Editing George Combe

{{Short description|Scottish lawyer and phrenologist (1788–1858)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = George Combe
|image = George Combe01.jpg
|image_size = 150px
|caption = George Combe, 1836<br/>by [[Daniel Macnee]]
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1788|10|21|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
|death_date = {{death date and age|1858|08|14|1788|10|21|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Moor Park, Farnham]], Surrey
|residence = 
|nationality = [[Scotland|Scottish]]
|ethnicity = 
|field = [[phrenology]]<br/>writer
|work_institutions = 
|alma_mater = [[University of Edinburgh]]
|doctoral_advisor = 
|doctoral_students = 
|known_for = [[phrenology]]
|author_abbrev_bot = 
|author_abbrev_zoo = 
|influences = 
|influenced = 
|prizes = 
|religion = 
|footnotes = 
|signature = 
}}
'''George Combe''' (21 October 1788 – 14 August 1858) was a Scottish lawyer and a spokesman of the [[phrenology|phrenological]] movement for over 20 years. He founded the [[Edinburgh Phrenological Society]] in 1820 and wrote ''[[The Constitution of Man]]'' (1828). After marriage in 1833, Combe devoted his later years to promoting phrenology internationally.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/c2/george_combe.html |title=George Combe – Encyclopedia |website=www.theodora.com |access-date=2016-09-23}}</ref>

==Early life==
George Combe was born at Livingston's Yards, Edinburgh, the son of Marion (née Newton, died 1819) and George Combe, a prosperous brewer in the city.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6019 |pages=ref:odnb/6019 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/6019 |access-date=2021-07-14 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref><ref>Williamson's Directory 1788.</ref> His younger brother was the physician [[Andrew Combe]]. After attending the [[Royal High School, Edinburgh|High School of Edinburgh]], he studied law at the [[University of Edinburgh]], entered a lawyer's office in 1804, and in 1812 began a solicitor's practice at 11 Bank Street.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office directory 1814.</ref>

In 1820 Combe moved his office to Mylnes Court on the [[Royal Mile]] and moved house to 8 Hermitage Place in [[Stockbridge, Edinburgh|Stockbridge]].<ref>Edinburgh Post Office directory 1820.</ref> In 1825 he moved with Andrew to 2 Brown Square off the Grassmarket.<ref>Post Office directory 1825</ref> The Combe brothers lived together in a large dwelling at 25 Northumberland Street in the [[New Town, Edinburgh|New Town]] from 1829.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office directory 1829.</ref>

==Phrenological Society==
[[File:George Combe bust.JPG|thumb|upright|Sculpted portrait of Combe on the Museum of the [[Edinburgh Phrenological Society]] building in Edinburgh]]
In 1815, the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' contained an article on the system of "craniology" devised by [[Franz Joseph Gall]] and [[Johann Gaspar Spurzheim]], denouncing it as "a piece of thorough quackery from beginning to end".<ref name=":0"/> When Spurzheim came to Edinburgh in 1816, Combe was invited to a friend's house, where he watched Spurzheim dissect a human brain.<ref name=":0"/> Impressed by the demonstration, he attended a second series of Spurzheim's lectures. On investigating the subject for himself, he became satisfied that the fundamental principles of phrenology were true: "that the brain is the organ of mind; that the brain is an aggregate of several parts, each subserving a distinct mental faculty; and that the size of the cerebral organ is, ''caeteris paribus'', an index of power or energy of function."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=750}}

[[File:George Combe c.1825 by Lawrence Macdonald.JPG|thumb|upright|Combe as sculpted by [[Lawrence Macdonald]] around 1825]]
[[File:45 Melville Street, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|45 Melville Street, Edinburgh]]
His first essay on phrenology was published in ''[[Scots Magazine]]'' in 1817, and were followed by a series of papers ''Literary and Statistical Magazine''. The writings were collected and published in 1819 in book form as ''Essays on Phrenology'' and, in later editions, as ''A System of Phrenology''.<ref name=":0"/> In 1820, Combe helped to found the [[Phrenological Society of Edinburgh]], which in 1823 established a ''Phrenological Journal''. His lectures and writings also drew attention to phrenology in Europe and the United States.<ref name=":0"/>

==Debate with Hamilton==
Combe began to lecture at Edinburgh in 1822. He published a Manual, ''Elements of Phrenology'', in June 1824. He took private tuition in elocution; contemporaries described him as clever and opinionated. Combe's discussions had an air of confidentiality and theatrical urgency. Converts came in, societies sprang up and controversies began.

A second edition of ''Elements'', 1825, was attacked by [[Francis Jeffrey]] in the ''Edinburgh Review'' of September 1825. Combe replied in a pamphlet and the journal. The phrenologists were attacked again in 1826 and 1827 by [[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet|Sir William Hamilton]] in addresses to the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. The sharp controversy included challenges to public disputes and mutual charges of misrepresentation, in which Spurzheim took part. The correspondence appeared in the fourth and fifth volumes of the ''Phrenological Journal''.{{sfn |Stephen |1887}}

==Social interests: schools, prisons and asylums==
[[Image:COMBE.jpg|thumb|upright|George Combe, a [[daguerrotype]]]]
In 1836, Combe stood for the chair of Logic at the University of Edinburgh against two other candidates: Sir William Hamilton and [[Isaac Taylor]].<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Taylor, Isaac (1787-1865)}}</ref> Hamilton won by 18 votes against 14 for Taylor.{{sfn|Stephen|1887}} In 1838 Combe visited the United States to study the treatment of criminals there. He initiated a programme of public education in chemistry, physiology, history and moral philosophy.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=750–751}}

Combe sought to improve public education through a national, non-sectarian system.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/adictionaryeduc00bardgoog |title=A Dictionary of Educational Biography |last=Charles William Bardeen |date=1901 |publisher=C.W. Bardeen |others=Harvard University |language=en}}</ref> He helped to set up a school in Edinburgh run on the principles of [[William Ellis (economist)|William Ellis]], and did some teaching there in phrenology and physiology.{{sfn |Stephen |1887}} It was prompted by the London Birkbeck School, which had opened on 17 July 1848.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Williams, William Mattieu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst19419.html |title=Surgeons' Square from The Gazetteer for Scotland |access-date=2018-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/secondaryeducati00archiala |title=Secondary education in the nineteenth century |last=Archer |first=R. L. (Richard Lawrence) |date=1921 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> Combe was strongly behind the view that the state should be involved in the education system. In this he was backed by William Jolly, an inspector of schools, and noted by [[Frank Pierrepont Graves]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/appliedcharacter00mill |title=Applied character analysis in human conservation |last=Miller |first=John T. |date=1922 |publisher=R. G. Badger |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref>

Combe was much concerned about prison reform. He and [[William A. F. Browne]] opened a debate on introducing humane treatment of psychiatric patients in publicly funded asylums.

==Later life==
[[John Ramsay L'Amy]], son of [[James L'Amy]], trained under Combe at his offices at 25 Northumberland Street in [[New Town, Edinburgh|Edinburgh's New Town]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 |date=July 2006 |publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-902-198-84-5 |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |access-date=27 February 2017 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1832–1833.</ref>

In 1842, Combe gave a course of 22 lectures on phrenology at the [[Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg]] and travelled about Europe enquiring into management of schools, prisons and asylums.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=750}}

On retiring, Combe took a substantial terraced townhouse, 45 Melville Street, in Edinburgh's West End.<ref>Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1857–1858.</ref> He was revising the 9th edition of the ''Constitution of Man'' when he died at [[Moor Park, Farnham]] in August 1858. He lies under a simple headstone in the [[Dean Cemetery]], Edinburgh, against the north wall of the original section. His wife Cecilia Siddons is buried with him.

==Works==
In 1817, Combe's first essay on phrenology in ''The Scots Magazine'' was followed by a series of papers on the subject in the ''Literary and Statistical Magazine''. These appeared in book form in 1819 as ''Essays on Phrenology'', entitled ''A System of Phrenology'' in later editions.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=750}}

[[File:Craniometer.Elements.of.phrenology.George.Combe.1.png|thumb|right|180px|Engraving of [[Craniometry|craniometer]] from ''Elements of phrenology'' (1835), by George Combe]]
Combe's most popular work, ''[[The Constitution of Man]]'', appeared in 1828 but was widely denounced as [[materialist]] and [[atheist]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=750}} He argued in it: "Mental qualities are determined by the size, form and constitution of the brain; and these are transmitted by hereditary descent."

Combe was one of an active Edinburgh scene of people thinking about the nature of [[heredity]] and its possible malleability, as Lamarck proposed. Combe himself was no Lamarckian, but in the decades before Darwin's ''Origin of Species'' was published, the ''Constitution'' was probably the single most important vehicle for disseminating naturalistic progressivism in the English-speaking world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jenkins |first=Bill |year=2015 |title=Phrenology, heredity and progress in George Combe's Constitution of Man |journal=[[The British Journal for the History of Science]] |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=455–473 |doi=10.1017/S0007087415000278 |pmid=25998794 |doi-access=free|hdl=20.500.11820/c4bbfd66-95f0-4e16-b025-3f744fea52eb |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Combe's 1838 ''Answers to the Objections Urged Against Phrenology'' was followed in 1840 by ''Moral Philosophy'' and in 1841 by ''Notes on the United States of North America''. ''Phrenology Applied to Painting and Sculpture'' ensued in 1855. The culmination of Combe's autobiographical philosophy appeared in "On the Relation between Science and Religion", first publicly issued in 1857. Combe moved into the economic arena with a pamphlet on ''The Currency Question'' (1858). A fuller phrenological approach to political economy was set out later by [[William Ballantyne Hodgson]].

==Family==
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In 1833, Combe married Cecilia Siddons, daughter of the actress [[Sarah Siddons]] and sister of [[Henry Siddons]], author of ''Practical Illustrations of Rhetorical Gesture and Action'' (1807). She brought him a fortune and a happy, though childless marriage, preceded by a phrenological check for compatibility. A few years later, he retired from the law in comfortable circumstances.{{sfn |Stephen |1887}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*George Combe (1828), ''The Constitution of Man Considered in Relation to External Objects''. J. Anderson jun. (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2009; {{ISBN|978-1-108-00413-8}})
*George Combe (1830), ''A System of Phrenology'' Edinburgh: J Anderson. [https://archive.org/details/asystemphrenolo07combgoog/ Full Text Available at archive.org]
*George Combe (1857), ''On the Relation Between Science and Religion''. Maclachlan and Stewart (reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2009; {{ISBN|978-1-108-00451-0}})
*{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Peter |date=August 2005 |title=George Combe—phrenologist, philosopher, psychologist (1788–1858) |journal=[[Cortex (journal)|Cortex]] |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=447–451 |doi=10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70185-0 |pmid=16042021|s2cid=4486798}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=M. H. |date=October 1995 |title=Circumstances surrounding the examination of the skull and brain of George Combe (1788–1858) advocate of phrenology |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=663–674 |pmid=11608956}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Sait |first=J. E. |year=1976 |title=The Combe collection in the National Library of Scotland |journal=[[The Bibliotheck]] |volume=8 |issue=1–2 |pages=53–54 |pmid=11634646}}
*{{Cite journal |last=De Giustino |first=D |year=1972 |title=Reforming the commonwealth of thieves: British phrenologists and Australia |journal=[[Victorian Studies]] |volume=15 |pages=439–61 |pmid=11678098}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Walsh |first=A. A. |date=July 1971 |title=George Combe: a portrait of a heretofore generally unknown behaviorist |journal=[[Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences]] |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=269–278 |doi=10.1002/1520-6696(197107)7:3<269::AID-JHBS2300070305>3.0.CO;2-6 |pmid=11609418|url=https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=fac_staff_pub|url-access=subscription }}
{{refend}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{DNB |first=Leslie |last=Stephen |wstitle=Combe, George |volume=11 |pages=427–429}}
*{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Combe, George |volume=6 |pages=750–751}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=34641|name=George Combe}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=George Combe}}
*[http://amapedia.amazon.com/view/Tales+of+Phrenology/id=929183/ref=dp_amapedia_5 Articles on Phrenological practice by George Combe, Andrew Combe, and other early Phrenologists.]{{Dead link |date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Combe, George}}
[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:1858 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Phrenology]]
[[Category:Phrenologists]]
[[Category:Scottish non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Mental health professionals]]
[[Category:Burials at the Dean Cemetery]]
[[Category:Mental health activists]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh School of Law]]
[[Category:Kemble family]]