Heads & headlines;: The phrenological Fowlers

Between the 1830s and the 1930s members of the colorful Fowler family of New York were the leading exponents of phrenology - character analysis based on the donformation of the skull. As the Fowlers - primarily Orson, Edward, Charlotte, Lorenzo, and Lydia - rode the crest of the phrenologizing fervor that swept America, the heads of such notables as Mark Twain, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Brown passed under their knowing fingers.In other crusades the Fowlers also attacked corsets, alcohol, and tobacco. They advocated sex education, women's rights, vegetarianism, and hydropathy -- treatment of various ills by the copious use of water. They lectured far and wide, and hundreds of publications rolled from their presses.Orson, the original phrenologizing Fowler, innovated octagonal domestic architecture and wrote sex manuals that rival those of today in their frankness. Edward was a mesmeric medium, and Samuel was a crusader against poverty. Lorenzo's wife, Lydia, was the first American woman professor of medicine. Charlotte was an omnipresent worker at the phrenological cabinet, and another sister, Almira, was an early woman physician. In this book Miss Stern presents the first full-length family portrait of a remarkable group of men and women who not only reflected the individualistic spirit of their age but also made solid contributions to social and medical reforms.