| George Combe | |
|---|---|
George Combe, 1836
by Daniel Macnee |
|
| Born | 21 October 1788 Edinburgh |
| Died | 14 August 1858 Farnham, Surrey |
| Nationality | Scotland |
| Fields | phrenology writer |
| Known for | phrenology |
George Combe (21 October 1788 – 14 August 1858), was a Scottish lawyer and writer on phrenology and education. In later years, he devoted himself to the promotion of phrenology and founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820. Combe's major work was The Constitution of Man (1828).
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George Combe was born in Edinburgh, the elder brother of Andrew Combe. After attending the High School of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh, Combe entered a lawyer's office in 1804; and, in 1812, he began his own practice.
In 1815 the Edinburgh Review contained an article on the system of "craniology" of Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, which was denounced as "a piece of thorough quackery from beginning to end." When Spurzheim came to Edinburgh in 1816, Combe was invited to a friend's house where he saw Spurzheim dissect a human brain. Impressed by this demonstration, he attended the second series of Spurzheim's lectures. Investigating the subject for himself, he became satisfied that the fundamental principles of phrenology were true--namely
"that the brain is the organ of mind; that the brain is an aggregate of several parts, each subserving a distinct mental faculty; and that the size of the cerebral organ is, caeteris paribus, an index of power or energy of function."
In 1820 he helped to found the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, which in 1823 began to publish a Phrenological Journal. Through his lectures and writings, Combe attracted public attention to phrenology on Continental Europe and the United States, as well as his native United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Combe began to lecture at Edinburgh in 1822, and published a manual called Elements of Phrenology in June 1824. Converts came in, new societies sprang up, and controversies began. A second edition of the Elements, 1825, was attacked by Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review for September 1825. Combe replied in a pamphlet and in the journal. Sir William Hamilton delivered addresses to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1826 and 1827 attacking the phrenologists. A sharp controversy followed, including challenges to public disputes and mutual charges of misrepresentation, in which Spurzheim took part. The correspondence was published in the fourth and fifth volumes of the Phrenological Journal.[1]
In 1836, Combe stood for the chair of Logic at Edinburgh, against two other candidates, Sir William Hamilton and Isaac Taylor;[2] Hamilton won with 18 votes, against 14 for Taylor.[1] In 1838 Combe visited the United States and studied the treatment of the criminal classes there. He initiated a programme of public education about chemistry, physiology, history and moral philosophy.
Combe sought to improve the education of the poorer classes. He advocated a national system of non-sectarian education.[3] He helped set up a school in Edinburgh run on the principles of William Ellis, and did some teaching there himself on phrenology and physiology.[1] It was prompted by the London "Birkbeck School" opened on 17 July 1848. Combe founded a similar institution in Edinburgh, with William Mattieu Williams as headmaster, and it was opened on 4 December 1848 as the Williams Secular School. To begin with it was held in the Trades' Hall, Infirmary Street; soon it was moved to accommodate the numbers, to the premises of the former anatomical school of Robert Knox, at 1 Surgeons' Square. Williams left in 1854, but many years later wrote one of the last serious works on phrenology; his departure saw the effective collapse of the school with its ambitious and encyclopedic curriculum. By the 1870s the school had become a lecture hall.[4][5][6] The actual form of education set up by Combe was later regarded as "transient", though as a propagandist of general educational ideas he was more effective.[7] Combe has been seen as a significant figure in his view that government should be involved with the educational system, and as a precursor of Herbert Spencer. His attitudes were supported by William Jolly, an inspector of schools, and noted by Frank Pierrepont Graves in connection with Spencer and T. H. Huxley.[8]
Combe gave public discussion to the reform of criminal behaviour; and, with his assistant William A. F. Browne, he opened a debate about the introduction of the humane treatment of psychiatric disorder into publicly funded asylums.
In 1842, Combe delivered a course of twenty-two lectures on phrenology in the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, and he travelled much in Europe, inquiring into the management of schools, prisons and asylums.
Combe was revising the ninth edition of the Constitution of Man when he died at Moor Park, Farnham in August 1858. He was buried in the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh and his resting place is marked by a rather flamboyant headstone.
In 1817 his first essay on phrenology was published in The Scots Magazine; and a series of papers on the same subject appeared soon afterwards in the Literary and Statistical Magazine; these were collected and published in 1819 in book form as Essays on Phrenology, which in later editions became A System of Phrenology.
Combe's most popular work, The Constitution of Man, was published in 1828, and he was widely denounced as a materialist and atheist. In this book, Combe wrote: "Mental qualities are determined by the size, form and constitution of the brain; and these are transmitted by hereditary descent".
In 1840 he published his Moral Philosophy, and in the following year his Notes on the United States of North America.
The culmination of Combe's autobiographical philosophy is contained in "On the Relation between Science and Religion", first publicly issued in 1857.
Combe moved into the economic arena with his pamphlet on The Currency Question (1858).
In 1833, Combe married Cecilia Siddons, a daughter of the actress Sarah Siddons, and sister of Henry Siddons, the author of the Practical Illustrations of Rhetorical Gesture and Action (1807). She brought him a fortune, as well as a happy marriage (preceded by a phrenological check for compatibility); a few years later he retired from work as a lawyer, in comfortable circumstances.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.