Buchanan's Journal of Man, September 1887 Part 3

(_Continued from page 32._)

There is no great reform, no elevation of humanity without understanding MAN,--the laws of his culture, the possibilities within his reach, the extent of the short-comings which exist to-day, the very numerous agencies of brain-building and soul-culture, the wiser methods of the school, the magnetic influences which are sometimes all potent, the dietary, the exercises of body and voice, the power of music and disciplined example, the lofty outreachings for a higher life to which we are introduced by psychometry, the supernal and divine influences which may be brought to bear, and many nameless things which help to make the aggregate omnipotent over young life, but which, alas, are unknown in colleges to-day, and will continue unknown until Anthropology shall have taken its place as the guide of humanity.

P.S.--The doctrine so firmly maintained in this chapter that men are incompetent to judge themselves, and need a scientific monitor of unquestionable authority, has long been recognized. The Catholic confessional is a recognition and application of the principles of great value. But the confessional of the narrow-minded and miseducated priest should be superseded by the confessional and the admonition of Anthropology.

Sterne, in his Tristam Shandy, says, "Whenever a man's conscience does accuse him (as it seldom errs on that side), he is guilty, and unless he is melancholy and hypochondriac, there is always sufficient ground for the accusation. But the converse of the proposition will not hold true," that if it does not accuse, the man is innocent.

"Thus conscience, placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what pa.s.ses, does its office so negligently, often so corruptly, that it is not to be trusted alone, and, therefore, we find there is a necessity, an absolute necessity, of joining another principle with it."

That "other principle" demanded by Sterne has never been found, until, in the revelation of the functions of soul and brain, we have found the absolute standard of character, and in Cranioscopy and Psychometry the perfect method of applying the principle to each individual.

An amusing ill.u.s.tration occurred lately in England, which was published as follows:--

"When the address to the queen at the opening of the English royal courts was under consideration by the judges, one very eminent judge of appeal objected to the phrase 'conscious as we are of our shortcomings.' 'I am not conscious of shortcomings,'

he said, 'and if I were I should not be so foolish as to say so;' whereupon a learned lord justice blandly observed, 'Suppose we say, "conscious as we are of each other's shortcomings."'"

CHAPTER VIII--THE ORIGIN AND FOUNDATION OF THE NEW ANTHROPOLOGY

Difficulties of imperfect knowledge in my first studies--First investigation of Phrenology--Errors detected and corrected--The PATHOGNOMIC SYSTEM organized--A brilliant discovery and its results--Discovery of the sense of feeling and development of Psychometry--Its vast importance and numerous applications--The first experiments on the brain and the publication of Anthropology--The discovery of Sarcognomy and its practical value--Reception of the new Sciences--Honorable action of the venerable Caldwell.

The very brief exposition of the structure and functions of the brain already given, may serve as an introduction to the subject and prepare the reader to appreciate the laborious investigations of many years, by means of which so comprehensive a science was brought into existence amid the hostile influences of established opinions and established ignorance.

It is necessary now to present this statement to enable the reader to realize more fully the positive character of the science.

My life has been devoted to the study of man, his destiny and his happiness. Uncontrolled in education, I learned to endure no mental restraint, and, thrown upon my own resources in boyhood, difficulties but strengthened the pa.s.sion for philosophical knowledge. Yet more formidable difficulties were found in the limited condition of human science, alike in libraries and colleges.

Anthropology, my favorite study, had no systematic development, and the very word was unfamiliar, because there was really nothing to which it could justly be applied. Its elementary sciences were in an undeveloped state, and some of them not yet in existence. Mental philosophy was very limited in its scope, and had little or nothing of a practical and scientific nature. The soul was not recognised as a subject for science. The body was studied apart from the soul, and the brain, the home of the soul, was enveloped in mystery--so as to leave even physiological science shrouded in darkness, as the central and controlling organ of life was considered an inaccessible mystery. In studying medicine, it seemed that I wandered through a wilderness without a compa.s.s and with no cardinal points.

Phrenology promised much, and I examined it cautiously. It struck me at first as an unsatisfactory system of mental philosophy, and I stated my objections before its most celebrated and venerable champion, in public, who a.s.sured me that I would be satisfied by further investigation. As it seemed a very interesting department of natural science, I began by comparing the heads of my acquaintances with the phrenological map, and discovering so many striking coincidences that I was gradually satisfied as to its substantial truth, and I do not believe that any one has ever thus tested the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim, without perceiving their _general_ correctness, while many, with less critical observation, have accepted them as absolutely true.

My interest increased with the extent of my observations, until, for several years, I abandoned practical medicine for the exclusive study of the science of the brain in the great volume of nature, with the doctrines of Gall as the basis of the investigation. As it was my purpose to seek the deficiencies as well as the merits of the new science, I tested its accuracy by the careful examination of living heads and skulls in comparison with ascertained character, and with the anatomy of the brain, not forgetting the self-evident principles of mental philosophy. Many thousand critical examinations were made between the years 1834 and 1841, leading to many positive conclusions.

The first year's observations made me distinctly aware and certain of several defects in the doctrines, as to the functions ascribed to certain localities of the brain to which were ascribed, Mirthfulness, Acquisitiveness, Adhesiveness, Constructiveness, Tune, Ideality, Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Cautiousness. The functions of these localities were evidently misunderstood, and the faculties erroneously located.

The external senses were omitted from the catalogue of cerebral organs, though evidently ent.i.tled to recognition, and the physiological powers of the brain, the prime mover and most important part of the const.i.tution, were almost totally ignored.

Following the old route of exploration by cranioscopy, I sought to supply these defects. I found the supposed Mirthfulness to be a planning and reasoning organ, and the true Mirthfulness to be located more interiorly. Acquisitiveness was evidently located farther back.

The so-called organ of Adhesiveness appeared to be incapable of manifesting true friends.h.i.+p, and its absence was frequently accompanied by strong capacities for friends.h.i.+p, of a disinterested character. Constructiveness appeared to be located too low, and too far back, running into the middle lobe, which is not the place for intellect. Tune did not appear to correspond regularly to musical talent. Many of the higher functions ascribed to Ideality were conspicuous in heads which had that organ small, with a large development just above it. Combativeness had evidently less influence upon physical courage than was supposed, for it was sometimes well developed in cowards, and rather small in brave men. Cautiousness was evidently not the organ of fear, for the bravest men, of whom I met many in the southwest, sometimes had it in predominant development, and in the timid it was sometimes moderate, or small. Destructiveness was frequently a characteristic of narrow heads (indeed this is the case with the Thugs of India), and a broad development above the ears was sometimes accompanied by a mild disposition. The height of the head above the ears did not prove a correct criterion of moral character, nor did the breadth indicate correctly the amount of the selfish and violent pa.s.sions.

I observed that the violent and selfish elements of character were connected with occipital depth, and elongation; that the affections were connected with the coronal region, that the sense of vision was located in the brow, and the sense of feeling in the temples, near the cheekbone, that the upper occipital region was the seat of energetic powers, and the lower, of violent or criminal impulses, and that the whole cerebrum was an apparatus of mingling convolutions, in which the functions, gradually changing from point to point, presented throughout a beautiful blending and connection.

Observing daily the comparative development of brain and body, with their reciprocal influence, I traced the outlines of cerebral physiology, and the laws of sympathetic connection or correspondence between the body and the encephalon, by which, in a given const.i.tution, I would determine from the head the development of the whole body, the peculiar distributions of the circulation, with the consequent morbid tendencies, the relative perfection of the different senses and different organs of the body, and the character of the temperament.

Seeking continually for the fundamental laws of Anthropology, criticising and rejecting all that appeared objectionable or inconsistent, I acquired possession of numerous sound and comprehensive principles concerning the fundamental laws of cerebral science, which were at once touchstones for truth and efficient instruments for further research.

These fundamental laws, though very obvious and easily perceived when pointed out, had been overlooked by my predecessors, but are always accepted readily by my auditors, when fully explained. As new facts and principles led to the discovery of other facts and principles, a system of philosophy (not speculative, but scientific) was thus evolved, and a number of geometrical principles were established as the basis of the science of the brain, so evidently true, though so long overlooked, as to command the unanimous a.s.sent of all to whom they have been presented; and, as the acceptance of these principles involves the general acceptance of cerebral science, my labors as a teacher have ever been singularly harmonious, and free from doubt, antagonism, and contention.

The fundamental principle of the philosophy was geometric or mathematical, as it examined the construction of the brain, and showed an exact mathematical relation between each organ of the brain and its effects on the body, in the spontaneous gestures, the circulation of blood, the nervous forces, and local functions. Its leading characteristic being the law of the expression of the vital forces and feelings in outward acts. This doctrine was called the PATHOGNOMIC SYSTEM.

I was preparing to publish in several volumes the reorganized science as the Pathognomic System, when the consummation of my researches, by a brilliant discovery, led me into a new world of knowledge--to the full development of the science of Anthropology, according to which the brain gives organic expression to functions which are essentially located in the soul, and the body gives organic manifestation to functions which are controlled in the brain, while the body reacts upon the brain and the brain upon the soul. Thus, every element of humanity has a triple representation--that in the soul, which is purely psychic, yet by its influence becomes physiological in the body; that in the body which is purely physiological, yet by its influence becomes psychic in the soul, and that in the brain which produces physiological effects in the body, and psychic effects in the soul.

Thus, each of the three repositories of power is a psycho-physiological representation of the man; more physical in the body, more spiritual in the soul, but in the brain a more perfect psycho-physiological representation of man as he is in the present life. This full conception of the brain, which Gall did not attain, involved the new science of CEREBRAL PHYSIOLOGY, in which the brain may express the character of the body, as well as the soul, of which I would only say at present that my first observations were directed to ascertaining the cerebral seats of the external senses, vision, hearing and feeling, and the influences of different portions of the brain on different portions of the body.

The location of the sense of feeling, of which I became absolutely certain in 1838, at the base of the middle lobe has since been substantially confirmed by Ferrier's experiment on the monkey; but I have not been concerned about the results of vivisection, knowing that if I have made a true discovery, vivisection and pathology must necessarily confirm it; and I am not aware that any of my discoveries have been disturbed by the immense labors of vivisection.

The discovery of the organ of the sense of feeling led to an investigation of its powers, and the phenomena exhibited when its development was unusually large--hence came the initial fact of psychometry. Early in 1841 I found a very large development of the organ, in the head of the late Bishop Polk, then at Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, who subsequently became a confederate general.

After explaining to him his great sensibility to atmospheric, electric, and all other physical conditions, he mentioned a still more remarkable sensibility--that whenever he touched bra.s.s, he had immediately the taste of bra.s.s in his mouth, whether he knew what he was touching or not. I lost no time in verifying this observation by many experiments upon other persons, and finding that there were many in whom sensibility was developed to this extent, so that when I placed pieces of metal in their hands, behind their backs, they could tell what the metal was by its taste, or some other impression.

Further examinations showed that substances of any kind, held in the hands of sensitives, yielded not only an impression upon the sense of taste, by which they might be recognized, but an impression upon the entire sensibility of the body. Medicines tried in this manner gave a distinct impression--as distinct as if they had been swallowed--to a majority of the members of a large medical cla.s.s, in the leading medical school at Cincinnati, and to those who had superior psychometric capacities, the impression given in this manner enabled them to describe the qualities and effects of the medicines as fully and accurately as they are given in the works on materia medica.

This method of investigation I consider not only vastly more easy and rapid than the method adopted by the followers of Hahnemann, but more accurate and efficient than any other method known to the medical profession, and destined, therefore, to produce a greater improvement in our knowledge of the materia medica than we can derive from all other methods combined, in the same length of time. I may hereafter publish the practical demonstration of this, but the vast amount of labor involved in my experimental researches has not yet permitted me to take up this department, although it has yielded me some very valuable discoveries.

It may require a century for mankind fully to realize the value of Psychometry. It has been clearly, though I cannot say completely shown in the "MANUAL OF PSYCHOMETRY," to which I would refer the reader. I would simply state that the scientific discovery and exposition of Psychometry is equivalent to the dawn of new intellectual civilization, since it enables us to advance rapidly toward perfection all sciences and forms of knowledge now known, and to introduce new sciences heretofore unknown.

1. To the MEDICAL COLLEGE it will give a method of accurate diagnosis which will supersede the blundering methods now existing--a method of RAPIDLY enlarging and perfecting the materia medica--a method of exploring all difficult questions in Biology and Pathology, and a complete view of the const.i.tution of man.

2. To the UNIVERSITY it offers a method of revising and correcting history and biography--of enlarging our knowledge of Natural History, Geology, and Astronomy, and exploring Ethnology.

3. To the CHURCH it offers a method of exploring the origins of all religions, the future life of man, and the relations of terrestrial and celestial life.

4. To the PHILANTHROPIST it offers the methods of investigating and supervising education and social organization which may abolish all existing evils.

The foregoing were the initial steps and results in the development of Psychometry, simultaneously accompanied by those other discoveries in 1841, the scope and magnitude of which appear to me and to those who have studied my demonstrations, to be far more important than anything that has ever been discovered or done in Biological science, being nothing less than a complete scientific demonstration of the functions of the brain in all its psycho-physiological relations. To appreciate their transcendent importance, it is necessary only to know that the experiments have been carefully made, have often been repeated during the past forty-five years, and that all they demonstrate may also be demonstrated by other means, and fully established, if no such experiments could be made.

The origin of this discovery was as follows. My advanced investigations of the brain, between 1835 and 1841, had added so much to the incomplete and inaccurate discoveries of Gall, and had brought cerebral science into so much closer and more accurate relation with cerebral anatomy and embryology, as ill.u.s.trated by Tiedemann, that I became profoundly aware of the position in which I found myself, as an explorer, possessed of knowledge previously quite unknown, and yet, at the same time, however true, not strictly demonstrable, since none could fully realize its truth without following the same path and studying with the same concentrated devotion the comparative development of the brain in men and animals. Such zeal, success, and a.s.siduity I did not believe could be expected. There might not be one man in a century to undertake such a task (for all the centuries of civilization had produced but one such man--the ill.u.s.trious Gall), and when he appeared his voice would not be decisive. I would, therefore, appear not as presenting positive knowledge, but as contributing another theory, which the medical profession, regardless of my labors, would treat as a mere hypothesis.[1]

[1] I would mention that in the progress of my discoveries, especially in 1838-39, I came into frequent and intimate a.s.sociation with the late Prof. Wm. Byrd Powell, M. D., the most brilliant, and original of all American students of the brain, whose lectures always excited a profound interest in his hearers, and, in comparing notes with him, I found my own original observations well sustained by his. Though erratic in some of his theories, he was a bold student of nature, and the accidental destruction of his ma.n.u.script by fire, when too late in his life to repair the loss, was a destruction of much that would have been deeply interesting.

It was absolutely necessary that the functions of the brain should be demonstrated as positively as those of the spinal nerves had been demonstrated by Majendie and Bell. Two methods appeared possible. The two agents were galvanism and the aura of the nervous system, commonly called animal magnetism. My first experiments in 1841, satisfied me that both were available, but that the _nervaura_ was far more available, efficient, and satisfactory. Upon this I have relied ever since, though I sometimes experiment with galvanism, to demonstrate its efficiency, and Dr. De la Rua, of Cuba, informed me over twenty years ago that he found very delicate galvanic currents available for this purpose in his practice.

Animal magnetism or mesmerism had been involved in mystery and empiricism. There had never been any scientific or anatomical explanation of the phenomena, and this mystery I desired to dispel. My first step was to ascertain that for experiments on the nervous system we did not need the somnambulic or hypnotic condition, and that it was especially to be avoided as a source of confusion and error. Whenever the organ of sensibility, or sensitiveness, was sufficiently developed and predominant, the conditions of neurological experiments for scientific purposes were satisfactory, and to make such experiments, the subjects, instead of being ignorant, pa.s.sive, emotional, hysteric, or inclined to trance, should be as intelligent as possible, well-balanced and clear-headed,--competent to observe subjective phenomena in a critical manner. Hence, my experiments, which have been made upon all sorts of persons, were most decisive and satisfactory to myself when made upon well-educated physicians, upon medical professors, my learned colleagues, upon eminent lawyers or divines, upon strong-minded farmers or hunters, entirely unacquainted with such subjects, and incapable of psychological delusion, or upon persons of very skeptical minds who would not admit anything until the phenomena were made very plain and unquestionable.

While the nervaura of the human const.i.tution (which is as distinctly perceptible to the sensitive as its caloric and electricity) is emitted from every portion of the surface of the head and body, the quality and quant.i.ty of that which is emitted from the inner surface of the hand, render it most available, and the application of the hand of any one who has a respectable amount of vital and mental energy, will produce a distinct local stimulation of functions wherever it may be applied upon the head or body. In this manner it is easy to demonstrate the amiable and pleasing influence of the superior regions of the brain, the more energetic and vitalizing influence of its posterior half, and the mild, subduing influence of the front.

In my first experiments, in the spring of 1841, I found so great susceptibility that I could demonstrate promptly even the smallest organs of the brain, and it was gratifying to find that the ill.u.s.trious Gall had ascertained, with so marvellous accuracy the functions of the smallest organs in the front lobe, and the subject could be engrossed in the thought of numbers and counting by touching the organ of number or calculation. Eagerly did I proceed in testing the accuracy of all the discoveries of Gall and the additions I had made by craniological studies, as well as bringing out new functions which I had not been able to antic.i.p.ate or discover. Omitting the history of those experiments, I would but briefly state that in 1842 I published a complete map of the brain, in which the full development of human faculties made a complete picture of the psycho-physiological const.i.tution of man, and thus presented for the first time a science which might justly be called _Anthropology_.[2]

[2] I do not publish or circulate this map apart from the explanatory volume (Outlines of Anthropology) for the reason that it is impossible by any nomenclature of organs to convey a correct idea of the functions, and hence, such a map would tend to a great many misconceptions.

It is obvious that prior to 1842 there was nothing ent.i.tled to the name of ANTHROPOLOGY, as there was no complete geography before the discovery of America and circ.u.mnavigation of the globe. When man is fully portrayed by the statement of all the psychic and all the physiological faculties and functions found in his brain, which contains the totality, and manifests them in the soul and body, it is obvious that we have a true Anthropology, which, to complete its fulness, requires only the study of the soul as an ent.i.ty distinct from the brain, and of the body as an anatomical and physiological apparatus. The latter had already been well accomplished by the medical profession, and the former very imperfectly by spiritual psychologists. But neither the physiology, nor the pneumatology had been placed in organic connection with the central cerebral science.

In consummating such tasks, I felt justified, in 1842, in adopting the word Anthropology, as the representative of the new science, though at that time it was so unfamiliar as to be misunderstood. This science, as presented in my Outlines of Anthropology in 1854, embraced another very important and entirely novel discovery--the psycho-physiological relations of the surface of the body, the manner in which every portion of the body responds to the brain and the soul, the final solution of the great and hitherto impenetrable mystery of the triune relations of soul, brain, and body. This discovery, const.i.tuting the science of Sarcognomy, became the basis of a new medical philosophy, explaining the influence of the body on the soul, in health, and disease, and the reciprocal influence of the soul on the body.

This manifestly modified our views of therapeutics and revolutionized electro-therapeutics by pointing out the exact physiological and psychic effects of every portion of the surface of the body, when subject to local treatment, and hence, originating new methods of electric practice, in which many results were produced not heretofore deemed possible. All this was fully presented in my work on THERAPEUTIC SARCOGNOMY, published in 1885, which was speedily sold.