102108 | GERMANY. Franz Joseph Gall silver Medal.

102108  |  GERMANY. Franz Joseph Gall silver Medal. Issued 1805. Commemorating the founder of phrenology (39mm, 16.79 g, 12h). By F. Loos & A. Hoffmann in Berlin.

 

DR FRANZ JOSEPH GALL AUS WIEN IM FORSCHEN KÜHN BESCHEIDEN IM BEHAUPTEN, bust right / DER SEELE WERKSTATT ZU ERSPÄHN FAND ER DEN WEG / LEHRTE IN BERLIN (Gazing into the soul's workshop...he found the way...teaching in Berlin), draped skull right set upon altar decorated with torch and serpent-entwined staff crossed in saltire. Edge: Plain.

 

Sommer A-124; Brettauer 374. Fine details. Gunmetal gray surfaces, with a lighter argent nature upon the higher points; some scattered marks in the fields and a very minor planchet waviness account for the details designation.

 

Gall was a noted physiologist and neuroanatomist, and most well-known as the father of phrenology. From an early age, Gall was interested in the classification and differences in human abilities and tendencies. He began noting that these aptitudes could be linked to various areas of the brain, each responsible for different characteristics. The random bumps on one's skull were, he believed, due to pressure exerted by the brain from beneath. Wildly popular and accepted in his time, phrenology is now viewed entirely as a pseudoscience that has been repeatedly disproven. Nevertheless, the contributions which he made to modern neuroscience cannot be overlooked.

 

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