Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Bigotry and Liberality, Theology and Religion.—Upon these subjects it is customary to find a mingling of contradictions. Leading New England literati, who inherit all the narrowness and self-sufficiency of British conservatism, are frequently impelled to utter expressions which would lead the reader to think them persons of liberal and progressive minds. Such expressions we find in the writings of Dr. Holmes, a thorough medical bigot and sceptic; R. W. Emerson, who closed his eyes against modern spiritual science, and adored the ignorance of Greece; Col. Higginson, the most intolerant and scornful opponent of psychic science; Dr. F. H. Hedge and President Elliot, who represent the status of Harvard College. This was recently brought to mind by seeing the admirable expressions of Dr. Hedge at the 150th anniversary of West Church, Boston, now under the ministry of Rev. C. A. Bartol. For this church Dr. Hedge claims an unsectarian character.
Dr. Hedge says, “Let there be schools of dogmatic theology, as many as you please, but the church should not be a school of dogmatic theology. It should be a school of practical Christianity, inspired, expounded, and enforced by the pulpit. I can conceive of a church which should be so undogmatic, so unpolemic, as to command the respect, engage the interest, and secure the co-operation of all who care less for the prevalence of their specialty than they do for the maintenance of public worship.” There is one Boston pulpit at present conducted in this spirit, but it is very feebly sustained. There was another, and it was occupied with brilliant ability, but Boston would not sustain it. It is vacant now. Boston prefers theology to religion, but it is growing slowly, and there are pulpits that are slowly approaching the unsectarian position—very slowly; while the Rev. Mr. J. Savage displays a refreshing freedom of thought, and has been more successful than any other clergyman in carrying a large congregation with him, a solitary specimen of a successful though unsectarian teacher in Boston.
Religious News.—“During the past few months, the Chinese authorities in various parts of the empire have issued proclamations to the people, calling on them to live at peace with Christian missionaries and converts, and explaining that the Christian religion teaches men to do right, and should therefore be respected. These documents have been published in so many parts of China that it is probable that every viceroy in the eighteen provinces has received instructions on the subject, and that there is a concerted movement throughout the empire to bring all classes of the population to a knowledge of the dangers of persecuting missionaries and native Christians, and to remove popular delusions respecting the objects and teachings of Christian missionaries.”
“The Jesuits appear to meet with little toleration anywhere but in Great Britain. The sultan has now issued a decree enacting that henceforth they are not to open any new schools in the Ottoman empire, that they are not to teach except in schools placed under the authority of the Porte, and that all the schools now conducted by them are placed under the supervision of the State, and must be subjected to a rigorous supervision.”
“Divine worship is a somewhat costly affair in Great Britain, says the World. The one hour’s service in Westminster Abbey on the 21st of June, when the great personages of the realm are to assemble for the purpose of prayer, is to cost the moderate sum of $100,000. Commoners and ordinary people will not be admitted within the portals of the sacred edifice, yet it is their pockets which will be taxed for the purpose of enabling the princes and lords to pray in due state for the preservation of the Queen.”
“The monument to the memory of Giordano Bruno in Rome, is completed, but permission to erect it has been refused by the Municipal Council of that holy city. This denial is easily explained when it is learned that a majority of the council are clergymen, or under their influence.”
Governor Marmaduke has signed the bill recently passed by the Missouri legislature, making Sunday virtually a Puritanical Sabbath. A powerful protest was presented to the Governor, respectfully requesting him not to sign the obnoxious bill, but it seems he yielded, says the Jewish Times, to the wishes of a few fanatics, backed by scheming politicians.
Abolishing Slavery.—It is pleasant to learn that the movement in favor of abolishing slavery in Brazil is making excellent progress, despite some discouragements. Long ago the Legislature fixed the date by which every slave in the empire must be freed; but the chamber of deputies, acting in opposition to the senate, has lately put a strange interpretation upon certain of the clauses of the most recent law upon the subject, which will have the effect of delaying the latest day of enfranchisement a further 18 months. The Brazilian public has expressed great indignation at this ill-advised action; and, by way of protest, the recent progress of the emperor throughout the province of San Paulo was made the occasion of liberating many slaves at the cost of the local municipalities. When a prominent abolitionist, Senator Bonifacio, of Santos, died, recently, his native town honored his memory by enfranchising the whole of the slaves within its jurisdiction. Herein Santos was but following the example of the provinces of Ceara and the Amazons, in both of which the last slave was freed some years ago. It is, perhaps, wise to add that the slave-owners are being quite fairly treated in the way of compensation.—St. James Gazette.
Bokhara the noble, the richest, most enlightened, and most holy of all Mahommedan nations in Central Asia, and beyond it, has just officially declared the complete abolition of slavery. Up to the present this curse had not altogether disappeared, although it was generally assumed that, since Russia secured control over the Ameer’s country, it had quite ceased to exist.
Fourteen years ago, M. Eugene Schuyler, the author of “Turkestan,” in order to demonstrate to the Russian government that its prestige had not put a stop to the slave trade, as was then alleged, purchased a young boy slave for one hundred roubles, the average price of the human article in Bokhara, and brought him to St. Petersburg. The boy was subsequently apprenticed to a Tartar watchmaker, and later became a convert to the Russian church. According to a letter in the Russian Official Gazette, the young Ameer’s decree, finally freeing all the bondmen within his dominion, was promulgated Nov. 19, 1886.
Old Fogy Biography.—It seems that biography as well as history will have to be re-written in the light of modern progress. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography has sent out its first volume, edited by Gen. Wilson and Prof. John Fiske. The sources of this volume do not promise much liberality, and the first volume does not show it. While professing to record the lives of all who are eminent or noteworthy, it fulfils this promise by recording many who are not very eminent or noteworthy; indeed, Mr. Lowell says, by way of commendation, that he has hunted for obscure names and found them. What then is the reason of the omission of the Hon. Cassius M. Clay, our former minister to Russia, one of the most conspicuous figures for many years in American politics and par excellence, the lion of the struggle which ended in negro emancipation? His life, recently published is a volume of fascinating and romantic interest. Mr. Clay might treat this omission as the old Roman said of having a statue in the forum—that he would rather men should ask why he had no statue there, than to ask why his statue was there. Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan is briefly noticed, his name incorrectly spelled, a catalogue of his publications given, and a volume attributed to him which was written by the notorious Dr. John Buchanan of Philadelphia. But nothing is said of the new school of philosophy, or of the new sciences, established by Dr. Buchanan. Evidently this is old fogy biography. The editors have gathered their material with a scoop, unable to distinguish between dirt, pebbles and jewels. Nevertheless they have made a valuable record if not a fair one.
Legal Responsibility in Somnolent Conditions.—In the Academy of Medicine at Paris, Dr. Mesnet made a report of his experience in hypnotism, showing that somnambulic or mesmeric subjects were not accountable for their acts in that condition. In this case, the patient, a youth of nineteen years, had been subject to somnambulic attacks in which he acted strangely, and, on one occasion, had openly taken several articles of furniture from a shop, for which he was arrested, when he fell again into somnolence and was sent to the Hotel Dieu. Dr. Mesnet, for an experiment, gazed firmly at him, and got him in magnetic rapport and then ordered him to steal the watch of one of the students the next day. He manifested a great deal of repugnance to this command, but yielded, and the next day came with the student, with whom he talked. After a time he fixed his eyes on the student’s watch and appeared mentally agitated, his breathing hurried, and his limbs trembling, his face red in one part and pallid in another. In this condition, he put forth his hand in an indecisive manner, stole the watch, put it in his pantaloons pocket, and ran down the stairs, where he was arrested and wakened up. He indignantly denied the theft, and fell into such agitation it required a number to hold him. He fell again into the hypnotic state from which they could not rouse him then, as it was owing to a mental cause. Dr. M. concluded by showing the importance of this matter being understood by magistrates that they may not punish irresponsible parties.
Pasteur’s Cure for Hydrophobia.—I am by no means convinced that M. Pasteur has really discovered a remedy for hydrophobia, says Labouchére in the London Truth. The Anti-Vivisection Society has published a tabular statement, which shows that from March, 1885, to the present date, 63 persons who have been treated by his system have died. Against this, I should like to know how many persons really suffering from hydrophobia have been cured by it.
The immense interest of the medical profession and the public in Pasteur’s method of inoculation with hydrophobia virus is due mainly to the Stolid Skepticism of the medical profession. Other methods of cure have been far more successful, but they have been shamefully neglected, for medical colleges are always indifferent, if not hostile to improvements not originating in their own clique. The cures that have been effected by the use of Scutellaria (Skull-cap), and of Xanthium are far beyond anything achieved by inoculation. I recollect many reports published by farmers, about sixty years ago, of their cures of hydrophobia by skull-cap.
The latest statement concerning Pasteurism is that of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who writes to the London Globe:
“Ramon was not the forty-fifth, but the seventy-sixth patient who had died after receiving the Pasteurian treatment for hydrophobia. Of these seventy-six victims thirty-nine were inoculated in Paris under the first method, seventeen in Russia and twenty in Paris under the second or ‘intensive’ method. For the verification of this statement I beg to enclose a complete list of all the patients, with dates of death, and authority for each record. Your readers who may be interested in the bursting of this huge medical bubble of Pasteurism will do well to procure the book just published in Paris, ‘M. Pasteur et la Rage’ by M. Zutand, editor of the Journal de Medecine. It proves pretty clearly that M. Pasteur does not cure rabies, but gives it by his inoculation in a new and no less deadly form, bearing the ominous title of ‘Rage de Laboratoire.’”
Lulu Hurst.—This wonderful medium who displayed such astonishing muscular powers has changed her name. Mrs. Buchanan psychometrically described and explained her wonderful powers, and predicted that they would soon cease. A Southern newspaper says:
“Paul M. Atkinson, of Chattanooga, Tenn., who achieved quite a reputation as manager of Lulu Hurst, the young lady who possessed such marvellous magnetic powers, was married to that lady a few days ago at her home near Cedartown, Ga. Miss Hurst, since her wonderful power deserted her, has been attending school, and graduated in December last. It is reported that the fortune of $200,000 she amassed while on the stage has been trebled since by lucky investments.”
Land Monopoly.—The Kansas City Times publishes a list of the leading foreign corporations that own lands in the United States, showing an aggregate of 20,740,000 acres, equal to more than one-half of England. Well, Americans may as well work to support foreign as home idlers; but a generation is nearing the voting age that will object to doing either.
Marriage in Mexico.—A newspaper correspondent from California, writes:
“You may not be aware, as I was not till recently, that Juarez, the native-blood President of Mexico acting, I presume, under authority of Congress, decreed that all children born, or that should be born in Mexico, should be legitimate, regardless of all laws of the Church or State. So rigorous, expensive, and despotic had become the control of the clergy that not one in ten of the children of Mexico were born ‘legitimate,’ the people did not marry. This stroke of the State at the Church was the ‘holy terror’ that broke its back; but it liberated the people, and settled the differences between the 'higher' and lower classes in a manner that has left marriage in Mexico in the hands of the contracting parties where it properly belongs.
The Grand Symposium.—The wise (?) men express themselves in our symposium upon immortality. Their utter blindness to the grand displays of immortality, which have long challenged attention, and their reference to every obscure and blind path for its search, remind one of Carlyle’s expression in reference to Comte. “I found him to be one of those men who go up in a balloon and take a lighted candle to look at the stars.” What a deep shadow upon the intellectual landscape of America is seen in this picture of collegiate ignorance in contrast with foreign enlightenment. While the sovereigns of England, France, and Russia have been communing with the higher world, our college presidents have their heads and eyes covered with the cowl of monkish superstition and ignorance.
Surely the search for truth is the most imperative of duties for those who are chosen to lead the rising generation. They who fail in this duty are as guilty as the sentinels who sleep or carouse upon their posts. The eloquent words of Rev. J. K. Applebee are appropriate to such offences: “The man who is not true to the highest thing within him, does a treble wrong. He wrongs himself; he wrongs all whom he might have influenced for good; he wrongs all the willing workers for humanity by heaping on their shoulders extra toils and extra responsibilities.” What is the difference between the Barnard, Hill, Gilman, Elliott, Newcomb, Youmans, and their sympathizers to-day, and the old time opponents of Galileo, Columbus, and Harvey. The men who rely upon learning or memory represent the past, while those who rely upon investigation and intuition represent the future. They are ever in conflict, and ever illustrate the truth of Gœthe’s remark that “Error belongs to the libraries, truth to the human mind.”
A New Mussulman Empire has been established on the Red Sea, east of the territory occupied by the followers of the Mahdi. Mohammed Abu is the Sultan, and Kassala is his residence. His army has 8000 men.
Psychometric Imposture.—Those who wish to understand and practice psychometry should avoid being duped by an ignorant pretender who professes to develop their psychometric faculties—a pretence which is a self-evident imposition.
Our Tobacco Bill.—The American Grocer estimates the total annual expenditure for tobacco in the United States, at $256,500,000. The estimates of cost are as follows: Liquor, $700,000,000; tobacco, $256,500,000; sugar, $187,000,000; coffee, tea, and cocoa, $130,000,000; schools, $110,000,000.
Extinct Animals.—Wonderful bones have been dug up in Spokane County, Washington Territory—nine mammoths, a cave bear, hyenas, extinct birds, and a sea turtle. One of the tusks measured twelve feet nine inches long, and twenty-seven inches round, weighing 295 pounds. Some of the ribs were eight feet long. The molar teeth weighed eighteen pounds each. The pelvic arch was six feet across; a man could walk through it erect. The monster was estimated to be eighteen and one-half feet high, and to weigh twenty tons.
Education is making great progress in France. The number of colleges and the number of children at school are greatly increased. There are now five and a quarter millions attending primary schools. Politicians claim that whenever the people in a department are well educated they become republicans.
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.
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.
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.
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]