Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development

Boston: Josiah P. Mendum / Boston Stereotype Foundry, 1889. Reprint. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 0x0x0. 1889 reprint. A few faint blemishes to boards, hinges just beginning to weaken, single gathering loosening but included. xii, 396 pp. Orange cloth, gilt titles and rules. Correspondence between the advocate of mesmerism (i.e., hypnosis), phrenology, and spiritualism, and the woman widely acknowledged to be the first female sociologist, who claimed mesmerism cured her long-running illness. Influential in the Unitarian community, controversial for atheistic rhetoric and call for the abolition of marriage. The two discuss a number of topics, from brain chemistry, the senses, and the nervous system to dreams, knowledge, theology, and superstition.