The comprehensive system of science developed by experiment on the brain, perfected by psychometric exploration, demonstrated by pathognomy, corroborated by personal experiences and the sensations of the head, enforced and illustrated by the study of comparative development throughout the animal kingdom, based upon anatomy, illustrated by pathology, and proven by every examination of a living head, as well as every scientific experiment upon the brain in sensitive and intelligent persons, has now been for forty years in the hot crucible of experimental physiological investigation by vivisection, ablation, autopsy, and electricity, and still remains as the solid gold of eternal science.

The labors of Ferrier, Fritsch, Hitzig, Schiff, Bastian, Charcot, and others, have added many valuable facts; but no new fact can contradict a fact previously well observed, and nothing has occurred to dethrone the founder of cerebral science, Dr. Gall, who ranks immeasurably beyond all his contemporaries, and who prepared the way for the full development of Cerebral Psychology, resulting from the discovery of the impressibility of the brain, which has opened the entire realm of cerebral psychology, and through that has given us access to every realm of wisdom.

The long expected and long promised work upon this subject cannot be published now, for it requires an amount of elaborate research and criticism to bring the new discoveries en rapport with the investigations of more than a hundred physiologists and anatomists, whose labors should not be overlooked in a complete or systematic work uniting anatomy to psychology.

Under these circumstances it is necessary and practicable, since my “System of Anthropology” has been entirely out of the market for thirty years, to present a concise exposition of cerebral psychology and physiology, to satisfy those who perceive the inadequacy of the Gallian system, and who are aware that my discoveries have thoroughly revolutionized as well as enlarged cerebral science, rendering the old term phrenology inadequate to express its present status.

I propose therefore to publish in the successive numbers of this Journal a concise “Synopsis of Cerebral Science,” giving as concisely as possible the outlines of that vast theme, in so clear and practical a manner that each reader can test its truth in nature by examining character, correcting the errors of phrenology, demonstrating the science by his own experiments, and applying its principles in the treatment of disease, in experimental investigation, in education, self-culture, and elocution. This may satisfy the urgent present demand, until time shall permit a satisfactory work, containing the illustrations and proofs, the important modern discoveries in cerebral anatomy and vivisecting experiments, as well as the vast and interesting philosophy into which we are led by cerebral science. The March number will contain the first instalment, and its publication will be continued through the volume.