James Burns (Spiritualist)

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For other people named James Burns, see James Burns (disambiguation).

James Burns
Born1835 (1835)
Died1894 (aged 58–59)
OccupationActivist & Writer

James Burns (1835 – 1894) was a Scottish

publisher
.

Biography

The son of a poor

Southampton Row.[2]

In 1867, Burns founded Human Nature, a monthly publication which ran until 1877. In 1869 he brought out a halfpenny weekly, The Medium, which absorbed the provincial Daybreak, founded 1867, and was continued as The Medium and Daybreak until 1895.[3] In 1875, Burns published Alfred Russel Wallace's book On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism.[4]

Burn was an anti-vaccinationist.[5] He chaired an organizing committee to establish a hygienic college and hospital in London for the poor. The project did not prosper but Burns was acknowledged by the British Nature Cure Association as the "Late prominent Naturopathic Evangelist."[5]

Burns died in poverty, leaving debts to his son James Burns, Jr.[6]

Vegetarianism

Burns was a vegetarian.[7] Burns influenced by James Simpson, joined the Vegetarian Society and during the 1860s lectured on vegetarianism. He sold vegetarian publications through his Progressive Library at his Spiritual Institution.[7] He was vice-president of the London Reform Society and a member of the Vegetarian Rambling Society.[7] He promoted vegetarianism in the Medium and Daybreak. Burns opposed the dietary views of Emmet Densmore which he described as an "anti-vegetarian quackery system".[7]

Burns combined spiritualism and vegetarianism.[7] He established a "Progressive Food and Cooking Society" which announced cookery lessons and free food. A vegetarian publishing house and restaurant was established in Clerkenwell which gave free vegetarian breakfasts to poor children.[7]

Historian Charles W. Forward commented that Burns was "an early and ardent worker in the cause of vegetarianism."[8]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ Barrow, Logie (1986). Independent spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebeians, 1850-1910, pp. 102-3
  2. ^ Pels, Peter (1995). "Spiritual Facts and Super-Visions: The 'Conversion' of Alfred Russel Wallace". Etnofoor. 8 (2): 69–91.
  3. ^ Spence, Lewis, ed., (1920) Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology p. 877
  4. ISBN 9780837056876
    .
  5. ^
    PMID 3287059.[permanent dead link
    ]
  6. ISBN 0-7661-4959-5.[permanent dead link
    ]
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-567-03284-3
  8. ^ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 132
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