Phrenology

Phrenology is the formal practice of assigning personality traits to individual people on the basis of the contour of their skulls and facial features. "The founder of phrenology was Franz Joseph Gall (1785–1828), a physician from Vienna and a very capable neuroanatomist(reference for quote: Stone JL. Mark Twain on phrenology. [Biography. Historical Article. Journal Article] Neurosurgery. 53(6):1414-6; discussion 1416-7, 2003 Dec. UI: 14633308). He had a theoretical view that in and of itself was plausible, that if the human brain had areas within it that were responsible for specific mental functions, that the relative power of these functions correlated with the size and development of the regions, and that the outer contour of skull was physical evidence of the size of those regions.

In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, some of the advocates of phrenology were not so much interested in personality but in the biological function of the brain. Some, like Gall, thought that each region of the brain had a seperate and distinct function. Those with this view included the great early neuroscientists, Pierre Paul Broca and David Ferrier, who went on to demonstrate the actual areas of the brain responsible for such functions as speech. Others, like Friedrich Goltz, insisted that the entire cerebrum acted as a whole, and that the notion of investigating localized areas as the basis for specific qualities of the brain function was without merit.

The acceptance of phrenology was helped by the presence of physical characteristics that were common to families and ethnic groups and could be correlated to generally held notions about those groups.

By the late Nineteenth century, physicians (and others) practicing phrenology did a flourishing trade. Many, if not most, cloaked themselves with elaborate trappings of "science", including models of the head and brain, and spoke with an assumption of authority. However, unlike actual scientists, few phrenologists were willing to test their conclusions. The following quote from one of Mark Twain's letters nicely portrays the lack of a noted phrenologist's boldness in making a detailed diagnosis: