Publication information |
Source: Phrenological Journal and Phrenological Magazine Source type: journal Document type: editorial Document title: “Recent Events” Author(s): anonymous Date of publication: October 1901 Volume number: 112 Issue number: 4 Pagination: 133-36 |
Citation |
“Recent Events.” Phrenological Journal and Phrenological Magazine Oct. 1901 v112n4: pp. 133-36. |
Transcription |
full text |
Keywords |
anarchism (dealing with); Leon Czolgosz (phrenological examination). |
Named persons |
Leon Czolgosz; James A. Garfield; Emma Goldman; Abraham Lincoln; Errico Malatesta [identified as Malatissa below]; William McKinley; Louise Michel. |
Notes |
The person referred to below as Lana cannot be identified.
The article below includes two illustrations of Czolgosz (p. 134 and p. 135). |
Document |
Recent Events
The time has come when the Constitution of the
United States must be so altered as to give to the country and its political
workers some definite protection from the free hand of anarchy, and [133][134]
developments during the last thirty years have proved the necessity of suppressing
the work of the professed advocates of anarchy.
When the Constitution was adopted special protection
was given to the people from the ones who governed and whose duty it was to
rule and preserve order. No special thought was then given to the fact that
the people might do an injury to those who stood as the head as Chief Executive
of the country.
The murderous attempts upon Lincoln, Garfield,
and President McKinley warn sober and reflective citizens of the country that
this kind of act must receive the penalty of treason. Editorials throughout
the country indicate that public opinion is aroused to the fact that there is
a limit to freedom, and that it is necessary to amend the Constitution and pass
a bill through the Senate and the House of Representatives to give an additional
safeguard to the President’s life.
When examining the portraits of Leon Czolgosz
we realize several important facts which Phrenology alone is able to indicate.
They indicate a poor quality of organization, with an unbalanced development
of mind. There are several contradictions in his outline of head and features
which should be taken into account when summing up the true nature of the man
and his disposition.
The lower part of the face, namely, the lips and
the chin, correspond with the development of the occipital lobe, and indicate
the power of the cerebellum and the passionate nature of the individual. In
looking at the side head we see that the ears are situated in a forward position
of the head and are quite low down on the cheeks; this being the case there
is very little room for intellectual brain-cells to develop in the anterior
portion of the head, and whenever the ears are low on the cheek we invariably
find that the character manifests itself in some desperate act.
There is a certain degree of effeminacy; thus,
the effeminacy of the amorous lips and the strong social brain indicate that
he might be an easy prey to the dictates of a stronger mind than his own. The
features of the face are not evenly moulded, the left eye being higher than
the right, the left ear higher than the right, and the nose being irregular
in shape, all show a want of balance of mind and character.
The outlines of the head indicate several strong
characteristics which probably dominate and control his character. One is the
fact that his brain is broad at its base and gives a tendency to hardness and
severity, and when this basilar region is so strongly accentuated a person needs
a strong development of [134][135] the moral faculties
to make proper use of it; otherwise, it often deteriorates and becomes reckless
in its expression. Destructiveness in its moral and intellectual interpretation
does not mean to destroy, but with the guidance of Causality and Conscientiousness
it gives to the character force, energy, spirit, pluck, but uncontrolled it
leads to baseness and an appetite for uncontrolled passion, cruelty, and revenge.
Judging from the development of the intellectual
lobe which, according to the portraits, is not high, we recognize that the man
lived more in the basilar part of his brain than in his finer susceptibilities
of mind. There is only about an inch of forehead from where the hair parts from
the forehead to the centre of the eyebrows; consequently, this young man could
not have had a very high or noble grasp of any intellectual kind. He has breadth
of head across the eyes which indicates a full development of perceptive talent;
and while we do not believe that he made the plans for the crime he committed,
he was able to execute the designs by force of his strong perceptive faculties.
A sense of Form, Size, and Weight are all strongly
developed, and were useful in the execution of his work. The superior part of
the forehead does not represent that the planning and thinking mind was great
enough to develop the plot by himself, through his Secretiveness above and behind
the ear he was enabled to hold his designs to himself instead of seeking to
gain self-glorification by communicating them to others.
If we take a survey of the crown of the head we
shall see the weakness of the man’s character. His Self-Esteem was not sufficiently
developed to give him self-respect and manliness of character to avoid the lowering
of himself to the perpetration of a crime of such enormity.
Instead of being influenced by a love of adulation
and a hope of notoriety as some experts have stated, we do not find his Approbativeness
and Self-Esteem strongly developed, and, consequently, we believe it was from
quite a different motive that he allowed himself to become a tool in the hands
of others.
The motive is not far to seek, for if we will
examine the strong development of Firmness and the small development of Veneration
we shall see at once how the man showed determination of mind in carrying out
his blind sense of duty and responsibility. It was his Firmness that gave him
his resolution and power to carry out what he considered to be his duty. He
was a conscientious follower of anarchistic principles. Of this we have no doubt,
and when the decree goes out for a certain person to be [135][136]
executed no one dares to refuse, and no one is inclined to do so if he possesses
as much Firmness and Destructiveness as is shown in the head of Czolgosz.
Veneration is small in development, which indicates
that he has no respect to spare for the superiority of any one’s character,
and he would not mortify his sense of respect in perpetrating an act so inhuman
upon the President of the United States.
His temperamental conditions show a strong tendency
toward the vital and motive rather than the mental. His round face and round
back-head indicate the vital, while the long jaw and the strong, thick nose
indicate the motive temperament. His weight of one hundred and fifty pounds,
compared with his height of five feet, eight and a half inches, together with
his size of head, indicate to us that he had more of the strength of physical
powers than the mental attributes.
Taking him altogether, he has the signs of strength
and weakness, but these are unfortunately blended in such a way that they do
not give him the right use of his qualities as a normal American citizen. That
he was the instrument of others is our firm conviction, as he has not the strength
of mind or clearness of intellect nor the organizing ability of a number of
other anarchists whose portraits we have examined; namely, Lana, Malatissa,
Emma Goldman, and Louise Michel.