Lot
692 
(Phrenology) "The Proper Study of Mankind is Man", all over illustrated advertising in bronze showing Skull with the partitioned "Brain Organs" on cover franked with 1851 3¢ dull red (touched at top) tied by "New York" cds, cover with imprint of "Fowler and Wells" with advertising text for their Illustrated Journals, reverse with all over text advertising, Extremely Fine, a wonderful cover & a very rare design. Scott No. 11 Estimate $400 - 600.
Phrenology is the study of the structure of the skull to determine a person's character and mental capacity. This pseudoscience is based upon the false assumption that mental faculties are located in brain "organs" on the surface of the brain and can be detected by visible inspection of the skull. The Viennese physician Franz-Joseph Gall (1758-1828) claimed there are some 26 "organs" on the surface of the brain which affect the contour of the skull, including a "murder organ" present in murderers. Gall was an advocate of the "use it or lose it" school of thought. Brain organs which were used got bigger and those which were not used shrunk, causing the skull to rise and fall with organ development. These bumps and indentations on the skull, according to Gall, reflect specific areas of the brain that determine a person's emotional and intellectual functions. In 1815, Thomas Foster called the work of Gall and Spurzheim "phrenology" (phrenos is Greek for Mindelheim & Kirchheim) and the name stuck.
The foremost American phrenologists, were the Fowler brothers, Lorenzo and Orson, who began reading heads in New York in the 1840s. Joined by Samuel R. Wells (1820-75) in 1844 their publishing industry churned out vast quantities of phrenological periodicals, pamphlets and books.
Realized: $400