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Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
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LicensePhrenological calliper, possibly nickel-plated brass
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London
Phrenological calliper, possibly nickel-plated brass
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Phrenological calliper, possibly nickel-plated brass
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Phrenological calliper, possibly nickel-plated brass
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Phrenological calliper, possibly nickel-plated brass
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Phrenological calliper(?), possibly nickel-plated brass, from the British Phrenological Society, by Arnold and Sons, London.
Not much is known about this instrument. It is thought that it was used by phrenologists to take accurate measurements of the head. Phrenology was a practice based on the belief that personality could be read from the bumps and lumps of someone’s skull (and thus the underlying structure of the brain). Made by Arnold & Sons, surgical instrument makers, the callipers were once owned by the British Phrenological Society. Founded in 1886, the Society closed in 1967.
Details
- Category:
- Psychology, Psychiatry & Anthropometry
- Object Number:
- 1999-395
- Measurements:
-
closed: 20 mm x 237 mm x 140 mm, .2 kg
fully open: 20 mm x 345 mm x 175 mm, .2 kg
- type:
- callipers
- credit:
- Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
