(rare) The study of the shape, size, and other features of the human skull.
1864, Carl_Gustav_Carus, "Some Remarks on the Construction of the Upper Jaw of the Skull of a Greenlander," Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, vol. 2, p. cxiv,In the first part of my Atlas on Cranioscopy, which appeared in Leipzig in 1843, I remarked that in the skull of a Greenlander, which I sketched, it was singular, that on this skull there was a decided separation between the upper jaw-bone and the intermaxillary bone, almost as in little children or in quadrupeds.
1978, William_J._Broad, "Lost in Thought," Science News, vol. 114, no. 22, p. 361,A theory that was totally wrong helped focus attention on the right questions. Some people called it phrenology. Its founder, Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) called it cranioscopy. . . . It held that the brain had specific areas of function and that mental and moral attributes of a person could be determined by examination of the cranium.
