Later Phrenology
The British Phrenological Society collection includes a number of head measurements and readings from the early years of the 20th century. The recording phrenologist was probably James Webb of Layton, in Essex.
Phrenological study and speculation was still current in the 1920s. This manuscript volume of an unpublished work, New Phrenological Organs Discovered, is peppered with photographs and engravings of celebrities and notables, from traditional phrenological studies of Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln to David Lloyd George, J. Pierpont Morgan, and, as shown here, H. H. Asquith and Winston Churchill, who both held office as Prime Minister of England. The author of this work, John W. Vale, added some thirty organs to supplement the Spurzheim system, including imagination, planning, sexual friendship, and tenderness. He includes several self-assessments based on his own photographs.
At this meeting of the British Phrenological Society, the characteristics of different types of teachers were discussed.
Designed for students and a testament to the enduring interest in phrenology, this manual attempts to reconcile phrenology with anatomy and "to demonstrate the possibility of the accurate localisation of the phrenological organs in the brain, upon the external surface of the living head." The author, J. P. Blackford, was a past-president of the British Phrenological Society and active in its educational programs. According to his obituary, his head had a 22-inch circumference while the shape of his brow indicated "he was a keen and accurate observer, fond of detailed knowledge, and distinctly scientific in his methods of investigation.. He was a penetrative reader of character, the study of human nature having a special fascination for him."
Dr. T. Timson, a Fellow of the British Phrenological Society, had a flourishing practice in Leicester in the 1930s. At the left is an advertisement for his clinic, which incorporated phrenology, massage, chiropractic, and osteopathy, and below is his fee schedule for head readings.
