ABSTRACT
As Terman recounted in his autobiography, one evening in the late 1880s a traveling book salesman stopped at James and Martha Terman’s home. The Termans were educated farmers with a library of about 200 books and a sizeable brood of literate children. Naturally, they were receptive to the salesman’s offerings. As he cycled through books, providing synopses and explanations, the peddler eventually arrived at a book about phrenology. Phrenology analyzes the surface of the scalp in order to draw conclusions about people’s behaviors and thoughts. Certain scalpel patterns and bumps predict criminality while other patterns predict charity. During his sales pitch, the salesman demonstrated the discipline by measuring the scalp of one of the youngest Termans, Lewis. After pensively feeling the boy’s scalp, the salesman predicted that Lewis was destined for greatness, and though phrenology is a false prophet, the salesman was certainly prophetic. Lewis Terman would grow up to become one of the most eminent and infl uential educational psychologists in history (Terman, 1930).
