In 1796 a German physician by the name of Franz Gall first announced
what he considered a wonderful discovery and named Phrenology. It was
first introduced into the United States by Dr. Charles Caldwell of
Kentucky, who studied under Gall and who lectured and wrote on the
subject. It made very little headway, however, until Dr. Spurzheim
began to lecture on the new science in Boston, since which time the
number of its adherents has been growing steadily, although there are
many scientific minds who still doubt its teachings.
It is a system of the philosophy of the human mind founded on the
structure of the brain, and embraces a theory of psychology and
organology. It pretends to be able to tell the characteristics of a
person thru signs and bumps. It assumes a corresponding value between
the convolutions of the brain and the character or temperament of the
individual.
The idea was not original with Dr. Gall. In the thirteenth century
Albertus Magnus divided the cranium into three regions controlling
Faculties, Judgment and Imagination. In 1562 Luigi Dolce divided
the brain into nine regions controlling as many mental powers. Gall
first noticed that all his fellow schoolboys who were noted for
their knowledge of languages and memory of words had prominent eyes.
Following this as a clew, he arrived at the functions and locations of
twenty-seven organs of mental faculties which he named according to
their action. Spurzheim found still others, and Drs. Fowler and Wells,
the best known American phrenologists, increased the number of such
divisions to thirty-five. They divided them into four principal groups:
1. Domestic group; including love, patriotism, fondness for home,
attachment to friends, etc.
2. Selfish group; including combativeness, destructiveness, appetite,
fondness of inflicting pain, etc.
3. Moral group; including sense of right, integrity, justice,
veneration, benevolence, etc.
4. Self-perfecting group; including constructiveness, sense of the
beautiful, imitation, wit, etc.