A System of Phrenology. 2nd ed.

1825

Hist. Coll. BFA C729

Edinburgh: John Anderson Jr.

George Combe (1788-1858) was an Edinburgh lawyer and vigorous proponent of the system of ‘craniology’ that originated with Franz Gall and Johann Spurzheim. The system contended that personality traits, and particularly those leading to deviant behaviour, had specific locations in the brain. Importantly, craniology or ‘phrenology’ promoted the idea that traits could be identified by the measurement and the localisation of surface features of the skull. Combe also suggested that these craniological characteristics were hereditary. This pseudo-science later developed more sinister psychiatric and racial overtones.