Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Collection: Books and Periodicals
Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 423
DANGERS OF PHRENOLOGY. 153
In the morning he made most ample apologies,
and was very earnest in expressing his gratitude for
my hospitality. I took the liberty of asking him
what bumps he called those in the neighbourhood of
his eyes. “ Well, sir,” he said, “you ask me a plain
question, I'll give you a plain answer. I got into a
‘muss’ down at the store last night, and was whipped ; and I deserved it too.” As he was so penitent,
I did not press him for further particulars ; but I
heard from another man the same day, that when at
the store he had taken the opportunity of an audience
to lecture them on his favourite subject, and illustrated his theory by feeling several heads, and giving
very full descriptions of the characters of the individuals. At last he got hold of a man who must
have had something peculiar in the formation of his
cranium, for he gave him a most dreadful character,
calling him a liar, a cheat, and a thief, and winding
up by saying that he was a man who would murder
his father for five dollars.
The natural consequence was, that the owner of
this enviable character jumped up and pitched into
the phrenologist, giving him the whipping which he
had so candidly acknowledged, and would probably
have murdered him without the consideration of the
five dollars, if the bystanders had not interfered.
Very near where we were at work, a party of
half-a-dozen men held a claim in the bed of the
creek, and had as usual dug a race through which to
turn the water, and so leave exposed the part they
intended to work. This they were now anxious to