Phrenology Research Environment

COLLYERS, Robert H.

← Previous Record (234.)   |   Browse Entries   |   Next Record (235.1) →

Editorial Description

inventor and author of American phrenological works; English student of SPURZHEIM, whom he claimed to have met in Paris; author of a Manual of Phrenology (Cincinnati, 1839); went to USA, 1836 and set up as a lecturer in New York on the "Wonders of the Microscopic World"; graduate of Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Mass, 1839; converted to mesmerism; lectured to large audiences in New England, 1841-3, competing with G. COMBE in Hartford in 1839; lectured in Liverpool on phreno-mesmerism, 1843, returning to Boston, 1845; returned to England in the 1860s and was present at the meetings of the ETHNOL SOC, 1863; sentenced to three months in prison for fraud in 1876. (Stoehr, 1974: 399-400)

Works as Listed by Roger Cooter (1989)

• 235.1 — 235.1 "On the Claims of Dr. Robert Collyer [sic] in reference, 1. to the original excitement and stultifying of distinct Cerebral Organs by local mesmerism; 2. to the original suggestion of preventing pain by the inhalation of narcotic vapours; and 3. to the original production of the phenomena absurdly called Electro-Biology," ZOIST, 13 (Apr 1855): 61-8.

Editorial Information

235. COLLYERS, Robert H., inventor and author of American phrenological works; English student of SPURZHEIM, whom he claimed
to have met in Paris; author of a Manual of Phrenology (Cincinnati,
1839); went to USA, 1836 and set up as a lecturer in New York on
the "Wonders of the Microscopic World"; graduate of Berkshire Medical
College, Pittsfield, Mass, 1839; converted to mesmerism; lectured to
large audiences in New England, 1841-3, competing with G. COMBE
in Hartford in 1839; lectured in Liverpool on phreno-mesmerism, 1843,
returning to Boston, 1845; returned to England in the 1860s and was
present at the meetings of the ETHNOL SOC, 1863; sentenced to
three months in prison for fraud in 1876. (Stoehr, 1974: 399-400)