A Note on 19th-Century Pseudoscience - Mesmerism and Phrenology
Bradbury Bennet’s diaries are a rich source for understanding the profound intellectual schism of the 19th century. While formal science was making great leaps in fields like geology and biology, a parallel world of popular pseudoscience flourished, capturing the public imagination and filling the salons of London and Bath. Bennet’s journals meticulously document his encounters with proponents of these movements, particularly mesmerism and phrenology, which he viewed not as harmless fads, but as a serious intellectual contagion.
Mesmerism (Animal Magnetism)
First popularised by the German physician Franz Mesmer in the late 18th century, mesmerism experienced a significant revival in Britain during Bennet’s lifetime. The central theory proposed the existence of a universal, invisible fluid called “animal magnetism.” Practitioners, or mesmerists, claimed they could manipulate this fluid, often through elaborate hand gestures and intense concentration, to induce a trance-like state in a subject.
Claims and Demonstrations: In this “mesmeric sleep,” subjects were said to exhibit remarkable phenomena:
- Insensibility to Pain: Public demonstrations often included subjects undergoing minor surgical procedures, such as tooth extractions, apparently without feeling pain. This led to serious, though ultimately fleeting, interest from the medical community.
- Clairvoyance: Subjects in a trance were often asked to “see” distant events, read the contents of sealed envelopes, or diagnose illnesses in audience members.
- Therapeutic Cures: Mesmerists, like Dr. Alistair Finch, offered treatments for a wide range of nervous ailments, from hysteria to melancholy, by “rebalancing” the subject’s magnetic fluid.
Bennet viewed these demonstrations as a combination of psychological suggestion, theatrical showmanship, and outright fraud. His journal entries repeatedly seek to deconstruct the “performance,” focusing on the mesmerist’s technique and the heightened emotional state of the audience rather than the supposed supernatural effects. For Bennet, the true phenomenon on display was not animal magnetism, but human credulity.
Phrenology
Developed by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800, phrenology was the theory that the mind was composed of distinct mental faculties, each located in a specific “organ” in the brain. The size of these organs, it was claimed, corresponded to the strength of the associated faculty, and could be determined by measuring the bumps and indentations on the surface of the skull.
The “Science” of Bumps: A phrenological reading involved a practitioner carefully palpating a person’s head and consulting a “phrenological chart,” a diagram of the skull divided into regions such as:
- Amativeness (romantic love)
- Philoprogenitiveness (parental love)
- Veneration (respect for authority/religion)
- Acquisitiveness (desire to possess)
Phrenology was immensely popular as a form of parlour entertainment and self-improvement. It offered a seemingly scientific and deterministic map of human character, providing simple explanations for complex behaviours. Employers sometimes sought phrenological readings of potential staff, and it was even used in attempts at criminal profiling.
Bennet dismissed phrenology as “a crude form of cranial cartography.” He found its claims to be untestable and its conclusions conveniently vague. In one diary entry, he wryly notes a visiting phrenologist identifying a prominent “bump of intellect” on the head of a local squire known chiefly for his devotion to fox hunting.
Bennet’s Scepticism in Context
For a rigorous empiricist like Bennet, these movements were anathema. They began with a grand, unproven conclusion (the existence of magnetic fluid; the brain as a collection of organs) and then sought anecdotes to confirm it. This stood in direct opposition to the scientific method Bennet practised: the patient accumulation of observable data from which a tentative conclusion might eventually be drawn. His diaries serve as a valuable record of this intellectual struggle, chronicling the voice of a lonely sceptic in an age enchanted by the allure of easy answers.
Editor’s Note: It is important to remember that the lines between science and pseudoscience were far more blurred in the 19th century than they are today. Many intelligent and educated people were drawn to these movements, which addressed genuine questions about the mind, consciousness, and healing that conventional medicine could not yet answer. Bennet’s unyielding scepticism was, in this context, not the default position, but a remarkably modern and intellectually courageous one. - Dr. E. Reed