Bumpology [graphic]

"A phrenologist, De Ville, in his consulting room, feels the forehead of a loutish gaping youth who kneels on a cushion at his feet. Behind the boy stands his stupid-looking mother, grinning with delight at her son. De Ville, who wears plain old-fashioned dress, has a grotesquely shaped skull fringed with scanty hair; his left hand rests on an open book on his table on which is a skull, numbered phrenologically and resting on a paper: Thurtell [murderer] shown to be Craniologically an Excellent Character. Behind him stands an assistant with a porcine profile writing in a note-book: Very large Wit N° 32. A large book-case covers much of the wall (right). There are also portrait heads illustrating grotesque misshapen features, and a bust on a pedestal with a satyr-like profile."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state