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As Sherrie Lyons states in her study of nineteenth-century ‘pseudoscience,’ "The controversies surrounding phrenology represent a microcosm of the philosophical, religious, political, and scientific debates of the time."<ref>Lyons, 71.</ref> It is easy to get caught up in the many controversies surrounding phrenology, but we must keep in mind that whether one accepted its doctrines or not, it pervaded nineteenth-century social milieus. Despite the fact that phrenological science was later found to be incorrect, the hype and controversy surrounding the “science” can teach us a great deal about the fate of new scientific discoveries during a time when science, as a discipline, was still in its infancy. Phrenology reminds us that sciences of the past should not be analyzed based upon their accuracy or inaccuracy, but rather on their ability to impact society. Phrenology did not fail – it was superseded by currently mainstream science that itself will likely be superseded by science yet unknown, and so on and so forth.

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