Editing Phrenology (section)

=== United States ===
[[File:(King1893NYC) pg330 FOWLER and WELLS CO, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHRENOLOGY, 27 EAST, 21ST STREET.jpg|thumb|American Institute of Phrenology (New York, 1893)]]
The first publication in the United States in support of phrenology was published by John Bell, who reissued Combe's essays with an introductory discourse, in 1822.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Combe |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3UEAAAAQAAJ&q=john+godman+phrenology&pg=PA79 |title=Lectures on phrenology, with notes by A. Boardman |date=1839 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=2020-11-19 |archive-date=2023-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205073606/https://books.google.com/books?id=f3UEAAAAQAAJ&q=john+godman+phrenology&pg=PA79 |url-status=live }}</ref> The following year, John G. Wells of [[Bowdoin College]] "commenced an annual exposition, and recommendation of its doctrines, to his class".<ref name=":0" /> In 1834, John D. Godman, professor of anatomy at [[Geneva Medical College|Rutgers Medical College]], emphatically defended phrenology when he wrote:<ref>{{Cite web |title=The anatomy and physiology of the human body (Volume 1) – Digital Collections – National Library of Medicine |url=https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101568791X1-mvpart |access-date=2020-09-25 |website=collections.nlm.nih.gov |archive-date=2021-06-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603065910/https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101568791X1-mvpart |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>It is, however, allowable to take as a principle, that there will be a relation betwixt vigour of intellect and perfection of form; and that, therefore, history will direct us to the original and chief family of mankind. We therefore ask, which are the nations that have excelled and figured in history, not only as conquerors, but as forwarding, by their improvements in arts and sciences, the progress of human knowledge?</blockquote>Phrenological teachings had become a widespread popular movement by 1834, when Combe came to lecture in the United States.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|pp=205–208}} Sensing commercial possibilities men like the Fowlers became phrenologists and sought additional ways to bring phrenology to the masses.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|p=208}} Though a popular movement, the intellectual elite of the United States found phrenology attractive because it provided a biological explanation of mental processes based on observation, yet it was not accepted uncritically. Some intellectuals accepted organology while questioning cranioscopy.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|p=206}} Gradually the popular success of phrenology undermined its scientific merits in the United States and elsewhere, along with its materialistic underpinnings, fostering radical religious views. There was increasing evidence to refute phrenological claims, and by the 1840s it had largely lost its credibility.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|p=210}} In the United States, especially in the South, phrenology faced an additional obstacle in the antislavery movement. While phrenologists usually claimed the superiority of the European race, they were often sympathetic to liberal causes including the antislavery movement; this sowed skepticism about phrenology among those who were pro-slavery.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|p=212}} The rise and surge in popularity in mesmerism, phrenomesmerism, also had a hand in the loss of interest in phrenology among intellectuals and the general public.{{sfn|McCandless|1992|p=213}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=APA handbook of personality and social psychology |last1=Mikulincer |first1=Mario |last2=Shaver |first2=Phillip R. |author3-link=John Dovidio |last3=Dovidio |first3=John F. |last4=Simpson |first4=Jeffrey A. |publisher=[[American Psychological Association]] |isbn=978-1433816994 |edition=First |location=Washington, DC |oclc=862928518 |year=2015}}</ref>

[[John Brown Junior|John Brown Jr.]], son of the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]], travelled for a time as a lecturer on phrenology.<ref>{{cite journal
|title=Rescripting a Troubled Past: John Brown's Family and the Harpers Ferry Conspiracy
|first=Robert E.
|last=McGlone
|journal=[[Journal of American History]]
|volume=75
|number=4
|date=March 1989
|pages=1179–1200, at p. 1190
|doi=10.2307/1908635
|jstor=1908635}}</ref>