Buchanan's Journal of Man, September 1887: Volume 1, Number 8

In Short

This September 1887 issue of a monthly journal functions as a polemical vehicle for Joseph Rodes Buchanan's idiosyncratic theories on human nature and science. Through sharp critical essays, curated news, and lists of impressive historical long-livers, the text attacks traditional collegiate logic and speculative philosophy while promoting new, unproven disciplines like cranioscopy and psychometry. Its historical value rests on its vivid preservation of the nineteenth-century American subculture of pseudo-scientific optimism, spiritualism, and alternative medicine, offering a candid look at how alternative thinkers attempted to construct alternative scientific paradigms.

The Story

The intellectual arc of the issue opens with an unsparing assault on the Concord School of Philosophy and traditional academia. The author dismisses established scholars as pedants who waste their energies buried in ancient texts while remaining completely blind to modern progress. Particular scorn is directed toward Professor Harris and his reliance on Aristotelian logic, specifically the syllogism. Through sarcastic commentary on lectures that use syllogistic logic to identify tin cans or red flannel rags, the text argues that such formal reasoning is a hollow exercise that contributes nothing to human welfare or true enlightenment. Hegelian metaphysics and classical Greek philosophy—including Plato's explanations of basic mathematics—are similarly condemned as absurdities akin to the delusions found in lunatic asylums.

Transitioning from critique to positive demonstration, the narrative pivots to the theme of human longevity. The text argues that modern educational systems degrade human health, asserting instead that individuals should actively aim to live a century or longer. To build this case, it compiles an extensive historical and contemporary record of centenarians. Citing old texts, regional reports, and census figures, it details the lives of remarkably aged figures, including ancient kings, classical scholars, and contemporary Americans such as "Uncle Jim," a former slave in Mexico said to have reached 130 years of age. This empirical accumulation serves to convince the reader that longevity is achievable through proper living and inherited vitality.

A broad, multi-topic news section then sweeps through contemporary scientific and cultural developments. It touches on astronomical counts of distant stars, chemical discoveries of new elements, progress in treating hydrophobia, and unconventional reports like a man whose skin turned white from handling potash. Threaded throughout these bulleted intelligence items is a consistent skepticism toward mainstream medical establishments and a endorsement of radical, marvelous phenomena.

The concluding sections lay out the foundational arguments for the author's proprietary science of Anthropology, integrated with his theories of psychometry and brain organology. Detailing decades of personal experimentation beginning in 1841, the text recounts how traditional phrenology was systematically revised and expanded. The author describes discovering how human "nervaura" and hand contact can stimulate specific mental organs. The text closes with a grand vision of how this new Anthropology—despite facing apathy and stubborn resistance from mainstream professionals trained to follow precedent—will eventually revolutionize medicine, history, theology, and social reform.

How It Unfolds

Attack on the establishment The opening essay launches a scathing critique against the Concord Symposium and traditional university scholars for wasting intellect on ancient Greek logic. The author parodies formal syllogisms, arguing that scholastic logic offers zero practical benefit to human progress.

Evidence of extended lifespan The focus shifts to physical health and longevity, asserting that humans ought to live over one hundred years. A lengthy compilation of historical figures, European census data, and American anecdotes is presented to prove that extreme age is both natural and attainable.

Survey of fringe progress A diverse miscellany gathers news items spanning astronomical discoveries, chemical element isolation, alternative medical cures, and strange physical transformations. Each item is framed to challenge established professional dogmas and highlight the rapid advance of marvels.

Formulation of new science The final chapters outline the origins and utility of the author's system of Anthropology and psychometry. Tracing experiments back to 1841, the text explains how manual stimulation of the brain's "nervaura" corrects old phrenological errors and promises to transform all fields of human knowledge.

The People

Professor Harris Presented as a primary intellectual target, Professor Harris represents the establishment thinkers of the Concord School of Philosophy. He seeks to defend the primary necessity of the Aristotelian syllogism in everyday human thought and reasoning. The text frames his efforts as pedantic absurdities that obscure genuine intellectual progress.

Plato and Aristotle Invoked as the foundational figures of ancient philosophy, these classical thinkers stand as the ultimate source of modern academic delusion. The text depicts their theories—such as Plato's explanation of numbers through "participation in duality"—as primitive puerilities that continue to stultify young minds in modern universities.

Uncle Jim A formerly enslaved man living in Mexico, described as having reached the extraordinary age of 130 years. His long life, moving from ownership under multiple masters to freedom across the Mexican border, serves as a central human example supporting the text's claims regarding human longevity.

Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan The primary mind behind the issue's foundational theories, who spent over forty-five years conducting biological and brain experiments. He seeks to replace traditional collegiate philosophy with his own system of Anthropology and psychometry, facing down professional apathy to establish what he views as a new intellectual civilization.

In Its Own Voice

"While I have no reverence for barren or wasted intellect, I have the profoundest respect for the fruitful intellect which produces valuable results..."

The author establishes a pragmatic standard for evaluating intellectual pursuits, dismissing abstract philosophy while praising practical science.

"In syllogism do we live and move, and have our being. This is the grand discovery--the last great contribution to philosophy from Concord's greatest philosopher."

With heavy irony, the text parodies the academic obsession with formal logic, mocking the claim that basic human perception relies on syllogistic steps.

"The scientific discovery and exposition of Psychometry is equivalent to the dawn of new intellectual civilization..."

The issue boldly asserts the revolutionary potential of its proprietary psychic research, framing it as a light that will reshape every branch of learning.

What It's Really About

At its core, the issue argues against the authority of traditional academia and mainstream medicine, advocating for a total radical restructuring of human knowledge. It contrasts what it views as the dead, formal logic of classical tradition with a vitalist, empirical approach to the human mind and body. The text presents human potential—whether in extending physical life past a century or expanding perception via psychic forces—as vastly suppressed by dogmatic education. Underneath its critiques lies a utopian proposal: that by mapping the subtle energies of the brain and embracing alternative sciences like psychometry, humanity can construct a superior, highly enlightened civilization free from moral and physical degeneration.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers interested in the history of science, American intellectual movements, or nineteenth-century alternative culture will find this journal issue a fascinating cultural artifact. It provides an unvarnished, highly energetic look into the post-Civil War American subculture of spiritualism, phrenology, and radical health reform. Reading it feels like stepping directly into an intense nineteenth-century lecture hall where cutting-edge astronomy, eccentric medical claims, and sharp polemics clash in real time.

The prose is confident, assertive, and frequently sharp, making the polemical sections surprisingly engaging despite their dated arguments. However, readers must navigate period difficulties, including dense lists of historical statistics, lengthy disquisitions on obsolete logic, and period racial terminology surrounding historical cases of longevity. What remains compelling is the sheer optimism of the period—a moment when alternative thinkers believed that a single new discovery regarding the human mind could solve the medical, moral, and educational problems of the entire world.