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Text: David E. E. Sloane, “Preface,” Early Nineteenth-Century Medicine in Poe's Short Stories, Master of Arts Thesis, Duke University, 1966, pp. 66-68 plus addendum (This material is protected by copyright)

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APPENDIX ONE

The illustrations seen here give some idea of the phrenological model which may have suggested to Poe the imagery of the collocation of the sentient stones in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The second illustration indicates the outcome of tendencies in the popular understanding of early nineteenth-century medicine. These tendencies became increasingly powerful throughout Poe's era, and continued to develop after his death.

[page 67:]

An early phrenological bust, this head appears in Dr. Charles Caldwell's Elements of Phrenology (Lexington, Kentucky: T. Skillman, 1824).

[page 68:]

A phrenological bust of the era thirty years after Poe's death, taken from Nahum Capen's Reminiscences of Dr. Spurzheim and George Combe (New York: Fowler & Wells, 1881), facing cover.

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Addendum

Another early Phrenological bust, taken from George Combe's Elements of Phrenology (Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1835), frontispiece.

An alternate explanation for an early phrenological bust, also in Dr. Charles Caldwell's Elements of Phrenology (Lexington, Kentucky: T. Skillman, 1824), pp. 46-47.

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Notes:

None.

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[S:0 - ENCMPSS, 1966] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Early Nineteenth-Century Medicine in Poe's Short Stories - Preface (D. E. E. Sloane, 1966)