Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1 Page: 223 of 444
xxxii, [3], 371, 32 p. : illustrations, map ; 21 cm.View a full description of this book.
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STATE PRISON. 183
in work. They are instructed after the hours of labour,
and also on Sundays, in their cells.
I examined the heads of eight or nine of the criminals,
and found the animal organs large in proportion
to those of the moral sentiments and intellect;
but, on the whole, the moral region was less deficient
in these individuals than in the average of criminals
whose heads I have examined in Britain. Several,
whose brains indicated very low dispositions, were
mentioned as being well conducted in prison, a strong
testimony to the efficiency of the discipline. I could
learn very little about the dispositions which they
had manifested when free members of society. The
statistics of crime will never be satisfactory until the
history of the external circumstances of the criminal,
and also his development of brain and temperament,
are recorded.
I was informed, that when Dr Spurzheim visited
this prison in 1832, he stated that a particular prisoner's
head was so well developed in the moral and
intellectual, and so little in the animal regions, that he
could not conceive how he came to be under sentence
for a crime. Afterwards it was discovered that he
was not guilty. He was liberated, and is since married,
and is now a respectable citizen. He all along
denied his guilt.
After I left the prison, several of the prisoners
whose heads I had examined wrote accounts of their
own dispositions, which were sent for my information.
Most of them represented themselves as amiable
and unfortunate men, either wrongfully condemned,
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Combe, George, 1788-1858. Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1, book, 1841; Edinburgh, Scotland. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1028/m1/223/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.