A Prophet and a Science Are Born Hugh M. Ayer* Upon this scene of conflict and confusion there appeared in 1842 a man whose ideas and teachings in the field of medi- cine and philosophy were strange and provocative of suspicion even in that period. His contribution to the confusion was to combine elements of phrenology, mesmerism, homeopathy, and eclecticism, and a host of his own ideas, and emerge with a system of moral philosophy and medical science which antici- pated parts of modern psychology, psychiatry, and spiritual- ism, and which contained many points now conceded by medi- cal scientists. The man was Joseph Rodes Buchanan, son of an early Kentucky doctor, and himself a graduate of the Louis- ville Medical Institute. Of Scots-Irish descent, Joseph Rodes Buchanan WELSborn at Frankfort, Kentucky, December 11,1814, the only surviving child of Joseph and Nancy Rodes Garth Buch8nan.l Although Joseph Buchanan died when his son was only fifteen years old, there are numerous indications that the influence of the father was a major factor in shaping the later life of his son. For that reason it seems advisable to give a brief resume of the life and ideas of Joseph Buchanan. Samuel Buchanan, the first of the family to come to America, arrived early in the eighteenth century. Andrew Buchanan, one of Samuel’s five sons, married Joanna Hay, and after serving as a captain in the French and Indian War moved his family to Virginia, where Joseph Buchanan, the father of Joseph Rodes Buchanan, was born on August 24, 1785.% In 1795, Joseph Buchanan moved from Virginia to Ten- nessee.’ His first fourteen months of formal education were * Hu h M. A er ia a member of the history faculty at crrlver Mili- tary Acatfem Cufver Indiana This article ia a chapter of his mash‘s thesis at Inaana U&eraity, 1960, written under the direction of R Carlyle Buley. 1 Mrs. Henys: B.8 Hoyry to the author, LOniWille, Kentucky, March 14 1949. Tradition hyit that the Buchanan nqeoriginall was An- seian and that the farmly descended from the ‘:Lard of Anmyan,” upon whom the name of Buchanan was a conferred title. %JoannaHay was a daughter of Patrick Hay and is said to have been a direct dectcendant of the Earl of Lindsay. Mrs. Henry B. Howry to the author, Louisville, Kentucky March 14, 1949. Lewis Coll$s, of Kentuclcy (2 vole., Louisviile, 1924), 11, 218; The Bwgraphd g$zedia of Kentucley (Cincinnati, 1878), 88. * Collin!, History o Kentudcy, 11,218. Whether his parents accom- panied him is not revea{ ed. 380 Indiana Magazine of History obtained in a small school near Nashville, where he is said to have mastered the Latin language in nine months and to have distinguished himself by original composition. “ ‘He wa8 so fond of originality in all his essays, that he would not even condescend to write on any subject on which he had ever read anything.’ ”4 In 1804, at the age of nineteen, Joseph Buchanan migrated to Lexington, Kentucky, and entered Transylvania University. At that time he was delicate and diffident “and is said to have passed for a ~impleton.”~But this illusion was quickly dis- pelled when he detected and demonstrated an error in his mathematics textbook. The result of this episode was a con- troversy with one of his professors, followed by the publication of a brief mathematical work in which Buchanan demonstrated the sufficiency of gravity and pointed out “some defects in the speculations of Sir Isaac Newton.” Terminating his studies at the university in 1805, he be- gan the study of medicine under Dr. Samuel Brown in Lexing- ton, and by 1807 was practicing in Fort Gibson, Mississippi. While there he wrote a volume on fevers and took the manu- script to Philadelphia for publication ; but, although Dr. Ben- jamin Rush is said to have spoken highly of the work, Bu- chanan failed to find a publisher who was willing to bear the expense.6 Finding himself without funds, Buchanan occupied him- self for twenty-seven days by walking from Philadelphia to Lexington, where he resumed his medical studies. And in 1809, having acquired the A.B. degree, he was appointed to the chair of the Institutes of Medicine in the Transylvania Medical Department. The department was poorly organized, however, and apparently no classes were offered that year. The follow- ing year Buchanan resigned.’ Buchanan’s one year on the Transylvania faculty was not 4 Lewis Collins, Historical Sketches o Kentucky (Maysville, Ken- tucky, 1847), 559, quoting from an unreveaf ed source. 6 Emmet F. Horine, “Early Medicine in Kentucky and the M@aissippi Valley: A: Tribute to Daniel Drake, M.D.,” JouW of the Ifastory of Meduine (New York, 1946- ), I11 (1948), 266; The Bzbgraphtcal Enoy- cropedia of Kentucky, 88. 6 Merle E. Curti, “Joseph Buchanan,” DictioncMy of A?mt%xm Bwg- mphy (20 vols., New York, 1943), 111,215. 7 Horine, “Early Medicine in Kentucky and the Mississippi ValleE” Jou- of ths His of MediGins 111 266; Collins, Historiccrl Skstc 8 of Kentucky, 569; Zrt. Peterl The H‘iStory o t@ Medical DqeVt of Transylvantu Unavwaty (Fllson Club Pubf ication No. 20, Lolllsvrlle, 1905), 13-14. A Prophet and a Science Are Born 381 wasted, however, for the lectures which he had prepared dur- ing this period were published, in 1812, as The PhGosophy of Human Nature. This was his mosb important work and was “one of the earliest systematic and consistent presentations of materialism to be published in America.” Based mainly on the writings of Charles Darwin, David Hue, and David Hartley -whose teachings Buchanan f irs‘t encountered while working with Dr. Samuel Brown-the book falls in two general divi- sions. The first chapter was devoted to refuting the idea that the mind existed as an independent entity, and in the remain- ing chapters he presented experimental evidence to describe the operations and laws of human nature. Although he ulti- mately accepted the agnostic position, Buchanan attempted “to show that a materialistic explanation of mind is more in accord with reason and fact than a spiritual explanation.” This em- phasis on matter rather than on mind, plus his attempt to construct a materialistic monism, has caused some to refer to Buchanan as “the earliest native physiological psychologist.”* Joseph Buchanan refused to believe that there was in man a spiritual mind “possessed of an original activity, able to feed and think within itself or to commence thought, sentiment, and motion.” He accepted the theory that “matter alone is capable of displaying all the phenomena of animal life” and concluded that “the human system is thus a machine entirely material, composed of a great variety of elementary particles.” To Buchanan the mind was simply an organic state of matter, “a peculiar combination of materia1 elements, capable of display- ing the attributes of intellect,” and in no manner dependent upon any immaterial or spiritual element.@ These arguments were in direct oppmition to the later teachings of his son, who placed much stress upon the impor- tance of spiritual influence. But father and son were in agree- ment that “the brain or sensory organ is the seat of intellectual life and is intimately related and dependent upon the whole vital Joseph Buchanan again preceded his son in forming his 8 Niels H. Some, Liberal Ken.tu.cN,1780-1828 (Columbia University Studies in American Culture, No. 3, New York, 1939) 84-88; Curtl, “Joseph Budanan,” DzctioMly of Ameman Biogmph~?fII, 216. @JosephBuchanan The Philoso hy of Human Natu7-6 Richmond, Kentucky, 1812), 8-9, 18-13,34,37. $he writer is indebted to 6r. Emmet F. Horine of Louisville, Kentucky, for the we of this rare and valuable book. 10 Ibid, 89. 382 Indiana Magazine of History philosophy of the interrelations between men and between man and his environment. As early as 1812 he had formulated the theory, which was to be the fundamental basis of the teachings of his son in later years, that “physical agents cannot possibly co-exist . without exerting their energies on each other.” Thus, every substance on earth, vital or inanimate was af- fected by atmospheric elements, water, caloric, electricity, and all the rest. “The human body. becomes therefore depen- dent on them alike for its preservation and destruction, its life and death.”ll In reference to phrenology the elder Buchanan expressed doubt as to its validity, but at the same time used its theories as an argument for materialism. “According to the observa- tions of many ingenious men, the external form and internal texture of the brain, are very important circumstances to the intellect it embraces. If that intellect were purely spiritual and intrinsically active, it is very improbable that these trivial circumstances in the mere instrument of its operations could make an important difference in its powers : but if mentality be only an attribute of the living brain, it is then to be ex- pected, that a different proportion of parts in that organ, or a slight variation in its intrinsic structure, would produce the greatest difference of intellectual powers which occurs among men. The fact then, as stated above; that the various degrees of intelligent power observable among men, and other animals also, may be traced to varieties in the formation and texture of their nervous systems; is no inconsiderable argument for M& terialism.”12 Joseph Buchanan also denied the doctrine of a nervous fluid “or subtle matter secreted in the brain, and diffused through the whole system of the body” as one which merely complicated the situation.