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2 - Coming to America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2023

Stanley Finger
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

Americans first learned about Gall’s doctrine from reviews in British periodicals and physicians returning from France, where Gall and Spurzheim had settled. After Spurzheim split from Gall in 1813 and began lecturing throughout Britain and publishing books in English, they learned more. Spurzheim made some modifications and began to call the doctrine “phrenology,” while still retaining craniological correlations as the primary method. He attracted many people to it, as did his Scottish disciple, George Combe, who started the first phrenological society and journal, emphasizing how it could be used to lead to happier, healthier lives and promote institutional reforms. In 1832, Spurzheim came to America but died in Boston that year, drawing more attention to phrenology. Soon after, Orson and Lorenzo Fowler formed a business reading heads and selling all things phrenological, including books, journals, charts, and specimens. The Fowlers were masterful at promoting phrenology. Although Gall had focused on phrenology as a science, phrenology now became synonymous with head readings, thanks in part to the Fowlers and their associates. In this era with little in the way of new research to support phrenological assertions, head readings became faddish among the laity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
Literature, Humor, and Faddish Phrenology
, pp. 27 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Coming to America
  • Stanley Finger, Washington University, St Louis
  • Book: Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
  • Online publication: 17 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301251.003
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  • Coming to America
  • Stanley Finger, Washington University, St Louis
  • Book: Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
  • Online publication: 17 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301251.003
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Coming to America
  • Stanley Finger, Washington University, St Louis
  • Book: Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
  • Online publication: 17 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301251.003
Available formats
×