Mind-Reading Amusement.
To the Editor of the Transcript:
This amusement may possibly help to attract the indifferent public toward the higher branches of science, which are so much neglected. Probably not one in a thousand of those who are attracted to this subject by curiosity has given any attention to that department of science to which mind-reading belongs.
Americans are not distinguished for reverence. They often rush into the consideration and discussion of subjects with which they have no familiarity, without pausing to learn whether any investigations have already been made. In matters of mechanical invention attempts are continually making to achieve what investigation has proved impossible, and a great deal of labor and money are wasted in finding by costly experience what is already known, and might have been learned by an hour’s attention to recorded science.
The dabbler in science and invention often fancies himself a discoverer, asserts his claims, and receives recognition from those who are still more ignorant of the subject than himself. Under this head come the performances of Mr. Bishop and other sciolists who are exercising similar powers with similar success.
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” said Pope; for the sciolist is continually blundering in the false and superficial theories which belong to the first stage of investigation, through which the patient student of nature has made his way to a full understanding of the subject.
The sympathetic transference of thought from one mind to another, and the acquisition of knowledge of things either present or remote, without the aid of the external senses, are phenomena known as far back as history has any records. Such phenomena are wonderful and mysterious, but not more so than the generation of animal life or the appearance of a rainbow in the sky—subjects from which science has removed much of the mystery.
Trans-corporeal or non-sensual perception has also been investigated, its laws established, its anatomical and physiological foundation explained, its range of power determined, its vast powers and utilities illustrated, and its method of development and culture made known. But of all this the mind-reading sciolists know nothing and have not attempted to learn anything. They are attitudinizing on the outer steps of the temple of science, before the gazing multitude, instead of penetrating the interior of the temple, where the multitude do not follow.
The exhibiting mind-readers start with the assumption that matter does all, and that the ample literature in which the powers of the soul are recorded, demonstrated, and explained is unworthy of notice. Thus they place themselves in sympathy with the prevalent ignorance on such subjects, and the dogmatism of a certain class of scientists.
The dogmatism of this hypothesis cannot be maintained by any careful and conscientious inquirer, who knows how to conduct an investigation. When the psychic faculties are well developed, as they certainly are in Mr. Bishop, the inquirer cannot fail to realize that ideas are developed by transference in the mind without the slightest opportunity of being instructed by muscular movements. Hence Mr. Bishop finally admits the direct transference of thought from mind to mind; but instead of presenting it boldly as a positive and thousand times demonstrated act, he still leans upon the letter of Dr. Carpenter, which represents him as learning the thoughts of others, by “careful study of the indications unconsciously given by the subject.”
He confesses that he once stood upon the strictly material hypothesis, from which he has advanced to the psychic doctrine he now maintains, and adds, “Where I am may be only a stopping, not an abiding, place.” Very true; the remark is honorable to his candor. He should advance a great deal farther; but he would not have stopped at either position if he had taken pains to learn what was already known and published a quarter of a century, or even what was known several centuries, before he began.
If he would even now read Professor Gregory’s “Letters on Animal Magnetism” and the “Manual of Psychometry,” published in Boston, he might make a new departure, might understand the vast extent of his own powers, which he has not yet developed, and show to those whom he has already astonished that there is much more in the mysteries of earth and heaven than their mechanical philosophy has even suspected.
“Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring,” was the suggestion of Pope; and if Mr. Bishop or any of those who have been sipping at this fountain of knowledge would call upon me (at 6 James Street, Franklin Square) I would take pleasure in showing them the unsuspected extent of their own powers, and showing how thoroughly the questions they are interested in were investigated over forty years ago, to scatter the mystery and bring the wonderful and almost incredible powers of the mind into correlation with biology and anatomy.
I might show them, too, that mind-readers are not such extraordinary persons as they are commonly supposed. There are many millions in the world who can exercise the class of faculties to which mind-reading belongs—a class of faculties long neglected by superficial scientists, from the cultivation of which more may be expected for the future intellectual progress of mankind than from anything else now known to the universities.
I mean no disrespect in styling Mr. Bishop a sciolist (or undeveloped scientist). That very sciolism brought him into sympathy with Dr. Carpenter and other distinguished gentlemen who would not have listened to him if he had come in any nobler manner, and enabled him to open their eyes. Perhaps if he will take another step in advance he can lead the majority of his pupils to a higher position, and thus render a signal service to society. I hope he will have the candor and courage to advance far beyond his present position.
Jos. Rodes Buchanan.
Since Mr. Bishop’s exhibitions have been so successful and profitable, several others have repeated his performances of telling the number of a bank note, finding hidden articles, and going through any performance that was enacted during his absence from the hall. Mr. Montague, an editor of the Globe, Mr. George, Mr. Wilder, and several others have shown the same powers. A dispatch from St. John, New Brunswick, to the Herald describes a remarkable performance at that place as follows:
“St. John, N. B., Jan. 17, 1887. In a ‘mind reading’ performance Saturday night, after several examples indoors, the ‘reader,’ a young man who belongs to this city, asked for an outdoor test. The party separated, one remaining with the reader, and hid a pin in the side of a little house used by the switchman of the New Brunswick railway at Mill Street. In their travels they went over the new railway trestle, a most difficult journey. The reader was blindfolded, and one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated, fearing to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his wrist and place his hand on his head. The subject did so, and the reader went upon the trestle. Some of the party suggested that the bandage should be removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the subject again taking his wrist, he went on over the icy and snow-covered sleepers. With a firm step he crossed to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill gates, then quickly turned, retraced his steps and went back to the corner of Mill Street. Here he rested a moment, then again took the subject’s hand, and in less than five minutes afterward found the pin. At the conclusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter had been when they first reached the trestle. It was easily explained. The storm had covered the sleepers with snow, and it was thought dangerous even for a man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject felt anxious for the reader’s safety, and hesitated about going across. The tests were most satisfactory.”
Temperance.—“There has not been a liquor saloon in Hancock County, W. Va., for forty years. This accounts for the fact that there is not a prisoner in the county jail, and the grand jury failed to find a single indictment.”
Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Pigmies.—A while ago, says the Sun, Mr. Grenfell of the Congo Mission encountered on the Bosari River, south of the Congo, the Batwa dwarfs whom Stanley mentions in “The Dark Continent,” though Stanley did not see them. Grenfell says these little people exist over a large extent of country, their villages being scattered here and there among other tribes. Wissmann and Pogge also met them a few years ago in their journey to Nyangwe.
It was long supposed that the story of Herodotus about the pigmies of Africa was mythical, but within the past twenty years abundant evidence has accumulated of the existence of a number of tribes of curious little folks in equatorial Africa. The chief among these tribes are the Akka, whom Schweinfurth found northwest of Albert Nyassa; the Obongo, discovered by DuChaillu in west Africa, southwest of Gaboon; and the Batwa, south of Congo.
These little people range in height from 4 feet 2 inches to about 4 feet 8 inches. They are intellectually as well as physically inferior to the other tribes of Africa. They are perhaps nearer the brute kingdom than any other human beings. The Obongo, for instance, wear no semblance of clothing: make no huts except to bend over and fasten to the ground the tops of three or four young trees, which they cover with leaves; possess no arts except the making of bows and arrows, and do not till the soil. They live on the smaller game of the forest and on nuts and berries. They regard the leopard, which now and then makes a meal of one of them, as their deadliest enemy. They live only a few days or weeks in one place.
When Schweinfurth first met the Akka dwarfs he found himself surrounded by what he supposed was a crowd of impudent boys. There were several hundred of them, and he soon found that they were veritable dwarfs, and that their tribe probably numbered several thousand souls. One of these dwarfs was taken to Italy a few years ago, was taught to read, and excited much interest among scientific men. There are other tribes of dwarfs in Abyssinia and also in Somaliland.
It is believed that all these people, including the Bushmen of South Africa, are the remains of an aboriginal population that is now becoming extinct. In the migrations and subjugations that have been in progress for many centuries among powerful tribes, the dwarf tribe of Africa has been scattered, and its isolated fragments are still found in widely separated parts of the continent.
A Human Phenomenon.—M. de Quatrefages, the naturalist, has examined a real phenomenon, a Provençal of thirty, named Simeon Aiguier, who had been presented by Dr. Trenes. Aiguier, thanks to his peculiar system of muscles and nerves, can transform himself in most wondrous fashion. He has very properly dubbed himself “L’Homme-Protee.” At one moment, assuming the rigidity of a statue, his body may be struck sharply, the blows falling as on a block of stone. At another he moves his intestines from above and below and right to left into the form of a large football, and projects it forward, which gives him the appearance of a colossally stout personage. He then withdraws it into the thorax opening like a cage, and the hollow look of his body immediately reminds one of a skeleton. Aiguier successfully imitates a man subjected to the tortures of the rack, as also a man hanging himself, and assumes a strikingly cadaveric look. What most astonished M. de Quatrefages was the stoppage of the circulation of the blood, now on the left and now on the right side, which was effected by muscular contraction.—Boston Transcript.
Surviving Superstitions.—The once flourishing and wealthy colony of German Rappites, or Harmonists, who sold out New Harmony, Indiana, to old Robert Owen sixty years ago, (where Owen’s grand fiasco occurred,) and removed to Economy, Pa., held their annual festival on the 15th of February in the usual solemn manner. Father Rapp is dead long ago, and of the thousand energetic religious and industrious enthusiasts who have been so prosperous in worldly matters, scarcely fifty remain as feeble old men, and their pastor, Father Henrici, is over 83 years old; but the honest and worthy old enthusiasts are still waiting for the personal coming of Christ, who, they believe, is to come before their society dies out, establish his kingdom with his throne on Mount Sinai, and judge and rule the world. They believe that their beloved Father Henrici will never die, but will lead them to the presence of their Divine Master on Mount Sinai; and he proposes to lead them to Palestine, when they have signs of the Lord’s approach, that they may be ready to meet him.
There is a solemn beauty and grandeur in these weird old superstitions of good people; but, alas! the Rappites must soon pass away, as the Girlingites have expired in England, when Mother Girling could not be immortal.
A Spiritual Test of Death.—John R. Fowler, an old steamboat man, who died at Louisville, in January, 1887, made his wife promise to keep his body three days to see if he would not recover consciousness. On the third day after his death, the doctor and coroner pronounced him dead, but his wife sent for a medium, and through her the deceased husband stated that he was dead, and the happiness of spirit life was so great that he had no desire to return, but would wait patiently until his wife joined him.
The most perfect test of death is by Faradic electricity. As a general rule, three hours after death, the muscles entirely fail to respond to the Faradic current. When the muscles cannot be affected, death is established.
A Jewish Theological Seminary.—The community at large is interested in a new movement to establish in this city a Jewish theological seminary. The objects of investigation contemplated by the projected institution are the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, the part played by the Jews in ancient, mediæval, and modern history, and the influence exerted upon thought and research by Jewish philosophers. The current knowledge of these subjects is almost wholly derived from the conclusions and opinions of non-Jewish inquirers, and may therefore be presumed to be more or less affected by prejudice. A rôle of such capital importance in civilization as that of the Hebrew people ought to be examined from all sides, and the friends of truth will welcome a systematic study of it from the Hebrew point of view.—N. Y. Sun.
National Death Rates.—In France, 48 per cent of the deaths are of persons over fifty years of age; and what is more remarkable, 25 per cent are of persons over seventy years of age. The French present the best showing, except, perhaps, the Irish, of any nation as regards long life. Only about 26 per cent of their deaths are of children under five years. About 6 per cent only are of persons from five to twenty years.
No nation of Europe is supposed to be more oblivious of sanitary science than the Irish, and yet a far greater percentage of the people of Ireland than of any other people, except the French, live to and beyond the age of seventy years. Nearly five in 100 of the deaths are of persons over eighty-five years of age! Only about 35 per cent of the deaths are of persons under twenty years of age. About 42 per cent of the deaths are of persons over fifty-five years. One half almost of the deaths are of persons over forty-five years. In England and Wales only 33 per cent of the deaths are of persons over forty-five years, while in the United States only 30 per cent are of persons over forty years of age.—T. S. Sozinksey, M. D., in Scientific American.
Religious Mediævalism in America.—Twelve miles from Dubuque, Ia., there stands in grim isolation, upon a blackened and desolate prairie, a monastery of the fifteenth century pattern. Every morning at 2 o’clock the monks who occupy this lugubrious dwelling-place arise from the hard planks which serve them in lieu of beds, and pray in wooden stalls, so constructed as to compel them either to stand or kneel. Their devotions completed, the next duty is for each to go into the yard and dig a part of his own grave, and when they have it once completed, they fill it up again, and repeat the operation indefinitely throughout their lives. They are not permitted to speak to each other except by special dispensation, which is very rarely given except at the close of a meal, when each one says to the other “Memento mori”—remember that you are to die. The system resembles, in all essential respects, that of the Indian fakirs and other religious enthusiasts who believe that the only way to please God is to make one’s self as miserable as possible.—Herald.
Buddhism in America.—A high caste Brahmin, Mohini Mohun Chatterjee, has arrived in the United States at New York, who has been teaching in England and on the continent. He has the approval of the brotherhood in Thibet, and has a high intellectual reputation. The Journal will endeavor to discuss this subject hereafter. Buddhism is much nearer than Christianity to modern agnosticism, but it embodies fine moral teaching, and is free from intolerance. Mohini represents, it is said, “that his visit to this country is simply in the capacity of an agent, sent by the divine Mahatmas to enlighten a materialistic barbarism with the spiritual wisdom—religion of the East. He represents a movement which has for its object the uniting of the East and West in the acceptance of a universal faith. An attempt was at first made to interest people in the subject by laying some stress upon the minor phenomena of occult science. Unfortunately, such wonders attracted disciples who cared more for thaumaturgy than for doctrine, and these fell away as soon as they discovered that the object in view was not the production of marvels. The new world has riches, and the old world has ideas. It would be to the advantage of both if an exchange could be effected. The Asiatic philosophers teach that all religions are the expressions of the Eternal Verity. Life is ephemeral, they say, its chief value consisting in the opportunities it affords of doing good and making others happy.”
Craniology and Crime.—The British Medical Journal presents at some length the results arrived at by Prof. Benedict, in his examination of the brains of criminals—some sixteen in all. Every one of these, in comparison with the healthy brain, proved to be abnormal. Not only, too, has he found that these brains deviate from the normal type, and approach that of lower animals, but he has been able to classify them, and with them the skulls in which they were contained, in three categories.
First, absence of symmetry between the two halves of the brain; Second, an obliquity of the interior part of the brain or skull—in fact, a continuation upward of what is usually termed a sloping forehead; third, a distinct lessening of the posterior cerebral lobes, so that, as in the lower animals, they are not large enough to hide the cerebellum. In all these peculiarities, the criminal’s brain and skull are distinctly of a lower type than those of normal men.
That a diminution of the posterior lobes should be recognized as a mark of inferiority, does not harmonize with the old ideas of phrenology. Nevertheless, it is true that a good development of the posterior part of the brain is essential to the superiority of man over animals.
Morphiomania in France.—In the course of the last few years the disease which the doctors call morphiomania has made formidable headway all over France. In the capital its victims almost rival those of alcoholism. At Bellevue a great hospital has been opened for the care, and, if possible, for the cure of these patients. The disease in its present form is necessarily but of recent origin. Morphia itself was only discovered in the year 1816. The cure of it is very rare. It is found that both the use and the deprivation of the drug lead the victims almost inevitably to suicide, and at Bellevue there are cushioned rooms for some of the patients and a constant watch kept on all. One is not surprised to hear that the chief sufferers are women. After women come doctors. Very many Parisian women carry about with them a small ivory syringe. In this delicate toy is contained morphia, and it may often be remarked how ladies at convenient opportunities take out this little trinket and give themselves a prick in the arm or wrist with it. But ere long these little pricks no longer suffice to stimulate the nerves of the votaries of the habit—the dose is too small. Then it is necessary to have recourse to recently established morphine institutes, where old women, under the name of “morphineuses,” carry on their profession, and give the Parisian dames pricks in the arm and breast, according to all the rules of the art.
Montana Bachelors.—There are no less than 30,000 bachelors in Montana, and every single one of them is in need of and anxious to get a wife, writes a correspondent of the New York Times. These entertaining young fellows and would-be benedicts have no time to go courting themselves, and so, much of that thing is done by proxy. They are entirely too busy amassing fortunes, either at sheep herding, cattle growing, or mining, in which at least fifty per cent of them are bound to become millionaires sooner or later. There is the greatest possible need in Montana for young girls and maidens, old women, and old maids, too, for that matter, each and every one of whom would fill a long-felt want. Domestics are in high demand. As servant girls they can command wages here that would give them comfortable competences in a short time, with very little offered in return. But the trouble with the girls who come out in this way looking for a job is that none of them remain in service for any length of time. They are soon gobbled up by young fellows in search of a wife.
Relief for Children.—A very beneficent action is now required by law in Germany and Switzerland, by which holidays are obligatory in all public and private schools when the temperature reaches a certain height. These heat-holidays are called hitzlenien, and are worthy of adoption in other schools. In Basle new regulations have just been issued concerning heat-holidays. When the temperature rises to seventy-seven degrees in the shade at ten o’clock in the morning, holiday is to be proclaimed to the scholars until the afternoon. Two such holidays were proclaimed during a recent hot week, to the no small delight of the boys and girls. It would be equally beneficent to dismiss the schools whenever, for any reason, the temperature of the schoolroom could not be kept up to sixty-five degrees.
“The Land and the People.”—The atrocities of landlordism in Ireland, evicting the poor in midwinter, tearing down their cabins, and burning their roofs to drive them out, have excited horror in England, and sympathy for the Irish.
Christianity in Japan.—The Rev. Mr. Harris has expressed the opinion that in ten or twenty years Christianity might become the national religion of Japan, as the heathen temples are going into decay. If it does, Christianity will be as much benefited by it as the Japanese. The cast iron theology of the Anglo-Saxon race will not suit the Japanese. The works of agnostic scientists and liberals have already a strong hold on the Japanese. The Christianity of the past will have to be reformed and ameliorated to suit Japan. They will never appreciate the theology of the Andover creed, which has been versified as follows by Puck:
“There is a place of endless terror
Prepared for those who fall in error,
Where fire and death and torture never
Cease their work, but rule forever;
To this dark cave, for Adam’s sin,
Must all his children enter in.
But the all-merciful Creator
Took pity on the fallen traitor,
Prepared a narrow path of pardon
That led to heaven’s happy garden;
And, lest mankind prefer to sin,
Predestined some to walk therein.
But millions still in error languish,
Doomed to death and future anguish,
Who ne’er had heard of Adam’s sin,
Nor of the peril they are in;
Who know not of the way of pardon,
Nor of the fall in Eden’s garden.
“This, my friends, is the Andover creed;
Put it aside for the time of need!
In the hour of grief and sorrow
From it consolation borrow;
When your dearest friends are dying,
Read it to the mourners crying;
Teach it to the tender maiden,
To the man with sorrow laden;
Teach it to the timid child,
Watch its look of horror wild,
Note the half-defiant fear,
Flushing cheek and pitying tear;
Teach it to the broken hearted,
From their loved ones newly parted;
Show them that their pride and beauty—
Type of love and filial duty—
This, their darling, whom they cherished,
Has in hell forever perished,
All because of Adam’s folly!
’Twill drive away your melancholy.
A wonderful thing is the Andover creed,
Put it aside for the hour of need!”
The Hellfire Business.—This expression is homely English, and such language is best in describing horrible realities. The managers of the American Board (sturdy champions of hell) have been compelled by public opinion to let Mr. Hume go back to India as a missionary, though he will not agree to send all the heathen to hell. To keep up their dignity, however, they represented Mr. Hume as having backed down, and compelled him to show that he had not. Since passing Mr. Hume they have refused to allow Mr. Morse to go on the same terms, because he will not insist on the absolute certainty that the heathen are all in hell. The Boston Herald says the Board’s moral obliquity is a puzzle to honest people.
Rev. Sam Jones and Boston Theology.—The Herald says: “Brother Sam Jones and Brother Sam Small do chiefly limit themselves to the simple things of the gospel, and have less theology to the square inch than the average of ministers, as Brother Sam Jones would express it. But they are hardly fitted for this field, we should say.”
Perhaps the following extracts from Rev. Samuel’s sermons explain his relations to Boston. Before an audience of 7,500 he said, “There are 100,000 people in twenty different states praying that I may succeed in arousing Boston to a sense of her moral and spiritual degradation.
“I love to live in the world, but not to be troubled with creeds. I know I am on dangerous ground here in Boston when I am on creeds, for a fellow could get up a fight here on that question quicker than he could on stealing.”
“Whiskey is the worst enemy God or man ever had, and the best friend the devil ever had.”
“We have got sentiment enough to put whiskey out of Boston.”
“You have enough church members in Boston to vote the whiskey out of Boston any morning before breakfast.”
“It is every preacher’s duty to denounce the things of hell just as much as it is to preach the beauty of Christ.”
“I know you denounce drunkenness, but how few pulpits pull out their dagger and stab it.”
“God has not lost his power, but the pulpit has lost its voice.”
“Boston had a fire once, but that does not hurt you half as much as the fire of damnation that is smouldering in the hearts of people of this town.”
“I don’t know what will become of my converts if I leave them in Boston.”
The greatest religious work that has been done in Boston, is that of Jones and Small. Every hall they occupied was crowded, and at mid-day in the week they filled Fanueil Hall.
Psychometry.—The entire pages of the Journal of Man would be insufficient for the presentation which this subject demands, and for the present readers must be content with the “Manual of Psychometry.” The article designed for this number must be postponed until April, after which it will receive more attention.
The American Psychical Society, poor thing, is in a bad way. It needs nourishment, warmth, and interested attention, to prevent it from dying of a compilation of infantile maladies which arise from bad nursing. The chief nurse, Professor Newcomb (president), gave the bantling an ice-bath in January (his presidential address), and this practically puts the thing in its coffin. We have never had high anticipations of the usefulness or continued existence of this organization. It is a queer proceeding to throw a new-born baby on a rubbish-heap, and leave it there, while its parents walk around on stilts to look at it. The British society is glowing with warmth compared with the state of its American cousin. It is clear that the psychical knowledge which the society desires to obtain will never come to it under its present management; indeed, we are inclined to think no society under any management can obtain satisfactory knowledge of the kind which is sought. It must be obtained in private, under conditions far different from any which can be secured in organizations, where men act together with diverse views and opinions.—Pop. Sci. News.
Progress of Spiritualism.—In all European countries, Spiritualism is making rapid progress. In England, the eloquent and distinguished lecturer, Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, says in a recent letter to the London Medium that “Spiritualism in England is not only on the increase, but has already take too deep and earnest a hold of the public heart, up here in the north, to be uprooted by imbecile antagonism, or even marred by the petty shams of imposture. In places where I have been told it was recently difficult to collect together a score of people to listen to spiritual lectures, the largest halls are often found insufficient to accommodate my Sunday evening audiences, and the spoken blessings and thanks that follow me, as well as the floods of inquiring letters that besiege me, bear ample testimony to the fact, that the seed sown has not all fallen on stony places.”
Its progress is rapid in Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, and Russia, and is steadily onward in France and Germany. On our Pacific Coast, the Golden Gate says, “it is advancing with grand strides.” In the Eastern States it is obtaining a much needed purification by discussing the genuineness of the phenomena.
The Folly of Competition.—We live under a ruinous system of competition instead of co-operation, in which the weakest sink into poverty, beggary, disease, crime, and suicide. Every day the horrors of our social system are recognized and commented on, but how little is done, and how little thought for its amendment. According to Bradstreet, during the first six weeks of this year the loss of wages by strikers has amounted to three millions of dollars. This damage falls on those who cannot afford it, the most of whom find themselves in a worse and more hopeless condition in consequence of the strike, if not entirely out of employment. It has been a matter of comparatively little importance to the parties against whom the strikes were made. The Journal will pay some attention to the remedial measures which are being introduced.
Insanities of War.—Senator Vest recently stated to the Senate that “there was not in the history of the civilized world a page of maladministration equal to that of the Navy Department of the United States since 1865…. There had been expended for naval purposes since the close of the war over $419,000,000.” Query: How much over $5,000,000 would it all bring if sold out to-day? Would it bring that much?
The Sinaloa Colony has had too great an influx already, and Mr. Owen positively prohibits any more arrivals. If any more come they will not be received until due preparation has been made. The colony has a splendid harbor in a delightful climate, and large tracts of fertile land, capable of producing everything belonging to semi-tropical and temperate climates.
Other attempts by societies to solve the great social question are beginning. A society with the same objects and principles as the Sinaloa colony is now organizing to found a colony in Florida on the margin of a beautiful harbor.
Another scheme has been proposed by a company of Chicago Knights of Labor, who “have gone to Tennessee to found a co-operative colony. The purpose is the establishment of a manufacturing community in which the rule shall be ‘eight hours and fair wages,’ and the spot chosen is represented as a salubrious table land of 120,000 acres, 2,000 feet above sea level, abounding in iron, timber, and limestone. Here it is intended to set up an iron furnace, a nail factory, and the sash, door, and blind industry, to build 200 houses within 30 days, put up a city hall, public school and engine house at once, and secure incorporation as a city within two weeks. They have begun to sell choice locations at $7 to $10 per acre.”
Medical Despotism. The bill which has been introduced into the Rhode Island Legislature for the suppression of independent physicians by confining all practice to those licensed by a medical board, is so great an outrage on common sense and justice, that it meets with strenuous opposition. The editor of the Journal made an address in opposition to the bill in the hall of the House of Representatives on the sixteenth of February, occupying about an hour and a half, showing that the proposed legislation was more despotic and unjust than the laws under European despotisms. The Providence Star, in reporting the address, spoke of it as the most eloquent ever delivered in the House on any subject.
“Mind in Nature,” the best monthly publication of its kind in the world and the nearest approach in its character to the Journal of Man, has just expired at Chicago after issuing two volumes. A few bound copies may be obtained at $1.25 per single volume, or $2.25 for two volumes, by addressing the editor, J. E. Woodhead, Chicago.
Physiological Discoveries in the College of Therapeutics.
The resolutions of my most recent class in Boston are the same in spirit as have been expressed during forty years, and will no doubt be expressed again by my students in May, 1887. They not only know the truth of the science but recognize sarcognomy as “the most important addition ever made to physiological science by any individual,” and their testimony was based on their own personal experience. To the students of sarcognomy this is a familiar idea, but to others some explanation may be necessary.
What are the greatest discoveries in physiology? Common opinion would mention as the foremost the action of the heart in circulating the blood,—a discovery not originated but consummated by Harvey; and yet the discovery is of so simple and obvious a nature that we wonder now, not so much at the ability manifested in the discovery, as at the stupidity which permitted it to remain so long unknown, and even to be denied and ridiculed when published. Harvey’s work on the generation of animals entitled him to a higher rank as a pioneer in science than his theory of the circulation.
A far greater discovery was that of Dr. Gall, which embraced not only the anatomy but the functions of the brain as a mental organ—a discovery twenty times as great, whether we consider the superior importance of the brain, or the greater investigating genius necessary to the discovery. It easily ranks at the head of the physiological discoveries of the past centuries.
Next comes the discovery of the motor and sensory roots of the spinal nerves by Majendie and Bell, which did not, as commonly supposed, include the motor and sensory of the spinal cord. This was a small discovery compared to Gall’s, but not inferior to Harvey’s discovery of the cardiac function.
A fourth discovery, perhaps of equal rank, was the discovery by Harvey’s contemporary, Aselli, of the lacteals that absorb the chyle.
A fifth discovery or discoveries of importance was that of the corpuscles of the blood, and the Malpighian bodies of the kidneys, by Malpighi.
A sixth discovery, considered more important and occupying a larger space in medical literature, is the cell doctrine of Schwann, a doctrine still under discussion and by no means a finality.
Anatomical science has few first class discoveries. Anatomy has been a growth of observation and description—not discovery. Vesalius and Eustachius may be considered the fathers of modern anatomy, and the name of the latter is immortalized by the Eustachian tube, which he first recognized and described. But the Fallopian tubes, named after Fallopius, were not his discovery. They had been described long before by Herophilus and others. Eustachius was nearly two centuries ahead of his age in anatomy, and should be gratefully remembered as a struggling scientist. His valuable anatomical works, which he was too poor to publish, were published one hundred and forty years after his death, by Lancisi.
From this brief glance at the discoveries of Eustachius, Harvey, Aselli, Malpighi, Gall, Majendie, and Schwann, it is apparent that but one physiological discovery on record is sufficiently important in its nature and scope to be compared with sarcognomy, which comprehends the relations of soul, brain, and body. What is their relative value? Gall’s discovery embraced about one half of the psychic functions of the brain, with nothing of its physiological functions. Sarcognomy, on the contrary, embraces the entire mass of cerebral functions to connect them with corresponding functions in the body. It presents in one complete view the psychic powers in the soul operating in the brain, and extending their influence into the body; and on the other hand, the physiological powers of the body, operating through the brain, and by definite, intelligible laws acting upon the soul—a vast system of science, based on anatomical facts, but evolved by experiment, to which no single volume could do justice. Its medical applications alone, concisely presented in thirty lectures, would make a volume of four hundred pages.
It is not, like the phrenological system of Gall, a mental doctrine only, but, combining psychology, physiology, and pathology, goes to the foundations of medical science, of health, disease, and cure, as well as the foundations of all spiritual science, and originates new systems of magnetic and electric practice. It is manifest, therefore, that no biological discovery now on record occupies more than a fraction of the vast area occupied by Sarcognomy, and being a demonstrated science, in the opinion of all who are acquainted with it, it needs only sufficient time to circulate the works upon the subject now in preparation (the first edition of “Therapeutic Sarcognomy” having been speedily exhausted), and sufficient time to overcome the mental inertia and moral torpor that hinder all progress, and even war against the million times repeated facts of spiritual science. The warfare against all new truth will be continued until the people demand that our colleges, the castles of antiquated error, shall conform to the spirit of progressive science.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.
The Business Department of the Journal deserves the attention of all its readers, as it will be devoted to matters of general interest and real value. The treatment of the opium habit by Dr. Hoffman is original and successful. Dr. Hoffman is one of the most gifted members of the medical profession. The electric apparatus of D. H. Fitch is that which I have found the most useful and satisfactory in my own practice. Bovinine I regard as occupying the first rank among the food remedies which are now so extensively used. The old drug house of B. O. & G. C. Wilson needs no commendation; it is the house upon which I chiefly rely for good medicines, and does a very large business with skill and fidelity. The American Spectator, edited by Dr. B. O. Flower, is conducted with ability and good taste, making an interesting family paper, containing valuable hygienic and medical instruction, at a remarkably low price. It is destined to have a very extensive circulation. I have written several essays in commendation of the treatment of disease by oxygen gas, and its three compounds, nitrous oxide, per-oxide and ozone. What is needed for its general introduction is a convenient portable apparatus. This is now furnished by Dr. B. M. Lawrence, at Hartford, Connecticut. A line addressed to him will procure the necessary information in his pamphlet on that subject. He can be consulted free of charge.
Dr. W. F. Richardson of 875 Washington Street is one of the most successful practitioners we have, as any one will realize who employs him. Without specifying his numerous cases I would merely mention that he has recently cured in a single treatment an obstinate case of chronic disease which had baffled the best physicians of Boston and Lowell.
Dr. K. Meyenberg, who is the Boston agent for Oxygen Treatment, is a most honorable, modest, and unselfish gentleman, whose superior natural powers as a magnetic healer have been demonstrated during eighteen years’ practice in Washington City. Some of his cures have been truly marvelous. He has recently located in Boston as a magnetic physician.