Spurzheim, JOHANN GASPAR

Spurzheim, JOHANN GASPAR, one of the founders of the so-called science of Phrenology (q.v.), was born at Longwich near Treves on 31st December 1776. Whilst studying medicine at Vienna he became acquainted with Gall (q.v.), and was made a proselyte to his doctrines. The two in 1805 started on a lecturing tour through the principal countries of central Europe, and in 1807 they settled in Paris. In 1813 the two friends, their teachings disagreeing in some particulars, separated; Spurzheim proceeded (1814) to England, and lectured and wrote and laboured in the principal cities of the United Kingdom for four years, gaining a powerful adherent in George Combe (q.v.). After remaining at Paris from 1817 to 1825, Spurzheim again went back to England and renewed his propaganda, this time with much greater success. In 1832 he sailed to the United States, but died suddenly at Boston on 10th November that same year. Spurzheim advocated his doctrines with great eloquence and enthusiasm, and popularised phrenology and won for it a good deal of the attention it attracted. He wrote numerous books, including Phrenology (1825), Philosophical Principles of Phrenology (1825), Manuel de Phrénologie (1832); and some others on more general topics—e.g. Elementary Principles of Education (1821) and Essai sur la Nature Morale et Intellectuelle de l'Homme (1820). See Carmichael's Memoir of him (Dublin, 1833).