Heather asked what purpose would there be for Professor Halford to acquire Morgan's head.
In the 19th century there was a putative scientific theory called Phrenology. Basically it was a sort of pseudo- psychology theorising that peoples brains and minds affected the shape of their skull. The theory was started bya German physicist Franz Gall.
It was thought that the criminal mind would be revealed in the shape of the criminal's skull and so Mad Dog Morgan, Ned Kelly and Joe Governor; three bushrangers that I know of, had their heads taken for examination to determine if their supposed criminal minds were revealed in their cranial measurements.
I mention this here on the poetry discussion because Banjo Paterson refers to phrenology twice in his poem " The Man from Ironbark "
In the line where the barber jokes...
'And as he soaped and rubbed it in he made a rude remark,
" I s'pose the flats is pretty green up there in Ironbark "
A play on words from river flats pasture ...to "flats " referring to flat heads of doltish country yokels and " pretty green " referring to being naive.
Also in this poem Banjo Paterson writes
" There were some gilded youths that sat along the barber's wall,
Their eyes were dull ,their heads were flat,they had no brains at all ;"
another reference to phrenological ideas about head shapes revealing character.
We still retain a vestige of this old idea when we talk about close set eyes, low brow and high brow and thick skull.
Actually when I see some of the footballers I wonder if there isn't something to this theory after all.
