ABSTRACT
Late in 1851, William Ellis wondered whether phrenologists had been wise to commit themselves to what he called the 'monstrous project' of national education. The politics of education had been a difficult game to play, and the phrenologists had bargained for disappointment. The Manchester Public School Association was not fashioned as a tool for phrenological education, and the public never applauded the 'moral training' which phrenologist tutors gave to the royal children. On the contrary, they were of critical importance in the founding of model schools, in the direction of the Public School Association, and in rousing the conscience of the country. The same is true of Richard Carmichael and John Conolly, known for their plans of medical and hospital reform. Captain Maconochie is hardly remembered either as a penal reformer or as a phrenologist; the phrenology of leading Victorians has been cited either as evidence of their intellectual wanderlust or their attachment to anthropology.
