Chapter 13 Summary

This essay concerns what Twain calls his prejudice against phrenology. During the 1800s, he explains, people were fascinated by what they could learn about their personalities by having phrenologists analyze the bumps on their heads. The most well known of these experts were Fowler and Wells.

Twain tested Fowler by going to him under an assumed name. One of the most striking things Fowler said was that Twain had a cavity in his head where the sense of humor should be. Much later, under his own name, Twain visited Fowler again to learn that his sense of humor was like a mountain on his head.

Twain ran a similar test once on a palmist. A friend sent photos of Twain's hands, first under another name, and then under the name Mark Twain. This test had similar results; the pseudonym was diagnosed with no...