tion of intervals, Ideality to communicate elevation and refinement, and Secretiveness and Imitation to produce expression; while Constructiveness, Form, Weight, and Individuality, are necessary to supply mechanical expertness-qualities all indispensable to a successful performer. Even the largest organ of Tune will not enable its possessor to play successfully on the harp, if Weight be deficient; the capacity of communicating to the string the precise vibratory impulse necessary to produce each particular note, will then be wanting." He further observes, that the Italian and German head is fuller at Tune than the African, Spanish, French, and English. But we doubt the fact, and think it would not be in conformity with the manifestations. There is a very great taste for music in England and Scotland, not surpassed, we believe, by any nation. The national melodies of the latter, of which Haydn was so enthusiastic an admirer, and the glees, catches, ballads, oratorios, and operas of the former, so ancient in date, and so exquisite in their kind, show not only a high capacity for music, but a wide-spread and truly national taste for it. The poorest ballad-singer or fiddler in our streets, is followed by delighted crowds; and we must take leave to say, that our native itinerant performers far excel all our foreign importations of the same class. Every petty church has a volunteer corps of harmony, by no means contemptible; every pot-house has its glee-singers as the chief attraction of the customers; regimental bands have their ten thousand delighted listeners; our concerts and opera performances pay better than any other kind of exhibition; and while, in Edinburgh, Macready acted to a "five pound house," Braham immediately succeeded him, and played to a theatre crowded to the ceiling. What indeed must be the power of song over and in a nation, whose ballads were used as the most powerful instruments of rebellion! Dr. Andrew Combe had a patient who complained of "feeling acute pain at the external angle of the forehead, precisely in the situation of the organs of Tune, which are largely developed, and upon which, in describing the seat of the pain, she placed most accurately the points of the fingers." She dreamed much of hearing the finest music; and at last, although very weak, was forced, by "a strong and irresistible passion," to get out of bed, seize a guitar, and “fairly gave way to the torrent, and with a volume, clearness, and strength of voice, and facility of execution" truly astonishing. After this, the pain subsided. A clergyman, haunted with the ghost of a tune all Sunday, could only lay the spirit by going out to the fields and singing the air with exemplary assiduity and earnestness. We knew a fine musician, who, when puzzled to recollect a tune, invariably and instinctively rubbed his fingers upon the two organs. Birds with a large endowment of Tune, but no developement of the sentiments or superior feelings, produce notes, but no song, and are destitute of the perception of harmony. It is, however, worthy of remark, that those birds which speak, and mimic the human voice, can sing a regular tune; while those which do not, merely present detached notes. We therefore incline to the opinion, that Imitation, and probably Language, are ingredients in the production of continuous and connected melody.* SECTION VII.—Organ XXXIII. Language. THE subject of Language is involved in great perplexity, and has formed a topic of very extended philosophical inquiry. Many of its simple phenomena are well worthy of attention; and before entering upon the investigation of the function of the organ now to be considered, we shall notice a few facts which may conduce to the expiscation of the elementary principles of the question. The horse and the dog associate certain simple ideas with certain artificial sounds, used by man to make them obey him. The elephant, the hog, the camel, some birds, A very valuable contribution has been made, on the subject of Music, to the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal (Vol. ii. No. liv. p. 53), which we shall here abridge : * Melody or Tune signifies single sounds, each of a definite pitch and duration, succeeding each other in definite musical time. The name Tune is therefore improper, for there exists a distinct organ of Time, which gives ideas of the duration of single notes, and their times of succession. Hence, we have, Ist, one faculty, with its organ, to give us ideas of an essential element of melody, namely its time; and, 2d, another to give us ideas of melody as a whole, including time. The generic terms-Pitch, Duration, Force, or Loudness, and Quality, contain all the varieties of audibility that the musician can detect, and which he employs to produce those effects that and some fowl, as well as many quadrupeds, do the same. Yet none of these speak or return an answer. The parrot, the starling, the crow, and, we believe, other birds, utter a number of words used by man, but they associate no ideas with them whatever. In all ages, there have occurred cases wherein a number of persons have been led, by an irresistible desire, to utter an immense number of verbal sounds, to which they attached no ideas whatever, and which were thence termed the unknown tongues. Then there are the blind, who being able to discern no signs of words or motions, make certain raised or stamped figures, discriminated by touch, stand for certain ideas or sounds. Lastly, there are the deaf and dumb, who make certain figures on paper stand for particular ideas-who know thoughts by the mere motions of the lips, and associate mental states with nimble movements of the fingers. Now, here are recorded a variety of phenomena, for which it is quite impossible to account upon any common principle. Some of them manifestly have no relation to the organ of Language at all, and must be carefully separated from it. Words may be either sounds or figures. The deaf and dumb, and the blind, use figures, letters, embossed or printed, which are directly associated with the ideas they represent, and suggest those ideas whenever the figures are looked upon. Those who possess sight and hearing, use printed letters as the representatives of ideas, and of sounds with which these ideas are associated. They also use sounds as the representatives of printed figures, and of the ideas which these indicate. The sounds may suggest the ideas, with or without the intervening association of the figures; and the figures may suggest the sounds, and through these the ideas, or they may directly suggest the ideas without the associated sounds. Now, in the case of the blind persons who feel, and the deaf persons who see, these figures (and the latter do not connect these with sounds), it is clear, that they observe them by means of Form, Size, Colour, and Weight, which organs are perfectly competent to perceive, remember, and recognise the figures. By means of Individuality and Eventuality, they may be associated with the ideas of which they are the signs; and here, therefore, there seems no room for the action of the organ of Language. But persons who are in possession of all their senses, make use of sounds as well as figures, as symbols of ideas; and, in regard to these sounds, we yet know not of any cerebral organ as the receiver and perceiver of their impressions. We incline to the opinion, that the organ of Language is that whereby we perceive and remember sounds, merely as such, in the way the parrot or starling perceive them without attaching any ideas to them; and that Eventuality and Individuality are required to connect these sounds with the ideas of which they are the signs. Hence, although by means of the organ of Language, we may amass an immense number of sounds, they will be no more available to us than the unknown tongues are to the Rowites, to which they attach no ideas whatever. To be a linguist, that is to say, to possess a knowledge of an extensive variety of these sounds, and the ideas attached to them, command our admiration. The varieties of Pitch and Duration are accurately written on the musical staff. The elementary part, or A B C of a musical education, is to learn the language of Pitch and Duration. The varieties of Pitch, are comprised within the octave or eight sounds, which hold a fixed relation to each other. The varieties of Duration are comprised between a Semibreve, the longest sound, and a Demisemiquaver, the shortest. Loudness or Force, is not precise in its nomenclature or notation. The vague terms, Loud and Soft, are the chief distinctions under this general head. The Quality of sound is vague in its nomenclature and notation; the French call it Timbre, and sometimes Ton. Pitch depends upon the number of impulses in a given time; Duration, on the continuance of the same number in equal successive times; Loudness, on the extent of excursion of the vibration of the sounding body; and Quality, on its molecular structure. What, then, is the function of the organ called Tune? It is not duration of sound, which is estimated by Time. It has been found, that persons deficient in musical ear, are not deficient in hearing. They can estimate the relative distance of sound, by measuring accurately the loudness. They also estimate correctly its direction, by the same power, and clearly perceive the quality of the sound. Thus, the quality, and the degrees of loudness of sounds are perceived, although the organ of melody be deficiently developed. The inquiry is now narrow, for the only remaining property is the Pitch of sound; and this is the property which is ill perceived. There may be discrimination between the sound and its fifth or sixth, but there is no power to discriminate the several degrees of the scale or gamut, and hence, none for the perception of melody. Dr. Thomas Brown, after mentioning the powers of hearing possessed by such persons, says they have yet been incapable of distinguishing the musical relations of sounds, as reciprocally high or low, the melody that results from them in certain successions, and the harmony or discord of their union. -for example, the meaning of Italian, Greek, or Hebrew words in English,-they must be connected with their representatives or corresponding thoughts, by means of Individuality and Eventuality. The organ of Language alone, therefore, will never constitute a scholar. It must be accompanied with large Individuality, Eventuality, and probably Order. Nay, a deaf and dumb person will, if a linguist, be so without any assistance from the organ of Language at all. But no man can converse in various tongues or dialects, without a very large endowment of this faculty. To give choice of expression and felicity of language, a high amount of the other intellectual faculties must be combined with large Language; the former to produce copiousness, precision, and brilliancy of thought; the latter to present to the mind a vast collection of sounds, out of which the appropriate expression may be selected; the two being associated by means of the organs formerly noticed. Without abundance of ideas, the language will be selected with no skill, and combined with no terseness or felicity. Without abundance of Language, the finest ideas will be without the vocabulary out of which they are to choose their appropriate expression. Their joint action is absolutely necessary to the accomplished speaker or author. We have conjectured, that the function of Language is the perception of sound; and hence, we incline to the opinion, that accuracy of pronunciation and accent depend upon this organ. We also suspect, that the phenomena of sound are perceived by Language, and that a high developement of it is necessary to the accomplished ventriloquist. The modulation of the voice in perfect elocution-the variety of intonation, and the absence of monotony, probably require, in addition, a fair endowment of Tune and large Imitation. Of course, the possession of a large developement of the passion to be represented by the speaker, will materially assist the orator in turning his attention towards the tone in which the emotion is manifested in real life. Edmund Kean possessed the deepest skill, in the modulation of his voice, of any actor; and his organ of Language was very large, combined with good Tune and Imitation, as well as large Knowing organs. Eventuality is of very great importance to the orator. It is by this organ that all former ideas are stored up, connected and arranged in the original order of their entry into the mind; and, by it also, combined with Individuality, that the appropriate language in which ideas are to be clothed, is revolved and settled three or four sentences in advance of the paragraph which the speaker is enunciating. These organs thus constitute a sort of intellectual locality, in which, in his mind's eye, the orator has the whole of his future speech, ideas, and words, before him at one glance, or rather, in one conception. The size of the organ of Language, is indicated by the prominence of the eyes beyond the socket or cheek-bone, and their projection downwards from the eyebrows. Of course, when the Knowing faculties, at the super orbitar plate, are very large, they will project so much as to diminish the prominent appearance of the eyes. Many cases are recorded, in which lesions of the anterior lobe of the brain were accompanied with an incapacity to conduct conversation, although there was a distinct comprehension by the patient of what was said to him, and a perfect power of articulation. We suspect that all these cases are inaccurately or imperfectly reported, because it is impossible to reconcile them with any known hypothesis. Dr. Hood's patient "comprehended distinctly every word which was spoken or addressed to him; and though he had ideas adequate to form a full reply, the words by which these ideas are expressed, seemed to have been entirely obliterated from his mind." "When any person read to him from a book, he had no difficulty in perceiving the meaning of the passage, but he could not himself then read; and the reason seemed to be, that he had forgotten the elements of written language, viz. the names of the letters of the alphabet." Now, here a man comprehends perfectly the sounds uttered by another, and perceives at once their relation to ideas, but cannot comprehend the relations of these sounds with letters (although he does perceive their relation with thoughts), and while he can pronounce words perfectly, does not understand their meaning when uttered by himself. This is quite unintelligible, and we suspect some part of the phenomena is not stated, or has been misconceived. Mr. Combe notices the case of a gentleman, whose "understanding was sound; and he could comprehend spoken language when addressed to him; he could articulate perfectly; but he could not command the proper words to express his ideas." This case appears to us not so difficult of comprehension, although it is not without obscurity. We can imagine, that the perception of articulation, or, in other words, the relation betwixt certain sounds and the management of the lingual apparatus necessary to produce them, may be affected; or, it may be, that the organ is too feeble to reproduce past impressions, but strong enough to recognise them when presented; as many can perceive a likeness, who cannot paint one-or a landscape, although they cannot describe it when they are removed from the scene. It may have been observed, that there are many persons, especially among those not much accustomed to read, who articulate every word of the book they peruse. It strikes us, that they have recourse to this method, because printed and written words are not, in their minds, directly associated with ideas, but only with sounds, and that the sounds are connected with the ideas. This theory would solve the difficulty started by Mr. Combe, in the case reported by Professor Syme, where "the patient seemed to understand perfectly whatever was said to him, but had scarcely any recollection of written or printed words." It is not mentioned, whether the patient recognised all other objects of form. If he did not, of course it is not in any degree singular that he should not remember the forms of words; if he did, then it would appear that his mind connected print only with sounds, and the sounds alone with the ideas. This association being destroyed by cerebral disease, the forms of the words would cease to suggest the sounds, and thus to recall the ideas connected with them. Still, the subject is involved in much obscurity. Dr. W. A. F. Browne has detailed cases of maniacs, in whom he infers that there is disease in the organ of Language, in consequence of observing in them rapidity of voluntary utterance, and, also, involuntary utterance to such an extent that the words flowed in wonderful volubility, in direct opposition to the will of the speaker. But we do not consider this as sufficient evidence of disease in the organ of Language. Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor, is too old an adage not to convince us that the passions often overmaster the discretion; and that Destructiveness, Vanity, Fanaticism, will often insist upon giving vent to their feelings in the words with which they have been so long associated, against every argument that prudence can advance. When two denizens of Billingsgate salute each other in their native Doric, no one supposes that the organ of Language is diseased, but only that Destructiveness takes its ordinary channel of speech to relieve its paroxysms. The phenomena of the unknown tongues, however, appear to us to come nearer a simple affection of this organ. Mr. Simpson, in a clever paper in the Phrenological Journal, entitled, “Sound versus Tune," sums up a number of observations thus:-"1st, Sound is the result of a quality of matter, and therefore must have a faculty for its perception. 2d, The faculty must be a knowing faculty, and, as such, should have an organ situated in the anterior lobe of the brain; but the only organ which has been observed in that region, connected with sound, is that which has hitherto been denominated the organ of Tune. 3d, The perception, and, to a certain degree, the discrimination of sound, is necessary to our safety, and is therefore a faculty possessed by the whole human race. 4th, The perception and enjoyment of sounds in musical relation, is not possessed by the whole human race, but only by a part of them, and therefore cannot be the radical base of a faculty. 5th, The perception of Sounds, and the perception of the musical relation of sounds, are powers differing in degree, not in kind, because ALL sounds whatever are essentially musical sounds, and therefore must be perceived by one and the same faculty, though in different degrees. 6th, There is a close analogy between colour and sound; but the same faculty perceives simple colours, and likewise their harmonies in painting; and therefore it is inferred, that the same faculty perceives simple sounds, and their harmony in music." The second proposition here made, is, of course, incorrect. Language is connected with Sound as certainly as Tune is, and we suspect is more involved in its phenomena. The females of birds do not sing; yet it is nowhere stated that their ear does not discriminate all varieties of tone as precisely as the males. We have known many persons extremely deficient in musical ear, who were remarkable for the power of discriminating sounds, so that they could tell who was coming, by the sound of the foot-distinguish easily birds by their cry-and even exactly tell which of many horses was going past, by the sound of its hoofs. They could also recognise individuals by their voice, when they knew nothing of them by their personal appearance: So, the American Indians are sensible of the approach of all persons or animals at an immense distance, by putting their ear to the ground and listening to their tread ~ |