Miniature Phrenology Heads, 1831

‘Phrenologists believed that the shape and size of various areas of the brain (and therefore the overlying skull) determined personality. These heads may have been used to teach phrenology but were probably made as a general reference collection. A wide range of different heads are present. For instance, head number 54 is that of a scientific man; head number 8 is recorded as the head of an ‘idiot’. The heads were made by William Bally, who studied under Spurzheim from 1828 onwards.’

- Science Museum