The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 199
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
the United States; he wrote poetry and, if the samples given
by Professor Coulter are typical, one may be glad that he did
not spend much time at it; he organized the expulsion society
called "The Efficient Instantaneous Expulsion Association of
Philosophic and Fearless Patriots ;" and he proposed that phre-
nology be used "to discover whether public officials were acting
for the common good or for their own personal aggrandizement."
In the realm of science the "deaf grey-beard" was at his best.
His outstanding scientific invention was "Flournoy's Medical
Head Bands," a sure cure for colds. The head bands, he said,
represented "the hidden virtues of Animal Magnetism, Mes-
merism, Electricity, Magic, and the manifestations of the Spir-
its-together with impulses from the Aurora Borealis." He
insisted that the band had been "dipped in an aerial solution
of all these mysteries." He bought advertising space in news-
papers in order to tell the world of his remarkable discovery,
and to warn the public that more men die from colds than
from the "plague, cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever, com-
bined." As far as any one knows, no one ever bought a head band.
Professor Coulter is sure that Flournoy was serious about
the head bands and other schemes he put forth, but the reviewer
wonders if there was not some clowning in this whole affair.
In the original advertisement in the Southern Watchman he
gave the prices as follows:
"To the immensely oppulent ............................$30.00
To the ordinary affluent ............................. 10.00
To the middling affluent............................ 5.00
To persons whose capital is labor .................... 1.50"
When no one responded he finally reduced the price to a postage
stamp without favorable response. He then inserted another
medical notice in the Athens paper in which he again called
the public's attention to the prevalence of colds and the dangers
involved. In this notice appeared this classic in the language
of the stockbroker: "in the market coughs are buoyant, pneu-
monia at par, catarrhs firm, and consumption active; Fevers
in demand, and looking up; rheumatism at home, and death
rampant! Colds in various shapes, the order of the day; and
Flournoy's pockets collapsed !"
Professor Coulter, who has an eye for the humorous and
spectacular in history, has done an excellent job in using to
good advantage only the materials which contributed to the199
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944, periodical, 1944; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146054/m1/217/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.