How to read character : a new illustrated hand-book of phrenology and physiognomy, for students and examiners; with a descriptive chart / [Samuel Roberts Wells].

  • Wells, Samuel R. (Samuel Roberts), 1820-1875.
Date:
1891, [©1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How to read character : a new illustrated hand-book of phrenology and physiognomy, for students and examiners; with a descriptive chart / [Samuel Roberts Wells]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    A few are found who can do almost anything—are nearly as well fitted for one branch of business as another. Phrenology enables us to decide what pursuit to choose for a child. We consult his organization and find out what his natural tendencies, tastes, and capacities are, and instead of making a poor preacher an indifferent lawyer, or a blundering doctor of a youth whom nature intended for a first-rate mechanic, engineer, or business man, we allow the boy's own natural predilections to be our guide in choosing a calling for him. VI. THE PROFESSIONS. The clergyman finds his usefulness greatly enhanced by a knowledge of Phrenology, as it enables him to understand the mental peculiarities of his parishioners, and to adapt his teachings and admonitions to individual cases, so that his appeals are understood and felt. To the physician it proves not less useful as a guide in the treatment of his various patients, no two of whom are organized exactly alike. In all cases he finds that the mind affects the body in one way or another, either promoting or retarding recovery, and that the mode and degree of its action depend upon the relative development of different parts of the brain. Fully compre- hending these conditions, he is enabled to make the patient's mental activity an ally instead of an enemy in the curative process. The lawyer confessedly owes much of his success to a thorough knowledge of human nature, and in no way can he so well obtain this knowledge as through the medium of Phrenology and Physiognomy. The merchant may make use of it in choosing his clerks and other assistants, so as to secure honesty and business talent; the mechanic who under- stands Phrenology will not take for an apprentice a boy who is poorly developed in Constructiveness and Imitation or who has a weak constitution; and the farmer will look for a love of animals, an interest in plants, and a delight in the free, un. conventional life of the country to adapt a young man to the profession of agriculture. The statesman, the military com- mander, the actor, the artist, and the mechanic, all need a knowledge of it, and may profit greatly by its teachings.