Book contents
- Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
- Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1 The Birth of a Controversial Doctrine
- 2 Coming to America
- 3 Skeptical in Hannibal
- 4 The River, the West, and Phrenology Abroad
- 5 Mark Twain’s “Small Test”
- 6 Tom, Huck, and the Head Readers
- 7 More Head Readings and a Phrenological Farewell
- 8 Young Holmes and Phrenology in Boston
- 9 An American in Paris
- 10 Quackery and Holmes’s Head Reading
- 11 Holmes’s Professor on “Bumpology”
- 12 Holmes’s “Medicated Novels”
- 13 Mr. Clemens and Dr. Holmes
- 14 Phrenology Assessed
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
10 - Quackery and Holmes’s Head Reading
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2023
- Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
- Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1 The Birth of a Controversial Doctrine
- 2 Coming to America
- 3 Skeptical in Hannibal
- 4 The River, the West, and Phrenology Abroad
- 5 Mark Twain’s “Small Test”
- 6 Tom, Huck, and the Head Readers
- 7 More Head Readings and a Phrenological Farewell
- 8 Young Holmes and Phrenology in Boston
- 9 An American in Paris
- 10 Quackery and Holmes’s Head Reading
- 11 Holmes’s Professor on “Bumpology”
- 12 Holmes’s “Medicated Novels”
- 13 Mr. Clemens and Dr. Holmes
- 14 Phrenology Assessed
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
When Holmes returned to America in December 1835, he quickly completed the requirements for his Harvard medical degree and began practicing medicine. Soon after, he began teaching at Dartmouth and then Harvard. He was now using his pulpit and pen to rail against superstitions, quackery, and unsubstantiated beliefs and therapies in medicine, while making seminal contributions to his profession. He gave a lecture on phrenology in 1850, but it is not clear what he communicated. We also know that he had several phrenology books in his personal collection and used the university’s libraries, also meeting with other New England writers interested in the subject. Wanting to learn more, he had Lorenzo Fowler evaluate his head in 1859, twelve years before Mark Twain used the same phrenologist for his “little test.” What Fowler reported was preserved and is presented. Importantly, Holmes was now prepared to state what he thought about phrenology and the head readers in public.
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- Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head ReadersLiterature, Humor, and Faddish Phrenology, pp. 208 - 225Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023