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"Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes had lifelong interests in phrenology. Their writings, often humorous, reflect their negative opinions of the head readers and craniology, but not phrenology's other tenets. This book shows how great literature can shed light on the science and medicine of the past"--
Inhaltsverzeichnis
List of Figures; Preface; 1. The birth of a controversial doctrine; 2. Coming to America; 3. Skeptical in Hannibal; 4. The river, the west, and phrenology abroad; 5. Mark Twain's 'small test'; 6. Tom, Huck, and the head readers; 7. More head readings and a phrenological farewell; 8. Young Holmes and phrenology in Boston; 9. An American in Paris; 10. Quackery and Holmes's head reading; 11. Holmes's professor on 'bumpology'; 12. Holmes's 'medicated novels'; 13. Mr. Clemens and Dr. Holmes; 14. Phrenology assessed; Epilogue; References; Index.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Stanley Finger is Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. He has published more than 250 articles and twenty-two books, including Origins of Neuroscience (1994), Minds Behind the Brain (2000), The Shocking History of Electric Fishes (2011), and Franz Joseph Gall (2019). He edited the Journal of the History of Neurosciences for twenty years.
Zusammenfassung
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes had lifelong interests in phrenology. Their writings, often humorous, reflect their negative opinions of the head readers and craniology, but not phrenology's other tenets. This book shows how great literature can shed light on the science and medicine of the past.
Vorwort
A study of Mark Twain's and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's interests in phrenology, as revealed, often humorously, in their writings.