Combe

Combe, GEORGE, phrenologist and moral philosopher, the son of a brewer, was born October 21, 1788, in Edinburgh. He became a Writer to the Signet in 1812, and continued to practise until 1837, when he resolved to devote himself to popularising his views on phrenology and education. As early as 1816, he had made the acquaintance of Spurzheim, and become a convert to his system of phrenology. The result was his Essays on Phrenology (1819), and his Elements of Phrenology (1824), which reached a ninth edition in 1862. But his most important production is The Constitution of Man (1828; 9th ed. 1879), in which he endeavours to demonstrate the essential harmony of the nature of man with the surrounding world, and the necessity of studying the laws of nature. Combe's doctrines were violently opposed, being considered by many as inimical to revealed religion. He numbered amongst his friends Cobden, Robert Chambers, and Miss Evans (George Eliot). Combe contributed largely to the Phrenological Journal (20 vols. 1824-47) and to Chambers's Journal and the Scotsman. He travelled and lectured in the United Kingdom, Germany, and America, and published Notes on the United States (1841). He died 14th August 1858. Combe married, in 1833, Cecilia (1794-1868), daughter of the celebrated Mrs Siddons. Besides the works mentioned, he wrote Lectures on Popular Education (1833), Moral Philosophy (1840), Principles of Criminal Legislation (1854), Phrenology applied to Painting and Sculpture (1855), The Currency Question (1855), The Relation between Science and Religion (1857). His writings roused popular interest in the science of healthy living, but the phrenological works are obsolete. Combe's ideas on popular education were put into experimental shape in a secular school which he founded in Edinburgh in 1848, where the sciences were taught, including physiology and phrenology; but it was too much in advance of its time, and after a few years had to be abandoned. All his subjects, save phrenology, are now taught in every well-appointed board school. A physiology lectureship was founded by the trustees of George and Andrew Combe. See the Life by C. Gibbon (1878); and Combe's views and articles on Education, collected by Jolly (1879).