| Chapter 2: | Philosophy, Psychology, and Physiology |
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supported the theory of the evolution of acquired characteristics because it agreed with their belief in the possibility and moral necessity of improving the human race. Their “law of exercise” stated that an organ such as the brain, if properly exercised, will grow in size and improve in performance. The cultivated organs will then pass down to the next generation intact (Spurzheim, 1821, p. 15).
The relevance of phrenology to the 19th-century construction of kinship is also evident in the writings of the Fowler brothers. Among their voluminous phrenological treatises, books, pamphlets, and chapbooks, one finds Lorenzo Fowler's The Principles of Phrenology and Physiology Applied to Man's Social Relations, Together With an Analysis of the Domestic Feelings (L. Fowler, 1842) and Marriage: Its History and Ceremonies, With a Phrenological and Physiological Exposition of the Functions and Qualifications for Happy Marriages (L. Fowler, 1843) and Orson Fowler's Love and Parentage Applied to the Improvement of Offspring (O. Fowler, 1844) and Hereditary Descent: Its Laws and Facts Applied to Human Improvement (O. Fowler, 1843). Using ethnic and family data as illustrations, O. Fowler compiled eleven sections of “proofs” that family likeness, stature, physical strength, deformities, longevity, diseases, insanity, moral faculties, caution, self-esteem, twin-bearing propensity, criminal propensities, talents and mirthfulness were hereditary and subject to rational intervention for the sake of improving the human race. O. Fowler's Hereditary Descent is a clear progenitor of Francis Galton's Hereditary Genius (see following text).
Developed at the intersection of medicine and natural philosophy, phrenology was popular with such 19th-century luminaries as Walt Whitman, Herbert Spencer, and Edgar Poe (see Aspiz, 1966; Hungerford, 1930; Young, 1970). It also shared partnership with physical anthropology before degenerating into a pseudoscience. Emblematic of the early friendship between phrenology and physical anthropology is a complementary chapter in Samuel G. Morton's Crania Americana (Morton, 1839). It was written by George Combe, and it was an introduction to phrenology. Phrenology made several