George Combe

Born in Edinburgh on October 21, 1788, he trained in law and practiced as a solicitor before devoting much of his life to public writing and lecturing. He is best remembered as a leading spokesman for phrenology, a movement that claimed character and mental powers could be read from the shape of the skull.

In 1820 he helped found the Edinburgh Phrenological Society, and in 1828 he published The Constitution of Man, the work most closely associated with his name. The book was widely read in Britain and beyond, especially by readers interested in self-improvement, education, and social reform.

Today, phrenology is regarded as pseudoscience, but Combe remains an important historical figure for anyone interested in 19th-century ideas about the mind, science, and society. He died on August 14, 1858.