PHRENOLOGY 



lli.VJ 



PHRENOLOGY 



"concentrativeness" wa> lame in cats and in a 

 clergyman fond of his home. we cannot but bo 

 amazed that such ridiculous conclusions could 

 be seriously advanced in the nineteenth century 

 and find so many followers that hundreds of 



PHRENOLOGICAL CHARTS 

 Believers in this pseudo-science profess to find 

 < rtain personal qualities related to the form of 

 the head. While not endorsing such views, the 

 following table is given as a key to the diagrams 

 of the head, that the beliefs of phrenologists may 

 i" i>. tter understood. 



AFFECTIVE 

 I. PROPENSITIES II. SENTIMENTS 



(1) Amativeness dm Self-esteem 



( '2 ) Philoprogenitive- ( 1 1 / Love of Approba- 



ness tion 



[nhabitiveness or d^) Cautiousness 



Concentrativeness ( 13 ) Benevolence 



(I) Adhesiveness (14) Veneration 



(5) Combativenesa (15) Firmness 



( 6 ) Destructiveness and (16) Conscientiousness 



Alimentivenesa d7) Hope 



7 ) Secretiveness (18) Wonder 



(8) Acquisitiveness ( 1 !t ) Ideality 



(9) Constructiveness (20) Wit 



(21) Imitation 



INTELLECTUAL, 



I. PERCEPTIVE (30) Eventuality 



(22) Individuality 



<:.':;) l-'orm 



(24) Si/e 



(25) \\Viul.t 

 HM;I Coloring 

 c_'7t Locality 

 (28) Nnmlier 



< -^'.i i ( )nlcr 



(31) Time 



(32) Tune 



(33) Language 



II. REFLECTIVE 

 (34) Comparison 



i :;.", i Causality 



societies and a score of journals were founded 

 to continue and practice this study. Prepos- 

 session and delusion could do no worse in the 



darke.-t ages of >uper-t it ion. 



It must he admitted i hat these illustrations 

 are rather ' -\tn me. \. t not as extravagant as 

 the claims of practitioners who followed Spurz- 

 heiin. and for a few dollars read character and 

 predicted career-, and still do so. If we mu>t 

 consider the>e errors seriously, we may note 



that the division of the brain into >uch area- 

 is ab.-olutely arbitrary; that the assumption 

 that shape of brain can be read minutely on the 

 skull is false; that the so-called faeult; 

 equally arbitrary and irrational. The whole 

 system is a tissue of baseless assumptions 

 founded upon a crude physiology and a cruder 

 psychology. 



The sciences of phy.-iology and psychology 

 have established that there is <li\ ision of func- 

 tion- among the portions of the brain, but that 

 this is in the general nature of sensory and 

 motor areas, with "centers" for the prominent 

 functions of correlation of impressions with im- 

 pulses, such as writing, acts of skill, all of which 

 involve intelligent conduct. To refer indi- 

 vidual differences in these aptitudes to variable 

 development; of brain-tissue would involve a 

 comprehensiveness of knowledge which we can- 

 not remotely approximate. The actual knowl- 

 edge of the nature of brain-function adds, if 

 that be possible, to the utter irrelevance of 

 phrenology, which thus remains the extreme as 

 well as the latest example of pseudo-science. 

 The readiness with which it found support was 

 due to the persistence of the interest in "occult" 

 forms of thinking and in ambitious attempts to 

 guess the secrets of nature, as well as to Un- 

 practical purpose of reading character and pre- 

 dicting careers. In this respect- it conforms to 

 the general history of the pseudo-sciences. 



The subject should not be dismissed without 

 emphasizing the supreme importance of the 

 logic of science in establishing reliable con- 

 clusions, and the slow and difficult growth of 

 knowledge upon which its progress depends. 

 The pursuit of science requires a specialized 

 training, a command of method and an objec- 

 tive interest. It is the subjective interest and 

 the eagerness to apply hasty and unsupported 

 conclusions that are responsible for the per- 

 sistence of pseudo-scientific notions. It is not 

 so much ignorance as the credulous habit of 

 mind that is to be feared; to teach this lessOO 

 and train the mind in scientific thinking is an 

 essential part of education. ,i.,i. 



Consult Hollander's Hciriitijfic I'll n'ii<>/, ,1/11 : 

 Spur/.hoim's 



The following articles, 

 while noi hearing on phrenology, are of interest 



in this connection. heca us,. most of them deal 

 \viih pseudo-sciences : 



Alchemy 



I Mvinat ion 



< 'lairvoyance 



< nlljlll-ill^ 



Demonology 



I lypnotism 



Magic- 



Medium 



