Phrenological Illustrations Comparison

Cruikshank published a satirical view of the quasi-science phrenology called Phrenological Illustrations or an Artist's view of the Craniological System of Doctor's Gall and Spurzheim in 1826. Phrenology sought to determine a person's characteristics by analysing the shape and size of the head.

In the book there is a page in which the central illustration is entitled Language and at the bottom right is an etching caled Comparison.

In Comparison two figures approach each other: a very tall thin man with a neatly rolled up umbrella under his arm at the corner of Long Acre and a very short woman with ballooning petticoats and an open umbrella. They are shown at the corner of Long Acre and Little St Martin's Lane. Two street urchins point and shout at them.