In the newspapers of the decades of the thirties and forties, among the advertisements of botanic physicians, miniature painters, and grocers whose stock consisted of liquid refreshment, are frequent mention of phrenological societies, and the advertisements of phrenologists who examined human heads, charted the bumps and depressions and, with the wisdom of oracles, appraised the talents and temperaments of those who consulted them.

Their so-called science, an ancient one revived and made popular by Gall and others at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was in considerable vogue for many decades in both Europe and America Phrenological societies were organized and phrenological journals were published. The science was based on the theory—now generally accepted that different parts of the brain are the seats of different faculties of the mind. But those who developed the study of phrenology too often had little knowledge of anatomy or of scientific research; they went too far and claimed too much. And when the idea appealed to the popular fancy, the phrenological examination of heads became a lucrative but scarcely a scientific investigation.

Those who were credulous and many who were merely curious allowed the phrenologist to apply his calipers to their craniums, and occasionally the skulls of dead men were measured and the results tabulated. There have been preserved the results of phrenological examinations of the heads of two of Iowa's most famous men—one red and one white— and their charts are given here, not for their historic value but because of the interest which naturally adheres to the personality of men of note. The two individuals are the Sac warrior, Black Hawk, and the United States Senator, James W. Grimes.

In a collection of pamphlets collected by Senator Grimes is an eight page leaflet bearing the title An Explanation of the Fundamental Principles of Phrenology and written by Frederick Bly. Pasted inside the cover is a double leaf containing on one side a "New Pictorial Phrenological Chart". The "pictorial" part is a view of the profile of a man's head transformed into a picture gallery with the location of the seats of the various functions of the mind indicated by symbolic scenes. Amativeness, represented by a fat little cupid with bow and arrow, lies at the base of the brain. Acquisitiveness, shown by a miser counting his bags of gold, is given a place above the ear, while near the top of the head firmness is rather ambiguously pictured by a mule and a man pulling in opposite directions upon the mule's halter; and beside this scene veneration is shown by a maiden in the posture of prayer.

Below the pictorial exhibit are printed in columns the forty traits of character, with blanks opposite in which to insert the results of examinations; and here is found in numerical grades the "Phrenological Character of Jas. W. Grimes" as determined and recorded by Frederick Bly in September, 1847. On the back of the sheet is the following letter written by Bly:

The head of the Indian, Black Hawk, has excited much comment. It was measured during his lifetime and his skull was studied after his death. Stevens in his volume on The Black Hawk War gives some interesting information from various sources as to the phrenological character of the famous warrior. The editor of the United States Literary Gazette had this to say in 1838:

We found time yesterday to visit Black Hawk and the Indian chiefs at the Congress Hall Hotel. We went into their chamber, and found most of them sitting or lying on their beds. Black Hawk was sitting on a chair and apparently depressed in spirits. He is about sixty-five, of middling size, with a head that would excite the envy of a phrenologist—one of the finest that Heaven ever let fall on the shoulders of an Indian.

And the American Phrenological Journal which quotes the above item gives a detailed phrenological chart of Black Hawk's character. This chart is, in the following pages, combined with the chart of James W. Grimes, and with it is given the explanation from Bly's pictorial chart, which will serve to reduce adjectives and figures to a common measure.

Explanation.—The numbers extend to 20, on a scale as follows; No. 1, very small; 4, small; 7, moderate; 10, medium; 13, full; 16, large; 20, very large. The written figures denote the size of each organ.

GRIMES BLACK HAWK 1 Amativeness 15 large 2. Philoprogenitiveness 9 large 3 Adhesiveness 16 large 4 Inhabitiveness 7 large 5 Concentrativeness 10 large 6 Combativeness 14 very large 7 Destructiveness 9 very large 8 Alimentiveness 12 average 9 Acquisitiveness 14 large 10 Secretiveness 11 very large 11 Cautiousness 16 full 12 Approbativeness 15 very large 13 Self-Esteem 6 very large 14 Firmness 13 very large 15 Conscientiousness 12 moderate 16 Hope 8 small 17 Marvelousness 3 large 18 Veneration 9 very large 19 Benevolence 13 moderate 20 Constructiveness 8 small 21 Ideality 17 moderate 22 Imitation 15 small 23 Mirthfulness 10 full 24 Individuality 17 very large 25 Form 9 very large 26 Size 8 very large 27 Weight 10 large 28 Colour 16 large 29 Order 16 large 30 Calculation 15 large 31 Locality 10 very large 32 Eventuality 12 very large 33 Time 13 uncertain 34 Tune 12 uncertain 35 Language 15 large 36 Causality 16 average 37 Comparison 11 large B Sublimity 17   C Suavity 15   D An intuitive disposition to     know human nature 16

After perhaps half a century of popularity phrenology and its exponents passed into a decline, phrenological societies and journals ceased functioning, and the practitioners folded up their calipers and pictorial charts and sought other fields.

While we read with curiosity the estimates of Black Hawk's cranium we are apt to judge his character more by the words and deeds of his strenuous career. And though we can find much of interest in a phrenological estimate of Grimes in the years of his young manhood, when he was as yet only a promising lawyer of Burlington, Iowa, we shall be more inclined to look down the years to 1868 when in the Senate of the United States, in the trial of Andrew Johnson, the character of James W. Grimes was subjected to the supreme test. He held to the course of his convictions in the face of the practically unanimous execration of his constituents and colleagues, but today the results of that test of a public man's character form one of the proud heritages of the State of Iowa.

JOHN C. PARISH