Miscellaneous Intelligence.

Anatomy of the Brain.—Anatomy is considered the driest and most difficult of biological studies, but a careful attention to our description of the brain will show that it is very intelligible. After we get through with the anatomy, the description of organs and their functions is simple and practical. Every one should understand the outlines of cerebral anatomy, and then he can discuss the subject with imperfectly educated physicians, and show them their errors.

Mesmeric Cures of countless variety and marvelous success have occurred all through the present century. But when not effected by distinguished physicians, they have generally been ignored by the press, and their knowledge confined to a very narrow circle. Now, however, since eminent physicians at Paris are engaged, and the word hypnotism is substituted for mesmerism and magnetism, their performances are proclaimed by journalists and even by the medical press. The following is one of the latest reports. The reader will observe that when the medical faculty after a prolonged opposition yield to any new idea, they endeavor to ignore entirely the pioneers by whom the discoveries were made, and by whom an interest was created in the subject while the faculty were hostile. It will probably not be long before they adopt the leading ideas of homœopathy and endeavor to obliterate the memory of Hahnemann.

“Hypnotism has been employed with considerable success in Paris for some time past in the treatment of hysterical diseases, by Charcot and others, but the case recently reported by M. Clovis Hugues, in France, is the most extraordinary application so far on record. A young lady of twenty was attacked six months ago with a nervous ailment which completely derived her of her voice. Electricity was tried, with a certain amount of success, but after a time it lost its effect and was abandoned in despair. As a last resort, her friends applied to Dr. Berillon, the hypnotic specialist. After consultation with Dr. Charcot, he undertook the cure. The girl was thrown into a mesmeric trance by the usual means, and Dr. Berillon suggested that she should say on waking, ‘I am twenty.’ On opening her eyes she uttered these words without the least effort. On the second day the suggestion was that she should converse with Dr. Berillon, and this she also did, but could talk with no one else. On the third day the doctor commanded her to talk with any one and at any time that she chose. She has been able to use her tongue freely ever since.”

Medical Despotism.—The infamous law juggled through the Legislature of Iowa, which deprives every citizen of the right of relieving her neighbor of disease without the authority of a diploma, and renders Christian benevolence a crime, does not produce much effect. The natural healers pay no respect to it. In every prosecution under the law so far, the attempt to enforce the law has been defeated. Juries are unwilling to aid an ignorant Legislature in trampling on the Divine law and the principles of American constitutions.

The Dangerous Classes.—The existence of considerable classes, chiefly of foreigners, who are contemplating murder and rapine, should interest every good citizen. At Cincinnati on the 6th of March, it is said, “The institution of the Paris commune in 1848 and 1871 was celebrated tonight by the Cincinnati anarchists. It was the most revolutionary gathering ever seen in this city, and the speech of Mrs. Lucy E. Parsons, wife of the condemned anarchist, was of a very inflammatory character. The hall was crowded with men and women who drank beer at tables. It was a motley and dangerous looking throng. On the walls were mottoes with red borders, and the entire hall was profusely decorated with large red flags. There wasn’t an American flag in the hall, and above the stage was a picture of the condemned anarchists. Several pictures of notorious Anarchists who have been beheaded for murder and riot were conspicuously displayed. The band played no national airs except the ‘Marseillaise,’ and everything said and done showed a bitter hatred of American institutions. Mrs. Parsons gave a history of the Paris commune of 1871, and said the mistake made was in showing any mercy to capitalists. Her remarks were loudly applauded, although a majority of her audience couldn’t understand one word of English. Dancing followed the speeches, and was kept up all night.”

Arbitration.—In the Sinaloa colony, “Any disputes that arise between colonists will be settled by arbitration. There will be one lawyer to protect the interests of the corporation in dealings with outside parties.” This is a great step in advance. When a true civilization arrives, arbitration will supersede courts, and psychometry will assist in making it perfect.

Criticism on the Church.—If any readers of the Journal think its criticisms on the church have been too harsh, because their own acquaintance is confined to worthy professors of the present time, I would call their attention to the unquestionable statements of Hallam, Guizot, and Draper, as follows:

“With respect to the last, the grandest of all human undertakings (i. e., the circumnavigation of the earth), it is to be remembered that Catholicism had irrevocably committed itself to the dogma of a flat earth, with the sky as a floor of heaven, and hell in the under world.”—Draper’s Conflict, p. 294.

“Persecution for religious heterodoxy, in all its degrees, was in the sixteenth century the principle as well as the practice of every church.”—Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. 2, p. 48.

“When any step was taken to establish a system of permanent institutions, which might effectually protect liberty from the invasions of power in general, the church always ranged herself on the side of despotism.”—Guizot’s History of Civilization in Europe, p. 154.

“There was fighting and fighting between the old and new school, and all on a question that would make a crab laugh,—questions that were hypercritical and infinite, and about which everybody knew nothing at all, and they thought they knew as well as God. Questions were talked of with positiveness, and argued; and, when I look back upon them, I cannot help thinking they were no better than the contentions of children around the cradle. But all this gave me great repulsion for dogmatic theology, and it is a repulsion which I have not got over, and the present prospects are that I never shall.”—Henry Ward Beecher.

Earthquakes and predictions.—Professor Rudolf Falb, of Vienna, it is reported, predicted to an hour the earthquakes which have occurred in France and Italy.

“Writing in the Austrian papers some days ago, he pointed out that the annular eclipse of the sun, which commenced on Tuesday morning at 6.41 Greenwich time, was central at 9.13 P. M., and ended on the earth generally at twenty-five minutes past midnight on Wednesday morning, was likely to be accompanied with strong atmospheric and seismic disturbances. The learned physicist has gained great reputation by previous similar forecasts. His first and great success was the foretelling the destructive shock at Belluno, on June 29, 1873. Nearly the whole of Northern Italy was affected, and upwards of fifty lives were lost. Very shortly afterwards he gave warning of the probability of an eruption of Etna, which followed at the time anticipated in 1874.”—London Echo.

“John S. Newberry, professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia College, being the American authority upon all matters pertaining to the crust of the earth, was naturally interested in the earthquake that visited Long Island on Wednesday. He derides the idea that the local seismic disturbance has any connection with the recent occurrences at Mentone, as the shocks were too far apart, and, if connected, should have been felt within eight hours of each other, whereas there was several days’ difference. His theory, which is amply sustained by observation, is that an earthquake is a movement caused by a shrinking, from loss of heat, of the interior of the earth and the crushing together and displacement of the rigid exterior as it accommodates itself to this contraction. It has been noticed that the earth is shaken along the Alleghany chain nearly every year. It is impossible to predict a recurrence of the shocks, but it is quite probable they will recur. There is a record of 231 earthquakes in the New England States between the years 1638 and 1869.”—Brooklyn Eagle.