Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994 TAG: 9403150099
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS V. DIBACCO THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Nearly 200 years ago, the so-called science of phrenology - measuring the skull as a means of identifying personality traits within the brain - captured the fancy of both medical authorities and the public at large.
The scene was Vienna; the year 1796; the protagonist Franz Joseph Gall, a 38-year-old physician who had already devoted years to study of the brain, including its dissection. Gall argued to colleagues that the outward appearance of the skull offered a clue to the workings of the brain. He noted that the best students in a class always had a great capacity for memory as well as striking eyes. Ergo, the part of the brain that controlled memory was located just interior to the eyes.
Gall delineated 25 other regions of the skull that identified traits - from love to mirth, concentration to secretiveness, self-esteem to cautiousness. And he noted that the stronger a trait controlled by the brain, the most likely a ridge or bump would appear on the skull. Conversely, a personality deficiency would be marked by an indentation. Gall's new line of brain research was dubbed phrenology, from the Greek phren (mind) and logos (study), although Gall preferred the term craniology.
Gall believed the skull was a map of the brain, and with proper diagnosis from phrenologists (trained medical authorities skilled in letting their fingers do the walking on the skull), individuals could be induced to improve their personality traits. The more one exercised a mental faculty he wished to improve, the more likely the change would come about. The criminal, for instance, had a protuberant area in back of the ear where combativeness and destructive traits were located, but he could be led into activities that increased amorous qualities located at the nape of the neck.
Children were most in need of phrenological direction, Gall believed, for their young minds were more amenable to change. Phrenology also was considered useful in determining whether a person was gifted enough to become a mathematician (the number trait was on the side of the skull near the eye) or humorist (two inches higher and slightly interior).
Gall's ideas spread among medical officials in Europe and England, reaching America in 1832, four years after Gall's death, via two disciples, Austrian Johann Spurzheim and Englishman George Combe. But it was an American, Orson Fowler (with assistance from his brother Lorenzo) who became the greatest promoter of phrenology in the New World.
After graduating from Amherst in 1834, Fowler shunned any formal medical training and almost immediately lived, breathed and slept phrenology as a self-proclaimed "professor."
Hundreds of other self-made phrenologists saw the money to be made by lecturing and conducting cranial examinations, but the Fowlers always seemed to rise above the competition. They may have been helped by their numerous publications, some of which, like "Phrenology Proved, Illustrated and Applied," ran through more than 30 editions.
Orson, for instance, equated phrenology with religious goals: "Its goal is eternal right. . . . Its roots run deep into the nature of man. Its branches yield all manner of delicious fruits, for the healing of nations, and the renovation of mankind."
Lorenzo's talent was in using real-life examples, as illustrated from the following excerpt from his book "Marriage: Its History and Ceremonies; With a Phrenological and Physiological Exposition of the Functions and Qualifications for Happy Marriages (1853)":
"A gentleman in Lowell, Mass., married a lady who had a large and splendid head, and supposed she had a body equally large and healthy to support it. He was informed by a Phrenologist that the head was too large for the body, but he thought otherwise; for, to all appearances, her bust was fully developed; but to his surprise, after they were married, he found that her fine form and plumpness was more than half cloth; forgetting, I suppose, that Lowell was a manufacturing town, and that there was an abundance of raw material that could be moulded into the outward semblance of vitality by the milliner's hand."
Important Americans accepted phrenology, including Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Daniel Webster and preacher Henry Ward Beecher.
Not surprisingly, phrenology flourished in a 19th-century America where hyperbole ran rampant. The original 26 regions of the skull became as many as 43, grouped into nine major classifications. Each person undergoing an exam got a personal phrenological chart to keep and update. And therein lay the seeds of its demise late in the century. For what had started out as a means for Americans to "know thyself" and improve their mental outlook bogged down in a complexity of fine points.
Little wonder that Horatio Alger books with their clear-cut message of improving one's lifestyle and outlook became the post-Civil War guide for Americans, especially youngsters.
Phrenology also was placed on the defensive by medical research that led to more knowledge about the brain and nervous system. The carnival-like background and disposition of many of its later practitioners didn't help either, and phrenology moved to the amusement sector of American life by the turn of the 20th century. Phrenological busts became collector's items; one used by Lorenzo Fowler is now owned by the Smithsonian Institution.
Thomas DiBacco is a historian at American University. |||||||||||||||||||||
JUNK ||||||||||||||||||||| 940315 HEADGAME STORY headgame 315 TOPIC HEADGAME 315 KEYWORD315 DESK AUTHOR:APX530003/15/94 htk Frenzy Over Phrenology: Skull Contours as a Map of Personality shirt: Thomas DiBacco is a historian at American University. By THOMAS V. DIBACC
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