Joseph Rodes Buchanan

Joseph Rodes Buchanan (December 11, 1814 - December 26, 1899) was an American eclectic physician, a founder (and later opponent) of the Eclectic Medical Institute, and proponent of the theories of psychometry and sarcognomy.

Background
Otto Juettner, in Daniel Drake and His Followers (1909), said of Dr. Buchanan: "He was a strange sort of a man, reserved and dignified, leading a secluded life and wrapt up in weird and semi-mystical researches in anthropology, sarcognomy, psychometry and occult subjects of a religious character. He was suspicious and restless, constantly at loggerheads with his colleagues."