In the “New Education” and the “Manual of Psychometry—the dawn of a new civilization”—I have appealed to the public, and three editions of the former with two of the latter show that the public is not indifferent. The recognition of the marvellous claims of Psychometry will prepare the way for the supreme science of Anthropology, to which the coming century will do justice.

In justice to the learned Prof. Caldwell and myself, I should not omit to mention that this distinguished, eloquent, and venerable gentleman, who, in his early life, was a cotemporary of the famous Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, and throughout his life was a champion of the most progressive doctrines in Biology, not only gave his friendly co-operation on the first presentation of my discoveries, but ten years later honored me with a visit at Cincinnati, to become more fully acquainted with them, and subsequently, by appointment of the National Medical Association, prepared a report upon subjects of a kindred nature, in which he incorporated a statement of my discoveries. His subsequent illness and death, in 1854, at an advanced age, prevented the delivery of this memoir.

In signal contrast to the honorable and candid course of Prof. Caldwell, and to the candid examination, followed by eulogistic language of Prof. H. P. Gatchell, Robert Dale Owen, President Andrew Wylie, Rev. John Pierpont, Dr. Samuel Forry, Prof. Wm. Denton, the eloquent Judge Rowan, and a score of other eminently intellectual men, it is my duty to record the melancholy fact that the great majority of professional men, when tested, have manifested an entire apathy, if not a positive aversion, to the investigations and discoveries in which these momentous results have been reached. While no aversion, disrespect, or suspicion was shown toward myself, a stubborn aversion was shown to investigations that might have revolutionary results—proving that our false systems of education teach men not to think independently, but to adhere closely to precedent authority, fashion, popularity, and habit, which is the inertia of the mental world.

The faculty of my alma mater (excepting Prof. Caldwell) refused to investigate the subject, even when invited by their Board of Trustees. The Boston Academy of Arts and Sciences, embracing the men at the head of the medical profession, pretended to take up the subject, but in a few hours dropped it, with polite compliments to myself, in 1842. The American Medical Association, in 1878, refused to entertain the subject because I could not coincide with them in my sentiments, and accept their code of bigotry. There was no formal action of the Association, but my friend, Prof. Gross, then recognized as the Nestor of the profession, and holding the highest position of authority, informed me semi-officially, very courteously, that none of my discoveries could ever be brought to the notice of the Association, because I did not accept their code. Thus (without mentioning other instances), I have stood before the public with a demonstrable science, challenging investigation by critical opponents, who have so uniformly evaded or shrunk from the test that I have ceased to care for their opinions, while I still entertain as profound a respect as ever for the investigations of the candid and manly, among whom I never fail to find friendship and cordiality.

Looking back forty-five years, I remember with extreme pleasure the friendly co-operation of Rowan and Caldwell. The American medical profession never had a more dignified, imposing, and high-toned representative than Prof. Caldwell. Nor was the legal profession anywhere ever adorned by a more commanding and gracious representative than the unsurpassed advocate, Rowan, who was widely known as the “Old Monarch.” The nobility of such men was shown in their noble bearing toward a dawning science, In which they saw the grandeur of the future.

Footnotes

  1. I would mention that in the progress of my discoveries, especially in 1838-39, I came into frequent and intimate association with the late Prof. Wm. Byrd Powell, M. D., the most brilliant, and original of all American students of the brain, whose lectures always excited a profound interest in his hearers, and, in comparing notes with him, I found my own original observations well sustained by his. Though erratic in some of his theories, he was a bold student of nature, and the accidental destruction of his manuscript by fire, when too late in his life to repair the loss, was a destruction of much that would have been deeply interesting. [Return]
  2. I do not publish or circulate this map apart from the explanatory volume (Outlines of Anthropology) for the reason that it is impossible by any nomenclature of organs to convey a correct idea of the functions, and hence, such a map would tend to a great many misconceptions. [Return]

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Next Session Begins November 1, 1887.