Description
George Combe

George Combe was the most prolific phrenologist of the nineteenth century. He was born into a large family of an Edinburgh brewer and conducted studies at Edinburgh University from 1802 -1804. Following his studies he became an apprentice clerk to Writers to the Signet (lawyers) and began to desire an education fitting for a gentleman. He decided to pursue phrenology as a suitable career and started studying it after meeting Spurzheim. He began to publish on phrenology and, together with his brother Andrew, met others who had been converted by Spurzheim. The Combes and some legal colleagues of George founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society (EPS) in February 1820.

Combe published The Constitution of Man which became one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century. In it he taught that Man is as subject to natural laws as the rest of Nature and anyone who ignored or disobeyed these rules would be punished, by catching a cold for example. He stated that Man should obey the natural laws and notably excluded the Bible from these laws, causing great controversy from the 1820s to the 1850s.

John Gray

John Gray was the son of Samuel Frederick Gray, a well-known pharmacologist and botanist, and he assisted his father by collecting notes in Sir Joseph Banks’ library at the British Museum.

He was turned down from membership of the Linnaean Society so he began the study of zoology, aided by Dr W E Leach, the assistant keeper of the British Museum. Gray himself was appointed assistant keeper at the museum in 1824 and then keeper in 1839. He revised the systematic arrangement of the collections and scientific catalogues and he eventually managed the largest and most complete zoological collection in the world.

His interests were extremely varied and he took an active part in issues such as slave emancipation, abolition of imprisonment for debt, the decimal system, public education etc. Although he became paralysed in 1870, he continued to carry out his functions of keeper of zoology and to write many papers up until his death. He resigned office at Christmas 1874 and died on 7th March 1875.
16/07/2003
Created by: Tudor. Rebecca on 16/07/2003