BUCHANAN’S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

The Most Marvellous Triumph of Educational Science.

In the dull atmosphere which stagnates between the high walls of
colleges and churches wherein play the little eddies of fashionable
literature, which considers the authorship of an old play1 more
interesting and important than the questions that involve the welfare
of all humanity or the destiny of a nation,—an atmosphere
seldom stirred by the strong, pure breezes of the mountain and the
ocean,—the best thought and impulse of which humanity is capable
is stifled in its birth, or if it comes forth feels the overshadowing
influence that chills its life.

Not there, amid the pedantries of “culture,” do we find the atmosphere
for free and benevolent thought, but rather far away from
such influences, in the forests, the mountain and prairie, where man
comes more nearly into communion with nature, and forgets the
inheritance of ancient error which every corporate institution preserves
and perpetuates. It is to this widespread audience that the
Journal of Man appeals and offers a new suggestion.

In sending forth the “New Education,” hoping for some appreciative
response from educational circles in which collegiate influences
prevail, I did not deem it prudent to introduce some of the noblest
thoughts that belong to the great theme. The book was sent forth
limited and incomplete, hoping that, heretical as it was, and quite
irreverent toward the ignorance descended from antiquity, it might
still receive sufficient approbation and appreciation to justify later
introduction of matter that would have hindered its first reception.

It has reached the third edition, but it has been very apparent
that its reception was cordial and enthusiastic only among the most
 progressive minds, the number of which increases as we travel westward,
and San Francisco called for more copies than the leading
cities of the East.

The time has now arrived (when this Journal is hailed cordially
throughout the country) that I may venture to announce the most
remarkable feature of the art and science of education. There is an
additional reason, too, for speaking out at this time, which should
mortify the pride of an American citizen. The philanthropic science
which I thought it imprudent to mention then in this free country,
is beginning to be studied in France, where such themes are not
suppressed by the sturdy dogmatism which is so prevalent and so
powerful in the Anglo-Saxon race.

THE NEW METHOD IN FRANCE.

As the French National Scientific Association, in their meeting at
Grenoble, two years ago, recognized in their most startling form the
phenomena of human impressibility which are illustrated in the
“Manual of Psychometry,” and reported the most marvellous
experiments in medicines,—an act of liberality which has no
parallel in English-speaking nations,—so at the late meeting of
their Scientific Congress, as I learn from the German magazine, the
Sphinx, the new principle of education was broached which I feared
to present in the “New Education,” and was received with general
approbation by that learned body.

Of course there was not a complete presentation of the subject,
for that would require a complete knowledge of the brain, which no
scientific association claims at present, and which will have its first
presentation to the readers of the Journal of Man, but the process
of educational development was studied by the French savants
from the standpoint of mesmeric science and its leading methods,
which are now (freed from the name of an individual) styled
hypnotism; or, the sleep-producing process.

In that passive and impressionable condition which is called
hypnotic, mesmeric, somnambulic, or somniloquent, it has long been
known that the subject may be absolutely controlled by the operator,
or by a simple command or suggestion, or by his own imagination.
This has been so often demonstrated before many hundred
thousands of spectators, that it is a matter of general knowledge
everywhere among intelligent people,—everywhere except, perhaps,
in the thick darkness of medical colleges, where ignorance upon
such subjects has long been made the criterion of respectability, and
perhaps among a few very orthodox congregations, where such
things have been associated with the idea of witchcraft, and considered
very offensive to the Lord. Such was the doctrine of my
old contemporary at Cincinnati, Dr. Wilson, at the head of the leading
orthodox congregation; and it was equally offensive to the champion
debater of Presbyterian orthodoxy, the Rev. N. L. Rice, whom
I arraigned before a vast audience for his antiquated falsehoods. If
the church and the college are getting a little more enlightened now,
I cannot forget the condition in which I found them, of stubborn
 hostility to scientific progress, and these things should not be forgotten
until they have repented, reformed, and ceased to be a stationary
obstruction.

We are not accustomed to look to a Catholic country like France
for advanced thought, yet, in these instances just mentioned, we find
French scientists entertaining advanced ideas which the leaders of
American science treat with either indifference or hostility. The
Popular Science Monthly and medical journals generally treat all
such matters with stubborn aversion and injustice. The learned
collaborators of Johnson’s Cyclopedia were unwilling even to have
the science of psychometry mentioned in it, and it was introduced
by the publisher against their protest. These things I mention now,
that the great public to which I appeal may better understand the
real value of the opinions of those who stand in positions of authority
and influence.

I would not wish to diminish by harsh criticism the sentiment of
reverence which is already too feeble in the American mind. We
cannot be too reverent to real intellectual and moral greatness, but
to reverence beyond their worth the teachers of old inherited falsehoods,
is to be a traitor to truth. The literature of to-day is controlled
by ancient or mediæval errors, and the fresh science seeking
expression in the Journal of Man could not have found expression
in periodical literature. Our leading periodicals would not
have opened their pages to the exposition of educational methods
which is to be given in this essay. Intolerance is the inheritance
which the generation of to-day has received from ancestors who two
or three centuries ago delighted in hanging or even burning the
exponents of opinions contrary to their own; and where intolerance
is not in the way, the energy of literary cliques is exerted to hold
exclusive possession of the field.

With this exordium, which the occasion seemed to require, let us
proceed to consider the most powerful and radical measure, which
belongs to the science of education, and which has been developed
by the science of anthropology.

DEFINITION OF EDUCATION.

Education, rightly understood, signifies the development of all the
faculties or capacities of the soul, and, as a necessary consequence,
of the brain, in which that soul is lodged, and of the body, which is
as essential to the brain as the brain is to the soul. For without the
brain there is no soul expression, and in proportion to the condition
and development of the brain is the expression of all the soul faculties.
A soft and watery brain is always accompanied by feebleness
of character and mind. In like manner the manifestations of the
brain depend for their strength upon the body, when the lungs and
heart fail to send a vigorous current of arterial blood to the brain, its
power declines proportionally; and when the current ceases entirely,
the action of the brain itself ceases, and with its cessation all manifestations
of the soul cease also. Or when the disordered viscera fail
to supply a healthy blood, as in fevers of a low type, the brain, like
 all other organs, is brought down to the level of the depraved blood,
and shows by its utter feebleness and by the incoherent expressions
of the patient that brain and soul depend upon the body for their
power and all their action in this life.2

FOUR EDUCATIONAL METHODS.

The process of education by a teacher consists chiefly in establishing
the control of his stronger mind over that of the pupil, by placing
the latter in the most passive and receptive condition, in which
the pupil not only receives the intelligence he gives, but also feels
the influence of his will and principles.

There are four methods by which the influence of the teacher is
made effective: 1st, the power of conviction or reason; 2d, the spirit
of obedience; 3d, the spirit of imitation; and 4th, the spirit of passive
sympathy.

In the first method he addresses the understanding, enabling the
pupil to understand what is best for him. If Socrates had been
right in maintaining that knowledge was the one thing needful to
overcome practical errors, and that men sinned only through ignorance
(which was a very grave mistake), this would be the most
effective method of teaching. But it is effective only with those
who are conscientious and thoughtful, who are seeking to do right,
and need only to be instructed. It is entirely ineffective with the
great majority of wrong doers, whose moral nature and self-control
are insufficient to curb their animalism.

The second method, the spirit of obedience, is the method of
religion, which is far more effective. Jesus and other religious
teachers impress their followers that there is a great and benevolent
power, the power to which we are indebted for our present lives and
our hope of unlimited future happiness,—to which we owe a profound
gratitude, with an unhesitating love and obedience. Our
love should not be withheld from our grand benefactor; and if his
wisdom transcends our own, the wisest thing that we can do is to
ascertain what that wisdom dictates, and obey it implicitly. That
which we supremely love and reverence we delight in obeying.

OBEDIENCE AND IMITATION.

The teacher or parent, therefore, should endeavor to hold something
like the Divine relation to the child,—should show a superiority
of knowledge, an inflexible firmness, an unvarying love, and
irresistible attraction, ever endeavoring to win love, while enforcing
the supremacy of his will, so that obedience may be a pleasure.
Thus may a woman with a masculine strength of will, or a man with
feminine strength of love, develop that willing obedience which
insures the moral elevation of the pupil. But whenever the teacher
fails to elicit both respect and love, his power for good is lost. In
 this evolution of good the power of the teacher is vastly enhanced
by that of music, especially in the form of song, when the pupil is
made to sing songs of exalted sentiment; and there are very few
natures so depraved as to resist long the combined power of exalted
music and a superior teacher, to which should be added the social
influence of numbers already elevated by such influences.

In such schools, the power of the third element, imitation, is very
great, for the pupil is generally more influenced by the example of
his numerous associates in the school and family, with whom he is
continually in contact, than by that of his teacher.

To get the full benefit of imitation requires not only the influence
of well-trained schoolmates, but systematic exercises in reading,
singing, declamation, and deportment, the teaching being given by
example.

When a boy or girl is taught by example to express a noble sentiment
in a natural manner, he is thereby compelled to feel the sentiment
in some degree with sincerity. When he is required to imitate
and practice certain forms of politeness which express the best
sentiments, those sentiments must gradually become a part of his
nature. The acts of respect, of kindness and courtesy to which he
may be naturally averse, cannot be daily practised without rousing
in his nature the sentiments to which they correspond.

VALUE OF DANCING.

Among the many disciplinary methods which have been neglected
in our educational systems, I would give a high rank to dancing.
Rightly conducted, it embodies so much of grace, dignity, cheerfulness,
playfulness, health, and the desire of pleasing, as to entitle it to
a high rank in the promotion of health and virtue. Dancing is one
of the imitative arts, and involves the amiable influence of imitation,
as well as the more lively sentiments. The hostility of the orthodox
churches to this refining exercise is probably the effect of the infernalism
of their theology, which places mankind upon the brink of hell,
in full view of the infinite agony of their friends, relatives, and ancestors,
so as to render every sentiment but that of gloom and terror
inappropriate. How bitter their hostility to all gaiety! “Yes,
dance, young woman,” said a famous Methodist preacher about
twenty years ago, “dance down to hell!” At the same time, his
own private record did not indicate any deep sincerity in his fear of
hell. The same hostility is still kept up, and overflows in the popular
harangues of Rev. Sam Jones, and many others.

Popular Christianity, in the majority of the churches, is therefore
one of the greatest hindrances to a normal educational system, and
to social refinement, notwithstanding its support of some of the
essential virtues.

THE REVOLUTIONARY METHOD.

The fourth method, of passive sympathy, is the most scientific, the
most novel and the most powerful of all,—the most competent to
grasp the helpless, hopeless, half idiotic, and half criminal classes and
restore them to normal intelligence and virtue. It was not mentioned
 in the “New Education,” for fear of alarming the orthodox
stolidity of the medical college and the church, but it will appear in
future editions. It is the method of bringing the subject into absolute
sympathy and absolute subordination under the operator.

It has been known throughout this century that certain persons
can be brought under the control of those of stronger wills, so as to
realize the thoughts, and even sensations of the operator, feeling
what he feels, tasting what he tastes, apparently more familiar with
his body than their own, and passively subject to his will. They
are said to be en rapport with him, and with no one else. In this
condition his will is substituted for their own, which is entirely passive,
and he is able to fix impressions on their minds and produce
changes in their feelings and sentiments which may remain after his
control is removed.

It is self-evident that in this process we have the most powerful
lever ever discovered for uplifting the fallen, and doing more in an
hour than can be done by the usual methods in many months. Why,
then, have we not had the benefit of this potent method throughout
the century? The answer is one word, Stolidity! These proceedings,
which are called magnetic, or named after Mesmer, mesmeric,
have had to battle for recognition, for existence even, against the
college and the church. The medical and clerical professions have
been everywhere educated to deny, despise, and resist this species of
science, and would, if they had the power, suppress it by law, their
education having made them ignorant of its merits and ignorant of
its deeply interesting literature. Prejudice and ignorance are inculcated
as easily as science, and they are inculcated in all colleges.

But all who are acquainted with the history of animal magnetism
during the present century know that it has nobly fulfilled its
mission as a system of therapeutics, by alleviating or curing all forms
of disease of both body and mind. That which cures bodily diseases
and sometimes overcomes insanity has certainly power enough to
modify the action of the brain; and if the large number of magnetic
physicians who have been successfully occupied in conquering
disease had been employed in modifying the action of the brain in
the young, we might have had as satisfactory reports of their success,
which neither the medical nor the clerical profession would have
been so much moved by jealousy to oppose.

In the light of anthropology, however, it is not necessary to
adhere to the old formulæ of the followers of Mesmer. The hypnotic
or mesmeric state is simply a condition arising from the exercise
and predominance of a faculty belonging to all human beings,—a
faculty which may be evoked by other methods, or by the voluntary
action of the subject, or by the spontaneous action of the brain, as
in those who in sleep pass into the state of somnambulism, and go
forth in the night, walking in dangerous places with perfect safety,
but in an unconscious state.

This condition is also produced by gentle manipulations over the
head toward the eyes, or upon the chest down to the epigastrium
(pit of the stomach). The reason of these processes was entirely
 unknown until my discovery of the organ of Somnolence in the
temples, and the corresponding region in the body showed that the
results were produced by manipulations which concentrated the
nervous action to those two locations.

The entranced or mesmeric state, in which the subject is in a
dreamy condition with but little power of will and with extreme
susceptibility, which is also a state of great mental clearness, may be
produced by directly stimulating the proper organs with the fingers,
which should be placed upon the organ of Somnolence on each side
of the head, in the temples, about an inch horizontally
behind the brow. In persons who are impressible
this produces a quiet dreamy feeling, and a
disposition to close the eyes. If carried further,
the eyes become closed so that it is difficult to open
them, and the unconscious state soon follows. The
same effect may be produced by placing the hand
on the body just below the breastbone (sternum). In this condition,
the character, or action of the brain, is under the control of
the operator, and by gently applying his hand over any portion of
the brain, its organs may be brought into predominant activity, while
other organs may be quelled or quieted by gentle dispersive manipulations.
Thus, placing the hand gently on the top of the head,
touching very lightly, all the amiable or moral organs will be
brought into play, producing the most admirable and pleasing disposition;
or if the operator has the necessary knowledge of the
locations he may bring out each faculty separately, such as Love,
Hope, Religion, Kindness, Conscientiousness, Firmness, Cheerfulness,
Imitation, etc.

At the same time, if there be any evil propensities, such as a
quarrelsome, irritable temper, a love of turbulence and cruelty,
selfishness, avarice, jealousy, etc., all of which lie at the base of the
brain, they may be for the time entirely suppressed by gentle
dispersive manipulations from the organs of such propensities either
down toward the chest or upward.

What I state thus of the moral and selfish tendencies or faculties
is equally applicable to all the faculties and their organs. We may
stimulate all forms of intelligence, observation, memory, or reason,
or check excessive intellectual activity when it disturbs sleep and
exhausts the brain. We may thus cultivate modesty, obedience,
prudence, industry, application, imagination, refinement, truthfulness,
faith, spirituality, originality, invention, literary capacity,
patience, perseverance, fortitude, hardihood, health, temperance,
and, in short, every good quality that we desire to see developed, if
we understand cerebral science; and if we understand only its
general-outlines we can at least improve the character by giving a
predominance to the superior regions of the brain.

But while this may be done more effectively in the somnolized
condition, it is not absolutely necessary to induce that condition.
Speaking of the entire fourteen hundred millions now on the globe,
we may say that a large majority are susceptible, in various degrees,
 of feeling such influences without any previous somnolizing.
Nearly all the inhabitants of the torrid zone are subject to such influences
in their habitual condition, and actually require no medicine,
because their treatment by the hand of an enlightened anthropologist
familiar with therapeutic sarcognomy will control all their
diseases. The greatest triumphs of sarcognomy are yet to be realized
in such climates.

In the United States, the susceptibility increases as we go South.
The majority of the southern population are impressible, and there
are some who would even maintain that a majority are, in the North;
and certainly magnetic healers have been very successful in New
England.

But whatever may be the case with adults, I believe that a
majority of the young everywhere possess a considerable degree of
impressibility, and that the mother’s hand, gently applied upon the
upper surface of the head, will generally quiet the evil passions and
promote good humor.

This is more especially true of girls. It is rare to find one who
does not show in her youth, especially from ten to twenty years of
age, a degree of susceptibility which makes her a good subject for
the manual treatment of disease, and also for improving the action
of the brain, by the scientific use of the hand upon the head, by
which despondent, restless, fretful, hysterical, or other evil conditions
may be quickly overcome. The speedy relief of headache is
especially remarkable.

My own experiments upon the brain have been made for the
development and cultivation of science, or the assistance of the sick.
I have not had time to undertake the systematic cultivation and
change of character by such processes in the young; but when I see
how quickly and completely the condition of a patient may be
changed, and all cloudy, depressed conditions of the brain removed,—how
easily I can produce a state of insanity, idiocy, or pugnacity,
and as quickly remove it entirely,—I cannot doubt that a little
perseverance in cultivating the nobler qualities until they become
by habit a second nature will change even the most depraved, if the
process be begun in childhood or youth and steadily maintained,
unless there be a great organic deficiency in the brain, which cannot
be remedied.

The teacher of the future, duly educated in anthropology, will lay
aside the rod, and will find in the scientific application of his hands
the means of overcoming acquired or even hereditary evils; and
special asylums will be established, in which the most degenerate
youth may be restored to honor, not by cerebral treatment alone,
but by all the appliances of industry, music, religion, and love, which
have already reformed so many youthful criminals at Lancaster,
Ohio, and given them to society as good citizens.

The method of direct operation on the brain, which was introduced
by my discovery in 1841, is that with which I am more
familiar, but the mesmeric method has long been known, and the
modification of this, which might be called the imaginative method,
 has been made familiar during the last fifty years under the popular
name of psychology, and sometimes under the absurd name of
electro-biology.

This method is simply that of assuming control of the subject
when he is in the passive state, and making him believe anything
he is told, as, for example, that a handkerchief is a snake, that a piece
of money is burning hot, or that he is a king, a hero, an orator, an
auctioneer, or anything else suggested by the fancy of the operator,
which is at once carried into personation by the subject. This is a
familiar, popular exhibition, which never fails to attract and amuse,
but has unfortunately not been applied to its philanthropic uses in
healing disease and elevating the character. If disease can be overcome
by making the subject believe a glass of pure water a powerful
restorative medicine, or by believing himself marvellously well and
vigorous; or if his vicious or indolent habits can be overcome by
making him for a time believe himself a religious saint or an energetic
business man,—such experiments should be made a powerful
adjunct in education, and in the reformation of criminals; and this
application has recently been made in France, which has the honor
of leading in this important philanthropy.

The passive state required may be produced by fixing the gaze
intently for a few minutes upon some object near the eyes which
requires them to be turned inward, or by gazing at the eyes of the
operator. The operator tells him if his eyes are shut that he cannot
open them, or that he cannot lift his foot, or cannot step across a
certain mark, and he seems unable to do so, but does readily whatever
his operator suggests, and believes himself to be whatever his
operator says—experiments which have been made a source of
infinite amusement to public audiences.

For example, about forty-five years ago a Mr. Keeley was making
such exhibitions in Louisville, and found an old lawyer named
Dozier a good subject. He informed Mr. Dozier on the platform
that he was Mr. Polk, President of the United States, whereupon he
attempted to assume a corresponding dignity. Then, bringing up
Mr. Geo. D. Prentice, the witty editor of the Louisville Journal, he
informed the quasi-President Polk that this was his wife, Mrs. Polk,
just arrived, whereupon an amusingly cordial reception of the quasi-wife
occurred.

The utilization of these principles by the French is shown in the
following translation from the German.

HYPNOTISM AND EDUCATION.

BY EDGAR BERILLON.

[Translated from the German in Sphinx, for the Journal of Man.]

The careful study which the school of the medical faculty of Nancy has
devoted to the phenomena of suggestion, and their actual progress in that
department, present the question whether the time has not arrived for
teachers to participate in this scientific movement.

 The numerous observations by Dr. August Voisin of the Salpetriere have
positively proved in his own practice not only the curability of mental diseases,
but the great assistance which may be given to moral culture, so
that we might successfully introduce hypnotism in educational schools.
Dr. Voisin with great ease cured his first patient in the trial of hypnotic
suggestion—a girl by the name of Johanna Schaaf, who was not only a
thief, but dissolute, lazy, and unclean. He transformed her into an honest
industrious, neat, and obedient person. For several years she could not be
induced to read a line. Under the control of Dr. Voisin she was made to
read several pages of a moral work, which she repeated before the class.
Then with great facility he roused her feelings of sympathy, which appeared
to have become extinct. This cure was so thorough that she has
since been appointed a nurse in the hospital, and has given complete satisfaction,
showing herself quite conscientious.

Many other experiments were made quite satisfactorily, and similar results
were produced in his city practice. In one case, by hypnotic suggestion
treatment Dr. Voisin transformed the character of a quarrelsome woman,
making her a mild affectionate wife to her husband. Voisin’s experiments
related principally to adults, but Dr. Liebeault of Nancy made experiments
with children, of which he has mentioned two cases. Once a
child was brought to his clinic with great suffering from a nervous affection,
but would not submit to a hypnotic treatment till her little brother
present offered himself, not being afraid. When he was put to sleep his
mother told the physician that the boy in school was always in the lower
grades, without making any progress. While in the sleep he was strongly
impressed for diligence and zeal, and the subsequent result was perfect;
within six weeks he became an example of diligence and perseverance,
and soon got promoted. The second case was that of a young idiot. He
was incapable of intellectual culture, and could not be taught reading or
arithmetic. Dr. Liebeault submitted him to many hypnotic sittings, making
a very great effort to rouse his attention, though he seemed to have no
capacity for being instructed. Finally he succeeded so well that after two
months he could read, and could cipher in the four rules of arithmetic. A
great number of similar cases were treated by Dr. Dumont at Nancy with
decided success.

In one of his clinics Prof. Bernheim maintained that all children are receptive
of hypnotic suggestion or transference of thought, and even more so
when they enter the age of reasoning. Not only in sleep, but also in the
waking condition, they may be affected; and the school of Nancy deserves
great credit for presenting this important matter to the world in its true
light.

One of the signs of the hypnotic sleep or state is the automatic condition
of the individual. In consequence of having for the time an enfeebled will,
the individual will yield to all impressions upon it; and this weakness of
will may take place in a wakeful state, when, if there is no opposition, the
individual will accept all assurances in good faith. In case there is no
exertion of influence by others, the subject will act by his or her own imagination.
Such auto-suggestion is the result of a tendency to imitation which
seems to be developed in children particularly, and develops in the waking
state in undisciplined minds or in a fatigued and passive state.

These important principles and facts render it the duty of every educator
to study the efficacy of suggestion and imitation in children. The experiments
made thus far, authorize us to establish the following rules for practice:

If we have to deal with children of lazy, unintelligent, and indifferent
character, we should confine ourselves to practicing verbal suggestion in
 their waking state, and to be effective it would be best to follow the experiments
at Nancy, especially of Dr. Liebeault, and make great effort to gain
the implicit confidence of the child. Seat it by itself on a chair, place your
hand on its forehead, and enforce the suggestions by a mild voice and patient
manner, but with firm determination.

When, however, our treatment is to ameliorate the future destiny of the
children,—when their faculty of observation is deficient, when they have
no diligence whatever, and are full of vicious, headstrong, evil inclinations,
it is our opinion that by all means we should apply hypnotism fully to these
degenerate creatures. The suggestions in the hypnotic sleep are of greater
efficacy, more durable and profound, and probably in many cases it will be
necessary to repeat these procedures frequently, until the imperfect intellectual
faculties are developed, and the evil inclinations suppressed. Thus
may we guide these young souls to a better and purer future.

In conclusion, I do not hesitate to assert the importance of hypnotism,
in spite of all objections in its application to the mental and physical faculties
of healthy persons. Its application as an educational method will be
of vast importance to sick and depraved subjects.

The train of thought in the above essay, which Dr. Berillon has
published in the September number of his Revue de l’Hypnotisme,
inspired the contents of a lecture presented at the Scientific Congress
at Nancy (August, 1886), out of which arose a discussion in
which Dr. Liebault observed that the facts mentioned by Dr. Berillon
are entirely true. “My long practice,” said he, “has permitted
me to gather a great number of other cases, which will sustain the
doctrines of the speaker. I have never seen a child continue entirely
unreceptive of suggestion treatment. In the persons, children, and
adults, with whom I have experimented, counting by thousands, I
have never observed the least injurious consequences whatever.”

The report of the discussion given us above in Sphinx shows that
these important suggestions met with only one unfriendly criticism,
and that of little force. M. Desjardins, Esq., suggested that it was
highly important that other honorable gentlemen, like Dr.
Liebault, Dr. Voisin, and Dr. Dumont, should be officially appointed
to carry on such experiments. He expressed his desire that the
Congress should recommend that hypnotic suggestion for the purpose
of moral improvement should be tried upon the worst class of
pupils in the public schools. The suggestion was seconded with energy
by Dr. Leclerc, who expressed his surprise that any one should
object. It may be said to have met with the general approbation of
the Congress.

The Public Ledger of Philadelphia published last year the following
sketch of the progress of the marvellous in France:

Marvels of Mind and Body.

For several years past a number of French physicians have been experimenting
on hypnotised or mesmeric subjects and on hysterical patients, with
results of the most extraordinary character. It is our purpose to very
briefly describe some of these remarkable experiments, from which, we may
 say, the standing of the doctors engaged in them, and the critical care with
which they were conducted, seem to remove all questions of fraud or
inaccuracy.

In these hypnotic experiments as practised by Dr. Charcot, of the Salpetriere;
by Dr. Bernheim, Professors Beaunis and Liegeois and other
persons of high professional standing, the most striking feature is that the
influence exerted upon the patient does not vanish with the conclusion of
the experiment, but may produce its effects days, weeks or even months
afterwards, when the patient is seemingly in a normal state and controlled
solely by his own thoughts. For instance, a sensitive person may be
hypnotised, or mesmerized, to use the better known word, and it be suggested
to him by the experimenter to go at a certain hour of the next or
some succeeding day and shoot some person and then deliver himself up to
justice. On being brought back to the normal state no recollection
of this suggestion is present in his mind. And yet, if the experiment work
as truly as it often seemingly has worked, he will endeavor at the time
fixed to perform the action indicated, with the full belief that the impulse
to do so is his own. We may quote some instances in corroboration of
this seemingly improbable statement.

Cases of Hypnotic Suggestion.—Among minor instances of this
result, Frederick Myers relates that he suggested to a hypnotised subject,
who was engaged in coloring a sketch, that it would be a good idea to paint
the bricks blue. He repeated his suggestion several times, and then
brought the subject to the normal state. She had no recollection of what
had passed, yet on resuming her painting some time afterwards she hesitated,
and then said to a lady companion, “I suppose it would never do to
paint these bricks blue.” “Why blue?” “Oh, it only occurred to me
that it would look rather nice.” She acknowledged that the idea of blue
bricks had been persistently in her mind, with the notion that the color
would look well.

In another instance, Dr. Bernheim, of Nancy, suggested to a hypnotised
person to take Dr. X.’s umbrella when awake, open it, and walk twice up
and down the gallery. On being awakened he did so, but with the umbrella
shut. When asked why he acted so, he replied: “It is an idea. I
take a walk sometimes.” “But why have you taken Dr. X.’s umbrella?”
“Oh, I thought it was my own. I will replace it.”

These are harmless instances of this strange power. There are others
the reverse of harmless in this significance. One or two of these we may
quote: Prof. Liegeois, in his recently published pamphlet, “Of Hypnotism
in its relations to Civil and Criminal Law,” describes experiments
with the subjects of M. Liebault, a well-known hypnotiser. In these
experiments he took pains to induce the patients to commit crimes. As he
relates, Mdlle. A. E. (a very amiable young lady) was made to fire at her
own mother with a pistol, which she had no means of knowing was unloaded.
The same lady was made to accuse herself before a judge of having
assassinated an intimate friend with a knife. Yet in both these instances
she was wide awake at the time and supposed that she was acting from her
own impulse.

Many other instances might be given, but these will suffice for
illustration. As to the length of time in which such a suggestion may
remain operative, Prof. Beaunis relates a case in which he suggested to a
hypnotised subject that he would call on her on the next New Year’s day
(172 days after the date of the experiment). On that date, being perfectly
conscious, she seemed to see him walk into the room where she was, pay his
compliments, and retire. She insisted that this had really happened, and
 could not be convinced to the contrary. A striking feature of this incident
was that he seemed to be dressed in summer attire (as at the date of experiment),
though it was now the dead of winter.

A natural conclusion from the facts above detailed is, that the strange
power here indicated might prove a very dangerous weapon in the hands of
an unscrupulous man. If a person can suggest to a subject in the hypnotic
sleep that, at a certain future day, he or she shall kill a person obnoxious
to the experimenter, or perform some other criminal act, and if the act be
duly performed, the subject being in a seemingly normal state, and fully
convinced that he acted solely through an impulse originating in his own
mind, it might appear as if there was little safety left for honest people,
and that a villain might carry out his murderous schemes with perfect
impunity. In such a case as we have said, the mind of the patient would
cease to be his own, but would partly belong to the person whose deadly
thoughts it contained, and whose involuntary agent it had become. Will
the jurisprudence of the future have to take account of such possibilities as
this? Yet it must be remembered that the great majority of people are
not susceptible to hypnotic influence, and that those whose will can be so
completely subjected to that of another are comparatively few. Very few
such have yet been found in France. In America, the realm of a less excitable
people, still fewer could be found.

It may be said, moreover, that this influence in several cases has been
exerted for the good of the patient. One instance is given in which the
patient was a great smoker and drinker, and voluntarily gave up both
under the influence of hypnotic suggestion. Several other cases of the
same kind are related, while a humorous instance is given of an idle school
boy who, impelled by a hypnotic suggestion, became a very ardent student.
After working off that spell, however, he obstinately refused to be hypnotised
again, apparently with the impression that there was something
uncanny in his unusual fit of devotion to study.

The Grand Symposium of the Wise Men of the Nineteenth Century.

The question of our future destiny is paramount to all others
in dignity and importance. Upon this subject all wise men must
have clear and positive views. The editor of the Christian Register
of Boston, according to the very common idea that men in prominent
positions as professors and decorated with college honors must be
the wisest, thought it well to ask them if science could take cognizance
of the question of immortality, and if its verdict was for or
against a future life. Such questions he addressed to twenty-three
professors, presidents, doctors of laws, etc. But he did not reflect
that there were several hundred gentlemen in Boston who had more
knowledge on this subject, and who could give him positive and
reliable information, and he entirely forgot that the only scientist
who has examined this question from the physiological standpoint
resides in Boston.

The editor did not obtain what he was ostensibly seeking, but he
did obtain an amount of evidence of ignorance, in high places, which
I should be happy to record, but for the fact that it would occupy
 more than half of one number of the Journal of Man. Nevertheless,
I cannot deprive my readers of the pleasure and amusement
derived from this correspondence. I have condensed the responses
into a readable compass leaving out their useless verbiage, and
putting them in a poetic form, as poetry best expresses the essence
and spirit of an author’s thought. I think the learned gentlemen, if
they could peruse these doggerel rhymes, would acknowledge that
their meaning has been expressed even more plainly and forcibly
than in their own prose. The reader will observe that of the whole
twenty-three only two appear to have any knowledge on the subject,
the famous A. R. Wallace and the brilliant Dr. Coues. The following
is the essence or rather quintessence of the voluminous responses
in the order in which they were published. The learned gentlemen
ought to feel grateful for the increased candor, brevity and explicitness
of their replies, when boiled down into the rhyming form,
bringing out new beauties which were not apparent in the original
nebulous condition of vagueness in which some of them disclaim
opposition to immortality, while their only immortality is that of
atoms and force.

While there is something amusing in these responses (which I
shall carefully file away for the future), which may furnish matter
for surprise and laughter in a more enlightened age, and which may
cause the writers, if they live long enough, to realize a feeling of
shame for the wilful ignorance or affectation of ignorance displayed,
we cannot overlook the very serious fact that the educational
leadership of our country is in the hands of men of whom a large
proportion are destitute of the very foundation of the sentiment of
religion, while another large portion are so utterly regardless of
scientific truth as to ignore the best attested facts, which are continually
in progress within their reach—a degree of bigotry which is
not surpassed in the history of the “Dark Ages.” Verily the
shadow of those ages rests upon the leading institutions of to-day.

1. Response of Prof. Charles A. Young, LL.D., of Princeton College.

   I must confess this creed of Immortality

   Hath not in the light of science much reality;

   But all such questions are beyond our science,

   And revelation is our sole reliance.

2. Prof. James D. Dana, LL.D., of Yale College.

   Though very much hurried—not to say flurried,

   I will venture to say, as my answer to-day,

   There is nothing in science to prevent our reliance

   On the solemn reality of life’s immortality.

3. Prof. Asa Gray, LL.D., Harvard University.

   Were the gospel light out, we should all be in doubt,

   For science looks on, astride of the fence,

   And never can tell us the whither or whence;

   But I shrewdly suspect it is slightly inclined

   To harmonize now with the Orthodox mind.

4.  Prof. Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., University of Pennsylvania.

   Your doctrine of life eternal

   And everything else supernal

   Might well he pronounced an infernal;

   Delusion!

   For Solomon said at an ancient date

   That everything dieth early or late,

   And man or beast, or small or great,

   Hath but one fate.

   Your future life is an awful bore;

   I’ve tried life once, and I want it no more.

   You may guess and imagine o’er and o’er,

   But where’s the proof?

   Yet nevertheless, I won’t deny

   You may live without brains in realms on high,

   But as for myself I’d rather not try,

   I’d rather die.

5. Simon Newcomb, LL.D., F.R.A.S., etc.

   Science deals only with matters of sense,

   It has nothing to do with a mere pretence.

   ’Tis one thing to say, that the soul survives,

   And another to say that a cat has nine lives;

   But I do not say the one or the other,

   Nor affirm nor deny that the monkey’s my brother.

   I’ve nothing to say of angels or sprites,

   Or the spooks that appear in the darkest of nights.

   For if we can’t see them, nor chase them nor tree them,

   They can’t be detected, nor caught and dissected,

   So science must be mum—and I, too, am dumb.

6. J. P. Lesley, State Geologist of Pennsylvania, an ex-Reverend.

   Science knows nothing about this matter,

   But fancy may come to talk and flatter.

   And as all mankind in this agree,

   There’s a future life for you and for me.

   Let science slide; we’ll go with the tide,

   Uplift ourselves above the sod,

   And claim to be a part of God;

   Though God extends through time and space,

   While man, alas! soon ends his race,

   And whether he lives his own life again

   Or is lost in the infinite, I do not think plain.

7. Lester F. Ward, A.M., of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

   As for immortal life, I must confess,

   Science hath never, never answered “yes.”

   Indeed all psycho-physical sciences show,

   If we’d be logical, we must answer no!

   Man cannot recollect before being born,

   And hence his future life must be “in a horn.”

   There must be parte ante, if there’s a parte post,

   And logic thus demolishes every future ghost.

    Upon this subject the voice of science

   Has ne’er been ought but stern defiance.

   Mythology and magic belong to “limbus fatuorum”

   If fools believe them, we scientists deplore ’em

   But, nevertheless, the immortal can’t be lost,

   For every atom has its bright eternal ghost.

8. Edward Morse, Ph.D., of Salem.

   That immortality which Science denies

   Cannot be admitted by those who are wise,

   For if we give up and concede Immortality,

   There’s nothing to check its wide Universality.

   The toad-stool and thistle, the donkey and bear

   Must live on forever,—the Lord knows where.

   I tell you, dear sir, that Science must wake up

   And grapple these spooks to crush them, and break up

   This world of delusion of Phil. D’s and D.D’s,

   Who are all in the dark, as dear Huxley agrees,

   Proud Huxley’s “The Prince of Agnostics,” you see,

   And Huxley and I do sweetly agree.

9. Prof. Josiah Parsons Cooke, LL.D. of Harvard University.

   I freely confess that the life of the dead

   Is a mystery alike to the heart and the head

   Of all the mortals that dwell on earth,

   Although revealed since our Saviour’s birth,

   And I fully believe in the old-fashioned God,

   Who, walking in Eden, made man of a clod;

   And I fully believe the same Deity still

   Controls all things, here by the fiat of will.

10. Edward D. Cope, A.M., Ph.D., author of “Theology of Evolution.” Dr. Cope answers in a very voluminous and intricate manner, but the following is the essence of his answer.

    Of life eternal little can we know,

    And yet we hope some glimmerings may grow,

    By patient inference as facts appear.

    I hope there’s something coming near.

    Science but sees extinction in our death,

    And life the incident of fleeting breath.

    We travel round the ologies to see

    Naught but a grand revolving mystery;

    But then if we have a controlling mind,

    Why should not God have the same kind?

    “Kinetogenesis” was ruled by will,

    The conscious thought goes with it still,

    And as conscious thought erst “ruled the roast,”

    Why may it not become a ghost?

    But as ghosts are like a vapor mixed,

    All speculation is lost betwixt

    The possible this, and the possible that,

    And so philosophy falls flat.

11.  Sir John William Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., Principal of McGill University, Montreal.

    We are bound to believe in eternal life,

    ’Tis an instinct which in humanity’s rife,

    Of savages, some have been found so low,

    As neither a God or a heaven to know;

    If civilized men sink down to their level,

    They are on the highway to the realms of the Devil.

12. J. Sterry Hunt, LL.D., F.R.S.

    In a terrible hurry, I cannot say much,

    But Science, I think, opposes all such

    Belief in the future. But God is so great,

    I accept what he gives as my future state.

13. William James, M.D., Prof. Philosophy, Harvard University.

    I can only say my philosophy floats

    In the German life-boat of Prof. Lotze,

    At one opinion we both arrive,

    That all who ought to will survive.

14. Benjamin Apthorp Gould, LL.D., Astronomer, Cambridge.

    My faith is firm, but I have no time

    To explain it all in this tuneful rhyme.

    Science cannot say much, I fear,

    But must admit that God is here,

    And if the priests would let us alone,

    Perhaps a little more might be known.

    Spirit is fact, and this I assume,

    For Matter is nothing but solid Gloom.

15. Alfred R. Wallace, the compeer of Darwin.

    Spiritual science has told the whole story

    Of the claims of mankind to realms of glory.

    Our facts are abundant, harmonious and true,

    They satisfy me and should satisfy you.

    No baseless hypothesis shapes our knowledge,

    No dogmatic rule derived from a college,

    As we fearless explore the worlds unseen,

    And learn what all their mysteries mean.

    The science we study is truly Divine,

    They only reject it who are mentally blind.

16. Thomas Hill, D.D., LL.D., Ex-President of Harvard.

    As for life after death, a life without breath,

    Though science says no, I don’t think it’s so,

    For ’tis well understood our God is too good

    To create us and cherish, and then let us perish.

17. Prof. Asaph Hall, LL.D., of the National Observatory, Washington.

    Metaphysics and science are still our reliance,

    Taking them for our guide, we can’t quite decide,

    But as we incline, a doctrine we find.

18.  Prof. Elliott Coues, M.D., Ph.D., Scientist and Theosophist.

    I think that science is bound to answer

    Every question that comes to hand, sir.

    Then why do some scientists fail to acknowledge

    Discoveries made outside of their college?

    There’s a reason for all things that come to pass,

    And no man likes to be proved an ass;

    And hence they refuse to agree with St. Paul,

    The spiritual body is all in all.

19. Herbert Spencer, British Philosopher, as reported by Rev. M. J. Savage.

    ’Tis all in a muddle we cannot make out,

    Nor does evolution diminish the doubt;

    The facts that we get prove very refractory,

    And I cannot find anything quite satisfactory.

20. Prof. Charles S. Pierce, A.M., of Johns Hopkins University, (a voluminous reply).

    I’ve looked this question through and through,

    But for future life the prospect’s blue.

    Psychic Researchers have gathered up much,

    But it crumbles to dust beneath my touch.

    ’Tis nothing but rubbish that Society brings,

    For the ghosts they have found are the stupidest things,

    Poor “starveling” idiots, all of that ilk,

    Who are coming back here to cry over “spilled milk.”

    Serenely we smile at “the lamp of Aladdin,”

    And stories of ghosts about this world gadding.

    Yet after all, I don’t believe in Spencer,

    In Kant or in Comte, or in any of them, sir;

    Nor in Christendom’s sacred and reverend creed,

    Though weaklings adopt it because they have need;

    But I believe in this world’s events,

    And a life regulated by common sense.

21. Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D., President of Johns Hopkins University.

    Man hath soul-freedom here on earth,

    And from Almighty God hath birth;

    Therefore, should stand in faith sublime,

    And fear no science of our time.

22. F. A. P. Barnard, President of Columbia College, New York.

    Your question stands outside of science,

    Of any science that is mine,

    The only doctrine worth reliance,

    Comes from the old Bible—Still Divine.

23. Prof. T. Huxley, British Philosopher, etc.

    If a soul works with brains, can it work without?

    Would seem to be a matter somewhat in doubt.

    If you know that it can, pray tell me why?

    If you know that it can’t, you know more than I.

    You may answer such questions if you know how,

    But I’ll not wait a moment to hear you now!

 The Burning Question in Education.

If our left hand had been mangled, and continued to be an inflamed,
ulcerating mass, though carried in a sling and treated by all
the surgeons of repute around us,—never through a long life giving
any promise of restoration or even relief,—would not its restoration
be the most prominent question in our minds?

Society has a crushed, ulcerous, and painful hand upon which the
doctors of the college and church have expended such skill as they
have in their occasional perfunctory visits, and the hand grows no
better, but rather worse, during the whole existence of the American
Republic.

The existence of an increasing mass of crime, pauperism, and
insanity is the crushed and diseased hand of civilized society, to
which and to its obvious, natural method of healing I have vainly
endeavored, in the “New Education,” to call the attention of our
clergy and our teachers. It is true that three editions of that book
have been disposed of to the delight of progressive thinkers, but it
has made little impression on those who control public institutions
and public opinion. Why is this?

There are sounds in nature too finely delicate to be heard by the
average ear, and rays beyond the violet too fine for the average
human eye, though visible to those of superior nervous endowments.
So in the world of thought there are ethical conceptions too high
and pure for the multitude,—conceptions so far away from their
habitual life that they cannot appreciate or sympathize with them.
Such conceptions constitute the ethical system of education, which
is competent to banish crime, and to introduce a higher social condition,
as has been amply proved by its imperfect introduction in
the Lancaster, Ohio, and other reformatory schools.

Why is not this made the prominent theme in every religious
society, as prominent as temperance? True, intemperance supplies
us the majority of criminals, but when the criminal is prepared in
the hot-bed of alcohol, society transplants him into a richer soil,
impregnated with a greater amount of filth than the saloon, and
cultivates him into the full-blown, hardened villain, for whom
there is nothing but a career of crime, very costly indeed to
society.

Why is this insane course pursued? Because society has not the
Christianity which it professes, and the pulpit has not learned how
to instil the Divine law of love, while the college cares nothing
about it.

Society itself is criminally indifferent, and barbarously cruel. Its
only thought in reference to its debased members is not their lost
condition, and how to redeem them, but how to punish them revengefully
for their evil deeds, in imitation of the Divine Demon whom
orthodox theology recognizes as its model. Until society has enough
of benevolence or enough of practical sagacity to get rid of this
common impulse of brute life, we shall continue to have an energetic,
 skilful, and formidable army of criminals, spread all over the land,
levying an immense tax upon respectable citizens, and requiring an
increasing army of police to restrain them.

The best discourse that has yet been preached in a Boston pulpit
was once delivered in Trinity Church by the assistant minister, Mr.
Allen, a few weeks since, which was made the basis of an admirable
article on “our prisoners” in the Banner of Light of April 2. Mr.
Allen treated this subject in the spirit of the “New Education,”
showing that our penal system, instead of reforming criminals,
educates and perfects them in crime, under which system crime is
continually and alarmingly increasing, the statistics which he gives
being of the same terrible character as those presented in the “New
Education,” showing that our demoralization is progressing beyond
that of any other country. His statistics, which I have not examined
in detail, show that there were more than eight times as many
prisoners in this country in 1880 as there were in 1850. In Massachusetts,
and especially in Boston, the proportion of criminal population
was still greater.

England, having adopted a reformatory system, has kept the
criminal population in check,—brought it down to one in 18,000,
while we have one to every 837, because our prisons are colleges of
crime instead of houses of reformation. A criminal population of
5,000 in Massachusetts is kept under this debasing system, excepting
about 700 in the reformatory at Concord and the women’s prison at
Sherburne. Our criminals are held for punishment amid evil
influences, and turned out only qualified to prey upon society again,
since they have the brand of shame upon them.

The only proper and wholesome view of this subject, the only
view compatible with ethical or religious principles, is that our unfortunate
criminal brethren need our loving care instead of
vindictive hate. They should never be sent to prison for any
definite term of confinement, as a punishment, but, like lunatics and
pauper patients, should be placed under care and control until they
are cured. Every criminal who will not obey the law in freedom
should be sent to prison for life, under a kind and humane system,
there to earn his own support and in some cases to repay the damage
he has done, and in all cases to remain there until he has, beyond all
doubt, become so thoroughly reformed that he may be safely
entrusted with freedom. To encourage in the work of reformation,
he should be from time to time rewarded by enlargement of his
privileges and enjoyments, just in proportion as he proves himself
worthy; and after enjoying partial freedom for years, with faithful
and exemplary deportment, he should be granted full liberty, on the
sole condition of reporting himself at certain regular periods, that a
supervision may be retained over his conduct, and confinement
renewed if ever he should prove unworthy of entire freedom.

This system has been tried with entire success, and travellers
speak of seeing prisoners in Ireland half emancipated, working in
the fields, whom they should not have distinguished from the
common laborers. That courageous philanthropist, the late Burnham
 Wardwell, adopted a system of moral government in the
Virginia penitentiary, under which punishment was almost abolished;
and he was able to send out convicts in the city, under paroles,
without any doubt that they would faithfully return. Under a
similar system at Lancaster, Ohio, walls and locks were made unnecessary,
and the youthful convicts went out freely, when permitted
to mingle with the neighboring youth. When their reformation was
completed, which did not require over three years, they went forth
to lead an honest life; and subsequent reports showed that they
walked in the path of respectability and honor.

The mother’s love never abandons the idiot and criminal; but,
alas! society is neither mother nor father nor brother to its unfortunate
members, and hence society suffers, as we ever suffer from
violation of the Divine law.

Miscellaneous Intelligence.

 Genesis of the Brain

(Continued from page 32.)

Is there anything miraculous or extravagant in believing that this
invisible potentiality, which has such magical transforming and
developing power, but which has never been known to arise from
combinations of matter, has an origin which is, like itself, spiritual?
For we can obtain matter from matter, and spirit from spirit, but
never obtain spirit or life from dead matter.

The genesis of the human brain is therefore a microcosmic epitome
of the macrocosmic evolution, controlled by the “over-soul”—the
Divine power, of which we know so little.

To return to the embryo brain, which gives us visibly the epitome
of the evolution of vertebrated animals,—why is it not also an
epitome of the entire animal kingdom, from the radiata, articulata,
and mollusca to the vertebrata, instead of representing the evolution
of vertebrates alone? It may be so. It may be that man and other
animals in germination pass through all stages, from the lowest to
the highest; but the microscope cannot reveal the fact, for the jelly-like
or fluid conditions of the nervous system during the first month
after conception do not enable us to discover any organization or
outline from which anything can be learned. And yet, from certain
interesting experiments in sarcognomy which have never been performed
except by myself or my pupils, I am disposed to believe that
the germinal process of man goes beyond the beginning of the animal
kingdom, and that he retains in his constitution spiritual elements
which might not improperly be called, not a photograph, but a
psychograph of the entire animal kingdom,—yea, of everything that
lives, and even of the mineral elements that have no life.

These things are wonderful and grand indeed, but the self-sufficient
powers that rule the world of human society have no desire
to know them, and hence I have been content to enjoy them alone,
or with a few enlightened friends.

It is in the second month of life in the womb that the fish form of
brain is distinctly apparent, as shown by Tiedemann. The fish
form is that in which we have only a rudiment of the cerebrum,
which is so large in man. Behind the little cerebrum, which is
smaller than the bulb of the olfactory nerve, we have the middle
brain or optic lobes, which give origin to the optic nerves, and
behind them the cerebellum.

Let it be understood that the cerebrum is the psychic
brain, the cerebellum the physiological brain, and
the optic lobes the intermediate or psycho-physiological
brain, not sufficient to give the animal its character
and propensities, but sufficient to guide it in
swimming about.

What the cerebrum is when fully developed in
man has already been shown; what it is in the fishy
stage of development, when it is the smaller portion
of the brain, may be understood by a dissection given
in Serres “Anatomie Comparée du Cerveau,” representing
the brain of the codfish dissected or opened
from above. In this figure H is the spinal cord, E the
 cerebellum, C the optic lobes divided, and B the cerebrum divided,
showing the radiating fibres of the corpus striatum, m, from which
the cerebrum begins its development.

When animal life reaches a high development, the functions which
are diffused become concentrated into special organs. Intelligence
or psychic life is concentrated in the cerebrum, and entirely removed
from the spinal cord. The physiological energy apart from the
psychic, is concentrated in the cerebellum, and thus the intermediate
psycho-physiological organ, the optic lobes or quadrigemina, being
no longer important, dwindles to become the smallest part of the brain.

Explanation.—In the codfish, roach, and
flounder, II is the cerebellum, n the optic
lobes, in front of which is the cerebrum, from
which the olfactory nerve extends forward.
Behind the cerebellum is the superior end of
the spinal cord. The letter c is placed on
the restiform bodies or posterior part of the
medulla oblongata of the cod. The engravings
show the upper surfaces of the brains,
as we look down upon them.

If the reader will look at the
sketch of the brains of the codfish,
flounder, and roach, as figured by
Spurzheim, he will see in each a
very small cerebrum, a larger cerebellum,
and still larger middle brain
or optic lobes. This is the model
on which the human brain is first
developed, when in the second
month it becomes possible to study
it with the microscope. It presents
to view in the third month three
vesicles of soft neurine, the one
which is to form the cerebellum
being larger than that which is to
become the cerebrum.

These are three brains of different
grades, formed alike on the same
vesicular plan. The resemblance of
the optic lobes to the cerebrum is
very striking, and when we open
them we see what corresponds to
the lateral ventricles of the cerebrum, with a structure at the bottom
corresponding in position and character with the inferior ganglion of
the cerebrum. The subdivision of function is similar to that of the
cerebrum, the anterior portion of these lobes being of an intellectual,
perceptive character, and the posterior the seat of the impulses.
This has been demonstrated also in the experiments of vivisectors,
in which the irritation of the posterior part has produced a vocal
utterance or bark. Spurzheim gives a view of the brain of the pike
with an optic lobe partially opened, to show the ventricle.

The cerebellum or physiological brain is formed on the same
general plan, having its energetic or forcible functions in the posterior
inferior regions, and its more sensitive functions located anteriorly.

In the embryo of twelve weeks a great advance has taken place;
the optic lobes or quadrigemina are still large, but the cerebrum is
larger than all the remainder. Still, it has not yet developed what
might be called frontal and occipital lobes. The basis of the middle
lobe, which is the most physiological portion of the cerebrum, being
 devoted to the sensibility, appetites, and muscular impulses,
is that which first presents itself, being the first
outgrowth from the great inferior ganglion or summit
of the spinal system. As human brains degenerate to
a lower type they approximate this form. The frontal
and occipital lobes dwindle and the principal mass
remaining is that in the basis of the skull between
the ears. We see this form distinctly in congenital
idiots. The embryo cerebrum here represented measures but
three lines vertically, four lines in length, and five lines in thickness.
(The line is the twelfth of an inch.) The nerve membrane of this
hollow cerebrum is barely a fourth of a line thick. The cerebellum,
formed in the same way by projection from the summit of the spinal
cord, making two leaves that come together on the median line, has
also a cavity contained between them, and just behind the medulla
oblongata, which is finally reduced to the little space called the
fourth ventricle, when the cerebellum grows to become a solid body.

The growth of the cerebrum and cerebellum into solid bodies
instead of vesicles is effected by the folding together of the primitive
membrane as furrows appear upon its surface, by which it is
changed into folds or convolutions, each of which (like the fold of a
ruffle) may be cut out from its neighbors and opened from its inner
side, like a book. It resembles a book also in the fact that it contains
innumerable ideas or psychic elements, and the psychometer
might read from each convolution as a book the impressions recorded
in it. In its place in the brain it is like a book in a library; and as
the book offers on its back a title expressive of its contents, so we
label each convolution with its proper title.

In addition to the folding process, a complex growth of fibres
uniting in the corpus callosum completes the solidification, but not
so thoroughly as to prevent our reopening and spreading out the convolutions
by exercising a little dexterity. This was a puzzle to some
of the anatomists in the time of Gall, but I have found no difficulty
in opening out the convolutions to the extent of five or six inches
square. The cerebellum, too, though its ventricle is obliterated, is
susceptible also of a manipulation, showing that it has some traces of
its original formation.

From the twelve weeks embryo to those of twenty-one weeks and
of seven months we trace a progressive development and a commencement
of the furrows that form the convolutions.

In the brain of seven months, the right hemisphere is out open horizontally, showing the ventricle.

Thus we perceive in the essential plan of the brain its two organs,
cerebrum and cerebellum, are hollow spheres which grow gradually into
solid bodies, filling their interior cavities, of which the lateral ventricles
in the cerebrum, which have been explained, are the remnants.

The great importance of these anatomical details arises from the
fact that they show us the true central region of the brain from
which its development must be determined; and although this
work, designed for the general reader, cannot say much of the
brain, it is necessary to show its true conformation to enable us to
estimate the living brain correctly, so as to describe accurately
 living men, study the forms of crania, and derive some profit in
ethnological studies from the forms of crania which to the ethnologists
of the present time are of very little value or significance, since
they neither have nor claim a knowledge of the psychic functions
of the brain. I trust, therefore, my readers will not neglect these
anatomical memoranda, which they will find very valuable.

I am not aware that any anatomical, physiological, or phrenological
writer has given the exposition of the principles of cerebral
development which I have been presenting for nearly half a century,
although the anatomical facts are patent to all who choose to
examine cerebral embryology, and think of what dissection reveals,
instead of being thoughtlessly occupied in the mere details of
dissection without rising to a comprehension of the Divine plan.
Indeed, the phrenological school have positively misconceived and
misstated the principles of cerebral development. We can hardly
be said to have had any phrenological anatomists since the time of
Gall and Spurzheim sufficiently interested in comparative human
development to trace its basis in anatomy, for the able work of
Solly presented the brain solely as seen by the science of dissection,
and not by the science of development and psychic function.

Gall and Spurzheim, understanding cerebral structure themselves,
failed to state certain principles which were necessary to guard
against misconception; and they did not realize its necessity, because
their methods did not include the functions of the base of the
brain. Mr. George Combe, who has been the great popular exponent
of their system, for which he was well qualified by his clear,
philosophic mind, adopted the erroneous idea, in which he has been
followed by all subsequent writers on the subject, that the cerebral
organs were to be regarded as so many cones, starting from their
apex at the medulla oblongata and extending to their base at the
surface of the skull. Hence their development was to be estimated
by measuring the distance (with a pair of callipers) from the cavity
 of the ear (which corresponds very nearly to the medulla oblongata)
to the locations of the organs on the frontal superior and posterior
surfaces of the head.

In my first study of phrenology over fifty years ago, I adopted
this method, and diligently measured heads with callipers, relying on
the results, until I found them decidedly erroneous. I came upon
the astounding fact that the head of a prominent citizen of New
Orleans, when measured in this way, indicated by the height of the
upper region a character entitling him to rank among the saints,
when in fact he was notorious for the unrestrained energy of his
violent and vicious propensities. Engaging then in more careful
study and dissection of the brain, I found why the rule was so
deceptive; as the basilar region is developed below the ventricles,
giving depth, while the coronal region developed above gives height,
and the measurement from the ear to the top of the head included
both depth and height, it might be a very large measurement from
animal predominance or basilar depth alone, as it was in the case
that first revealed the error of Mr. Combe.

In such cases of animal predominance we find that the moral
region does not rise above the forehead, but runs back flat without
elevation, while the depth of the ear below the level of the brain and
the massiveness of the base of the brain running into a large neck
show plainly that the animal organs rule.

In the more noble characters, the rounded elevation of the coronal
region, combined with the moderate depth and thickness of the base
of the brain, make it easy to see that their vertical measurement is
due to height and not to depth. The great error of the phrenological
school has been in estimating moral development by the total
vertical measurement, and estimating animal development without
regard to depth, which is its chief indication.

In a profile view, a line drawn from the middle of the forehead
backward, horizontally, is sufficiently near the line of the lateral
ventricles to enable us to compare the upward and downward
development of the brain. In the two profiles here presented we see
a marked difference of character illustrated by drawing a line back
horizontally from the brow. The head in front, which is that of a
private citizen of excellent character, named Smith, I obtained in
 Florida nearly fifty years ago. At the same time I obtained the
other, which is that of a French count who lost his life on the coast
of Florida by wreck when engaged in a contraband slave trade with
Cuba. In the count we observe much less elevation and much
greater depth. He is especially deficient in Benevolence.

In proportion as men or animals rise in the scale of virtue the
brain is developed above the level of the face, and in proportion as
they incline to gross brutality the development falls behind the face;
and there is no exception to this law, either in quadrupeds, birds, or
reptiles. Indeed, notwithstanding the smallness of the brains of
fishes, their portraits show that this law applies also to them—as if
nature had determined to warn mankind of the character of every
animal. Alas for the dulness of human observers! Our naturalists
and anatomists have said not one word of the most conspicuous fact
that may be seen in the general survey of the animal kingdom.3

To return to the theory of cerebral development: The reader
will understand by referring to the last chapter that the summit of
the spinal system or great inferior ganglion of the brain, bearing the
names of optic thalami and corpora striata, is the true beginning
of the cerebrum, instead of the medulla oblongata, which does not
contain the fibres of the cerebral organs. And as this beginning is
a little in front of the ear and its first radiating fibres are nearly on
the horizontal line just mentioned, it follows that we may locate
accordingly a centre from which cerebral development may be estimated;
and when we take this true centre
we may describe around it a circle, and find
that the circle singularly coincides with the
outline of the cranium, so that if we add to
that circle the outlines of the nose, mouth,
and chin, we have sketched a well-developed
head of strong character, and ascertained
the method of studying the development
of the brain, which has so remarkably been
overlooked.

No one can begin the study of brain
development in men and animals guided by
a correct system without being delighted
with the uniform accuracy of the science; for even the incomplete
and inaccurate science of Gall and Spurzheim, marred in its application
by misconceptions of anatomy, has proved sufficiently correct
and instructive to maintain its hold upon the minds of all students
of nature, by giving them more truth than error, and sometimes
giving the truth with marvellous accuracy. The errors they did
not attempt to investigate.4