Phrenology Research Environment

CHENEVIX, Richard chemist (1774-1830)

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Metadata

Born: 1774

Died: 1830

Editorial Description

mineralogist and early advocate of mesmerism; born in Dublin, of French Huguenot extraction; educated at Univ Glasgow and began writing chemical works in 1801; FRS and a regular guest at Sir Joseph Banks' science socials; Roy Soc Cat, list 28 papers by him; discredited himself among his scientific peers upon taking up mesmerism, on which he published in the LON MED & PHYS J in 1829, after having mesmerised 164 persons; convinced ELLIOTSON of the truth of mesmerism; wrote poetry and contributed on a variety of subjects (from "cookery" to "shipwrecks") to the leading journals; claimed by PHREN J (5 [1828/9]: 158-60) to have been the second British subject to embrace GALL'S doctrines, when he heard the subject discussed in 1803 by Robert FERGUSON, who was then with Chenevix in Paris; first heard GALL lecture in 1808 in Paris; his judiciously written article on "Phrenology" made a deep impact and many converts. (DNB; DSB; and

Works as Listed by Roger Cooter (1989)

• 207.1 — 207.1 *Gall and Spurzheim--Phrenology," Foreign Quarterly Review, 2 (Feb 1828): 1-59. (Reviewed, PHREN J, 5 [1828/9]: 158-60.) Reprinted as Phrenology: article from the Foreign Quarterly Review with notes from G. Spurzheim, London: Treuttel, Wurtz, and Richter, 1830. Pp. 70. (Reviewed, PHREN J, 6 [1829/30]: 304-19.) American edn, 1833; German trs, by the geologist and author of Gedanken uber Phrenologie (1845), Carl Bernhard von Cotta (1808-79), as Ueber Geschichte und Wesen der Phrenologie von Rich. Chenevix Esq. FRS etc; aus dem Englischen uebersetzt. (Dresden und Leipzig, 1838).
• 207.2 — 207.2 An Essay Upon National Character; being an inquiry into some of the principal causes which contribute to form and modify the characters of nations in the state of civilization. Ed Thomas Pery Knox. London: James Duncan, 1832. 2 vols. (Only marginally phrenological, though claimed otherwise by J. W. CRANE, 1833.)

Editorial Information

207. CHENEVIX, Richard (1774-1830) chemist, mineralogist and early
advocate of mesmerism; born in Dublin, of French Huguenot extraction;
educated at Univ Glasgow and began writing chemical works in 1801;
FRS and a regular guest at Sir Joseph Banks' science socials; Roy
Soc Cat, list 28 papers by him; discredited himself among his scientific peers upon taking up mesmerism, on which he published in the
LON MED & PHYS J in 1829, after having mesmerised 164 persons;
convinced ELLIOTSON of the truth of mesmerism; wrote poetry and
contributed on a variety of subjects (from "cookery" to "shipwrecks")
to the leading journals; claimed by PHREN J (5 [1828/9]: 158-60)
to have been the second British subject to embrace GALL'S doctrines,
when he heard the subject discussed in 1803 by Robert FERGUSON,
who was then with Chenevix in Paris; first heard GALL lecture in
1808 in Paris; his judiciously written article on "Phrenology" made a
deep impact and many converts. (DNB; DSB; and