Punch,  5 (1843), 182.

Phrenological Examination of an Actor's Head

Anon

Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Phrenology


    A spoof report on a meeting of the London Phrenological Society where Mr MacCalliper discussed the cerebral organs of a 'tragedian', Mr Peter Wildrave. The lecturer notes the abnormally large size of the organs of 'Love of Approbation', 'Self-Esteem', 'Veneration', and 'Marvellousness'. Many other organs were abnormally small. The minuteness of 'Comparison' and 'Causality', for example, was linked to the fact that Wildrave 'never could perceive the reason why his performances did not draw'.



© Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Project, Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, 2005 - 2020

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