Phrenology Bust : EH101319
Alternative "Quack" Medical Devices : Great For What Ails You
Object ID Number:
EH101319
Object Name:
Phrenology Bust
Date of Manufacture:
/ /
Manufactured from:
1830
Manufactured to:
1930
Description / History:
Phrenology is a process that involved the observing or feeling of the skull to determine individual psychological attributes. This ceramic head, designed by Lorenzo Niles Fowler in the late 19th century, shows the phrenological faculties and has become a symbol of phrenology. Standing twelve inches high, the various phrenological faculties are labeled and outlined in black. Although taken very seriously as a psychology during much of the 19th century, by the early 20th century, phrenology had been discredited as a science.

Today, the Fowler Phrenology Bust can be found in many physicians offices as a docorative or conversation piece.
Dimensions:
W–5 L–12 inches
Additional Information:
In the early 19th century, Phrenology gained a rapidly growing interest. Some scrupless people did however abuse the science for commercial purposes, and the Victorian period saw the emergence of Phrenological parlours which were closer to astrology than to real scientific characterology.
Phrenology is a foreign subject to our modern medical practices but in the Victorian era it was common practice. Each of the 48 faculties of the brain served as a sort of map to a person's innate nature and personality. With such areas as love, intellectuality, energy levels, and morals; doctors believed they could tell everything about a person from mapping out the bumps and oddities of the human skull.


3D Image Information:
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3 Dimentional Image:
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