The Science Museum in London has a collection of sixty tiny models of the human head made for a student of Johann Kaspar Spurzheim, a prominent German phrenologist, in 1831. Phrenology is the belief that the shape of the human skull reflects the shape of the human brain beneath it, which is in turn shaped by certain personality traits. Studying a person's skull thus reveals his/her personality, abilities, and character:
These heads are numbered according to Spurzheim’s classification. The heads may have been used to teach phrenology but were probably made as a general reference collection. A wide range of different heads are present. For instance, head number 54 is that of a scientific man; head number 8 is recorded as the head of an ‘idiot’.
Link -via How to Be a Retronaut | Photo: The Science Museum
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Ryan S, you're not using the example of phrenology to cast a shadow on science in general are you?
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Luckily people outgrew such superstitious bullcrap and moved into way more scientific studies, like Iridology.
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I wanna own this shit so much!!!!
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Sorry, Craig, but I don't normally play the What-is-it game. And yes, I can see that we already know what it is. But thanks for your comment. :)
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One of many silly theories to be found in the history of "scientific" inquiry.
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