Some thinkers and physicians of the 18th and 19th centuries believed that the shape of a person’s skull could hold clues as to their psychology. In this Curiosities of Medical History feature, we take ...

The pseudoscience, which involves drawing conclusions about a person from the shape of their head, was contested from its outset and widely discredited within decades. It also has deeply racist ...

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society is a quarterly journal that includes papers read at the American Philosophical Society’s biannual meetings, independent essays by outside scholars, ...

Harriet Dempsey-Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations ...

This article traces the origins of racial science in South Africa back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Metropolitan racial theory attracted a substantial following among white settlers in ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...