BUCHANAN’S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

Magnetic Education and Therapeutics.

EXTRACTS FROM AN ESSAY BY DR. CHARLES DU PREL, IN
SPHINX, TRANSLATED FOR THE JOURNAL OF MAN.

“In the Wiener Allgemeiner I spoke of the possibility of moral
education by means of magnetism, which has been carried out.” * * *

“Dr. Bernheim, a Professor of the Medical Faculty in Nancy who
is a champion of hypnotism has written a book on ‘Suggestion and
its Application in Therapeutics,’ in which a great many hypnotic
cures are recorded.”

---

“Dr. —— quotes Franklin against magnetism but Sprengel in his
Pharmacology says ‘Franklin, sickly as he was, took no part whatever
in the investigation.’ The Academy again investigated
(1825-31) somnambulism, discovered by Puysegur, Mesmer’s
scholar. In their report of two year’s investigation, eleven M. D.’s
unanimously pronounced in favor of all important phenomena
ascribed to somnambulism. A fairly complete synopsis of their
report will be found in my ‘Philosophy of Mystics.’”

---

“Du Potet first studied medicine, but disgusted by the poor results
of Pharmacology he embraced magnetism. He performed a series
of mesmeric experiments in the Hotel Dieu of so potent a nature
that twenty M. D.’s of that celebrated hospital signed the minutes of
these proceedings. People ran after Du Potet, pointing at him and
crying ‘The man who cures.’”

---

“The respect for medical therapeutics never has been at as low an
ebb as just now. The public cannot be blamed for this lack of
respect, for they have daily experiences of the ill results
of medicine. Even high medical authorities are of the opinion that
we have to-day a disintegration of medical principles worse than ever.
More uncertain than therapeutics is the manner of diagnosing to-day!
The public is well aware that each doctor has something
different to say or prescribe. I have a personal case in point. During
eighteen months I consulted seven different doctors, and got seven
different contrary diagnoses as well as contradictory modes of treatment,
and this, too, in the city of Munich, which is hardly secondary
to any other city for its medical talent. Is there any cause to blame
the public for running to the magnetizers? I should do so myself if
 my magnetic susceptibility was greater. In such magnetizers as even
Mesmer, Dr. B. can see nothing but charlatans, but I desire to make
him aware that a physician whose reputation he is cognizant of, Prof.
Nussbaum in Munich, said to his audience in College, ‘Gentlemen,
magnetism is the medicine of the future.’ As I am writing this I
have been disturbed by a visitor desiring the address of a reliable
magnetizer, as the physician recommended a magnetizer, as he was at
his wits end.”

“In our medicine the adjunct sciences alone are scientific, and we
must respect their high grade; but therapeutics we have none.
Hence Mesmer should be called a benefactor to mankind, for he has
pointed out the correct way. He, with Hippocrates, says that not
the physician but nature cures—that the real therapeutics consists
only in aiding the vis medicatrix naturæ. In this direction the professors
at Nancy and Paris are laboring. They have given the experimental
proof that if the idea of an organic change of the body is
instilled into the mind of the hypnotized, then such change will take
place. In this we have a foundation for a PSYCHIC THERAPEUTICS
which we hope will soon put an end to the anarchic condition of
medicine of the present day. But the greatest curse to science of
old, and which makes its appearance even to-day, is that the old ideas
are the greatest enemies of the new.”

“Unfortunately it is the same in the thought realm as in lifeless
nature, vis inertiæ—the law of indolence, according to which nature
remains in its condition to all eternity, until she is forced into
some new condition from a new cause. This vis inertiæ is harder
to conquer in the thought realm than in lifeless nature, for Mesmer
appeared a hundred years ago, and yet to-day they call him “a perfect
charlatan.” Braid, thirty years ago, started hypnotism, but only
after Hansen made a multitude of experiments for profit and pleasure
in the largest cities of Germany, did the physicians wake up to the
idea of investigating it. They teach nothing of mesmerism or hypnotism
at the universities. Yes, even one year ago a professor of
medicine confessed to me, should I pronounce the word somnambulism
I’d be ruined. This is the manner in which ideas are
kept from medical students.”

“If medicine, in its results, could look with pride on its therapeutics,
it might be explained. But a therapeutics that allows thousands
of children to sink yearly into untimely graves from all
manner of diseases, that allows a large proportion of grown persons
to be decimated yearly by epidemics, that in its psychiatry is perfectly
impotent to stop the rapid increase of insanity, that notoriously
cannot cure a migraine, a cold, yea, not even a corn,—such a
system ought surely to have some modesty, and be only too glad to
accept improvements that tend to ameliorate this condition.”

CONDITION OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

These remarks of Dr. Du Prel, though somewhat exaggerated, are
probably based on truth in their reference to the backward condition
of the medical profession in Europe, and of all that portion in
 America which is essentially European, and governed by European
authority. But the healing art in America has been to a great
extent emancipated by the spirit of American liberty, and in its
actual results among liberal physicians is far in advance of the
European system. One signal proof of this was given at Cincinnati
in 1849, when that city was visited by a terrible epidemic of Asiatic
cholera, which swept off five thousand of its inhabitants. The
mortality of cholera under old school practise had been from twenty-five
to sixty per cent., the latter having been realized in hospitals at
Paris. Under the practice taught in our college at that time, the
mortality in 1,500 cases did not exceed six per cent.

The atmosphere of freedom in this country, and the absolute medical
freedom (until within a few years the colleges have procured medical
legislation to help their diplomas, and their graduates) have given
a progressiveness and practicality to American physicians which are
beginning to be recognized abroad.

Dr. Lawson Tait is eminent in the treatment of women in England.
In the Medical Current of April 20th, he is quoted as expressing
a regret that his time and money had not been directed to the
Western instead of the Eastern Hemisphere, when picking up his
medical knowledge. He predicted that ‘ere long it will be to the
medical colleges of America rather than to those of Europe that
students will travel.’ Then he goes on to say:

“American visitors abroad who have given weeks and months to
see me work, have one and all impressed me with their possession of
that feature of mind which in England I fear we do not possess, the
power of judging any question solely upon its merits, and entirely
apart from any prejudice, tradition, or personal bias. No matter how
we may struggle against it, tradition rules all we do; we cannot
throw off its shackles, and I am bound to plead guilty to this weakness
myself, perhaps as fully as any of my countrymen may be compelled
to do. I may have thrown off the shackles in some instances,
but I know that I am firmly bound in others, and my hope is that my
visit to a freer country and a better climate may extend my mental
vision.”

POWER OF MAGNETISM AND SUGGESTION.

The suggestion of Du Prel as to the hypnotic teaching in France,
that an idea impressed on the mind of the hypnotized will be realized
in the body is the basis of a great deal of therapeutic philosophy. It
is true in practice just to the extent of human impressibility. A
cheerful physician or friend, by encouraging words impresses the idea
of recovery and thus sometimes produces it. Judicious friends never
speak in a discouraging manner to the invalid. The success of mind
cure practitioners is based on this principle. They endeavor to impress
on the patient’s mind the idea of perfect health, but they know
too little of the whole subject to know how to place the patient
in that passive and receptive condition in which the results are
most promptly and certainly produced.

Such methods are limited in their effect in proportion to human
impressibility and cannot possibly supersede all use of remedies which
 reach thousands of cases in which mental operations would be entirely
futile. But the power of animal magnetism over all diseases and
infirmities of mind and body has been so often demonstrated that its
neglect is a deep disgrace to the medical colleges. A correspondent
of the Daily Telegraph gives the following illustration of its power
over drunkenness:

“About eighteen months ago I was conversing with my friend B.,
who is an enthusiastic believer in mesmerism, and has repute as an
amateur practitioner. My contention was that his favorite
science (?) had contributed absolutely nothing to the world’s good to
cause its recognition by either scientists or philosophers. ‘Can you
give me,’ said I, ‘one instance in which you have conferred an
actual benefit by the practice of your favorite art?’ He related
several, from which I selected the following:—‘There lives by my
parsonage,’ said my friend B., ‘a man who for many years, had
been a confirmed drunkard. Repeatedly were his wife and children
forced to flee from him, for when in his drunken frenzies, he
attempted to murder them. Again and again have I striven to induce
him to flee from his horrible vice, but my efforts were always
futile. One day he called to see me when he was suffering acutely
from the effects of drink. I resolved to place him under mesmeric
influence. This I did, and while subject to me made him promise
not to touch strong drink again, and if he attempted to break his
pledge, might the drink taste to him filthy as putrid soapsuds. I
then restored him to his normal state, and he left me. He kept his
unconsciously given promise. In the course of a couple of years
this man raised himself from a condition of poverty to the comfortable
position of a thriving market gardener. ‘Not a fortnight
since,’ resumed my friend, ‘my neighbor’s wife laughingly said to
me, ‘There is no fear of my husband ever drinking again, sir. You
know he has to be in the market very early in the morning with his
vegetables. Yesterday morning, while he was drinking a cup of
coffee at the hotel an old mate said to him, ‘Why don’t you drink
some spirits; are you afraid?’ To show his mate that he was not
afraid, he ordered a glass of brandy, but no sooner did he put it in
his mouth than he spat it out again, saying the ‘filthy stuff tasted
like rotten soapsuds.’ My friend B. said, that, till he told me, to
no one had he mentioned the fact, and that what he did to his poor
neighbor he did in order to see if it were possible to use mesmerism
as a remedial agent in cases of drunkenness.”

The power of control over the impressible condition (which is so
easily developed into hypnotism) has been recently illustrated in
France, and reports of the phenomena published in the London News,
concerning which Mr. Charles Dawbarn has published the following
in the Banner of Light:

“According to the reports published in the Daily News of London,
Eng., an attempt has been made by physicians in Paris, France, to
determine the duration of an hypnotic influence. Some of my readers
may not be aware that ‘hypnotism’ is a word coined by the
medical faculty to replace the term ‘mesmerism,’ which they consider
 disreputably associated with spiritualism. These physicians
seem to have had some very fine sensitives upon whom to operate.
The first experiment was upon a lady of some means, but having a
mother and sister dependent upon her for support. The hypnotizer
first established his influence in the usual manner, and then told the
lady he wished her to go to a lawyer the next day, and make her will
in his favor. She protested, but finally gave way. All memory of
this promise seemed to be lost as soon as she returned to her normal
condition. But next day she went to a lawyer, and although he
begged her to remember her mother and sister, the will was made
just as suggested by the physician. She was an affectionate daughter
and told the lawyer she was impelled to leave her property to a
stranger by an influence which she could not resist.

“A second experiment with another sensitive was then tried. This
time the poor girl promised to poison a friend next day, she carried
away with her a dose prepared by the doctor. Not knowing why,
and like the other sensitive, under an influence she could not resist,
she gave her friend the harmless drug in a glass of milk, and thus
enacted the part of a murderer.

“These experiments have the novelty of having been made by the
regular faculty; but thousands of Spiritualists have proved the truth
of an hypnotic influence lasting long after the apparent release of the
sensitive. We know, or ought to know, that the hypnotic condition
can be induced without visible passes; and many of us have seen a
sensitive under influence sitting quietly, showing no sign of her
slavery to the will of another. We may go yet a step further and
assert that men and women, visible and invisible, are constantly psychologizing
each other, although we only use the term “sensitive”
when the effect is visible to our dull senses.

“But Spiritualists as a whole have been converted by the phenomena
appealing to their outward senses, and know little and care little
for effects that can only be traced by shrewd, careful and scientific
experiment. Yet such facts as come to the surface in those experiments
with sensitives in France, are keys with which to unlock some
of life’s darkest mysteries, and expose the harsh treatment of many
mediums.

“Many of us have been greatly troubled by the conduct of our
mediums, and often puzzled by their careful prepared attempts at
fraud. Mediums we have met and loved, because they have given
us proof after proof of the ‘gates ajar’ for angel visitors, have been
presently detected in frauds that required days of careful preparation.
We have cried, ‘Down with the frauds!’ and insisted that they
should return to wash-tub and spade for an honest living.

“We have omitted to keep in view that one who is a medium Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays must also be a medium Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays, and we have neglected to learn the lessons
of our own experience. I was talking recently to a gentleman of
prominence, twice sheriff of his county, who was narrating with glee
how he had mesmerised a young man, and then told him, ‘At noon
to-morrow you will be lame, and it will last two hours.’ Of course it
 happened much to the poor fellows perplexity, but my friend would
have been surprised to discover that therein was the entire case of
the French sensitives and of our poor mediums.

“A very important thought is that an hypnotic influence need not
spring from any verbal expression. We all carry with us an
influence which strikes every sensitive we meet; and if we sit with
her when she is, of course, specially passive, she must receive a yet
more marked influence. There is a photographic curiosity now often
exhibited which, I think, illustrates the thought I want to emphasize.
A family or a class can be photographed, one by one, at exactly the
same focus and on the same negative, with a result that you have a
clear and distinct face, not of any one’s personality, but that actually
combines the features of the whole into a new individual unlike any
of the sitters.”

“This is the very influence we cast upon a sensitive when she sits
for us in a miscellaneous circle. We cannot say that any one of us
has powerfully affected her, but we know the entire influence has got
control and possession, and that influence follows her, too often with
irresistible power.”

The publication of a work on animal magnetism by Binet and
Féré of Paris prompts the following sketch of the subject by the
Boston Herald, a newspaper which pays great attention to anything
foreign or anything from the old school profession, but ignores that
which is American and original. The reader will observe that
the writers are all in the dark, unable to explain the phenomena
they describe.

PROGRESS OF MAGNETISM.

One of the most notable features of the scientific tendencies of the
present day is the extraordinary interest taken in the investigation of
those peculiar physical and psychical conditions attending the states
now known collectively under the name of hypnotism, varying from
lethargy, catalepsy, etc., to somnambulism. Until quite recently these
investigations have been frowned upon and tabooed in scientific
circles, and the fact that any man of scientific inclinations was
known to feel an interest in matters associated with “mesmerism”
or “animal magnetism” was sufficient to make him an object of suspicion,
and injure his good standing amongst his fellow-scientists.
The result of the so-called investigations long ago instituted by the
French Academy, pronouncing in effect the whole subject a humbug
and delusion, has lain like an interdict upon further researches, and
the whole matter was left over, for the most part, to charlatans or to
persons hardly capable of forming sound judgments or proceeding
according to the accurate methods demanded by modern
science. Science, however, in the remarkable progress attained of
late, has advanced so far upon certain lines that it has been hardly
possible to proceed further in those directions without entering upon
the forbidden field. Therefore, the old signboards against trespassing
have been taken down. For “mesmerism,” that verbal scarecrow,
has been substituted “hypnotism,” which word has had a wonderfully
 legitimatizing effect; while “animal magnetism,” that once
flouted idea, has been proven to be an existent fact by methods as
accurate as those adopted by Faraday or Edison to verify their observations.

EFFORTS OF SCIENTISTS.

Many of the most eminent scientists of Europe are now devoting
themselves assiduously to these researches. Periodicals making a
specialty of the subject are now published in France, Germany, and
England. A catalogue of the recent literature of hypnotism and related
phenomena, compiled by Max Dessoir, was printed in the number
of the German magazine called the Sphinx for February of
this year, and this catalogue occupied nine pages. The list is limited
to those works written on the lines laid under the methods of the
modern school, all books being excluded whose authors hold to
“mesmeric” theories, or who are even professional magnetizers. The
catalogue is, therefore, as strictly scientific as possible, and, being
classified with German thoroughness under the different branches of
the subject, such as “hystero-hypnotism,” “suggestion,” “fascination,”
etc., it will prove a valuable assistance to the student.

In this country the interest of scientists has not yet been aroused
to an extent comparable with that of European investigators. Old
prejudices have not entirely lost their potency. One of the most
eminent professors of a leading university is said to have been subjected
to ridicule from his colleagues because of a marked interest
shown in the subject, and a Boston physician of high standing
within a few months confided to the writer that he had made use of
hypnotic methods, with gratifying success, in the case of a patient
where ordinary remedies had proven unavailing, but he did not venture
to make the results public, since his fellow doctors might be inclined
to condemn his action as “irregular.”

A work embracing the whole subject has lately appeared in Paris,
and, as it is to form a volume of the valuable International Scientific
series, published in English, French, German, and Italian, it can
hardly fail to diffuse a correct popular understanding of the results
thus far attained. The book is called “Le Magnetism Animal”
(Animal Magnetism), and its authors are Messrs. Alfred Binet and
Charles Féré of the medical staff of the Salpètrière Hospital for
Nervous Disorders in Paris. It gives a history of the patient researches
conducted at that institution by the medical staff under the
celebrated Prof. Charcot during the past nine years. These experiments
have been prosecuted according to the most exact scientific
methods, and with the most extreme caution. The endeavor has
been to obtain, first of all, the most elementary psychic phenomena,
and to test every step in the investigations by separate experiment,
specially devised to prove the good faith of the subject and the reality
of his hallucination, to eliminate the possibility of unconscious
suggestion, to establish relations with similar phenomena of disease
or health in the domain of physiology and psychology, and to note
the modifications which can be brought about by altering the conditions
of the experiments. The authors possess the great scientific
 virtue of never dogmatising. In the entire book not a single law is
laid down, not a single hypothesis is advanced, which is not reached
by the most approved inductive processes. A great service of the
book lies in its enunciation of new and trustworthy methods for
studying the physiology of the brain in health and disease, while it
brings into the realm of physical experiment vexed questions of
psychology heretofore given over to metaphysical methods exclusively.

THE HYPNOTIC SLEEP

Is described as a different form of natural sleep, and all the causes
which bring on fatigue are capable of bringing on hypnotism in
suitable subjects. Two of the leading hypnotic states are lethargy
and catalepsy, the former being analogous to deep sleep, and the
latter to a light slumber. In lethargy the respiratory movements are
slow and deep; in catalepsy slight, shallow, very slow, and separated
by a long interval. In lethargy the application of a magnet over
the region of the stomach causes profound modifications in the
breathing and circulation, while there is no such effect in catalepsy.
This shows the connection of hypnotism with magnetism, and various
other experiments with magnets have produced some remarkable
results. Here it may be added that Dr. Gessmann, a Vienna scientist
who has made a specialty of hypnotic studies, has invented and
successfully applied an instrument called a hypnoscope, consisting of
an arrangement of magnets for the purpose of ascertaining whether
any person is a good hypnotic subject.

The experiments demonstrate that sensation in the hypnotic states
varies between the two opposite poles of hyperæsthesia and anæesthesia;
in other words, the senses may be extraordinarily exalted, as in
somnambulism, or, as in lethargy, they may be extinct, except sometimes
hearing. In somnambulism the field of vision and acuteness
of sight are about doubled, hearing is made very acute, and smell is
so intensely developed that a subject can find by scent the fragment
of a card, previously given him to feel, and then torn up and hidden.
The memory in somnambulism is similarly exalted. When awakened
the subject does not, as a rule, remember anything that occurred
while he was entranced, but, when again hypnotized, his memory
includes all the facts of his sleep, his life when awake and his former
sleeps. Richet attests how somnambules recall with a luxury of
detail scenes in which they have taken part and places they have
visited long ago. M——, one of his somnambules, sings the air of the
second act of the opera “L’Africaine” when she is asleep, but can
not remember a note of it when awake.

There is a theory that no experience whatever of any person is
lost to the memory; it is only the power to recall it that is defective.
The authors of this work say that, while the exaltation of the
memory during somnambulism does not give absolute proof to the
theory that nothing is lost, it proves at any rate that the memory of
preservation is much greater than is generally imagined, in comparison
with the memory of reproduction, or recollection. “It is evident,”
they say, “that in a great number of cases, where we believe
 the memory is completely blotted out, it is nothing of the kind.
The trace is always there, but what is lacking is the power to evoke
it; and it is highly probable that if we were subjected to hypnotism,
or the action of suitable excitants, memories to all appearance dead
might be revived.”

A comparison between the phenomena of awakening from natural
and artificial sleep is instituted. In the case of dreams, recollection
more or less vivid persists for a few seconds, then becomes effaced.
This forgetfulness is even more marked in the case of hypnosis. On
returning to natural consciousness, the subject cannot recompose a
single one of the scenes in which he has played his part as witness
or actor. The loss, however, is not complete, for often a word or
two is sufficient to bring back a whole scene, though this word or
two coming from operator to subject, partakes more or less of the
nature of a suggestion.

SUGGESTION.

“Suggestion,” by which is meant the production of thoughts and
actions on the part of the subject through some indication or hint
given by the operator, is found to be analogous to dreaming. Say
the authors: “For suggestion to succeed, the subject must have
naturally fallen, or been artificially thrown into a state of morbid
receptivity: but it is difficult to determine accurately the conditions
of suggestionability. However, we may mention two. The first,
the mental inertia of the subject: * * * the consciousness is
completely empty: an idea is suggested, and reigns supreme over
the slumbering consciousness, * * * The second is psychic
hyperexcitability, the cause of the aptitude for suggestion.” “For
example, we say to a patient: ‘Look, you have a bird in your apron,’
and no sooner are these simple words pronounced than she sees the
bird, feels it with her fingers, and sometimes even hears it sing.”
“Again, in place of speech we engage the attention of the patient,
and when her gaze has become settled and obediently follows all our
movements, we imitate with the hand the motion of an object which
flies. Soon the subject cries: ‘Oh, what a pretty bird!’ How has a
simple gesture produced so singular an effect?”

“It is admitted, however, that the hypothesis of the association
of ideas only partly covers the facts of suggestion, even when
stretched to include resemblances. For instance, when we
charge the brain of an entranced patient with some strange idea,
such as, ‘On awakening you will rob Mr. So-and-so of his handkerchief,’
and on awakening, the patient accomplishes the theft commanded,
can we believe that in such a sequence there is nothing
more than an image associated with an act? In point of fact, the
patient has appropriated and assimilated the idea of the experimenter.
She does not passively execute a strange order, but the order
has passed in her consciousness from passive to active. We can go
so far as to say that the patient has the will to steal. This state is
complex and obscure, hitherto no one has explained it. * * *
The facts of paralysis by suggestion completely upset classical
psychology. The experimenter who produces them so easily
 knows neither what he produces nor how he does it. Take
the example of a systematic anæsthesia (paralysis of sensation).
We say to the subject, ‘On awakening you will not see Mr. X., who
is there before us; he will have completely disappeared.’ No
sooner said than done; the patient on awakening sees every one
around her except Mr. X. When he speaks she does not answer
his questions; if he places his hand on her shoulder she does not
feel the contact; if he gets in her way, she walks straight on, and is
terrified at being stopped by an invisible obstacle. * * * Here
the laws of association, which do such good service in solving
psychological problems, abandon us completely. Apparently they
do not account for all the facts of consciousness.”

PORTRAITS BY HALLUCINATION.

A remarkable and suggestive series of experiments performed
with portraits by hallucination is given in the book. These experiments
show, that if by suggestion a subject is made to see a portrait
on a sheet of card board which is exactly alike on both sides, the
image will always be seen on the same side, and, however it is presented,
the subject will always place the card with the surfaces and
edges in the exact positions they occupied at the moment of suggestion,
in such a manner that the image can neither be reversed nor
inclined. If the surfaces are reversed, the image is no longer seen;
if the edges, it is seen upside down. The subject is never caught
in a mistake; the changes may be made out of his sight, but the
image is invariably seen in accordance with the primitive conditions,
although absolutely no difference is to be detected by the
normal vision between the two blank surfaces.

One experiment brings out this fact clearly. On a white sheet of
paper is placed a card equally white; with a fine point, but without
touching the paper, the contour of the card is followed while the
idea of a line traced in black is suggested to the subject. The subject,
when awakened, is asked to fold the paper according to these
imaginary lines. He holds the paper at the distance at which it was
at the moment of suggestion, and folds it in the form of a rectangle
exactly superposable on the card.

A curious experiment in the same line has been often repeated by
Prof. Charcot. The subject is given the suggestion of a portrait on
a white card, which is then shuffled up with a dozen cards all alike.
On awakening, the subject is asked to run over the collection, without
being told the reason why it is wished. When he comes to the card
on which had been located the imaginary portrait, he at once perceives
it. One detail of these experiments is very significant. Supposing
we show the imaginary portrait at a distance of two yards
from the subject’s eyes, the card appears white, whereas a real photograph
would appear gray. If it is gradually brought nearer, the
imaginary portrait at last appears, but it is necessary for it to be
much nearer than an ordinary photograph for the patient to recognize
the subject. By means of opera glasses we can make the
patient recognize her hallucination at a distance at which she could
 not perceive it with the naked eye. In short, the imaginary object
which figures in the hallucination is perceived under the same conditions
as if it were real. Various other experiments are detailed in
support of this formula. The opera glasses only act as if they were
focussed upon the point of hallucination, and in the case of a short-sighted
subject they had to be altered to allow for the defect of vision.
If the patient looks through a prism the image is seen duplicated, although
the subject is absolutely ignorant of the properties of a prism,
as well as of the fact that the glass is a prism. A photograph of the
plain white card used when the photograph was suggested may be
substituted, and on being shown to the patient, the hallucinatory
image is seen just the same, even two years after the original
experiment, as was done in one case.

Some strange phenomena of polarity are related. The following
experiments by MM. Binet and Féré are given in illustration: “We
give a patient in somnambulism the common hallucination of a bird
poised on her finger. While she is caressing the imaginary bird she
is awakened and a magnet is brought near her head. After a few
minutes she stops short, raises her eyes and looks about in astonishment.
The bird which was on her finger has disappeared. She looks
all over the ward and at last finds it, for we hear her say, ‘So you
thought you would leave me, little bird.’ After a few minutes the
bird again disappears anew, but almost immediately reappears. The
patient complains from time to time of a pain in the head at a point
corresponding to what has been described in this book as the visual
centre (some distance above and slightly posterior to the ear).” The
magnet also has the same effect in suspending the real perception.
One of the patients was shown a Chinese gong and striker, and took
fright on sight of the instrument. When a blow was struck she instantly
fell into catalepsy. She was reawakened, and asked to look
attentively at the gong; meanwhile, without her knowledge, a small
magnet was brought near her head. After a minute the instrument
had completely disappeared from her sight. When it was struck with
redoubled force, she only looked from side to side with an air of
slight astonishment.

The mysteries which puzzle these writers are made plain by anthropology,
and I have been presenting the explanation for over forty
years to my pupils. The sensibility to hypnotic phenomena is due to
the anterior portion of the middle lobe of the brain—to the portion
which is developed one inch behind the external angle of the eye,
by exciting which we bring on the somnolent condition. The predominance
of this region renders the person liable to the mesmeric
phenomena.

The hypnoscope proposed is quite unnecessary. The proper test of
magnetic susceptibility is either to excite the organ of somnolence
and observe if the eyes are disposed to close, or to pass your fingers
over the outstretched hand of the subject, within one or two inches,
and observe if he feels any impression. A distinct feeling of coolness
is sufficient proof of magnetic susceptibility.

 Let those who wish to investigate the subject begin in accordance
with true science by testing the sensitiveness of the hand. If
sensitive, let the subject sit in a passive state, while you touch the
somnolent region on the temples, one inch horizontally behind the
brow. In from one to ten minutes the eyes will show a disposition
to close, winking repeatedly until a dreamy condition arises, with
a tendency to a conscious sleep. In this condition the susceptibility
is extreme. Experiments in psychometry may be tried with success;
the organs of the brain may be excited, and many interesting experiments
may be made by those who understand the brain, for intellectual
purposes, or for the promotion of health and cure of diseases.

The whole subject is thoroughly explained in the College of
Therapeutics, making thereby a perfect guidance to health, and to
progress in philosophy, and supplying the great lack in all systems
of education—self-knowledge and the sublime art of health,
longevity, and progress in Divine wisdom.

The So-Called Scientific Immortality.

The Smithsonian Institution at Washington was founded for the
increase and diffusion of knowledge. Guided by the contracted
notions prevalent among scientists, it has not accomplished much for
either object. The theory of Lester F. Ward of this institution was
paraphrased as follows in the last Journal:

Mr. Ward appears to enjoy greatly this theory of his own final
extinction, and he exclaims with infinite self-satisfaction, “this
pure and ennobling sense of truth he would scorn to barter for the
selfish and illusory hope of an eternity of personal existence.” This
is quite a jolly funeral indeed!

It is true Mr. Ward’s very profound theories contradict an immense
number of facts observed by wiser men than himself, but so
much the worse for the facts,—they must not embarrass a Smithsonian
philosopher when he solves to his own satisfaction the vast
problem of the universe. This Mr. Ward thinks he has done. It is
quite an ingenious and laboriously constructed hypothesis, but like
all other attempts to construct a grand philosophy without a basis
 of fact, it is hard to manufacture the theory and hard to comprehend
it. Mr. Ward says himself in the Open Court that even to
comprehend his doctrine would require the “careful reading of
nearly 200 pages,” while “to see the matter in precisely the same
light as I see it would require the reading of the entire work of some
1400 pages!” Really, Mr. Ward, the writer who cannot sufficiently
befuddle himself and his readers in fifty pages is not very skilful.

Nevertheless the Ward theory is one of the best that has ever been
gotten up by the champions of nescience, and is worthy of a statement
in the Journal as quite an improvement on the common expression
of materialistic stolidity. He claims that he does not deny immortality,
but he recognizes no immortality of man—no human soul.
He recognizes only the immortality of the world, such as it is, which
nobody denies. The future life of man he considers nothing but an
illusion, though there is an immortality of intelligence here in successive
forms.

The doctrine, is that spirit, intelligence, or consciousness is a
part of matter—that every atom has its own little share, which practically
amounts to nothing in its infinite subdivision, but when matter
comes into organized forms the spiritual powers thus aggregated and
organized become an efficient spiritual energy; and the higher the
organism the grander the power that is developed, man being the
most perfect organization evolves the grandest spiritual power, as a
superior violin evolves finer music than a tambourine. But the intelligence
and will of man are only phenomena, like the music, and
have no existence beyond that of the organism that produces them.
This is substantially the theory of materialists generally, and of the
old school medical colleges which consider human life a mere product
of human tissues in combination—a doctrine conclusively refuted in
“Therapeutic Sarcognomy.”

The special merit of the Ward theory lies in the supposition that
mind and matter are elements everywhere inseparably united, and
that human intelligence is developed by the aggregation and organization
of the mind powers that reside in the atoms of matter,—an
explanation which does not often occur to the exponents of
materialism,—and has the merit of ingenuity. The theory would
do very well if it were not demonstrable that life exists only from
influx, and that human life and personality survive the body, and
become known to every highly organized sensitive, who knows how
to investigate such matters.

The Ward theory demolishes the Deity with the greatest ease, and
places man, fleeting or evanescent as he is, at the summit of the
universe! As he expresses it, “The only intelligence in the
universe worthy of the name is the intelligence of the organized
beings which have been evolved; and the highest manifestations of
the psychic power known to the occupants of this planet is that
which emanates from the human brain. Thus does science invert
the pantheistic pyramid.”

Such is the fog that emanates from the institution that should
help the advance and diffusion of knowledge. No God! no soul!
 not even the awful power that Spencer blindly acknowledges—nothing
but matter bubbling up and organizing itself into temporary
forms that decay and are gone forever. We may well reciprocate
his suggestion, and say that such doctrines belong to the limbus
fatuorum, and, if enjoyed as Mr. Ward enjoys them, they may well
be called the “fool’s paradise.” I think Hegel has some similar
notion—that God becomes conscious only in man, unconscious
everywhere else! And even so brilliant a writer as M. Renan
says, “For myself I think that there is not in the universe any
intelligence superior to that of man.” In reading such expressions
we are strongly reminded of the poem on the “rationalistic chicken,”
which would not admit that it ever came out of an egg. When the
wisdom shown in the universe is so immensely beyond the comprehension
of man, how can he assume his own to be the highest wisdom?

To such dreary absurdities as this the Open Court newspaper at
Chicago is devoted, and it has a bevy of well-educated friends and
supporters—well-educated as the world goes,—and graced with
literary capacity and culture, but educated into blindness and
ignorance of the scientific phenomena of psychic science,—unwilling
to investigate or incapable of candid investigation. The coterie
sustaining such a newspaper are precisely in the position of the
contemporaries of Galileo, who refused to look through his telescope
or study his demonstrations.

It is not from any scientific spirit or scientific acumen that this
materialistic coterie avoid psychometric and spiritual facts. The
newspapers which ignore or sneer at such knowledge are easily
gulled in matters of science. A writer in the Open Court upon the
possibilities of the future, which he presents as being confined
“strictly to legitimate deductions from present knowledge,” exhibits
an amount and variety of ignorant credulity which ought not to
have gained admission to an intelligent journal. He speaks of an
unlimited freedom of submarine navigation and navigation of the
air which would not have appeared possible to any but the most
superficial sciolist. He also speaks of an electroscope that will telegraph
rays of light (!) and enable us thereby to see our most distant
friends, and of stowing in a small compass electricity enough
to exterminate an army. This imaginative ignoramus adds, “Give
to our present biped acquaintance the ability to exterminate armies
with a lightning flash, added to the power of sailing at will through
the air or of passing at will and in safety beneath the ocean waves,
and he would depopulate the earth.” The writer gives much more
of this Munchausen stuff which is not worthy of notice except as
an illustration of the feeble scientific intelligence with which many
newspapers are edited. The editor of a really scientific journal
referred to this article in the Open Court “as a proof of the danger
of a little knowledge.”1

 Review of the New Education.

BY SAMUEL EADON, M.A., M.D., PH.D., F.S.A., ETC.

I have read very carefully the third edition of the “New Education,”
and feel impelled, in order to satisfy my conscientiousness, to
write a short article relative to the impressions which the reading of
the book produced in my mind.

It is a work of extraordinary merit. Like George Combe’s “Constitution
of Man,” it is highly suggestive; the fascination of the
author was such that I could not help but write. To know its value
and appreciate its lofty moral outpourings, people must buy the book
and read for themselves. The first thought would be that it is the
production of an original thinker who had the courage to utter
opinions fearless of results, however antagonistic to the common-herd
notions.

In all ages, the human understanding, the reasoning faculties,
have ever been considered to hold the supremacy in the scale of
development, of culture, and of advance toward a higher form of
civilization; the moral faculties were thought next in order, and
then the propensities common to all animal natures held the third
or inferior position. This view of human nature has been handed
down from an elder antiquity and still retains its hold largely in the
universities and great public schools of the present day.

If this view of the nature of man be a correct one, there ought to
be a vast intellectual brotherhood of mankind; but it is not so.
From the days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, this culture of the
intellectual power has been continuously pursued, but with very
slender results; for were this kind of education pursued for 100,000
years, the morale of society would be little better than it is at the
present time.

Dr. Buchanan takes quite a different view and makes the moral
or ethical faculties supreme, in development and culture, the intellect
being the instruments for acquiring facts and the propensities
the steam to bring about the desired results. According to his
views of man, our emotional faculties are of a higher or more God-like
order than our intellectual powers. The intellect being the
hand-maid to the emotions, to feel the force of truth is higher in mental
excellence than to perceive it. Depth of emotions is the climax
of spiritual power.

The ethical and æsthetic being the foundation of the New Education,
Dr. Buchanan, in a series of beautifully written chapters, enters
into details in reference to what teachers should be, what the subjects
taught ought to be, and what are the shells and what the kernels of
knowledge. He shows clearly that woman will ultimately be the
regenerator of humanity, that education so far has been merely fractional
and one-sided—that true development consists in the co-education
of soul and body, the co-education of man and woman, the
co-education of the material and spiritual worlds.

 There are a million of teachers, and every one should have a copy
of this work. No man is fit to teach in the high sense advocated by
this author unless he has thoroughly mastered this work. It is easy
to pull down a system, but not so easy to build it up; but in the
New Education the follies of the old educational systems are not
only levelled to the dust, but a higher and more practical, industrious,
and crime-preventing system of training and teaching takes
its place. This book will become the grand educational Bible for
teachers in all countries where the English language is spoken.

Nor should it be in the hands of teachers only. Every intelligent
father and mother, anxious for the development of their sons and
daughters should study this book night and day. It should be
translated into every European language, and also into Chinese and
other Eastern tongues; the refined, æsthetic, and knowledge-loving
people of Japan, were the work translated into their language, would
enjoy it intensely.

Hambrook Court, near Bristol, England.

Victoria’s Half Century

We are nearing the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning
of Queen Victoria’s reign. A London writer, reviewing the
changes which have taken place in the period marks these notable
points: A strange country was England in those far-off days; there
was but little difference between the general state of society under
William and the general state of society under George II. If we
compared the courts of George IV. and William with the company
of a low tap-room, we should not flatter the tap-room. Broad-blown
coarseness, rank debauchery, reckless prodigality, were seen
at their worst in the abode of English monarchs. A decent woman
was out of place amid the stupid horrors of the Pavilion or of Windsor;
and we do not wonder at the sedulous care which the Queen’s
guardians employed to keep her beyond reach of the prevailing corruption.
A man like the Duke of Cumberland would not now be
permitted to show his face in public save in the dock; but in those
times his peculiar habits were regarded as quite royal and quite natural.
Jockeys, blacklegs, gamblers, prize-fighters were esteemed as
the natural companions of princes; and when England’s king drove
up to the verge of a prize-ring in the company of a burly rough who
was about to exchange buffets with another rough, the proceeding
was considered as quite manly and orthodox. Imagine the Prince of
Wales driving in the park with a champion boxer!

 A strange country indeed was England in those times; and to look
through the newspapers and memoirs of fifty years ago is an amusement
at once instructive and humiliating. The king dines with the
premier duke, makes him drunk, and has him carefully driven round
the streets, so that the public may see what an intoxicated nobleman
is like. The same king pushes a statesman into a pond, and screams
with laughter as the drenched victim crawls out. Morning after
morning the chief man of the realm visits the boxing-saloon, and
learns to batter the faces and ribs of other noble gentlemen. We
hear of visits paid by royalty to an obscure Holborn tavern, where,
after noisy suppers, the fighting-men were wont to roar their hurricane
choruses and talk with many blasphemies of by-gone combats. Think
of that succession of ugly and foul sports compared with the peace,
the refinement, the gentle and subdued manners of Victoria’s court,
and we see how far England has travelled since 1837.

Fifty years ago our myriads of kinsmen across the seas were
strangers to us, and the amazing friendship which has sprung up between
the subjects of Victoria and the citizens of the vast republic
was represented fifty years ago by a kind of sheepish, good-humored
ignorance, tempered by jealousy. The smart packets left London
and Liverpool to thrash their way across the Atlantic swell, and they
were lucky if they managed to complete the voyage in a month—Charles
Dickens sailed in a vessel which took twenty-two days for
the trip, and she was a steamer, no less! For all practical purposes
England and America are now one country. The trifling distance
of 3,000 miles across the Atlantic seems hardly worth counting,
according to our modern notions; and the American gentleman
talks quite easily and naturally about running over to London or
Paris to see a series of dramatic performances or an exhibition of
pictures. When Victoria began to reign the English people mostly
regarded America as a dim region, and the voyage thither was a
fearsome understanding.

There is something in the catalogue of mechanical devices which
almost affects the mind with fatigue. Fifty years ago the ordinary
citizen picked up his ideas of all that was going on in the world
from a sorely-taxed news-sheet; and a very blurred idea he managed
to get at the best. Poor folk had to do without the luxury of the
news, and they were as much circumscribed mentally as though
they had been cattle; we remember a village where even in 1852 the
common people did not know who the Duke of Wellington was.
No such thing as a newspaper had been seen there within the
memory of man; only one or two of the natives had seen a railway
engine, and nobody in the whole village row had been known to
visit a town. But now-a-days the villager has his high-class news-sheet;
and he is very much discontented indeed if he does not see
the latest intelligence from America, India, Australia, China—everywhere.
An American statesman’s conversation of Monday afternoon
is reported accurately in the London journals on Tuesday morning;
a speech of Mr. Gladstone’s delivered at midnight on one day is
summarized in New York and San Francisco the next day; the
 result of a race run at Epsom is known in Bombay within forty
minutes. We use no paradox when we say that every man in the
civilized world now lives next door to everybody else; oceans are
merely convenient pathways, howling deserts are merely handy
places for planting telegraph poles and for swinging wires along
which thoughts travel between country and country with the velocity
of lightning. We see that the world with its swarming populations
is growing more and more like some great organism whereof
the nerve-centres are subtly, delicately connected by sensitive nerve-tissues.
Even now, using a lady’s thimble, two pieces of metal, and
a little acid, we can speak to a friend across the Atlantic gulf, and
before ten years are over, a gentleman in London will doubtless be
able to sit in his office and hear the actual tones of some speaker in
New York.

So much has the magic half century brought about.

If we think of the scientific knowledge possessed by the most
intelligent men when the Queen ascended the throne, we can hardly
refrain from smiling, for it seems as though we were studying the
mental endowment of a race of children. The science of electricity
was in its infancy; the laws of force were misunderstood; men did
not know what heat really was. They knew next to nothing of the
history of the globe, and they accounted for the existence of varying
species of plants and animals by means of the most infantine hypotheses.
A complete revolution—vital and all-embracing—has
altered our modes of thought, so that the man of 1887 can scarcely
bring himself to conceive the state of mind which contented the
man of 1837. We have dark doubts now, perplexing misgivings,
weary uncertainties, painful consciousness of limited powers; but
along with these weaknesses we have our share of certainties. Are
we happier? Nay, not in mind. A quiet melancholy marks the
words of all the men who have thought most deeply and learned
most. The wise no longer cry out or complain—they accept life
and fate with calm sadness, and perhaps with prayerful resignation.
We have learned to know how little we can know, and we see with
composure that even the miracles already achieved by the restless
mind of man are as nothing.

There is a far better reason than this for the sadness of thinking
men. It is that, with all the progress of science, art, and education,
poverty, misery, disease, and crime still afflict society as they did in
ruder ages, and our progress is onward, but not upward. It is upward
progress to which the Journal of Man is devoted.

In the foregoing sketch very little is said of the real progress of
the age—the increase of education, the uprising of the people into
greater political power and liberty, the prostration of the power of
the church, which is destined to disestablishment, and the uprising
of spiritual science.

What is there in the reign of Victoria to be celebrated? Was
there ever a more perfect specimen of barely respectable commonplace
than the reign of Victoria? What generous impulse, or what
 notable wisdom has she ever shown? What has she done for the
relief of Ireland, for the improvement of a society full of pauperism,
crime and suffering, or for the prevention of unjust foreign wars?
When has she ever given even a respectable gift to any good object
from her enormous income? But virtue is not expected in sovereigns;
they are expected only to enjoy themselves hugely, to make an
ostentatious display, and consume all their benighted subjects give
them.

Mrs. Stanton says:—“The two great questions now agitating
Great Britain are ‘Coercion for Ireland,’ and the ‘Queen’s Jubilee,’
a tragedy and a comedy in the same hour.”

Speaking of the Queen’s Jubilee she says:

“In this supreme moment of the nation’s political crisis, the
Queen and her suite are junketing around in their royal yachts on
the coast of France, while proposing to celebrate her year of Jubilee
by levying new taxes on her people, in the form of penny and pound
contributions to build a monument to Prince Albert. The year of
Jubilee! While under the eyes of the Queen her Irish subjects are
being evicted from their holdings at the point of the bayonet; their
cottages burned to the ground; aged and helpless men and women
and newborn children, alike left crouching on the highways, under
bridges, hayricks and hedges, crowded into poorhouses, jails and
prisons, to expiate their crimes growing out of poverty on the one
hand and patriotism on the other.

“A far more fitting way to celebrate the year of Jubilee would be
for the Queen to scatter the millions hoarded in her private vaults
among her needy subjects, to mitigate, in some measure, the miseries
they have endured from generation to generation; to inaugurate
some grand improvement in her system of education; to extend still
further the civil and political rights of her people; to suggest, perchance,
an Inviolable Homestead Bill for Ireland, and to open the
prison doors to her noble priests and patriots.

“But instead of such worthy ambitions in the fiftieth year of her
reign, what does the Queen propose? With her knowledge and
consent, committees of ladies are formed in every county, town and
village in all the colonies under her flag, to solicit these penny and
pound contributions, to be placed at her disposal.

“Ladies go from house to house, not only to the residences of the
rich, but to the cottages of the poor, through all the marts of trade,
the fields, the factories, begging pennies for the Queen from servants
and day-laborers.”

These forced collections are not entirely for the benefit of the
Queen, but are to be appropriated also to a vast variety of local
objects and institutions.

The Outlook of Diogenes.

The ancient philosopher Diogenes, whom even the presence of
Alexander could not overawe, is one of the most marked and heroic
figures of ancient history. It is said “The Athenians admired his
 contempt for comfort, and allowed him a wide latitude of comment
and rebuke. Practical good was the chief aim of his philosophy;
for literature and the fine arts he did not conceal his disdain. He
laughed at men of letters for reading the sufferings of Ulysses
while neglecting their own; at musicians who spent in stringing their
lyres the time which would have been much better employed in
making their own discordant natures harmonious; at savants for gazing
at the heavenly bodies while sublimely incognizant of earthly ones;
at orators who studied how to enforce truth, but not how to practice
it.   * When asked what business he was proficient in, he answered,
‘to command men.’”

Psychometry brings up these ancient characters as vividly and
truthfully as history. Such psychometric descriptions are a continual
miracle. How the psychometers, knowing not of whom they are
speaking, guided only by a mysterious intuition, should speak of the
most ancient characters as familiarly and truly as of our acquaintances
to-day, will ever stand as a psychic miracle, to illustrate the
Divine Wisdom that established such a power in man. This is the
daily experience of Mrs. Buchanan. Her description of Diogenes
was as follows:

“I think this is an ancient. There is something quaint about
him. He does not seem to follow anything or anybody. He lived
a natural life, indifferent to current teachings. He had peculiar
original ideas of his own as to life and its purposes, and seems to be
a man of philanthropic nature, not æsthetic, but very indifferent as
to personal appearance and habits, or as to pleasing people, not at all
fastidious. He did not mind people’s opinions in the least. They
never disturbed him.

“He had enough combativeness to fight his way through difficulties.
He had great self-reliance, and did not mind obstacles. If he
had to take part in disturbances, he was ready, and had tact and tactics.
He had a peculiar power of governing men, and a peculiar
way of gaining confidence and esteem. He did not show off at all,
and was not at all condescending. He had a great deal of sagacity.
He regarded as trifles things people considered as momentous.

“(To what country did he belong?) He was probably a Greek,
but he did not accord with anything of his time. He lived in the
future and anticipated great changes. He did not agree with any
contemporary religion, politics, fashions or manners, but was very
sarcastic upon them. He was a philosopher, devoted to the useful,
and cared nothing for the ornamental, either in architecture, fashions
or anything else. He might not make war on the religion as he
was not rancorous or rebellious, but he had different ideas in himself,
and was candid in expressing them. He does not give much
attention to modern times, but if he were here he would enjoy
modern improvements and benevolence, but would denounce our
fashions and our bigotry, and teach a primitive style of living.”

Let us invoke the strong spirit of Diogenes whose sturdy freedom
of thought was like that of Walt Whitman, to coöperate in the review
of modern life. Such men are greatly needed to review a
 corrupt civilization; and where is the civilization now, where was
there ever a civilization that was not corrupt? The function of
Diogenes is not performed either by the pulpit or the press. A
few special journals are terribly severe on special evils, but the
reformatory words of the press generally are few and far between, in
comparison to what is needed. The Journal of Man does not
propose to fill the hiatus and make war upon the myriad evils of
society, but it must speak out, now and then, like Diogenes, especially
when others neglect their duty.

What is the condition of our legislative bodies? Where is there
one that does not provoke sharp criticism? The Albany correspondent
of the N. Y. Sun, speaking of the legislative adjournment, says;
“Mr. William F. Sheehan, leader of the Democratic minority to the
Assembly, summed up the work of the Legislature of 1887 when in
his address on the floor of the Assembly on the day of final adjournment,
he said: ‘Prayer will ascend from thousands of hearts of the
citizens of this State at noon to-day for their deliverance from this
Legislature. It began its session with the corrupt election of a
United States Senator. It lived in bribery, and it dies a farce.’
No one here regrets the adjournment except the gamblers and the
lobbyists. Even the lobbyists would be glad for a vacation, as their
labors in bidding for the legislative cattle the last month have been
most arduous. The people of Albany look on the Legislature as a
pestilence to which they must yearly submit, and they welcome its
departure as a farmer does the going of a swarm of locusts from his
fields.

“Whatever else may be said about the Legislature of 1887, no one
ever accused it of being honest, and there is no doubt that it was
industrious.”

This corrupt Legislature passed two very discreditable bills which
would have been made positively infamous if it had not been for the
active opposition of a few friends of liberty. One of these bills
was designed to add to the stringency of the present obstructive
medical law; the other was designed to assist the labors of Anthony
Comstock in interrupting the circulation of popular physiological
literature, under pretence of suppressing obscenity.

In the Legislature of Pennsylvania, the law designed to suppress
the cultivation of spiritual science by severe penalties, was favorably
reported by a committee but prevented by popular indignation from
passing. Yet the people were not sufficiently alert to prevent legislation
in favor of that monopoly the Standard Oil Company, which
is considered a betrayal of justice.

In Illinois a bill was passed in the Senate and came near passing
in the House, which would have abolished all medical freedom and
made it a crime for any one but a licensed doctor to help the sick in
any way, even by a prayer. Verily the spirit of American liberty
does not pervade American communities and American legislatures.

In Massachusetts the Old Puritanic Sunday Laws having fallen
into “innocuous desuetude,” an attempt to give them a partial enforcement
in Boston compelled a little legislative action and the
 result was what might have been expected in a State in which religious
opinions are allowed to interfere with the credibility of a witness,
and in which Diogenes, if he were here, would be struck with the
vast inconsistency between the creed of Christendom and its practice,
and the vast disparity between the progress of modern knowledge
and the effete system of education in our Universities. He
would wonder why modern colleges are more interested in the details
of Greek life and letters than in the beneficent sciences of
to-day of which the Greeks knew nothing.

He would wonder why the edicts of the Pagan emperor, Constantine,
concerning the observance of Sunday are observed and enforced
as a religious duty, while the Divine love inculcated by Jesus Christ,
which forbids all strife and war, is no more regarded by Christian
nations than by the rulers of ancient Rome.

He would look into the schools and universities professedly devoted
to science and literature, and ask why they have even less freedom
of discussion and thought than the schools of Athens, every
professor being interested to discourage the investigation of novelties
in philosophy instead of being ready to welcome original investigation.

Under the new Sunday law of Massachusetts, Sunday trains and
steamboat lines are at the mercy of the railroad commissioners, who
can stop every one of them; but boating, yachting, and carriage
driving on Sunday are free to all who have the money to pay for
them. But while outdoor frolic is free-and-easy, indoor enjoyment
is prohibited. Everybody is liable to five dollar fines for attending
“any sport, game, or play” on Sunday, unless it has been licensed,
and private families never ask a license for their own amusements.
But to be present on Sunday “at any dancing,” brings a liability to a
$50 fine for each offence! What a terrible thing dancing is to be
sure, that looking on should cost $50, while a frolic in boating and
yachting is unexceptionably holy, and the fast young men may kick
up a dust, kill the horses, and smash the buggies with impunity, or
kill themselves by rowing in the hot sun, under whiskey stimulus on
Sunday.

The laws for hotels and restaurants are even more absurd.
Travellers, strangers and lodgers may be freely entertained, but if
anybody else (who is he?) comes into the house, or remains on the
grounds about it, on Sunday, the landlord can be fined as much as
$50 at the first pop, $100 at the second pop, and at the third pop he
is to be shut up and deprived of his license. Somebody else must
be a terrible fellow on Sunday—and he is a dangerous customer
on Saturday too, for if he comes in on Saturday evening, or even
lounges on the grounds, it is a fine of five dollars for the landlord.
But who is he? How is the poor landlord, or victualler to discover
somebody else, who is neither lodger, stranger, nor traveller. The
landlord cannot detect him, but all sheriffs, grand jurors, and
constables are required to hunt for him! Vive la bagatelle!

Strictly private gambling is safe on Sunday, and our Chevaliers
d’Industrie may ruin a dozen families, and provoke suicide and murder,—“plate
sin with gold” and it is protected, and the swindling
 shyster is protected too on Sunday, for no civil process can be served
on that holy day; the rogue who is bothered on that day can get
exemplary damages by this law of Sunday asylum. But the poor
keeper of a restaurant or of an inn, is the victim for old legislative
boys to throw stones at. They have provided a hundred dollar fine
for every innholder or victualler who keeps, or “suffers to be kept,” on
his premises, any implements “used in gaming,” or which may be used
for “purposes of amusement,” and does not prevent such things from
being used on Sunday. So if he is not extremely vigilant throughout
his house and grounds, he may be caught with a hundred dollar fine,
OR be imprisoned three months in the House of Correction at the
pleasure of the magistrate!! and for every subsequent offense may be
imprisoned in the House of Correction as much as one year, and then
required to give security for obeying the law. Under such a law a
malicious young hoodlum may contrive to send a landlord to jail.

To open a shop, warehouse, or workhouse on Sunday is a fifty
dollar offense, and it is fifty dollars also for doing “any manner of
labor, business or work” on Sunday, unless the judge considers it a
matter of necessity or charity; nevertheless, the “making of butter
and cheese” is good Sunday work, if we do not open the doors which
would bring on a $50 fine. So is the work of steam, gas and electricity,
newspapers, telegraphs, telephones, druggists, milkmen, (bakers
before 10 and after 4,) boat houses, livery stables, ferry boats,
and street cars. But to catch a fish or fire a pistol on Sunday is a
$10 offense, and to look on at a game of chess is a $50 crime.
However, the law does not punish whistling on Sunday, unless the
whistler has spectators, then it is a $50 business for all concerned.
To read Longfellow’s Excelsior on Sunday to a parlor of
company is a $50 crime. Reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, or the
American Declaration of Independence would also rank as criminal
business, being an entertainment, and a party of twenty playing a
game of croquet may be fined a thousand dollars.

Verily, if it were not for such hypocritical and asinine legislation
as this, we might forget the history of New England witchcraft, and
the hanging of Quakers in sight of the spot where this law was
enacted as an improvement on a still worse, but practically obsolete
statute.

Such Sunday legislation is a fair evidence of the absence of true
religion, and the predominance of hypocrisy. It is not enforced,
and is not expected to be. All the Sunday legislation in New York
did not prevent the immense Syracuse Salt Works from carrying on
their work day and night. Gov. Hill and the N. Y. Legislature have
shown their character by increasing the penalties of the Sunday laws,
but they have not approached the Massachusetts standard.

A Bill to Destroy the Indians.

From the Boston Pilot.

The Puritans of New England and the Cavaliers of Virginia alike
treated the Indians as though they had no rights of manhood. The
Catholics, Baptists, and Quakers treated them kindly and justly.
 The Puritans took Indian lands without permission or compensation.
The Catholics, Baptists and Quakers bought lands from the Indians in
an honorable way.

The two policies have been in conflict for nearly three centuries.

The Government has held to the policy of buying lands from the
Indians, thus recognizing their ownership; but it has not always
paid the price agreed upon. Now, under the lead of Senator Dawes
Congress has passed a bill which annuls the treaties, and overrides
all proprietary rights of every tribe, except nine of the most civilized.

His bill is the “Indian Land in Severalty Bill.” It pretends to be
in the interest of the Indians, but that pretense is a fraud. It is
wholly in the interest of railroad companies, land syndicates, and
private white settlers.

The treaties of 1868 and 1876 guarantee the Sioux tribes undisturbed
possession of their reservation in Dakota. Not an acre of that
land can be taken from them without the consent of three-fourths of
them. So read the treaties signed by the United States Commissioners
and confirmed by the United States Senate.

The Dawes Severalty Bill takes the Sioux reservation from the
control of the Sioux without asking the consent of a single Indian,
surveys it as though it was a body of public land, and then says to
the Sioux: The Government will return a small homestead for each
of you, as individuals, and after twenty-five years you shall have
titles to these small tracts, but the remainder of the reservation,
(about four-fifth) must be opened to white settlers.

The Sioux protest against this outrage, and have appealed to the
National Indian Defence Association at Washington, D. C., to
protect their rights. This association has resolved to test the constitutionality
of this bill in the Supreme Court of the United States,
and asks all friends of justice to sustain them in this legal contest.

Miscellaneous Intelligence.

 Chapter IV.—Cranioscopy.

The Study of the Comparative Development of the Brain through
the Cranium—Importance of Cranioscopy—First Step—Facial
organs—Miller, Pestalozzi, Danton, Mirabeau—Caricatures—Upper
and lower parts of face—Female faces—Mode of comparing
organs—Mode of manipulation—Bony irregularities—Profile
comparison of height and depth—Vacca Pechassee and
Lewis—Old errors—Difficulties in estimation—Morbid conditions—Criminals—Napoleon—Negro
murderer.

HUGH MILLER.

PESTALOZZI.

DANTON.

MIRABEAU.

 

The reader now understands the conformation of the brain, and
the general character of its different regions. It is important that
he should as soon as possible begin the study of heads, and learn to
judge correctly their development. When he can do this, he has an
inexhaustible source of knowledge continually with him, and every
new acquaintance becomes an interesting study in ascertaining the
indications of his head and comparing them with his daily conduct
and manners. The more thorough and careful the study, the
 greater the satisfaction and delight that it yields. The good cranioscopist
continually grows in knowledge, and solves all the problems
of character presented in society. But he who simply studies the
elements of character or organic faculties, and does not become
acquainted with the organs and their measurement, soon finds his
knowledge too abstract and remote from his daily life; and, instead
of increasing his stock of knowledge on this subject, he continually
loses more and more of what he has gained. It was for this reason,
mainly, that the medical profession gradually dropped the discoveries
of Gall, which would never have ceased to interest them if they
had learned to apply them to the study of men and animals.

I hope that no reader will neglect this chapter, or fail to reduce
its instructions to practice, for on that it depends whether he shall
become a practical master of cerebral science, and be able to read
every character with which he meets.

The first step in studying a head is to observe its general contour,—whether
the forehead projects far in front of the ear, to indicate
intellect; whether the upper surface rises above the forehead
sufficiently to indicate the nobler qualities, and whether it is
balanced or overpowered by the breadth and depth of the base of
the skull and thickness of the neck. In connection with this, we
may observe that the base of the brain is also expressed in the lower
part of the face which corresponds to the organs for the expression
of animal force, while the upper part of the face is devoted to the
expression of the upper and anterior parts of the brain. The
expressional faculties shown in the face do not always coincide
exactly with the real power of the organs thus expressed; but if they
do not, they at least indicate their activity and habitual display; for
faculties habitually indulged will show their organic indications in
the face, while those which are suppressed or restrained will be less
conspicuous in the face.

The reader will understand that organs located for observation on
the face are organs of the brain lying behind the face, which may be
reached and stimulated through it, as other organs are reached and
stimulated through the cranium and integuments. The contour of
the face cannot reveal the organs behind it by physical necessity, as
does the contour of the skull, yet observation induces me to rely
upon estimates based on facial development. I think there is a
correspondence of development between the brain and face, based
upon vital laws, and also a direct influence of each organ upon the
surface that covers it, so that when the organ is excited the surface
becomes flushed, and when it is kept inactive the surface becomes
pale and withered. This may be most readily observed at the
organ of Love of Stimulus, immediately in front of the cavity of the
ear. The surface presents a shrunken appearance after many years
of rigid abstinence, but becomes plump, bloated, or high-colored, in
those whose habits are intemperate. I have also observed an itching
sensation at the surface when the organs behind it were active.
Any one may observe a warmth and fulness in the upper part of the
face when the social sentiments are very active. In the act of
 blushing, the flush comes upon the part of the face associated with
modest and refined sentiments, the centre of which is below the
external angle of the eye, at the lower margin of the cheek-bone.

The contrasting development of the upper and lower parts of the
face may be seen when we compare such characters as the enthusiastic
philanthropist and educational reformer, Pestalozzi, and the high-principled
and intellectual Hugh Miller, the Scotch geologist, with
such as Danton, the terrible demagogue of the French revolution,
and Mirabeau, the brilliant but unprincipled orator.

No skilful artist in caricature fails to observe these principles.
When he would degrade a character, he magnifies the lower part of
the face; and when he would represent a more refined character,
the lower part of the face becomes correspondingly delicate.

When Puck would represent, a miserable wretch, he presents such
a head as the following; and when a New York journalist desired
to caricature an opponent as a saloon politician, he diminished the
upper and developed the lower part of the head, as presented here.

WRETCH.

SALOON POLITICIAN.

 

All observers of countenance and character unconsciously act
upon these principles and recognize a great difference in the expressions
of two faces,—one predominant in the lower and the other in
the upper portion of the face. That there was any scientific basis
for this was entirely unknown before my discoveries of the organs
behind the face, which modify its development and expression. My
lectures upon this subject in 1842 were attended by the physiognomical
writer, Redfield, who derived from them many important suggestions.

When the lower part of the face is massive, broad, and prominent,
while the basilar region is broad and deep, with a stout neck, we
know the great force and activity of the animal nature, and unless
the upper surface of the brain is well developed all over, we may
expect some excess in the way of violence, temper, selfishness,
perversity, sensuality, dishonesty, avarice, rudeness of manners, moral
insensibility, slander, contentiousness, jealousy, envy, revenge, or
some other form of wickedness, according to the especial conformation.

 In the faces of women, we find the activity of the amiable sentiments
marked by the fulness and roseate color of the upper part of
the face, while the lower portion is more delicate than in the masculine
face.

But although the facial developments generally correspond with
the activity of the organs expressed, the rule is not invariable, as
the reader will learn hereafter that the facial developments may be
moderate when the character is not excitable or demonstrative.

If the upper surface of the head is sufficiently high, we know that
great capacity for virtue exists, capable of restraining evil inclinations,
and producing admirable traits of character, according to the
organs especially developed.

When we study the special organs we determine the special
virtues or vices. For example, a head may have a good general
development upward, giving many very pleasing traits of character,
and yet be so deficient in the region of conscientiousness (while the
selfish group that gives breadth at the ears is large) as to produce
great moral unsoundness and a treacherous violation of obligations
or disregard of principle.

The most delicate task in craniological study, and the most important,
is the balancing of opposite tendencies belonging to antagonistic
organs; and it was for the want of the knowledge of antagonisms
that the Gallian system so often failed in describing character
and its representatives before the public have made the most
disastrous blunders. Shrewd and honest observers discovered the
imperfections of the science.2

While the eye readily gives us the contour of heads that have
not much hair, there is but little accurate judgment without the use
of the hand, which is the first thing to be learned. Not the tips of
the fingers, but the whole hand should be laid upon the head gently,
to cover as much surface as possible, while with a gentle pressure
we cause the scalp to move slightly, and thus feel through it the
exact form of the cranium as correctly as if the bones were exposed
to view. If in this examination we find any sharp prominences,
which might be called bumps, we attribute them to the growth of
bone, which does not indicate the growth of the brain. The latter
is indicated only by the general contour.

A little anatomical knowledge will prevent us from being deceived,
and enable us to make due allowances. There are no great difficulties
in making a correct estimate, and the anatomists who have
taught their pupils that correct cranial observations could not be
made, only showed their own ignorance of the subject. We must
consider the cranium as though all osseous protuberances had been
shaved off, leaving the smooth, curving contour of the skull. The
principal projection to be removed is the superciliary ridge corresponding
to the brow at the base of the forehead. It is formed by
 the projection of the external plate of the skull, leaving a separation
or cavity between it and the inner plate, which cavity is called
the frontal sinus, and is sometimes half an inch wide. As there is
no positive method of determining its dimensions in the living head,
there must ever be some doubt concerning the development of the
perceptive organs which it covers. The superciliary ridge at the
external angle of the brow extends really as much as three-quarters
of an inch from the brain. From this angle a ridge of bone (the
temporal arch) extends upward and backward, separating the
lateral surface of the head from the frontal and upper surfaces.
This ridge is a convenient landmark, but must be excluded from an
estimate of development as it is merely osseous. It extends back
on the head a little behind its middle. The sagittal suture on the
median line of the upper surface usually presents a slight, bony
elevation or ridge (see the engraving of the skull, Chapter III.), and
the lambdoid suture on the back of the head is frequently rough.
A superficial practical phrenologist (of great pretensions) at Cincinnati,
in examining the head of a gentleman of mild character, found
the lambdoid suture quite rough, and gave him a terrifically pugnacious
character, not knowing enough to distinguish between osseous
and cerebral development. The occipital knob on the median line
between the cerebrum and cerebellum, has been already mentioned.
The mastoid process, the bony prominence behind the ear is a projection
exterior to the cerebellum. Where it starts from the cranium
above and behind the cavity of the ear, we may judge of basilar
development by the breadth of the head, but the basilar depth
which is more important is to be judged by the extension downward,
which was illustrated in the last chapter by comparing the skulls of
J. R. Smith and the slave-trading count.

To judge the comparative strength of the higher and lower elements
of character, we look for the height above the forehead and
the depth at and behind the ear, which is ascertained by placing the
hand on the base of the cranium behind the ears, while the height
of the head is best appreciated by placing a hand on the top with
the fingers reaching down to the brow.

In a profile view the human head may be divided into three equal
parts, the length of the nose being the central part, from the nose to
the end of the chin another, and the remainder above the nose the
third part. In inferior heads these three measurements are
equal, the upper third extending to the top of the head; but in
heads of superior character the upper third extends only to the top
of the forehead, and the outline of the head rises a half breadth
above the forehead, as the following profiles show. In heads of
the lowest character the basilar depth exceeds the height, as in the
French Count and the Indian Lewis.

The contour of a well-developed head forms a semicircle above
the base line through the brow, and its elevation above that line is
equal to one half of the antero-posterior length of the head, while in
the inferior class of heads the elevation is but four-tenths of the
length or even less, and is hardly equal to the depth, while in the
 highest class the elevation is one-half greater than the depth or even
more. We obtain another view of the comparative height and
depth by drawing lines from the brow to the vertex and the base of
the brain and comparing the two angles thus formed. In the good
head we observe the great superiority of the upper angle over that
formed by the line to the ear, the lower end of which corresponds
to the lowest part of the brain, the base of the cerebellum.

To take an illustration from nature, I would present the outlines
of two Indian crania that I obtained in Florida,—Vacca Pechassee,
or the cow chief, who headed a small tribe, and bore a good character
among the whites, and Lewis, an Indian of bad character in the same
neighborhood (on the Appalachicola River), who was shot for his
crimes. (I might have obtained many more, but as the Seminole
war was not then over, I found that my own cranium was placed in
considerable danger by my explorations.)

In Vacca Pechassee the height is to the depth as 11 to 9; in Lewis
as 9 to 11. In J. R. Smith the height is to the depth as 12 to 10; in
the slave trading count as 9 to 14. This is the correct method
of cranial study, for comparing the moral and animal nature.

The basilar depth was entirely overlooked in the old method of
phrenologists, and hence they were very often mistaken in judging
 the basilar energy by breadth alone, of which there has been no
more striking example than that of the Thugs of India, whose heads
(though a tribe of murderers) were below the European average in
basilar breadth. These facts are so conspicuous to any careful
observer that I became very familiar with them in the first six
months of my study of heads fifty-two years ago.

When the circulation of the brain is vigorous and regular, all
portions being in regular activity, the fulness of the circulation being
shown in the face, we may be sure that the character is fairly
indicated by the cranium. The younger the individual the thinner
the cranium, and the less the liability to deception by the thickness
of the bones. Female skulls are generally more delicate than male,
and also more normal or uniform in their circulation. Hence there
is less difficulty in making an accurate estimate of women and of
youth. The greater difficulty is found in men of thick skulls and
abnormal brains, and these difficulties are in some cases insurmountable
by mere measurement. It will become necessary in the depraved
classes to look at the condition of the circulation about the
head, and the facial indications of the organs that have been cultivated.
If these are not sufficient to guide us we must fall back upon
psychometry.

The morbid condition of the brain is a conspicuous fact, which
we must not ignore, and it is important to learn how to
detect it in the appearance of the individual, or in his psychometric
indications and Pathognomy, which is itself a profound
science and important guide to character. (Pathognomy is the
science of expression, and has an exact mathematical basis.)

We should bear in mind that it is just as possible to have impaired
and unhealthy conditions in any part of the brain as to have them in
the stomach, liver, lungs, or spinal cord. Physical diseases are contagious
and so are moral. It is generally impossible to preserve the
moral organs and faculties of a youth in healthy condition who is
allowed to associate habitually with the depraved; and it is very
difficult indeed for the mature adult to preserve his brain and mind
in sound condition when compelled to associate with the depraved.
To those who are very impressible, the contagion of vice, bad temper,
profanity, turbulence, lying, obscenity, sullenness, melancholy,
etc., is as inevitable as the contagion of small pox.

Our criminals are generally exposed to the contagion of crime in
youth, and as they advance they are immersed in this contagion
in prisons, which are the moral pest-houses in which law maintains
the intense contagion of criminal depravity. Napoleon was an admirable
subject for such contamination, and when we learn how he
was reared amid the lawlessness and general scoundrelism of Corsica,
we do not wonder that he became an imperial brigand. The low
ethical standard of mankind, generally, and especially of historians,
has heretofore prevented a just estimate of the character of Napoleon.
Royal criminals have escaped condemnation; but the recent
review of Napoleon’s career by Taine gives a just philosophic estimate
of the man, which coincides with the impartial estimation
of psychometry.