Buchanan's Journal of Man, November 1887: Volume 1, Number 10

In Short

This installment of a Victorian reform journal champions fringe medical practices, educational experiments, and a revised system of cerebral science. It details unconventional healing methods, highlights practical models for tuition-free labor schools, and tracks international social progress. Alongside reports on hypnotic experiments in France and the abolition of slavery abroad, the publication presents a detailed phrenological framework that redrafts traditional brain maps. Driven by an abiding faith in human perfectibility, the work endures as a vivid historical snapshot of nineteenth-century American alternative science, spiritualism, and zeal for total institutional reform.

The Story

The issue opens with a bold assault on conventional academic and medical institutions. It argues that traditional universities drag young minds into a maelstrom of outdated errors and systemic prejudice. Rejecting orthodox medical skepticism, the narrative champions alternative approaches—specifically homeopathy, animal magnetism, and hypnosis—as legitimate fields of study unfairly marginalized by established authorities. It presents accounts of contemporary French experiments where hypnotized patients exhibit extreme emotional and physical reactions to sealed substances, framed as proof that human nature possesses subtle, unrecognized sensibilities that traditional science routinely ignores.

From medical critiques, the focus shifts to fundamental educational reform. The publication highlights historical models of industrial education, most notably the work of Ezekiel Rich and older Quaker proposals. These systems pair rigorous academic study with practical manual trades, allowing students to earn their tuition through daily labor. This approach is presented as a structural solution to poverty and social unrest, offering lower-class children a path to financial independence without incurring debt. The broader commentary expands to celebrate progressive educational shifts globally, including the elimination of dead languages from German curricula and the rapid entry of women into European and American universities.

The middle sections gather diverse updates on scientific discoveries and global social reform. It examines astronomical calculations identifying the distance to outer stars, reports on unusual clinical treatments for hydrophobia, and critiques economic monopolies that threaten fair competition. Social developments receive equal weight: the text tracks the rise of the Afro-American League, celebrates the impending end of slavery in Brazil and Cuba, and monitors cooperative labor experiments like the Sinaloa settlement in Mexico.

The climax of the issue centers on a comprehensive overhaul of cerebral science. The author directly rejects older phrenological models, dismissing the concept of skull "bumps" as crude and inaccurate. In its place, the text puts forward a meticulous mapping of brain regions, categorizing the exact locations of emotional, intellectual, and physical faculties. The issue concludes with critical reviews of contemporary literature on Paracelsus, theosophy, and spiritual healing, followed by period advertisements for alternative anesthetics and spiritualist periodicals.

How It Unfolds

The critique of orthodox institutions The text launches a sharp attack on traditional universities and medical faculties for suppressing new discoveries. It highlights hypnotic experiments in Paris as proof of refined human sensibilities that mainstream science refuses to acknowledge.

The promise of industrial education Turning to social uplift, the narrative details historical educational models that combine trade apprenticeships with academic instruction. These self-sustaining labor schools are put forward as the ultimate remedy for poverty and economic inequality.

Global progress and scientific updates The focus broadens to cover international advancements, including women entering medical universities, new astronomical measurements, and the gradual abolition of slavery in Cuba and Brazil.

The overhaul of cerebral science The central technical section rejects old phrenological theories of skull bumps, laying out a revised map of the brain's internal faculties, physical sensitivities, and emotional centers.

Literary reviews and commercial notices The issue wraps up with reviews of works on Paracelsus, regional poetry, and theosophy, closing with advertisements for alternative dentistry anesthetics and spiritualist publications.

The People

The Journal Editor The driving voice of the publication seeks to dismantle dogmatic academic routines and replace them with progressive science. Frustrated by institutional inertia, this figure champions marginalized discoveries and works to synthesize spiritualism, cerebral anatomy, and social reform into a single philosophy.

Ezekiel Rich A New Hampshire educator whose historical experiments serve as the gold standard for vocational schooling. Driven by a desire to make learning universal, he demonstrated that student labor could fully cover educational costs, pointing a way forward for impoverished families.

Dr. Luys A French medical researcher whose hypnotic experiments electrify his peers. By applying sealed vials of various substances to hypnotized subjects, he demonstrates dramatic emotional shifts, challenging orthodox boundaries between physical matter and psychological reaction.

Robert Howard Hutton A famous English "natural bone-setter" whose non-traditional practice drew thousands of patients. Despite being branded a quack by regular surgeons, his rapid cures of severe joint injuries established him as a celebrated folk healer who defied the medical establishment.

In Its Own Voice

"The young men who enter the maelstrom of college life are generally borne along as helpless as rowing boats in a whirlpool."

The editor laments the rigid, corrupting environment of traditional universities.

"He gradually broke down the wall of prejudice which had been built up against bone-setters by the medical faculty on the ground that they were merely quacks."

A reporting snippet recounts how natural healer Robert Howard Hutton overcame the hostility of regular surgeons.

"I have taken much pains to assure my students that cerebral science has little or nothing to do with bumps..."

The author clarifies the distinction between old phrenological stereotypes and a refined understanding of brain structure.

What It's Really About

At its core, the text argues that truth is routinely suppressed by entrenched institutions, whether in medicine, academia, or economic life. It insists that human nature contains spiritual, physical, and cerebral capacities that traditional science is too rigid to recognize. The issue asserts that human suffering can be systematically solved through practical, self-sustaining education and open-minded scientific inquiry. By challenging traditional phrenology, orthodox medicine, and classical college curricula, the publication presents a vision of society where individual human potential is fully unlocked through radical reform and empirical experimentation.

Why Read It Today

This issue offers a fascinating window into the nineteenth-century alternative reform movement, appealing directly to readers interested in the history of science, medicine, and social movements. Rather than a modern historical summary, it delivers the raw, unfiltered energy of the era's debates. Reading it feels like sifting through the notebook of an eccentric Victorian polymath who is equally fascinated by brain anatomy, progressive politics, and psychic phenomena.

The reading experience requires some patience. The prose shifts rapidly between earnest social crusades, technical cerebral mapping, and aggregated news snippets, reflecting the eclectic layout of period journals. Readers must navigate obsolete scientific terminology and mid-nineteenth-century medical assumptions that have long since been disproven. Yet beneath these outdated theories lies a genuine, historical passion for human improvement. The publication leaves behind a vivid impression of an era when boundaries between science, philosophy, and social reform were wildly fluid, and thinkers believed that absolute truth was just on the horizon.