“Well, that seems fair. You have no objection to my publishing this offer in the Pall Mall Gazette?”
“None. I make no profession to any skill. I can only exercise a power which I discovered quite accidentally was vested in me. The limits of that I can ascertain only by experience. I am perfectly willing to have that power subjected to the severest tests which you can suggest, and I have no doubt at all, from the invariable experience of the last six years, that cures will be effected for which no existing scientific hypothesis can adequately account.”
The Gazette says in another column:—“We commend the challenge of Mr. George Milner Stephen, which we publish in another column, to the special attention of all interested in the exposure of popular delusion. Here is an educated English barrister of unimpeachable character, who has rendered no little service to the state, informing all the faculty that he can heal patients whom they have dismissed as incurable, by merely breathing on them or touching them. In an ordinary, unknown, vulgar charlatan this challenge might have passed unnoticed. In the case of the Australian cousin of Mr. Justice Fitzjames Stephen it must be treated more seriously. We invite communications from our scientific readers as to the best way of putting our visitor to the test.”
Scores of American healers do similar works to those of Dr. G. M. Stephen, but the fashionable press ignores them because they have not wealth and social position. The Journal of Man will endeavor to do them justice. In all such cases, in which the healing power is inexhaustible, we know that it is replenished from spiritual sources. Dr. Stephen exercises a little policy in not mentioning the spiritual source of his power. Godless science and dead sectarianism recoil from spirit life. No human constitution contains an inexhaustible fountain of life—the fountain is above, and fortunate are they who can reach it.
Human Longevity.
The possibility of long life, illustrated in the first number of this Journal, may easily be corroborated by referring to numerous examples; but the fact that the nobler qualities of human nature are the most efficient promoters of longevity is our most important lesson, and it is illustrated by the superior longevity of women. He is a misanthrope who does not recognize their superior virtue, and he is a poor statesman who does not wish to see that virtue imparted to our political life, and who does not recognize the importance of giving to woman the most perfect intellectual and industrial education, that she may be self supporting. The British census show that there are 948,000 more women than men in Great Britain. The St. James Gazette says:—
“Prof. Humphry of Cambridge has prepared a series of tables which contain some interesting information about centenarians. Of 52 persons whom he mentions, at least 11—2 males and 9 females—actually attained the age of 100. Others attained very nearly to the hundred years. Only one of the persons reached 108 years, while one died at the alleged age of 106. Of the 52 persons, 36 were women and 16 men. Out of the 36 women 26 had been married, and 11 had borne large families. Of the 26 who had been wives, 8 had married before they were 20, 1 at 16, and 2 at 17.
“Twelve of the fifty-two centenarians were discovered to have been the eldest children of their parents. This fact, adds Dr. Humphry, does not agree with popular notions that first children inherit a feebleness of constitution, nor with the opinion of racing stables, which is decidedly against the idea that ‘firstlings’ are to be depended on for good performances on the course. The centenarians generally regarded were of spare build. Gout and rheumatism were as a rule, absent. ‘It seems,’ says Prof. Humphry, ‘that the frame which is destined to great age needs no such prophylactics, and engenders none of the peccant humors for which the finger joints (as in gout) may find a vent.’
“Of the fifty-two aged people, twenty-four only had no teeth, the average number of teeth remaining being four or five. Long hours of sleep were notable among these old people, the period of repose averaging nine hours; while out-of-door exercise in plenty and early rising are to be noted among the factors of a prolonged life. One of the centenarians ‘drank to excess on festive occasions:’ another was a ‘free beer drinker,’ and ‘drank like a fish during his whole life.’ Twelve had been total abstainers for life or nearly so, and mostly all were ‘small meat eaters.’”