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Title: Buchanan's Journal of Man, April 1887
Volume 1, Number 3
Author: Various
Editor: J. R. Buchanan
Release Date: June 24, 2008 [EBook #25890]
Language: English
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BUCHANAN'S
JOURNAL OF MAN.
VOL. I. APRIL, 1887. NO. 3.
CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.
Psychometry: The Divine Science
A Modern Miracle-Worker
Human Longevity
Justice to the Indians
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE--Anatomy of the Brain; Mesmeric Cures;
Medical Despotism; The Dangerous Classes; Arbitration; Criticism
on the Church; Earthquakes and Predictions
Chapter II. Of Outlines of Anthropology; Structure of the Brain
Business Department, College of Therapeutics
PSYCHOMETRY: THE DIVINE SCIENCE.
It is presumed that every reader of these pages has some knowledge of
this subject, either by reading the "Manual of Psychometry" or
otherwise, and has at least read the "Introduction to the JOURNAL OF
MAN" on our cover pages.
It is not of the directly practical bearings of Psychometry that I
would speak at present, but of its imperial rank among sciences,
entitling it to the post of honor.
In all human affairs, that takes the highest rank which has the
greatest controlling and guiding power. The king, the statesman, the
hero, the saintly founder of a religion, the philosopher that guides
the course of human thought, and the scientist who gives us a greater
command of nature, are the men whom we honor as the ministers of
destiny.
When we speak of science, we accord the highest rank to that which
gives the greatest comprehension of the world as it is--of its past
and of its future. Geology and astronomy are the sciences which reach
out into the illimitable alike in the present and past. Biology will
do the same for the world of life when biology is completed by a
knowledge of the centre of all life, the brain. But in its present
acephalous condition it is but a fragment of science--a headless
corpse, unfit to rank among complete sciences. Theology claims the
highest rank of all, but based as it has been on the conceptions
current in the dark ages, it has become, in the light of modern
science, a crumbling ruin. Does psychometry compare with astronomy and
geology in its scientific rank, or does it compare with the acephalous
biology, which occupies all medical colleges?
It compares with neither. Like astronomy, it borders on the limitless;
like geology, it reaches into the vast, undefined past; and like
biology, it comprehends all life science; but unlike each, it has no
limitation to any sphere. It is equally at home with living forms and
with dead matter--equally at home in the humbler spheres of human life
and human infirmity, and in the higher spheres of the spirit world,
which we call heaven. It grasps all of biology, all of history, all of
geology and astronomy, and far more than telescopes have revealed. It
has no parallel in any science, for sciences are limited and defined
in their scope, while psychometry is unlimited, transcending far all
that collegians have called science, and all that they have deemed the
limits of human capacities, for in psychometry the divinity in man
becomes apparent, and the intellectual mastery of all things lifts
human life to a higher plane than it has ever known before.
Psychometry is therefore in its nature and scope not classifiable
among the sciences, since it reaches out above and beyond all, in a
higher and broader sphere, and hence may truly be called the Divine
science, for it is the expression of the Divine element in man.
Wherein is Divine above human knowledge? And wherein is human above
animal knowledge and understanding? The superiority in each case
consists in a deeper and more interior comprehension of that which is,
which realizes in the present the potentiality of the future, enabling
us to act for future results and accomplish whatever is possible to
our powers. That forecast, that comprehension through the present of
that which is to be, constitutes foresight,--the essential element of
wisdom; and in its grander manifestations it appears as prophecy.
Prophecy, then, is the noblest aspect of psychometry; and if this
prophetic power can be cultivated to its maximum possibilities, there
is no reason why it should not become the guiding power of each
individual life, and the guiding power for the destiny of nations.
Moreover, in its prophetic role its superiority of rank is manifest,
since it is then the instructor of all hearers,--the revealer of that
in which they readily confess their ignorance.
Hence it was that St. Paul especially recommended the cultivation of
prophecy as the most sacred and Divine of all religious exercises,
saying, in 1 Corinthians xiv. 21-25: "If therefore the whole church be
come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there
come in those who are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say ye
are mad? But _if all prophesy_, and there come in one that believeth
not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling
down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you
of a truth." This is a description of a congregation in which all are
developed up to a psychometric and spiritual condition in which the
truths of religion and the ministry of angels may have full power.
Wherever the highest order of religious sentiment is in active
operation, prophecy becomes one of its results. It was so in Jewish
history, and has been so in many eventful periods since.
George Fox had the most exalted religious sentiment of his time, and
he had an eminently prophetic mind. All nations have had prophetic
minds and well-attested prophecies. Egypt and India, Greece, Rome,
France, England, and America, have their recorded prophecies, and in
the height of ancient civilization prophecy commanded sufficient
respect to influence the course of public events. Cicero expressed the
general intelligence of the ancients in recognizing prophecy as a
power of the human soul.
Modern materialism has ignored all this, and one of the noblest works
to-day for a man of genius whose mind is sufficiently vigorous to
throw off the trammels of collegiate ignorance and fashionable
conservatism, would be to produce a volume upon prophecy, in which its
vast historic development should be sketched.
The limitations of the JOURNAL OF MAN do not permit me to introduce
this historic matter which would be sufficient to exclude everything
else from its pages, and I would merely refer to an almost forgotten
example of the intuitive and prescient faculty connected with the
introduction of Universalism into this country.
A worthy and pious farmer on the seacoast of Delaware, named Potter,
built a church at his own expense, but having an advanced idea of the
Divine benevolence, he could never find any preacher whose doctrines
suited him. Nevertheless he was profoundly convinced that such a
preacher would be sent to realize his hopes, and was not discouraged
by the disbelief of his neighbors. His anticipation was strangely
fulfilled. Rev. John Murray, almost crazed by the death of his wife,
sailed from England for America in 1770, intending to abandon the
pulpit entirely. The vessel put in at Philadelphia instead of New
York, and as the stage for New York had left, Mr. Murray concluded to
remain on the vessel and go to New York that way. But on the voyage
they got lost in the fog, and got into Cranberry Inlet in a dangerous
position. They went ashore, being out of provisions, and found a
country tavern. Mr. Murray strolled along the coast, intending to get
fish for the crew, and fell into company with Farmer Potter, who had a
supply, and who at once told him, to his astonishment, that he was
glad to meet him, and had been looking for him a long time. Potter
decided at once that this was the minister he had been looking for,
and of whom he had often spoken when telling his neighbors, "God will
send me a preacher of a very different stamp from those who have
heretofore preached in my house; that God who has put it into my heart
to build this house will send one who shall deliver to me His own
truth, who shall speak of Jesus Christ and His salvation." Potter
briefly sketched his own life and said:
"The moment I beheld your vessel on shore, it seemed as if a voice had
suddenly sounded in my ears: 'There, Potter, in that vessel cast away
on that shore is the preacher you have been so long expecting.' I
heard the voice and I believed the report; and when you came up to my
door and asked for the fish, the same voice seemed to repeat, 'Potter,
this is the man, this is the person whom I have sent to preach in your
house.'"
Murray says: "I was astonished, immeasurably astonished at Mr.
Potter's narrative, but yet I had not the smallest idea that it could
ever be realized. I requested to know what he could discover in my
appearance which could lead him to mistake me for a preacher." "What,"
said he, "could I discover when you were in the vessel that could
induce this conclusion? No sir, it is not what I saw or see, but what
I feel, which produces in my mind a full conviction." "But, my dear
sir, you are deceived, indeed you are deceived. I shall never preach
in this place nor anywhere else."
Potter maintained that he had preached and that he would preach in his
church, and that the wind would not allow him to leave until he had.
To shorten the story, Murray at last yielded and preached in that
church, of which we have a picture in his biography. He had a great
fear of giving out the doctrine of universal salvation, expecting
universal denunciation of himself by the clergy and their followers,
but he went on from this beginning and established Universalism in
America.
In this instance it is evident that Potter was of a spiritual
temperament, and was indebted to a spirit influence for his
impressions and convictions. But whatever is possible to the
disembodied spirit in the intellectual way is also possible to the
embodied spirit which has not lost its material body, if the interior
faculties are well developed and prophecy does not require supernal
aid. In innumerable cases mesmeric subjects, in their somniloquent
condition, have made most accurate predictions in reference to their
own cases and others, which have been accurately verified. There is
probably no good clairvoyant physician who has not often made
successful predictions concerning patients.
In the daily practice of psychometry, Mrs. Buchanan, of whose powers
the "Manual of Psychometry" gives a fair idea, is accustomed in
speaking of the present to feel impressions of the past and the
future. In reference to public men she has spoken in advance of their
election or defeat, their policy and their death. She spoke
prophetically of the election of Cleveland and the defeat of Blaine,
of the deaths of Disraeli and Garibaldi, of the career of Gladstone
and his becoming "the best friend of Ireland;" and when Ireland was
believed to be on the brink of a bloody revolution or rebellion, she
announced that no such outbreak would occur, but that at the end of
two years Ireland would be pacified and quiet. At the end of two years
this was verified, for the magistrates commented on the fact at that
time that there were fewer crimes of violence before them than had
been customary.
I have learned to rely on this prescience, and in reference to public
men and public affairs, when they interested me, have satisfied my
curiosity by the psychometric method.
For twelve months past the newspaper press and the statesmen of Europe
and America have been continually agitated by apprehensions of a great
European war, and have made numerous estimates of the power of
belligerents and the result of the contest. France and Germany have
been expected to engage in a fatal conflict, and even a noted public
medium has fallen in with these ideas and predicted a coming war this
year.
I have kept the record of public opinion, and from time to time have
invoked the aid of psychometry, which has dissipated every fear and
contradicted all the pessimistic notions of politicians and newspaper
correspondents down to the present time.
On the 26th of January I recorded the psychometric impressions, again
in February, and again on the 11th of March. The psychometer answers
questions or discusses subjects by impression alone, not knowing what
is under her hand, but expressing what arises in her mind. The first
impression, January 26, was as follows:
"It looks misty, but the finale looks bright. The result of this,
whatever it is, will be a grand success or achievement--good will
result. There is a dissatisfaction or rivalry on a very large
scale--very momentous--is it war? There is agitation and blustering."
_Q._--How will it be in the summer?
"There will not be war. There is a growing contention, like growling,
angry dogs; they may keep up growling for a year, but it will be
nothing; there will be good coming out of it--a better understanding;
this experience will elevate the views of the people; they will see
the folly, and not be so belligerent. _There will be no war_ this
summer."
What was the drift of opinion, however, as shown by the press? The
correspondent of the New York _Sun_ said: "Everybody talks of war as a
sure thing which must soon appear somewhere. The work of getting ready
for the fray, of which I have often sent details, goes steadily on."
M. Thibaudin "hopes for peace, as do all other diplomats trained and
admired for their ability to say what they don't think; and finally he
announces that France is ready to fight whenever the time comes."
January 29 he writes: "The _Daily News_ war scare which shook us up
early in the week seems not to have exhausted its disquieting
influence yet." "France and Germany are looked upon as certain to lead
off the ball, and Germany, it is generally thought, will be found at
the head of the set and take the initiative. Preparations for a big
fight continue in every direction." "Russia, if we can believe the
tales from that unreliable country, is quietly making preparations on
a tremendous scale to have her paw fall heavily on somebody."
The French _Revue des Deux Mondes_ said about this time that a war
between France and Germany would almost inevitably lead to a general
European war, on a scale such as the world has never before seen.
The Russian _Viedomosti_ of February 5 said: "No compromise is
possible between Russia and Austria concerning Eastern affairs,
without detriment to Russia and the Eastern races. German intervention
is useless, and will only create hostility between Russia and
Germany."
The Boston _Herald_ correspondent of February 5, said of France and
Germany: "Now both are counted as among the most civilized and most
humanitarian on the face of the globe, and yet the _certainty of war_
between the two hereditary enemies on either side of the Rhine is _as
certain as anything can be_. When it comes, be it sooner or later, one
of the two adversaries is inevitably condemned, if not to total
annihilation, at least to such a crushing punishment that for many
long years the defeated power will be little more than a geographical
expression on modern maps." His letter concluded with an elaborate
statement of the military resources and condition of the two nations,
which approximate an equality in the aggregate.
A Paris dispatch of the same date said that "Prince Bismarck has
succeeded in establishing a coalition between Austria, England, and
Italy against Russia. Germany will join the coalition if France
supports Russia."
The New York _Sun_ of February 7, said: "We suppose there is no
subject which just now is more earnestly discussed among intelligent
Americans than the probable result of the war between France and
Germany which is believed to be approaching. France ought by this time
to have outstripped her enemy in point of military efficiency. She has
laid out since 1871 nearly twice as much on her permanent armament,
and she devotes nearly twice as much to the current military expenses
of each year. She has maintained a larger peace establishment, and she
should have it in her power to bring to the field a larger number of
soldiers who have served under the colors."
February 10 the Paris correspondent of the Berlin _Post_ said that
General Boulanger was growing in popularity, and "is regarded by the
masses as the long-expected liberator. The whole country is anxious
for _revanche_ [revenge], and is arming silently, but with the evident
belief that the hour is coming." To add to the growing hostility, the
_Post_ quotes from the Paris _Figaro_ an article imputing the grossest
immorality to German women.
At the same date, the Buda Pesth _Journal_ urged Austria to attack
Russia before the latter has completed her preparations on the lower
Danube. It said: "_War is inevitable_, and it is better to begin
fighting before the Balkan states have been Russianized."
Senor Castillo, the Spanish minister of the interior, said that Spain
had taken steps to augment her defences and protect her colonies, in
view of the possible European war.
February 12 a despatch to the London _News_ from St. Petersburg said:
"Ominous fears of a European war prevail here. It is announced that
German colonists in the Caucasus have been notified to hold themselves
in readiness to return to Germany and join the reserves."
At the same date the _North German Gazette_ said that since General
Boulanger had assumed charge of the French war office not a day had
passed without measures being taken to augment the offensive strength
of the army, and there were constant movements of troops upon the
frontiers.
February 19 the news was still more alarming at Berlin. Work was going
on night and day on the fortifications at Verdun and Belfort. "All
commerce has been suspended at Metz, excepting in food. The
inhabitants are storing their houses from cellar to garret." A Russian
paper of that date said, "Existing circumstances admit of no delay."
At Vienna, February 18, it was announced that "a semi-official letter
from St. Petersburg represents that Russia is waiting for a
Franco-German conflict, _which she considers inevitable_, to realize
her own Balkan projects. Russia would consider it to be to her own
interest not to allow Germany to be victorious."
February 19 Senator Beck at Washington referred to an extract from a
late speech of Count von Moltke before the German Reichstag, to show
that _war is inevitable_.
February 27 the London despatch to the _Boston Herald_ said: "Within
the last forty-eight hours confidence in the maintenance of peace has
visibly lessened."
About the same time in Russian government circles the conviction was
said to be gaining ground that a Franco-German war was inevitable, and
that it would be for the interest of Russia to save France from
disaster.
March 6 the _North German Gazette_ said that the Alsace elections had
strengthened the war party in France. War seems to have been the
general anticipation of military men. General Wolseley (February 26)
is reported to have said: "I feel sure that a vast, appalling war is
certainly in the near future; but this, indeed, everybody may be said
to know."
But "everybody" is as liable to be mistaken on questions of futurity
as on questions of philosophy and religion, on which the multitude
called "everybody" has been largely mistaken ever since the earliest
periods known to history. "Everybody" is generally pessimistic, apt to
be superstitious, and never philosophic. A single good psychometric
perception is worth much more than Mr. Everybody's opinion, whether
upon national policy, personal character, historical truth, or medical
science.
The psychometric opinion is the opposite of that of General Wolseley
and Senator Beck, for the psychometric soul is in the calm sphere of
truth, in which the passions have no deceiving power. I have already
published in the "Manual of Psychometry" the prediction of universal
peace at the end of five years from the prophecy, and I now repeat the
statement that great Franco-German war is but the fantasy of passion
and fear. The last psychometric expression, March 11, confirms the
uniform statements heretofore. Upon the question "What of the war in
Europe?" this was the impression:
"This seems a question of occurrences. I seem to disagree with other
people on this question. It does not seem to me that it will occur. If
there are any prognostications, they are _intensified_. The result
will not be what is predicted. There is something like a foreshadowing
that might cause a prediction, but it will pass over. There is a good
deal of agitation and concern, but nothing will occur this year as
apprehended. I feel that it will all subside, and a picture of
brightness and a clear sky appears. The fire will burn out; the
boiling caldron which sends up steam will be quiet; _a peaceful time
is coming_."
When the JOURNAL shall have a little more space, for _it must be
enlarged_, and psychometry is a little better understood, I propose to
establish a prophetic department, and speak to my readers of coming
events.
(From the _Pall Mall Gazette_, London, Jan. 12.)
A MODERN MIRACLE WORKER.
AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. GEORGE MILNER STEPHEN.
Every one knows Sir James Fitzjames Stephen; most people have heard of
Mr. Leslie Stephen--the two most distinguished members of the Stephen
family resident in this country. The Stephen clan, however, is
widespread, and there are eminent Stephens scattered all over the
world. "Any Stephen," said Mr. Froude in his "Oceanea," "could not
fail to be interesting." Sir Alfred Stephen, the deputy governor of
New South Wales, is declared by Mr. Froude to be regarded as the
greatest Australian, by nine out of every ten of the people of Sydney.
But the judicial renown of Fitzjames, the literary fame of Leslie, and
the colonial reputation of Sir Alfred, all pale their ineffectual
fires before the marvellous claims of George Milner Stephen, across
whom Mr. Froude stumbled in New Zealand, and who has now turned up
unexpectedly in London. He is, as Mr. Froude said, a very noticeable
person. In fact, he is a thaumaturgist of the first order. While his
relatives in the old country have devoted all the energy of their
intellect to demonstrate the absurdity of all the superstitions built
upon any arbitrary interference with the invariable laws of nature,
their kinsman George Milner suddenly displays at the antipodes a gift
of healing which, if the veracious records of colonial and American
newspapers can be relied upon, rivals the most famous exploits of
apostolic times. Not, indeed, that George Milner has yet raised the
dead to life. That is beyond his powers. But all the minor marvels,
such as making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak,
and the lame to walk, are accomplished by him in the ordinary course
of his daily practice. Although this miracle-working Stephen is a
physician whose patients are healed by the touch, he is nevertheless a
physician practising the healing art like other eminent
authorities--for the prescribed fee of the ordinary medical
practitioners. The only difference is that whereas the ordinary
physician attends his patient daily for weeks and sometimes months,
Mr. Stephen's course, if a course at all, ends at the latest in three
visits, and the charges, therefore, are correspondingly low. Two
guineas for consultation fee, one guinea each subsequent visit, or
four guineas at the outside, are to be regarded as his retaining fee;
but in those cases--and they are said to constitute a large proportion
of those submitted to him--in which he effects a complete cure he
naturally expects to be remembered by the grateful patient whom he has
restored to health. This, however, by the way. In response to an
invitation to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ office, Mr. George Milner
Stephen described to a member of our staff with much detail the nature
of his work. It is a sufficiently marvelous story to arouse attention,
even on the part of the incredulous; and the unbelieving authorities
owe it to the public to institute a series of investigations into
their relative's claims, in order that he may either be claimed as the
master healer of his age, or summarily prosecuted as a rogue and
vagabond, who is obtaining money under false pretences. It is
monstrous that a gentleman of his rank and position should be allowed
to go at large, making such enormous claims of quasi-supernatural
powers, without having them promptly brought to the most rigorous of
scientific tests.
Mr. George Milner Stephen is a man of wide and varied culture, of
great experience in affairs, and has spent his life in public service
of the most varied kind. Brought up to the bar, he has been a trained
lawyer all his life. He has been acting-governor of South Australia;
he refused the colonial secretaryship of New Zealand; he has been
official draftsman for the colony of Victoria; he has held the balance
of power in more than one colony; and in the colony of New South
Wales, at the time when he suddenly discovered his miraculous powers,
he was leading counsel on circuit, and in receipt of one of the
largest professional incomes of any lawyer at the antipodes. Nor was
his training solely colonial. He had repeatedly visited England, and
had been called to our bar. He takes a keen interest in mineralogical
science, and in the course of his career has exhibited on more than
one occasion great personal bravery and indomitable nerve. That such a
man, so highly connected, so carefully trained, with the intellect of
a lawyer and the experience of a statesman, should be in our midst
claiming to be endowed with the gift of healing spoken of in the New
Testament as vouchsafed to the Christians of apostolic times, is a
portent indeed, and one well worthy of the attentive consideration of
the most sceptical among us.
"It was six and a half years ago," said Mr. Stephen in reply to a
question, "that I first discovered that I possessed this gift of
healing--it was by pure accident. A friend who suffered from deafness
jokingly appealed to me to give him back his hearing. I, also in joke,
made some passes over his head, when to my utter astonishment I
discovered that his deafness disappeared. One experiment of this kind
led to another, and in a short time I found myself overwhelmed with
patients of high and low degree, begging me to heal them of their
diseases. For three months after the discovery of my gift the sudden
influx of patients who would not be denied left me no time to attend
to my practice; and, willy nilly, I was compelled to give up the law
and take to medicine--if you may call by the name of medicine a
profession in which no medicine is given."
"Then do you use no medicine at all?"
"None whatever. The nearest approach to medicine that I ever gave to a
patient is a little magnetized ointment--that is, camphorated lard,
and a little magnetized oil. But it is only occasionally that I use
these. Neither do I use passes, although it was by the use of passes
that I first discovered that I possessed this gift."
"But how do you proceed?"
"Variously. Sometimes I lay my hand upon the part affected; at other
times I breathe into the eye, ear, or mouth of the patient. Then,
again, on other occasions I am able to banish the disease by a mere
word or gesture."
"Are you a mesmerist or a magnetic healer?"
"Mesmerist I am not; for mesmerism implies the throwing of the patient
into a mesmeric sleep. Neither am I a magnetist, properly so called,
for there is no outgoing of magnetism from my body when I am healing.
The ordinary magnetist admits that he cannot cure more than four
persons per diem; I have cured as many as thirty, and beyond the
weariness caused by standing, I have been no worse at the end than at
beginning."
"How do you explain these miracles?"
"I don't call them miracles. They are marvels, and I cannot explain
them. All that I know is that I have gone through the Australian
colonies, New Zealand, and many of the States in America, and that
wherever I have gone the same effect followed. At my touch, diseases
and defects declared incurable by the first physicians of the faculty,
disappear. I remember well healing Sir James Martin, the chief justice
of New South Wales. Six years ago he was given up by the doctors and
declared to be dying, breathing with great difficulty, and hardly able
to speak without pain. I laid my hand upon his chest, and in a few
minutes all difficulty of breathing disappeared, he was able to speak
freely, and in a short time he had completely recovered. He resumed
his seat upon the bench, and remained a hale, active man till his
death, which occurred just the other day. That is only one case out of
many."
"How many?"
"I think I have been the means of healing about 30,000 patients in the
six and a half years during which I have devoted my time to the work.
Of course many of those patients were suffering from diseases which
might have been cured by ordinary means. Others were declared to be
incurable."
"Declared to be incurable by whom?"
"By the chief physicians in the colonies. I have in my
pocket"--producing the papers as he spoke--"certificates signed by the
witnesses, attested sometimes by magistrates, and at other times by
ministers of religion and colonial ministers, that the person named in
the certificate has received instantaneous relief by my touch. Here is
one in which a person stone-blind from birth received sight when I
blew into his eyes."
"Then do you cure all diseases?"
"Certainly not. There are many things which I cannot do. I cannot
raise the dead, nor can I restore an arm which has been cut off, a
joint which has been excised, or an eye which has been destroyed. When
there has been complete destruction of any important organ I cannot
effect a cure; but when destruction of the organ has not been
complete, I am frequently able to effect a cure in cases which the
regular faculty have given up as utterly hopeless."
"Take cancer, for instance: can you cure that?"
"I have treated some cases with remarkable success; but of course I
can do so only when the cancer has not eaten too far into the vital
organism of the sufferer. I have treated some thirty cancer cases, the
cure in all being complete. The treatment was that of laying my hands
over the part affected, anointing with a little magnetized ointment,
and sometimes the injection of magnetized oil. Beyond that I do
nothing. I have here records of ten cures of cancer in all parts of
the body. If you will glance over the accounts, described by the
newspapers at the time when they occurred, or copies of the
certificates which I leave with you, you will see that there is almost
no limit to the variety of the cures which I have been able to
effect."
"That is all very well, Mr. Stephen, but you will not make converts by
newspaper extracts. The point is this: Will you consent to submit your
gift to a practical test?"
"Certainly," said he; "I have already written to Sir Baldwin Leighton,
asking him if he can place me in communication with the governors of
deaf, dumb, and blind asylums, in order that I may be able to try my
powers upon the patients of those institutions. I am quite satisfied
that if I am allowed a fair opportunity of trying the effect of my
healing touch, ten out of every hundred of the inmates of these
asylums will receive their sight, or regain their speech and hearing.
I ask for no payment: I simply request that in these institutions
which are maintained by the public charity for the relief of helpless
sufferers, and where, therefore, there can be no collusion or any
suspicion of trickery or fraud, I should be allowed to lay my hands
upon the eyes or the ears of the inmates. I can do them no harm; and I
am perfectly sure that in at least ten per cent of the cases I shall
be able to give great if not entire relief."
"This is all very well; but before you can expect the governors of
public institutions to allow you to touch their inmates there must be
a preliminary illustration of your power. Otherwise they would say
justly that they would be over-run with quacks, all of whom might wish
to try a patent nostrum upon the unfortunate 'inmates of public
institutions.'"
"Very well," said Mr. Stephen, "I am willing to submit my gift to the
most stringent test which your scientific sceptics can suggest. I am
willing to give an exhibition of my power under any test, in the
presence of any picked number of sceptics whom you may nominate, and
you may bring there half a dozen cases of disease certified by the
faculty as incurable. Of course you will not bring sufferers whose
complaints are manifestly beyond my power to cure. As I said before, I
make no claim to restore organs that are destroyed, but there is a
sufficiently wide category in the complaints 'that flesh is heir to'
to afford you an ample choice of half a dozen typical incurable cases.
When the deaf, dumb, lame, and otherwise suffering persons whom you
wish experimented on have been brought and are in the presence of
those whom you shall name, I will undertake to effect an immediate
improvement in the condition of, say, four out of the six. It will
probably become a complete cure on the second or third visit. I seldom
or never see a patient more than thrice."
"Well, that seems fair. You have no objection to my publishing this
offer in the _Pall Mall Gazette_?"
"None. I make no profession to any skill. I can only exercise a power
which I discovered quite accidentally was vested in me. The limits of
that I can ascertain only by experience. I am perfectly willing to
have that power subjected to the severest tests which you can suggest,
and I have no doubt at all, from the invariable experience of the last
six years, that cures will be effected for which no existing
scientific hypothesis can adequately account."
The _Gazette_ says in another column:--"We commend the challenge of
Mr. George Milner Stephen, which we publish in another column, to the
special attention of all interested in the exposure of popular
delusion. Here is an educated English barrister of unimpeachable
character, who has rendered no little service to the state, informing
all the faculty that he can heal patients whom they have dismissed as
incurable, by merely breathing on them or touching them. In an
ordinary, unknown, vulgar charlatan this challenge might have passed
unnoticed. In the case of the Australian cousin of Mr. Justice
Fitzjames Stephen it must be treated more seriously. We invite
communications from our scientific readers as to the best way of
putting our visitor to the test."
Scores of American healers do similar works to those of Dr. G. M.
Stephen, but the fashionable press ignores them because they have not
wealth and social position. The JOURNAL OF MAN will endeavor to do
them justice. In all such cases, in which the healing power is
inexhaustible, we know that it is replenished from spiritual sources.
Dr. Stephen exercises a little policy in not mentioning the spiritual
source of his power. Godless science and dead sectarianism recoil from
spirit life. No human constitution contains an inexhaustible fountain
of life--the fountain is above, and fortunate are they who can reach
it.
HUMAN LONGEVITY.
The possibility of long life, illustrated in the first number of this
JOURNAL, may easily be corroborated by referring to numerous examples;
but the fact that the nobler qualities of human nature are the most
efficient promoters of longevity is our most important lesson, and it
is illustrated by the superior longevity of women. He is a misanthrope
who does not recognize their superior virtue, and he is a poor
statesman who does not wish to see that virtue imparted to our
political life, and who does not recognize the importance of giving to
woman the most perfect intellectual and industrial education, that she
may be self supporting. The British census show that there are 948,000
more women than men in Great Britain. The _St. James Gazette_ says:--
"Prof. Humphry of Cambridge has prepared a series of tables which
contain some interesting information about centenarians. Of 52 persons
whom he mentions, at least 11--2 males and 9 females--actually
attained the age of 100. Others attained very nearly to the hundred
years. Only one of the persons reached 108 years, while one died at
the alleged age of 106. Of the 52 persons, 36 were women and 16 men.
Out of the 36 women 26 had been married, and 11 had borne large
families. Of the 26 who had been wives, 8 had married before they were
20, 1 at 16, and 2 at 17.
"Twelve of the fifty-two centenarians were discovered to have been the
eldest children of their parents. This fact, adds Dr. Humphry, does
not agree with popular notions that first children inherit a
feebleness of constitution, nor with the opinion of racing stables,
which is decidedly against the idea that 'firstlings' are to be
depended on for good performances on the course. The centenarians
generally regarded were of spare build. Gout and rheumatism were as a
rule, absent. 'It seems,' says Prof. Humphry, 'that the frame which is
destined to great age needs no such prophylactics, and engenders none
of the peccant humors for which the finger joints (as in gout) may
find a vent.'
"Of the fifty-two aged people, twenty-four only had no teeth, the
average number of teeth remaining being four or five. Long hours of
sleep were notable among these old people, the period of repose
averaging nine hours; while out-of-door exercise in plenty and early
rising are to be noted among the factors of a prolonged life. One of
the centenarians 'drank to excess on festive occasions:' another was a
'free beer drinker,' and 'drank like a fish during his whole life.'
Twelve had been total abstainers for life or nearly so, and mostly all
were 'small meat eaters.'"
The oldest woman in Austria at this time is Magdalene Ponza, who is
112. "She was born at Wittingau, Bohemia, in 1775, when Maria Theresa
sat on the Austrian throne. George III. had then been but 15 years
King of England, Louis XVI. who had ruled a little more than a
twelvemonth in France, was still in the heyday of power, the
Independence of the United States of America had not yet been
declared, Napoleon and Arthur Wellesley were as yet but six years old.
Magdalene Ponza retains full possession of her mental faculties.
Unfortunately she can only speak the Czech language, and she can
neither read nor write. However, she answers questions briskly enough
through the youngest of her surviving grandchildren, herself a woman
of 60. Magdalene Ponza's age is authenticated by the outdoor relief
certificate of the Viennese Municipality."
Of American centenarians we have a number, some of whom are still
living. Harrisonville, New Jersey, has two, Michael Potter and
Bartholomew Coles. Polly Wilcox of Hope Valley, R. I., celebrated her
centennial last year; so did Jane Wilcox of Edgecomb, Maine, while she
had a sister 94, and a daughter 81. Old Auntie Scroggins, of Forsyth
Co., Georgia, is now 104 years old, and is still one of the most
effective shouters of the Methodist Church to which she has belonged
94 years.
Miss Phebe Harrod, of Newburyport, Mass., celebrated her centennial
last year. She still takes a lively interest in passing events.
Grandmother Sarah Drew, at Halifax, celebrated her centennial a year
ago. Her constant companion is an old Bible which has been in the Drew
family for 250 years.
Mrs. Triphene Bevans, of Danbury, Mass., held a lively centennial
reception in the parlors of the West Street Church, April 14, 1886.
Her health, hearing and speech were good, and her step brisk. She
attributes her age and good health to good habits and allowing nothing
to trouble or worry her. She has always been a strict church member.
William Waterman, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is said to be 109 years old.
It is said he "is a Methodist, uses liquor and tobacco, and finds no
fault with the world."
Joseph O'Neal of Barnesville, Georgia, might have been living still if
he had not been frozen to death last winter, at the age of 107, in a
sudden blizzard. He was a negro, and had over 200 descendants.
Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, of Reading, Penn., who had lived a century,
might be still living if she had not been killed last year, while
walking on the railroad track.
Of those who overrun the century, we might mention further, Simon
Harras, who died in Putnam Co., Indiana, last January, aged 109. His
memory was good to the last.
Mrs. Elizabeth Small, relict of Dr. Samuel Small, at Lewiston, Maine,
had passed her hundredth birthday a few weeks, when she died of
apoplexy; and Mrs. Susan Phillips, of Wilson Creek, N. C., died last
year just as she finished her century.
Nathan, formerly slave of Benj. W. Bodie, died last year in
Mississippi, Talbot Co., aged 107.
Christopher Mann, of Independence, Missouri, died last year, aged 111.
The oldest of all, and probably the oldest minister in the world, is
Rev. Thos. Tenant, of Vineyard Township, Arkansas, an itinerant
Methodist preacher, born in 1771, now in his 116th year.
Mr. Edward Gentry told a more remarkable story at Indianapolis, last
July. He was at the governor's office, and gentlemen were guessing at
his age. None supposed him over fifty; but he said he had a son
fifty-two years old, and was himself seventy-eight. He added: "My
doctor has given me a fifty years' longer lease on my life, barring
accidents. My father is 128 and is still living. My mother died at the
age of 117, and her mother lived to the same age." Mr. Gentry is of
English birth.
Perhaps the best specimen of family health is that of the Atkinson
family of Gloucester, Mass. Nine children were born, and all lived.
The first death in the family was a few weeks ago, when John Atkinson
died, aged eighty-four. When he died the ages of the nine amounted to
703 years.
Aunt Dinah John, the oldest Indian at the Onondaga reservation died in
May, 1884, aged 109.
About ten years ago, when Governor Seymour was about to make an
address at an Indian fair on the Onondaga reservation, Aunt Dinah
walked upon the platform and asked to be introduced to him.
Mr. Gardner said, "Governor Seymour, this is Aunt Dinah, who wants to
become acquainted with you."
"Oh, no; him get acquainted with me," Aunt Dinah explained. "Me know
him before he know anybody. Many years ago me go to Pompey Hill, his
father's grocery. Governor's father say: 'My squaw very sick.' I ask,
'What matter?' His father say, 'Go in and see for yourself.' He go
into a room; see a little pappoose about a foot long." Then moving
toward Governor Seymour, and pointing her finger at him, she said:
"That pappoose was you, Governor Seymour, born that night."
Aunt Dinah called frequently at Mr. Seymour's and took especial
delight in rocking the cradle and showering caresses in her native
fashion upon the future Governor of the State.
About three years ago she became blind, and has since been kept at her
home on the Onondaga reservation. She retained her faculties to the
last. Her husband died thirty years ago. Her dying request was that
the pagan ceremony be first observed and afterward the Christian
ritual.
What are we to reckon, says the _Home Journal_, as the declining
period of man's existence? The point at which old age taps us on the
shoulder, and says it comes to keep us company, varies with every
individual. It depends a great deal on circumstances, which are hardly
the same in any two cases. Some writers have said that a man is old at
forty-five, others have set down seventy as the normal standard. Dr.
John Gardner, who has written on "Longevity," remarks: "Long
observation has convinced me that sixty-three is an age at which the
majority of persons may be termed old, and as a general rule we may
adopt this as the epoch of the commencing decline of life."
Suppose then we agree to call no man old till he is past sixty-three.
Let us set down the names of some of the illustrious people of the
world who have prolonged their days of usefulness after that age. We
shall make a table of them, and begin it with those who have died at
seventy,--that is to say, with those in whom the springs of life have
not stood still till they have had at least seven years of old age. It
will be found, however, to be far from exhaustive, and every reader
may find pleasure in adding to it from his own stock of information:
_Age at Death._
70--Columbus; Lord Chatham; Petrarch; Copernicus; Spallanzani;
Boerhaave; Gall.
71--Linnæus.
72--Charlemagne; Samuel Richardson; Allan Ramsey; John Locke;
Necker.
73--Charles Darwin; Thorwaldsen.
74--Handel; Frederick the Great; Dr. Jenner.
75--Haydn; Dugald Stewart.
76--Bossuet.
77--Thomas Telford; Sir Joseph Banks; Lord Beaconsfield.
78--Galileo; Corneille.
79--William Harvey; Robert Stevenson; Henry Cavendish.
80--Plato; Wordsworth; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Kant; Thiers; William
Cullen.
81--Buffon; Edward Young; Sir Edward Coke; Lord Palmerston.
82--Arnauld.
83--Wellington; Goethe; Victor Hugo.
84--Voltaire; Talleyrand; Sir William Herschel.
85--Cato the Wise; Newton; Benj. Franklin; Jeremy Bentham.
86--Earl Russell; Edmund Halley; Carlyle.
88--John Wesley.
89--Michael Angelo.
90--Sophocles.
99--Titian.
100--Fontenelle.
It may be said that they were exceptional in living so long, but if
what the best authorities say be true, the exceptions ought to be the
people who died young, and not those who prolong their lives and carry
on their work till they are old. Few of us may find ourselves, like
Lord Palmerston, in our greatest vigor at seventy, or be able, like
Thiers, to rule France at eighty, or have any spirit for playing the
author, like Goethe and Victor Hugo, when over eighty; or for playing
the musician, like Handel and Haydn, when over seventy; but by good
management we may do wonders.
The wisest men and the best have been conspicuous for working to the
end, not taking the least advantage of the leisure to which one might
think they were entitled. They have found their joy in pursuing labors
which they believed useful either to themselves or to others. John
Locke began a "Fourth Letter on Toleration" only a few weeks before he
died, and "the few pages in the posthumous volume, ending in an
unfinished sentence, seem to have exhausted his remaining strength."
The fire of Galileo's genius burned to the very end. He was engaged in
dictating to two of his disciples his latest theories on a favorite
subject, when the slow fever seized him that brought him to the grave.
Sir Edward Coke spent the last six years of his life in revising and
improving the works upon which his fame now rests. John Wesley only
the year before he died wrote: "I am now an old man, decayed from head
to foot.... However, blessed be God! I do not slack my labors; I can
preach and write still." Arnauld, one of the greatest of French
theologians and philosophers, retained, says Disraeli, "the vigor of
his genius and the command of his pen to his last day, and at the age
of eighty-two was still the great Arnauld." It was he who, when urged
in his old age to rest from his labors, exclaimed, "Rest! Shall we not
have the whole of eternity to rest in?"
A healthy old age cannot be reached without the exercise of many
virtues. There must have been prudence, self-denial, and temperance at
the very least. According to the proverb, he that would be long an old
man must begin early to be one, and the beginning early just means
taking a great many precautions commonly neglected till it is too
late. More people would be found completing their pilgrimage at a late
date if it were not that, as a French writer puts it, "Men do not
usually die; they kill themselves." It is carelessness about the most
ordinary rules of healthy living.
The enjoyment of old age may be looked on then as a reward, and the
aged may pride themselves on being heirs to a rich inheritance,
assigned to forethought and common sense. Many years are an honor.
They are an honor even in the case of the worldly, and a great deal
more so when life has been regulated by motives higher than any the
world can show. "The hoary head," says Solomon, "is a crown of glory;"
but he adds this qualification, "if it be found in the way of
righteousness." Old people form a natural aristocracy, and to be
ranked among them may be recommended to all who have an ambition to
close their lives well up in the world.
For a picture of an old man in this enviable state of mind take
Cornaro. In his eighty-third year we find him congratulating himself
that in all probability he "had still a series of years to live in
health and spirits and to enjoy this beautiful world, which is indeed
beautiful to those who know how to make it so." Even at ninety-five he
wrote of himself as "sound and hearty, contented and cheerful." "At
this age," he says, "I enjoy at once two lives: one terrestrial, which
I possess in fact; the other celestial, which I possess in thought;
and this thought is equal to actual enjoyment, when founded on things
we are sure to attain, as I am sure to attain that celestial life,
through the infinite mercy and goodness of God."
Jeremy Bentham, who lived to be eighty-five, retained to the last the
fresh and cheerful temperament of a boy. John Wesley, who died when he
was eighty-eight, also had a happy disposition. "I feel and grieve,"
he says, "but by the grace of God I fret at nothing." Goethe, who
reached his eighty-third year, is another good example. Then there is
Boerhaave, one of the most celebrated physicians of modern times, who
held that decent mirth is the salt of life. Indeed in the case of most
old people, we believe it will be found that cheerfulness is one of
their leading characteristics.
* * * * *
The recent death of Mr. Beecher, who with his splendid constitution
ought to have lived twenty years longer, illustrates the principles of
hygiene which he blindly disregarded. For years he was threatened with
the form of death that seized him, and came near a fatal attack some
years ago in Chicago while delivering a lecture. Men of a strong
animal nature, hearty eaters, and restless workers, making great use
of the brain, are liable to such attacks. If Mr. Beecher had observed
ordinary prudence, and had a little scientific magnetic treatment, he
would never have had an apoplectic attack; but he was commonplace in
thought. He went the old way, and died as short-sighted men die. He
had read my "Anthropology," and told me he kept it in his library, but
its thought did not enter into his life.
JUSTICE TO THE INDIANS.
BY JOHN BEESON.
President Grant placed them under control of the churches, making them
responsible for all their Indian agents, whom the churches were to
nominate. But as fraud and war have been more or less as rampant as
ever, it seems that the first thing should be, to relieve the Indians
from church rule, and recognize at once the Indian's inalienable right
to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the same as we claim
for ourselves; so long as they do not disturb the peace or violate the
rights of their white neighbors, we have no right to interfere with
either their religion or laws upon their reserves. It is this
meddlesome injustice which makes all the trouble; it would make
trouble with any other community, if another religious sect should be
allowed to dominate over them in all their affairs. It is not Indian,
but human, nature, to do so, the world over. Dr. Bland, editor of _The
Council Fire_, says:
"I have been long and intimately acquainted with many tribes.
I find that they are not savages, but the peers of white men,
with great self-respect, a high sense of honor, and love of
truth."
Even the civilized tribes still retain their mutual confidence. Hence,
they use no locks, no bolts nor bars, when absent from their homes; a
stake in the ground, about three feet from the door, is a sufficient
guarantee from intrusion. It would be deemed a reflection upon
neighborly honor to lock a door in the Indian Territory. I was there
when they built their first prison; they now number sixty thousand,
most of whom have lived there forty years, and then, they said,
"The new railroad brought so many white renegades among us
that we had to build a prison for them."
I asked, "What do you do when one Indian kills another?" They
answered: "We have a trial, and if the killing was without great
cause, we sentence the guilty one to be killed by the near of kin to
his victim; we appoint the time and the place, and we have never known
an Indian to fail to come voluntarily in time for his own execution."
They believe that the Great Spirit will give all the hell or all the
heaven that each deserves; that there is no possibility of escape from
a just penalty and no danger of losing a deserved heaven, but to them
it is unjust to hope for anything on the merits of another. H. W.
Beecher said in his first lecture after his return from the Pacific
Coast:
"I made special inquiry of those who are posted on Indian
affairs, as to their moral status, and was always told that
when fairly treated they are quite reliable."
Gen. Crookes said of the Apaches, that while they were protected on
their reserves from outside aggression they were as well behaved and
orderly as any community of people in the United States.
It is true, they killed Generals Canby and Custer, but the first had,
contrary to preliminary agreement, moved his soldiers twenty-five
miles, and placed them in two companies on each side of the place
where the treaty was to be made. The first demand of the Modoc chief
was, to take back the soldiers, and it was not until a long delay, and
a firm refusal on the part of Canby, that the Modoc chief fired the
fatal shot.
And as for Custer and his men, they fell while ignobly, and without
right or authority, invading the peaceful home of Sitting Bull and his
people.
General Harney says:
"I have lived fifty years on the frontier, and I have never
known an Indian war in which they were not in the right."
Dr. McLaughlin said:
"I have been fifty-three years an Indian trader, and more than
fifty years superintendent of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and
in all that time, I have never seen an occasion to shed the
blood of an Indian. The American people suppose that their
revenge is proof of savagery. But that is a mistake. It is
their sense of justice, and whatever they do is but an echo of
what has been done to them. They believe as Moses taught,
blood for blood, life for life."
Gen. Fremont said:
"I lived two years among the Indians with only one white
woman, and was never more kindly treated. I lost nothing,
although all I had was accessible to them."
Surely, testimony like this, in connection with their healing
magnetism so freely given to Spiritualism, should awaken sympathy if
not gratitude in their behalf.--_New Thought_.
_Talent, Oregon_, Jan. 19, 1887.
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.
ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN.--Anatomy is considered the driest and most
difficult of biological studies, but a careful attention to our
description of the brain will show that it is very intelligible. After
we get through with the anatomy, the description of organs and their
functions is simple and practical. Every one should understand the
outlines of cerebral anatomy, and then he can discuss the subject with
imperfectly educated physicians, and show them their errors.
MESMERIC CURES of countless variety and marvelous success have
occurred all through the present century. But when not effected by
distinguished physicians, they have generally been ignored by the
press, and their knowledge confined to a very narrow circle. Now,
however, since eminent physicians at Paris are engaged, and the word
_hypnotism_ is substituted for mesmerism and magnetism, their
performances are proclaimed by journalists and even by the medical
press. The following is one of the latest reports. The reader will
observe that when the medical faculty after a prolonged opposition
yield to any new idea, they endeavor to ignore entirely the pioneers
by whom the discoveries were made, and by whom an interest was created
in the subject while the faculty were hostile. It will probably not be
long before they adopt the leading ideas of homoeopathy and endeavor
to obliterate the memory of Hahnemann.
"Hypnotism has been employed with considerable success in Paris for
some time past in the treatment of hysterical diseases, by Charcot and
others, but the case recently reported by M. Clovis Hugues, in France,
is the most extraordinary application so far on record. A young lady
of twenty was attacked six months ago with a nervous ailment which
completely derived her of her voice. Electricity was tried, with a
certain amount of success, but after a time it lost its effect and was
abandoned in despair. As a last resort, her friends applied to Dr.
Berillon, the hypnotic specialist. After consultation with Dr.
Charcot, he undertook the cure. The girl was thrown into a mesmeric
trance by the usual means, and Dr. Berillon suggested that she should
say on waking, 'I am twenty.' On opening her eyes she uttered these
words without the least effort. On the second day the suggestion was
that she should converse with Dr. Berillon, and this she also did, but
could talk with no one else. On the third day the doctor commanded her
to talk with any one and at any time that she chose. She has been able
to use her tongue freely ever since."
MEDICAL DESPOTISM.--The infamous law juggled through the Legislature
of Iowa, which deprives every citizen of the right of relieving her
neighbor of disease without the authority of a diploma, and renders
Christian benevolence a crime, does not produce much effect. The
natural healers pay no respect to it. In every prosecution under the
law so far, the attempt to enforce the law has been defeated. Juries
are unwilling to aid an ignorant Legislature in trampling on the
Divine law and the principles of American constitutions.
THE DANGEROUS CLASSES.--The existence of considerable classes, chiefly
of foreigners, who are contemplating murder and rapine, should
interest every good citizen. At Cincinnati on the 6th of March, it is
said, "The institution of the Paris commune in 1848 and 1871 was
celebrated tonight by the Cincinnati anarchists. It was the most
revolutionary gathering ever seen in this city, and the speech of Mrs.
Lucy E. Parsons, wife of the condemned anarchist, was of a very
inflammatory character. The hall was crowded with men and women who
drank beer at tables. It was a motley and dangerous looking throng. On
the walls were mottoes with red borders, and the entire hall was
profusely decorated with large red flags. There wasn't an American
flag in the hall, and above the stage was a picture of the condemned
anarchists. Several pictures of notorious Anarchists who have been
beheaded for murder and riot were conspicuously displayed. The band
played no national airs except the 'Marseillaise,' and everything said
and done showed a bitter hatred of American institutions. Mrs. Parsons
gave a history of the Paris commune of 1871, and said the mistake made
was in showing any mercy to capitalists. Her remarks were loudly
applauded, although a majority of her audience couldn't understand one
word of English. Dancing followed the speeches, and was kept up all
night."
ARBITRATION.--In the Sinaloa colony, "Any disputes that arise between
colonists will be settled by arbitration. There will be one lawyer to
protect the interests of the corporation in dealings with outside
parties." This is a great step in advance. When a true civilization
arrives, arbitration will supersede courts, and psychometry will
assist in making it perfect.
CRITICISM ON THE CHURCH.--If any readers of the JOURNAL think its
criticisms on the church have been too harsh, because their own
acquaintance is confined to worthy professors of the present time, I
would call their attention to the unquestionable statements of Hallam,
Guizot, and Draper, as follows:
"With respect to the last, the grandest of all human undertakings
(i. e., the circumnavigation of the earth), it is to be remembered
that Catholicism had irrevocably committed itself to the dogma of a
flat earth, with the sky as a floor of heaven, and hell in the under
world."--_Draper's Conflict_, p. 294.
"Persecution for religious heterodoxy, in all its degrees, was in the
sixteenth century the principle as well as the practice of every
church."--_Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. 2, p. 48.
"When any step was taken to establish a system of permanent
institutions, which might effectually protect liberty from the
invasions of power in general, _the church always ranged herself on
the side of despotism_."--_Guizot's History of Civilization in
Europe_, p. 154.
"There was fighting and fighting between the old and new school, and
all on a question that would make a crab laugh,--questions that were
hypercritical and infinite, and about which everybody knew nothing at
all, and they thought they knew as well as God. Questions were talked
of with positiveness, and argued; and, when I look back upon them, I
cannot help thinking they were no better than the contentions of
children around the cradle. But all this gave me great repulsion for
dogmatic theology, and it is a repulsion which I have not got over,
and the present prospects are that I never shall."--_Henry Ward
Beecher_.
EARTHQUAKES AND PREDICTIONS.--Professor Rudolf Falb, of Vienna, it is
reported, predicted to an hour the earthquakes which have occurred in
France and Italy.
"Writing in the Austrian papers some days ago, he pointed out that the
annular eclipse of the sun, which commenced on Tuesday morning at 6.41
Greenwich time, was central at 9.13 P. M., and ended on the earth
generally at twenty-five minutes past midnight on Wednesday morning,
was likely to be accompanied with strong atmospheric and seismic
disturbances. The learned physicist has gained great reputation by
previous similar forecasts. His first and great success was the
foretelling the destructive shock at Belluno, on June 29, 1873. Nearly
the whole of Northern Italy was affected, and upwards of fifty lives
were lost. Very shortly afterwards he gave warning of the probability
of an eruption of Etna, which followed at the time anticipated in
1874."--_London Echo_.
"John S. Newberry, professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia
College, being the American authority upon all matters pertaining to
the crust of the earth, was naturally interested in the earthquake
that visited Long Island on Wednesday. He derides the idea that the
local seismic disturbance has any connection with the recent
occurrences at Mentone, as the shocks were too far apart, and, if
connected, should have been felt within eight hours of each other,
whereas there was several days' difference. His theory, which is amply
sustained by observation, is that an earthquake is a movement caused
by a shrinking, from loss of heat, of the interior of the earth and
the crushing together and displacement of the rigid exterior as it
accommodates itself to this contraction. It has been noticed that the
earth is shaken along the Alleghany chain nearly every year. It is
impossible to predict a recurrence of the shocks, but it is quite
probable they will recur. There is a record of 231 earthquakes in the
New England States between the years 1638 and 1869."--_Brooklyn
Eagle_.
CHAPTER II--STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN.
Man a triple being--Materialists and illusionists misconceive
him--Relation of the soul to the brain and body--The nervous
system; illustration--Embryonic condition--Anatomical
descriptions unsatisfactory and the phrenological school
incorrect--Exterior view of the brain in the head, illustrated
and described--The cerebrum, cerebellum, and
tentorium--Interior view of the base of the skull--Bones of
the head illustrated--Division of the brain into lobes and
convolutions, with illustration--Frontal, middle, parietal,
tempero-sphenoidal, and occipital--Anatomical plan or grouping
of convolutions differs from their actual appearance--View of
the superior surface illustrated--Difference between the
irregular convolutions and the angular maps--View of the
inferior surface of the brain--Illustration and description of
the parts--Interior view of section on the median
line--Divided and undivided surfaces-_Corpus callosum_
explained--The two brains and their diagonal relations to the
body--Penetrating and describing the lateral ventricles--The
serum in the brain--Variations of serum and blood--Variations
in hydrocephalus and insanity--Our power to modify the brain
and change our destiny--Power of education--Responsibility of
society--The lateral ventricles the centre of the brain--Base
of the ventricles, the great inferior ganglia of the brain,
_corpora striata_, and _thalami_--Their radiating fibres
inclosing a cavity--The _thalami_ and their commissure and
third ventricle--The _medulla oblongata_, cerebellum, and
_arbor vitæ_--The _pons Varolii_ and crura of the brain--the
_corpora quadrigemina_, pineal gland, fourth ventricle, and
_calamus scriptorius_.
Man is essentially a triple organization, consisting of the permanent
psychic being, intangible to our external senses, but nevertheless so
distinctly recognized internally by consciousness and externally or in
others, by intuition and understanding, that the psychic is as well
understood and known as the physical being. This being is the eternal
man--the material body being its temporary associate.
The physical being, or material form, consists of the portion directly
and entirely occupied by the psychic existence--which is called the
brain or encephalon, and is in life also beyond the reach of our
senses in the interior of the cranium--and the non-psychic structure,
the body, which, though not the residence of the soul, has so intimate
and complete a connection with the entire brain that during active
life it feels as if it were the actual residence of the soul, so far
as sensation and action are concerned.
The soul, or psychic being, has external and internal perceptions (for
which it has cerebral organs). When the former predominate too
greatly, the human body and all external objects are realized most
vividly, and the reality of psychic life is not so well realized or
understood. Hence persons so organized are disposed to materialism,
and either doubt the existence of their psychic being, or are
indifferent to it.
On the other hand, those in whom the interior faculties predominate
too greatly vividly realize their psychic life, but have more vague
and feeble conceptions of material objects, including their own
bodies, and attach undue importance to the imaginary and subjective in
preference to the objective. The materialists and the illusionists,
however, are not entirely composed of these two classes of subjective
and objective thinkers. The majority consists of persons of moderate
reasoning capacity, who simply follow their leaders.
In making a critical distinction between the psycho-organic brain and
non-psychic body, the former may be confined strictly within the
cranium, leaving the exterior portions of the head as a part of the
non-psychic body; but as they are more intimately associated with the
brain than any part below the neck, this distinction is not important;
and if the whole head, as the environment of the psychic brain, be
grouped with it, it may not lead to any material error. The brain is
intimately associated with the entire physical person by twelve pairs
of cranial or cerebral nerves, and by the spinal cord, which descends
from the base of the brain through a great foramen or opening midway
between the ears, and while passing down the spinal column gives off
thirty pairs of nerves.
The cranial nerves are all for the head, except the _pneumogastric_ or
lung-stomach nerve, which belongs to the organs of respiration, voice,
and digestion; and the spinal nerves are all for the body, except a
few which ramify in the neck and in the scalp.
The entire nervous system is so instantaneously prompt in conveying to
the brain the impressions which originate feeling, and in conveying
from the brain the nervous energies that produce voluntary motion and
modify all the processes of life, that we feel as if we had sensation
and volition in every part of the body; or, in other words, that our
conscious existence was in the body; but we rationally know that the
sensation and volition occur in the brain, for neither sensation nor
voluntary motion can occur if the nervous connection with the brain is
interrupted by compression and section, or if the brain itself be
sufficiently compressed. When the brain is exposed by an injury of the
cranium, the pressure of a finger suspends all consciousness and
volition, making a blank in the life of the individual.
Animal life resides in the nervous system alone, and its character is
proportioned to the development thereof, of which the brain is the
principal mass. A subordinate portion of the general life, however, is
in the nervous system of the body, and in proportion as the brain
declines in development the relative amount of psychic energy in the
body is greater. Thus the body of the alligator after decapitation is
capable of sensation and voluntary acts, such as pushing away an
offending body with its foot. The character of the life in the body is
explained by physiology and sarcognomy. Its universal presence is due
to the universal diffusion of the nervous system, of which the
accompanying figure, showing the location of the spinal cord and
spinal nerves, will give a proper conception. In this figure the
spinal cord, with its thirty pairs of nerves, eight cervical at the
neck, twelve dorsal in the back, five lumbar in the loins, and five or
six in the sacrum (between the hips), is seen descending from the base
of the brain below the cerebellum (which is rather too large in
engraving), and proceeding throughout the body until lost in fine
ramifications which the microscope can scarcely trace, but which
quickly inform us if they are touched or disturbed.
[Illustration]
It cannot properly be said that the spinal cord proceeds from the
brain, nor on the other hand that the brain proceeds from the spinal
cord, for they originate simultaneously in a soft, jelly-like
condition in which the microscope cannot detect the latent structure,
not as they are in the adult, but as they are in the foetus in which
they first appear, with a structure similar to that of the lowest
class of vertebrate animals, the fishes.
From this embryonic condition, in which there is very little
resemblance to the adult brain, its progress has been carefully traced
by many observers, but chiefly by Tiedemann, through all the stages of
life before birth into the soft, infantile form of the human brain.
Some knowledge of this embryonic growth is necessary to a correct
understanding of the adult brain, its essential plan, its growth, and
the correct estimate of its development.
I have not found in our anatomical works what I consider a
satisfactory exposition of this subject. Beginning as a student with
Spurzheim's anatomy of the brain, which ought to have been the
clearest and most complete of all, I found it so obscure and
unsatisfactory that until I had made many dissections I had no very
clear understanding. I have never found any pleasure in the writings
of Spurzheim. In more recent authors the anatomical details are very
abundant indeed, and sufficient to tax the _memory_ heavily, but
without that system and philosophy which appeal to the understanding
and make our conceptions satisfactory, as I hope to make them to my
readers, who must have very incorrect conceptions of the plan of the
brain, if they have relied upon the writings of Mr. Combe and his
successors of the phrenological school, none of whom, so far as I am
aware, have really understood cerebral anatomy.
Let us approach the subject by taking an exterior and general view,
then by tracing the embryonic growth of the brain, and the interior
connections of its fibres, until we are fully prepared to judge of its
development as it lies in the skull, and to understand the relation of
each organ to all other portions. Then we can study its functions with
a clear understanding of the relations of the organs to each other,
which is the material basis of psychic science, and with full
confidence in our ability to judge and compare living heads and skulls
of man and animals.
[Illustration]
Let us take an exterior view by removing one half of the skull from
the right side of the head. This enables us to see that the front
portion of the brain rests above the sockets of the eyes, coming down
in the centre as low as the root of the nose, but a little higher
exteriorly. When we touch the forehead just over the root of the nose,
our finger touches the lowest level of the front lobe, the seat of the
intellect; but when we touch the external angle of the brow on the
same level, we touch a process of bone, and our finger is fully half
an inch below the level of the brain.
In the posterior view we see that below the great mass of brain which
is called the cerebrum there lies a smaller body, shaped much like a
small turnip, called the cerebellum or little brain, separated from
the cerebrum by a firm, horizontal membrane called the tentorium
(covering the cerebellum), on which the cerebrum rests.
[Illustration]
The position of the tentorium can easily be ascertained in your own
head by the fact that where it crosses the median line there is a
little projection of bone called the occipital knob, very prominent on
some persons, barely perceptible on others. After locating the
occipital knob, a horizontal line forward will give us the portion of
the tentorium. When we carry this line forward just over the cavity of
the ear, thus locating the tentorium, we easily recognize below it the
rounded prominence on each side in which the two hemispheres or halves
of the cerebellum lie, with a depression between them on the median
line. To make these and other observations on the head (which no one
should neglect), the hand should be placed firmly on the scalp, so
that as it slides on the bone we feel the form of the skull beneath.
In most persons a distinct depression will be felt along the line of
the tentorium, separating the cerebrum and cerebellum--the cerebellum
being located at the summit of the neck, and extending down about as
low as the end of the mastoid process, which is the large, long
prominence just behind the cavity of the ear.
The cerebellum may be regarded as the physiological and the cerebrum
as the psychic brain, for the cerebellum is void of intelligence and
volition, but has important influences on the body. It may be
considered, like the spinal cord, an intermediate structure between
the controlling and conscious brain and the corporeal organs.
The tentorium does not entirely separate it from the cerebrum, for
anteriorly it is open to permit the passage of the fibres which
connect the cerebrum with the spinal cord and the cerebellum,--fibres
which pass up midway between the right and left ear, so that a bullet
fired horizontally through from ear to ear would sever the connection
of the cerebrum with the bodily organs, producing instant death. This
will be understood by looking at the profile of the interior of the
right hemisphere, on which we see the position of the pons and the
medulla and their relation to the cerebrum by their ascending fibres.
As these ascending fibres correspond to a position just above the
cavity of the ear, and as they are the channels of all muscular
impulses, the reader will perceive that breadth of head immediately
above the cavity of the ear must be associated with muscular
impulsiveness.
The position of the cerebrum in the cranium may be best understood by
sawing the head in two horizontally, taking out the brain, and looking
down into the base of the skull, in which we see anteriorly a shelf
for the front lobes, behind which are the cavities for the middle
lobes, and behind that the rounded cavities for the cerebellum.
[Illustration]
Thus the front lobe occupies the highest plane, resting on the vault
of the sockets of the eyes, and extending back as far as the sockets.
The middle lobe lies behind the sockets of the eyes and above the
cavities of the ears, its base being as low as the bottom of the
sockets of the eyes and corresponding nearly with the upper edge of
the cheekbone, as it extends from the sockets to the side of the head
just in front of the ears. In the posterior base of the skull, the
reader will observe an opening (_foramen magnum_ or large foramen)
through which the spinal cord ascends. The spinal cord is exposed in
the neck below the foramen.
Going back, we find the middle lobe rises higher, ascending over the
cavity of the ear and resting upon the ridge of bone in which the
apparatus of hearing is situated, thus reaching the level of the
tentorium, on which the occipital lobe rests.
The bones of the cranium seen by looking down into the basis of the
skull, as above, are the frontal bone over the eyes, the sphenoid
bone, behind the sockets of the eyes, extending from the right to the
left temple, the temporal bones, forming the ridge that holds the
apparatus of hearing, and extending up about two inches on the side
head, and the occipital bone at the back, between the two temporals,
meeting the sphenoid bone in the centre of the base. The cerebellum
rests in the deep double concavities of the occipital bone, and the
spinal cord ascends through the large opening (foramen magnum) in the
middle of its base, assuming the form called the medulla oblongata.
[Illustration]
When we fully understand this view of the base of the skull, let us
look at it in profile, and observe the frontal bone connected by the
coronal suture to the parietal and the parietal by the squamous or
scaly suture to the temporal, and by the lambdoid suture to the
occipital. The sphenoid or bat-wing bone appears in the temples by its
wing, between the frontal and temporal, while in the centre of the
base its solid body is between the frontal and occipital.
The sphenoid bone is in contact with organs of sensitive delicacy,
refinement, and inspiration, the occipital with organs of vital force,
the temporal with organs of appetite, excitement, and force, the
frontal with organs of intellect and refined benevolence, the parietal
with the organs of virtue, amiability, self control, and general
strength of character, which make a superior person.
Modern anatomists do not divide the brain into front, middle, and
occipital lobes as would seem most natural, by erecting vertical lines
from their bases, but follow up the oblique courses of the
convolutions so as to extend the front lobe into the upper surface of
the brain, and extend the middle lobe from the middle of the upper
surface backward into the region of Self Confidence, giving the name
of temporo-sphenoidal to its lower portion behind the sockets of the
eyes and over the ears, which name is taken from the temporal bone,
that contains the apparatus of hearing, forming the middle of the
basis of the skull, and the sphenoid bone, which lies just back of the
sockets of the eyes, supporting the front end of the lower portion of
the middle lobe, called temporo-sphenoidal.
[Illustration]
The sphenoid bone thus sustains the region of Sensibility, while the
temporal bone lodges the organs of the most sensual, selfish, and
violent impulses, the action of which is downward into the muscular
and visceral organs of the body. The sphenoid bone as it extends up
touches the base of the front lobe and of the Ideal region, where it
assumes the name of Somnolence. (See the profile view of the cranium.)
The upper portion of the middle lobe has been given the name of
parietal, as it has a general correspondence with the parietal bones,
while the occipital lobe has a general correspondence in position with
the occipital bone, as will be seen by comparing the plan of the brain
seen in profile with the engraving of the cranium.
The _plan_ of the brain is given, instead of an engraving of the
actual convoluted surface, to simplify the study to the learner. An
examination of the brain itself or of a good model offers at first
sight such a vague and irregular mass of convolutions, differing so
much in different brains, that any systematic arrangement would seem
impossible. But by studying the subject more extensively and
considering the structure of the simpler brains of animals, in which
the complexity of the human brain is reduced to simpler forms, a mode
of grouping and classifying the convolutions has been adopted by
anatomists which is illustrated by the engraving, in which we see, not
the numerous convolutions of a well developed human brain, but the
groups in which they have been arranged by the aid of comparative
anatomy.
The front lobe is grouped into the superior, middle, and inferior
convolutions, or groups of convolutions, and the ascending frontal;
but the inspection of a brain would show an irregularity of forms in
which a casual observer would be puzzled to trace this arrangement.
The appearance of the brain, divested of its membranes, when we look
upon its superior surface, is shown in the annexed engraving, in which
it is presented as it lies in the head when the cranium and membranes
are removed which form the rim of the figure. The front lobe is the
upper portion, and the outline of the nose is just visible. In the
full exposition of this subject hereafter in a larger work, I propose
to show the exact seats of the various functions in the convolutions,
which are much more irregular than the angular figures we make on the
surface of the head to show the average positions of organs. Of course
no intelligent person supposes the psychological maps and busts of the
organs to be representations of the brain, or anything more than
approximations to the true interior organology, which, however, do not
lead to any great error, as adjacent portions of convolutions have
very analogous functions.
[Illustration]
When we place the brain on its upper surface and inspect the bottom,
we observe at the back the cerebellum, which dips into the neck, the
middle lobe, which is over the ears and the side face, and the front
lobe, which rests over the eyes.
We observe posteriorly the medulla oblongata, on the face of which we
may observe the crossing of the fibres, and on the side of which we
observe the origins of many nerves. Above the medulla we observe the
pons Varolii, just above which we observe the fibres ascending to each
hemisphere under the name of _crus cerebri_, or thigh of the cerebrum.
Next we see the optic nerves crossing on the median line, the
olfactory nerve, running under the front lobe, which is separated by
the fissure of Sylvius from the middle lobe. There is also a glimpse
of the corpus callosum at its anterior end, obtained by pulling the
front lobes apart at the median line.
[Illustration]
Let us next cut through the head exactly on the median line, dividing
the right and left hemispheres, and look at the inner face of the
right hemisphere. We observe that it has convolutions, just like the
exterior surface, which do not join across the median line, but are
separated from those of the left hemisphere by a firm membrane (an
extension of the dura mater or principal investing membrane) called
the falx, which is removed, leaving the convolutions in view.
The reader will observe that it is only in the lower portion of the
engraving that he sees any surfaces produced by cutting to separate
the right and left halves of the brain. It is by these structures
which are here divided that the right and left halves are connected,
so that the whole brain is adapted to acting in a unitary manner.
The first section we encounter as we pass down is that of the _corpus
callosum_, a body of white fibre firmer than the external surface of
the brain, and therefore called the corpus callosum or callous body,
which consists of white nerve fibres gathered in from nearly all parts
of the brain on each side and crossing the median line. We may regard
it as a mass of representative fibres rooted in the soft substance of
the convolutions or gray matter of the brain generally, and thus
connecting across the median line the corresponding parts of the right
and left brain.
[Illustration]
It must be borne in mind that the brain like the body is double, and
that every organ is fully developed in each brain, so that no amount
of injury or paralysis of organs would deprive us of any faculty,
unless corresponding parts were destroyed in each hemisphere.
The left brain governs the right half of the body, and the right brain
governs the left half, the connecting fibres having their crossing
(called decussation) in the spinal cord. Hence the left brain is
usually more fully developed in the occipital and basilar regions than
the right, in right handed people, as may frequently be detected by a
careful examination of the head, or an inspection of the interior the
skull. The left brain, also, seems to have a general ascendency over
the right; so that paralysis of speech is most generally produced by
disease in the region of language on the left side.
Whatever occurs on one side of the body is in relation to the opposite
side of the head. Paralysis, if not dependent on the spinal cord, is
dependent on the basilar region of the opposite side of they brain;
and conditions of the right eye affect the lower margin of the left
front lobe, in which the perceptive organs are situated.
If we thrust our fingers into the brain immediately under the corpus
callosum, pushing away the delicate little structure called the
_septum lucidum_ (or translucent septum), and pressing down fornix
(which is a thin, horizontal nerve membrane) we find that our fingers
enter a cavity by pressing its walls apart, of which the corpus
callosum is the vault or roof,--a cavity which may be explored back
and forth, far into the interior of the occipital lobe within an inch
of the surface, and far into the front lobe, near the surface of the
frontal convolutions, as well as downwards and forwards into the
bottom of the middle lobe (the part called temporo-sphenoidal). These
extensions of this great cavity or ventricle are called the anterior
and posterior horns (_cornua_) and the descending horn (_cornu_).
Their importance arises from the fact that in these ventricles of the
right and left sides of the brain a watery fluid, effused from the
blood, called serum, exists, which also extends downward along the
spinal cord, and which has to do with the pressure and equilibrium of
the various parts. When there is a strong pressure of blood to the
brain on account of its unusual activity, especially in the activity
of the emotions, the serum of the ventricles and also in the substance
of the brain is absorbed, and the brain acquires a more compact
texture, which is found in all persons of strong mentality, the brain
being hardened by exercise, as well as the muscles. But when the
action of the brain is feeble, and the blood in an impoverished
condition, there is a greater tendency to the exudation of fluid; the
substance of the brain is thereby softened, and serum, to the extent
of one or more ounces, is frequently found in the ventricles,
especially when the brain is much impaired by disease of its
substance. In some cases of hydrocephalus pints of serum are effused,
distending the brain and head enormously, and in many cases of
insanity the ventricles and membranes of the brain are distended with
serum. "Pritchard on Insanity" speaks of this distention of the
ventricles, which were "very full of serum" in twenty-nine out of a
hundred cases, and "in twenty-three ready to burst," and "in ten among
twenty-four melancholies astonishingly distended." Dr. Spurzheim
dissected a case of hydrocephalus, child of eighteen months, with two
and a half pounds of water in the membranes of the brain; and James
Cardinal, who died at the age of thirty years in London, had a pint of
water in the lateral ventricles, and about nine pints between the
brain and its membranes.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.
[Hand pointing right] _The first two numbers of the_ JOURNAL _were
unavoidably delayed. The May number will appear in advance of the
month._
The BUSINESS DEPARTMENT of the Journal deserves the attention of all
its readers, as it will be devoted to matters of general interest and
real value. The treatment of the opium habit by Dr. Hoffman is
original and successful. Dr. Hoffman is one of the most gifted members
of the medical profession. The electric apparatus of D. H. Fitch is
that which I have found the most useful and satisfactory in my own
practice. Mr. Fitch has recently perfected certain improvements in the
Galvanic Battery, which enables him to furnish the best and cheapest
which has ever been offered by any manufacturer. The _American
Spectator_, edited by Dr. B. O. Flower, is conducted with ability and
good taste, making an interesting family paper, containing valuable
hygienic and medical instruction, at a remarkably low price. It is
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essays in commendation of the treatment of disease by oxygen gas, and
its three compounds, nitrous oxide, per-oxide and ozone. What is
needed for its general introduction is a convenient portable
apparatus. This is now furnished by Dr. B. M. Lawrence, at Hartford,
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information in his pamphlet on that subject. He can be consulted free
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Dr. W. F. Richardson of 875 Washington Street is one of the most
successful practitioners we have, as any one will realize who employs
him. Without specifying his numerous cases I would merely mention that
he has recently cured in a single treatment an obstinate case of
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Lowell.
Dr. K. MEYENBERG, who is the Boston agent for Oxygen Treatment, is a
most honorable, modest, and unselfish gentleman, whose superior
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* * * * *
College of Therapeutics.
The large amount of scientific and therapeutic knowledge developed by
recent discoveries, but not yet admitted into the slow-moving medical
colleges, renders it important to all young men of liberal minds--to
all who aim at the highest rank in their profession--to all who are
strictly conscientious and faithful in the discharge of their duties
to patients under their care, to have an institution in which their
education can be completed by a preliminary or a post-graduate course
of instruction.
The amount of practically useful knowledge of the healing art which is
absolutely excluded from the curriculum of old style medical colleges
is greater than all they teach--not greater than the adjunct sciences
and learning of a medical course which burden the mind to the
exclusion of much useful therapeutic knowledge, but greater than all
the curative resources embodied in their instruction.
The most important of these therapeutic resources which have sometimes
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Therapeutic Sarcognomy, a science often demonstrated and endorsed by
able physicians, gives the anatomy not of the physical structure, but
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anatomy, as the anatomy of life is more important than the anatomy of
death. Sarcognomy is the true basis of medical practice, while anatomy
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Indeed, every magnetic or electric practitioner ought to attend such a
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In addition to the above instruction, special attention will be given
to the science and art of Psychometry--the most important addition in
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The course of instruction will begin on Monday, the 2d of May, and
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To students who have attended heretofore the fee will be $15. For
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JOSEPH RODES BUCHANAN, M. D.
6 JAMES ST., BOSTON.
The sentiments of those who have attended these courses of instruction
during the last eight years were concisely expressed in the following
statement, which was unanimously signed and presented to Dr. Buchanan
by those attending his last course in Boston.
"The undersigned, attendant upon the seventh session of the College of
Therapeutics, have been delighted with the profound and wonderful
instructions received, and as it is the duty of all who become
acquainted with new truths of great importance to the world, to assist
in their diffusion, we offer our free and grateful testimony in the
following resolutions:
"_Resolved_, That the lectures and experiments of Prof. Buchanan have
not only clearly taught, but absolutely demonstrated, the science of
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"_Resolved_, That we regard Sarcognomy as the most important addition
ever made to physiological science by any individual, and as the basis
of the only possible scientific system of Electro-Therapeutics, the
system which we have seen demonstrated in all its details by Prof.
Buchanan, producing results which we could not have believed without
witnessing the demonstration.
"_Resolved_, That Therapeutic Sarcognomy is a system of science of the
highest importance, alike to the magnetic healer, to the
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* * * * *
The "Chlorine" Galvanic and Faradic Batteries.
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* * * * *
THE SPIRITUAL OFFERING,
LARGE EIGHT-PAGE, WEEKLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO THE ADVOCACY OF
SPIRITUALISM IN ITS RELIGIOUS, SCIENTIFIC, AND HUMANITARIAN ASPECTS.
COL. D. M. FOX, Publisher.
D. M. & NETTIE P. FOX .... EDITORS.
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS.
Prof. Henry Kiddle, No. 7 East 130th St., New York City.
"Ouina," through her medium, Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, 64 Union Park
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