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HELEN HELLER, A COLLEGE STUDENT.

One of the most interesting studies in mental development that has come to our notice during the past twenty years is that of the young woman mentioned above. We do not wonder that she has occupied so much room in the attention of the public, because the circumstances of her intellectual life are of a specially phenomenal nature. There is scarcely a parallel ease to be found in the history of psychology. So it is not remarkable that the scientific press has taken occasion now and then to refer to Miss Keller and to note her progress in mental development.

The fact that she has entered the Cambridge preparatory school for what is known as Radcliffe College merits attention: first, on account of its being an institution of learning of a high character, and secondly, because her preparation, as shown by examination, was ample, although she had not been coached for the purpose. At this school Miss Keller studies Latin, history, and arithmetic with the classes, while she has already made some attainment in French and German, although but sixteen years of age.

The history of this girl has been told already in the columns of the PHRENOLOGICAL. When but nineteen months old, she lost, by a severe illness, all the senses but touch, and was deemed, therefore, fated to a life of helpless dependence. But, despite the gravity of her sense defects, there was exhibited in. the girl's manner a peculiar sensitiveness to impressions and intelligent recognition of many surrounding occurrences that awakened inquiry and wonder. When she had reached the age of seven it was decided by her parents to place her under special training, and Miss Sullivan, a lady of experience in teaching deaf mutes, was engaged to instruct Helen. The result of this instruction is known to the American public. Not only has this indefatigable teacher opened the mind of her devoted pupil to the reception of the common principles of education as current in the better class of schools, but she has given Helen's mind a refinement and breadth rarely met with in girls of her age.

Miss Sullivan may be said to have invented the method of communication by which the deaf, dumb, and blind girl was brought into intelligent and ready contact with the world. While the ordinary deaf-mute learns to interpret the spoken language of another person by watching the movement of his lips, Miss Keller has been taught to read the thought of another by "sensing" the movements of the lips through her finger-tips when lightly placed upon them. Another wonderful success in the girl's training was that of enabling her to articulate, and so express herself without the necessity of writing or signs. This was accomplished in 1890, and was a great advance in the mental development of Helen.

The portraits are those of Miss Sullivan and her interesting pupil from a photograph by a well-known artist. The view given of the head of Helen is note-worthy on both its physical and psychical sides, since it intimates an excellent physical constitution, associated with pronounced traits of disposition. The basal area is of considerable extent proportionally to the general size, the head being long, especially in the region for-ward of the ears, and rising to a marked height in the crown. The development appears to be derived largely from the paternal side. The intellect has a very significant perceptive range, its capacity for acquiring and appreciating knowledge being unusual. Such an organization, endowed with the usual faculties of sense, would show a great hunger for information; but Miss Keller has also the evidence of unusual ambition and pride, which would impart to her desire to know an eager earnestness, so that with successive attainments there would be felt a stronger impulse to go forward in her studies. She is doubtless an enthusiastic pupil, and rewards the effort of her teachers with far more than the proficiency they are accustomed to expect. The development of the head, and the temperament, so far as it may be judged by the picture, show a very sensitive susceptibility that characterizes Helen's emotional faculties as well as her intellect, and hence her expression of feeling should be frank and hearty, yet refined and delicate in circumstances where her natural dignity would be likely to interpose its restraint. In the face of Miss Sullivan one reads the impress of an earnest and strong nature, a spirit of resolute purpose that must exhibit unfaltering devotion in the lines of its choice, especially when there are realizations that make return for the labor, time, and love bestowed. (1)

FEATURES AND THE HEAD.

The expert in character observation studies the head chiefly, but he would he an imperfect observer if he did not take into account the "signs" of the face and of the person in general. Temperament has its expressive intimations in the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc., both form and color reflecting their correspondences. We do not say that the cranial indications of a positive, emphatic, resolute nature will be confirmed in the nose of the individual by a tournure of the marked Roman type, and that we should of course look for such a nose, given such a disposition. We should, however, expect to find a nose with " confirmations " in its anatomy -- a nose set well on the face, broad at its central, bony juncture with the upper jaw and solidly presenting at the lower end. Such a nose as that of General Sheridan and General Grant is of this type, temperament and character combining to give it contour and density of structure. "But noses," one may say, "have so many phases of outline that is it not going too far to apply a scientific interpretation to this or that form?"