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Phrenology, or the doctrine of the mind : and of the relations between its manifestations and the body.

Johann Spurzheim · 1825 · London : Treuttel, Wurtz, and Richter, 1825. · 20 pictures

Johann Spurzheim's 1825 treatise on phrenology, published in London by Treuttel, Wurtz, and Richter, sets out his theory linking mental faculties to the brain and body for a general readership of medical and philosophical inquirers. Its plates show male and female profile heads in pencil-like stipple, with Roman numerals and marked positions across the skull, illustrating where the phrenological organs were said to lie. A designer could draw on the soft tonal shading, the precise side-view profiles, and the diagrammatic numerals for scientific or vintage typographic layouts.

Phrenology

Wellcome Collection · Public Domain Mark 1.0 (public domain) · More from this library