Dr. Josef Hyrtl was an Austrian anatomist who lived from 1810 to 1894. He taught at both the University of Prague and the University of Vienna. Like many anatomists of his age, he had a definitive opinion on the connection between the human skull, specifically the cranium, and level of intelligence, known as phrenology. Though many of his contemporaries believed in phrenology, Hyrtl was adamant in his dissent. Phrenology was popular because it promoted the idea that western europeans and other WASPs (white, anglo-saxon, protestants) were superior to other of different ethnicities and races. In 1874, he put together a collection of 139 human skulls from Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and parts of East Asia. He took detailed notes about the lives of the people the skulls came from, specifically name, age, occupation, cause of death, where they were from, and other notes about their life and health. Although the majority of the skulls are from Europe, the diversity in shape of the cranium and occupations was able to disprove the basic ideas of phrenology.