You Should Have Your Head Examined: The Phrenology Quiz

While physiognomists study facial features and palmists study the "fate line," phrenologists rely on the size and shape of the skull for their practice.

German physician, anatomist and physiologist Franz Joseph Gall developed his theory in the early 19th century.

Phrenologists study the shape of skull to determine personality and character traits.

Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, Gall's contemporary and peer, is considered to have popularized the term.

Gall called it cranioscopy.

Phrenology was scientific study in the 19th century.

While Pierre Paul Broca was not a phrenologist, his discovery (now called Broca's area of the brain) renewed interest in the idea.

Phrenologists see themselves as "compartmentalists," believing the brain was broken into localized sections with specific functions.

All of these are tenets of Gall's theory of phrenology.

The shape of the brain reflects the skull's shape.

While popular in Europe, phrenology was most popular among Americans.

All of these words and phrases can trace their roots to phrenology.

Phrenologists believe the brain is made up of organs, each controlling various personality traits.

This is true. Additionally, according to phrenology, you could exercise the "organs" of the brain.

While the brain controls your muscles, the brain is an organ.

The psychograph was an automated phrenology machine that Henry Lavery patented around the turn of the 20th century.

The psychograph took 32 measurements of the skull that were used to suggest prewritten, "canned" possibilities.

A bump behind the ear, phrenology suggests, is a tendency to lie, cheat or steal.

During the 19th century, phrenology books sold more copies than "On the Origin of Species."

True, although it turns out it's about as helpful as knowing the color of your aura.

A prominent bump on the forehead indicates well-developed benevolence.

In Mr. Burns version of phrenology, Smithers has the "brainpan of a stagecoach tilter."

French scientist Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, after testing on animal brains, concluded Gall's theory was wrong and the brain was one unit.

Phrenologists in the 19th century may have thought a little too highly of themselves.

In 1808 the Institute of France concluded phrenology had no scientific basis, marking the beginning of science's inability to reproduce Gall's results.

By the 1830s scientists generally considered phrenology pseudoscience.

Brothers Lorenzo and Orson Fowler started the journal in 1838 (which was published until 1911).

Phrenology is now considered a pseudoscience, like astrology.

Through psychognomy, Belgian Paul Bouts kept phrenology alive in the 21st century.

Some people used phrenology to promote racist ideologies, including colonization and slavery.