Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism

John van Wyhe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351911290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Through a reassessment of phrenology, Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism sheds light on all kinds of works in Victorian Britain and America which have previously been unnoticed or were simply referred to with a vague 'naturalism of the times' explanation. It is often assumed that the scientific naturalism familiar in late nineteenth century writers such as T.H. Huxley and John Tyndall are the effects of a 'Darwinian revolution' unleashed in 1859 on an unsuspecting world following the publication of The Origin of Species. Yet it can be misleading to view Darwin's work in isolation, without locating it in the context of a well established and vigorous debate concerning scientific naturalism. Throughout the nineteenth century intellectuals and societies had been discussing the relationship between nature and man, and the scientific and religious implications thereof. At the forefront of these debates were the advocates of phrenology, who sought to apply their theories to a wide range of subjects, from medicine and the treatment of the insane, to education, theology and even economic theories. Showing how ideas about naturalism and the doctrine of natural laws were born in the early phrenology controversies in the 1820s, this book charts the spread of such views. It argues that one book in particular, The Constitution of Man in Relation to External Objects (1828) by George Combe, had an enormous influence on scientific thinking and the popularity of the 'naturalistic movement'. The Constitution was one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century, being published continuously from 1828 to 1899, and selling more than 350, 000 copies throughout the world, many times more than Dawin's The Origin of Species. By restoring Combe and his work to centre stage it provides modern scholars with a more accurate picture of the Victorians' view of their place in Nature.

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources

Anonymous marginalia in Combe, Constitution of man, 6th edn, 1836 (Whipple Science Museum, Cambridge, Store PH-52).

George Combe Collection (NLS MS 7201–7515).

Minute Book of the Phrenological Society, Vol. 1, 1820–41, Edinburgh University

Library: Gen 608/2. Richard Cobden Papers (British Library MS 43 660 and 43 661).

J. G. Spurzheim letters (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston Medical Library, Folders 1–11).

Periodicals Consulted

Aldine Magazine

American Journal of Education

American Monthly Review

American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany

Analyst

Annals of Philosophy

Augustan Review

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine

British and Foreign Review or European Quarterly Journal

British Critic

Caledonian Mercury

Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal

Christian Examiner

Christian Journal, Conducted by Members of the Relief Church

Christian Physician and Anthropological Magazine

Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science

Edinburgh Monthly Review

Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal

Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal

Educational Magazine, and Journal of Christian Philanthropy

Enquirer: A periodical work

Evangelical Magazine

Foreign Quarterly Review

Frankfurter Frag- und Anzeige-Nachrichten

Fraser’s Magazine

Free Church Magazine

Freimüthige: oder Ernst und Scherz

Gentleman’s Magazine

Gothaischen gelehrten Zeitung

Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen

Illustrated London News

Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung

Knickerbocker Magazine

Ladies’ repository

Lancet

Leader

Literary Gazette

London Investigator

London Medical Repository

London Phalanx

Macphail’s Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal

Mechanics’ Oracle

Medical and Physical Journal

Medico-Chirurgical Journal and Review

Monthly Magazine; or, British Register

Monthly Repository

Monthly Review or Literary Journal

Naturalist

neue Teutsche Merkur

North British Review

Nottingham Review

Oracle of reason

Pamphleteer

People

People’s Phrenological Journal

Philosophical Magazine and Journal

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Phrenological Almanac; or Journal of Mental and Moral Science

Phrenological and Psychological Annual

Phrenological Journal and Miscellany [continued as] Phrenological Journal and Magazine of Moral Science

Presbyterian Magazine

Princeton Review

Prompter

Quarterly Review

Reasoner

Revise Encyclopedique

Scots’ Magazine & Edinburgh Literary Miscellany

Scotsman

Spectator

Ster

Tidsskrift for Phrenologien

Transactions of the Phrenological Society

Weekly Medico-Chirurgical & Philosophical Magazine

Western Monthly Review

Westminster Review

Yale Literary Magazine

Zeitschrift für Phrenologie

Zoist: a Journal of Cerebral Physiology and Mesmerism, and their Application to Human Welfare

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