SOURCE: Curtis, L. Perry, Jr. “Physiognomy: Ancient and Modern.” In Apes and Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature, pp. 1-15. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.
In the following essay, Curtis discusses the role of physiognomy in shaping cultural beliefs about the Irish in Victorian England. Physiognomy was applied in nineteenth-century novels and graphic satire, and its semi-scientific nature appeared to lend credibility to English beliefs about the mental and moral inferiority of the Irish.
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