One skilled in phrenology, the scientific study or theory that the mental powers of the individual consist of separate faculties, each of which has its organ and location in a definite region of the surface of the brain, the size or development of which is commensurate with the development of the particular faculty; hence, the study of the external conformation of the cranium as an index to the development and position of these organs, and thus of the degree of development of the various faculties (OED).
“More than most St. Andreans—more than his father—Tommy was a modern, even at sixteen. Unlike the phrenologist who taught classes in town, he did not believe that the bumps on people’s heads told their futures. Unlike the fish wives at the bottom of North Street, he did not believe that the souls of drowned sailors lived in seagulls.”
Kevin Cook, Tommy’s Honor (2007).
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