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:

Besides these there are two minor groups of Intellectual Faculties:—

Many physicians have tried to prove the accuracy of this theory. Thousands of skulls of human beings as well as of animals have been examined and their cranial bumps studied. It is believed that each convolution of the brain is a separate organ and that the great centers of motion are in the front part of the brain. Many books have been written on the subject.

To tell the character of a person by Phrenology requires the services of a trained expert, and the few indications we can give here can only serve to call the reader’s attention to the subject in a general way. The foregoing chart is generally used by phrenologists. The numbers specify the location of each organ, and the following is a description of the same.

These organs are on the head in the shape of protuberances or bumps, and can be felt with the fingers. In many cases there is nothing to indicate their existence, in other cases they are well developed.

The judgment of the phrenologist is determined by the size of the brain in general and by the size of the organs that have been formulated, and these are estimated by certain arbitrary rules that render the boundaries of the regions indefinite.

A study of the cuts and comparison of the sizes of different heads and their shape will prove very entertaining with most any group of persons intellectually inclined, and it will be found that persons that are naturally good readers by instinct of human nature, with its help, can make remarkable readings in the delineation of character.