Therapeutic sarcognomy, a scientific exposition of the mysterious union of soul, brain and body, and a new system of therapeutic practice without medicine, by the vital nervaura, electricity and external applications, giving the only scientific basis for therapeutic magnetism and electro-therapeutics

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THERAPEUTIC

SARCOGNOMY,

A SCIENTIFIC EXPOSITION OF THE MYSTERIOUS UNION OF

SOUL; BRAIN AND BODY,

AND A

New System of Therapeutic Practice without medicine, by the vital nervaura, electricity and external amplications. giving the only scientific basis for therapeutic magnetism and electro-thekapeutics.

By JOSEPH RODES BUCHANAN, M. D.,

The founder of Systematic Anthropology; Discoverer of Psychometry and Sarcognomy; Professor of Physiology and Institutes of Medicine in four

Medical Colleges successively, and formerly Dean of the E&teri Medical Institute, the parent School of American Medical Eclecticism.

^ f OCT 18 II

DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF

79^

Nervauric and Electric Practitioners, and also for intelligent

families, for the -prevention and cure of disease, and

moral and -physical developement of youth.

Volume ist — Nervauric and Electric, published by the author, 20, fort avenue, boston i*$f

Preface

Chapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION i

II. Life as a Spiritual Power, and Its Location

in the Brain n

III. Sarcognomy — General View 38

IV. The Spinal Region — Its Anatomical, Neuro-

logical and Therapeutic Relations ... 51

V. Relation of the Brain to Vitality in its

DIFFERENT REGIONS IOI

VI. Zonal Arrangement and Therapeutic Treatment of the Brain 113

VII. Health and Its Restoration . 129

VIII. Operative Methods 144

IX. Nerv auric Therapeutics 168

X. The Occipital Energies 184

XL The Abdominal and Crural Regions . . . . 201

XII. Pelvic Functions and Organs 217

XIII. Animal Magnetism Reviewed and Rectified . . 232

XIV. Synopsis of Practical Rules and Descrip-

tion of Plates .... - 252-69

PREFACE.

In this volume, hastily prepared, under many hindrances, to meet the immediate demands of students, there are doubtless many imperfections, and it is far from being such a work as I would have desired to publish.

Nevertheless, it is a fearless solution of the problem of- soul and body which lies at the foundation of all philosophy — a problem which my predecessors generally have shunned as if it wer inaccessible to human intelligence — Gall and Swedenborg alone having attempted each a partial solution.

The correctness of my exposition of the triune constitution of man is sustained by the experiments which I have for many years been making in private and before classes, which my pupils have satisfactorily repeated, and it is sustained by universal experience in the history of diseases which demonstrate according to their locality the laws of Sarcognomy. It has also a beautiful and interesting artistic illustration in the varieties of the human form, attitude and gesture, which I hope hereafter to present.

As to the verity of my experiments on the brain and body on which the science of Anthropology rests for its evidence, I refer to my experiments before public audiences in New York and Boston, to_the reports of many committees of investigation forty years ago, especially those of the Faculty of Indiana University, the committee of Boston physicians and the New York committee .of which Dr. Forry and the poet Bryant were members, and the unanimous testimony of those who have repeated my experiments wherever I have taught, including a number of eminent medical professors, who have been my colleagues. The large and intelligent medical class of the Eclectic Medical Institute of 1849-50 (then the leading medical college at Cincinnati; (Prof. Warriner being chairman) expressed their conclusions as follows: "Many of us at the ■ commencement of this series of lectures were skeptical as to the

PREFACE.

impressibility of the subject in the waking state, but we take pleasure in announcing that the remotest doubt is now dispelled. We have seen the subject deprived of muscular power ; we have witnessed a great increase of his strength ; we have seen any faculty of the mind brightened or subdued at pleasure ; we have personally performed many of the experiments set forth in the "Journal of Man," and can testify, as can many in this city who have witnessed our experiments in private circles, that the half has not yet been published to the world." The frequent repetition of my experiments, not only in this country but in Great Britain, by the late Dr. Spencer T. Hall and many others*, in private and in public, has given as broad a foundation as could be demanded for the verification of such discoveries, even though they constitute a complete revolution in Physiology and Psychology.

This volume is therefore presented, not to introduce the subject by argument and evidence, for the evidence has long been on record, but to introduce its readers to a portion of the vast science of Anthropology, the future guide of human progress.

* I have not thought it necessary to describe in tbis volume the numerous and marvelous experiments on the brains of adults during the last forty years, but would mention another class still more more convincing.

The eminent Dr. Ashburner of London, published among accurate and wellauthenticated facts the statement of his friend, A. Lidington : "I have many times excited the different phrenological organs of the brain of this child, and he has answered to each one most correctly ; for instance, when I mesmerized the organ of Tune, he has declared to me that he can hear beautiful music, and so with Veneration, he has felt irresistably impelled to pray and speak of God and Heaven. I have more often operated upon little children than adults, purposely to convince the people of the truth of your science', for surely children so young, and many of whom I have never seen before, could not be guilty of any deception."

In my experiments with private classes, nearly every member of the class was usually made a subject of experiments, which was not practicable with larger audiences. The report by Drs. Ingalls, Mattson and others on my Boston lectures in 1843, said : " Most of us witnessed many hundred experiments on at least six impressible subjects — one a gentleman and member of the class, whose intelligence and moral worth cannot be questioned."

Introduction

Developeincut of Cerebral Science by discovery in 1S41. Its grand importance and its hostile reception. Failure of all attempts to obtain judicial investigation. Establishment of a liberal college. Attitude of the National Medical Association and similar bodies. Confession of Prof. Gross.

Origin of the present volume in the discovery of Savcognomy. Its fundamental principles. Its presentation in lectures, and cordial reception. Explanation of Cerebral Physiology and Sarcognomy. Their scientific certainty. Invitation of correspondence. Electric therapeutics of Sarcognomy in second volume. Its extensive scope.

In 1841 I had the good fortune to consummate six years investigation of the cerebral functions by the discovery that the functions of the human brain, instead of being an inaccessible mystery as they have seemed to the scientific world, were really the most accessible of all the great secrets of nature, and that a method of investigation, the very simplicity of which had caused it to be scornfully overlooked, was competent to reveal the citadel of life, the organ of the soul, the seat of all consciousness, all faculties and passions, the organic embodiment of that Divine principle in which exist all the potentialities of the universe and consequently the basis of all science and wisdom.

Of all subjects that have ever interested the mind of man, this is beyond all comparison the most important, whether we consider its scope and its grandeur as a philosophy, the light which it throws upon all other departments of investigation, or its immediate practical utility in reorganizing, correcting and developing therapeutics, sociology, education, religion, pneumatology and the arts of human expression. Its scope, its power and its grandeur in these respects cannot be adequately conceived until the sciences and the philosophies, that must result from such a discovery, shall have been developed and published, although to a clear intuitive thinker it may be apparent as it was to David Hume that in mastering Anthropology we conquer all science and philosophy.

Such a discovery in science and philosophy, bringing within our reach a larger realm of truth than all the sciences and philosophies taught in the Universities, was like the discovery of Columbus, which added a new and better world to geographical knowledge and national expansion, the initial incident which marks the humble beginning of a mighty change in human destiny, and if it were not the still existing condition of the human mind to be dominated by the past — if habit and conservative inertia were not still, as they have ever been, the dominant forces of human existence, the authentic announcement that such a discovery had been made in the honorable and sincere cultivation of science would have commanded the attention of the civilized world, not with telegraphic speed, for telegraphs were then unknown, but as rapidly as the mail could have borne the news, and an immediate investigation by all the colleges and learned societies would have settled the question in the public mind and made the year 1841 the most significant epoch in history — the year in which mankind added psychic to physical science, the world of causes to the world of effects, the elements of Divine wisdom to the perceptions of physical knowledge. But there were no collegiate organizations prepared or willing to look to the future, as there were none to welcome the discoveries of Galileo and of Harvey. The great ear of the literary world was still turned backward to catch the lingering echoes of the crude speculations that preceded the dawn of science, for the names of Plato and Aristotle were still revered in the Universities.

It is true the announcement appearing in the Louisville Journal was copied throughout the United States, that my experiments on the brain were immediately repeated by Prof. Mitchell, of Jefferson Medical College, and that many repetitions of them in an imperfect manner were made before public audiences in this country and abroad, while I was myself for a few years actively engaged in presenting the subject by lectures and experimerits, and challenging investigation by the scientific, but it soon became apparent that habit, not reason, governed the world, and that a professor of European Astronomy would not be more uninteresting and unwelcome in China, than a discoverer presenting the key to a new world of science in American Colleges, or scientific magazines, and I abandoned the thankless task of propagandism to confine my teaching to a college in which I addressed my own pupils.

There were of course some honorable recognitions of my demonstrations (see credentials of Anthropology in the Appendix) and the Democratic Review recognizing logically the importance of the discoveries, affirmed that all prior discoveries in physiological science shrunk into insignificance in comparison with these discoveries in the brain ; but it was the only magazine, I believe, which had the logical capacity and the manliness to make such a statement, although it would not seem to require any great intellectual capacity to understand that a discovery of the functions of the brain, which reveals the exact capacities of the soul, and the mental and physical powers of the brain, the seat of life, the controller of all physiological functions — the centre of all physiology and psychology, must be of far greater importance than any scientific discoveries heretofore made.

I cannot speak upon such a theme in the language of diffidence and* doubt, with reverence for the wisdom which governs the world (and forbids all rapid progress), for the true discoverer who has ascertained any fact, is, as to that fact, an authority superior to the entire world to whom it is unknown. My discoveries of over forty years standing, often verified by others, and never refuted or seriously impeached, challenge attention still, but I present them only as a teacher to those who wish to profit by new science, without seeking to force them upon the attention of those who have no desire to enlarge their knowledge of such subjects.

It is true that in my credulous and inexperienced enthusiam, I did at first suppose that a science derived from and resting

upon experiment, and eagerly courting investigation by the ex-peri ~ a INTRODUCTION.

menial method — a science of unequalled importance and fascination, would speedily interest the educated classes of all nations, but I was speedily undeceived. Of the medical professors in whose halls I had heard the first exposition of medical science, I found but one (and he the most learned and distinguished) who had either the interest in the subject to induce them to investigate, or the intellectual training and knowledge that would have made them fully competent. Under his auspices, I sent an account of my discoveries to what I supposed to be the most competent and appreciative body in Great Britain — the gentlemen who hod maintained a phrenological society at Edinburgh, and published the Phrenological 'Journal '.and were therefore familiar with novel investigations of the brain ; but my report, though authenticated by one whom they knew as a distinguished scientist, was too marvellous for them, and they simply filed it away (like caveat,) as a document fit to be preserved for future reference, but not fit to be published.

After the failure with the Faculty, the failure at Edinburgh, and an abortive attempt to procure a thorough investigation by the Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Boston, medical journals being closed against such investigations as mine, I thought it useless to seek any further a decision by any authoritative scientific tribunal, and united with other unconquerable liberals in the medical profession to establish a liberal system of medical education and break the unreformable intellectual despotism which had held and still holds the great mass of the medical profession. That effort was successful, and the flourishing condition of the Eclectic party in medicine, which was then organized, gives promise that in time there will be freedom of investigation in medical study, medical practice and medical discovery.

That such discoveries as the new cerebal science which constitutes a complete Anthropology, are entirely inaccessible to the mass of the medical profession was very apparent, and that they would not, under any circumstances, be examined by the National Association which dominates over the profession in America, and therefore that it would be folly to address a memoir to them or invite an experimental investigation of the new science, I was very courteously, but very distinctly informed, in a letter by the late Prof. Gross, in 1878, who was, if any one, then entitled to be recognized as the head of the profession in this country, and who, appreciating the impossibility under the Code (and the unwritten code,) which governs the Association, advised me to seek some scientific body outside of the medical -profession, to investigate discoveries which belong to the sphere of medical science (of which Biology is a conspicuous portion), entirely unconscious of the latent satire upon his profession which he expressed.

I was previously well aware of its truth, as a memoir upon Cerebral Embryology which I offered the National Scientific Association at Cincinnati in 185 1 was suppressed by the intrigues of medical opponents who desired to crush the movement of medical liberalism represented by our college ; and the committee of investigation appointed by the Kentucky State Medical Society at my request in 1877, so entirely neglected their duties that they did not even hold a meeting.

Under these circumstances, the reader will not wonder that this work comes forth as a manual for students, on my own authority, not authenticated by the medical profession, or any collegiate body, excepting the parent school of American Eclecticism in which for ten years my teaching was the recognized philosophy of the Institute.

The present volume however, is not an exposition of Anthropology, but a sketch of the therapeutic application of Sarcognomy, published in advance of its proper place in the exposition of Anthropology, to satisfy the demands of students for a text book to aid in retaining my instructions, and to reach a great number of healing practitioners who need an exposition of the science which makes manual healing a scientific art.

This application of my discoveries arises from the fact that in 1842 my discovery of the cerebral functions was completed by the discovery of the sympathetic relations of the brain and the body, in consequence of which, the functional operations of the brain, which when confined within the cranium are purely psychic, become when transferred to the body by the laws of sympathy, physiological in their effects, and also by the inevitable manner in which they use the body for their purposes in voluntary acts, produce the same effects which result directly from the laws of sympathy — a wonderful illustration of the ingenuity and Divine wisdom of the plan of the human constitution.

But the reactive effect of the same law renders operations which are purely physiological in the body, such as circulation, digestion or muscular action in their reflex influence on the brain, disturbing or modifying influences of psychic life. That such reflex influence is continually in progress, we readily perceive when we think of the effects on the brain and mind of an excessive dinner, a glass of brandy or a copious inhalation of pure air; and a vast array of mental symptoms accompanying diseases of various organs, which have been observed especially by homoeopathic physicians, carries us still further into a recognition of the special influences each portion of the body exerts in its irritated or inflamed conditions, upon the state of the mind.

Thus we have, by rational necessity, a science of cerebral physiology, or physiological influences of the brain, and, on the other hand, a science of corporal psychology, or influence of the body upon the brain and mind. In all of which we understand that these inverted, or reflex sciences, cerebral physiology and corporeal psychology, are partly sciences of sympathetic association and reflex influence, and partly sciences of functional action, as the vital forces in the brain act directly upon their subordinate apparatus in the body, and the organs of the body in their functional action directly influence the brain, by means of nervous connection and by their influence upon the blood, which as it passes through the body receives and carries along the influence and modification produced by each organ. In addition to which, each organ in the brain or body is compelled for its own efficiency to use its correspondent organ, as Combativcness uses the muscles and heart, and as the vigorous muscular and cardiac action rouses the combative spirit — or as the perceptive organs use the eye, and the eye in its visual action rouses the perceptive faculties.

Thus, we have a science of cerebral and corporeal correspondence and association, which, above, is cerebral physiology, and below, a compound science of corporeal psychology and physiology combined, which I have called Sarcognomy ; the primitive effect of any excitement in the body being physiological, and the secondary, psychological.

It is this primitive physiological effect to which this volume will be mostly devoted, for Sarcognomy embraces not only the discovery of the sympathetic psychic effects, but the still more important principle that each vital function of the body is expressed at the surface^ and that for every function there is an external locality at which it may be reached, and stimulated or tranquillized by nervauric methods, by electricity, or by heat, cold and medical applications.

How very important it is, then, that those who treat human diseases by the application of the hand or by electricity, should know the influence of each portion of the surface, and of the 'currents passed through the body, from one locality to another, since these vital forces which have been discovered, and which are controlled, by the hand (and the battery) are not merely specific and limited influences for each organ, but are also general influences for the brain and body productive of general conditions, as, for example, the influences at the shoulder, which are universally tonic and restorative to mind and body, and the influences of the electric hygienic current, which animates every function of life, and these give us an entirely new conception of the vital forces of the human constitution.

The principles of sarcognomy were very briefly presented in my system of Anthropology thirty years ago, but I believe this produced few practical results with my readers. When I resumed medical instruction in 1877, I began to teach classes the manual treatment of disease according to the principles of Sarcognomy, giving some hints also as to the collateral use of electricity, and in the College of Therapeutics at Boston I have given a complete exposition of manual treatment. But experience has convinced me of the transitory influence of lectures and the absolute necessity of a manual for habitual guidance of the practitioner in a matter so entirely foreign to the education and habits of society.

My lectures have been invariably accompanied by practical demonstration of the truth of all that was taught, the majority of the classes have been sufficiently sensitive to feel, recognize and describe the influence of every. function described by Sarcognomy, often throwing new light upon the subject by the peculiar manner in which each one was affected.

As a method of healing, Therapeutic Sarcognomy was regularly illustrated upon the members of the classes by treatment of their own infirmities, pains or diseases, as a demonstration of the value of the methods and a part of the instruction. There was no more hesitation or doubt than in the collegiate lectures which present and illustrate the experimental science of chemistry, nor will there be any difficulty or hesitation among those who read this volume and entering into the spirit of the subject, engage in the experimental demonstrations which would make them practically familiar with with the subject in the manner that I have recommended. But I presume the result may be different with those who approach the subject in a spirit of antagonistic skepticism, and without proper experimental inquiry, attempt to form opinions by a -priori speculations upon the basis of their knowledge of other subjects and their ignorance of this. Ferchance there may be reviewers too, who would rather assail than investigate, and who do not feel that practical ignorance of any subject is any disqualification for instructing the public. This volume was not written for that class, but for sincere seekers of. scientific truth who have sufficient sincerity and rationality to reccgnize the same qualities in the author, and to believe that a system of science which has been cordially accepted by all who have become well acquainted with it, is worthy of patient study.

I might have introduced a long array of the unanimous testimony of those who have felt the truth of Sarcognomy in their own persons, and of those \\\\o have been healed upon its principles; but such is not the custom of scientific teachers. We state the truths that exist in nature, we state what we have found, and we show others how to find the same.

That which I have taught as to the constitution of man, which I have illustrated in thousands of experiments upon others, is also to me a matter of personal knowledge. I feel the influence of many localized functions described in Sarcognomy, and I can speak of them with confidence, as I could say that I see with my eyes or hear with my ears, and hence I do not feel like arguing upon such subjects or adducing any testimony as to truths which are so familiar.

Yet, although I do not consider such testimonials necessary in this volume, I am not indifferent to the expressions of those who honorably and sincerely study the laws of nature in the same spirit as myself, and who by their observations may throw additional light upon the laws and phenomena which I have so briefly stated. I would therefore earnestly invite the correspondence of those who undertake to investigate and practice in the new department to which I have called attention, and to cultivate a science which time has not permitted me to elaborate to the perfection in which it may be enjoyed by posterity.

I shall respond with equal pleasure whether my correspondent shall enumerate his triumphs, or state his difficulties, — whether he desires additional information, or contributes facts and discoveries made by himself in the boundless field of Sarcognomy and Therapeutics.

The period of life at which I have arrived does not permit me to anticipate witnessing the future triumphs of Sarcognonry and its revolutionary influence on medical science, or the new aspects its Therapeutics may assume under scientific cultivation, and I am, therefore, more desirous of communicating with those who become my co-laborers in this science, of which this volume is a partial exposition only. In the second volume I propose to show the existing status of Electric Therapeutics, and the fundamental changes in practice and principles which are macle by Sarcognomy, as well as the new apparatus by which I hope to enlarge eneral use ell as an

ATION.

IO INTRODUCTION.

the scope of its practice, and render it more worthy of g by medical practitioners and manual healers, as vv important element in popular hygif.ne and educ

APEUTICS.

Postscript: — The Scope of Sarcognomic 1 HER /0 | ume to It is well, before offering the specific therapeu'ics of this A e ] opec j DV glance at the entire scope of the Therapeutics to be dev gc - ence f Sarcognomy. If the healing art is based upon the true j power life, and if (as will be shown) life is an enduring spiritu.. a ac j t - es ' or being, of wonderfully complex constitution and Session of which organizes the human form into a complete exp^o-ned to

itself, and of every faculty of its complex existence (de,\ each

act on matter here and in a spiritual world hereafter^ having

faculty having a double purpose, spiritual and material, ai e Doc j v

a specific structure for manifestation in the brain and in th T s arC0 o-_ and if ihese vital powers (their localities being shown bjjj^ j Dy nomy) can be reached, stimulated, strengthened and mc.„.„ — „,. other means than drugs, with a precision never beiore kn< me t noc i? not this new therapeutics largely supersede the drugging 1 _ me( ii ca i Might it not supersede the drug method entirely, if our nor t extent agencies are sufficiently powerful to act upon all? To wl r _ '„ this can be done must be shown by the students of Sarcoc* ,. i ac ,

r . , .. . J . c clUI a Ilda

1 o a very large class, at present, the vital nerv | 3llt t a

proved sufficiently potent to make medicines unnecessary I- t \

still larger class, in the temperate zones, it is not suffic'p' t u„ t

cannot be substituted for medicine to any great extent. ^r q1 ^„ , , . ii» • «i t • 01 eiec-

Jarger class, however, we have the irresistible a g encles p- u j ( i ance

tricity and caloric, the application of which needs only the ^, ap . en . of Sarcognomy, to which this volume is devoted. With su • Ai

cies at command, enthusiasts may exclaim " Throw phy OM i ^„^

d„ 1 , t , ... J F * ana eco-

ogs ; but medical remedies are too potent, too convenient -^

nomical to be discarded by those who understand their val\ V e i ec _

can they be very extensively discarded to introduce the use Sarcop-

tricity, until its application shall have been perfected by Q j t s h a ii

nomy and until by apparatus different from any now in us< *"

have been made more genial, safe and curative. a v

In this volume, the nervaunc method, which uses th • 1 •

se

•paring

for the exposition of Electro-Therapeutics, will be dela*/ at ^ |_ I can accompany its exposition and illustration with appar ter adapted to the new method than any now in use.

Chapter II. Of Life As A Spiritual Power, And Its Location In The Brain

Ancient medical philosophy, spiritual or vital. Des Cartes the apostle of modern skepticism. His visionary dogmatism. Prof. Huxley a follower. The Cartesian spirit in medicine. Its intolerant rejection of facts and fair investigation. Criticism by Dr. Lionel Beale. Living beings have powers foreign to dead matter. Medical dogmatism developes ignorance. Its repudiation by Dr. Reynolds. The unproved hypotheses of scientists. Interesting physiological statements of Prof. Bennett. Vital phenomena of amoebae and white globules. Prof. Ranvier's statements. Phenomena of granules, bacteria and vibriones. Haeckel's primeval parent of life a fiction based on imagination. The example of the amoebae refutes materialism. Bastian's evasion of the issue. No anatomical difference to explain different vital endowments in nerves. Vitality an indestructible and permanent existence. Total failure of the fashionable physiology to explain muscular motion. Fallacious ideas of the action of the brain, and its influence on health. Fallacies in education. The fundamental error which makes biology a physical science. Public denial of vitality. The alternative doctrines, life or mechanism. The source of life. All life comes from influx. The blood a channel of influx of vital conditions. Nervous influx necessary to sensation, motion and circulation. Life comes and goes through the nervous system. Death occurs from below upward. Observations of Bernard and Bezold. Life a neurological influx, controlled by the brain. Paramount importance of cultivating the brain. Report of M. Gasparin on Belgian miners. Cerebral stimulants a substitute for food. Effect of heroic excitement. Something more necessary than the chemical elements of food.

Effect of interrupting the transmission of influence from the brain. Effect of injuries to the spinal cord. Fatality of severe laceration. Pathological effects of spinal injuries. Effects on the heart. Analogy to typhoid fever. Effects of injury of the nerves. Fallacies of Claude Bernard. Wasting of the muscles from lack of nervous influence. The ganglionic system dependent on connection with the cerebro-spinal. Centralization of life. Brain controls both voluntary and involuntary processes. Tenacity of the old ideas on this subject. Rapid decay of the body after injury to the brain. Brain the chief seat of life, as the heart is of circulation. Intellectual incapacity formerly to understand the heart, and now to understand the brain. Persistent avoidance of the investigation, and rejection of proper methods. Disregard of Gall and neglect of my demonstrations, and the experiments of Prof. Mitchell. Unfortunate results. Vague and confused notions prevalent. The Divine origin of life, and its modes of influx. Benefits from Its culture. Cerebral energy the source of health and object of therapeutii