the talent for storing the mind easily with words, was connected with a certain prominence of the eyes, and whenever he met a person greatly endowed with this talent he never failed to find the exterior sign in the conformation of the eyes. It then naturally occurred to him that if memory for words was indicated by an external sign, the same might be the case with other intellectual powers; and accordingly his attention was directed to all persons remarkable for any mental faculty with a view to discovering its relative sign. In the course of time he believed that he had found external signs indicating a decided talent for painting, music, and the mechanical arts, but with this belief there was never mixed up in Dr. Gall's mind, as has been erroneously stated, the notion that the varieties of form or size of the mere skull to be remarked among any number of persons, were the causes of their different talents and dispositions; from the first he referred all to the brain, which it is admitted gives form and shape to the skull. "They call me craniologist," said Gall, "and the science which I discovered, craniology; but this word is not one applicable to my profession, nor one which correctly designates it. The object of my researches is the brain; the cranium is only a faithful cast of the external surface of the brain." He proceeded for many years in this strictly inductive method; and in pursuance of his determination to bring everything to the test of fact and experience, he visited schools, foundling hospitals, prisons, and asylums for the insane, and examined the heads of eminent and notorious personages of all descriptions—professors, teachers of celebrity, advocates, criminals; and at length reviewing the results of his wide and laborious researches, he proceeded to methodize them into a system of mental philosophy, which it was the great object of his whole after life to improve and complete.
This system is based on the following fundamental propositions:—1. That the moral and intellectual faculties are innate. 2. That their exercise or manifestation depends on organization. 3. That the brain is the organ of all the propensities, sentiments, and faculties. 4. That the brain is composed of as many particular organs as there are propensities, sentiments, and faculties, which differ essentially from each other. 5. That it is possible to ascertain the size of these organs, and so to predicate the powers of the mind by examining the head, to which the brain gives its form and shape.
Dr. Gall was first known as an author by the publication of two chapters in an extensive work entitled Philosophischmedicinischen Untersuchungen über Natur und Kunst im kranken und gesunden Zustande des Menschen, Vienna, 1791. The first notice of his inquiries concerning the brain appeared in a letter addressed to Baron Retzer, published in the Deutschen Mercur, December, 1798, in which he thus refers to a work he was about to issue—"My purpose is to ascertain the functions of the brain in general, and those of its different organs in particular; to show that it is possible to ascertain different dispositions and inclinations by the elevations and depressions upon the head; and to present in a clear light the most important consequences which result therefrom to medicine, morality, education, and legislation—in a word, to the science of human nature." Previous to this date, however, in 1796, he commenced giving private lectures at Vienna, which, at the end of five years, were suppressed by the government as hostile to religion. The only effect of this was, of course, to stimulate the curiosity of the public, and to increase the number of Gall's admirers. In 1800 Dr. Spurzheim entered into the same path of research as that pursued by Dr. Gall, and in 1804 became associated with him in his labours. Meantime, the doctrines of phrenology made rapid progress, and by the year 1805 many works upon the subject had been published, elucidating its principles, and aiding its development. From 1804 to 1813 Gall and Spurzheim conducted their researches in common. They lectured at Berlin, Potsdam, Leipsic, Dresden, and a great many other places. In November, 1807, the former took up his residence in Paris, and in the same year, assisted by Dr. Spurzheim, he delivered his first course of public lectures in that capital, which were received with extraordinary interest. In 1808 they presented a joint memoir on the anatomy of the brain to the French Institute, and in 1809 they commenced publishing their magnificent work, entitled "The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in general, and of the Brain in particular; with observations upon the possibility of ascertaining several intellectual and moral dispositions of Man and Animals, by the configuration of their Heads," four vols. folio, with one hundred plates. During Dr. Spurzheim's absence from Paris in 1813-17, Gall discontinued his lectures; but, after his return in 1817, he delivered one private course in his own house, and two public courses. In 1819, at the request of the minister of the interior, he commenced lecturing gratuitously to the medical students in Paris. His audience amounted to between two hundred and three hundred, and frequently comprised some of the most eminent savans. Corvisart was, among others, one of his most enthusiastic admirers. In 1822-26 Dr. Gall published an edition of his work, "Sur les Functions du Cerveau," &c., in six vols. 8vo.
In March, 1828, at the conclusion of one of his lectures, Dr. Gall was seized with a paralytic stroke, from which he never perfectly recovered, and which ultimately carried him off on the 22nd August. His remains were followed to the grave by an immense concourse of friends and admirers, five of whom pronounced discourses over his grave. His death gave rise to a succession of eulogiums and attacks in the French newspapers scarcely ever paralleled; but public sentiment was warmly and loudly expressed in his favour. As a man he was universally esteemed; as a physician and philosopher, whatever opinion may be formed of his system of craniology, or phrenology, it must be acknowledged that he made great accessions from observation and experience to the knowledge of both the moral and physical nature of man; and though the value of his theories respecting both were altogether denied, there would still remain his discoveries respecting the anatomy of the brain, and the eulogies which they have elicited from the greatest physiologists of our time, to claim for him a high place in the annals of scientific research.—W. W.
GALL, Richard, a Scottish poet, was the son of a notary in the neighbourhood of Dunbar, where he was born in 1776. At the early age of eleven he was apprenticed to a house-carpenter, but disliking the occupation, he soon after adopted the business of a printer, and served an apprenticeship to Mr. David Ramsay, the printer of the Edinburgh Evening Courant. He ultimately obtained the situation of travelling clerk to that gentleman, but died May 10, 1801, in his twenty-fifth year. His poetical remains were published in 1819. His songs, which are justly popular, are distinguished by sweetness and ease rather than by originality and vigour. The best known of them is "My only Joe and Dearie O," a very pleasing lyric.—J. T.
GALLA, the daughter of the Emperor Valentinian I., and the second wife of Theodosius the Great. She accompanied her mother Justina and her brother Valentinian, when they fled from the usurper Maximus in 387, and threw themselves on the protection of Theodosius. The beauty and distress of the princess won the heart of the emperor, and led him immediately after their marriage to take up arms in vindication of her brother's claims. The empress died in childbed in 394.—J. T.
GALLA PLACIDIA, daughter of Theodosius the Great, was born about the year 390. Her life was full of the strangest vicissitudes. Being at Rome with her brother Honorius at the time of the siege by the Goths in 410, she fell into the hands of the victorious Alaric, after whose death she passed under the power of his brother Ataulphus. The barbarian fell in love with her, and having at last overcome her reluctance, married her at Narbo in 414. Ataulphus died in 415, and in the following year Wallia restored Placidia to Honorius. Soon after she married Constantius the patrician, and had by him two children, one of whom became emperor under the title of Valentinian II. After the death of Constantius in 421, she quarrelled with Honorius and sought the protection of Theodosius II. in Constantinople. Theodosius sent her back under the escort of an army to Italy, and upon the death of Honorius in 424, Placidia assumed the reins of government as regent for her son. Her weak indulgence pampered the vicious inclinations of Valentinian, nor had she skill to mediate between her jealous ministers, Ætius and Bonifacius. She died at Rome in 450 or 451.—T. A.
GALLAIS, Jean Pierre, a French benedictine, noted among the journalists of the revolutionary period as an ardent royalist, was born at Doue, Anjou, 18th January, 1756, and died at Paris, 26th October, 1820. For an "Appeal to posterity touching the king's sentence," which appeared three days before the execution of Louis XVI., his bookseller was eventually guillotined, and himself imprisoned. After the second restoration, Gallais, who was a good deal ridiculed by the wits, steadily devoted himself to literature, writing much, and with
