Phrenological head (Victoire)

This is a plaster copy of a cast from the head of a 24-year-old woman named Victoire, described as an idiot and suffering from microcephaly, a rare genetic condition that restricts brain development. It came from the collection of the British Phrenological Society, which also included plaster casts of the heads of eminent persons and the skulls of other primates for comparison. Phrenology was controversial and dismissed by many as pseudo-science, but the British Phrenological Society survived until 1967.