Firmness gleams like a column of fire amid surrounding darkness. It is remarkable, that among the crania of criminals, we so generally find, whatever may be the torpor of the moral region, an active condition of the organ of Firmness impressed upon the parietal bones. This is the only organ in the superior region which is calculated to co-operate with the animal passions, and, hence, is the only superior organ that continues active, when Combativeness, Acquisitiveness, &c., rule the moral character. The torpor in the region of Conscientiousness, which includes Temperance and Industry, shows that he had been leading a dishonorable life-living by fraud and crime. The torpor of Religion indicates the general profligacy of his career. The torpor of the region of Love arises from his long alienation from his paternal family and all the ties of home. His relations were disposed to discard him entirely, after he had disgraced himself by crime. The torpor in the region of Hope is what we might anticipate from his career. His life must have been gloomy and desperate, whatever occasional excitements and pleasures it may have afforded. A few years more of such a career would have darkened still further the coronal region, and extended the shadows of this moral death over portions of the benevolent and social region, as well as the upper portion of the temples. From the appearance of the skull, I should suppose he was not over thirty years of age; and, from the progressive moral decline, I presume it was well for society that his career was arrested as it was, and his firmness, tact and daring energy, no longer employed against his fellow-beings. The partial opacities of the side-head, which are less marked on the right side than on the left, do not cover any of the organs of violence or crime. The organs which they cover indicate a timid, submissive character. Hence, the opacities over the lateral organs contribute only to increase the reckless boldness of his disposition. As a natural consequence of his degraded life, we find that the region of self-respect and sense of character-the upper portion of the occiput, where phrenologists have located Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, is nearly as opaque as any of the moral regions. The opacity which is observed at the mastoid process, does not indicate any cerebral torpor, as it arises from the thickness of the bony prominence on the exterior surface of the skull. The opacity about the brow also arises from a bony prominence, which forms the superciliary arch. The excitement and growth in the brain, by which these indentations and translucencies are produced, may be recognized in their progress by any close observer. The organs which are vigorously excited produce a fullness, tension, aching, or some other local sensation, by which we can recognize their condition and growth. In this way, a careful observer may learn the progress of development in his own brain, and the active or inactive condition of the organs, by the local sensations. ART. I V.PERPETUAL MOTION. Is it possible by any combination of machinery to produce a perpetual motion? This question, which has puzzled and deluded mankind from the earliest periods to the present time, is not in reality one of much intrinsic difficulty, when we understand thoroughly the laws of mechanical impulse and the various causes of motion. It has been agreed among scientific men, that it is impossible, by any machinery whatever, to produce a perpetual motion, and that all attempts in that direction are based upon absurd delusions. Nevertheless, ingenious men have often deluded themselves, and sometimes their friends and a portion of the public, into the belief that they had constructed, or were about to construct, a machine possessing a perpetual self-moving power. This delusion has arisen from an extravagant idea of the powers of mechanical combination. No mere combinations of mechanism, however ingenious-no arrangement of springs, levers, &c.-can possibly generate power. However complicated the machinery, whatever indication it may give to the confused, unscientific observer of perpetuating or reproducing motion, it is perfectly certain to those, who understand the laws of mechanics, that no such arrangements can possess any intrinsic moving power, or can possibly be capable of perpetuating the action of any force applied from the exterior. Matter arranged in any form of mechanism, is still absolutely inert. It moves only as it is moved; and when the acting force has become exhausted, it ceases to move. Not understanding clearly these principles, mechanical inventors have often supposed that by the internal movements of their machinery, a power communicated to it might be effectually maintained in action without loss, or even with a positive increase of power. All such appearances are deceptive and based upon some inaccuracy in the estimates and calculations of the inventor. So far, then, as mechanical combinations can affect it, we may assume that the production of perpetual motion is an utter impossibility. Yet if we can find a perpetual moving power, there can be no difficulty in producing a perpetual motion. Nature is full of such examples. The revolutions of the earth, the movements of the atmosphere and ocean, the growth of vegetation and progress of animal life, are examples of self-moving machinery to the duration of which we perceive no necessary limits. The question as to the practicability of perpetual motion, then, is simply this: Can we obtain command of any of those great agencies by which the perpetual movements of nature are maintained and apply them to our purposes? If we can do this, the problem of perpetual motion is practically solved; but in any other mode than this, the attempt would be utterly futile. Upon this principle, however, we may affirm that perpetual motion is a practicable thing. I do not know that it can ever be a matter of any great practical utility; but as an amusing subject of scientific speculation, it occupied my mind many years since, when I succeeded in inventing an apparatus capable of producing what might, without impropriety, be called a Perpetual Motion. Such an ap paratus could have no other value than as a scientific toy; and I did not care to undergo the trouble of its construction, but communicated a brief statement of its discovery to the National Intelligencer. The accomplishment of perpetual motion requires, that we avail ourselves of some of the same great forces by which the movements of the atmosphere and of vegetable and animal life are maintained. Such a power we find in the caloric emitted from the sun, destitute of which, the surface of the world would be congealed in motionless stillness, instead of presenting its present interesting variety of waves and winds, of animal and vegetable life. If a suitable metallic apparatus be exposed to the ordinary changes of temperature from day to night and from suminer to winter, the metallic substance will experience an endless succession of alternate movements of contraction and expansion, sufficient, if rightly managed, to propel any machinery which may be attached. A metallic bar will undergo a sensible contraction and expansion by the difference of temperature between midday and midnight. This difference, amounting often to twenty or thirty degrees, is not sufficient to produce any striking effects; but, however small the amount of contraction and expansion, it is performed with irresistible energy. It might be necessary to make the expanding rod even a mile in length, to render its motion sufficiently extensive; but, however limited and gradual the contraction or expansion might be, the immense force with which it is accomplished, will enable us to produce important mechanical results, as it is an easy matter to convert power into velocity or extent of motion. It is obvious that a metallic bar, let it move but an inch in twenty-four hours, if it move that much, with a force of a million of pounds, may become an important source of motive power. The great length which would be required to obtain our power from a straight rod, suggests the convenience of a fluid metal. We are familiar with the fact, that a small amount of mercury contained in the bulb of a thermometer, will contract and expand in the annual variations of the season, sufficiently to propel a slender column of its own substance through a space of several inches. Acting upon these principles, let us make a reservoir of mercury, with a slender tube attached-a form thus resembling a thermometer. The rise and fall of the mercury in the tube, might propel a piston through a corresponding space. If the reservoir of mercury be sufficiently large in proportion to the connected tube, the ordinary changes of temperature from midnight to midday, would be sufficient to propel the piston through a space of several inches, or even one or two feet. The motion of the piston, although occurring but once a day, would be performed with so much power, as to be capable of propelling whatever machinery might be appropriately attached. Had this principle been adopted by the inventors of perpetual motion, they might have succeeded-at least in puzzling the savans and the public. Had an ingenious apparatus been constructed, apparently designed for the production of perpetual motion by mechanical arrangements, but really deriving its power from the contraction and expansion of mercury and other metals, there can be no doubt this would have successfully hoaxed the curious portion of the public. There are not a few of those who stubbornly resist the improvement of psychological science-who believe nothing wonderful that relates to man-yet who are exceedingly credulous in all matters pertaining to physical science. This class of individuals, quite credulous as to new machines and perpetual motions, and not averse even to swallowing a "moon-hoax," are frequently found among the stubborn disbelievers of all wonderful mental phenomena. It is not from the lack of credulity that they are averse to neurological science, but from the lack of perspicacity and elevation of thought. There is a good story of a sailor, who was relating to his old mother the ordinary incidents of an Eastern voyage, which proved to be so far beyond the old lady's sphere of thought, as to excite her incredulity. She rebuked her son for attempting to impose upon her ignorance; upon which, Jack, good naturedly determining to accommodate his wares to the market, changed his tone, and informed the old lady, that when at anchor in the Red Sea, his shipmates had experienced great difficulty in heaving on board the anchor of the ship; and as soon as it appeared above water, they discovered, attached to one of its flukes, nothing less than one of the chariotwheels of Pharaoh! As this story came within the usual range of the old lady's ideas, she received it with great delight. Thus it is, that every year the wise and incredulous public is gulled by irrational pretended discoveries in mechanical and medical science, which are received without judgment and without criticism, while the highest species of knowledge which has been developed in the nineteenth century, is fiercely repelled by our colleges and academic institutions, and sneered at by the witlings of the periodical press. As the natural history of an Oriental voyage was too incredible for the old lady, so does any bold excursion beyond the ordinary range of science, excite the incredulity of the learned, no less at the present time than in the days of Columbus. Familiar Table-Talk. DR. HARNEY.-Among the psychometric opinions in this number, is a sketch of Dr. Harney, the poet. To give the reader some idea of his style of mind, one of his poems, which has frequently been quoted, is here appended. Most of Dr. Harney's productions in manuscript have been lost since his death. Á distinguished western poet, who had examined them, said, in a letter to a friend, "Dr. Harney was more than any of you have yet claimed for him, and I shall, one of these days, take great pleasure in making this manifest." FEVER DREAM. A fever-scorched my body, fired my brain! I raged with thirst, and begged a cold, clear draught Thirst raged within me.-I sought the deepest vale, caves, In horrid mockery, re-echoed "Water!" And quaff my fill."-I ran-I reached the shore.- The death of hope. Ah! now, no more was heard And from its arid breast heaved smoke, that seemed Even then, when hope was dead!-past hope- Oh! happy then, were mothers, who gave suck. To their parched tongues! "Tis done!-now all' is Blood, water, and the bosom's nectar.-all! "Rend, oh! ye lightnings! the sealed firmament. And flood a burning world.-Rain! rain! pour! pour! Open-ye windows of high heaven! and pour Meanwhile the skies, on which they dared not Luxurious death! Ye earthquakes, split the globe, The solid, rock-ribbed globe !—and lay all bare Thus raged the multitude. And many fell |