What is/was phrenology ?

Phrenology was a science that examined the human head and attributed differnt bumps or shapes to specific character traits.

phrenology... one of my favorite sciences.

its basically a 'science' of character divination. the shape of your head was thought to be able to tell what type of person you are.

here is a good site i dug up about it.
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/phrenology/overview.htm
(and NO i did not look up the answer. i actually knew this one).

curses, beat to the post now button again.

Using your heads, PB and Lynda !
German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), became famous for devising this theory, although it has few followers today. Among other things, the theory stated that personality and abilities are revealed by the shape of one's head
Phrenology was based on the belief that differences in ability and temperament were reflected by differences in development of particular areas of the brain; and that the detailed shape of the skull reveals the amount of development of each area. The theory was taken quite seriously for some time.