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Gall & Spurzheim

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See also Phrenology\

Franz Josef Gall (German: [gal]; 9 March 1758 – 22 August 1828) was a German neuroanatomist, physiologist, and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain.

Claimed as the founder of the pseudoscience of phrenology,[1] Gall was an early and important researcher in his fields. His contributions to the field of neuropsychology were controversial at the time and are now widely referred to as pseudoscience. However, Gall's study of phrenology helped establish psychology, contributed to the emergence of the naturalistic approach to the study of man, and played an important part in the development of evolutionist theories, anthropology, and sociology.[2]

Early life

Gall was born in the village of Tiefenbronn to a wealthy Roman Catholic wool merchant. The Galls, originally a noble family from Lombardy,[3] had been the leading family in the area for over a century. His father was the mayor of Tiefenbronn and he was one of 12 children, only 7 of whom lived to adulthood.[4]

Gall's scientific inquiry began in his youth. As a boy, he was fascinated by the differences between himself, his siblings, and his classmates. He developed an early interest in the brain after making a connection between one classmate's odd shaped skull and advanced language abilities.[5] It is being said, that his first ideas about functional localization came from noticing that classmates who excelled at memory tasks had prominent facial features.[6] He enjoyed collecting and categorizing plants and animals. He also realized the importance of observation as a scientific technique at a young age.[7]

Education and early career

As the second eldest son, he was intended for the priesthood but chose instead to study medicine at the University of Strasbourg. In his advanced studies, he again made observations about his classmates. He noticed that many of the particularly bright students had prominent eyeballs and concluded that this could not be purely coincidental.[8]

He later completed his degree in Vienna, Austria. While in medical school, he studied under Johann Hermann and Maximilian Stoll who impressed upon him the importance of natural observation.[9] He took his first job at Lunatic Asylum making observations about the insane.[10] He then opened up his own successful private practice and became so popular he even gave well attended lectures to the public.[11] He was offered the position as head Austrian Court physician but decided to remain in private practice and research.[12]

Contributions to phrenology

Franz Joseph Gall examining the head of a pretty young girl

Based on his early observations about the skull sizes and facial features of his classmates, Gall developed the theory of Organology and the method of Cranioscopy that would later be known as Phrenology. Gall's version of Organology states that the mind is a collection of independent entities housed within the brain. Cranioscopy is a method to determine the personality and development of mental and moral faculties on the basis of the external shape of the skull. During his lifetime, Gall collected and observed over 120 skulls in order to test his hypotheses.

Gall believed that the bumps and uneven geography of the human skull were caused by pressure exerted from the brain underneath. He divided the brain into sections that corresponded to certain behaviors and traits that he called fundamental faculties. This is referred to as localization of function. Gall believed there were 27 fundamental faculties, among them were: recollection of people, mechanical ability, talent for poetry, love of property, and even a murder instinct. Based on the surface of a person's skull, Gall could make assumptions about that person's fundamental faculties and therefore their character.

Gall disagreed with Philippe Pinel and Peter Camper that the larger brain the larger one's intellectual power. However, after numerous dissections and observations he was able to assert that a mature skull under 14 inches in circumference was not able to function normally.[13]

Relationship with Johann Spurzheim

In 1800, Johann Spurzheim attended one of Gall's public lectures and was hired as an assistant to help with public medical demonstrations. In 1804, he became Gall's full-time research partner.[14] They worked together for years to develop theories about brain localization and function. In 1813, Spurzheim separated from Gall in order to make a name for himself in Britain. Gall would later accuse Spurzheim of plagiarism and perverting his work.[15] It was Spurzheim who would give the name phrenology to Gall's theories.

Other achievements

Other than his contributions to phrenology, Gall is lesser known for his other achievements. While developing his theories on localization of function, Gall significantly advanced the science of dissection. Instead of slicing randomly, as had been the practice in previous years, Gall's method involved slow exploration of the entire brain structure and the separation of individual fibers.[16] This shift in methodology was extremely influential in future discoveries of the brain.

Gall also researched and theorized about language, communication, and the brain. He argued that pantomime, or the science of gesture, was a universal language for all animals and humans. He believed every living thing was born with the ability to understand gestures on some level.[17]

In 1823, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

He published a book titled On the Functions of the Brain and of Each of Its parts: With Observations on the Possibility of Determining the Instincts, Propensities, and Talents, Or the Moral and Intellectual Dispositions of Men and Animals, by the Configuration of the Brain and Head detailing his vast research on brain function and localization. It was translated to English in 1835 by Lewis Winslow.[18]

Reception and controversy

Gall's concepts on brain localization were revolutionary, and led to many religious leaders and scientists to take exception to his theories. The Catholic Church considered his theory as contrary to the established tenets of Catholicism. Established science also condemned these ideas for lack of scientific proof of his theory. Still others attempted to discredit Gall because they believed he had not given rightful credit to the theories and scientists who influenced him. French scientist Étienne-Jean Georget accused Gall of stealing Charles Bonnet's basic idea of brain localization that he had written about over 60 years earlier.[19]

His ideas were also not acceptable to the court of Emperor Joseph II (the brother of Marie Antoinette). The Austrian government accused Gall of being a materialist and banned his ideas because of their threat to public morality.[20] Due to this opposition, Gall left his lecturer position in Austria. He sought a teaching position in Germany and eventually settled in Paris. Revolutionary France was most likely the most hospitable place for Gall's theories.

However, Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruling emperor, and the scientific establishment led by the Institute of France, pronounced his science as invalid. Despite all this, Gall was able to secure a comfortable existence on the basis of his speciality. He became a celebrity of sorts as he was accepted into Parisian intellectual salons.

Physiologist Jean Pierre Flourens emerged as one of the sharpest critics of Gall's theories, testing them on animals by removing portions of the brains of dogs, rabbits, and birds to examine how the remaining sections functioned. Flourens published his findings in two separate articles, attacking Gall's theory that the brain acted as discrete parts instead of as a whole unit.[21] One interesting influence was on psychiatry, where the South Italian psychiatrist Biagio Gioacchino Miraglia proposed a new classification of mental illness based on brain functions as they were conceived in Gall's phrenology.[22]

Legacy

In spite of many problems associated with his work, Gall made significant contributions to the field of neurological science. He died in Paris, on 22 August 1828. Although married, he remained childless. Some direct descendants of his brothers lived in Germany until 1949. A collection of his skulls can be seen at the Rollett Museum in Baden bei Wien, Austria, where several of his relatives now live.[23]

Today, phrenology is thought of as a huge mis-step by the scientific community. The idea that a person's personality could be determined by the shape of their skull has been repeatedly disproven.[24] But at the time, Gall's arguments were persuasive and intriguing. Even though phrenology is now known to be incorrect, Gall did set the groundwork for modern neuroscience by spreading the idea of functional localization within the brain.

The misuse of Gall's ideas and work to justify discrimination were deliberately furthered by his associates, including Johann Spurzheim. Later, others tried to improve on his theories with systems such as characterology.

Gall's theories had an influence both on the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso and on his French rival, Alexandre Lacassagne. He also influenced the French anatomist, Paul Broca.

Notes...

Franz Joseph Gall - Wikipedia

Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (31 December 1776 – 10 November 1832) was a German physician who became one of the chief proponents of phrenology, which was developed c. 1800 by Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828).

Biography

Spurzheim was born near Trier, Germany, on 31 December 1776 and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He became acquainted with Gall in 1800 and was soon hired by him as an assistant. Gall intended to have Spurzheim as his successor and added his name as a co-author to books and publications. In 1812, however, Gall and Spurzheim had a falling out, and Spurzheim started a separate career, lecturing and writing extensively on what he termed 'The Physiognomical System of Drs Gall and Spurzheim'. He greatly popularised phrenology, and travelled extensively throughout Europe, achieving considerable success in England and France.

In 1816 he travelled to Edinburgh to refute an article by Dr John Gordon who had famously debunked Spurzheim, Gall and phrenology in general in an article in the Edinburgh Review in 1815.[1]

He died of typhoid in Boston in 1832, cutting short his first and only American tour. After the public autopsy of Spurzheim, his brain, skull, and heart were removed, preserved in jars of alcohol as relics, and put on display to the public.[2] Adoring Bostonians staged an elaborate public funeral and erected a monument in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3]

Spurzheim made many alterations to Gall's phrenological system, including an increase in the number of "organs", as well as its organization into a hierarchical system. Spurzheim also used images and busts to illustrate the craniographic approach of phrenology.

Publications

References
  1. ^ "History of Phrenology on the Web".
  2. ^ Walsh, Anthony, "The American Tour of Dr. Spurzheim", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 27 (1972), pp. 187-205.
  3. ^ Spurzheim Monument at Mount Auburn Cemetery

External links

Johann Spurzheim - Wikipedia

Knowledge Web Content (see main node)

Franz Josef Gall & Spurzheim

Franz Joseph Gall,  originator of phrenology & 

JG Spurzheim, co-popularizer of phrenology

Franz Josef Gall

 @@

ACHIEVEMENTS:@@

Pioneer in localization of the brain functions

Founder ofphrenology

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:  9 March 1758, Tiefenbronn, Baden, Germany (map)

DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH: 22 August 1828, Paris, France. Aged 70

Timeline

DISCIPLINE: Anatomist and physiologist

EDUCATION:

Schools in Baden and Bruschal 

Strasbourg University

Vienna University

MAJOR WORK: "The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General and of the

 Brain in Particular" (1810-1819)

"0n the Functions of the Brain" (1822-26)

 @@

LIFE AND TIMES:

Gall took his medical degree in Vienna in 1785 and set up a successful practice where he treated many eminent citizens. From an early age, Gall had noticed that his schoolfellows and siblings each had a disposition or talent peculiar to themselves. He came to believe that one (a talent for memorizing text) was linked to the possession of prominent eyes and confirmed this at university.

He began to consider the idea that external physiological signs indicated the character, abilities and temperament of the individual.  It seemed to Gall that all very determined people had big heads. This observation stimulated him to look at the brain.  He soon discarded the metaphysicians like Aristotle 2 who said the human intellectual faculty was located in the heart,  and Descartes* who said it was in the pineal gland. He also rejected the current view that talent was either a gift from God or was due to environmental influence. He decided to base his opinions entirely on observations.

During the previous century, Cullen* in Edinburghhad said that life was a function of nervous energy, and Petrus van Musschenbroek* that observation and experiment were the only ways to learn about the human body.

Gall was physician to a mental asylum in Vienna and made observations on the insane. He also visited prisons and went to schools. In his own circle, he met distinguished judges, princes and academicians. Whenever he heard about an individual who was particularly talented he tracked them down and observed their heads. 

In 1796 he began to give a public lectures and demonstrations on skull examination in Vienna. His followers referred to the subject as “phrenology.”

In 1800 he was joined by Spurzheim* who assisted him in his research. In 1802, the Austrian government banned Gall from lecturing on the grounds that his views encouraged immorality and atheism. This prohibition aroused interest in the subject and, as Gall was still allowed to publish, interest was maintained. Gall and Spurzheim continued to pursue their research which had now widened to the anatomy and physiology of the whole nervous system.

Gall was the first to describe the grey matter of the brain as the matrix of the nerve cells (the neurons), and the fibrous white matter as the conductor of nerve impulses (the ganglia).  In this way Gall placed the functioning basis of the nervous system within the brain, rejecting any of the old ideas of vital fluids or glandular influences.

His theory of the nervous system was based on the concept of a series of separate but interrelated structures which were all part of a unified whole. He believed that each separate structure was responsible for a different area of human behaviour. This concept was validated in 1861 when Paul Broca discovered the location of the speech centre in the brain, and was proved by   Charcot*.

In 1805 Gall and Spurzheim left Vienna to visit universities in Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark. During the eighteenth century, men like Italian criminologist Beccaria 2* had begun to study the causes of crime and the fate of the criminals,  and Gall and Spurzheim followed up this work.

On their travels, they were given access to prisons, asylums and schools to gather evidence. In 1805, they were allowed to enter the fortress of Spandau in Berlin to observe the prisoners.  Gall, but not Spurzheim, claimed to have noted that every prisoner had a peculiarity of the head where he believed the organ of theft originated.

He and Spurzheim lectured and gave anatomical  demonstrations of the brain throughout their tour. In 1807 they arrived in Paris and began their first course of lectures. They were mobbed by fashionable society but when they presented a paper on the anatomy of the brain to the French Institute the reaction was not so favourable. A committee headed by the anatomist Cuvier* concluded that the neuroanatomical evidence presented by Gall and Spurzheim did not prove Gall's theories.

Between 1810 and 1819 the two published their Anatomie, a 4 vol. treatise which theorized brain to be bundle of 27 (later 37) separate organs controlling different moral, sexual and intellectual traits.  In 1813 Gall and Spurzheim ended their collaboration. Gall remained in Paris where he enjoyed a high status as a physician, writer and philosopher. In 1835-6 he collaborated with French doctors, one of whom,  Broussais*, was a professor at the medical faculty in Paris, on a paper on the functions of the brain.  Phrenological societies were set up all over Europe and Gall was visited by enthusiasts such asCombe*, one of the founders of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society.Gall lectured almost to the end of his life, suffering a seizure during a lecture, which ended his speaking career

 ASSESSMENT: Gall was an early pioneer in linking the separate structures of the brain to specific areas of human behaviour.  Although his system of phrenologywas eventually discredited as pseudo-science it had a tremendous vogue for some time in Europe and America.

 EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Followers of Gall included eminent men such as the English naturalist, Wallace*, the historian Karl Marx* and the Prussian politician Bismarck, Otto von*.

Inspired physiognomist Lavater*.

Was at the deathbed of religious leader Saint-Simon*

Was inspired by Pinel’s* research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dictionary of Scientific Biography.

Fowler, Jessie A, The Life of Dr Francois Gall, L N Fowler & Co., London, 1896.

Next stopon theMystery Tour

Phrenology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An 1883 phrenology chart

Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν, phrēn, "mind"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.[1] The distinguishing feature of phrenology is the idea that the sizes of brain areas were meaningful and could be inferred by examining the skull of an individual. Following the materialist notions of mental functions originating in the brain, phrenologists believed that human conduct could best be understood in neurological rather than philosophical or religious terms. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796,[2] the discipline was very popular in the 19th century, especially from about 1810 until 1840. The principal British centre for phrenology was Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day."[3]

Phrenological thinking was, however, influential in 19th-century psychiatry and modern neuroscience. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in the brain is considered an important historical advance toward neuropsychology.[4][5]

Contents

Supposed mental faculties

Phrenologists believed that the human mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain. For example, the faculty of "philoprogenitiveness", from the Greek for "love of offspring", was supposed to be located centrally at the back of the head (see illustration of the chart from Webster's Academic Dictionary).

These areas were said to be proportional to a person's propensities, and the importance of the given mental faculty. It was believed that the cranial bone conformed in order to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain.

An older notion was that personality was determined by the four humors.

Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, is distinct from craniometry, which is the study of skull size, weight and shape, and physiognomy, the study of facial features.

Method

Phrenology was a complex process that involved feeling the bumps in the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. Franz Joseph Gall first believed that the brain was made up of 27 individual 'organs' that determined personality, with the first 19 of these 'organs' believed to exist in other animal species. Phrenologists would run their fingertips and palms over the skulls of their patients to feel for enlargements or indentations.[6] The phrenologist would usually take measurements of the overall head size using a caliper. With this information, the phrenologist would assess the character and temperament of the patient and address each of the 27 "brain organs".

Gall's list of the "brain organs" was lengthy and specific, as he believed that each bump or indentation in a patient's skull corresponded to his "brain map". An enlarged bump meant that the patient used that particular "organ" extensively. The 27 areas were varied in function, from sense of color, to the likelihood of religiosity, to the potential to commit murder. Each of the 27 "brain organs" was located in a specific area of the skull. As a phrenologist felt the skull, he could refer to a numbered diagram showing where each functional area was said to be located.[7]

History

A definition of phrenology with chart from Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895

The first philosopher to locate the mental abilities of the brain was Aristotle.[8] Anatomists and physiologists had studied neither the function of the brain nor how it might be segmented.[9] The German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828)in 1796 began lecturing on organology, the isolation of mental faculties[10] and later cranioscopy, which was the reading of the bumps on the skull that were supposedly created by the brain organs. It would be Gall's collaborator Johann Gaspar Spurzheim who would popularize the term "phrenology".[10][11]

In 1809 Gall began writing his greatest[12] work "The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, with Observations upon the possibility of ascertaining the several Intellectual and Moral Dispositions of Man and Animal, by the configuration of their Heads. It was not published until 1819. In the introduction to this main work, Gall makes the following statement in regard to his doctrinal principles, which comprise the intellectual basis of phrenology:[13]

Through careful observation and extensive experimentation, Gall believed he had established a relationship between aspects of character, called faculties, to precise organs in the brain.

Johann Spurzheim was Gall's most important collaborator. He worked as Gall's anatomist until 1813 when for unknown reasons they had a permanent falling out.[10] Publishing under his own name Spurzheim successfully disseminated phrenology throughout the United Kingdom during his lecture tours through 1814 and 1815[7] and the United States in 1832 where he would eventually die of illness.[14]

Gall was more concerned with creating a physical science so it was through Spurzheim that phrenology was first spread throughout Europe and America.[10] Phrenology, while not universally accepted, was hardly a fringe phenomenon of the era. George Combewould become the main promoter of phrenology throughout the English speaking world after he viewed a brain dissection by Spurzheim's, convincing him of phrenology's merits.

George Combe

The popularization of phrenology in the middle and working class was due to in part to the idea that scientific knowledge was important and an indication of sophistication and modernity.[15] Cheap and plentiful pamphlets as well as the growing popularity of scientific lectures as entertainment also helped spread phrenology to the masses. Combecreated a system of philosophy of the human mind[16] that became popular with the masses because of its simplified principles and wide range of social applications that were in harmony with the liberal Victorian world view.[7] George Combe's book On the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects sold over 200 000 copies through nine editions.[17] Combe also devoted a large portion of his book to reconciling religion and phrenology, which had long been a sticking point of acceptance. Another reason for its popularity was that phrenology stood balanced between free will and determinism.[18] A person's inherent faculties were clear, and no faculty was viewed as evil, but the abuse of a faculty was. Phrenology allowed for self-improvement and upward mobility, while providing fodder for attacks on aristocratic privilege.[18][19] Phrenology also had wide appeal because of being a reformist philosophy not a radical one.[20] Phrenology was not limited to the common people and both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert invited George Combe to read the heads of their children.[21]

Phrenology came about at a time when scientific procedures and standards for acceptable evidence were still being codified.[22] In the context of Victorian society phrenology was a respectable scientific theory. The Phrenological Society of Edinburgh founded by George and Andrew Combe was an example of the credibility of phrenology at the time, and included a number of extremely influential social reformers and intellectuals, including the publisher Robert Chambers, the astronomer John Pringle Nichol, the evolutionary environmentalist Hewett Cottrell Watson and asylum reformer William A.F. Browne. As well in 1826, out of the 120 members of the Edinburgh society an estimated one third were from a medical background[23] and by the 1840s there were over twenty-eight phrenological societies in London with over 1000 members.[17] Another important scholar was Luigi Ferrarese, the leading Italian phrenologist.[24] He advocated for a government embrace of phrenology as a scientific means of conquering many social ills and his Memorie Risguardanti La Dottrina Frenologica (1836), is considered "one of the fundamental 19th century works in the field".[24]

Traditionally the mind had been studied through introspection. Phrenology provided an attractive, biological alternative that attempted to unite all mental phenomena and treat them with consistent biological terms.[25] Ironically Gall's approach provided a way to studying the mind that would lead to the downfall of his theories.[26] Phrenology also contributed to development of physical anthropology, forensic medicine, understanding of brain, nervous system and brain anatomy as well as contributing to applied psychology.[22][27]

John Elliotson was a brilliant but erratic heart specialist became a phrenologist in the 1840s, he was also a mesmerist and combined the two into something he called phrenomesmerism or phrenomegnatism.[23] The prospect of changing behaviour with mesmerism eventually won out in Elliotson's mesmeric hospital, putting phrenology in a subordinate role.[22] Others amalgamated phrenology and mesmerism as well, such as the practical phrenologists Collyer and Joseph R. Buchanan. The benefits of combining mesmerism and phrenology was that the trance that the mesmeric trance a patient was placed in was supposed to allow for the manipulation of penchants and qualities.[23] For example if the organ of self-esteem was touched the subject would take on a haughty expression.[28]

Phrenology had been mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s. This was only in part due to a growing amount of evidence against phrenology.[23] Phrenologists had never been able to agree on the most basic underpinnings with mental organ numbers going from 27 to over 40,[27][29] and had also never been able to locate the mental organs. Instead phrenologists relied on cranioscopic readings of the skull to find organ locations.[30] Jean Pierre Flourens experiments on the brains of pigeons indicated that the loss of parts of the brain either caused no loss of function, or the loss of a completely different function than what had been attributed to it by phrenology. Flourens experiment, while not perfect seemed to indicated that Gall's supposed organs were imaginary.[26][31] Scientists had also become disillusioned with phrenology since its popularization with the middle and working classes by entrepreneurs. The popularization had resulted in the simplification of phrenology and the mixing of principles with physiognomy, which had from the start been rejected by Gall as an indicator of personality.[32] Phrenology from its inception had never stopped being followed by accusations of promoting materialism, atheism and being destructive of morality were also factors that led to the downfall of phrenology.[30][33]

During the early 20th century, a revival of interest in phrenology occurred on the fringe, partly because of studies of evolution, criminology and anthropology (as pursued by Cesare Lombroso). The most famous British phrenologist of the 20th century was the London psychiatrist Bernard Hollander (1864–1934). His main works, The Mental Function of the Brain (1901) and Scientific Phrenology (1902) are an appraisal of Gall's teachings. Hollander introduced a quantitative approach to the phrenological diagnosis, defining a method for measuring the skull, and comparing the measurements with statistical averages.[34]

In Belgium, Paul Bouts (1900–1999) began studying phrenology from a pedagogical background, using the phrenological analysis to define an individual pedagogy. Combining phrenology with typology and graphology, he coined a global approach known as psychognomy.

Bouts, a Roman Catholic priest, became the main promoter of renewed 20th-century interest in phrenology and psychognomy in Belgium. He was also active in Brazil and Canada, where he founded institutes for characterology. His works Psychognomie and Les Grandioses Destinées individuelle et humaine dans la lumière de la Caractérologie et de l'Evolution cérébro-cranienne are considered standard works in the field. In the latter work, which examines the subject of paleoanthropology, Bouts developed a teleological and orthogenetical view on a perfecting evolution, from the paleo-encephalical skull shapes of prehistoric man, which he considered still prevalent in criminals and savages, towards a higher form of mankind, thus perpetuating phrenology's problematic racializing of the human frame. Bouts died on March 7, 1999, after which his work has been continued by the Dutch foundation PPP (Per Pulchritudinem in Pulchritudine), operated by Anette Müller, one of Bouts' students.

During the 1930s Belgian colonial authorities in Rwanda used phrenology to explain the so-called superiority of Tutsis over Hutus.[35]

In 2007 the US State of Michigan included phrenology in a list of personal services subject to sales tax.[36]

Application

Advocates of phrenology used its concepts as justification for European superiority over other "lesser" races. By comparing skulls of different ethnic groups it supposedly allowed for ranking of races from least to most evolved. Broussais, a disciple of Gall, proclaimed that the Caucasians were the "most beautiful" while peoples like the New Hollander (Australian) and Maori would never become civilized since they had no cerebral organ for producing great artists.[37] Surprisingly few phrenologist argued against the emancipation of the slaves. Instead they argued that through education and interbreeding the lesser peoples could improve.[38] Another argument was that the natural inequality of people could be used to situate them in the most appropriate place in society. Gender stereotyping was also common with phrenology. Women who's heads were generally larger in the back with lower foreheads were thought to have underdeveloped organs necessary for success in the arts and sciences while having larger mental organs relating to the care of children and religion.[39] While phrenologist did not contend the existence of talented women, this minority did not provide justification for citizenship or participation in politics.[40]

One of the considered practical applications of phrenology was education. Due to the nature of phrenology people were naturally considered unequal with very few people would have a naturally perfect balance between organs. Thus education would play an important role in creating a balance through rigorous exercise of beneficial organs while repressing baser ones. One of the best examples of this is Félix Voisin who for approximately ten years ran a reform school in Issy for the express purpose of correction of the mind of children who had suffered some hardship. Voisin focused on four categories of children for his reform school[41]:

Phrenology was one of the first to bring about the idea of rehabilitation of criminals instead of vindictive punishments that would not stop criminals, only with the reorganizing a disorganized brain would bring about change.[42] Voisin believed along with others the accuracy of phrenology in diagnosing criminal tendencies. Diagnosis could point to the type of offender, the insane, an idiot or brute, and by knowing this an appropriate course of action could be taken.[41] A strict system of reward and punishment, hard work and religious instruction, was thought to be able to correct those who had been abandoned and neglected with little education and moral ground works. Those who were considered mentally challenged could be put to work and housed collectively while only criminals of intellect and vicious intent needed to be confined and isolated.[43] Phrenology also advocated variable prison sentences, the idea being that those who were only defective in education and lacking in morals would soon be released while those who were mentally deficient could be watched and the truly abhorrent criminals would never be released.[20][44] For other patients phrenology could help redirect impulses, one homicidal individual became a butcher to control his impulses, while another became a military chaplain so he could witness killings.[45] Phrenology also provided reformist arguments for the lunatic asylums of the Victorian era. John Conolly a physician interested in psychological aspects of disease used phrenology on his patients in an attempt to use it as a diagnostic tool. While the success of this approach is debatable Conolly, through phrenology introduced a more humane way of dealing with the mentally ill.[22]

The American brothers Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811–1896) and Orson Squire Fowler (1809–1887) were leading phrenologists of their time. Orson, together with associates Samuel Wells and Nelson Sizer, ran the phrenological business and publishing house Fowlers & Wells in New York City. Meanwhile, Lorenzo spent much of his life in England where he initiated the famous phrenological publishing house, L.N Fowler & Co., and gained considerable fame with his phrenology head (a china head showing the phrenological faculties), which has become a symbol of the discipline.[46] Orson Fowler was known for his octagonal house.

1848 edition of American Phrenological Journal published by Fowlers & Wells, New York City.

In the Victorian age, phrenology as a psychology was taken seriously and permeated the literature and novels of the day. Many prominent public figures such as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler) promoted phrenology actively as a source of psychological insight and self-knowledge.[47] Thousands of people consulted phrenologists for advice in various matters, such as hiring personnel or finding suitable marriage partners.[48] As such, phrenology as a brain science waned but developed into the popular psychology of the 19th century.

Reception

Britain

Phrenology was introduced at a time when the old theological and philosophical understanding of the mind was being questioned and no longer seemed adequate in a society that was experiencing rapid social and demographic changes.[49] Phrenology became one of the most popular movements of the Victorian Era. In part phrenology's success was due to George Combe tailoring phrenology for the middle class. Combe's book On the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects was one of the most popular of the time selling over two hundred thousand copies in a ten-year period. Phrenology's success was also due in part because it was introduced at a time when scientific lectures were becoming a form of middle class entertainment, exposing a large demographic of people to phrenological ideas who wouldn't have been exposed otherwise.[50] As a result of the changing of the times, along with new avenues for exposure, and its multifaceted appeal phrenology flourished.[51]

France

While still not a fringe movement, there was not popular widespread support of phrenology in France. This was not only due to strong opposition of phrenology by French scholars but also once again accusations of promoting atheism, materialism and radical religious views. Politics in France also played a role in preventing rapid spread of phrenology.[19][29] In Britain phrenology had provided another tool to be used for situating demographic changes, the difference was there was less fear of revolutionary upheaval in Britain compared with France. Given that most French supporters of phrenology were liberal, left-wing or socialist, it was an objective of the social elite of France who held a restrained vision of social change that phrenology remain on the fringes. Another objection was that phrenology seemed to provide a built in excuse for criminal behaviour, since in its original form it was essentially deterministic in nature.[19][29]

Ireland

Phrenology arrived in Ireland in 1815, through Spurzheim.[52] While Ireland largely mirrored British trends, with scientific lectures and demonstrations becoming a popular pastime of the age, by 1815 phrenology had already been ridiculed in some circles priming the audiences to the its skeptical claims.[53] Because of this the general public valued it more for its comic relief than anything else, however It did find an audience in the rational dissenters who found it an attractive alternative to explain human motivations without the attached superstitions of religion.[53][54] The supporters of phrenology in Ireland were relegated to scientific subcultures because the Irish scholars neglected marginal movements like phrenology, denying it scientific support in Ireland.[15] In 1830 George Combe came to Ireland, his self-promotion barely winning out against his lack of medical expertise, still only drew lukewarm crowds. This was due to not only the Vatican's decree that phrenology was subversive of religion and morality but also that based on phrenology the "Irish Catholics were sui generis a flawed and degenerate breed".[55] Because of the lack of scientific support, along with religious and prejudicial reasons phrenology never found a wide audience in Ireland.

United States

Through the teachings of Gall and Spurzheim phrenological teachings spread, and by the 1834 when Combe came to lecture in the United States phrenology had become a widespread popular movement.[56][57] Sensing commercial possibilities men like the Fowlers became phrenologists and sought additional ways to bring phrenology to the masses.[57] Though a popular movement, the intellectual elite of the United States found phrenology attractive because it provided a biological explanation of mental processes based on observation, yet it wasn't accepted uncritically. Some intellectuals accepted organology while questioning crainoscopy.[58] Gradually though the popular success of phrenology undermined its scientific merits in the United States and elsewhere, along with its materialistic underpinnings, fostering radical religious views and increasing evidence to refute phrenological claims by the 1840s it had largely lost its credibility.[48] In the United States, especially in the south phrenology faced an additional obstacle in the antislavery movement. While phrenologist usually claimed the superiority of the European race, they were often sympathetic to liberal causes including the antislavery movement, this sowed skepticism over phrenology among those who were pro-slavery.[59] The rise and surge in popularity in mesmerism, phrenomesmerism, also had a hand in the loss of interest in phrenology among intellectuals and the general public.[28]

Specific Phrenological Modules

From Combe:[60]

Propensities

Propensities do not form ideas, they solely produce propensities common to animals and man

Sentiments

Lower Sentiments

Common to man and animal

Superior sentiments

These produce emotion or feeling lacking in animals

Intellectual Faculties

These are to know the external world and physical qualities

Reflecting Faculties

These produce ideas of relation or reflect they minister to the direction and gratification of all the other powers

In popular culture

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See also

References

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