2. Phrenologists have pretended that the peculiarities of a person's mind could be known by the conformation of his brain, and even by the elevations and depressions of the skull. But brain and skull do not always correspond with sufficient closeness; and besides, Sir William Hamilton has shown conclusively, I believe, that phrenology is quackery; its principles are not scientific and its observations not reliable. He points out, among other errors, that while women as a class are more religiously inclined than men, what phrenologists call the bump of reverence, an important element in religious sentiment, is generally more developed in men than in women, and is often most conspicuous in reckless criminals. Nor is it at all certain that a lunatic's brain, if it could be examined with a microscope while he is alive, would exhibit the marks of any disorder to the eye of the observer. It is stated by Dr. Storer that the results show that "insanity may exist without structural changes of the brain, and that structural changes in the brain may exist without insanity." Dr. Bell, of the Somerville Asylum, says that "the autopsies of the insane generally present no lesion of the brain." Dr. Bucknil maintains that "the brains of the insane appear to be certainly not more liable than those of others to various incidental affections." Nor has the microscope discovered in the demented any exudation or addition to the stroma of the brain, or any change in size, shape, or proportional number of its cells. Dr. Storer concludes: "It is thus seen not merely that there is no direct correspondence between the exterior of the skull and mental integrity, any more than between the exterior of the skull and the shape and consistence of its contents" (Wharton and Stillé, "Mental Unsoundness," sec. 323). In the cases of insanity among women, the causes are largely to be found in derangement of their productive organs, and are to be met by special local treatment (ib.). It does happen, however, at times, that the brain itself is diseased, _idiopathically_ diseased, as it is technically called; but at other times it is merely affected by _sympathy_ with some other organ that is physically deranged. A physical cause there is for all mental insanity, and that physical cause determines its kind of mania or melancholia, its duration, its chances of a perfect cure. But what that cause is in a given case is often very hard if not impossible to determine. Besides natural and inherited predispositions--some taint of derangement in the family, often betrayed by fits of epilepsy, hysterics, etc.--exciting causes are usually traceable. Every form of disease may bring on sympathetic affection of the brain when the circumstances for such affection are favorable.