Phrenology

Phrenology (not to be confused with physiognomy - or phenology)

From Wikipedia:

1848 edition of American Phrenological Journal published by Fowlers & Wells, New York City

Racism[edit]

Europeans looking for a scientific basis for their racism found phrenology attractive as justification for European superiority over other "lesser" races. By comparing skulls of different ethnic groups it supposedly allowed for ranking of races from least to most evolved. Broussais, a disciple of Gall, proclaimed that the Caucasians were the "most beautiful" while peoples like the Australian Aboriginal and Maori would never become civilized since they had no cerebral organ for producing great artists.^[43] Few phrenologists argued against the emancipation of the slaves. Instead they argued that through education and interbreeding the lesser peoples could improve.^[44]Another argument was that the natural inequality of people could be used to situate them in the most appropriate place in society. Gender stereotyping was also common with phrenology. Women whose heads were generally larger in the back with lower foreheads were thought to have underdeveloped organs necessary for success in the arts and sciences while having larger mental organs relating to the care of children and religion.^[45] While phrenologists did not contend the existence of talented women, this minority did not provide justification for citizenship or participation in politics.^[46]

Education[edit]

One of the considered practical applications of phrenology was education. Due to the nature of phrenology people were naturally considered unequal with very few people would have a naturally perfect balance between organs. Thus education would play an important role in creating a balance through rigorous exercise of beneficial organs while repressing baser ones. One of the best examples of this is Félix Voisin who for approximately ten years ran a reform school in Issy for the express purpose of correction of the mind of children who had suffered some hardship. Voisin focused on four categories of children for his reform school:^[47]

• Slow learners
• Spoiled, neglected, or harshly treated children
• Willful, disorderly children
• Children at high risk of inheriting mental disorders

Phrenology is an element of...

From Wikipedia:

Scientific racism (sometimes referred to as race biology,^[1][2] racial biology, or race realism^[3]) is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.^[4][5][6] Historically, scientific racist ideas received credence in the scientific community but are no longer considered scientific.^[5][6]

Scientific racism employs anthropology (notably physical anthropology), anthropometry, craniometry, and other disciplines or pseudo-disciplines, in proposing anthropological typologies supporting the classification of human populations into physically discrete human races, that might be asserted to be superior or inferior. Scientific racism was common during the period from 1600s to the end of World War I. Since the second half of the 20th century, scientific racism has been criticized as obsolete and discredited, yet historically has persistently been used to support or validate racist world-views, based upon belief in the existence and significance of racial categories and a hierarchy of superior and inferior races.^[7]

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Chapter 19:

“Old man,” said the young one, “I reckon we might double-team it together; what do you think?”

“I ain’t undisposed.  What’s your line—mainly?”

“Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; theater-actor—tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology when there’s a chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; sling a lecture sometimes—oh, I do lots of things—most anything that comes handy, so it ain’t work.  What’s your lay?”

“I’ve done considerble in the doctoring way in my time.  Layin’ on o’ hands is my best holt—for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I k’n tell a fortune pretty good when I’ve got somebody along to find out the facts for me.  Preachin’s my line, too, and workin’ camp-meetin’s, and missionaryin’ around.”

Chapter 20: 

The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him and the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game. Then they got tired of it, and allowed they would “lay out a campaign,” as they called it. The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of little printed bills and read them out loud. One bill said, “The celebrated Dr. Armand de Montalban, of Paris,” would “lecture on the Science of Phrenology” at such and such a place, on the blank day of blank, at ten cents admission, and “furnish charts of character at twenty-five cents apiece.” The duke said that was him. In another bill he was the “world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the Younger, of Drury Lane, London.” In other bills he had a lot of other names and done other wonderful things, like finding water and gold with a “divining-rod,” “dissipating witch spells,” and so on. By and by he says: