The number of individuals who can be thus affected is different in different places. In southern climates they are more numerous than in northern—in the pleasant weather of summer more than in winter—in lecture rooms, ball rooms and places of fervid religious worship, more than in the street and market place, where the intellectual and moral faculties are less predominant. In the Southern States of the Union, thirty or forty per cent. of the population will give at once distinct evidence of impressibility. In the more northern, about ten per cent. will give indications of an influence from the hand. A moderate degree of impressibility which is almost universal in the South, belongs to more than half in the North.

Impressible subjects may be selected by the development of the organs of Impressibility, and the general predominance of the frontal and coronal regions of the brain over the occipital. The qualities already mentioned as favoring impressibility may be studied in the character, or observed in the development, as they occupy the entire anterior half of the head, giving breadth to the temples, with height and projection to the forehead. An enlarged pupil of the eye will be one of the best symptoms, and, in connection with a calm, spiritual, gentle expression of countenance rarely fails to indicate impressibility.

To test impressibility apply the fingers upon the organ of Somnolence, an inch horizontally behind the brow, with a very gentle contact; your subject, after a few minutes, will manifest a sensitiveness of the eye, and will wink oftener than usual—his winking will be repeated and prolonged, until his eyelids droop or remain closed—he is now somnolent and dreamy; and this condition may be prolonged until it becomes the Mesmeric Somnolence, or may be promptly removed by brushing the excitement off with the fingers.

A very simple test of impressibility consists in passing the ends of the fingers over the palm of the hand of the subject, within one or more inches, and ascertaining whether he can recognize its passage by any impression. If impressible he will perceive a cooling sensation as the fingers pass. A more perfect demonstration is to let your subject stand erect before you, and apply both hands gently over the forehead and moral organs, or upon the temples; then very slowly withdraw them, and continue this process until you perceive that as your hand is withdrawn, the head seems inclined to follow it as if attracted; some will move thus but an inch or two, others will be drawn forward and compelled to follow you wherever you go, or may be drawn down and prostrated upon the floor. You may accomplish the same upon the back of the head or body—the hand or any other part which is free to move; but the forehead is the best region, because the front lobe is the seat of Impressibility, and the operation cultivates that quality, by drawing excitement into the brain, and especially the front lobe, thus debilitating the muscular system and power of resistance.

Apply the fingers upon the organ of Relaxation, below the cheek bone, and your subject, if standing, will become enfeebled, unsteady in attitude, and incapable of supporting as great weight as before in his extended hand. This will be counteracted by touching the region of Energy.

The most painful experiments may be made by placing the hands upon the temples and face, so as to cover the regions of Sensibility, Disease, Relaxation, and Irritability—the effect of which would be to produce bodily weakness, sickness, pain, distress and general prostration; a condition, which if not relieved, might result in severe disease, but which may be counteracted by dispersing the excitement upward and backward, and by stimulating Health, Energy and Hardihood.

By grasping a metallic rod firmly in the hand while the other end of it rests in the relaxed hand of an impressible person, you may transmit a current of nervaura, which he will recognize gradually entering his arm at the hand, passing slowly up to the shoulder, and then diffusing itself over the body.

One may test his own impressibility by placing the palm of the hand in contact with any portion of the head or body of a vigorous constitution for about twenty minutes, and observing the different impressions imparted by different localities. If the hand be held in contact with an individual suffering from some active form of disease, resting upon the forehead or the pit of the stomach, the morbid symptoms will be very perceptibly transferred to any one of an impressible constitution; but I would not recommend the experiment to any but those who are embarrassed by a constitutional scepticism, which hinders their believing anything which is not impressed upon their own senses.

An easy method of testing our susceptibility is by holding some active medicinal substance between the hands while sitting at ease (without knowing what the properties of the substance are), and holding other active substances at different times, to compare the effects which they produce upon the constitution. After such experiment, if the effects should in any case be greater than we desire, the influence should be removed by dispersive passes on the hands and down the arms.



JOURNAL OF MAN FOR 1888. $1.

In view of all the circumstances I have very reluctantly decided to postpone the enlargement of the JOURNAL to 1889. The demand for promised volumes is more urgent than the necessity for enlargement, and the demand for personal instruction in the new therapeutics also consumes a great deal of time.

The appeal to readers has elicited a most cordial and cheering response. No periodical ever had so appreciative a circle of readers, for no periodical ever occupied the vast, untrodden field of the new sciences as does the JOURNAL OF MAN,—a solitary pioneer of the new civilization. I shall continue publishing the cheering words of readers, which are too numerous to be given in any one number of the JOURNAL. Many of the responses express the purpose of extending its circulation by new subscribers, which is the most important act of friendship for a new journal.

RESPONSES OF READERS.

You may be truly called, and wisely, a friend of humanity.—B. A. L. Count me for the JOURNAL as long as published.—Dr. P. P. L. My wife would willingly sacrifice some of her favorite publications for the JOURNAL.—J. L. We smile in saying we are with you.—G. C. N. Count on me as long as you work for the good of humanity.—E. C. I am delighted with the JOURNAL OF MAN.—S. L. R. It contains so many startling truths.—A. J. S. It is the most scientific monthly published.—W. B. A. Mr. B. says, count on him as long as there is breath in his body.—C. F. B. I will renew, be the price $2 or $5.—E. W. B. I could not consent to deprive myself of the valuable information in its pages.—J. S. B. To continue as long as you publish it.—D. D. B. A constant supporter though its price is trebled.—A. J. B. With great delight.—J. A. D. Steadfast among your studious readers.—W. C. E. I perceive fully its important mission.—M. F. Can't very well get too much of such a periodical as the JOURNAL.—F. F. H. Very anxious for the enlargement—a subscriber till death.—A. H. It is a gem—it takes the palm from them all.—T. M. More than pleased—I can truly say delighted.—I. C. D. I am with you at any price.—Dr. J. D. M. Glad to double.—A. M. J. Looking forward with pleasurable anticipation to the enlargement.—W. F. B. Anxious to see it enlarged.—J. L. A., M.D. Cerebral science is by far the best portion of your publications.—Dr. D. E. E. Increase its size to a four-dollar monthly.—Dr. W. B. F. I appreciate the JOURNAL above all other publications.—W. D. I. Put my name down for a life membership.—P. J. M. To all the popular journals of the day the JOURNAL OF MAN is as the electric light is to the oil lamp or tallow dip.—J. V. M. S. More than pleased.—B. I. T. I hope the day is not distant when the truths you present will permeate and mould society everywhere.—E. A. M. The article on "The World's Neglected or Forgotten Leaders" is alone worth more than the whole year's subscription.—J. H.

BUSINESS NOTICE.

The January Number ends the first volume of the JOURNAL OF MAN. Back numbers can be supplied to new subscribers who do not delay too long. Number 1, Volume 2, for February, will be sent to all subscribers, but a remittance will be expected before the March number is sent.

PSYCHOMETRIC PRACTICE.

Mrs. C. H. Buchanan continues to apply her skill in the description of character and disease, with general impressions as to past and future. Her numerous correspondents express much gratification and surprise at the correctness of her delineations. The fee for a personal interview is $2; for a written description $3; for a more comprehensive review and statement of life periods, with directions for the cultivation of Psychometry, $5.

MEDICAL ORTHODOXY

Is realizing the reaction of public opinion against all forms of monopoly. There is some plausibility in the demand that all who heal should educate themselves, if we had a true system of education, which we have not. But there is no justice in the demand that those whom nature has gifted with great healing powers should be prohibited from exercising their natural gifts, or giving advice to their neighbors, whenever they happen to know anything that is useful. To interfere with such acts of benevolence, which are really the performance of a religious duty, is a crime, and it is none the less criminal when it is the act of legislators, who are careless enough to allow themselves to be made the tools of an avaricious monopoly, which would make it a crime for a farmer's wife to give her neighbor's children a blackberry cordial or hoarhound syrup. When the law makes benevolence a crime, laws and legislators become objects of contempt, and a dangerous spirit of rebellion is fostered.

In Illinois a law has been obtained from a careless and unthinking legislature, which makes all healing a crime, when not performed by graduated, licensed and registered practitioners, but the law is so odious that it is not enforced against those who are not administering medicines. In Iowa an equally disgraceful law has been obtained, designed to establish a similar monopoly, but the prosecution against a lady for assisting a patient with her prayers resulted in her acquittal, and the medical societies have been paralyzed as to its enforcement. Dr. R. C. Flower, of Boston, has made several addresses to large audiences in that State, in opposition to medical legislation, and the report of his very spirited and effective lecture in the Des Moines Register shows that he carried his audiences with him, and roused enthusiasm in opposition to the law. Dr. F. related some terrific cases of malpractice by eminent physicians, and portrayed the horrible effects of the law in upholding quackery.

The present law of Mississippi is a disgrace to the civilization of that State. It would authorize the prosecution of any one who helped the sick, even by prayer, if the benevolent party was not protected by a medical license.

In Alabama the law gives to the old school State medical association the entire control of medical practice, and the power to examine and license every one who does any practice. Under this law graduates of Eclectic colleges who are outside of the medical ring, have been prosecuted for non-compliance with the law, but the prosecution was defeated. Mississippi and Alabama need to be Americanized. Medical bigotry has carried them back to the dark ages, for there is not a country in Europe to-day which is not more enlightened and liberal in its medical legislation than these two States.

Monopoly is one of the most formidable enemies of American liberty. It is now assuming the form of "Trust" combinations to raise prices, but there is no monopoly so grasping as the medical,—none which assumes to suppress competition by law.

The plea of promoting education is as false as a proposal to elevate the pulpit by compelling every clergyman to pass through a Roman Catholic college. The existing medical colleges hold the same relation to the practice of the healing art as the Sectarian Theological Seminary to the practice of Christianity. One may be a very good Christian without the help of a theological seminary, or a very good doctor without the help of a medical college, but no one can be a first-class physician who goes through a medical college and adheres strictly to all the knowledge and all the ignorance administered by professors, without learning anything from other sources.

MAYO'S ANAESTHETIC.

The suspension of pain, under dangerous surgical operations, is the greatest triumph of Therapeutic Science in the present century. It came first by mesmeric hypnotism, which was applicable only to a few, and was restricted, by the jealous hostility of the old medical profession. Then came the nitrous oxide, introduced by Dr. Wells, of Hartford, and promptly discountenanced by the enlightened (?) medical profession of Boston, and set aside for the next candidate, ether, discovered in the United States also, but far inferior to the nitrous oxide as a safe and pleasant agent. This was largely superseded by chloroform, discovered much earlier by Liebig and others, but introduced as an anaesthetic in 1847, by Prof. Simpson. This proved to be the most powerful and dangerous of all. Thus the whole policy of the medical profession was to discourage the safe, and encourage the more dangerous agents. The magnetic sleep, the most perfect of all anaesthetic agents, was expelled from the realm of college authority; ether was substituted for nitrous oxide, and chloroform preferred to ether, until frequent deaths gave warning.

Nitrous oxide, much the safest of the three, has not been the favorite, but has held its ground, especially with dentists. But even nitrous oxide is not perfect. It is not equal to the magnetic sleep, when the latter is practicable, but fortunately it is applicable to all. To perfect the nitrous oxide, making it universally safe and pleasant, Dr. U. K. Mayo, of Boston, has combined it with certain harmless vegetable nervines, which appear to control the fatal tendency which belongs to all anaesthetics when carried too far. The success of Dr. Mayo, in perfecting our best anaesthetic, is amply attested by those who have used it. Dr. Thorndike, than whom Boston had no better surgeon, pronounced it "the safest the world has yet seen." It has been administered to children and to patients in extreme debility. Drs. Frizzell and Williams say they have given it "repeatedly in heart disease, severe lung diseases, Bright's disease, etc., where the patients were so feeble as to require assistance in walking, many of them under medical treatment, and the results have been all that we could ask—no irritation, suffocation, nor depression. We heartily commend it to all as the anaesthetic of the age." Dr. Morrill, of Boston, administered Mayo's anaesthetic to his wife with delightful results when "her lungs were so badly disorganized, that the administration of ether or gas would be entirely unsafe." The reputation of this anaesthetic is now well established; in fact, it is not only safe and harmless, but has great medical virtue for daily use in many diseases, and is coming into use for such purposes. In a paper before the Georgia State Dental Society, Dr. E. Parsons testified strongly to its superiority. "The nitrous oxide (says Dr. P.) causes the patient when fully under its influence to have very like the appearance of a corpse," but under this new anaesthetic "the patient appears like one in a natural sleep." The language of the press generally has been highly commendatory, and if Dr. Mayo had occupied so conspicuous a rank as Prof. Simpson, of Edinburgh, his new anaesthetic would have been adopted at once in every college of America and Europe.

* * * * *

Mayo's Vegetable Anaesthetic.

A perfectly safe and pleasant substitute for chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide gas, and all other anaesthetics. 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.

* * * * *

THE OPEN COURT.

PUBLISHED BY

The Open Court Publishing Company,

Rooms 41 and 42, 169-175 LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO.

B. F. UNDERWOOD, SARA A. UNDERWOOD, Editor and Manager. Associate Editor.

The Open Court is a high-class, radical free-thought Journal, devoted to the work of exposing religious superstition, and establishing religion upon the basis of science.

It is opposed to all forms of sectarianism, and discusses all subjects of interest in the light of the fullest knowledge and the most matured thought of the age.

It has for contributors the leading thinkers and writers of the old and new world. Among those who contribute to its columns are the following writers:—

Prof. Max Muller, of Oxford. Wm. J. Potter. Richard A. Proctor. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Albert Revielle. Frederick May Holland. Edmund Montgomery, M.D. Anna Garlin Spencer. Prof. E. D. Cope. B. W. Ball. Col. T. W. Higginson. Felix L. Oswald, M.D. Prof. Leslie F. Ward. Theodore Stanton. Prof. Henry C. Adams. Mrs. Celia P. Wooley. Jas. Parton. E. C. Hegeler. Geo. Jacob Holyoake. Dr. Paul Carus. John Burroughs. Lewis G. James. S. V. Clevenger, M.D. Mrs. Hypatia B. Bonner. John W. Chadwick. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jr. M. J. Savage. M. C. O'Byrne. Moncure D. Conway. Samuel Kneeland, M.D. Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. Prof. Van Buren Denslow. Prof. Thomas Davidson. Mrs. Edna D. Cheney. Gen. J. G. R. Forlong. Wm. Clark, A.M. Prof. W. D. Gunning. Clara Lanza. Gen. M. M. Trumbull. C. D. B. Mills. W. M. Salter. Alfred H. Peters.

Those who wish a first-class journal, devoted to the discussion of scientific, religious, social and economic questions, should send at once for a sample copy of this great journal.

Terms, $3 per year. Single copies, 15 cents.

Make all remittances payable to the order of B. F. UNDERWOOD, Treasurer; and address all letters to Open Court, P. O. Drawer F., Chicago, Ills.

* * * * *

"FORTY PATIENTS A DAY"

is the name of a pamphlet Helen Wilmans has written on her practical experience in healing. No one seems to have had better opportunity of demonstrating the truth of mental science than Mrs. Wilmans has had in her Southern home, where the report of her skill was carried from mouth to mouth, until patients swarmed to her from far and near. Send 15 cents for the pamphlet. Address: Mrs. HELEN WILMANS, Douglasville, Georgia.

* * * * *



Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents came from the first issue of the volume.

THE END