London Blog

Thinking inside the box: Face-off

Greetings.

It has occurred to me that my friends at Nature Network London might derive some little interest from a perusal of the accompanying triptych, which first entered the public domain in May 1832, barely a month before my own death. Whilst it might, at first glance, appear to anticipate the writings of Mr Charles Darwin regarding the descent of man, it will be seen upon closer examination that it is in fact founded upon some of the craniometrical theories of the physician and physiologist Petrus Camper, of the University of Groningen, formulated between 1768 and 1786, and published in English translation in 1794. Professor Camper devised a quantum which he termed the ‘facial angle’, viz. the degree of angle between a horizontal line drawn from the nostril to the ear, and a perpendicular line drawn from the supraorbital ridge of the cranium to the most prominent part of the maxilla. He himself was primarily concerned with establishing an objective mensuration of beauty, but certain of his disciples suggested that this angle – in man or beast – bore a direct relationship to intelligence. Modesty forbids that I should draw attention to the identity of the individual here selected to represent the acme of human intellect, but I trust that, for those with keen eyesight, the original legend may yet be read.

JBWHunt800.jpg

Image courtesy of the Goldsmiths Library, Senate House Library, University of London

The engraving supplied the frontispiece to a work published, anonymously, by Mr William Carpenter, entitled The Rights of Nations: a treatise on representative government, despotism, and reform; in which, political institutions are deduced from philosophical principles, and systematized. As may be inferred from his title, the author’s intention was to set matters of constitution and government upon a rational footing: he sought to abolish aristocratical and exclusive, plundering and inefficient, government; and to substitute representative and liberal, cheap and efficient, government. These were goals with which I was and remain wholly in sympathy, although I confess that I cannot concur with every word that Mr Carpenter wrote, and that in places I find his arguments somewhat crudely framed.

His particular purpose in making use of this engraving was to illustrate the fatuity – viz. the mental imbecility – of kings: for he conceived fatuity to be the disease of hereditary royalty and of ancient dynasty. The intermediate figure in the triptych represents King Ferdinand VII, who sat at that time upon the throne of Spain. Mr Carpenter’s contention was that the royal family of Spain was more remarkable than any other for intermarriage between parties so closely allied as to be almost incestuous; and that, accordingly, the ultimate result of these infamies had been the production of a sort of unnatural being. The comment on the engraving that King Ferdinand has, ‘like Kings generally, nearly the same facial angle as the negro!’, would have outraged the public sensibilities of my day as much as I suspect it does your own – albeit, as it must be confessed, for almost entirely opposite reasons.

I myself had some clashes by proxy with King Ferdinand, insofar as I exchanged ideas with several of his liberal opponents: it was a matter of inestimable regret to me that, even after they came to positions of power in the government of Spain, I was never invited to do what had at one time seemed in prospect, viz. to codify the laws of that land. I also enjoyed a correspondence with, and in certain cases met, some of those who led revolts against Ferdinand in the Spanish colonies in the Americas; men including Bernadino Rivadavia, José del Valle, Francisco de Paula Santander and Simón Bolívar. In the state of Colombia, my writings, and more particularly my arguments against religion and clericalism, became the occasion of the great cause known as La Querella Benthamista_, which lasted through the greater part of the nineteenth century: my works were, on several successive occasions, prescribed to be taught in the universities by the liberals, only to be proscribed in turn by the conservatives upon their attainment of power. Indeed, at the University of Rosario, it may astonish you to learn, the proscription remained in force until as recently as 2002colombia.htm.

All this is, however, to stray from the topic of the engraving in prospect. Professor Camper’s science, if such it can be called, has long been superseded, but his ideas retain a modicum of historical interest. It is perhaps time that a new measure of fatuity were determined, one that might be applied to some of the thinkers, politicians and celebrities of your own day.

Your ever laborious and devoted servant,

J.B.

Comments

Comments are closed.