Jim Bradshaw
Try electro-anthropology for your ails
There appeared to be more skeptics than believers when a Professor Shaw, self-proclaimed scientist, classical scholar, and creator (and likely sole proprietor) of the Science of Electro-Anthropology began touring south Louisiana just before the Civil War.
People said his lectures were entertaining, sometimes amusing, but probably had little to do with science. Reading the old accounts, it seems to this unscientific mind that electro-anthropology was nothing more than plain old hypnotism, but that he was very good at it.
Anthropology is the study of human behavior, so that part of his science makes a little bit of sense. But Thomas Edison was still a kid in knickers and was decades away from making electricity practical, and Professor Shaw seemed not to have used any sort of device, so I’m not sure what the “electro” part referred to — nor was anyone at the time.
After his first lecture in Franklin, for example, the newspaper reported, “Last evening, we were among a goodly number who assembled at the Court House to hear the introductory lecture of Prof. Shaw on this mysterious science. Whether it is founded on truth or fallacy we are unable to say — in this respect let every man judge for himself. The lectures, however, are worth attending.
“He tried experiments on some of our citizens and many of the youth of our town, and the gyrations and antics he made them go through were truly amusing. He gives another lecture this evening in which he promises to introduce further evidence of the truth of the science and to extend his experiments.”
He was in Opelousas a month later, where, the newspaper said, “He has been successful in almost all his experiments, which were truly interesting, edifying and amusing. He … appears to have absolute control over the imagination and will of his subjects. Persons put under his influence perform all things suggested by him, see what he sees, feel what he feels, and are another himself. … We believe the professor can produce effects not alone entertaining, but also useful in their nature.”
Editors of the Opelousas Courier confessed, however, “we cannot for our part distinguish the difference … between his science and that of … mesmerism, although we are convinced that no mesmerizer ever carried his science to such an extent and with so little difficulty as Prof. Shaw does.”
To help the poor editors understand the difference between electro-anthropology and mesmerizing, the professor handed out a booklet filled with testimonials from Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and other places that would have made Dudley LeBlanc proud when he began spreading Hadacol propaganda a century later.
One writer testified he was present when the professor first laid hands on a 16-year-old boy who was “afflicted with White Swelling … and had not been able to walk without crutches.” The professor laid hands on the boy, according to the writer, and “In less than five minutes … the boy, to the utter astonishment of himself and the family, was able to and did walk without his crutches all over the house.” There was, however, no testimonial from the boy or his family.
Another man said his wife had absolutely no hearing in one ear and was “so deaf in the other that she could not hear … an ordinary conversation,” but that her hearing was “entirely restored … by Prof. Shaw, with a single application of his astonishing Science of Electro-Anthropology.”
The witnesses didn’t convince everyone. The Planters’ Banner took passing note when the professor brought his lectures to Thibodaux almost a year after he’d been to Franklin.
“We perceive by the Thibodaux Minerva that this illustrious lecturer is now holding forth at that place,” the note said. “He paid us a visit last summer, but our citizens were too stubborn to swallow his theories and practices as facts. In consequence of which he quickly departed in disgust. Perhaps better success is in store for him.”
It looks like there was no better success. That visit to Thibodaux seems to have been his last in south Louisiana, and maybe the end of electro-anthropology itself. Today, a computer search for the phrase turns up something about a musical group. For “White Swelling” the computer screen gives the equivalent of a blank stare.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
