Phrenology As the Guide of Philosophy, and the Handmaid of Christianity; Whoever Disseminates True Phrenology, Is a Public Benefactor.” — Horace Mann, Sr
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19TH-CENTURY BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM “I look upon Phrenology as the guide of Philosophy, and the handmaid of Christianity; whoever disseminates true Phrenology, is a public benefactor.” — Horace Mann, Sr. Henry played a phrenology game with Ellen, feeling her cranium and announcing that he could find no bumps, which indicated that she was either an idiot or a genius. To put this into context, I have felt it to be necessary to attempt a chronology of this 19th-Century science and its ramifications. HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1790 Early in the decade, Franz Joseph Gall created his system of organology and brain anatomy. PHRENOLOGY ESSENCE IS BLUR. SPECIFICITY, THE OPPOSITE OF ESSENCE, IS OF THE NATURE OF TRUTH. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer’s apparent success in calming Parisian mental patients began a spiritualist fad in this decade, called Mesmerism, which at times would amount almost to a religion. This was the first of the great “harmonial” schemes which professed to get their results by aligning the individual with the cosmos, thus enabling mental composure, physical health, and prosperity. ESSENCES ARE FUZZY, GENERIC, CONCEPTUAL; ARISTOTLE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE INSISTED THAT ALL TRUTH IS SPECIFIC AND PARTICULAR (AND WRONG WHEN HE CHARACTERIZED TRUTH AS A GENERALIZATION). Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1796 Franz Joseph Gall began to offer lectures in his home in Vienna on his system of organology and brain anatomy. I have everything all figured out. Just listen to me, I’ll tell you what you want to hear. PHRENOLOGY “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1798 December: The first account of Franz Joseph Gall’s system of organology and brain anatomy in own words was published in the Neue Teutsche Merkur. PHRENOLOGY YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION. Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1800 Johann Gaspar Spurzheim began to attend the lectures of Dr. Franz Joseph Gall. PHRENOLOGY THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT. NOTHING A HUMAN CAN SEE CAN EVER BE SEEN AS IF THROUGH THE EYE OF GOD. Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1801 December: The Emperor Francis II issued a decree forbidding Franz Joseph Gall to lecture and banning him from publishing on the subject of his previous lectures — his new system of organology and brain anatomy. Go bother somebody else, doctor. PHRENOLOGY “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1804 Having attended high school in Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh, George Combe entered a lawyer’s office in order to learn the law. Johann Gaspar Spurzheim became Dr. Franz Joseph Gall’s dissectionist and assistant. PHRENOLOGY “MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1805 From this year into 1807 Dr. Franz Joseph Gall would be on a successful lecture tour throughout Europe accompanied by Johann Gaspar Spurzheim. PHRENOLOGY NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1807 Dr. Franz Joseph Gall arrived in Paris. PHRENOLOGY THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1808 March: Drs. Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim submitted a MÉMOIRE to the Institut de France outlining (for the first time) “their” anatomical and physiological claims. PHRENOLOGY WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1810 Franz Joseph Gall had studied medicine in Vienna and had become a neuroanatomist and physiologist. He was a pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain. At about the turn of the century, he had devised “cranioscopy,” a method to divine the personality and development of mental and moral faculties on the basis of the external shape of the skull. So round So firm So fully packed Dr. Gall had been forced out of Vienna and out of Austria, and in 1805 had settled in France. His cranioscopy would, among his followers, become phrenology. His phrenological theories and practices were being best accepted in England, where the ruling class had a need to justify their molestations of colonial subjects such as the Irish, and in the USA, where from 1820 to 1850 it would be very popular due to the absence of any aristocratic device for the establishment of one’s priority over others. In this year he and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832) began publication in Paris of their ANATOMIE ET PHYSIOLOGIE DU SYSTÈME NERVEUX EN GÉNÉRAL, ET DU CERVEAU EN PARTICULIER, AVEC DES OBSERVATIONS SUR LAS POSSIBILITÉ DE RECONNOÎTRE PLUSIEURS DISPOSITIONS INTELLECTUELLES ET MORALES DE L’HOMME ET DES ANIMAUX, PAR LA CONFIGURATION DE LEURS TÊTES. HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY (Dr. Spurzheim would be involved in the first two of these volumes only, as he and Dr. Gall would part company permanently in 1812 and the entire set of four volumes would not be completed until 1819.) THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1812 George Combe hung out his shingle as a lawyer in Edinburgh. Drs. Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim parted company forever. You turn left and I’ll turn right. PHRENOLOGY DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1814 Johann Gaspar Spurzheim arrived in Britain to lecture on “his” and Franz Joseph Gall’s system of organology and brain anatomy. PHRENOLOGY CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1815 The term phrenology was coined by Dr. Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster. YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT EITHER THE REALITY OF TIME OVER THAT OF CHANGE, OR CHANGE OVER TIME — IT’S PARMENIDES, OR HERACLITUS. I HAVE GONE WITH HERACLITUS. An article on the system of “craniology” of Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim appeared in the Edinburgh Review. The article denounced this as “a piece of thorough quackery from beginning to end” in a manner that persuaded the local attorney George Combe of its absurdity. However, when Dr. Spurzheim came to Edinburgh and at a friend’s house offered a demonstration of the dissection of a human brain, Combe was sufficiently impressed to begin to attend the Doctor’s lectures, and became convinced “that the brain is the organ of mind; that the brain is an aggregate of several parts, each subserving a distinct mental faculty; and that the size of the cerebral organ is, caeteris paribus, an index of power or energy of function.” PHRENOLOGY Johann Gaspar Spurzheim began to publish on “his” new system of organology and brain anatomy, starting with THE PHYSIOGNOMICAL SYSTEM OF DRS. GALL AND SPURZHEIM; FOUNDED ON AN ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN GENERAL, AND OF THE BRAIN IN PARTICULAR; AND INDICATING THE DISPOSITIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MIND. PHRENOLOGY Phrenology “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1816 During this year and the following one, Dr. Johann Gaspar Spurzheim would be facing down his critics, especially Dr. John Gordon in Edinburgh, and making devout converts for his useful1 new “science.” PHRENOLOGY 1. Try to imagine how useful it would be to you in distinguishing between true theories and false theories in science, if you were able to measure the character of the motivation of the proponent of a new theory, and repudiate it as the product of avarice or as the product of an over-eager imagination without ever condescending to evaluate it on its merits as a scientific hypothesis! Imagine, for instance, being able to detect that global warming is a mere fantasy, or is a product of a desire to create alarm, in the Michael Crichton STATE OF FEAR manner, merely by inspecting the bumps on the skull of the advocate, without needing to learn anything at all about either meteorology or ecology! THE SCIENCE OF 1816 HDT WHAT? INDEX PHRENOLOGY PHRENOLOGY 1817 George Combe’s initial essay on phrenology appeared in The Scots Magazine, and shortly afterward he offered a series of papers on phrenology in the Literary and Statistical Magazine. His younger brother Andrew Combe, having served an apprenticeship in a surgery, passed at Surgeon’s Hall and went to Paris to complete his medical studies.