New Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology; with over one hundred engravings; [Signed]

London: Published for L.N. Fowler of New York by W. Tweedie. Ninth English edition, forty-fifth thousand. Octavo, original cloth boards with gilt decoration and lettering and blindstamped decoration, b&w illus, pp 176. The title page has been filled out with name of the 'character' studied, and signed by the author, L.N. Fowler, Birmingham, Feb, 1st 1868. N.d., c. 1866. The tables on pages v - vi have been marked with by Fowler with handwritten numbers for 'amativeness', conjugality', 'parental love', 'friendship', 'destructiveness', etc. Some toning to pages, clean apart from the author's own findings. Near-fine condition.This copy is unusual in being signed by Lorenzo Niles Fowler (see description below). Detailed discussion of phrenology, with individual chart, and many illustrations, including the famous Fowler phrenology head which shows the organs of the brain which supposedly represent the degrees of various qualities. Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It was greatly popularised by the American brothers Orson Squire Fowler and Lorenzo Niles Fowler. In a foreword by the publisher drawing attention to the then forthcoming tour of Britain in 1867-1868, he writes: "Mr L.N. Fowler of New York, who for the past thirty-five years has been a Public Lecture, Author and Practical Phrenologist, has, during the last seven years, visited professionally the chief towns and cities of Great Britain and Ireland, in which he has given Courses of Lectures on Man, embracing his Physiology, Physiognomy and Phrenology, and has applied the principles of these sciences to the delineation of Human Character." Signed by and inscribed by L.N. Fowler on his 1867-1868 tour. 9th edition. Boards.