Robert Dunn

Robert Dunn FRCS. Eng.
Born	1799
Died	1877
Residence	31 Norfolk Street Strand WC [1862, 1872, 1875] 39 Norfolk Street Strand WC [1869]
Occupation	medical phrenologist
Society Membership membership ESL, AI Ordinary Fellow - life compounder left 1875.07 last listed elected_ESL 1844.01.16 [1845] elected_AI 1845 societies Royal College of Surgeons Medical and Chirurgical Society of London Westminster Medical Society Obstetrical Society Medical Society of London British Medical Association Society of Apothecaries

Notes

Office Notes

ESL Council 1849-50 Member
ESL Council 1850-51 Member
ESL Council 1851-52 Member
ESL Council 1852-53 Member
ESL Council 1853-54 Member
ESL Council 1854-55 Member
ESL Council 1855-56 Member
ESL Council 1856-57 Member
ESL Council 1857-58 Member
ESL Council 1858-59 Member
ESL Council 1859-60 Member
ESL Council 1860-61 Member
ESL Council 1861-62 Member
ESL Council 1862-63 Member
ESL Council 1863-64 Vice President
ESL Council 1864-65 Vice President
ESL Council 1865-66 Vice President
ESL Council 1866-67 Vice President
ESL Council 1867-68 Vice President
ESL Council 1868-69 Vice President
ESL Council 1869-70 Member

AI Council 1871 Member
AI Council 1872 Member
AI Council 1873 Member
AI Council 1874 Member
AI Council 1875 Member
AI Council 1876 Member
AI Council 1877 Member

House Notes

1845.01.24 A letter was read from Mr Hindmarsh begging the Council to allow him to pay an additional £10 to the £2 already paid, & so to be considered a life member; & the same request was made by the Secretary on behalf of Mr Dunn; upon which it was Resolved that the request of these Gentlemen be acceded to.
1849.06.14 The following members were recommended to the Anniversary Meeting as the new members of the Council: 1. P. Kingsford Esq., 2. Thomas Hodgkin MD. Dunn Esq.
1850.03.22 'That a committee consisting of Mr Dunn, Mr Greenough, Dr R.G. Latham, Thomas Hodgkin MD, Mr Nash and Sir C. Malcolm, with power to add to the number, be appointed for the purpose of considering the means of improving the prospects of the Society’

Publications committee Nov 60; auditor 61; Library Committee Jan 68

Notes From Elsewhere

Robert Dunn (1799 – 4 November 1877) was a British surgeon
He studied at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, and became licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1825, member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1828, and fellow in 1852.[1]

Dunn was a phrenologist and associated at the Westminster Medical Society with others (John S. Streeter, Forbes Winslow and Edward Wright). He was Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, along with the phrenologists Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster and Joseph Moore.[2] He was also Fellow of the Obstetrical Society, the Ethnological Society of London, and of the Medical Society of London; and was for many years treasurer to the metropolitan counties branch of the British Medical Association. He practised in London, and died 4 November 1877.[1]
Dunn was one of those proposing theories of social evolution.[3] According to Leslie Hearnshaw, he belonged to the loose school of psychology around W. B. Carpenter.[4] The work Civilisation and Cerebral Development has been discussed as a representative example of the progression of the period from craniometry to conclusions on race.[5] Dunn argued for an environmentalist monogenism.[6]

Publications

External Publications

A Case of Hemiplegia, 1850 (reprinted from The Lancet);
An Essay on Physiological Psychology, 1858 (a reprint of contributions to the Journal of Psychological Medicine);
Medical Psychology, 1863 (reprinted from the British Medical Journal);
Civilisation and Cerebral Development, in Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1865;
Ethnic Psychology, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institution, 1874;
Phenomena of Life and Mind, in the Journal of Mental Science, 1868;
Loss of Speech, in the British Medical Journal, 1868.

House Publications

Some observations on the varying forms of the human cranium considered in relation to the outward circumstances, social state and intellectual condition of man. Read 9 feb 1853
On the tegumentary differences which exist amongst the races of man
On the physiological & psychological evidence in support of the unity of the human species
Some observations on the psychological differences which exist among the typical races of man
Remarks on some of the bearings of archaeology upon certain ethnological problems and researches