Phrenology

Phrenology, a- pseudo-science which professes to locate all the mental processes, and to read character from the brain-case or skull. It rests upon two assumptions: - First, that every propensity and inclination of human nature has its own place in the brain, such spot being increased in material development by the exercise of such function; and that these internal developments register themselves by corresponding developments of the external skull. The idea was first started by Gall in 1796, and was carried on by Spurzheim in 1800. In 1814 the latter lectured in England and at Edinburgh, where he found u doughty opponent in Sir William Hamilton, who, after an examination of numerous skulls, established the fact that the external skull is no safe criterion of the size or development of the brain within, and was able to cite cases in which disease had destroyed much of the brain material without any apparent loss or change in the mental characteristics. The medical theory that different functions are exercised by different portions of the brain is quite distinct from the doctrines of phrenologists.