made by individuals impelled chiefly by curiosity, who put a succession of common-place questions, received equally common-place answers, and retired, leaving scarcely an interval between their departure and the renewal of the interrogatories by a succeeding visiter. I seriously thought of getting the questions and answers printed and posted up in some conspicuous part of the room, where they might be read, while I might sit quietly and be looked at. This custom of introducing one's self is peculiar to America, so far as I have learned of the etiquette of other countries, and is meant as a mark of respect. The evil is aggravated by there being no hours of respite from it. If it were confined to the day, between 12 and 6 P. M., the evenings and mornings would be left for repose; but here it never ceased while the novelty and curiosity lasted. A phrenologist is more exposed to this infliction than ordinary strangers. There is so much of the wonderful supposed to be connected with phrenology, that my presence excited