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Ivory Phrenology Cane
 
Phrenology (from Greek phren, "mind"; and logos, "knowledge") is a theory which claims to be able to determine character, personality traits, and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head (reading bumps).  Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) around 1800, and very popular in the 19th Century, it is now discredited as a pseudoscience.  Phrenology has, however, received credit as a protoscience for having contributed to medical science the ideas that the brain is the organ of the mind and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions.
 
In the Victorian period, Phrenology was often taken quite seriously and many prominent public figures such as Reverand Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler, one of the leading phrenologists of the time) actively promoted phrenology as an early form of psychological insight and personal growth.  Thousands of people consulted a Phrenologist to get advice in matters like hiring personnel or finding a marriage partner.  However, while phrenology was rejected by mainstream academia, many others published scientific books and journals on the subject. Many considered phrenology akin to how most view astrology today.
The noted phrenologist, the American, Lorenzo N. Fowler, brother of Orsin, spent much of his life in England where he set up the famous phrenological publishing house of L.N Fowler & Co; he acquired fame with his phrenology head, a china head on which the phrenological faculties were indicated. This item has become the symbol of phrenology and subject matter of this cane.
 
This Phrenology cane is a superb example and is in very fine condition.  The elephant ivory handle is 3" high and 1-1/2" wide at the widest point.  It is in very good condition and the markings on the head and the decoder are clearly readable.  There is a 3/4" silver collar separating the head from the shaft and a 1/2" silver ferrule on the tip.  The overall length is 35-1/3".  A fine example of its genre`.

F6J28035

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