It took a little longer to decipher these books than I thought, so today will be the phrenology experiment, to be followed by physiognomy experiments tomorrow.
I set to measuring my head, which proved difficult without calipers. I followed the instructions in the book Descriptive Mentality... Head Face and Hand by Holmes W. Merton (1899)
The instructions were very vague and poorly written. The names of the certain measurements were obfuscated, either on purpose or not. Once it would be referred to as "top head measurement" and later as "forehead measurement." After about an hour I was able to take all of my head measurements and determine what they were supposed to be. For science's sake, I will provide my measurements and notes here.
"measurement 1 22 inches (high medium or large)"
This was the circumference of my head, surprisingly not that big. I suppose this was probably designed with men as a base line. I have a very large head in reality. This measurement has little to do with anything, other than creating a proportion for the other measurements to go off of.
"temperament 1 14, 1/2 large"
This measurement was from the center of my ear to the top of my forehead and around to the other ear.
"2 15 1/2 (real big)
3 15 1/2 (pretty big)
(mental temperament)
(middle and second range of faculties strong)"
Here I have determined that based on these measurements which are basically the top of my head from the ear up from various angles, I have the "mental temperament," based on information from the book.
"measurement 2 6 inches?? exceedingly tiny
DEFINITELY not vital temperament
height from ear holes to top 5 1/4
side head slightly less than 12 inches, VERY small"
My strange head shining through. I can wear children's sunglasses, and yet I can't wear a lot of normal sized hats. This apparently means I am very un-vital, for what that's worth.
"estimative temperament
high motive and mental, low vital"
So I have determined my temperament, based on my having high 'motive' and 'mental' and low 'vital', which means I am intelligent and hard-working, but not very lively or healthy. That is in some ways accurate, but I am actually reasonably healthy. I was a bit disappointed that this is all that I was able to find out after all that measuring. This was the experiment I could most easily do with phrenology, because the rest of it requires one knowing what an 'average' head feels like, and the only people I know who would probably let me touch their heads are not very 'average'.
I guess these measurements are difficult and vague, because it is actually a lot easier to measure one's head than to do the more specific reading, so more people might do it. The more people who can do it, the more vague one must be for it to seem 'true.' Of course most people are going to consider themselves intelligent, or lively, or hard-working, so any combination of the three is going to ring true to most people.
I must admit I did try doing a more thorough reading on my head, and was only able to determine that I am apparently lousy at math, mechanical objects, and don't believe much in personal liberties. Not sure how true any of those are, more than an average person.
Something I am finding about these pseudo-sciences, is that prior to my experiments, I am more readily able to believe them than the occult subjects. I suppose this is how people believed them in the past, a scholarly person makes claims that seem reasonable, people are likely to believe it until they actually test it. Such is the definition of a pseudo-science, it seems.
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