ABSTRACT
Early in the nineteenth century many people accepted both the assumptions and the conclusions of phrenology. The science of 'head-reading', as it was sometimes called, was widely received as the latest and most significant step towards a complete psychology of man. The lack of anatomical knowledge meant that it was necessary to approach the mind philosophically: its operation was usually explained in the language of metaphysics rather than in terms of anatomy or physical science. Psychologists were still impressed by, and satisfied with, the picture of the mind which they had historically achieved through philosophical analogy and pure logic. Physiology had little importance to the study of human behaviour and the physiology of the brain had even less. The financial success of the George Combe brought them a comfortable distance from the ancestral home in Livingston's Yards. George was particularly careful in money matters. Combe had his own role to play on the stage of Edinburgh society.
