Introduction to Whitman and Phrenology 
 Picture of Dr. Franz Gall, Founder of Phrenology 
 
What is phrenology?
 
Phrenology is literally, phrenos (the mind) and logos (the study of a thing). The idea of phrenology is, that by measuring the physical characteristics of a skull, a trained phrenologist can understand the mental characteristics of a brain.
 
Phrenology's founder, Dr. Franz Gall (1820-1828), was part of an early movement to understand the human condition through science. He believed that man's temperaments were buried in select portions of the brain (what would later be called brain localization).  Gall thought that on the skull these traits would manifest themselves with large bumps identifying strength and small bumps identifying weakness.  Following Lam ark's law of exercise, the size of the bump was always proportional to the importance of the trait in the individual's character. Under this system, Gall mapped where organs (the localized center of each trait) would be located. As Harold Aspiz writes in Whitman and the Body Beautiful, "Character was defined by phrenologist as the total interaction of the phrenological organs with one another and with the rest of the body." (110)
 
Unfortunately for Gall, as far as the church, politicians and the scientific community were concerned, his ideas were far too controversial.. At this point, science was effectively stripping the world of spiritual creationism and the holy defense for divine power.. For his studies, Gall was thrown out of Vienna and then France -  after Napoleon himself had declared his science invalid. Gall died poor and ostracized in 1828.
 
Gall’s strange psuedo-science was not without a legacy though. Although his studies may be an examples of  failures of the scientific method, whether by luck or skill, he was the first to isolate the existence of neurons and axons in the human brain.
For the study of phrenology, Gall caused a rage in the general public. Between 1820-40 phrenological parlors sprung into existence all over Europe and in America. These parlors often involved the sale of literature on phrenology, a museum, and, most importantly, the phrenological cabinet holding a bust of the human head with the organs and their meaning marked. These busts are the primary tool associated with the phrenologists' trade.
Although the phrenologists were often
Ridiculed as quacks or scam artists, they did effect the moral and ideas of the general public, as we   will find in a study of Whitman and Phrenology.
 
Picture of Dr. Gall, drawn in Fowler and Well's Pamphlet - "Synopsis of Phrenology and Physiology" from 1846 
 
What does Whitman have to do with Phrenology?
 
The first evidence of Whitman’s involvement with the phrenologists is seen in his review of Dr. Spurzheim in 1846, when Whitman was writing for the Daily Eagle . During the 1840’s, Whitman is thought to have occasionally frequented phrenological parlors and read various phrenological journals - especially the "American Phrenological Journal" (115) published by Fowler and Wells.
In 1849, Lorenzo Fowler did a phrenological reading which Whitman would write and comment upon for decades. A full reading is available on the Whitman Archive.  Whitman, in terms of phrenology, was a what a poet should be.  Whitman would stress these traits repeatedly as a means of announcing himself as the Poet of America.
 
In 1855, it was Fowler and Wells who would publish Leaves and Grass. And, by the second edition Leaves of Grass, the work came to mirror the methods and ideology of phrenology in a number of additional ways . Leaves of Grass, like Fowler and Wells documents, "may be read as a guidebook to the secrets of health, social justice, and spiritual advancement." (117)
The "laws" of phrenology are a compilation of the ideas advanced by Gall’s disciples Dr. Johann Gasper Spurzheim, Dr. George Combe, and Fowler and Wells. Fowler and Wells were the leading phrenologists in America, and their publishing company had the largest effect on Whitman’s ideology and book production. Here are a few examples of the ideas they fostered and Whitman would come to adopt:
 
 
 
 
Picture of Dr. Spurzheim from Fowler and Wells' Pamphlet - "Synopsis of Phrenology and Physiology" 
 
What evidence is there of Phrenology in Whitman's Poetry?
 
As an example of the links between Whitman and Phrenology, I am going to look at evidence in the opening passage of "Song of Myself" in the death-bed edition. For other suggestions for the study of phrenology in Whitman’s Poetry, look at my section on Teaching Tools for Whitman and Phrenology.
 
Song of Myself
 
1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belongs to me as it belongs to you.
 
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a sphere of summer grass.
 
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil,
This air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and
 Their parents the same.
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hopping not to cease until death.
 
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while to suffice at what they are, but never
 Forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
 
From "Song of Myself." In Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose, ed. Justin Kaplan, New York: Library of America College Editions, 1996.
In the above passage, the pre-dominate message we get from phrenology is the focus on generation.  Whitman has the need to ground himself in a historical context.  The new world, is the perfect place for him to set up his ancestry, because it is a veritable Eden waiting to be filled by coming generations.  As in "Children of Adam," Whitman is setting himself up in a long line of productive males who are going to populate the fledgling country with superior children.  This is reinforced by Whitman's concentration on "perfect health."  An outer semblance of health, according to phrenological doctrine, is a means of viewing the healthy mind within.  This harmony between sound mind and body is often compared in Whitman, and in this passage it is clear he is setting himself up as a superior creature.  As the father of America's poetry and future, Whitman finds it necessary to reinforce the legitimacy of his legacy and the state of his health.
Quotations and summary compiled from:
Aspiz, Harold.  Walt Whitman and the Body Beautiful.  Chicago:  University of Illinois Press, 1980.
and
Sabbatini, Renato M.E., Ph.D. "Phrenology, the History of Brain Localization." in Brain and Mind, 1997.
 
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