Revolutionary France was the most hospitable place for Gall's theories. During the Napoleonic Wars he traveled to more than fifty cities throughout Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and France. Gall sought a teaching position in Germany, and lectured in Berlin and other major German universities. Due to this, Gall, decided to leave Vienna in 1805. His ideas were not acceptable to the Austrian government, which eventually banned his teachings for leading to materialism and going against morality and religion. Established science also condemned these ideas for lack of scientific proof of his theory. The Catholic Church considered his theory as contrary to religion (that the mind, created by God, should have a physical seat in brain matter, was considered anathema). With this revolutionary concept, Gall offended religious leaders and scientists alike. In 1794 he even rejected an offer to become the personal physician to Emperor Franz II.īy the end of the eighteenth century, Gall developed his theory of “organology' and 'Schädellehre' (doctrine of the skull), in which he explained the relationship between brain centers and various personality traits and abilities. He became a well-known physician, often treating wealthy and aristocratic patients. Gall received the degree of doctor of medicine in 1785 and opened a successful, private practice in Vienna. In 1781 Gall enrolled in the medical school in Vienna, studying under famous Maximilian Stoll (1742-1787). There Gall studied comparative anatomy under Johann Hermann (1738-1800), who taught of the physical similarity of men and apes.

Gall, however, decided to enroll in the study of medicine, in the city of Strasbourg, France, in 1777. As the second eldest son in a family of ten children, he was intended for the priesthood and was educated by his uncle who was a priest. Gall was born on March 9, 1758, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, in the village of Tiefenbronn (now in Germany). Gall's work constituted only the early beginnings to this important area of study, one which allows us to comprehend ourselves and our abilities as the highest order form of physical life. This relationship is extremely complex, since the human brain and human mind function in sophisticated, multi-dimensional ways of the highest order. Gall's work pioneered our understanding of the function of the brain and correspondences between areas of the brain and particular mental activities.

Franz joseph gall