Book Reviews [pp. 568-572]

BOOK REVIEWS.
enemies to society; cautioning the public against
the lies of these parasites."
A useful index brings to a close a book that
every one who has the opportunity should read,
and for which few who have read have aught
but praise.
Books by Doctor Joseph Rodes Buchanan.'
Two remarkable books lie on the Reviewer's
table, the works of a remarkable man. They are
scientific books in that high science that verges
into philosophy,- which the present author prefers to call Theosophy, reclaiming the word from
the disrepute into which it has fallen by the
antics of Madam Blavatsky and her dupes. As
science, a literary review may not presume to
pass judgment on these books, and must content
itself with giving in such space as is allowed,
some small idea of their scope and contents.
Doctor Joseph Rodes Buchanan is not a new
writer in his chosen field, his discoveries were
first announced in I84I and a list of his writings
is quite formidable. His central thesis is that
man has a soul, that the brain is the main organ
of the soul, and the master organ of the body.
Hence there is the most vital reason in an attempt to understand even the body, for studying
the brain and the soul. Gall and Spurzheim
made an attempt of this kind to localize in the
brain some of the special organs of the various
passions and abilities, and measurably succeeded,
producing the science of phrenology. Doctor
Buchanan goes much further, giving the functions of portions of the brain which are still considered unknown. He finds a real connection
between the functions of the brain in mental acts
and in the control of the whole physical system,
and makes it valuable in diagnosing disease and
treating both mental and bodily ailments. Foreshadowings of this system are found in the
"mental symptoms" of the homoeopaths. Examples of general recognition are not far to seek.
The resolute hopefulness of the consumptive,
who imagines he is getting better when it is
sadly apparent to his friends that his hours are
numbered, indicates an unmistakable connection
between the lungs and that region of the brain
where hope dwells. The gloom of the bilious
man is an equally well known symptom. Continuing in this line, Doctor Buchanan develops a
whole science, which he calls Sarcognomy and
sets forth in his book Therapeutic Sarcognomy.
tTherapzutic Streognomy. By Doctor Joseph Rodes
Buchanan. Boston: J. G. Cupples Com)any. Third
Editioa. $5.oo.
Manual of Psychometry. Ibid. Boston: Frank H.
Hoiges: 1893. Fourth Edition. $2.oo.
The copy before us is of the third edition. It
would be vain to attempt to give a synopsis of
its 68o large pages, or even to indicate the wealth
of experiment, of argument, and of example, it
contains in support of Doctor Buchanan's new
science. Few persons, interested at all in the
subject, will fail to read it through; for the style
is good and the subjects are treated with the ease
of a man not afraid of knowledge at first hand.
Therapeutic Sarcognomy appeals chiefly to the
physician, and deals with its subject matter on
the professional side. The other book to be
noticed is of vastly more popular concern, and
relates experiments which anybody can repeat
and verify, and which, so verified, will introduce
the reader into a marvelously interesting and
important region of thought. Psychomety --
"Soul measurement, "-opens with a sketch of
the discovery made in I841, and relates how
Doctor Buchanan, then Dean of the Eclectic
Medical College at Cincinnati, discovered that
the virtues of medicines could be experienced by
a great majority of his pupils by simply holding
the drug (entirely unknown to the student, and
wrapped in paper) in the hand. Violent medicines, as cathartics, emetics, and the like, so
held for fifteen or twenty minutes, produced unmistakable symptoms on the part of most of the
holders. A slight electric current helped the
operation much. But something vastly more
subtle was to come. Doctor Buchanan discovered,
and verified by a multitude of experiments,
that a letter, a drawing, or any other object that
has had close personal contact with a person
under strong mental activity, gives out an influence to a sensitive subject, so that held in the
hand or pressed to the forehead, folded or covered so that no hint of the contents is otherwise given, it will reproduce the same mental
action in the subject.
This power opens, if verified and established,
unlimited fields for the most useful work in history, in the detection of crime, in the study of
character, and in a multitude of other ways. At
the very least the attempt to verify it affords an
exciting and extremely interesting amusement,
which may lead to results that are much more
than amusing. Of course these experiments
must be conducted in a careful way,-for the
trifler can do nothing,- and they must be earnest,- for in mental phenomena even more than
elsewhere. there are none so blind as those who
won't see.
A fine portrait of Doctor Buchanan is given in
the September Arena, where there is also an interesting article by him, on the subtler medical
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