John Gordon (anatomist)

Dr John Gordon FRSE FRCSE (19 April 1786 – 14 June 1818) was a short-lived but influential Scottish anatomist.

In 1815 he caused an international stir by debunking the new science of phrenology and publicly criticising its principal European exponents, Johann Spurzheim and Franz Joseph Gall.

He was born on 19 April 1786 in Forres in northern Scotland the son of John Gordon a wine-merchant and banker.

[1] He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh under Dr John Barclay and philosophy under Dugald Stewart.

Ironically in his criticism he gave a concise and erudite summary of the complex dimensions of phrenology, enabling it to be understood to a far wider audience.