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Back and side views of the head. Parts of the brain are labeled with numbers.
Phrenological chart from a magazine (1834).

Franz Joseph Gall develops phrenology, a method of measuring the skull for "morality and criminality."

1790s

RAC
IM
INDG
BH
SRA
Phrenological chart from a magazine (1834).

Gall claims phrenology can allow for the determination of a person's inclination towards poverty, criminality, and "racial inferiority" by the shape and number of bumps on their skull. While it will be discredited by many scientists, phrenology will be used to further legitimize white supremacy and ableism by subjecting African, Indigenous and immigrant communities to surveillance of their anatomy in the attempt to determine whether they are a "moral danger" to society. Gall is also credited with founding and shaping the field of "craniometry," which is the comparative anatomy of skull size and weight that will be used declare the "inferiority" of non-Europeans.