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Title: Buchanan's Journal of Man, January 1888
Volume 1, Number 12
Author: Various
Editor: J. R. Buchanan
Release Date: January 15, 2009 [EBook #27812]
Language: English
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BUCHANAN'S
JOURNAL OF MAN.
VOL. I. JANUARY, 1888. NO. 12.
CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.
The Pursuit of Truth
Occultism defined
Psychic Phenomena
The Ancient Iberians
The Star Dust of the Universe
MISCELLANEOUS--Bright Literature; The Two Worlds; Foote's Health
Monthly; Psychic Theories; Twentieth Century Science, Dawning at
the end of the Nineteenth; Comparative Speed of Light and
Electricity; Wonderful Photography; Wooden Cloth; The
Phylloxera; Falling Rents; Boston Civilization; Psychic
Blundering; Beecher's Mediumship; A Scientific Cataract;
Obstreperous and Pragmatic Vulgarity; Hygiene; Quinine; Life and
Death; Dorothea L. Dix; The Drift of Catholicism; Juggernaut
The Principal Methods of Studying the Brain
Responses of Readers--Medical Orthodoxy
THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.
"To be loyal to the truth is of more account than to be merely
successful in formulating it."--_Popular Science Monthly_ for
December.
Indeed it is; for loyalty to truth is the prior condition of success
in formulating or stating it, and that loyalty not only precedes the
special success in formulating it, but is the prior cause of
_universal success_ in its attainment. Special perceptive powers and
favorable opportunities may enable scientists to ascertain certain
truths, as a lamp may enable them to discover a few objects near them
which darkness hides from others, but loyalty to truth reveals, like
daylight, all that lies within our horizon, for it opens widely all
the avenues between the mind and universal nature, and prevents our
mental transparency from being darkened in any direction or relation.
He who has this loyalty dominant in his nature never pronounces
anything false which subsequent investigation, or the investigation by
others, proves true. He never becomes an obstacle to the spread of any
truth. He is always the first to welcome a new truth and the last to
falter in sustaining it. He is always ready to recognize the same
sincerity and fidelity in others, and to give a kindly welcome to the
labors and discoveries of other followers of truth. As brave men
readily recognize and honor each other, so do the soldiers of truth
meet in quick sympathy and cordial co-operation.
The labors, the discoveries and promulgations of such men ever become
criteria by which to test the loyalty and truthfulness of others, for,
wherever they are presented, all who live in loyalty to truth are at
once attracted and realize their harmony with the truth. As the
magnetized iron attracts the unmagnetized, so does the loyal soul
charged with truth attract all other loyal souls.
But all through human history we find that inventions, discoveries
and, above all, momentous truths uniformly fail to attract the masses,
either of the learned or the unlearned, as was illustrated in our
December number, and hence we must conclude that, in the present early
or juvenile stage of human evolution, loyalty to truth is one of the
rarest virtues of humanity.
And yet, how often do we meet in literature expressions which would
indicate that the writers were entirely loyal. They mistake loyalty to
their own self-esteem, loyalty to their own dogmatic convictions,
mental limitations, prejudices, and prepossessions for loyalty to
truth, which is a passionless, modest, lovely and noble quality.
No doubt the contemporaries of Galileo, Newton, and Harvey indulged in
the same self-gratulations. The bigot and dogmatist in all ages have
entertained no doubt of their own loyalty to truth; but it was loyalty
to their own very limited perceptions, and to their profound
conviction that all outside of their own sphere of perception was
falsehood or nonentity, and should be received with supercilious scorn
or crushing blows whenever presented.
Men's minds are thus narrowed in the base contests of selfishness,
jealousy, and fraud; but of all the demoralizing influences that
darken the mind by closing up permanently its most important inlets,
none have had such a wide-spread and far-reaching power for evil as
the false theology which demands the absolute surrender of reason to
self-evident absurdities.
Benumbed by countless centuries of superstition and passive surrender
to false education, to social influences, to pre-natal conditions, to
the terrors of law and custom, and to the lurid threats and horrors of
the imaginary drama of eternity, the mass of mankind have lost the
power of the dispassionate philosophical reasoning demanded by loyalty
to truth, and they do not know how to appreciate it when they see it.
Rebelling now against this limitation and slavery, they still carry in
their rebellion the marks of their slavery, and in their honest
agnosticism they still fail to reason fairly in loyalty to truth, and
indulge in the same dogmatism, narrowness or prejudice as when they
were slaves to priestly dogmas.
It is true that in the agnostic scientific classes there is far more
independent reasoning capacity generally than among those who dwell in
the theological limitations, but their independence has not relieved
them from the dogmatism which has so long been cultivated in the human
race by all religious systems. The dogmatism of the medical college,
and of most scientific associations, rivals that of theological
sectarianism.
The _Popular Science Monthly_, from which the above expression in
behalf of loyalty to truth was taken, is itself a striking
illustration of _disloyalty_, and rigidly confines itself to the
fashionable doctrines of the schools, excluding from its pages
whatever differs from the prevalent scientific dogmatism, and while
denouncing the dogmatism of theology, exhibiting itself a dogmatism
equally blind, unreasoning and regardless of facts. Experimental
demonstrations and scientific facts, which transcend the limits of
their arbitrary theories, receive as little attention from the
dogmatists trained in medical schools, as they would from a college of
cardinals.
The JOURNAL OF MAN, in the presentation of new truths, attracts only
the candid, loyal and progressive. It does not hope to conquer the
results of inheritance, pre-natal influence and old institutions, or
force any truth upon reluctant and disloyal minds, but it knows that
there is an important and growing class who sympathize with loyalty
and prefer the glowing future to the decaying remains of the past.
To the party of progress, this magnificent republic opens a free and
ample field. The domination of habit and transmitted dogmatism is
growing continually weaker, fading away in churches and colleges. The
pulpit of today is tolerant indeed in comparison with the pulpit of
our fathers, and the bright, free thought of the advanced people
surrounds the colleges with an atmosphere which is gradually
penetrating their walls and modifying their policy. An important duty
devolves upon every loyal, progressive thinker,--the duty of speaking
out firmly, manfully and distinctly, to swell the volume of thought
which carries mankind onward to a nobler future.
OCCULTISM DEFINED.
BY ONE WHO KNOWS.
My own claims to be considered as an exponent of true Occultism are
founded upon the following grounds: When quite young, in fact, before
I had attained my thirteenth year, I became acquainted with certain
parties who sought me out and professed a desire to observe the
somnambulic faculties for which I was then remarkable. I found my new
associates to be ladies and gentlemen, mostly persons of noble rank,
and during a period of several years, I, and many other young persons,
assisted at their sessions in the quality of somnambulists, or
mesmeric subjects. The persons I thus came into contact with were
representatives of many other countries than Great Britain. They
formed one of a number of secret societies, and all that I am
privileged to relate of them is, that they were students of the two
branches of Occultism hereafter to be described; that they claimed an
affiliation with societies derived from the ancient mysteries of
Egypt, Greece, and Judæa; that their beliefs and practices had been
concealed from the vulgar by cabalistic methods, and that though their
real origin and the purpose of their association had at times been
almost lost, it had revived, and been restored under many aspects.
They claimed that alchemy, mediæval Rosicrucianism, and modern
Freemasonry were off-shoots of the original Cabala, and that during
the past 150 years new associations had been formed, and the parties
who had introduced me into their arcanum were a society in affiliation
with many others then in existence in different countries. These
persons, deeming that the intrusion into their ranks of unprepared
minds would be injurious to the harmony necessary for their studies,
carefully avoided assuming any position of prominence in reference to
the society, so that they might never be solicited to admit those
whose presence might be prejudicial. Indeed it was one of their
leading regulations never to permit the existence of the society to be
known or the members thereof named, until they passed from earth to
the higher life. It is in virtue of this last clause that I am at
liberty to say that Lord Lytton, the Earl of Stanhope, and Lieut.
Morrison (better known as "Zadkiel"), and the author of "Art Magic,"
belonged to this society.
I should have known but little of its principles and practices, as I
was simply what I should now call a clairvoyant, sought out by the
society for my gifts in this direction, had I not, in later years,
been instructed in the fundamentals of the society by the author of
"Art Magic." When modern spiritualism dawned upon the world, for
special reasons of my own, the fellows of my society gave me an
honorary release from every obligation I had entered into with them
except in the matter of secrecy. On that point I can never be released
and never seek to be; but in respect to the statements I am about to
make, my former associates,--deeming their publication might serve to
correct some of the erroneous opinions that are put into circulation
by individuals who arrogate to themselves a knowledge, of which they
have not the slightest iota,--not only sanction, but command me to
present to the candid inquirer the following brief definition of
genuine practical
OCCULTISM--ANCIENTLY WRITTEN IN "CABALA."
OCCULTISM is a study and application of the occult, or hidden
principles and forces of the Universe, or, in its more limited sense,
of Nature.
The study of occultism is called speculative. The application of that
study is practical occultism.
Speculative occultism includes opinions and teachings, often so widely
at variance with commonly received beliefs that it would be extremely
unwise to subject it to the criticism of persons generically called
the world. Speculative occultism of course might be regarded as
_speculative only_, were it not possible by the aid of practical
occultism to demonstrate its truths.
The subjects which engage the attention of the speculative occultist
are THE CREATOR, or creative power; WORLD BUILDING, and the order and
design of the earth and its spirit spheres; MAN, and his relations to
the Creator, the earth, and his fellow-man.
DESCENT OF SPIRIT into matter, and its growth through embryotic
stages, during which period it is first _elemental_, then _animal_,
then _man_.
ASCENT OF SPIRIT out of matter, and its progress through future stages
of growth as planetary and solar spirits.
Besides these purely theoretical subjects are suggestions concerning
the best methods of communing with spiritual existences, and of
receiving information from lower and higher states than man. These,
together with _some mental exercises and practices_, form the main
themes of consideration in the colleges of speculative occultism.
Spirit Communion, together with Astronomy, Astrology, Mathematics,
Geometry, Music, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, and Psychometry, are
all kindred branches of study which must engage the attention of the
true occultist.
PRACTICAL OCCULTISM.
PRACTICAL OCCULTISM consists, first, of a perfect mastery of the
individual's _own spirit_. No advance whatever can be made in
acquiring power over other spirits, such as controlling the lower or
supplicating the higher, until the spirit within has acquired such
perfect mastery of itself, that it can never be moved to anger or
emotion--realizes no pleasure, cares for no pain; experiences no
mortification at insult, loss, or disappointment--in a word, subdues
every emotion that stirs common men's minds.
To arrive at this state, severe and painful as well as long continued
discipline is necessary. Having acquired this perfect _equilibrium_,
the next step is _power_. The individual must be able to wake when he
pleases and sleep when he pleases; go in spirit during bodily sleep
where he will, and visit--as well as remember when awake--distant
scenes.
He must be enabled by practice, to telegraph, mentally, with his
fellow associates, and present himself, spiritually, in their midst.
He must, by practice, acquire psychological control over the minds of
any persons--not his associates--_beneath_ his own calibre of mind. He
must be able to still a crying infant, subdue fierce animals or angry
men, and by will, transfer his thought without speech or outward sign
to any person of a mental calibre below himself; he must be enabled to
summon to his presence elementary spirits, and if he desires to do so
(knowing the penalties attached), to make them serve him in the
special departments of Nature to which they belong.
He must, by virtue of complete subjugation of his earthly nature, be
able to invoke Planetary and even Solar Spirits, and commune with them
to a certain degree.
To attain these degrees of power the processes are so difficult that a
thorough practical occultist can scarcely become one and yet continue
his relations with his fellow-men.
He must continue, from the first to the last degree, a long series of
exercises, each one of which must be perfected before another is
undertaken.
A practical occultist may be of either sex, but must observe as the
first law inviolable chastity--and that with a view of conserving all
the virile powers of the organism. No aged person, especially one who
has not lived the life of strict chastity, can acquire the full sum of
the powers above named. It is better to commence practice in early
youth, for after the meridian of life, when the processes of waste
prevail over repair, few of the powers above described can be
attained; the full sum never.
Strict abstinence from animal food and all stimulants is necessary.
Frequent ablutions and long periods of silent contemplation are
essential. Codes of exercises for the attainment of these powers can
be prescribed, but few, if any, of the self-indulgent livers of modern
times can perform their routine.
The arts necessary for study to the practical occultist are, in
addition to those prescribed in speculative occultism, a knowledge of
the qualities of drugs, vapors, minerals, electricity, perfumes,
fumigations, and all kinds of anæsthetics.
And now, having given in brief as much as is consistent with my
position--as the former associate of a secret society--I have simply
to add, that, whilst there are, as in Masonry, certain preliminary
degrees to pass through, there are numerous others to which a
thoroughly well organized and faithful association might advance. In
each degree there are some valuable elements of practical occultism
demanded, whilst the teachings conveyed are essential preliminaries.
In a word, speculative occultism must precede practical occultism; the
former is love and wisdom, the latter, simply power.
In future papers I propose to describe the two Ancient Cabalas,
and the present attempts to incarnate their philosophy in
modern--so-called--Theosophy.
SIRIUS.
* * * * *
In the foregoing essay, taken from the first number of _The Two
Worlds_, edited by Mrs. E. H. Britten, we have the best exposition of
Occultism that has been published. It shows that Occultism, theoretic
and practical, is a matter of intellectual ambition--ambition to
understand the mysteries of nature, and to wield the power which such
understanding gives. It exhibits no ulterior purpose of using its
knowledge for the benefit of mankind, or even of diffusing it. Its aim
is selfish, and the secrecy which it has maintained is not justifiable
in the present condition of our civilization.
ANTHROPOLOGY, which I am endeavoring to introduce for the benefit of
mankind, comprehends the whole of the theory and practice of
Occultism, and there is no need for seeking mysterious societies for a
species of knowledge which is no longer a secret, and which will be
fully illustrated in my future publications.
"Practical Occultism," as defined by Sirius, is perfectly intelligible
to one who understands the science of the brain. It is an effort to
cultivate into _abnormal_ predominance the heroic, firm, hardy, and
spiritual regions of the brain, to the neglect if not suppression of
its nobler powers. In suppressing sympathy and sensibility, it impairs
the foundation of our most amiable virtues, isolates man from the
companionship and love of his fellow-beings and comes dangerously near
to misanthropy and black magic, or the attempt to use spiritual powers
and the spiritual realm for purely selfish purposes.
Bulwer, it is stated, was one of the occult society. In his case the
pursuit was one of pure selfishness; his motives in his literary
career were selfish and avaricious; his domestic life was detestable,
and the use that he made of his knowledge in his literary labors was
meretricious and fantastic. That noble-minded woman and gifted medium,
the late Mrs. M. B. Hayden, M. D., was received by him at Knebworth,
and gave him ample evidence of truths which he never publicly
sustained.
Whatever withdraws us from society and from the duties to
fellow-beings which are incumbent upon all, is unworthy of
encouragement. The noblest cultivation is symmetrical, and in its
symmetry maintains the supremacy of the ethical sentiments, which
recognize human fraternity.
Nevertheless, this "practical occultism," abnormal and egotistic
though it be, may develop marvellous powers, at which we may wonder as
we do at the skill of an acrobat or the pugilism of Sullivan. It
cultivates a will power and a spirituality by which miraculous
phenomena may be shown, but they are of little real value compared to
the nobler miracle of healing those whom physicians have surrendered
to death, and bringing to the knowledge of mankind the entire truth
concerning the future life, and the ennobling lessons derived
therefrom, which bring earth life nearer to heaven.
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.
The _New York World_ publishes a narrative of psychic experiments by
its correspondent at Washington which may interest those who have not
witnessed anything like it. They are just such as have been on
exhibition publicly in this country for more than forty years, but
owing to conservative prejudice have not received their due attention
from the press. But as newspaper correspondents and reporters are a
privileged class, they can bring before the public marvellous
phenomena which would not be welcomed from other sources. The
following is the letter from Washington:
"You know what an excitement there has been about mesmerism in
Paris this summer? A lion tamer, who was also a mesmerist, took
into his cages a young lady whom he had mesmerized, and made his
dentate pets jump over her on the floor. There was great
excitement about it, and a law was passed in the French
Congress, I believe, forbidding such exhibitions, even where the
consent of the subject had been obtained previously to losing
consciousness.
"This letter will be in the nature of a confession. Last spring,
discovering by accident that I could mesmerize, I took up
mesmerism as a diversion for the amusement of myself and
friends. I had long believed in it entirely and carefully
watched its processes, but I wished to study its philosophy and
find out, if I could, the cause and the limits of its mysterious
phenomena.
"I first found that I could, by placing my hand on the forehead
of a young acquaintance and accompanying the slight pressure
with an imperative command, close his eyes and keep them firmly
closed against all efforts of his will. I could compel him to
dance or keep him from moving from his tracks; could prevent his
rising from his chair; prevent his striking his hands together,
and, at last, could prevent him from speaking. In fact, I
absolutely controlled his voluntary muscles in every respect,
and could compel him to do anything that he was physically
capable of doing.
"Extending the experiments, I obtained the same control over
others, both men and women, till I had quite a class of
sensitives so responsive that I could control them with ease. Up
to this time they were all perfectly conscious and without any
hallucinations; they knew who they were, where they were and
what they were doing, and they laughed as heartily at the absurd
results obtained as any spectator. Up to this time, too, I had
no means of ascertaining whether the apparent results were
genuine. I might be the dupe of cunning people who were
conspiring to fool me, for, in these early stages, there seems
to be no way of scientifically proving it.
"It was some time before I was able to carry the experiments
further and get control of the consciousness and senses of my
class. At last success came. I made them see and hear mosquitoes
and fight the tormentors with great energy. At this point they
became dazed, and it was easy to command their senses in other
respects. At a suggestion they heard music, the noises of a
riot, a thunderstorm, the roaring of lions, a speech by Col.
Ingersoll, and they gradually came to see vividly anything to
which I directed their attention. In this world of hallucination
they lost consciousness--or, rather, they abandoned their real
existence and assumed an abnormal existence, as one does in a
dream.
"I am not yet certain whether this strange condition is imposed
on them by my will, or whether it is self-imposed, subjective,
and the result of expectation on their part. I am inclined to
believe the latter theory is true, because, when I direct their
attention to a horse, for instance, each one sees a different
sort of horse, and his head is in different directions.
"By a few additional passes I can induce a cataleptic state, in
which the sensitive becomes perfectly rigid and can be laid out
between two chairs, his head on one and his heels on another,
like a log. They can also be easily made insensible to pain, so
that pins are stuck through their hands, teeth drawn, and
painful but harmless acids put in the eye, without extorting a
sign of feeling. In this way, and others even more conclusive, I
have demonstrated the good faith of my class.
"I have given several receptions for the entertainment of my
friends, and record here some results for the benefit of those
in other cities who choose to try similar experiments.
"The available class now consists of eight--four gentlemen and
four ladies, from seventeen to forty years of age. Two of these
(both ladies) I have never been able to take into the region of
hallucinations. I can control them physically, can prevent their
unclasping their hands, or laying down a fan, or rising from
their chairs, or pronouncing their own names; but here my
influence stops. I cannot make them think that the room is hot
or cold, or that mosquitoes are prevalent, or disturb the
testimony of their senses in any way.
"The other six are lost to the realities of life the instant I
touch them. One of them I can put into a sound sleep in a
second, and he will sleep until I awaken him.
"It should be stated here that these sensitives are above the
average of intelligence and mental activity. Three of them are
clerks in the departments, one, who took the valedictory in
college, being an artist in the Smithsonian. Two are in business
for themselves; one of them, a shrewd, sagacious and
level-headed man as one would meet anywhere, with a sharp
commercial turn of mind. This man differs from the others in
being keenly incredulous--sceptical of his hallucinations when
they seem unreasonable.
"For instance, at a reception the other evening, at which the
members of the Cabinet were present with their families, I
introduced to my sensitives a learned pig.
"'See here!' I said, when they were all in the mesmeric trance;
'here you are in my dime museum. Let me show you my educated
pig.'
"They all wanted to see it, and I whistled, snapped my fingers,
and called their attention to the fine animal before them. They
evidently saw it.
"'A lovely little white pig!' said a young lady.
"'Only it isn't little and it isn't white,' said the
silversmith; 'it is a big black fellow,' and he appealed to the
others.
"I explained that it was a scarlet pig, and told them it could
read and sing.
"'Sing! Oh yes, we hear you!' said the incredulous man
sarcastically.
"I snapped my fingers. 'There he goes!' said the artist,
'singing 'Wait till the Clouds Roll By.''
"'I hear singing,' said Incredulous, turning to me.
''Titwillow,' isn't it? How do you work him--the machinery, I
mean?'
"The others laughed at him. 'Why, the pig sings,' said the young
lady; 'can't you hear him sing? can't you see him sing?'
"'He looks as if he sang. I see his jaws move, and he sounds as
if he sang,' persisted Incredulous; 'but he doesn't sing. Pigs
don't sing.'
"'Very well, what is it, then?' asked one of the clerks,
triumphantly.
"'A tube and a hole in the floor, may be; it's well done,
though,' said the doubter.
"'Suppose you go and find the tube,' suggested the artist.
"He went and kicked around where he supposed it to be, tore up a
piece of the carpet and looked nonplussed.
"'Yonder's the pig over by the entrance, singing 'A Warrior
Bold,'' said the artist, amid laughter.
"The scoffer came back to his seat and said,
"'It's probably ventriloquism.'
"'Aw!' said the silversmith derisively, 'you can't throw the
voice any such distance nor make it sound clear and sweet like
that. I've made a study of ventriloquism.'
"'Well, I've made a study of pig,' said Incredulous obstinately.
"Then I changed the illusion by making the pig's ear grow out
three feet long, and then turning him into an elephant with one
leg and four tails.
"Sometimes I turn my class into infants and have them 'play
school,' with infinite fun; sometimes I transport them over the
seas to Africa or Japan on my enchanted carpet, where for a
brief space they enjoy all the delights of travel; sometimes we
participate in battles, sometimes visit famous picture
galleries, sometimes the artist enjoys a quiet talk with
Socrates, or Moses or Confucius, providing both questions and
answers in a curious dual action of the mind highly entertaining
to the audience.
"The other evening I transformed my artist into President
Cleveland. He assumed the character with quiet dignity, but said
he had had a hard day's work and was tired.
"'Queen Victoria will visit you this evening, you know,' I said.
"'No!' he exclaimed with surprise. 'I didn't know she was in
this country. When did she come?'
"'Yesterday, on the Aurania; here she comes, now.'
"He straightened up as I spoke and received her imaginary
Majesty with real dignity and tact. After bowing and shaking
hands he said:
"'I have heard with unfeigned pleasure of your Majesty's
approach to the capital of the republic, and it is my agreeable
privilege to extend to you the freedom of this city and country
in behalf of sixty millions of people. Dan, get the lady a
chair!'
"As she seemed to seat herself he listened a moment, smiled and
said: 'I reciprocate those feelings, as do all Americans, and I
trust that the amicable relations so long preserved between this
republic and the mighty realm of which you are the honored and
beloved ruler may never be broken.'
"'Where can the lady hang her crown?' I asked him. 'It must have
a peck of diamonds in it. Can't I take it?'
"He looked scornfully at me and I added: 'Can't the boys manage
to get it away from her Majesty when she goes down stairs?'
"'You are a disgrace to this administration, Dan, and have got to
be fired out!' the President exclaimed angrily to me, and then
he humbly apologized to the Queen.
"He casually added that the fisheries dispute might lead to
trouble, and she would be prudent to let our boys get bait along
shore where it seemed handiest.
"I know of no other thing in which there is so much
entertainment as mesmerism. For the benefit of those who desire
to experiment I append certain conclusions from my own
experiments here:
"1. About one person in ten can be mesmerized.
"2. The proportion of people who have the 'power' to mesmerize,
if it be a power, I do not know.
"3. Mesmerism is a trance and seems to me almost identical with
somnambulism.
"4. It is as harmless as sleep. My sensitives occasionally come
to me in the daytime to be put to sleep for the purpose of
obtaining rest.
"5. Hallucinations that take place under mesmerism are seldom
remembered in a subsequent waking state, but are generally
recalled with vividness in a subsequent mesmeric state.
"6. Mesmerized subjects do not see the objects or people in the
room, or hear any noise whatever except the voice of the
operator.
"7. My sensitives could have an arm or a leg amputated, I have
no doubt, without suffering any pain.
"8. Some of my sensitives are able to tell what goes on behind
them and where they cannot see it, by some occult sense of which
I am ignorant. I am at present pursuing study along this line.
"Others here are now experimenting, and I think mesmerism is the
coming fashionable 'fad.'
"W. A. CROFFUT."
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.--Methinks that if some of our eminent (?) scientists
were to investigate this much abused subject (as all of them might)
they would soon find themselves _hors de combat_ in relation to their
premises that all manifestations of mind are nothing but products of
matter. Huxley, for instance, that the "mind is a voltaic pile giving
shocks of thought," and many other quotations equally as absurd by
other materialistic philosophers (?) who claim prominence as such.
As long ago as 1843 I was induced to investigate and try this
phenomenon mainly for a hygienic purpose and afterwards led on by
curiosity. I had no teacher, consulted no works on the subject, but
derived all I learned in relation thereto by my own individual
experiments, and in parenthesis say that what I learned I hold as
above all price in settling in my mind the vexed question, "to be or
not to be."
In 1847 I was in Wisconsin, and for the satisfaction of others I was
induced to a renewal of experiments in magnetism. I was located with
several other families with a view of forming a co-operative colony,
so that excepting myself the rest had their residences closely
together, whilst mine was half a mile from the rest. The subject at
one time was brought up for discussion, and an earnest desire on the
part of many to see something of it resulted in my finding a subject
to experiment with at once, and fortunately he proved to be an
extraordinary one. The finding of property through him in a mesmeric
condition was a thing of common occurrence, and in some instances he
seemed to be conscious of the mental conditions under which the
property was lost. I found that he could take cognizance of what was
occurring out of his sight, by pre-arrangements to test him.
One evening I mesmerized him, and in imagination took him to England,
and prepared as I was to accept the marvellous, I was considerably
surprised at the probabilities of some statements from a letter
received afterwards. Telling of this to my neighbors, they suggested
the institution of a series of experiments to thoroughly test the
matter. The course pursued was this: His brother would magnetize him,
distant from me one-half a mile, and in the evening, according to
arrangements, my family were to be engaged at anything suggested to
our minds at the time, something for instance somewhat out of the
ordinary routine of family occupation, to make it more apparent, and
by comparing notes it was evident that through some mysterious law or
power of mind he was with us taking cognizance of our actions. This
was so thoroughly demonstrated that the parties concerned would have
subscribed and sworn to the same before any officer qualified to
administer an oath.--A. LANSDELL, _in Golden Gate_.
GOOD CLAIRVOYANCE.--Dr. E. S. Packard, of Corunna, Me., in the
_Eastern Star_, states that Mr. David Prescott, of South Sangerville,
over ninety years of age, "wandered away into the woods, and not
returning, a crowd of over a hundred men hunted for him nearly two
days; the mill pond near his house was drained. Search was made in
every direction but to no success.
"A gentleman of that place decided to call in the aid of Mrs. Stevens;
she told him somebody was lost, and not being able to visit the place
she drew a map or chart of the locality, giving directions, by which,
on his return he was immediately found alive, but died the next day.
The day following I was at South Sangerville, and stopping at this
gentleman's house, examined the map, which was perfect in every
respect. The house and shed were correctly drawn, the mill and pond
near the house were marked, the field and woods, two fences over which
Mr. Prescott must climb, even to the swinging of the road by the house
was definitely given.
"The spot where she said he was, was shown by a large black mark, and
he was found exactly in that place. When we consider that Mrs. Stevens
never saw this place in her normal condition, it is to me a wonderful
test of spirit power."
HYPNOTISM IN INSANITY.--We learn from the German periodical, _Sphinx_,
that hypnotism has been used in an insane asylum near Zurich since
March, 1887, in 41 cases, a report of which has been made by Dr.
Forel. In fourteen cases there was a failure, but in twenty-seven
there was a degree of success without any unfavorable results
afterwards. In four of the cases due to intemperance a cure was
effected and the patients joined the temperance society. A morphine
eater was cured in the same manner in six weeks and dismissed from the
asylum.
THE ANCIENT IBERIANS.
THEIR STATION IN CANADA DESCRIBED BY THE REV. W. H. H. MURRAY.--A
PSYCHOMETRIC REPORT ON AN ANCIENT RACE.
The Rev. W. H. H. Murray, the eloquent minister who was once so
conspicuous in Boston, on a yacht excursion to Canada recently wrote
from Tadousac to the _Boston Herald_ as follows:
"At that point of time touched by the earliest ray of historic
knowledge, the eye of the student of human annals sees, occupying the
Spanish peninsula, a race of men called Iberians. These old Iberians
were not a tribe or clan, but a people, numerous and potential, with a
fully developed and virile language, skilled in arms and the working
of precious metals, and industriously commercial. This much can be
clearly inferred from the extent of their territory and the remnant of
them, with their characteristics and habits, which still remain. This
old people, themselves a colony from some other country, once existent
and highly civilized in the remote past, spread from the Mediterranean
Sea to the slopes of the Pyrenees, and all over southern Gaul as far
as the Rhone, and flowed westward with a movement so forceful that it
included all the British Islands. All this happened 4000 to 5000 B. C.
They are older than the Egyptians probably by 1000 years, and were
strong enough to attempt the conquest of the known world.
"These Iberians colonized Sicily. They were the original settlers in
Italy and pushed their way northward as far as Norway and Sweden,
where can still be found among the present inhabitants their physical
characteristics--dark skin and jet black hair. This ancient people
were not barbarians, but highly civilized. They had the art of writing
and a literature. Poetry was cultivated. Their laws were set in verse;
and for these laws thus written they claimed an antiquity of 6000
years.
"This ancient race has passed away, as all great races do. The rise
and decline of a people are as a day. They have a sunrise, a noon, a
sunset, and there remains of them and their splendor nothing but a
gloaming, a twilight of a thousand years, perhaps, and after that
OBLIVION'S STARLESS NIGHT.
"This old Iberian, world-conquering race came to its sunset hour a
thousand years ago, and the gloaming after their sunset is deepening
into that gloom which hides all. Only a remnant, a hint of the
old-time radiance, remains up to this day.
"In Southern Europe, the remnant of this antique race, the fragment of
a root with the old-time vigorous sap in it, may still be found.
There, on the Spanish peninsula where its cradle was rocked, the grave
of a once powerful race is being slowly sodded; for there still live
that strange people called the Basques. It matters not today what they
are--chiefly mountaineers, I think--but they are of the old Iberian
stock, and the Iberians were colonists from some unknown land,
pre-historic, undiscoverable by us. Colonists and colonizers also.
From some unknown land, hidden from us in the gloom of ages, these
Iberians came to Southern Europe in ships. To Sicily they went in
ships; to Britain and Ireland; to Norway also, and where else, or how
far or for what, is left to conjecture. But being strong in numbers,
ambitious to conquer, skilled in navigation, we can well believe that
they pushed their flag and commerce nigh to the ends of the world.
"Now these Basques, to-day mountaineers, they tell me, were once, nor
long ago, great sailors. In instinct and habit, they were true to the
old Iberian stock, to which they were as the last green leaf on a
dying tree. They were of a world-conquering race, and they sailed the
seas of the world, seeking profit fearlessly. Four hundred years ago
Jacques Cartier, himself a Breton, with the old Basque or Iberian
blood warm in him--for the Bretons were of the old Iberian stock, with
the same temper and look of face--sailed into the gulf of the St.
Lawrence, and found--what?
THE BASQUES BEFORE HIM.
Not one Basque ship, but many. Engaged in what? In hunting whales.
Whalers they were, and whalers they had been in these parts for years
and centuries.
"How know I this? Because--the records are scanty, and pity it is that
they are not fuller--Cartier himself, and other of the old navigators
to these waters, found not only the Basque whaling ships before them,
but the nomenclature of all the shores and of the fish in the waters
purely Basque. Bucalaos is the Basque name for codfish, and the
Basques called the whole coast Bucalaos land, or codfish land, because
of the multitudes of codfish along the coast. And up to this day,
underlying the thin veneer of saint this and saint that, which
superstitious piety has given to every bay and cape and natural object
in gulf and on river, you find the old Basque names of places and
things--the solid oak beneath the tawdry coating applied by priestly
brush for churchly purposes. There is Basque harbor, Basque island,
and old Basque fort, and a place known as the spot where these
old-time whalers boiled their blubber and cured their catch of fish.
It was from these old Basque whalers, whose fathers and forefathers
for a thousand or thousands of years had visited this coast in
commerce, and who knew every cape, bay, island, shoal, and harbor from
the Bay of Fundy to Cape Tourmente, as well as from the old Icelandic
pilots, that Columbus learned of the existence of this Western
Continent; and when he sailed from Lisbon on his 'world-seeking
voyage,' I make no doubt that he as surely knew, by actual
information, of America, as I know that the island of Anticosti is but
200 miles below me. And yet I read in a paper somewhere lately that
some wise dunce had proposed to 'celebrate the fourth centennial of
the discovery of America by Columbus'! That's rich!
"To-night the yacht Champlain is swinging at anchor in the harbor of
Tadousac, and I am writing in her little cabin with a profound
conviction that, a thousand years
BEFORE COLUMBUS WAS BORN,
a little group of men, Basques by name, then living in southern
Europe, a remnant of the old Iberian race, anchored their ships in the
same harbor in the month of August annually. Only half a mile to the
west of me, the Saguenay, whose bottom is one hundred fathoms deeper
down than the bed of the St. Lawrence, pours its gloomy current
between the stupendous cliffs of rock which make for its resistless
passage an awful portal. These monstrous cliffs of bare, gray rock
have not changed in form or color or appearance since some force, next
to that of the Almighty, lifted them from the under world and placed
them to stand eternal sentinels at the entrance to this strange,
impressive, awe-inspiring river--for the wind and wear of unnumbered
centuries have left them cold and bare, soilless and treeless, save
where some stunted shrub, with a single root, has spiked itself into a
crevice, and there stands starved and dying, as it lives its withered
life.
"As it is to-night to eye and ear, so was it centuries ago; and so the
old Basque whalers saw it while yet the great continent to the west
was a trackless wilderness from ocean to ocean and gulf to gulf. And
Columbus and Jacques Cartier and Champlain were not, by five hundred
years, yet born.
"The harbor of Tadousac is a basin shaped like a sickle. On the west
the mountain wall of the Saguenay protects it. The eastern curve is
sheltered by vast sand lanes, scoured from the sea bottom and whirled
upward by some mighty eddy in geologic ages. To the north are
mountains of stone, their gray surface flecked here and there by
stunted fir and cedar or dwarfed birches. Between these mountains of
rock and the water of the harbor or basin is a short, narrow plateau,
lifted some fifty feet above the water line, every foot of which is
historic to a degree. On no other bit of ground of equal size on the
American continent has so much been done and suffered which can
interest the curious, touch the sensibilities, or kindle the
imagination and fan it into flame.
"There is reason to think that before the Christ was born the old
Iberian ships were here; and their descendants, the Basques, continued
the commerce which their progenitors had established and which
rendezvoused here 1,500 years after the Galilean name had conquered
kingdoms and empires. The Norsemen were here, we know, a thousand
years ago, and many a night the old sea kings of the north drank out
of their mighty drinking horns good health to distant ones and honors
to Thor and Odin. Then, late enough to have his coming known to
letters, and hence recorded, Jacques Cartier came, himself a Breton,
and hence cousin in blood to the Basque whalers, whom he found here
engaged in a pursuit which their race had followed before Rome was
founded or Greece was born, before Jerusalem was builded, or even
Egypt, perhaps, planted as a colony. St. Augustine, Plymouth rock,
Quebec--these are mushroom growths, creations of yesterday,
traditionless, without a legend and without a fame, beside this harbor
of Tadousac, whose history, along a thin but strong cord of sequence,
can be traced backward for a thousand years, and whose connection with
Europe is older than the name!"
* * * * *
PSYCHOMETRY AND ARCHAEOLOGY.
Whether "the thin but strong cord" by which Mr. Murray pulls the old
Iberians to these shores be mainly historical or imaginative, I have
not attempted to decide; but as to the old races of Southern Europe
there are relics already sufficient to evoke their history by
psychometric exploration.
The _Popular Science News_ of Boston gives a sketch of some old relics
from "La Nature" which I quote as follows:
"Recent explorations in Spain by two Belgian scientists, the
Messrs. Siret, have resulted in some very interesting
discoveries. Relics of a prehistoric race have been found in
great abundance, ranging from the stone age to that of bronze
and metals. These people buried their dead not only in stone
graves or cells, but also in great jars of burnt clay,
accompanied by pieces of pottery and other articles of use and
value. This form of jar-burial is very widespread, and examples
have been found from Japan to Peru. These relics are supposed to
belong to that ancient race which lived in Europe previous to
the Aryan immigration, the various branches of which are known
as Iberians, Pelasgians, Ligurians, etc., according to the
country in which they lived.
"Several skeletons were found adorned with silver and gold
ornaments. One of the most remarkable is illustrated here. It is
a female skull encircled by a band of silver, to which is
attached a thin plate of the same metal. It is not known whether
it was originally worn in the position as when found, or, as is
most likely, had been accidentally displaced after burial. This
skull was found in a cave near the station of Fuente-Alamo,
where gold and silver are found in small quantities in the soil;
and it is quite possible that in those ancient times the mining
of the precious metals was a regular occupation of the
inhabitants."
[Illustration]
PSYCHOMETRIC DESCRIPTION.--Mrs. Buchanan, describing the subject from
this engraving, without seeing it or knowing what it represented,
spoke as follows:
"This is far away; it is remains of some kind; remains of a
human being, of a very remote type of female. Her surroundings
were very rude. She was of a race of strong animal instincts--a
large people. She seems something like a squaw. (What of their
habitations?) They were very rude, as much like caves as
anything. I think they lived in caves and rocks. They hunted and
fished. Their weapons were of stones, but they had some kind of
metal which they could hammer out. They dried their food in the
sun--fishes and meats. They had very little agriculture. They
had a process for making things they wanted for domestic use,
and for weapons, as well as stone implements. They may have used
the precious metals, not as money but for ornaments. It was not
a numerous race, did not propagate fast. They have all died out.
There is no vestige of them on the earth. They were a brown,
dark colored race. Their heads were low and faces large; jaws
prominent."
Evidently this is not the race of which Mr. Murray speaks--neither
Iberian nor Basque.
THE STAR-DUST OF THE UNIVERSE.
The distinguished astronomer, Norman Lockyer, has lately read a paper
before the Royal Society (London) under the title of a "Preliminary
Note on the Spectra of the Meteorites," which advances some of the
boldest theories and suggestions ever offered concerning the Universe,
which cannot fail to interest the readers of the JOURNAL OF MAN.
According to Mr. Lockyer the meteors which we have been accustomed to
consider trivial or incidental matters in planetary and stellar
systems, no more important than the dust which the housewife raises
from parlor and chamber, are really fundamental and basic elements of
the Universe, capable of generating comets, planets, suns and stars.
If this idea can be entertained, meteors must be vastly more numerous
than the world has supposed. Cosmical space, according to Mr. Lockyer,
is filled with meteorites of various sizes, flying in many directions
with enormous velocities and moving in certain orbits like larger
bodies. Many observations have been made to determine the number of
these meteorites. Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, in seventeen years of
observation concluded that in a clear dark night an observer would see
on an average fourteen an hour at one station. Other astronomers have
calculated that if observations were made over the whole earth, ten
thousand times as many would be seen as could be seen by a single
observer. Calculating thus, it has been inferred that about 20,000,000
luminous meteors fall on the earth every twenty-four hours, besides
the innumerable amount of minute bodies too small to be seen by
telescopes--which some suppose to be twenty times as numerous as the
visible.
Prof. H. A. Newton makes some astounding estimates on this
subject--that the orbit of the earth is filled with meteorites, about
250 miles apart, making a group of about 30,000 in a space equal to
that of the earth. If such calculations are reliable, the query must
arise, How much effect can such a meteoric shower every day in the
year exert on the orbital motion of the earth, in retarding its
velocity? The effect must be greatly increased if, according to Prof.
Newton, the velocity of meteors striking the earth is about thirty
miles a second, varying from ten to forty.
From such a basis as this rises the grand hypothesis of Mr. Lockyer,
who is a courageous theorist, that all cosmic space is filled with
meteorites, that they go in swarms, and that not only comets but stars
are formed by conglomerate aggregations of meteorites.
Schiaparelli, in 1866, demonstrated that the orbit of the August
meteors was the same as that of the comet of that year. It is in
August and November of each year that we have the most brilliant
display of meteors in two distinct groups, or orbits. Those of August
come from a point in the constellation of Perseus and those in
November from a point in the constellation Leo. They are believed to
fill two distinct orbits or rings making an elliptical orbit round the
sun. In such orbits, comets are believed by astronomers to be formed
by a concentrated swarm of incandescent meteorites rendered luminous
by collisions. But this hypothesis of innumerable collisions between
meteorites travelling in the same orbits does not appear very
plausible.
This doctrine of the genesis of comets, advanced by Schiaparelli, is
extended by Mr. Lockyer to the genesis of all great luminous bodies.
Nebulæ, comets, stars, variable and temporary stars, are all thus
brought under a general law and method of genesis. The increasing
approximation and condensation of the meteorites is seen in different
classes of stars. Stars of the class iii.a are not so far advanced as
others.
The next step in the hypothesis is that in the extreme approximation
and condensation of the meteorites a degree of heat is generated which
converts the whole into a mass of incandescent vapor, at a
"transcendental temperature." The maximum temperature being thus
attained, a cooling process begins, which is seen in our sun and other
stars of the second class. Other stars, according to Mr. Lockyer, of
class iii.b exhibit spectra which show that their temperature is not
so high, and the last stage is attained by stars and other bodies
which have ceased to be luminous, and, therefore, are not seen, but
may be recognized by the perturbations which they produce in the
movements of other bodies.
According to this hypothesis our solar system was once but a mighty
swarm of meteorites, extending as far as the farthest planet at
present. We may as well suppose its materials to have been a swarm of
meteorites as to suppose a chaotic fire-mist. Mr. Lockyer supposes the
clash of meteor swarms to have produced new stars, and suggests the
possibility of stellar or planetary bodies coming into collision,
though no observations ever made yet give an example.
The destroyed planet, Sideros, discovered by Prof. Denton, illustrates
that the universe has its disorder and tragedy as well as our own
sphere. The time is coming when all these mysteries are to be cleared
up--it will be when Psychometry is added to our telescopic and
spectroscopic methods. Then will astronomy and all other sciences
receive their grandest enlargement. In this task I cannot at present
engage, for the limitless field of Anthropology alone is too much for
a solitary scientist laboring for the advent of "THE NEW
CIVILIZATION."
MISCELLANEOUS.
BRIGHT LITERATURE.--New publications have just been received which
express the bright mental activity of the present time. The first
number of _The New Christianity_, which has just appeared, bears the
editorial names of B. F. Barrett and S. H. Spencer, and is issued by
the Swedenborg Publishing Association, Philadelphia, published every
Thursday in sixteen large pages, at $2 per annum. At so moderate a
price it should have a large circulation. The name of Rev. B. F.
BARRETT is a sufficient guarantee of the literary excellence, profound
thought and liberal aims of this weekly. The Association, of which Mr.
Barrett is president, holds "the good of life to be paramount to the
truth of doctrine; charity superior to faith; doctrine (though it be
from the Lord out of heaven) to be of no value save as a _means_ to
this divine end--purity of heart and righteousness of life." Hence,
they have been more intent on diffusing their principles than building
up a religious establishment. The Association has condensed
Swedenborg's writings into ten small volumes, in about one-tenth of
the compass of the unabridged works, and has sold about 37,000
volumes, besides many thousands given away.
The Boston _Herald_ says of this publication that it "deserves a
cordial welcome as an attempt to express, through the religious press,
a wider interest in the things of this world than most of the New
Church papers have aimed at, ... a broader treatment of what concerns
our common Christianity than has been heretofore attempted in this
religious connection, and thus satisfy the New Church people, who
realize that they are still in the world, as well as the no-church
people, who prefer smaller doses from the abstract writings of
Swedenborg, and more of the thought of New Churchmen about what all
men are thinking of."
THE TWO WORLDS, published weekly, at 61 George Street, Chatham Hill,
Manchester, England, at 2d. a number, 2s., 2d. for thirteen weeks, or
8s., 8d. per annum in advance, is under the editorial control of _Mrs.
Emma Hardinge Britten_ and _E. M. Wallis_. The first number is dated
Nov. 18, 1887. The names of its editors are a sufficient guarantee of
its ability and its noble aims. They are admired and honored in
America as well as Europe, and have thousands of friends. The first
number fully sustains the expectations raised by their names. There is
a brightness, vigor, independence and eloquence in the editorials
which are refreshing. The salutatory says: "We do not propose to
inflict on readers searching for light from the higher world matter
_beneath_ instead of beyond the reader's previous status of thought
and education. The spiritual rostrum should be the sphere of
instruction alike to listener and reader,--not the school in which
unfledged and half-developed mediums seek to entertain their audiences
by practicing the A B C of the oratorical art."
They say, also, "That the scope of this journal may not be
misunderstood, we desire to state at once, and in advance of our
future issues, that we propose to traverse, as far as possible, the
wide and varied fields of human interests that might be vitalized and
exalted by that knowledge of the life hereafter, which spirits alone
can demonstrate. Instead of confining ourselves, therefore, to the
relation of phenomenal facts and speculative philosophy, we shall
endeavor to show how beneficially the spiritualistic revelations of
the nineteenth century might operate through such departments of earth
life as reform, science, theology, politics, occultism and the only
true and practical religion, viz.: goodness and truth in the life here
as a preparation for heaven and happiness in the life hereafter." As
to Occultism and Theosophy, they say: "Every article that will appear
in these columns will be written by _one who knows_, and who will deal
with those subjects from the standpoint of practical experience." The
article on this subject in the first number is extremely interesting
and instructive, in fact, the first clear and satisfactory statement
that has been published. Among other facts it mentions that "Lord
Lytton, the Earl of Stanhope, and Lieut. Morrison (better known as
Zadkiel), and the author of Art Magic, belonged to this society,"--a
secret Occult society in England, successor to the ancient societies
of Egypt, Greece and India.
There is no reason to doubt that the _Two Worlds_ will have a
brilliant career, and do much to elevate the tone and enhance the
reputation of spiritual science. The inspiration of Emma Hardinge
Britten is of a high order, and flows into a mind which has also a
strong grasp on external life. Either on the rostrum or through the
press she is a distinguished leader in the spiritual movement. Mr.
Wallis has also earned a high rank as an exponent of Spiritualism on
its highest ethical plane.
FOOTE'S HEALTH MONTHLY.--If any of my readers are not already
acquainted with _Foote's Health Monthly_, published at New York, at 50
cents a year, they will find it worthy of their attention. Dr. E. B.
Foote is one of the most conspicuous and worthy of America's medical
reformers. His "Plain Home Talk," when first issued on a smaller scale
as "Medical Common Sense," sold to the amount of 250,000 copies, now
under the title of "Plain Home Talk," containing 935 pages, with 200
illustrations, the publishing company say that they issue 2000 or more
copies every month. Its vast circulation is not surprising when we
consider that it is almost a cyclopedia of medical information for the
people at the amazingly low price of $1.50. Copies of this valuable
work may be obtained from the editor of the JOURNAL OF MAN, or from
Dr. E. B. Foote, 120 Lexington Avenue, New York. The people need
medical information, and Dr. Foote has for many years been the leader
in popular medical enlightenment.
PSYCHIC THEORIES.--An esteemed correspondent says, "I trust you will
soon have space and time in which to fully discuss theosophy, and its
bold assertion that Spiritualism is but the manifestation of dangerous
elementals or of the souls of those sent untimely from this life as
suicides and executed criminals, who until their selfish desires are
gratified, make use of 'astral shells' of the real spirits of our dead
friends, in order to wickedly deceive us, a discouraging view."
Theosophy or divine wisdom does not make such assertions. They are but
traditional dogmas which did not originate in scientific
investigation. Those who make such assertions may call themselves
theosophists, but they have no exclusive right to such a name, which
belongs to all seekers of divine wisdom. American theosophy as
represented by the JOURNAL OF MAN makes no such assertions, and relies
upon investigation, never receiving the speculative notions of darker
ages without evidence, whether they relate to Metempsychosis, or the
garden of Eden, the burning hell, the purgatory, or the various
pictures of the infernal and supernal regions which had been current
in the old world before such realms were ever investigated.
When my readers hear any such theories advanced, let them quietly ask
for the evidence, _what are the facts_ on which such opinions are
based, when were they discovered, who were the investigators, and what
was their method of investigation? If such questions cannot be
answered, the theories deserve little attention.
TWENTIETH CENTURY SCIENCE, DAWNING AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH.--In
the 20th century, Psychometry will become the guide of the nations.
The world will understand itself. Every mile on the surface of the
globe will be familiarly known.
An important event anywhere will be immediately known everywhere. The
planets and their inhabitants will be known, and much more known that
need not be mentioned at present. The healing art will approximate
perfection. Criminals will be reformed. Their number will be
diminished. The juvenile nations of the earth will be more or less
under the care of the adolescent and peace will be maintained.
These are not psychometric forecasts, but rational inferences, from
our increasing rate of progress.
COMPARATIVE SPEED OF LIGHT AND ELECTRICITY.--The French physicist
Fizeau calculated the velocity of light at 185,157 miles a second;
Cornu, another Frenchman, calculated it at 185,420, and Michelson
obtained 186,380 as the result of his calculation. Wheatstone, the
English electrician, found that free electricity travelled 288,000
miles a second; Kirchoff concluded, from theoretical considerations,
that an electrical current sent through a wire in which it meets no
resistance has the velocity of 192,924 miles a second. The velocity of
an electric current sent through iron wire is 62,100 miles a second;
through copper wire, 111,780 miles. We think justice will be done by
deciding that electricity is the faster.--_N. Y. Sun_.
Yet practically speaking, electricity in wires is much slower. Prof.
Gould found that telegraph wires at a moderate height, transmit
signals at the rate of 12,000 miles a second; but if the wires are
suspended high enough, the velocity may be raised to 16,000 or even
24,000 feet a second. Subterranean wires and submarine cables transmit
slowly. Wheatstone's experiments were made fifty-four years ago, and
have not since been confirmed. I would say light is the faster, for
electric currents are always retarded by the medium.
WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHY.--Dr. H. G. Piffard exhibited in New York to a
society of amateur photographers a new method of taking instantaneous
photographs by means of a brilliant light made by sprinkling ten or
fifteen grains of magnesium powder on about six grains of gun-cotton.
When this is flashed in a dark apartment it gives light enough to take
a good photograph. It will do the same if flashed out of a pistol; so
that a citizen may have his revolver with a small camera on the barrel
and by flashing the gun-cotton out of his pistol he can make a
photograph of any burglar or robber in the dark before he fires a
bullet.
WOODEN CLOTH.--An Austrian has patented a process for boiling wood and
cleaving it into fibres that may be spun into threads which may be
woven.
THE PHYLLOXERA pest, which has wrought such havoc among vineyards
throughout Europe, has invaded California also. France has lost many
millions, and has offered a reward of 300,000 francs for the discovery
of a remedy. A Turkish farmer is said to have discovered accidentally
that the remedy is to plant Sorghum or sugar-cane between the vines,
which draws the phylloxera from the grapevines. It is said to have
been successfully adopted already in Turkey, Croatia, Dalmatia and
Eastern Italy.
FALLING RENTS, in England.--While landlords are battling for rents
foreign rivalry is destroying rent, and it is still going down. Large
estates have a difficulty in getting either tenants or purchasers. The
fall in prices and rents extends all over England. On a farm of 2,700
acres, in Lancashire, the tenant had been paying five dollars an acre,
but he refused to take it for 1887 at two dollars and a half. Lands in
1876 were commonly valued at $260 per acre; but they would not bring
over $150 to-day. The Court Journal says:
The depreciation in the value of English land is witnessed by one or
two statements published last week. We are, in the first place, told
that within a radius of twelve miles around Louth, in Lincolnshire,
there are now 22,400 acres of land without tenants. In the same shire
the largest farm in England has been thrown on the owner's hands. It
is 2,700 acres in extent and the tenant paid £1 per acre. This year a
reduction of 50 per cent was made to him, but finding that although an
experienced and energetic farmer, that even at this reduction he could
not make two ends meet, he has thrown up his farm.
BOSTON CIVILIZATION.--During the four years ending Sept. 30, 1884,
there were 971 liquor sellers condemned for violating the law, who
appealed to the superior court. Of the entire number, only 19 were
fined, and 729 were allowed to escape by dropping the prosecution. But
the law against preaching on the Boston Common is enforced with
faithful severity, and Rev. W. F. Davis has been sentenced to a year's
imprisonment for preaching without a permit. Evidently rum-selling is
more popular than Protestant preaching, and pugilism is more popular
than either, as the mayor and some councilmen participated in putting
a $10,000 belt on John L. Sullivan, the slugger, before the largest
audience the Boston Theatre would hold, on the 9th of August, 1887.
But perhaps other cities are no better. Cincinnati has one
liquor-selling shop to every twenty voters. The cities will not
tolerate prohibition, but it is successful elsewhere.
PSYCHIC BLUNDERING.--The Psychical Research Society held a meeting a
few weeks since in Boston. Their first communication was on Thought
Transferrence, by Dr. H. B. Bowditch.
"It was stated that a large number of experiments had been made, but
the results were of a negative value. The attempt to establish the
reality of thought transferrence had not been very successful." What
else but negative results are to be expected from negative
people,--people who have been in this matter mere negations for
forty-five years, during which discoveries have been in progress all
around them, which they have refused to look at, and refused to test
by experiment. Still, if the march of mind for half a century can
finally rouse the sluggard class, it is well. For "while the lamp
holds out to burn," etc. It was a Dr. Bowditch who, in 1843, certified
as secretary of a committee to the facts which demonstrate the science
of Anthropology, and then relapsed into an agnostic slumber and forgot
all about it.
BEECHER'S MEDIUMSHIP.--It has been generally believed in spiritual
circles that Henry Ward Beecher had the inspiration which belongs to
mediumship. This quality appears to have been inherited from his
mother. On one occasion she was suddenly impelled to leave her
apartment and rush out to an old carriage house, where she arrived in
time to save the life of her youngest child, which had fallen through
a carriage top and was caught in such a way that if she had not
arrived then he would have been strangled.
A SCIENTIFIC CATARACT.--The blindness of the old school medical
profession to modern progress is due to what may be called a cataract
formed by medical bigotry. It will require half a century to remove
this cataract. We are reminded of its existence by a paragraph in the
Boston Herald speaking of the cancer in the throat of the crown prince
of Germany, which the faculty expect to prove fatal, which it calls "a
physical disorder for which medical science has yet to discover a
remedy; it is not at all likely that this fortunate discovery will
occur soon enough to be of service to the heir-apparent." This flat
denial of the curability of cancer is in the same columns in which an
enlightened correspondent gave ample proof of cures with names and
dates. Such denials are published in a city where a diligent inquiry
would reveal about three hundred cases of successful cure of cancer
well attested. But alas! these cures were not made under the authority
or by the disciplined followers of the old school American Medical
Association and therefore they cannot be recognized or heard of. There
is a dignity which cannot see or feel anything it does not wish to see
or feel; which reminds us of a story of two ladies. Said Madam F., a
Swiss lady, to Madam R., a French woman, "I was surprised to see you
walking with Col. M. yesterday. Do you not know that he was publicly
horsewhipped by Capt. D. of the Infantry?" "I do not mind such remarks
at all (said Madam R.,) for I know that Col. M. is a man of honor and
too dignified a gentleman to notice anything going on behind his
back."
Speaking of cancer, the press and the political world are greatly
concerned at the probable fate of the crown prince of Germany,
attacked with cancer in the larynx, and with little or no hope of
surviving. They announce as the result of the great scientific
investigation prompted by this fact, a "_great discovery concerning
cancer_." Is it a discovery of a cure--oh no, they think they have
discovered the _cancer bacillus_. That is science, but as for
destroying the cancer bacillus they leave that to the physicians whom
they call quacks for curing what the professors cannot cure.
OBSTREPEROUS AND PRAGMATIC VULGARITY.--The house of Knoedler & Co.,
leading art dealers in New York, has been arrested by Comstock for
selling photographs of celebrated paintings from the art galleries of
Paris. It is a foul mind which sees obscenity in that which cultivated
people admire, and the Hoboken Evening News says very appropriately,
"Of all the cranky Pharisees allowed to run at large, Anthony Comstock
is the chief. He is a most unmitigated nuisance and requires most
emphatic and summary suppression."
The N. Y. _Home Journal_, in a well considered editorial, says:
"The need of a revision of the law regarding immoral
publications in literature and art becomes every day more
manifest. There is required especially a precise definition of
what the statute is designed to prohibit. At present there is no
uniform criterion. It is just what the local Dogberry and the
scratch jury happen to find. Books that have had an established
place in literature for generations and are found in all the
great libraries of the world; pictures that represent the
highest skill attained in the leading schools of Europe;
reproductions of works that adorn the national and royal
galleries cherished as monuments of genius to reflect the glory
of the time,--these are quite likely to be brought up and
solemnly condemned by our tribunals as unfit for the
contemplation of our superior American virtue. But the real
injustice of the proceeding follows in the infliction of fines
or imprisonment on the unsuspecting vendors of the works, who
naturally imagine that merchandise current in all the other
markets of the civilized world would be current also here. The
most respectable houses, known throughout the length and breadth
of the country for their honorable dealings, are exposed to
legal prosecution any moment that an officious fanatic or
jealous rival pleases to bring a charge that certain works in
their store have an immoral tendency."
Judge Brady, of the Supreme Court, says, "If I had been a legislator I
would never have voted for this law.... It is evident that mere nudity
in painting and sculpture is not obscenity. It is a false delicacy and
mere prudery which would condemn and banish from sight all such
objects." Public opinion should be directed against the vice society
which employs and pays such a tool as Comstock. The prosecution which
he instigated against Mrs. Elmina Slenker, of Virginia, resulted in
her acquittal.
The _N. Y. Evening Post_ says, "If there is to be a prosecution in
this Knoedler case, and these prints should send some one to jail, we
for our part think Anthony Comstock should be the man."
HYGIENE.--Sir Spencer Wells, in an address to the Medico-Chirurgical
Society of Nottingham, England, referred to sanitary improvements
which had reduced the annual death rate from twenty-nine in a thousand
to nineteen, and said that it ought to be reduced to fifteen or
twelve. He then said, "And if we have--as we really have--seen the
average duration of human life in Great Britain advance from thirty
years (which it was half a century ago) to forty-nine years (which it
is now, according to life tables), why may we not witness a still
further advance? Why should seventy or eighty years remain as the
usual limit of human life? Why should its natural duration under
perfectly healthy surrounding conditions not be at least 100 years,
with an occasional extension of some ten or fifteen years more?"
"When people are made to understand that at least nine-tenths of the
deaths in England are premature, the representatives of the most
parsimonious rate payers will be compelled by the criticism of the
public to remember that they also represent the more sacred interests
of human life and happiness, and that resistance to sanitary
improvements is punished by preventable disease and premature death.
High local mortality is largely due to want of local information. For
the tens or hundreds who are killed by murder or manslaughter, or by
accident, or in battles on land or sea, thousands and millions are
victims of preventable disease. When this is fully understood, no
imperial Government, no local authority, will dare to incur the
responsibility of such a national disgrace."
Dr. Wells then forcibly illustrated the dangerous and pestilential
results of our system of burying the dead, planting the germs of
diseases in the ground to come forth again, and corrupting the water
supply. London alone uses 2,200 acres of land for cemeteries, and
England and Wales have 11,000 cemeteries, costing for the land over
$600 per acre, all dangerous to health, while about $25,000,000 are
annually expended on funerals. For all this cremation was the remedy.
A distinguished English physician, addressing the International
Hygiene Society at Vienna, said that the gain to England in the last
fifty years from improvement in health was equal to $1,500,000,000.
QUININE.--This famous drug, which was once as high as $5 an ounce, has
become very cheap by preserving the trees which were formerly
destroyed in gathering "Peruvian Bark." The drug may now be purchased
in quantities at half a dollar an ounce. The trees now yield a crop of
bark every year. The fashionable sulphate of quinine, which is most
extensively used, I consider the most objectionable form of the drug.
My favorite form is the dextro-quinine, made by Keasby & Matteson,
Philadelphia. But quinine is not at all a necessity. It could be
satisfactorily replaced by Declat's syrup of Phenic Acid, a French
preparation, which is free from the objectionable qualities of
quinine. But even that is not _necessary_, for we have in the willow,
the dogwood, and the apple tree, three American barks, which might
well replace Peruvian bark by their fluid extracts and alkaloids. To
these we may add Gnaphalium (or Life Everlasting), an admirable remedy
in fever, and other medicines and combinations of value. Our slavish
dependence on Peruvian bark has been due to our ignorance.
LIFE AND DEATH.--Perilous is the fisherman's life. In the past year,
ending October, 1887, Gloucester, Mass., has lost 17 vessels and 127
lives of fishermen, leaving 60 widows and 61 fatherless children.
The Mayville family of Wakefield, Mass., begin small. Mrs. Mayville
weighed but two pounds when born. Her son of 17 years, weighing 160
pounds, weighed but 24 ounces when born, and she has lately had a male
baby, weighing only eight ounces. It was born Nov. 13, and appeared
dead, but was revived. It was ten inches long and measured eight
inches round the head and was perfectly formed. It died in two weeks,
from irritation of the bowels.
Mrs. Charlotte Tubbs of Caroline County, Md., recently gave birth to
four babies, all of whom are alive. This addition to her family makes
her the mother of nine children, all of whom were born within five
years. Among the older children are two pairs of twins.--_Cin. Enq._
Mrs. Wm. Wright, of New Castle, Ind., recently gave birth to four
children, making in all a family of fourteen children, including five
pairs of twins. Who was it said that he'd rather be Wright than be
President? We wouldn't.--_Norristown Herald_.
DOROTHEA L. DIX.--This noted philanthropist, whose labors in
establishing asylums for the insane in America and Europe were never
equalled, died last summer in New Jersey. An interesting tribute to
her memory was delivered in Boston by the Rev. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE,
and I regret that the limited space of the Journal forbids its full
republication. I can only quote this. "Being asked how she achieved
such noble results in her work, she answered that she went to those
whose duty it was to aid in any particular work, and was always sure
that though at first they might refuse to do what they were asked,
they would gradually become interested and _end by doing whatever was
needed_." May her example in this be followed by all friends of
progress.
THE DRIFT OF CATHOLICISM.--The purpose of the Catholic party to break
up our unsectarian school system has been realized in Stearns Co.,
Minnesota, where their church property exceeds a million of dollars.
The Catholic catechism is taught daily in nearly three-fourths of the
public schools. Many of the schools are conducted in the German
language, and some of the schools taught by the Benedictine sisters.
JUGGERNAUT.--It is a singular fact that at the late procession of the
idol Juggernaut in India, instead of the thousand devotees who used to
drag at the ropes to haul his chariot from the temple to the river,
hired coolies had to be substituted, and the victims who willingly
threw themselves under the ponderous wheels to be crushed to death,
were entirely wanting.--_Commonwealth_.
CHAP. XI.--THE PRINCIPAL METHODS OF STUDYING THE BRAIN.
Cranioscopy, Pathology, and Vivisection, their failures
recognized--Limitations of Craniology and its stationary
condition--Human Impressibility explained--Its prevalence in
different climates--Method of testing it.
In what manner shall we proceed to study the brain? All must admit the
necessity of a thorough study of its anatomy; yet, unless we learn
something of its functions, this anatomy is profitless and
uninteresting; hence cerebral anatomy was crude and erroneous until,
revolutionized by Gall and Spurzheim, it assumed a philosophical
character and became connected with a doctrine of the cerebral
functions.
For the study of these functions three principal methods have been
adopted by eminent scientists: 1st. The method of Cranioscopy,
practiced by Gall and his followers. 2d. The study of Pathological
Anatomy. 3d. The mutilation of the brains of living animals. But
neither Cranioscopy, Pathology, nor Vivisection has given satisfactory
demonstrations, nor does the whole scope of the alleged results of all
embrace more than half of the cerebral functions.
The results of Vivisection have been unsatisfactory. But it has shown
that slicing away the anterior and upper parts of the brain of an
animal produces a state of partial stupor--a loss of its intelligence
and mental characteristics, without producing any great detriment to
its muscular and physiological functions; while injuries inflicted
upon the basilar parts of the brain produce evident derangements of
muscular action, and are more dangerous to life. Vivisection has been
almost entirely fruitless for the discovery of psychic functions, but
in the hands of Prof. Ferrier and the continental vivisectors it has
thrown much light upon cerebral psychology, and as I shall hereafter
show, has confirmed my own discoveries.
Pathological Anatomy, too, has been extremely unprofitable. "The
results of Pathological Anatomy (says Muller) can, however, never have
more than a limited application to the physiology of the brain. We are
unacquainted with the laws according to which the different parts of
the organ participate in the functions of each other, and we can only,
in a general way, regard as certain that organic diseases in one part
of the brain may induce changes in the function of other parts; but
from these facts and the results of Pathological Anatomy, we cannot
always draw certain conclusions." Mr. Solly, after commenting on the
general failure of Vivisection, remarks, "From pathology we might
naturally expect surer evidence; but even here the physiologist who
carefully examines its records is doomed to disappointment. As will be
proved hereafter, no certain light has yet shone on physiology from
this source." Cerebral pathology will not continue to be so barren a
study when we have a true cerebral physiology to guide us. I find all
pathological cases instructive as confirmations and illustrations of
true cerebral science.
The method of Dr. Gall--studying the growth and development of the
different parts of the brain, as indicated by the cranium--is the most
simple, rational and successful of all the methods adopted up to the
present time. In his hands it has elicited a valuable and practical,
though rude, system of phrenology. But Craniology or skull-study
cannot perfect, nor can it positively demonstrate, the science.
The observations of the craniologist are continually liable to error.
The irregular thickness of the skull constitutes a great difficulty in
the way of exact observations. By great expertness and accuracy of
observation, he may overcome this difficulty in a great degree, but
whenever the brain is subject to any remarkable influence, increasing
or diminishing the activity and size of particular organs, the
external form fails to indicate the internal condition, because it can
change but slightly, and with slowness, after the skull is fully
developed and ossified. Were the skull composed of more pliable
materials, cranioscopy would be more accurate in its facts, but while
it preserves a uniform exterior, the interior often undergoes
remarkable changes. Convolutions that are frequently called into
action become better supplied with arterial blood, expand and grow,
while the adjacent portion of the inner plate of the skull becomes
absorbed, and presents a remarkable indentation. Convolutions that are
seldom in action shrink in size, and the adjacent bone grows in upon
them. Thus the skull becomes thinner at the site of every active
organ, and thicker over every convolution that is inactive. The
translucency or opacity of the different parts of the skull, when a
light is placed in its interior, generally indicates the active and
inactive organs. Hence, many skulls of fine exterior reveal, upon
interior examination, a degenerate character. Criminal heads generally
present remarkable opacity and thickness in the region of the moral
organs, with distinct digital impressions from the convolutions of the
lower organs.
Thus all craniological observations are liable to inaccuracy, even as
regards development, and much more in regard to functional power. The
activity, power and predominance of an organ may be essentially
changed, without making any perceptible impression upon the interior
of the skull, for an indefinite period. Changes in excitement and
circulation, that revolutionize the character, may leave but a slight
impression upon the interior, and none upon the exterior of the
cranium. The external configuration of the skull is therefore not a
true criterion of character when the influences of education, society,
food, drink and disease have greatly changed the natural bias,
although reliable in a strictly normal condition of brain and cranium.
Organs which easily expand laterally by encroachment upon their
neighbors, which is a common effect of local excitement, must be slow
to make any impression upon the superjacent bone of the cranium.
Cranioscopy, moreover, is incompetent to indicate the development of
small regions or portions of a convolution; it gives but a rude survey
of development. Being thus incapable of minuteness, accuracy and
certainty, it cannot be considered a proper and sufficient basis for
cerebral science. In the hands of Gall and Spurzheim, it had already
very nearly attained its limits as regards the subdivision of organs,
and the progress of their followers in discovery has been unimportant
or fallacious.
To what, then, can we resort, when the failures of Pathology and
Vivisection are admitted, and we perceive the limited extent of the
uncertain results of Craniology? Shall we not be compelled to resort
to the same methods of investigation in the brain, which have been so
successful in establishing the physiology of the nerves, viz.: direct
experiment in exciting and arresting the action of the various masses
of nervous fibre. Every sound physiologist must perceive that we are
compelled to resort to experiment, or else to rest contented in
ignorance of the true cerebral physiology. Muller, perceiving this,
remarks, "The principle for the advancement of the physiology of the
nerves then remains the same, viz.: experiment on the living nerves."
We therefore experiment on the living brain in that class of persons
who are susceptible of being thus influenced; hence arises the last
and most perfect method of cultivating Anthropology, by means of HUMAN
IMPRESSIBILITY.
Our system of Anthropology relies, for its demonstration, upon human
impressibility. Impressibility in its general sense, or the power of
being affected by external agents, is proportional to the development
of life. Inorganic matter is affected only mechanically or
chemically--vegetation is powerfully affected by causes which would
have no perceptible influence on stones or metals, and animals are
affected by remote objects, by sounds, by the voice, and by other
influences which do not affect vegetables. Animals of a higher grade
are affected by many moral influences which produce no effect on the
inferior classes, and man, having the fullest development of all, is
continually receiving a variety of influences from nature and society,
to which animals are wholly insensible. As man is superior to animals
in impressibility, so is the man of genius or the man of superior
moral sentiments more easily affected by everything that addresses the
intellect or the sentiments, than the ignorant and selfish classes of
society. Superior impressibility is then the result of a superior
development of the organs which feel the various impressions. In the
highest order of genius capacities exist which recognize a thousand
subtle influences and beauties in Nature of which common minds are
unconscious, and the psychic influence of a human being is instantly
and thoroughly recognized.
For the purpose of analytical experiments upon the human functions, we
require the development of a faculty which shall feel the influences
we use. We look to the various forms of Sensibility. The organ of
physical sensibility is situated in the temples, immediately over the
cheek bone. It feels the influences of the various objects which
affect the sense of feeling in all its modifications. Heat and cold,
moisture and dryness, sound, light, and all the imponderable fluids
produce their effects upon this region, and the more it is developed,
the more powerfully are we affected by such agencies.
The portion of Sensibility which feels the influences of the human
nervaura, is the highest portion of the organ, where it connects with
Modesty, Somnolence, and Ideality. This we regard as the special organ
of Nervauric Impressibility, because it renders the system so
sensitive to the nervaura, as to be strongly affected whenever it is
applied.
Mental impressibility is dependent upon intellectual organs, which
feel the influences of mind. The power of recognizing mental action is
dependent upon the internal part of the front lobe, located just above
the root of the nose. This organ gives physiognomical talent, and a
ready tact in appreciating the expression of mind through the eye,
countenance, and gestures. It is a channel of mental sympathy, as
displayed in the intercourse of society, and in the experiments of
animal magnetism. By means of this organ, a general relation is
established between the mind of the operator and that of the subject,
which may exist without the capacity for local impressions, which
would develop particular organs. It is devoted, however, to active
perception rather than to passive impression. The faculty of being
mentally impressed depends also upon the region of Spirituality and
Marvellousness.
Mental and nervous impressibility being dependent upon these organs,
it follows that a large development of the front lobe favors
Impressibility, and that the occipital organs tend to diminish it.
Impressibility lies in a group of organs which sustain it, and may be
expected to accompany its development. Sensibility, Somnolence,
Dreaming, Ideality, Modesty, Humility, Organic Sensibility,
Relaxation, etc., are its natural accompaniments; hence it will be
found most abundantly in those classes of society which are most
remarkable for refinement, sensitiveness, modesty, diffidence,
humility, or submissiveness, disease, languor, debility, and
intellectual excitement. Religious excitement, love, mirthfulness,
thoughtfulness, imagination, benevolence, sympathy, sincerity, faith,
philanthropy, hope, epicurism, intemperance, ardor, spirituality,
effeminacy, imitation, romance and, in short, all amiable, sensitive,
intellectual, refining, relaxing influences may be regarded as
promotive of impressibility, and their opposites as calculated to
destroy it.
It is fortunate that disease promotes impressibility, for it enables
the sick to be relieved by manipulation, and it causes medicines to
operate more efficiently upon morbid constitutions or organs, which
has been fully demonstrated by the Homoeopathic School of
therapeutics. But impressibility does not imply disease, although it
may make the system more accessible to slight morbific agencies. We
find individuals occasionally, of the highest tone of health and
bodily vigor, who are highly impressible. Nor does it imply mental
weakness, for it is highly congenial to intellectuality, and is
occasionally found among the strongest and most cultivated minds.
Nervous Impressibility is that condition in which the nervaura has a
powerful influence--in which the action of the brain and all the vital
functions of the constitution may be controlled and indefinitely
changed by the application of the hands of another individual--in
which we are susceptible of being totally revolutionized in character
by application of the fingers to the various organs, so as to become,
for the time being, miserable or gay, philosophical, felonious,
murderous, angry, stupid, insane, idiotic, drowsy, hot, cold,
credulous, sceptical, timid, courageous, vain, indolent, sensual,
hungry, diffident, haughty, avaricious, etc.; and in which the
muscular strength, secretions, circulation, pulse, respiration,
senses, and morbid or healthy conditions of the frame may be changed
or controlled by the nervaura emitted from the hand of the operator
acting upon the brain of the subject.
The number of individuals who can be thus affected is different in
different places. In southern climates they are more numerous than in
northern--in the pleasant weather of summer more than in winter--in
lecture rooms, ball rooms and places of fervid religious worship, more
than in the street and market place, where the intellectual and moral
faculties are less predominant. In the Southern States of the Union,
thirty or forty per cent. of the population will give at once distinct
evidence of impressibility. In the more northern, about ten per cent.
will give indications of an influence from the hand. A moderate degree
of impressibility which is almost universal in the South, belongs to
more than half in the North.
Impressible subjects may be selected by the development of the organs
of Impressibility, and the general predominance of the frontal and
coronal regions of the brain over the occipital. The qualities already
mentioned as favoring impressibility may be studied in the character,
or observed in the development, as they occupy the entire anterior
half of the head, giving _breadth to the temples_, with height and
projection to the forehead. An enlarged pupil of the eye will be one
of the best symptoms, and, in connection with a calm, spiritual,
gentle expression of countenance rarely fails to indicate
impressibility.
To test impressibility apply the fingers upon the organ of Somnolence,
an inch horizontally behind the brow, with a very gentle contact; your
subject, after a few minutes, will manifest a sensitiveness of the
eye, and will wink oftener than usual--his winking will be repeated
and prolonged, until his eyelids droop or remain closed--he is now
somnolent and dreamy; and this condition may be prolonged until it
becomes the Mesmeric Somnolence, or may be promptly removed by
brushing the excitement off with the fingers.
A very simple test of impressibility consists in passing the ends of
the fingers over the palm of the hand of the subject, within one or
more inches, and ascertaining whether he can recognize its passage by
any impression. If impressible he will perceive a cooling sensation as
the fingers pass. A more perfect demonstration is to let your subject
stand erect before you, and apply both hands gently over the forehead
and moral organs, or upon the temples; then very slowly withdraw them,
and continue this process until you perceive that as your hand is
withdrawn, the head seems inclined to follow it as if attracted; some
will move thus but an inch or two, others will be drawn forward and
compelled to follow you wherever you go, or may be drawn down and
prostrated upon the floor. You may accomplish the same upon the back
of the head or body--the hand or any other part which is free to move;
but the forehead is the best region, because the front lobe is the
seat of Impressibility, and the operation cultivates that quality, by
drawing excitement into the brain, and especially the front lobe, thus
debilitating the muscular system and power of resistance.
Apply the fingers upon the organ of Relaxation, below the cheek bone,
and your subject, if standing, will become enfeebled, unsteady in
attitude, and incapable of supporting as great weight as before in his
extended hand. This will be counteracted by touching the region of
Energy.
The most painful experiments may be made by placing the hands upon the
temples and face, so as to cover the regions of Sensibility, Disease,
Relaxation, and Irritability--the effect of which would be to produce
bodily weakness, sickness, pain, distress and general prostration; a
condition, which if not relieved, might result in severe disease, but
which may be counteracted by dispersing the excitement upward and
backward, and by stimulating Health, Energy and Hardihood.
By grasping a metallic rod firmly in the hand while the other end of
it rests in the relaxed hand of an impressible person, you may
transmit a current of nervaura, which he will recognize gradually
entering his arm at the hand, passing slowly up to the shoulder, and
then diffusing itself over the body.
One may test his own impressibility by placing the palm of the hand in
contact with any portion of the head or body of a vigorous
constitution for about twenty minutes, and observing the different
impressions imparted by different localities. If the hand be held in
contact with an individual suffering from some active form of disease,
resting upon the forehead or the pit of the stomach, the morbid
symptoms will be very perceptibly transferred to any one of an
impressible constitution; but I would not recommend the experiment to
any but those who are embarrassed by a constitutional scepticism,
which hinders their believing anything which is not impressed upon
their own senses.
An easy method of testing our susceptibility is by holding some active
medicinal substance between the hands while sitting at ease (without
knowing what the properties of the substance are), and holding other
active substances at different times, to compare the effects which
they produce upon the constitution. After such experiment, if the
effects should in any case be greater than we desire, the influence
should be removed by dispersive passes on the hands and down the arms.
JOURNAL OF MAN FOR 1888. $1.
In view of all the circumstances I have very reluctantly decided to
postpone the enlargement of the JOURNAL to 1889. The demand for
promised volumes is more urgent than the necessity for enlargement,
and the demand for personal instruction in the new therapeutics also
consumes a great deal of time.
The appeal to readers has elicited a most cordial and cheering
response. No periodical ever had so appreciative a circle of readers,
for no periodical ever occupied the vast, untrodden field of the new
sciences as does the JOURNAL OF MAN,--a solitary pioneer of the new
civilization. I shall continue publishing the cheering words of
readers, which are too numerous to be given in any one number of the
JOURNAL. Many of the responses express the purpose of extending its
circulation by new subscribers, which is the most important act of
friendship for a new journal.
RESPONSES OF READERS.
You may be truly called, and wisely, a friend of humanity.--B. A. L.
Count me for the JOURNAL as long as published.--Dr. P. P. L. My wife
would willingly sacrifice some of her favorite publications for the
JOURNAL.--J. L. We smile in saying we are with you.--G. C. N. Count on
me as long as you work for the good of humanity.--E. C. I am delighted
with the JOURNAL OF MAN.--S. L. R. It contains so many startling
truths.--A. J. S. It is the most scientific monthly published.--W. B.
A. Mr. B. says, count on him as long as there is breath in his
body.--C. F. B. I will renew, be the price $2 or $5.--E. W. B. I could
not consent to deprive myself of the valuable information in its
pages.--J. S. B. To continue as long as you publish it.--D. D. B. A
constant supporter though its price is trebled.--A. J. B. With great
delight.--J. A. D. Steadfast among your studious readers.--W. C. E. I
perceive fully its important mission.--M. F. Can't very well get too
much of such a periodical as the JOURNAL.--F. F. H. Very anxious for
the enlargement--a subscriber till death.--A. H. It is a gem--it takes
the palm from them all.--T. M. More than pleased--I can truly say
delighted.--I. C. D. I am with you at any price.--Dr. J. D. M. Glad to
double.--A. M. J. Looking forward with pleasurable anticipation to the
enlargement.--W. F. B. Anxious to see it enlarged.--J. L. A., M.D.
Cerebral science is by far the best portion of your publications.--Dr.
D. E. E. Increase its size to a four-dollar monthly.--Dr. W. B. F. I
appreciate the JOURNAL above all other publications.--W. D. I. Put my
name down for a life membership.--P. J. M. To all the popular journals
of the day the JOURNAL OF MAN is as the electric light is to the oil
lamp or tallow dip.--J. V. M. S. More than pleased.--B. I. T. I hope
the day is not distant when the truths you present will permeate and
mould society everywhere.--E. A. M. The article on "The World's
Neglected or Forgotten Leaders" is alone worth more than the whole
year's subscription.--J. H.
BUSINESS NOTICE.
The January Number ends the first volume of the JOURNAL OF MAN. Back
numbers can be supplied to new subscribers who do not delay too long.
Number 1, Volume 2, for February, will be sent to all subscribers, but
a remittance will be expected before the March number is sent.
PSYCHOMETRIC PRACTICE.
Mrs. C. H. Buchanan continues to apply her skill in the description of
character and disease, with general impressions as to past and future.
Her numerous correspondents express much gratification and surprise at
the correctness of her delineations. The fee for a personal interview
is $2; for a written description $3; for a more comprehensive review
and statement of life periods, with directions for the cultivation of
Psychometry, $5.
MEDICAL ORTHODOXY
Is realizing the reaction of public opinion against all forms of
monopoly. There is some plausibility in the demand that all who heal
should educate themselves, if we had a true system of education, which
we have not. But there is no justice in the demand that those whom
nature has gifted with great healing powers should be prohibited from
exercising their natural gifts, or giving advice to their neighbors,
whenever they happen to know anything that is useful. To interfere
with such acts of benevolence, which are really the performance of a
religious duty, is a crime, and it is none the less criminal when it
is the act of legislators, who are careless enough to allow themselves
to be made the tools of an avaricious monopoly, which would make it a
crime for a farmer's wife to give her neighbor's children a blackberry
cordial or hoarhound syrup. When the law makes benevolence a crime,
laws and legislators become objects of contempt, and a dangerous
spirit of rebellion is fostered.
In Illinois a law has been obtained from a careless and unthinking
legislature, which makes all healing a crime, when not performed by
graduated, licensed and registered practitioners, but the law is so
odious that it is not enforced against those who are not administering
medicines. In Iowa an equally disgraceful law has been obtained,
designed to establish a similar monopoly, but the prosecution against
a lady for assisting a patient with her prayers resulted in her
acquittal, and the medical societies have been paralyzed as to its
enforcement. Dr. R. C. Flower, of Boston, has made several addresses
to large audiences in that State, in opposition to medical
legislation, and the report of his very spirited and effective lecture
in the Des Moines _Register_ shows that he carried his audiences with
him, and roused enthusiasm in opposition to the law. Dr. F. related
some terrific cases of malpractice by eminent physicians, and
portrayed the horrible effects of the law in upholding quackery.
The present law of Mississippi is a disgrace to the civilization of
that State. It would authorize the prosecution of any one who helped
the sick, even by prayer, if the benevolent party was not protected by
a medical license.
In Alabama the law gives to the old school State medical association
the entire control of medical practice, and the power to examine and
license every one who does any practice. Under this law graduates of
Eclectic colleges who are outside of the medical ring, have been
prosecuted for non-compliance with the law, but the prosecution was
defeated. Mississippi and Alabama need to be Americanized. Medical
bigotry has carried them back to the dark ages, for there is not a
country in Europe to-day which is not more enlightened and liberal in
its medical legislation than these two States.
Monopoly is one of the most formidable enemies of American liberty. It
is now assuming the form of "Trust" combinations to raise prices, but
there is no monopoly so grasping as the medical,--none which assumes
to suppress competition by law.
The plea of promoting education is as false as a proposal to elevate
the pulpit by compelling every clergyman to pass through a Roman
Catholic college. The existing medical colleges hold the same relation
to the practice of the healing art as the Sectarian Theological
Seminary to the practice of Christianity. One may be a very good
Christian without the help of a theological seminary, or a very good
doctor without the help of a medical college, but no one can be a
first-class physician who goes through a medical college and adheres
strictly to all the knowledge and all the ignorance administered by
professors, without learning anything from other sources.
MAYO'S ANÆSTHETIC.
The suspension of pain, under dangerous surgical operations, is the
greatest triumph of Therapeutic Science in the present century. It
came first by mesmeric hypnotism, which was applicable only to a few,
and was restricted, by the jealous hostility of the old medical
profession. Then came the nitrous oxide, introduced by Dr. Wells, of
Hartford, and promptly discountenanced by the enlightened (?) medical
profession of Boston, and set aside for the next candidate, ether,
discovered in the United States also, but far inferior to the nitrous
oxide as a safe and pleasant agent. This was largely superseded by
chloroform, discovered much earlier by Liebig and others, but
introduced as an anæsthetic in 1847, by Prof. Simpson. This proved to
be the most powerful and dangerous of all. Thus the whole policy of
the medical profession was to discourage the safe, and encourage the
more dangerous agents. The magnetic sleep, the most perfect of all
anæsthetic agents, was expelled from the realm of college authority;
ether was substituted for nitrous oxide, and chloroform preferred to
ether, until frequent deaths gave warning.
Nitrous oxide, much the safest of the three, has not been the
favorite, but has held its ground, especially with dentists. But even
nitrous oxide is not perfect. It is not equal to the magnetic sleep,
when the latter is practicable, but fortunately it is applicable to
all. To perfect the nitrous oxide, making it universally safe and
pleasant, Dr. U. K. Mayo, of Boston, has combined it with certain
harmless vegetable nervines, which appear to control the fatal
tendency which belongs to all anæsthetics when carried too far. The
success of Dr. Mayo, in perfecting our best anæsthetic, is amply
attested by those who have used it. Dr. Thorndike, than whom Boston
had no better surgeon, pronounced it "the safest the world has yet
seen." It has been administered to children and to patients in extreme
debility. Drs. Frizzell and Williams say they have given it
"repeatedly in heart disease, severe lung diseases, Bright's disease,
etc., where the patients were so feeble as to require assistance in
walking, many of them under medical treatment, and the results have
been all that we could ask--no irritation, suffocation, nor
depression. We heartily commend it to all as the anæsthetic of the
age." Dr. Morrill, of Boston, administered Mayo's anæsthetic to his
wife with delightful results when "her lungs were so badly
disorganized, that the administration of ether or gas would be
entirely unsafe." The reputation of this anæsthetic is now well
established; in fact, it is not only safe and harmless, but has great
medical virtue for daily use in many diseases, and is coming into use
for such purposes. In a paper before the Georgia State Dental Society,
Dr. E. Parsons testified strongly to its superiority. "The nitrous
oxide (says Dr. P.) causes the patient when fully under its influence
to have very like the appearance of a corpse," but under this new
anæsthetic "the patient appears like one in a natural sleep." The
language of the press generally has been highly commendatory, and if
Dr. Mayo had occupied so conspicuous a rank as Prof. Simpson, of
Edinburgh, his new anæsthetic would have been adopted at once in every
college of America and Europe.
* * * * *
Mayo's Vegetable Anæsthetic.
A perfectly safe and pleasant substitute for chloroform, ether,
nitrous oxide gas, and all other anæsthetics. Discovered by Dr. U. K.
Mayo, April, 1883, and since administered by him and others in over
300,000 cases successfully. The youngest child, the most sensitive
lady, and those having heart disease, and lung complaint, inhale this
vapor with impunity. It stimulates the circulation of the blood and
builds up the tissues. Indorsed by the highest authority in the
professions, recommended in midwifery and all cases of nervous
prostration. Physicians, surgeons, dentists and private families
supplied with this vapor, liquefied, in cylinders of various
capacities. It should be administered the same as Nitrous Oxide, but
it does not produce headache and nausea as that sometimes does. For
further information pamphlets, testimonials, etc., apply to
DR. U. K. MAYO, Dentist,
378 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.
* * * * *
THE OPEN COURT.
PUBLISHED BY
The Open Court Publishing Company,
Rooms 41 and 42,
169-175 LA SALLE STREET,
CHICAGO.
B. F. UNDERWOOD, SARA A. UNDERWOOD,
_Editor and Manager_. _Associate Editor_.
The _Open Court_ is a high-class, radical free-thought Journal,
devoted to the work of exposing religious superstition, and
establishing religion upon the basis of science.
It is opposed to all forms of sectarianism, and discusses all subjects
of interest in the light of the fullest knowledge and the most matured
thought of the age.
It has for contributors the leading thinkers and writers of the old
and new world. Among those who contribute to its columns are the
following writers:--
Prof. Max Muller, of Oxford. Wm. J. Potter.
Richard A. Proctor. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Albert Revielle. Frederick May Holland.
Edmund Montgomery, M.D. Anna Garlin Spencer.
Prof. E. D. Cope. B. W. Ball.
Col. T. W. Higginson. Felix L. Oswald, M.D.
Prof. Leslie F. Ward. Theodore Stanton.
Prof. Henry C. Adams. Mrs. Celia P. Wooley.
Jas. Parton. E. C. Hegeler.
Geo. Jacob Holyoake. Dr. Paul Carus.
John Burroughs. Lewis G. James.
S. V. Clevenger, M.D. Mrs. Hypatia B. Bonner.
John W. Chadwick. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jr.
M. J. Savage. M. C. O'Byrne.
Moncure D. Conway. Samuel Kneeland, M.D.
Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. Prof. Van Buren Denslow.
Prof. Thomas Davidson. Mrs. Edna D. Cheney.
Gen. J. G. R. Forlong. Wm. Clark, A.M.
Prof. W. D. Gunning. Clara Lanza.
Gen. M. M. Trumbull. C. D. B. Mills.
W. M. Salter. Alfred H. Peters.
Those who wish a first-class journal, devoted to the discussion of
scientific, religious, social and economic questions, should send at
once for a sample copy of this great journal.
_Terms, $3 per year. Single copies, 15 cents_.
Make all remittances payable to the order of B. F. UNDERWOOD,
Treasurer; and address all letters to _Open Court_, P. O. Drawer F.,
Chicago, Ills.
* * * * *
"FORTY PATIENTS A DAY"
is the name of a pamphlet Helen Wilmans has written on her _practical_
experience in healing. No one seems to have had better opportunity of
demonstrating the truth of mental science than Mrs. Wilmans has had in
her Southern home, where the report of her skill was carried from
mouth to mouth, until patients swarmed to her from far and near. Send
15 cents for the pamphlet. Address: Mrs. HELEN WILMANS, Douglasville,
Georgia.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents came from the first
issue of the volume.
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