ABSTRACT
In 1835, a man charged with raping and dismembering his child victims was convicted and sentenced to death in Turin. After his execution, the body was handed over for public autopsy. The post-mortem examination, conducted amidst scenes of great pomp and ceremony, revealed, according to one report, ‘a sinister face; a ginger beard; coarse, thick, reddish hair; an atrophied right eye; thick upper lips and a flattened nose’. The head was subjected to a phrenological examination with the help of a craniometer. The following result was recorded:
Those present were astonished by the development of the temporal bones covering the organs of cunning (secretiveness), destructiveness (cruelty, carnivorousness), and of the parietal bones corresponding to the organ of circumspection. The organs of religion, benevolence, educational capacity and comparative perspicuity, on the other hand, were comparatively small.
