ABSTRACT
Respected surgeons, members of the Royal Academies, churchmen and journalists: all were eager to engage phrenologists in public debate. Giving a paper before the Royal Society of London in 1823, Charles Bell attacked phrenology as 'foreign' and said that the work in the medical schools 'of this kingdom should be distinguished from those of other countries'. In addition to its underlying rationalism, phrenology bore a close resemblance to at least one recent school of thought. Combe and the early phrenologists were well acquainted with the Scottish school of philosophy which had developed around Reid and his pupil Dugald Stewart. John Conolly was particularly interested in the role of the mind in dealing with a variety of physical ailments. As a tribute to phrenology Conolly founded the local societies in Warwick and Leamington, but it was not remembered that phrenology was the inspiration behind his work in the asylums and hospitals of the Midlands.
