Franz Joseph Gall was born in German Grand-Dutchy of Baden, the sixth of ten children of Roman Catholic merchant parents.

Gall was first educated by his priest uncle, Gall studied medicine in the French city of Strasbourg in 1777.

In 1781 Gall was most impressed by his teacher, the well-known physician Maximilian Stoll (1742-1787). Stoll emphasized the collection of many experimental facts from clinical observation before drawing general conclusions, a theme which would permanently become part of Gall's practice and speech-making.

Gall received the doctor of medicine in 1785 and became a successful, well-connected, private physician

Gall was very proud and independent; he even rejected an offer in 1794 to become the personal physician to Emperor Franz II - merely to preserve his independence.

Phrenology was developed by a German physician named Franz Joseph Gall in the late 1700s. Gall noticed that the cerebral cortex of humans was much larger than that of animals, which he believed was what made humans intellectually superior. Eventually, he became convinced that the physical features of the cortex could also be seen in the shape and size of the skull.

After examining the heads of a number of young pickpockets, Gall found that many of them had bumps on their skull just above their ears. He then suggested that the bumps, indentations and shape of the skull could be linked to different aspects of a person's personality, character and abilities.

Franz Joseph Gall believed that the different qualities of man are found in different parts of the brain. And that skull shape can determine the level of mental and spiritual faculties of man. The ratios of divine, the human and the animal.