IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB298422709

Phrenology’s frontal sinus problem: An insurmountable obstruction? (2022)

Finger, Stanley (Author)
Eling, Paul (Author)

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Volume: 31
Issue: 4
Pages: 524-557

DOI: 10.1080/0964704X.2022.2046440

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2022.2046440

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Craniometry Brain localization Controversies and disputes Phrenology 19th century Gall, Franz Joseph

Whereas some of Gall’s critics were quick to assail his organology as materialistic and fatalistic, others questioned his methods and scientific assumptions, especially his craniological tenets. The idea that the skull does not faithfully reflect the features of small, underlying brain areas was repeatedly brought up in the scientific debates. Critics pointed to the frontal sinuses above the eye orbits as evidence for the interior and exterior plates of the cranium not being in parallel—hence, for several or many phrenological organs being unknowable. This article traces the origins of the frontal sinus arguments and how Gall, Spurzheim, and later phrenologists responded to it. It reveals how the two sides fought and remained divided about the significance of the sinuses throughout the nineteenth century—that is, on whether the frontal sinus “problem” was an insurmountable obstacle or one that was merely an inconvenience.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB298422709/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Eling, Paul; Draaisma, Douwe; Conradi, Matthijs; (2011)
Gall's Visit to the Netherlands (/isis/citation/CBB001034913/)

Article Paul Eling; Stanley Finger; (2020)
Franz Joseph Gall's Non-Cortical Faculties and Their Organs (/isis/citation/CBB224301715/)

Book Stanley Finger; Paul Eling; (2019)
Franz Joseph Gall: Naturalist of the Mind, Visionary of the Brain (/isis/citation/CBB973892972/)

Article Paul Eling; Stanley Finger; (2021)
Franz Joseph Gall on the “deaf and dumb” and the complexities of mind (/isis/citation/CBB096600011/)

Article Paul Eling; Stanley Finger; (2020)
Gall’s German Enemies (/isis/citation/CBB509621042/)

Article Alberto Zanatta; Giuliano Scattolin; Gaetano Thiene; Fabio Zampieri; (2016)
Phrenology between anthropology and neurology in a nineteenth-century collection of skulls (/isis/citation/CBB513838346/)

Article John van Wyhe; (2020)
Johann Gaspar Spurzheim: The St. Paul of Phrenology (/isis/citation/CBB951876615/)

Thesis Courtney Elizabeth Thompson; (2015)
Criminal Minds: Medicine, Law, and the Phrenological Impulse in America, 1830-1890 (/isis/citation/CBB595020617/)

Article Carla Bittel; (2021)
Cranial Compatibility: Phrenology, Measurement, and Marriage Assessment (/isis/citation/CBB827397197/)

Article Peter Cryle; Elizabeth Stephens; (2021)
Normality: A Collection of Essays (/isis/citation/CBB959369497/)

Article Peter Cryle; (2021)
Hat Sizes and Craniometry: Professional Know-How and Scientific Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB893356244/)

Article Marc Renneville; (2020)
Matter Over Mind? The Rise and Fall of Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century France (/isis/citation/CBB316812365/)

Article Harry Whitaker; Gonia Jarema; (2017)
The Split Between Gall and Spurzheim (1813–1818) (/isis/citation/CBB914152914/)

Article Duichin, Marco; (2011)
Notomisti, filosofi, «cacciatori di teste»: Gall, Kant e i primordi della frenologia (/isis/citation/CBB449232524/)

Article Cornel, Tabea; (2014)
Matters of Sex and Gender in F. J. Gall's Organology: A Primary Approach (/isis/citation/CBB001551835/)

Article Stanley Finger; (2019)
Mark Twain's life-long fascination with phrenology (/isis/citation/CBB466857192/)

Article Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė; Paul Eling; Stanley Finger; (2017)
The Reception of Gall’s Organology in Early-Nineteenth-Century Vilnius (/isis/citation/CBB855446621/)

Article Harry A. Whitaker; (2020)
La Revanche De Gall (/isis/citation/CBB335548506/)

Article Jacob Lauge Thomassen; Simon Beierholm; (2020)
Franz Joseph Gall Came to Copenhagen, and for a Brief Moment the Brain Was the Talk of the Town (/isis/citation/CBB935430086/)

Article Piazza, Marco; (2005)
Maine de Biran e Gall. Una tappa emblematica nella ricezione francese della frenologia (/isis/citation/CBB000701026/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}