John Grattan (1800,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

−1871) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

naturalist and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

. John Grattan was an apothecary in Belfast. He had wide interests in natural history and was a member of the

Belfast Natural History Society The Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society was founded in 1821 to promote the scientific study of animals, plants, fossils, rocks and minerals. The Society was founded by George Crawford Hyndman, James Lawson Drummond, James Grimsh ...

but is best known for his work on ancient Irish skulls collected by his friend

Edmund Getty Edmund Getty MRIA (1799 in Belfast – 1857 in London) was an Irish antiquarian and naturalist. Getty was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He became Ballast Master of the Belfast Ballast Board and, later, Secretary of the ...

. He devised a system of skull measurements using an ingenious craniometer. "Grattan's work was almost contemporaneous with that of

Anders Retzius Anders Adolph Retzius (13 October 1796 – 18 April 1860), was a Swedish professor of anatomy and a supervisor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Biography Retzius was born in Lund, Sweden, in 1796. He enrolled at Lund University in 18 ...

, and nearly all of it was done before the German and French Schools had elaborated their schemes of skull measurements''Johnson Symington, 1903-4 Grattan: A Sketch of His Work as a Craniologist:An Address to the Members of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. Annual report Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society 1903-

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References

External links

On the Importance, to the Archæologist and Ethnologist, of an Accurate Mode of Measuring Human Crania, and of Recording the Results; With the Description of a New Craniometer
''The Ulster Journal of Archæology'' * Notice of the Examination of an Ancient Sepulchral Moun
''The Ulster Journal of Archaeology''
Irish naturalists Scientists from Belfast 19th-century Irish anthropologists 1800 births 1871 deaths 19th-century Irish scientists {{Ireland-scientist-stub