Melissa Bowman, age 15, of Hattesburg, Miss., for her question:

WHAT IS PHRENOLOGY?

Phrenology is a pseudoscience which attempts to read character from the shape of a person's head. It grew from the progress made in anatomy and physiology in the early 1800s. Franz Gall, the founder, said that mental qualities were associated with physical characteristics of the head.

Gall first noticed that people with certain bumps, or prominences, on their heads had certain definite qualities. He observed the heads of students and thought that he could feel the "organ" of numbers in mathematicians, the "organ" of tune in musicians and the "organ" of reverence in devout churchgoers.

He also decided that a certain bump gave poets their skill and that other bumps made men thieves or murderers. He claimed the insane had skulls of certain shapes.

Most scientists now sum up phrenology in one word: bunk. The knowledge we have today tends to disprove phrenology.

The strength and power of the brain, most scientists say, cannot be determined from the shape of the skull.