THE SEYBERT COMMISSION has reported against the claims of
Spiritualism. Their report will not even have the effect of the French
Academy report against animal magnetism, which checked its progress in
the medical profession but not among the people; but before the
century passed, the medical profession has taken up the science in
earnest, and re-named it hypnotism. The Seybert report will not even
be a temporary damper, for while thousands of inquirers, fully as
competent as the commission, and many of them far more competent to
the investigation, have made themselves familiar with the facts, the
commission has done nothing but to emphasize the fact already familiar
among the intelligent, of the prevalence of fraud among mediums.
Notwithstanding the wonderful powers of Slade, no one acquainted with
his history would place any reliance on his integrity. The more
intelligent Spiritualists understood such matters, and the Ladies' Aid
(Spiritualist) Society of Boston, recently had considerable amusement
in the exhibition in their parlors of the materializing and
dematerializing wire apparatus used by the fraudulent medium, Mrs.
Ross, which was said to have been carried in her bustle. Mrs. Ross
when prosecuted for her frauds was found to be protected by the law of
coverture which makes the husband alone responsible. This is a relic
of the idea of female subordination and obedience which ought to be
abolished. The progress of spiritualism has been marked by as many
follies as that of any popular movement, and the bequest of $60,000,
by Mr. Seybert, to the old fogies of the Pennsylvania University was
among the stupidest of these follies. If a friend of Galileo had made
such a bequest to the Catholic church in his time, to get an opinion
of the new astronomy, it would have been as sensible a proceeding. It
will however have one good result; it will erect a permanent monument
to the ignorance of the universities, a record from which they cannot
hereafter escape. Prof. Leidy was one of the salaried commissioners
whose mental status was thus exhibited in the last journal:
"Your doctrine of life eternal,
And everything else supernal,
Might well be pronounced an infernal
Delusion!"
THE EVILS THAT NEED ATTENTION, mentioned in the JOURNAL for May, are
as rampant as ever. The big combination in Chicago to raise the price
of wheat by a corner, utterly burst on the 14th of June, leaving a few
ruined speculators. The _Chicago News_ says: "What is called buying
and selling futures in grain, is no more buying and selling in the
innocent and proper interpretation of the words than the wagering on
horse races is buying and selling horses. It is a species of gambling
as pernicious to public morals as it is contrary to public policy."
The _Chicago Herald_ says, "No one is in love with a cornerer who
corners. Nobody wastes any pity on a cornerer who gets cornered
himself." Such crimes in a petty way may be punished, but we need law
for the millionaire gamblers who not only rob each other, but fleece
the entire nation at the same time.
CONDENSED ITEMS.--_Mesmerism, in Paris._ M. G. de Torcy has introduced
a mesmerized woman into the lion's cage, where she unconsciously puts
her head in the lion's mouth: then, in a state of cataleptic rigidity,
head and feet resting on two stools, the lion is made to jump over the
rigid body, then with paws resting on her body, to pull a string by
his teeth and thus fire a pistol. Of course this draws enthusiastic
audiences. _Medical Freedom._ The attempts at restrictive medical
legislation have been defeated in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
Maine. In Maine, the bill had passed the Legislature and was approved
by Gov. Bodwell, but upon re-consideration he vetoed it and the Senate
then rejected it. The Allopathic State Society is quite indignant and
calls it "_atrocious_" that they cannot enforce a law which the Senate
and governor rejected. Mrs. Post in Iowa has been acquitted and will
not be punished at all for the awful crime of healing a patient by
prayer! The acquittal appears to be on the ground of the
unconstitutionally of the law. _The Victoria Jubilee_ in Faneuil Hall,
Boston, called out an immense indignation meeting, and many eloquent
protests. But for the energy of the police a riot might have occurred
at the time of the festival. _Delightful Homes._ Asheville, N. C.,
2339 feet above tide water, has a delightful climate, especially for
pulmonary invalids. Northern Georgia is an elevated region of
remarkable general health, and freedom from malarious and consumptive
diseases. California has still more delightful homes of health and
beauty. Colorado has twelve towns over 5,000 feet above the sea, and
ten over 10,000.