George Miller Beard (May 8, 1839 – January 23, 1883) was an American

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

who popularized the term

neurasthenia Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...

, starting around 1869.

Biography

Beard was born in

Montville, Connecticut Montville is a town in New London County, Connecticut in the United States. The population was 18,387 at the 2020 census. The villages of Chesterfield, Mohegan, Oakdale, and Uncasville are located within the town; the latter two have their own ...

, on May 8, 1839, to Reverend Spencer F. Beard, a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

minister, and Lucy A. Leonard. Beard's mother died in 1842, and his father remarried the following year: to Mary Ann Fellowes.''Notable People from Montville’s Past: Dr. George M. Beard, Neurologist Extraordinaire, Donna Jacobson, 2011. Beard graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1862, and received his

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1866. While still in medical school during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he served as an assistant surgeon in the West Gulf squadron of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

aboard the gunboat ''New London''. After the war, and upon his graduation from medical school, he married Elizabeth Ann Alden of Westville, Connecticut on December 25, 1866.''Dictionary of American Biography'' Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Beard died in New York City on January 23, 1883.''Almanac of Famous People'', 8th edition, Gale Group, 2003.

Neurasthenia

He is remembered best for having defined neurasthenia as a medical condition with symptoms of fatigue,

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

, headache,

impotence Erectile dysfunction (ED), also called impotence, is the type of sexual dysfunction in which the penis fails to become or stay erect during sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in men.Cunningham GR, Rosen RC. Overview of mal ...

neuralgia Neuralgia (Greek ''neuron'', "nerve" + ''algos'', "pain") is pain in the distribution of one or more nerves, as in intercostal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and glossopharyngeal neuralgia. Classification Under the general heading of neural ...

and depression, as a result of exhaustion of the central nervous system's energy reserves, which Beard attributed to civilization. Physicians who agreed with Beard associated neurasthenia with the stresses of urbanization and the increasingly competitive business environment. Stated simply, people were attempting to achieve more than their constitution could cope with. Typically this followed a short illness from which the patient was thought to have recovered.''A Handbook of Practical Treatment'', John H. Musser, M.D. and O. A. Kelly, M.D., 1912.

Startle reflex

One of the more unusual disorders he studied from 1878 onwards was the exaggerated startle reflex among French-Canadian lumbermen from the

Moosehead Lake Moosehead Lake is a deep, coldwater lake located in Piscataquis County in Northwestern Maine. It is the second-largest lake in New England, and the largest mountain lake in the eastern United States. Situated in the mostly undeveloped Longfellow Mo ...

region of Maine, that came to be known as the

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine were a group of 19th-century lumberjacks who exhibited a rare disorder of unknown origin. The syndrome entails an exaggerated startle reflex which may be described as an uncontrollable "jump"; individuals with this ...

. If they were startled by a short verbal command, they would carry out the instruction without hesitation, irrespective of the consequences. The studies stimulated further research by the military and

Georges Gilles de la Tourette Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (; 30 October 1857 – 22 May 1904) was a French neurologist and the namesake of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition characterized by tics. His main contributions in medicine were in ...

Electro-therapeutics

Beard was also involved extensively with electricity as a medical treatment, and published extensively on the subject.

Death penalty

He was a champion of many reforms of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psych ...

, and was a founder of the National Association for the Protection of the Insane and the Prevention of Insanity. He also took an unpopular stance against the death penalty for persons with mental illness, going so far as to campaign for leniency for Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

James Garfield on the basis that the man was not guilty because of

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...

Etheric force

Beard became involved with

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

's claim to be able to project electrical influence without current through

etheric force Etheric force is a term Thomas Edison coined to describe a phenomenon later understood as high frequency electromagnetic waves—effectively, radio. Edison believed it was the mysterious force that some believed pervaded the ether. At the end o ...

. As explained in a biography of Edison: :Although in later years Edison even transferred credit to Beard for inventing the term "etheric force", in fact the good doctor suggested the Greek ''apolia'' as a more accurate description, "given", he observed, "that the want of polarity is the leading fact of it...¶ This assertion became the informing theme of Beard’s major twenty-eight page, illustrated essay, "Experiments with the Alleged New Force", in the November number of the ''Archives of Electrology and Neurology''. The article was subsequently published in the form of an extended letter to the editor of the New York ''Daily Tribune'', December 9, 1875, as "Mr. Edison’s 'New Force': Result of Physiological and Other Experiments – Characteristics of the Alleged Force – The Apparatus Used", and later in its most definitive form in the January 22

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

, "The Nature of the Newly Discovered Force". He described the force as "somewhere between light and heat on the one hand and magnetism and electricity on the other, with some features of all these forces."

Skepticism

Beard was a critic of claims of the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

and

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

which he wrote was one of history's greatest

delusion A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or som ...

s. He published articles on

anomalistic psychology In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity (or otherwise) of the reported phenomena. Early history Accordin ...

such as ''The Psychology of Spiritism'' (1879) exposing the fraud of mediumship and describing its psychological basis.

Muscle reading

The term "

muscle reading Muscle reading, also known as " Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. ...

" was coined in the 1870s by Beard to describe the methods of the mentalist J. Randall Brown. During, Simon. (2004). ''Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic''. Harvard University Press. page 162.

Publications

*''The Medical Use of Electricity'' (1867)
''Our Home Physician''
(1869) *''Stimulants and Narcotics: Medically, Philosophically, and Morally Considered'' (1871)
''Cases of Hysteria, Neurasthenia, Spinal Irritation, or Allied Affections''
(1874) *''Medical and Surgical Cases Treated by Electricity'' (1874)
Archives of Electrology and Neurology, volumes 1 & 2
(1874,5) via HathiTrust
"A New Theory of Trance and its Bearings on Human Testimony", ''Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'', Volume 4, Number 1, (January 1877), pages 1-47.

"Physiology of Mind-Reading", ''The Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 10, (February 1877), pp. 459–473.

"Mind-Reading by the Ear", ''The Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 11, (July 1877), pp. 362–363.''A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia): Its Symptoms, Nature, Sequences, Treatment''
(1880) *''A Practical Treatise on Sea-Sickness'' (1881)
''American Nervousness, Its Causes and Consequences''
(1881)
''The Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft Excitement of 1692''
(1882)
''Study of Trance, Muscle-Reading and Allied Nervous Phenomena in Europe and America, With a Letter on the Moral Character of Trance Subjects, and a Defence of Dr. Charcot''
(1882)
''The Salem Witchcraft: The Planchette Mystery: and Modern Spiritualism''
(1886)

References

External links

*George Miller Beard papers (MS 584). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

* *
Trance
,

article on G. W. Beard, 30 June 1877, pages 400-401 {{DEFAULTSORT:Beard, George Miller 1839 births 1883 deaths American neurologists American hypnotists American skeptics Anomalistic psychology Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Critics of parapsychology People from Montville, Connecticut Yale College alumni Union Navy surgeons