Genre:

Extract, Drama

Publications extracted:

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Subjects:

Phrenology, Medical Practitioners, Education, Reading, Physiognomy, Gender, Charlatanry

    The drama involves the visit of a woman and her son to the phrenologist, Dr Brain, in order to discover the appropriate course of education and trade for the boy. The phrenologist makes his highly gendered pronouncements, before discovering that he has examined the skull of the boy's sister as a result of a childish imposture. He insists on the correctness of his conclusions, declaring that the girl has a 'noddle fit to belong to Joan of Arc' (8).