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Title: Buchanan's Journal of Man, June 1887 - Volume 1, Number 5
Author: Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes), 1814-1899 [Editor]
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Buchanan's Journal of Man, June 1887 - Volume 1, Number 5" ***


                             BUCHANAN'S
                           JOURNAL OF MAN.

             VOL. I.         JUNE, 1887.        NO. 5.



CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.


  The Most Marvellous Triumph of Educational Science
  The Grand Symposium of the Wise Men
  The Burning Question in Education
  MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE--Bigotry and Liberality; Religious
    News; Abolishing Slavery; Old Fogy Biography; Legal
    Responsibility in Hypnotism; Pasteur's Cure for Hydrophobia;
    Lulu Hurst; Land Monopoly; Marriage in Mexico; The Grand
    Symposium; A New Mussulman Empire; Psychometric Imposture; Our
    Tobacco Bill; Extinct Animals; Education
  Genesis of the Brain (concluded)



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 play[1] 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.

    [1] Mr. Lowell, having been minister to England, is profoundly
    reverenced in Boston for his social position. His position
    gives great weight to his suggestions. It is a moral power for
    the use of which he is responsible, but with which he has
    trifled. When a few earnest reformers thought that Mr.
    Gladstone's grand statesmanship in preserving the peace of the
    world deserved to be recognized and honored by Americans,
    conservative, rank-worshipping Bostonians thought it would be
    _indispensable_ to have Mr. Lowell's co-operation, and waited
    his return from Europe. When Mr. Lowell was appealed to be had
    nothing to say,--he _wanted rest_! And Boston had nothing to
    say on that grand occasion, though Boston has a perfunctory
    Peace Society!

    But now Mr. Lowell comes out to call forth Bostonians for his
    chosen themes, and what are they? The discussion of old
    English dramatists! If there is anything more dead and
    worthless than antiquated plays which are forgotten, what is
    it? If there is anything more worthy of the name of _rubbish_,
    pray let us know what it is. But Boston crowds to hear
    disquisitions which from men in a different social position
    would be voted a bore, and sits reverently and patiently to
    catch his feeble and to many, scarce audible utterances. Is
    not this the worship of triviality and trash! How different
    would have been the action of John Hancock, of Samuel Adams,
    of Fisher Ames, or of Wendell Phillips. The atmosphere of
    European courts is debilitating to American Republicanism,
    unless it be a profound sentiment of the heart. When my
    brother-in-law returned from his position as minister to
    Naples, I could see that he had learned to look upon the
    common people as a rabble, and to sympathize only with the
    aristocracy. Cassius M. Clay at St. Petersburg learned to
    sympathize with the Russians, but he returned with no
    impairment of his democratic principles.

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]

    [2] The insane folly which assumes, without a particle of
    evidence, that everything depends upon mind, and that the
    brain, the body, and their environment, which is continually
    acting upon the _entire_ man, are of no importance whatever,
    would not be worthy even of mere mention if it were not for
    the fact that this form of delusion has of late become so
    common, under the deceptive names of metaphysics, Christian
    science, and mind-cure, when the theory is simply an attempt
    to get rid of science and common sense.


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.

[Illustration]

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.


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 Goethe'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.

[Illustration]

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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 12 Weeks]

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.

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.

[Illustration: 21 Weeks 7 Months;
In the brain of seven months, the right hemisphere is out open
horizontally, showing the ventricle.]

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.

[Illustration]

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]

    [3] The reader may naturally ask why have I not demonstrated
    this assertion before the scientific world. The reason is,
    that dogmatism rules in the sphere of natural science, and no
    communication would receive fair treatment which contravened
    the opinions of editors or the mass of prevalent opinion in
    colleges and scientific societies. It would be peremptorily
    rejected from our leading scientific magazine, the _Popular
    Science Monthly_.

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.

[Illustration]

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]

    [4] I would merely mention, as a familiar example of such
    errors, that an enlightened student of phrenology called upon
    me yesterday, to whom phrenologists had given the character of
    avaricious selfishness and an incapacity for friendship, which
    indeed was the correct application of the old system, but was
    the reverse of his true character. The old system did not
    explain friendship correctly, and entirely mislocated the
    organ of avarice by placing it in the temples. The gentlemen
    had never before received a correct description from
    phrenologists he had visited.



BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.


The establishment of a new Journal is a hazardous and expensive
undertaking. Every reader of this volume receives what has cost more
than he pays for it, and in addition receives the product of months of
editorial, and many years of scientific, labor. May I not therefore
ask his aid in relieving me of this burden by increasing the
circulation of the Journal among his friends?

The establishment of the Journal was a duty. There was no other way
effectively to reach the people with its new sphere of knowledge.
Buckle has well said in his "History of Civilization," that "No great
political improvement, no great reform, either legislative or
executive, has ever been originated in any country by its ruling
class. The first suggestors of each steps have invariably been bold
and able thinkers, who discern the abuse, denounce it, and point out
the remedy."

This is equally true in science, philanthropy, and religion. When the
advance of knowledge and enlightenment of conscience render reform or
revolution necessary, the ruling powers of college, church,
government, capital, and the press, present a solid combined
resistance which the teachers of novel truth cannot overcome without
an appeal to the people. The grandly revolutionary science of
Anthropology, which offers in one department (Psychometry) "the dawn
of a new civilization," and in other departments an entire revolution
in social, ethical, educational, and medical philosophy, has
experienced the same fate as all other great scientific and
philanthropic innovations, in being compelled to sustain itself
against the mountain mass of established error by the power of truth
alone. The investigator whose life is devoted to the evolution of the
truth cannot become its propagandist. A whole century would be
necessary to the full development of these sciences to which I can
give but a portion of one life. Upon those to whom these truths are
given, who can intuitively perceive their value, rests the task of
sustaining and diffusing the truth.

The circulation of the Journal is necessarily limited to the sphere of
liberal minds and advanced thinkers, but among these it has had a more
warm and enthusiastic reception than was ever before given to any
periodical. There must be in the United States twenty or thirty
thousand of the class who would warmly appreciate the Journal, but
they are scattered so widely it will be years before half of them can
be reached without the active co-operation of my readers, which I most
earnestly request.

Prospectuses and specimen numbers will be furnished to those who will
use them, and those who have liberal friends not in their own vicinity
may confer a favor by sending their names that a prospectus or
specimen may be sent them. A liberal commission will be allowed to
those who canvass for subscribers.


Enlargement of the Journal.

The requests of readers for the enlargement of the Journal are already
coming in. It is a great disappointment to the editor to be compelled
each month to exclude so much of interesting matter, important to
human welfare, which would be gratifying to its readers. The second
volume therefore will be enlarged to 64 pages at $2 per annum.


"Irene, or the road to Freedom." 612 pages, $1; published by H. N.
Fowler, 1123 Arch street, Philadelphia; called the "Uncle Tom's Cabin
of Woman Slavery." Ostensibly a novel, it is a _doctrinaire_ book,
presenting a series of almost impossible incidents to enable the
characters to present their ideas of woman's rights and wrongs and
conjugal relations. The full development of the writer's doctrines
(who is a woman) is postponed to another volume. The ideas in this
would please only the most extreme radicals. The Journal is
over-loaded with its special themes, and has not room for discussions
of such subjects.


COLLEGE OF THERAPEUTICS.

The eighth session is now in progress with an intelligent class. The
ninth session will begin next November. I do not approve of medical
legislation, but if it could be considered just to prohibit medical
practice without a college education, it would be much more just to
prohibit magnetic and electric practice without such practical
instruction as is given in the College of Therapeutics and at present
nowhere else.

       *       *       *       *       *

                          LIGHT ON THE WAY.

    GEO. A. FULLER, Editor and Publisher.
                          MRS. G. DAVENPORT STEVENS, Asst. Editor.

                        TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION:

         Twelve Numbers, 60 cts.     Single Copies, 5 cts.

Remittances should be made by United States Postal Money Order,
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ADVERTISING RATES:--A few unobjectionable advertisements not of a
sensational character, will be received.

TERMS:--20 cents per agate line each insertion.

Our columns will ever remain absolutely free from invidious
personalities, for we emulate the good in humanity and shall seek to
find it in all.

_All communications and remittances should be sent to Geo. A. Fuller.
Dover, Mass._

       *       *       *       *       *

                                 THE
                            CREDIT FONCIER
                             OF SINALOA.

                   _PUBLISHED AT HAMMONTON, N. J._

               MARIE HOWLAND          }
                    AND               }    EDITORS.
               EDWARD HOWLAND,        }

               F. L. Browne and T. M. Burger, Printers.

This paper is especially devoted to the interests of our colonization
enterprise, THE CREDIT FONCIER of Sinaloa, and generally to the
practical solution of the problem of Integral Co-operation.

PRICE: $1.00 a Year; 50 cents for Six Months; 25 cents for Three
Months.

       *       *       *       *       *

                     Mayo's Vegetable Anæsthetic.

A perfectly safe and pleasant substitute for chloroform, ether,
nitrous oxide gas, and all other anæsthetics. Discovered by Dr. U. K.
Mayo, April, 1883, and since administered by him and others in over
300,000 cases successfully. The youngest child, the most sensitive
lady, and those having heart disease, and lung complaint, inhale this
vapor with impunity. It stimulates the circulation of the blood and
builds up the tissues. Indorsed by the highest authority in the
professions, recommended in midwifery and all cases of nervous
prostration. Physicians, surgeons, dentists and private families
supplied with this vapor, liquefied, in cylinders of various
capacities. It should be administered the same as Nitrous Oxide, but
it does not produce headache and nausea as that sometimes does. For
further information pamphlets, testimonials, etc., apply to

                                      DR. U. K. MAYO, Dentist,
                                        378 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.

       *       *       *       *       *

                                FACTS,

                         A MONTHLY MAGAZINE,

                              DEVOTED TO

                   Mental and Spiritual Phenomena,


                              INCLUDING

            Dreams, Mesmerism, Psychometry, Clairvoyance,
           Clairaudience, Inspiration, Trance, and Physical
                Mediumship; Prayer, Mind, and Magnetic
                Healing; and all classes of Psychical
                               Effects.

               Single Copies, 10 Cents; $1.00 per year.

                             PUBLISHED BY

                      Facts Publishing Company,

                     (Drawer 5323,) BOSTON, MASS.

                      _L. L. WHITLOCK, Editor._


             For Sale by COLBY & RICH, 9 Bosworth Street.

       *       *       *       *       *

                          W. F. RICHARDSON,

                         MAGNETIC PHYSICIAN,

                    875 Washington Street, Boston.

Having had several years' practice, in which his powers as a healer
have been tested, and been surprising to himself and friends, and
having been thoroughly instructed in the science of Sarcognomy, offers
his services to the public with entire confidence that he will be able
to relieve or cure all who apply.

For his professional success he refers to Prof. Buchanan, and to
numerous citizens whose testimonials he can show.

       *       *       *       *       *

                         OPIUM and MORPHINE
                                  HABITS
                               EASILY CURED BY
                                A NEW METHOD.

                          DR. J. C. HOFFMAN,

                      _JEFFERSON ... WISCONSIN._

       *       *       *       *       *

                    Religio-Philosophical Journal.

                          ESTABLISHED 1865.

                         PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT

                     92 La Salle Street, Chicago,

                          BY JOHN C. BUNDY,

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION IN ADVANCE:

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Single copies, 5 cents. Specimen copy free.

All letters and communications should be addressed, and all
remittances made payable to

                     JOHN C. BUNDY, Chicago, Ill.

A Paper for all who Sincerely and Intelligently Seek Truth without
regard to Sect or Party.

Press, Pulpit, and People Proclaim its Merits.

_Concurrent Commendations from Widely Opposite Sources._

Is the ablest Spiritualist paper in America.... Mr. Bundy has earned
the respect of all lovers of the truth, by his sincerity and
courage.--_Boston Evening Transcript._

I have a most thorough respect for the JOURNAL, and believe its editor
and proprietor is disposed to treat the whole subject of spiritualism
fairly.--_Rev. M. J. Savage (Unitarian) Boston._

I wish you the fullest success in your courageous course.--_R. Heber
Newton, D. D._

Your course has made spiritualism respected by the secular press as it
never has been before, and compelled an honorable
recognition.--_Hudson Tuttle, Author and Lecturer._

I read your paper every week with great interest.--_H. W. Thomas, D. D.,
Chicago._

I congratulate you on the management of the paper.... I indorse your
position as to the investigation of the phenomena.--_Samuel Watson, D. D.,
Memphis, Tenn._

       *       *       *       *       *

                       THE SPIRITUAL OFFERING,

     LARGE EIGHT-PAGE, WEEKLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO THE ADVOCACY OF
 SPIRITUALISM IN ITS RELIGIOUS, SCIENTIFIC, AND HUMANITARIAN ASPECTS.

                      COL. D. M. FOX, Publisher.

                 D. M. & NETTIE P. FOX .... EDITORS.


                       EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS.

Prof. Henry Kiddle, No. 7 East 130th St., New York City.

"Ouina," through her medium, Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, 64 Union Park
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Among its contributors will be found our oldest and ablest writers. In
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A Young Folks' Department has recently been added, edited by _Ouina_,
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OFFERING'S School for Young and Old," A. Danforth, of Boston, Mass.,
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Any person wanting the _Offering_, who is unable to pay more than
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In remitting by mail, a Post-Office Money Order on Ottumwa, or Draft
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RATES OF ADVERTISING.--Each line of nonpareil type, 15 cents for first
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       *       *       *       *       *



    Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents came from the first
    issue of the volume. The article GENESIS OF THE BRAIN is
    continued from the previous issue's page 32. Liebault,
    Liebeault are retained as spelled in the quoted documents.





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