Dr. Weir’s Crazy Theories: Social Influencing in the 1890s
James Weir, Jr., MD: 1855-1906 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
James
Weir, Jr. was named for his father, a published novelist and businessman. While
James Jr. chose a very different profession than his father, medicine, he too
had the writing bug, churning out books and articles on topics far beyond the
field of medicine. His theories are jarring today, exhibiting misogyny and
prejudice. Yet they seem to have received some measure of respect during Weir’s
own lifetime. His articles were published in several journals and magazines,
and his books sold well and were widely reviewed. This gave an air of legitimacy
to his crackpot theories. He was, sadly, the 1890s version of a social
influencer.
James
Weir, Jr. was born on October 17, 1855 in Owensboro, Kentucky to parents James
Weir Sr. and Susan Charlotte Green. He grew up in material comfort with his
nine siblings. His father’s wealth enabled him to attend college. James earned
his bachelor’s degree at the University of Louisville, and was the 1878 valedictorian.
He received his medical training at the University of Louisville and the University
of Michigan’s medical schools. He did his residency at Bellevue Hospital and
New York Polyclinic in New York City before setting up his medical practice in
Owensboro. (see obituary)
The first
mention of Dr. Weir’s articles and books appears in the Owensboro Messenger
Inquirer’s October 24, 1897 edition. The article states that Dr. Weir had
written a pamphlet entitled “The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and
Sexual Desire.” According to the newspaper, Weir had distributed the pamphlet
“among the author’s scientific friends” and after it was reviewed in medical
and scientific journals, there was such a demand for it that Weir was going to
publish it as a book “with much new and valuable material”. The book was published in 1897 by the Chicago
Medical Book Co. with the more eye-catching, titillating title of Religion
and Lust.
.jpg)
The book
covers a wide range of subjects, from a colonial-centric “history” of religion
among “primitive” peoples, to phallic symbolism in religion, to a horrible
chapter entitled “Viraginity and Effemination”, which as you might guess, is a
long diatribe against homosexuality and against women exercising any sort of
control over their own lives (barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen is where
they belong, or they will become ugly and mannish). It is interesting to note that Weir never
married. I wonder if his misogyny and homophobia had anything to do with that
choice.
Along the
way, Weir presents wildly broad hypotheses as fact, such as “Young boys and
girls are exceedingly impressionable at, or just before, puberty, and are apt
to embrace religion with the utmost enthusiasm.” (Chapter 3) Older people are
less likely to convert, he says. He suggests this is because religious fervor
is replaced by sexual fervor post-puberty.
Later he
made this amazing pronouncement:
“King
Solomon, a man of pre-eminent genius, was mentally unbalanced. The “Song of
Solomon” shows very clearly that he was a victim of some psychical disorder,
sexual in its character and origin.”
Since the Song
of Solomon is widely acknowledged as beautiful, sensual love poetry, I feel
this says more about Weir’s psychical disorders than Solomon’s.
Weir
followed this book with another, entitled The Dawn of Reason. This book
is probably his most scientific work. He attempted to determine the development
of the mind in animals, and from there, to the more complex mind and psyche of
humans. He includes personal observations from nature to illustrate his points,
some of which are quite charming. Here
is a brief example:
“
I once removed a ball
of eggs from the web of a spider. The mother clung tenaciously to her treasure,
and, when I tried to remove her with a pair of forceps, she bit fiercely at the
steel blades of the instrument. In her great love for her offspring she lost
all sense of fear.”
The Dawn
of Reason closes with Weir’s conclusion that, “Judging wholly from the
evidence, I think that it can be safely asserted and successfully maintained
that mind in the lower animals is the same in kind as that of man; that, though
instinct undoubtedly controls and directs many of the psychical and physical
manifestations which are to be observed in the lower animals, intelligent
ratiocination also performs an important rôle in the drama of their lives.”
In
addition to his books, Weir wrote several articles that were published in a
variety of periodicals. Sadly, these were far less scientific than his book on
reason. In 1894, he had a “letter” published in The Century Illustrated
magazine entitled “The Methods of the Rioting Striker: An Evidence of
Degeneration”. It was truly appalling. His opinions mirror those of the
far-right today, evincing a hatred of immigrants, whom he calls “degenerate
human beings”. Immigrants, he posits, are the cause of labor unrest due to
their “congenital criminality”. He ends
the article with this truly vile passage:
“These
people (immigrants) are savages, and should not be treated as civilized
beings…When the Indians out West go on the war-path, we know how to control
them. The psychologist (he is referring to himself!) considers the anarchist as
being no better than the Indian.”
Reminder:
he is proposing the genocide (that’s how the U.S. “controlled” the native
tribes after all) of Scandinavians, Irish, Germans, and Central Europeans—the
immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s. Ironically, their descendants number among
today’s right-wingers who rail with equal hatred against the Southern
Hemisphere immigrants of the 2020s.
Another
article, “The Effect of Female Suffrage on Posterity”, was published in 1895 in
the American Naturalist. Weir wrote, “I think I am perfectly safe
in asserting that every woman who has been at all prominent in advancing the cause
of equal rights…has either given evidences of masculo-feminity (viraginity), or
has shown, conclusively, that she was the victim of psycho-sexual aberrancy.” He
went on to claim that suffragettes desired social revolution leading to a
matriarchy, and that there was an “alarming increase of suicide and insanity”
among such women. He also predicted that suffrage would lead to moral decay and
degeneracy, and that womankind would hurry “ever backward to the savage state
of her barbarian ancestors.” Never once does he question why male suffrage
produced none of these horrors.
James Weir
Jr. died August 9, 1906 at the age of fifty. According to his obituary, he had
been in poor health for quite some time, ill enough to interrupt his writing
career. He had traveled to Virginia Beach, Virginia in the hope that the sea
air would improve his health. According to one family historian, he died of
abdominal dropsy, but as of yet I have found no records that would confirm
this. Abdominal dropsy, now called ascites, is severe edema or build-up of fluid
in the abdominal cavity. One of the most frequent causes is cirrhosis of the liver.
Other causes include cancers, tuberculosis, inflammation of the colon,
diverticulosis, or a perforated ulcer. His body was returned to Kentucky and he
was buried near his parents’ graves in Owensboro.
So, what
can we conclude about Dr. Weir and his literary output? He saw himself as a scientist
and “psychologist” (I believe his definition was far different than our modern
understanding of the word), but his writings often veer far from science into
prejudice and irrational bias. I feel this quote from his first book, applied
to himself, provides a good summation of James Weir:
“When
we take an introspective view of our sane personality, we shudder to see how
near it is to the borderlands of insanity and the bizarre and eccentric world
of crankdom. There hardly lives a man who does not possess some eccentricity,
or who does not cherish, hidden, perhaps, deep within himself, some small
delusion, which he is ashamed to acknowledge to the outside world.”
Sources:
“Back
Matter.” The Philosophical Review, vol. 8, no. 4, 1899. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2176213.
Accessed 7 Mar. 2024.
(description of Weir’s new book)
Obituary:
“Dr. James Weir Dies Suddenly.” Owensboro Messenger, Owensboro KY. Aug. 10,
1906. Newspapers.com.
Religion
and Lust, or The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire. James Weir, Jr. 1897. Chicago
Medical Book Co., Chicago. 1905. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26071/26071-h/26071-h.htm
The
Dawn of Reason, or Mental Traits in the Lower Animals. James
Weir Jr.. The Macmillian Company, New York, NY. 1899. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/21608/pg21608-images.html
“The
Methods of the Rioting Striker: An Evidence of Degeneration.” James Weir, Jr. The
Century Illustrated monthly magazine v.48 (n.s.v.26) 1894 May-Oct., pgs
952-54. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015025903348&seq=968
“The Effect of Female Suffrage on Posterity.” James Weir,
Jr. The American Naturalist, Sep. 1895, Vol. 29, No. 345 (Sep. 1895),
pp. 815-825. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2452803
