229

REMARKS.

a VESALIUS-I particularly recommend the study of his countenance, here annexed, to the physiognomist. How seldom do we meet such firm, decisive, precision; such penetrating eyes; a nose like this, which, considered abstractedly, so denotes ripe, masculine, understanding, or rather a sound mind! Whenever I view this face, I feel anew how peculiar is the pleasure of contemplating a great man, or even the image of a great man. Can there be a more sublime, more godlike enjoyment, than that of understanding a noble human countenance?

b Caspar Bauhin has copied these five kinds of sculls, in his Theatrum Anatomicum; but the form which he has given as the most perfect is, probably through the unskilfulness of the designer, as imperfect and unnatural, as any one of the four can be; for, not to mention other defects, it is not only quite flat at the top but this unnatural flatness, also, is increased by a slight indenting. I must remark, that, in general, most anatomists and designers have but a small perception of these so remarkable, and so infinitely important, varieties of the scull.

c Verum Galenus alibi hanc figuram ex

cogitari quidem, non autem in rerum natura consistere posse affirmat; quamvis interim Venetiis puer multis partibus deformis, ex admodum amens, hac figura hodie conspicatur. Imo, apud Bononienses mendicus obambulat, cui caput quadratum, sed latius paullo quam longius contigit. Præterea Genuæ puellus annos natus forte tres a mendica ostiatim circumlatus est, paullo post in nobilissima Belgarum Brabantia ab histrionibus fuit propositus, cujus caput in utrumque latus protuberans duobus virorum capitibus grandius exstitit.

Genuensium, (says our author further) et magis adhuc Græcorum & Turcarum capita globi fere imaginem exprimunt, ad hanc quoque (quam illorum non pauci elegantem & capitis quibus varie utuntur, tegumentis accommodam censent) obstetricibus nonnunquam magna matrum solicitudine opem ferentibus. Germani vero compresso plerumque occipitio & lato capite spectantur, quod pueri in cunis dorso semper incumbant. Belgis oblongiora cæteris propemodum reservantur permanentve capita, quod matres suos puerulos fasciis involutos in latere & temporibus potissimum dormire sinant.

I am well convinced that violent bearings down, pressures, and positions, may affect the form of the head, and the understanding, of the child; but I am equally well con

vinced that the inevitable pressure sustained in the birth does not injure the original form of the head. Nature assists herself, repairs the injury, and, by her labours from the internal to the external, restores order. How much must the feeble nose suffer in birth, yet is it repaired by the internal power of nature. If a cartilage so yielding, and which must suffer so much, can restore itself, how much must the scull suffer before it shall be unable to recover its form, by its own firmness, elasticity, and internal power of life? How many blows and accidents must many children endure, without injury, at least to the form of their forehead? Not but many schoolmasters and fathers will heavily have to answer for the stupidity of children, which has been the consequence of blows.

Our author also remarks—

Quod non naturales vocatæ capitis effigies etiam in egregie prudentibus (quandoquidem scilicet cerebrum nulla propria admodum indigeat figura) interdum spectentur; etiamsi tales calvariæ, ac potissimum suturarum specie, a naturali forma differentes, nobis in cœmiteriis perquam raro sese offerant, ut profecto subinde forsan occurrerent, si Alpium, quæ Italiam spectant, accolarum cœmiteria scrutaremur, quum illos homines non dictis modo capitis figuris, sed longe etiam magis discrepantibus, deformes esse audiam.

232

E.

OF THE SCULLS OF CHILDREN.

THE head, or scull, of a child, drawn upon paper, without additional circumstance, will be generally known, and seldom confounded with the head of an adult. But, to keep them distinct, it is necessary the painter should not be too hasty and incorrect in his observations of what is peculiar, or so frequently generalize the particular, which is the eternal error of painters, and of so many pretended physiognomists.

Notwithstanding individual variety, there are certain constant signs, proper to the head of a child, which as much consist in the combination and form of the whole as in the single parts.

It is well known that the head is larger, in proportion to the rest of the body, the younger the person is; and it seems to me, from comparing the sculls of the embryo, the child, and the man, that the part of the scull which contains the brain is proportionately larger than the parts that compose the jaw and the countenance. Hence it happens that the forehead, in children, especially the upper part, is generally so promis