ل
Leimertinget austin
A SHORT SKETCH
OF

ANIMAL MAGNETISM:
INTENDED TO
DIRECT ATTENTION TO THE PROPRIETY
OF
PRACTICALLY EXAMINING THAT QUESTION.
BY A PHYSICIAN.
LONDON:
JOHN HATCHARD & SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
1838.
BE
1131
.546
1937
>3
LONDON:
Printed by J. Bradley, 78, Great Titchfield Street,
ST. MARY-LE-BONE.
417507-316
PREFATORY REMARKS.
SHOULD any one open this little treatise, expecting to
find Animal Magnetism defended with the zeal of an en-
thusiast, or opposed with the bitterness of scepticism, he
will find himself mistaken. The author's sole object has
been to place, if possible, fairly before his reader the po-
sition which it at present occupies. He neither desires
to "extenuate," or "set down aught in malice," but, so
far as his feeble endeavours can avail, to urge the neces-
sity of examining practically and dispassionately a doc-
trine of such high pretension.
To the Professors of the Art he perhaps ought to offer
an apology; it may be, that in his endeavour to condense
their leading propositions he has communicated on some
points erroneous impressions. Where this occurs, his
excuse must be the want of that detailed knowledge more
or less inevitable with one who has only directed his at-
tention for a short period, either to the literary records or
practical observation of magnetic phenomena.
A SHORT SKETCH
OF
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
THE history of science shows that many truths,
now fully admitted, struggled into recognition by
slow degrees; that they had many difficulties to
contend with, and many prejudices to overcome.
When Gallileo told men that the sun did not
move round the earth, but that the earth revolved
round the sun;-or when Columbus theoretically
inferred the existence of a new continent;-or
when Harvey stated as a fact that the blood flowed
through our bodies in a circular course, and did not
flow into the liver and out of the liver in regular
flux and reflux,
"Like the tides of Euripus, between Attica and Eubœa:"
In all these cases (and numbers might be cited)
many-even of the "learned," denounced the au-
thors as heretics, or visionary dreamers, or pre-
sumptuous men-unconscious, at the moment, that
their successors would regard such epithets as de-
monstrative proofs of ancestral ignorance.
This innate scepticism, while undoubtedly of
use by testing well the pretensions of each alleged
6
discovery, has been equally the means of retarding
the reception of many, which in their final issue
have become firmly established, and productive of
much advantage. The fact seems to be, that when
men talk of the "learned" in any age, they gene-
rally mean those who have achieved to a large
extent an acquaintance with the received and ex-
isting knowledge of the time in which they live;
but it not unfrequently happens, that the very
exercise of mind which leads to this acquisition,
engenders a state of thinking in which the recep-
tion-nay, the very examination-of new facts, is en-
countered with extreme reluctance. There exists
among such persons a pride of intellect, which, de-
spite their better judgment, would seem to whisper
that the extreme limit of knowledge is attained;
and hence it happens, that her boundaries are usu-
ally extended by a few extraordinary men, who, dis-
senting from the established dogmas of their day,
have encountered the sneers of one generation,
while they have commanded the applause of the
succeeding.
Those alone, who, with the author, have looked
a little into the history of science, will feel the truth
of these remarks. The mass of mankind unavoid-
ably receive their knowledge at second-hand; they
assume it on the authority of others; and thus men
peruse the controversies and speculations of an
era earlier than their own, wondering how facts
or principles which they now almost intuitively
admit, could ever have been objects of question
or of doubt.
7
The history of gravitation, of electricity, of Gal-
vanism, offer marked examples. One of those pre-
viously alluded to, offers the most marked of all.
The circulation of the blood is not a speculative
question; its proofs (dependant entirely on certain
points in the structure of the body) require, we
might suppose, only to be seen to be at once recog-
nized. Harvey told the anatomists of his day this
simple tale—that the blood flowed in two circles,
and that it could not possibly pursue any other
course. We now wonder how any rational mind
could have denied the assertion; yet what is the
story which his life records? Years rolled on be-
fore his doctrine was received; he was traduced in
character, vilified by ridicule, almost ruined in his
practice; the learned laughed, the public sneered
in unison with their leaders, and "scarce a man,” we
are told, “above the age of forty" at first acceded to
his views. This text is written in the annals of the
seventeenth century; its commentary may be found
in the unquestioned tenets of our own.
The lesson, thus deeply graven on the page of
history, should never be neglected, when new and
hitherto unsuspected powers are asserted to exist:
with what double force ought it to fall upon the
minds of those who, living in an era like our own,
have seen the discovery of new agents, or new ap-
plications of those already known not less won-
derful, advance with a rapidity which the wildest
fancies of our fathers could scarcely have imagined!
Numbers yet live who saw the discovery of oxygen
at once overturn nearly the whole system of che-
8
mical science. A few years passed, and Galvani
announced the discovery of that power which yet
bears his name. Soon after we find this, directed
by the mind and hand of Davy, rending asunder the
strongest attractions by which bodies are united, till
he simplifies chemistry to an extraordinary degree,
and brings us many steps nearer an acquaintance
with the final elements of our globe. The earth is
scarce yet settled on the breast of Watt, whose spirit
speaks to us, as it were, at every turn, through the
stupendous engines which he taught us to construct.
Let those not yet passed even the middle period of
life recal how, in their day, the application of steam
to navigation won its way; the jibes which were
uttered by pompous ignorance; how the whole
vocabulary which imbecility mistakes for argument
was enlisted in the cause of opposition. Time pro-
gressed. The little Comet rippled the surface of
the Clyde, and one step was gained. "Ah!" said
the objectors, "'tis very well for a canal, but on
a rough sea impossible!" A year elapsed, and
larger vessels were constructed; the narrow but
stormy lakes of the Highlands were traversed, and
the natives of their shores marvelled at the fuming
vessel, which seemed impelled by the fiery forces
of a dæmon. I need not pursue the picture: our
world is but a few years older; the little Comet has
produced a giant progeny, which plough the ocean
*The Comet was the first steam-vessel tried in this country.
She was constructed under the direction of" Bell," who, poor
fellow, derived little advantage from the attempt. The Ame-
ricans, under Fulton, had preceded us some years.
9
"from Indus to the Pole;" and "steamers" being
ranged among the common places of our day,
men wonder how they ever thought the project
visionary.
The author has deemed these few remarks a
fitting introduction to this little treatise, not be-
cause it is assumed that Animal Magnetism
will pursue a
course similar to that of the
discoveries they allude to it remains yet an
unsettled question, whether such a principle
exists at all; and where the affirmative of this
is admitted, it seems quite certain that the
laws of its action are exceedingly obscure;
but such extraordinary statements have been
made, such singular phenomena announced from
all quarters of Europe, at least asserted to depend
on the exertion of a special power, that it would be
quite unphilosophical to cast aside with indifference
statements which rest on considerable authority,
and may be found to have truth as a foundation.
On the other hand, it is equally necessary to steel
the mind against that unwise credulity which would
open it to a reception of the marvellous, without
due inquiry; and if ever assertions demanded a
rigid scrutiny before admitting them as facts, it is
doubtless those which the magnetizers present to our
review. He who receives them as truths, without
due investigation-but investigation fairly and le-
gitimately conducted—is unwise. He who at once
discards them as founded on illusion or deceit, for
no other reason than that they transcend the pre-
sent limits of human knowledge, is in the highest
10
degree unphilosophical and illiberal; he has either
not read, or not profited by that lesson which the
history of science might have taught him.
Firmly impressed as he is with the truth of these
remarks, and himself but recently an inquirer into
those phenomena on which the magnetizers ground
their conviction, the author has seen enough to
convince him that the question is not generally en-
tertained in a manner most likely to elicit truth.
In some he has observed an overweening cre-
dulity, viewing everything through the jaundiced
medium of a most unsound belief; in others, the
most unbending, dogmatical scepticism :-among
numbers he has observed an utter incapacity to
comprehend what is meant by the very name of
Animal Magnetism; they have viewed the whole
matter simply as a curious exhibition, in which cer-
tain actors played a part well or ill, according as
they excited their temporary wonder. In a ques-
tion of such importance, this is wrong. If its
professions are groundless, it is high time they
were discarded;-if facts, it is equally high time
that we should see what use can be made of them.
The first step towards an attainment of either
end is dispassionate investigation; and should the
author partly minister to this, his purpose will be
fully gained.
11
Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Animal
Magnetism.
Late in the preceding century, Anthony Mesmer,
generally said to have been a native of Vienna, and
a graduate in medicine of that university, an-
nounced himself as the discoverer of a new power,
which he professed to be capable of producing, on
living creatures, extraordinary and hitherto un-
expected effects.
To this he gave the name of Animal Magnetism;
and the practical application of it, which he pro-
posed, was that of curing diseases in a manner
more certain than by the usual remedial means.
Mesmer was by no means successful in propa-
gating this doctrine in his own country, and re-
paired to Paris in 1778.
He was there received with that mingled feeling
of applause and censure which usually attends
those who present themselves to the world as dis-
coverers. The mass of persons who at that period
occupied the high seats of learning, denounced his
doctrines as visionary and absurd; a few enthu-
siasts lauded them with injudicious zeal; and the
public arrayed themselves on either side, as chance
or caprice might direct.
There were not, however, wanting, men of cha-
racter and reputation, who had the boldness to
follow what they considered to be true. Deslon, a
court physician of some standing, arraying himself
12
on the side of Mesmer, became first his associate,
and afterwards his successor, in the practice of this
asserted art; and other physicians, whose names
are recorded in the history of that period, followed
the example which he gave. The medical autho-
rities indignantly resented the defection of their
unworthy sons, and sought to stifle inquiry by the
anathemas of collegiate vengeance. Some suc-
cumbed to edicts which they wanted resolution to
defy. A few attested that magnetism, like other
novelties, was capable of registering the names of
martyrs to her cause.
It is scarce credible to what a pitch the mind of
Paris was excited by Mesmer's doctrine. The war
which raged in the chambers of the academy in-
vaded the saloons of the gay, and the abodes of the
sober citizen. As happened to the burghers of Stras-
burgh, in Sterne's matter of the Stranger's Nose,
magnetism occupied the Parisians, from the posti-
lion to the King.
In the state of feeling thus feebly described,
Louis the Sixteenth commanded the learned to in-
vestigate; nor could any period be more unfavour-
able for a dispassionate inquiry after truth: the
Academy of Science, and School of Medicine,
from which bodies the commissioners were se-
lected, were composed of men almost naturally op-
posed to such new and strange assertions, and the
result of their labours could scarcely be a matter of
doubt.
Of all the inquiries, then instituted, the one
conducted with most apparent candour, and
13
sanctioned by the most imposing names, was that
of 1784. Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier, the dis-
tinguished chemist, and Jussieu, equally great in
botanical science, constituted part of a committee
comprising many other names.**
This tribunal declared against the truth of
Mesmer's doctrine; but it formed a somewhat re-
markable feature in the case, that one member had
the boldness to dissent from his colleagues, and
furnish conclusions of his own, much less unfavour-
able. This member was Jussieu; and the mere
fact of such a man's dissent, at a period, too, when
dissent was scarce to be expected, should be care-
fully considered while reviewing the question under
circumstances of less excitement.
This denunciation of the commissioners in a
great measure determined the public mind of
France. The dowagers ceased to gossip, the citi-
zens to dispute, the academicians to persecute, and
Mesmer, having passed the usual ordeal of poetic
witlings and dramatic satirists, was driven forth
from France. It is probable, however, that the
report was not the sole cause which influenced the
temporary suppression of his doctrine; high ex-
citement is always followed by proportionate col-
lapse. The mind of Paris had fermented long
enough, and the commission acted like an anodyne,
which calmed it down. Then followed the political
epoch of the revolution, and the storm of magnetism
* The King first named physicians only-viz. Borie, Sallin,
Darcet, and Guillotin; to them were afterwards added Franklin,
Leroy, Bailly, De Bory, Lavoisier, and Jussieu.
14
gave place to the storm of politics. As a leading
question, Mesmer and his wonders ceased nearly
to be thought of.
For good or for evil, however-in truth or in
falsehood-he had sown a seed which was destined
to germinate. In France, Germany, and Italy,
believers still continued to exist, and from time to
time the announcement of isolated facts, read only
by the few, and thought of, probably, by still fewer,
served to show that magnetism was not finally
extinct. By degrees, a new taste for the study-
luckily of a more sober character-began to diffuse
itself at Paris, the original seat of its development
and fall. In 1825 Dr. Foissac, a regular physician,
who, in common with others, entertained a favour-
able impression of its truth, invited the Royal Aca-
demy of Medicine to revive the inquiry, by a fresh
commission. After some discussion, the proposi-
tion was acceded to, and eleven persons nominated
early in 1826.
The commission was composed of the following
members-viz. MM. Bourdois, Double, Itard, Gue-
neau de Mussy, Guersent, Fouquier, Laennec, Le-
roux, Magendie, Marc, and Chillaye. M. Husson
was named reporter.
Of these, Laennec almost immediately retired,
from bad health; and Magendie and Double did
not sign the report, because they had not been
present at the experiments; its force, therefore,
depends on the signature of the remaining eight
members alone.
The commissioners continued their investigation
15
at intervals for six years, and in 1831 delivered a
voluminous report, in which they to a considerable
extent bear out the magnetizers in the assertions
they had made. The conclusions they arrive at
are given in the Appendix. To some of the cases
they are deduced from, I shall probably have yet
occasion to allude.
Those wh approach the question with unbiassed
minds, and an anxious desire to appreciate the truth
or falsehood of magnetism, should study this report
deliberately; it appears to contain internal evidence
that the men who framed it were actuated by a
sincere wish to arrive at accurate results. The
innumerable fallacies which beset an inquiry of the
kind were guarded against with sedulous care; the
failures are fairly stated, and the successful cases
by no means brought out in high relief. The time
occupied by the experiments was considerable, the
trials numerous, and the various asserted effects of
magnetism, from those of a trivial and evanescent
character, up to its all but incredible phenomena,
were embraced by the commissioners. When we
add, that the men who signed this report were
versed in the preliminary knowledge requisite to
insure a successful investigation, and that some of
them, at least, had no previous bias in favour of the
system, it would be folly to deny that the general
result of this inquiry is decidedly favourable to the
magnetizers.
Very different, however, has been the ten-
dency of conclusions more recently afforded by
another commission of the Academy of Medicine.
16
The dispute, it would seem, had remained in tole-
rable quietude among them since 1831. During
last year, however, M. Oudet stated that he had
extracted the tooth of a somnambulist, without
the lady exhibiting any, or at least very slight,
symptoms of pain: and again the pro's and con's
were thrown into somewhat serious collision.
Almost immediately after, a young and doubtless
enthusiastic magnetizer, M. Berna, deliberately
challenged the academy to a fresh investigation.
The men selected were of known honesty and re-
putation, viz., MM. Bouillaud, Cloquet, Caventou,
Cornac, Dubois (of Amiens), Emery, Oudet, Pelle-
tier, and Roux.
The phenomena which M. Berna undertook to
prove before this commission were the most ex-
traordinary, and probably the most difficult of pro-
duction, which the magnetizers assert.
In the first place, he undertook to throw the
patient into a state of somnambulism; while in this
state, he agreed to prove that she was insensible to
pain; that he could at pleasure restore the sensi-
bility by his own magnetic influence; that he could
at will cause her to lose the power of motion; that
he could in the same way cause her to continue a
conversation (while asleep) or cease it, and this too
while separated from the patient by the intervention
of a door. Such were his professions when the
commission first commenced their labours; but as
his enthusiasm became excited, he further agreed to
prove the existence of what the magnetizers term
"clairvoyance," meaning thereby a state in which
17
(as we shall presently see) persons are stated to
acquire, in some other way, or through the medium
of some other sense, such information of external
objects or occurrences as are in the natural condition
communicable only through the sense of sight.
On this programme, M. Berna and the experi-
menters joined issue; nor will it be denied that
he had undertaken a task sufficiently difficult of
execution.
The commissioners properly commenced by as-
certaining whether the patient first introduced was
naturally insensible to pain; for as insensibility to
pain produced by magnetic influence was one of the
facts to be demonstrated, it followed that this was
not proved if she was from peculiarity of habit
insensible in the natural condition. Her neck and
hands were consequently penetrated by pins, and
she declared she "felt nothing," nor could she, on
close examination, be induced to say that she felt
more than a "little pain." On this fact the reporters
insist much, for disproving the power of the mag-
netizer to produce insensibility. But while this
clearly follows, we must also carry along with us
that it tells in two ways; it tells in favour of the
patient's honesty; it renders collusion, which is more
than insinuated, at least improbable; for had this
woman wished to deceive, and had she been capable
of deceiving with such address as the commissioners
gave her credit for, it is scarce conceivable that she
would have failed to assume sensibility in the outset,
knowing that she would be expected to show its
reverse in the sequel.
B
18
It would be quite beyond the limits or inten-
tions of this little treatise to trace the experimenters
through their entire proceedings; suffice it to say
that the result was unfavourable to M. Berna's
assertions. The commissioners evidently viewed
him as occupying the position either of an impostor
or an imbecile; a man who desired to deceive them
or was himself deceived.*
On this report, the adversaries of magnetism
ground much of their opposition. They appeal to
it as affording the most indubitable proof that all
which has been thought, and seen, and written on
the subject, is based either on illusion or deceit.
It might be well, on this account, to consider how
far they are borne out in such conclusion, by a dis-
passionate consideration of the facts which it
embraces.
We must bear steadily in remembrance that all
the experiments forced as it were on the commis-
sioners by M. Berna, relate merely to those asser-
tions of the magnetizers which undoubtedly verge
upon the miraculous, and that all might be proved
untrue without affecting the leading proposition on
which magnetism is based. It may be quite true
that a special power exists by which we can cause
a paralized or healthy muscle to contract-by
which we can accelerate or retard the pulse-aug-
ment or diminish the respiratory motions-or pro-
duce sleep, be it healthy or somnambulic; and yet
* Should any reader wish to peruse a full account of this
investigation, he will find it translated in the "Medical Gazette"
of 16th and 23d September, 1837.
19
it may be quite untrue that, during this somnam-
bulism, senses are transferred or insensibility to pain
established; the one set of facts may be distinctly
proved, while the other are as distinctly disproved.
Admitting therefore, to its full extent, that we
have no right to question either the honesty of
purpose or precision of experiment on which the
conclusions of these gentlemen are founded, the
man who believes in the existence of a special
magnetic power is fairly entitled to question the ar-
guments of those who would foolishly allude to them
as containing a refutation of his entire doctrine;
the commissioners had one object to accom-
plish, and this they doubtless accomplished well.
A young enthusiast challenged them to report on
certain phenomena, which he undertook to show;
he failed in the attempt, and his judges very pro-
perly, some with regret perhaps, and some with
pleasure, reported that he failed. It may be that
this offers only an illustration of the fact, how
severely an injudicious friend may damage the
cause he is but too anxious to serve; however
this may be, it is undoubted that the report proves
one of three things; either that M. Berna was a
trickster, who intended to deceive-or that he was
the dupe of his own patients-or, that they were
not in a fitting condition to display the phenomena
which he proposed. And in reference to this last
possibility, another question might not unfairly be
entertained. If such mental phenomena as the
magnetizers state really do occur in somnambulism,
they must clearly depend on some peculiar exaltą-
B 2
20
tion of the intellectual powers-quite beyond our
comprehension, it is true, but which we may not
irrationally conclude will arise only during a more
or less undisturbed condition of the patient; they
are also professedly induced by an act of vo-
lition on the part of the magnetizer, implying
an undisturbed possession also of his mental
faculties. It is quite clear that under no conceiv-
able circumstances are these conditions more vio-
lated than during an investigation before a learned
commission--the pomp and circumstance which
attend its proceedings-the precautions properly
taken, but which obviously imply suspicion-the
dread of failure on the magnetizer's part, and the
novelty of situation on that of the magnetized, are
one and all causes eminently calculated to inva-
lidate the whole attempt; nor is it quite impossible,
on this view, that M. Berna may have entirely
failed in shewing to the commissioners what, under
different circumstances, he had not only seen him-
self but honestly believed he could present to their
review.
The investigation undertaken on the challenge
of Berna was, I believe, the fourth, and certainly
the last which Mesmer's doctrine has originated in
France; and when we reflect on the testimony
thus afforded of the zeal which characterizes our
continental neighbours in their endeavours to de-
termine such disputed questions, I cannot abstain
from expressing my astonishment that no similar
attempt should be made among ourselves. At one
point of this vast metropolis I see an institution
21
destined to preside over general science throughout
the empire; an institution, the admission within
whose portals constitutes-and, I question not,
justly constitutes, the highest aim of scientific am-
bition. At other points I meet two structures, the
abodes of learned bodies, which, endowed by kingly
munificence and fostered for many years by popular
favour, are presumed to influence in a great degree
the destinies of medicine and its allied sciences.
Aware that such establishments exist; aware that
a question such as magnetism, which if true may
be of vast importance, and which if false should be
immediately suppressed, now divides the opinion
even of thinking men; I cannot help reflecting,
with not less of wonder than regret, that no one
of these bodies should consider its investigation
worthy their regard. Each among them includes
members well able to test its pretensions by direct
experiment, and the public institutions of this great
city would readily offer them the means. A report
emanating from such a source could not fail to in-
fluence the fate of this still unsettled question; and
the effort would at least prove that our national
colleges were not indifferent to any subject where
the interests of truth might be at stake.
Magnetism being thus consigned to individual
inquiry, it is impossible to say what may be its fate
among ourselves. Among those whose habits and
knowledge render them fitting judges, a few-and
but a few have deigned to examine for themselves.
The mass of professional or scientific men are con-
tent to receive the reports of others, and, as far as
22
can be gathered, look on the whole affair as a
German reverie, unworthy the attention of a philo-
sophic mind. It is not in this way that a strictly
physiological proposition, involving assertions, if not
facts, of extreme interest, should be met. That
the public so should meet it, is perhaps to be ex-
pected; but that members of a learned and liberal
profession-men to whom their fellows have a right
to look for the elucidation of truth in such depart-
ments of science as they cultivate-that they should
continue to indulge in vapid declamation and theo-
retic argument on a subject which can only be
decided by a reference to facts; and, ignorant as
the best among us is of the cause or laws of vital
action, that they should meet an asserted discovery
which professes to advance our knowledge, with
the most valid argument of a passing jest, and hug
themselves in the vain conceit that it is beneath
their dignity to learn! Such conduct, and I regret
to say one meets it daily, will not, I fear, add ano-
ther laurel to the coronet of English science. We
continually hear it asserted by philosophers of this
description, that Mesmer's doctrines are exploded!
that a belief in magnetism is confined to a few
honest, perhaps, but visionary men; or to those who
desire to impose on their fellow mortals. I am en-
titled distinctly to deny the fact. Whatever be its
ultimate fate, the question is not yet decided. Nay,
if we dispassionately review the various conclusions
which have emanated from learned committees on
the Continent, making due allowance for the un-
avoidable suspicion which its pretensions must ex-
23
cite, and couple this with our knowledge of the
general feeling which prevails, we shall find ample
reason to conclude, that the impression of such
as examine it is decidedly in favour of its truth.
Nor is this opinion at all invalidated, because the
earliest of these commissions referred the pro-
duction of facts which were admitted to known and
common causes; or because the last found a young
enthusiast to fail in presenting phenomena which
he perhaps had not power to elicit, or which his
patients were not in a condition to display.
The author does not feel that his duty would be
faithfully discharged, did he abstain from a passing
allusion to the physician who at present solicits at-
tention to Mesmer's doctrine among ourselves; and
he does this with more confidence, because he has
never communicated with M. Dupotet in any way
beyond the few words which have passed between
them in his public room. In the whole bearing of
that gentleman, he has seen nothing but sincerity
and candour: he offers the utmost freedom of inves-
tigation; he makes use of no adventitious means to
insure success in his experiments; he lays no claim
to peculiarity of power, though, from long experi-
ence, it may be reasonably concluded that he
applies what power he does possess with more effi-
ciency than the novice; his whole deportment, in
fact, indicates the honest man, who may indeed be
wrong
in his convictions, but cannot be accused of
any desire to lead others into error. Nor is the
task he has undertaken among us stubborn Eng-
lish, an easy one. Magnetize me," says one,
66
24
"and if you succeed, I will believe." "Magnetize
me," says another," and I will do so too." The
request is reiterated, from the girl in her teens to
the grave physician in his spectacles! The first
may naturally be excused-the latter cannot; he,
at least, ought to know, that trifling such as this
never can determine this disputed question: it
would be more in the spirit of true philosophy,
did he endeavour conclusively to ascertain whether
the varied phenomena, which undoubtedly in many
examples are produced, ever do arise under cir-
cumstances which render it impossible that they
can depend on any cause but magnetism. This is
the real difficulty which besets the investigation;
and it is not by success or failure in an isolated
case that it can be overcome.
In the preceding pages I have spoken of " Mes-
mer's doctrine" of "Animal Magnetism." Among
those who read them, there may be some who
know little but the name; others may have seen
it practised, yet still be ignorant of its assertions or
its aims. Let us, therefore, endeavour to explain
briefly what these are.
25
Effects resulting from Magnetism, and Modes of
producing them.
The leading proposition of the magnetizers is
this-that one human being possesses, under par-
ticular circumstances, the power of influencing at
will the vital actions, and not unfrequently the
mental faculties, of others, in such a manner as to
produce in them phenomena of an unusual cha-
racter, not.capable of being referred to known and
common causes. It is further stated, that they are
capable of influencing, in a similar manner, the
vital motions of creatures inferior in the scale of
creation to themselves; but whether animals are
presumed also to possess the faculty, I am unable
to say.
The person exercising this power is named the
magnetizer; the person on whom it is exercised,
the magnetized; and it is asserted to reside in all
individuals, though in different degrees of strength.
The effects stated to result from magnetism are
extremely various, as we shall presently see;
but they are by no means exhibited in all cases
where the attempt is made: frequently the person
acted on manifests no symptoms whatever; some-
times the effects are very slight, sometimes well
marked, and at others intense. Very often they
are not induced till the person has been several
times magnetized; and as a general rule it seems
to be admitted, that the amount of effect bears
26
a ratio within certain limits to the frequency of
repetition.
In common justice to the adherents of this doc-
trine, it is proper to carry those positions along
with us, for the non-production of effects in a par-
ticular case or cases is frequently adduced as evi-
dence against it, whereas no magnetizer professes
himself capable of visibly influencing every indivi-
dual on whom he operates. It seems generally
considered that there are no appreciable signs con-
nected either with the temperament or organization
of individuals, from which it can be inferred with cer-
tainty that effects will be produced, or, if produced,
of what description they will be; but it is held, that
persons labouring under disease are more susceptible
than those in health, and that among them, those
whose complaints seem most connected with de-
rangements of the nervous system most readily re-
ceive magnetic impressions. It is likewise stated as
a general rule, that females are more readily in-
fluenced than males.
The conditions presumed to be desirable, or, as
some I believe consider, essential on the part of the
magnetizer, are his willing to produce an effect,
and an innate conviction that he can produce it.
But even when these exist in a high degree, it does
not necessarily follow that the power of the mag-
netizer will be great; on the contrary, there would
appear to exist peculiarities of organization, or
modifications of vital force, among individuals, not
cognizable, which determine the extent of magnetic
power which they possess.
27
An act of volition, and a conviction that they can
be acted on, are not, it is asserted, conditions essen-
tial on the part of the recipients; so far from it,
we are told that powerful effects have been pro-
duced on persons who submitted themselves to the
magnetizer, impressed with a firm belief that they
could resist his influence, or even a firm disbelief
in the whole of his pretensions. It is admitted, how-
ever, that a belief in the reality of magnetism is a
powerful auxiliary to the reception of its influence,
and it would seem probably to follow that a con-
viction of its falsity must equally impede that
reception.
The intensity of magnetic effects is presumed,
as already stated, to increase within certain limits,
as the person showing them has been more fre-
quently acted on; and this is fairly employed by the
magnetizers in reply to the objections of those who
presume that alarm, novelty of situation, &c., are
the really efficient causes of the phenomena they
admit. "For," say the Mesmerians, "if you are right
in assigning such causes, surely the effects ought to
diminish as the patient becomes habituated to our
manœuvres." The author has no desire to enter the
lists of controversy on either side; but he may
state as a fact which has many times come under
his review, that when effects have been produced,
these effects have usually been more marked as the
sittings became more numerous. Neither does he
desire to theorize upon a subject scarcely suscep-
tible of this, when its very facts are in dispute.
But supposing it admitted that a special influence
28
really is at times produced, we can, he submits,
only rationally conceive of it as dependant on some
peculiar principle belonging to every human being
in a greater or less degree, communicable from one
to another, and capable, under certain circum-
stances or certain relative conditions, of producing
in the one towards whom it is directed variable but
appreciable effects. Nor, founding on this assump-
tion, does it further seem very absurd to suppose
that effects will only be manifested where the com-
municator exceeds the recipient in magnetic
powers; and that where this excess exists in a
degree sufficient to produce them, they may be-
come manifested, within certain limits, with greater
and greater force as the action is repeated.
The reader has now heard the general proposi-
tions of magnetism. We have talked of effects, but
have neither stated what these are, nor adverted to
the modes by which they are induced. The latter
point ought first to occupy attention.
.
By whatever process of thinking Mesmer arrived
at the leading idea on which his system founds,
there can, I think, be little question that he believed
it to be true: but whether he was dishonest in the
practical methods he adopted; or whether, with a
mind strongly imbued with mysticism, as it evi-
dently was, he really fancied those external means
and appliances which he used essential to success,
are questions which it would be difficult to answer.
* Without disparagement to magnetism, as now practised,
we are justified in saying that Mesmer was, in the highest de-
gree, an idealist
His inaugural thesis was on the subject of
29
On either view it is at least certain that, in his own
practice and that of his immediate disciples, matters
were conducted in a manner eminently calculated
to excite suspicion; nor is it quite impossible that
the feeling in respect to magnetism produced by
this very indiscretion, or intentional artifice, may
have operated as one cause of retarding its general
recognition.
It would be tedious to detail an account of these
proceedings as contained in the writings of the day
suffice it to say that much of mystery pervaded his
practice. We read of pianos, on which airs were
played with a view to assist the presumed agency;
of tubs, perforated by holes in which glass bottles
were arranged in a particular manner; of wands,
waved with all the mystic art of the magician; of
iron rods, which touched the patients; of cords,
which connected them together; and of many other
arrangements well calculated to excite distrust.
Whatever opinions may now be held, one fact is
undeniable-that the modern magnetizers adopt
means so simple as to remove these causes of sus-
picion, and present the question to our view en-
tirely stripped of all such absurdities.
Generally the patient is seated on a chair, or at
times stands before the magnetizer; or, where several
are operated on at one time, they form a row, in
planetary influence; and it is said that his day dreams on this
very question, and his desire to find some connecting medium
between the stars and man, first led him to suspect the exist-
ence of a magnetic power. If there be truth in his idea, we
probably owe its development to the circumstance that he was
a speculative dreamer.
30
which the face of each points to the back of the one
before him, while the operator acts immediately
on the first, and mediately, or through him, on
those behind. Very commonly his first process is
to grasp the hands of the recipient in his own, and
hold them for a short time, with a view, it is under-
stood, of equalizing their temperatures.
Having then fixed his attention on the object, he
begins slowly and steadily to wave his hand in a
vertical direction before the patient's body, each
motion, or "Pass," as it is technically called, com-
mencing at the forehead, and generally ending
about the region of the stomach.
The distance from the body at which these passes
are performed, varies from a few inches to many
yards, the magnetizer appearing to diminish the
distance in proportion as he desires to augment
the effect. Sometimes one hand is used-at
times another; and they are often changed, not
only on account of weariness, but from an idea, I
believe, that the supply of that "something," on the
emanation of which they suppose the effects to de-
pend, becomes exhausted in the one employed.
Not unfrequently the "Passes" commence at the
stomach, and are continued downwards; and occa-
sionally the extended hand is steadily held a few
inches from that part which, it is stated, affords
one of the most ready inlets to magnetic power.
Occasionally the operator employs both hands
at once, the ends of the extended fingers of one
as being held a few inches from the forehead,
before described, while the other is waved down-
31
wards; as if he intended to radiate a fluid into the
brain from one, while he determined the course of
its current by the other.
When the magnetizer has ceased to act, his ob-
ject is to replace his patient in the natural state.
To effect this, he usually passes his thumb and
fingers many times transversely across the forehead
with a steady pressure, commencing about its
centre, and moving them outwards on either side,
following up this manoeuvre by running his hands
gently downwards, in contact with the clothes, from
the chest to the feet.
When sensible effects have been produced, the
difficulty of recalling the patient seems to depend
on their intensity. Sometimes this purpose is
easily effected, at others the reverse; occasionally
the magnetizer would appear to have excited a
condition which neither he nor his patient know the
means of quelling, until accident reveals it;* and
where they amount to that unusual state which has
been named-somnambulism-the magnetizer often
professes his inability to recal or awaken the pa-
tient, until the means of so doing are announced
by the intuitive perception of their nature which
that mental state supplies.
The manipulations hitherto described are by no
means presumed to be essential to the production
of magnetic effects, but only employed by some
magnetizers. Many, again, state that they effect
their intention by contact, the thumb generally of
the recipient being held by the communicator, or
* Vide Appendix, p. 51.
32
the hand of the latter being placed on different
parts, more especially the stomach. Others,
again, adopt the plan of merely fixing their regards
steadily upon the person they desire to influence,
or holding their extended hand before him.
To the believers in magnetism there is nothing
very absurd, or irreducible to one principle, in these
varied manipulations; for as all, at least the ra-
tional among them, almost inevitably speculate on
the existence of a fluid or aura, transmitted
from one person to another, being the cause
of magnetic effects, it is just as probable
that it may be so transmitted by the eye as
by the hand; and not much less probable that it
may be carried by a conducting medium (for ex-
ample, air) as communicated by direct contact; but
to persons (and they are numerous) who admit
certain phenomena, while they at the same time
deny that magnetic power exists, it must be con-
fessed that these differences in the mode of their
production are sad stumbling-blocks, for one of
their hypotheses is, that sleep-the most common,
we shall see, of all-is simply referrible to the con-
tinued motions of the hand; and certainly, where
this occurs without such motions the argument
cannot be entertained.
But what are the effects which do result, or are
asserted to result from magnetic influence, by what-
soever mode communicated? and how do its as-
sertors connect these with the assumed cause which
induces them?
It is maintained, that the influence cæteris paribus
33
is most readily shown when the person acted on is
asleep; and as in this condition, too, he is clearly
removed from all causes which may be presumed to
act through the mind, so any effects which may
then be produced are least liable to objections.
.
When a waking person, then, applies himself to
magnetize another so circumstanced, it is stated
often to occur, that in a short time a restlessness
pervades the sleeper; his breathing becomes op-
pressed, or quickened; twitchings are seen in the
muscles of his face, which assumes an expression of
anxiety and uneasiness; the head, perhaps, jerks
from side to side, or the arms or legs are affected
with spasmodic movements; frequently the patient
awakes with an undefined impression that some-
thing unusual has occurred.
These constitute some of the minor physiolo-
gical changes produced by magnetic action, which
it is maintained that any person may by his own
agency frequently induce.
When magnetism is practised on persons awake,
it in many examples entirely fails, even after repeated
attempts, to elicit any effects. In others, at the first
several sittings, none which are appreciable follow,
even when the result afterwards proves the person
to be susceptible under precisely similar circum-
stances.
When sensible effects ensue, they are of various
kinds, but may fairly be reduced to two classes,—
1st. Certain physiological changes in the vital
action of particular organs, or the production under
unusual circumstances of such as are natural.
C
34
Or, 2ndly. Certain mental phenomena, arising
only in rare examples, and apparently superin-
duced upon the others. When these occur, the
person is said to be placed in a state of som-
nambulism.
Of those included in the first class very many are
extremely slight and transitory; nor, perhaps, can
they be readily detected, except by an observant
eye. Slight alterations of temperature, a little agi-
tation, a trifling oscilation of pulse, partial drowsi-
ness, hurried breathing, and occasionally deep sighs,
with flushing of the countenance and other slight
symptoms by no means very determinate, or very
certainly announced, constitute the list of effects
which may be, and are doubtless with truth, often
attributed to common causes.
One, however, of the most common, and not ap-
parently so readily explicable on such principles,
is the seeming power of the magnetizer to induce
sleep. Sooner or later, after he commences his
proceedings, the patient's countenance assumes a
fixity of look; presently the eyelids droop, and if
you ask the cause, it is stated that "an indescrib-
able but irresistible feeling of weight or oppression
presses them down." If the attention is now en-
gaged, or a mental diversion effected by any means,
a struggle seems made against the power in action;
the eyes are many times opened and as often
closed, just like a person endeavouring to resist a
tendency to somnolence; at times this effort suc-
ceeds, the patient as it were conquers; at others
the sleep is perfect only for a short time, and at
35
others, still complete and permanent. An influence
so decided as to determine perfect sleep is, I be-
lieve, seldom shown till after many sittings; though
this is by no means without exceptions, but it
seems to be in cases where this condition has been
produced, and during its existence in a greater or
less degree, that the power of the magnetizer over
the vital motions of different parts is most forcibly
exemplified.
To one set only of effects of this kind do the
limits of this little treatise permit me to allude,
namely, the power which the magnetizer appears
at least to possess, of influencing the contraction of
such muscles as he desires.
When his manœuvres continue directed to the
body generally, the patient is often affected by
sudden irregular spasmodic twitchings, very similar
to those produced by electricity. When again he
limits them to particular muscles, very decided con-
tractions of such frequently ensue; sometimes
so marked that a finger or even an entire limb
follows the hand of the magnetizer, just as a needle
does the common magnet; at other times his
power, without causing the entire muscle to con-
tract, appears to induce an internal quivering of its
fibres, as if each separately creeped and yearned
under his control; and, what is more singular,
these phenomena I have myself seen produced on
paralyzed muscles, which had long remained inca-
pable of motion.* Of these facts I believe there
* Vide Appendix, p. 61.
c 2
36
can be no question, though their explanations will
doubtless be various.
The purely physiological phenomena, asserted
by the Mesmerians to result from their endeavours,
might be considerably extended did the limits of
this pamphlet permit. Its author believes them to
include those which afford the best kind of evidence
which the magnetizers produce in support of their
views; they are not only cognizable to the senses,
but cognizable under circumstances which enable
the observer, as far as may be, to determine whether
any cause but the one assigned can account for
their occurrence. When we presently come briefly
to notice the second class of effects, those of a
mental character, the various changes in the
perceptive faculties stated to arise during somnam-
bulism, it will be found that much greater room is
left for deception, and much less power necessarily
vested in the observer to determine with precision
whether the wonders which appear to be presented
are feigned or real. To some extent he must de-
pend on the honesty of the patient; and even
where this is not entirely the case, when he ima-
gines he has taken every possible precaution to
avoid fallacy or expose deceit, the apparent
facts presented are so marvellous as almost to
justify him in repudiating what his very senses
announce to him as truth. In such a case, the
prudent man will fall back upon the words of Ham-
let, and consider that—
"There are more things in heaven and earth
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."
37
Should there be found, among the readers of this
little treatise, any who deduce from the author's
statements that he credits the existence of a mag-
netic power, some will be but little disposed to
confide in his judgment, and others inclined to smile
at his credulity. It is at least pleasant to appear in
good company, and show that if this belief be laid to
his account, there have not been wanting men of
sense and of reputation who held the same opinion.
When finishing a rapid sketch of the physiology
of the nervous system, a distinguished writer adds
the following observations :-
"It is necessary to allude also to the influence
which the nervous system of two different indivi-
duals can exercise on each other; the abuse which
has been lavished on this question as mere quackery
on the one hand, and the exaggerated statements
sent forth in its favour on the other, have so ren-
dered it an object of suspicion, that philosophers
are nearly interdicted from alluding to the subject.
It must be admitted that it is extremely difficult
experimentally to distinguish the effects arising
from imagination in the persons acted on, from the
physical effects produced by the person who acts
on them; and the problem is hence often found to
be extremely complicated.
Notwithstanding this, the effects produced on
persons unacquainted with them before the opera-
tion commenced, such as arise in persons after
they have lost all consciousness by these operations
themselves, and those exhibited by animals, scarcely
permit us to doubt that the proximity of two animated
38
bodies in certain positions, and by the use of certain
motions, exerts a real effect independent of the influence
of imagination. It appears also sufficiently clear
that these effects are owing to some sort of com-
munication established between their nervous sys-
tems."
These are the words of a philosopher—the words
of Cuvier, penned many years ago, when magnet-
ism was viewed by the world generally as little
more than a chimæra of the brain. It would be
curious to speculate on how they will be received
when the world is as many years older.
I have hitherto spoken of the physiological
effects alone; it remains to advert briefly to those
phenomena of a mental character which it is main-
tained arise in certain individuals who have been
highly susceptible of magnetic influence.
There are few readers who have not heard of the
"sleep walking," or somnambulism, which occa-
sionally occurs from natural causes; and were they
to search the records which contain cases of this
description, attested by authority which it is scarcely
fair to doubt, they would find circumstances detailed
which are only a few degress less marvellous than
those reported by the adherents of magnetism.*
The difference between such, and the reported
cases of magnetic somnambulism, consists chiefly
in the mode of their production; in one case they
occur from natural causes; in the other they are
* Those who desire information on this head will do well to
consult the cases of natural somnambulism reported in Aber-
crombie on the Intellectual Powers.
39
stated to result, though rarely, from the agency
which Mesmer pointed out.
Independent, however, of this very marked dis-
tinction, there exists also some difference in the
very curious phenomena exemplified by each. The
facts related of natural somnambulism are such as
may possibly be explained by the recal or renewal
of ideas already existing in the mind, and resusci-
tated as it were under some peculiar conditions.
Those reported to occur in somnambulism, mag-
netically excited, are often such as cannot be pos-
sibly explained on this principle; they are either
founded in imposture or deceit; or, if real, they de-
pend on peculiar changes in the perceptive facul-
ties which cannot be reconciled to any laws, either
mental or physical, before recognized-the seeming
juggles of the soothsayer and magician may have
been no illusions, provided they are true.
Somnambulism arises generally as follows:-
The common magnetic sleep, before described as
of very frequent occurrence, becomes more and
more perfect, and more and more protracted, as
the sittings increase in number; at length symp-
toms of a singular character display themselves.
The eyelids are at times open, and at others closed.
The eyes assume a peculiar vacant stare, and the
pupil is not unseldom dilated, and insensible to the
stimulus of light; or, when the lids are forcibly
raised, the ball of the eye is sometimes rolled up-
wards, so that the white part of it is alone
visible.
In this state the patients frequently rise from the
40
chair or traverse the room with ease, avoiding
furniture and other obstructions, precisely as if
awake; or hold conversation with the magnetizer,
or sometimes with others who surround them. On
rousing from that somnambulic condition, which,
unless removed by the magnetizer, it is stated, will
often last for many hours, or even days, the patients
invariably profess to have forgotten every event
which occurred during its continuance.
It is admitted that there are no determinate
symptoms by which somnambulism can be de-
fined; it is only known to be present by the phe-
nomena displayed.
During this state, there is asserted to exist a
mysterious sympathy between the somnambulists
and magnetizer, or between them and others thrown
into the same condition by the same agency; in
consequence of this, it often happens that the som-
nambule hears the voice of the magnetizer alone,
or the voices of those in connexion with him, being
apparently unaffected by the voices of all others;
under such circumstances, the magnetizer professes
often to be able at will to alter this state, and cause
his patient to hear others and converse with them.
The sway thus exerted depends on some peculiar
ascendancy obtained by the individual whose
agency induced the somnambulic condition; and
this, in the technical language of the art, is de-
signated by the word "rapport." A person under
magnetic influence is said to be " en rapport" with
his magnetizer, or with others whom he has mag-
netized at the same time.
41
Among the remarkable phenomena of somnam-
bulism, one of the most singular, doubtless, is the
insensibility to pain which frequently, if not always,
attends it. The sentient nerves would seem to cease
their functions, and the skin may be pinched,
pricked, burnt, or cut, without any visible signs of
disturbance. In one remarkable case at Paris, M.
Cloquet, the distinguished surgeon, performed a
very painful and protracted operation on a som-
nambule, who evinced no sign of suffering at the
time, and awoke quite unconscious of the ordeal
she had passed through.*
Many disputes have arisen between the mag-
netizers and their opponents on this subject. That
no signs of pain are evinced cannot possibly be
doubted by any one who tries the experiment, and
credits his own senses; but it is said that pain may,
by a mental effort, be endured, as the savage
laughs in the midst of his torturing foes, when the
muscle quivers and the nerve is thrilled. The ar-
gument here is a weak one, and the analogy
imperfect. In the one case we have pride, the
most powerful of human passions, in action during
the struggle; in the other, the motives for en-
durance are at least but small; for few are dis-
posed to encounter voluntary suffering in support
of an hypothesis. It is again said, that some per-
sons are naturally insensible to pain. Such cases
must at all events be rare, while the examples of
somnambulic insensibility have been numerous.-
I suspect we must look for stronger arguments.
* Vide Appendix, p. 60.
42
I now come, in the progress of this sketch, to no-
tice the mental phenomena of somnambulism.
These are stated to be of three kinds, occurring
rarely, and only manifested by persons who have
passed into somnambulism of the most complete
kind-expressed, as it would seem, by the Mes-
merians as the state of" Lucidity."
In this condition persons are said occasionally to
exhibit, either separately or conjointly, the phe-
nomena of "clairvoyance," " interior prevision," and
"exterior prevision."
By the term “ clairvoyance" the magnetizers
mean a transposition of the sense of sight; or rather
the acquisition of a new faculty, by which persons
receive, through some other channel, such informa-
tion as in the natural state can only be acquired by
the sense of sight. It is said, and, according to
some, has frequently been proved, that with the
eyes closely bandaged, or the eyelids held down
by the hand, patients read portions of printed books
casually opened, or manuscripts, the contents of
which they could not possibly have known; that
they have correctly stated the value and colour of
different playing cards presented to them; or in-
dicated the hour on watches; in short, in a great
variety of ways, exhibited the perfect capacity of
gaining such information by some other means as
the eyes naturally supply.
By the term "interior prevision," they imply that
patients in a state of "lucidity" at times acquire
the power of intuitively perceiving what goes on
within their own organization, so as to be capable
43
of indicating the nature of their malady, predicting
the period of its next accession, that of its termina-
tion or cure, and the means best adapted to
effect it.
By the name of "exterior prevision" is meant
that persons in a lucid state occasionally acquire a
knowledge of events exterior to themselves, or be-
come capable of acquiring an intuitive knowledge
of what goes on within the organization of others—
particularly those in connexion or "
rapport" with
themselves, and thus also of correctly indicating
the nature and period of cure of their diseases,
together with the means of effecting it.
All these extraordinary powers, it is said, co-exist
occasionally in the same individual; sometimes
one only is displayed. At times, when the “luci-
dity" is very perfect, they are distinctly marked;
at others, less so; and sometimes they are only
shadowed forth in an obscure degree.
As a general rule, the patients who display them
seem, when in their somnambulic state, to be ex-
tremely capricious, and it requires much manage-
ment to induce them even to attempt answering
the questions which are put; they usually maintain
that it gives them "pain to think," and appear
desirous of avoiding the effort necessary to effect it.
Such constitutes a mere introduction into those
magnetic regions, where clouds and thick darkness
immediately beset our path; nor can the author
offer even the glimmer of a feeble taper to guide his
reader through their dense obscurity. The question
is simply one of evidence; and to a certain extent
44
we do possess testimony to the truth of those state-
ments; but we must ever bear in remembrance,
that an investigation into this part of the Mes-
merian doctrine is beset with many fallacies which
the most honest and careful experimenter can scarce
be certain he avoids. I would again, however, cau-
tion the reader not to throw aside the whole as an
absurdity, because some of its asserted facts seem
to touch upon the confines of sorcery and witch-
craft. Its physiological proofs are distinctly within
his grasp; let him examine and judge from them
-avoiding the equally dangerous quicksands of
undue credulity and unbending scepticism, alike.
fatal to the man who desires to pilot his mental
vessel to the haven of truth.
45
Tendency and Curative Efficacy of Magnetism.
Presuming magnetic power to possess a real
existence, and presuming that on this admission it
came to be extensively exerted, the conclusion in-
evitably follows that it would place within our grasp
a most important agency, which might be employed
as the means of much good or much evil as regards
both the moral and physical condition of man.
In debating the question, therefore, it is no very
uncommon thing to hear this doctrine attacked or
supported by arguments deduced from its tendency
on the one hand, and its utility on the other.
Believers often exaggerate its merits in a manner
not justified by what we yet know of its curative
application; while some objectors, without precisely
denying its existence, denounce its pretensions as
presumptuous and wicked.
The author has been too much accustomed to
contemplate arguments founded upon tendency,
originally urged against truths now generally ad-
mitted, to bestow on them one moment's attention;
but there are many who view this matter in a very
different light, and to them he would in conclusion
offer a few brief remarks.
Our Creator, himself the centre and essence of
knowledge and of truth, has gifted us with intellec-
tual powers analagous to, though immeasurably
inferior to his own; He has placed us in a universe
which teems with wonders; He has conferred on
46
us organs of sense, through which the mind receives
impressions of every thing around, by which it
collects, as it were, the materials it feeds on,
and from which it deduces its final conclusions.
By means of the senses, we acquire an acquaintance
with phenomena in the material universe; by a
mental process, we arrange or class these in such a
manner as to refer in some instances a certain
number of phenomena, or effects, to one com-
mon cause, and when this is done we dignify the
generalization by the name of science, although at
the same time admittedly ignorant of the nature or
essence of these causes themselves. When we say
that the fall of a body to the earth depends on
gravitation, or that substances unite by the force of
chemical affinity, we do not mean to assert that
these powers are really known to us; we only mean
that we infer their existence, and possess some
acquaintance with the laws regulating their action; in
other words, that we have arrived at the recognition
of certain general truths, and in so far simplified
our knowledge.
The legitimate end therefore of all scientific in-
vestigation is simply the elucidation of truth; and
the real philosopher will pursue this, and this only,
in the full and perfect confidence that the Being
who gifted him with those faculties, by which alone
he can expect to reach it, will not permit them to
lead him to results really hostile to happiness or
virtue. True, indeed, it is that, dimly as we see
into the relation of things both in the moral and
physical world, the best among us may sometimes
47
dread the application of principles which his judg-
ment announces to be true. But let him cast aside
such puerile alarms; let him consider that if truth
be their basis his opposition cannot finally ob-
struct, even should it retard their development, and
that his great and paramount duty is to direct their
applications into channels best fitted to benefit his
kind. Above all, let him consider that every step
which we advance in the discovery of truth, brings
us one step nearer to the great source of truth—
the Deity himself.
These few general remarks would appear to
apply with special force to magnetism. That if
such a power really exists, it might be employed
for purposes hostile to morality or virtue is doubt-
less possible, but the very same argument might be
employed against the most sublime of all human
knowledge-religion itself. Crimes have been per-
petrated under the sanction of her pure and holy
name; but who on this account would desire to
see religion banished from the earth?
Of the benefits to be derived from their professed
discovery, especially in disease, the magnetizers
have asserted much; and some will, doubtless, say,
have proved but little. In justice, however, it
should ever be remembered that positive proof of
the efficacy of any remedial means is attended with
great difficulty, and can alone be deduced from
very extensive observation.
The man who endeavours to practise physic as
a science, not merely as a productive trade, will
probably agree that he encounters few greater diffi-
---
48
culties than those which beset his path in estimat-
ing the real value of different remedial means. He
finds one case of disease seemingly alleviated or
removed by a particular remedy; another-to all
appearances analagous, remains uninfluenced; and
in a third, an aggravation seems to be produced.
In all, he finds it difficult to say how much of the
benefit, and how much of the aggravation, is de-
pendent on the means employed; and it is only
by a long series of observations that he can expect
even to approximate the truth. Apply the same
reasoning to magnetism, and it appears obvious
that experience yet requires to be accumulated ere
we are justified in talking with any confidence of
its remedial value. True, indeed, it is that nume-
rous cures of epilepsy, paralysis, hysteria, headach,
nay, an infinity of diseases, may be found lavishly
scattered over the now voluminous writings of
Mesmer's pupils; but many will, doubtless, think
them unsupported by that degree of proof which it
is ever proper to demand, though extremely difficult
to obtain on such complex questions.
Disposed, however, as the author is to consider
this question as one of extreme physiological in-
terest; and disposed as he is to think that a real
influence, call it magnetism, call it what we may,
can be exerted effectually by one human being on
another; he is by no means disposed to question
its real value as a remedy. On the contrary, if he is
right in this conviction, he cannot probably be wrong
in also holding the belief that this influence, properly
directed, may be of essential value in disease.
49
Uncertain as we must confess our science to be
in nearly all its details, there exists one class of
maladies which, unattended by extreme danger,
not only often baffle our efforts to relieve them,
but embitter every moment of the patient's life.
Such are usually and properly termed nervous
affections, dependant apparently on some obscure
functional derangement of the nervous system, and
but too frequently attributed to fancy or caprice by
those who estimate the amount of suffering in re-
ference only to that of immediate hazard. It is
certainly not proved that even over such affections
magnetism exerts a curative control, but it is at
least asserted that it does. And if indeed we admit
its positive existence, there seems nothing irrational
in the supposition that it may, when properly ap-
plied, exercise a powerful influence in restoring,
during disease, the action of such parts of the
organization as it seems mainly to affect during a
state of comparative health. For it may be pro-
bably announced as one of the few general laws
which medicine boasts of, that whenever any agent,
be it appreciable to the senses or otherwise, can
powerfully influence the vitality of any organ during
health, it may, when properly applied, be also ren-
dered a valuable agent in disease. This truth, I
believe, holds good throughout; but we must ever
carry with us, that the very same qualities which
render it useful may also render it deleterious.
Few, for example, will deny that opium or mercury
are valuable medicines when judiciously employed;
D
50
but none will assert that they may not, when misdi-
rected, be productive of tremendous evils.
Let not, then, the general question of magnetism
be too much identified with its remedial applica-
tion. We ought at present to view it as a simple
proposition; it is either true, or it is false. Let
those who look on it as false study the pheno-
mena. Let those, again, who think it true, inves-
tigate how the power they recognize may be most
advantageously directed, and most safely em-
ployed; avoiding the absurd speculations of the
early magnetizers, who said " There is but one
disease and one remedy, and that remedy is mag-
netism."
7.
APPENDIX.
Conclusions of the Commission named by the Royal Aca-
demy of Medicine of Paris, in 1826, to examine the
question of Animal Magnetism; presented and read at
the sittings of the Academy on the 21st and 28th of
June, 1831. Translated from their Lithographed
Report.
1. The contact of the fingers or hands, frictions or certain
gestures performed at a short distance from the body, and
called "passes," are the means employed to act on the patient
(pour se metre en rapport); or, in other words, to transmit the
action from the magnetizer to the magnetized.
2. External and visible means are not always necessary; on
many occasions the will, or steady look, were sufficient to pro-
duce the magnetic phenomena, even when the patients were
ignorant of the attempt.
3. Magnetism has acted on persons of different age and
sex.
4. The time necessary to transmit and produce the effects
of magnetic action, has varied from half an hour to one
minute.
5. Magnetism does not generally act on persons in health.
6. Neither does it act on all that are diseased.
7. There arise sometimes, during the exercise of magnetism,
certain fleeting and insignificant effects, which we do not attri-
bute to its influence alone; such as a little uneasiness, a slight
sensation of oppression, of heat or of cold, and some other
D 2
52
nervous symptoms which may be explained without supposing
the intervention of a peculiar agent-such as by hope or by
fear, a new and unknown situation, the ennui resulting from
the monotony of the gesticulations, the silence and repose ob-
served during the experiments, or, finally, from imagination,
which exercises so powerful an empire over some minds and
organizations.
8. A certain number of the effects observed by us have ap-
peared to depend on magnetism alone, and not re-produced
without it. These include phenomena both physiological and
therapeutical, well established.
9. The real effects of magnetism are extremely various; it
agitates some and calms others. Usually it leads to a tempo-
rary acceleration of the circulation and respiration, or to
thrilling convulsive movements, resembling electric shocks; to
numbness, more or less decided; to heaviness and somnolence;
and, in a few, to what the magnetizers term somnambulism.
10. The existence of a special character, sufficient in all
cases to determine the reality of this state (somnambulism), has
not been proved.
11. Nevertheless, we may conclude with certainty, that such
exists when it gives rise to a development of new faculties,
which have been called by the names of clairvoyance, intui-
tion, and interior prevision; or, when it produces great changes
in the physiological state, such as insensibility (to pain), a
sudden and considerable increase of (muscular) power, when
such cannot be referred to another cause.
12. As among the effects attributed to somnambulism there
are some which may be simulated, so somnambulism itself may
be also sometimes feigned, and thus furnish to quackery the
means of deception. In observing, therefore, such of its phe-
nomena as yet present themselves as isolated facts, irreducible
to any theory, it is only by examination the most attentive,
by precautions the most severe, by proofs the most numerous
and varied, that we can escape illusion.
13. Sleep, produced more or less speedily, and established to
a degree more or less profound, is a real, but not constant, effect
of magnetism.
53
14. It has been demonstrated to us, that this has been pro-
duced under circumstances where the magnetized persons could
not have seen, and were ignorant of, the means employed to
produce it (determener).
15. When a person has once been acted on, so as to pro-
duce magnetic sleep, it is not always necessary to resort to
contact and " passes" to re-produce this state; the look of the
magnetizer his will alone, have the same influence; not only
could he act, not only have we seen an effect produced, but
also a person thrown into somnambulism and brought out of it
at the will of the magnetizer, and all this when out of his sight
at some distance, and with the intervention of a door.
16. Changes more or less remarkable have generally been
produced in the perceptions of individuals who have been
placed in a state of somnambulism by the influence of mag-
netism :-
A. Some, amidst the noise of confused conversation, hear
only the voice of their magnetizer; many answer with precision
questions addressed to them by him, or by others in magnetic.
relation (rapport) with them: while others hold conversations
with all around.
It is rare that they hear what is passing around them; gene-
rally they were complete strangers to external noises, suddenly
and unexpectedly made beside their ears, such as the reson-
nance of copper vessels sharply struck, the fall of articles of
furniture, &c.
B. The eyes are closed: the eyelids yield with difficulty to
the efforts which are made to open them with the hand; this
operation, which is not unattended with pain, exhibits the globe
of the eye convulsively rolled upwards, and sometimes towards
the bottom of the orbit.
c. Sometimes the sense of smell is, as it were, annihilated,
and the patient is not incommoded by the fumes of muriatic
acid or ammonia, and is not even aware of their application;
on the contrary, in some cases they are sensible to odours.
D. The greater part of the somnambules whom we have seen
were completely insensible; we could tickle the feet, the
nostrils, or the angles of the eyes, with a feather, or pinch their
3
54
skin till echymosis (effusion of blood under it) was produced,
or force needles suddenly to a great depth beneath the nails,
without their showing any signs of pain—indeed, without their
appearing to know what was done. Finally, we have known one
on whom a most painful surgical operation was performed,
and where neither by her look, her pulse, or her respiration,
was any sign of emotion given.
17. The effects of magnetic power are equally intense, and
felt with equal speed, at the distance of six feet as of six inches,
and the phenomena developed by it are the same in each case.
18. Magnetic action transmitted from a distance (l'action
a distance) appears only to act successfully on those who have
already been subjected to magnetic influence.
19. We have never seen a person magnetized for the first
time fall into somnambulism. It has sometimes been only
on the eighth or tenth sitting that this condition has been
produced.
20. We have always observed that natural sleep, which is
the repose of the organs of sense, of the intellectual faculties
and of voluntary motion, precedes and terminates the state of
somnambulism.
22. The persons we have observed in the state of somnambu-
lism have, during this condition, exercised all the faculties
which they possess while awake. Their memory even appeared
to be more faithful and more extended, since they remember
whatever happened during the whole time, and each of the
times they had been placed in the somnambulic state. On
awaking, they profess to have forgotten all the circumstances
which occurred during their somnambulism, and never to recol-
lect them. On this head we cannot possess any guarantee be-
yond their own declaration.
23. The muscular power of somnambules is sometimes.
numbed and paralyzed; at others, the motions are only a little
constrained, and they walk or stagger like a person drunk,
sometimes avoiding obstacles which they meet with in their pro-
gress. Some somnambules preserve entire the exercise of their
movements, and some are observed to be even more active and
strong than in their waking state.
55
24. We have seen two somnambulists distinguish, while
their eyes were closed, objects placed before them; they desig-
nated the colour and value of cards (playing) without touching
them; they read manuscript, or lines from books opened at
hazard. This phenomena has been shown, when the fingers
were applied so as accurately to close the eyelids.
25. We have seen in two somnambulists the faculty of fore-
seeing circumstances connected with their own organic actions,
more or less distant, and more or less complicated. One of
them indicated, several days and several months before it hap-
pened, the exact month, day, and minute on which epileptic
fits would occur. Another pointed out the exact period of her
cure. Their predictions were fulfilled with remarkable preci-
sion. They appeared to us capable only of judging of the
actions or lesions of their own bodies.
26. We have met only with one somnambule who marked
the symptoms of illness in three persons placed in relation with
her, although our researches have been made on very many.
27. To establish with any precision the connexion between
magnetism and the healing art, it would be necessary to have
observed its effects on a great number of individuals, and to
have made continual observations, and for a long time, on the
same patients; this not being the case, the Commission is bound
to state that it has seen too small a number of cases to
enable it to offer any opinion.
28. Some of the persons magnetized experienced no relief,
others received alleviation more or less marked, viz. one of
them, the suspension of habitual pains; a second, the return of
strength; a third had his epileptic paroxysm suspended for
many months; and a fourth was completely cured of an old and
severe palsy.
29. Considered either as the agent of physiological pheno-
mena, or as a means of cure, magnetism ought to take its place
in the list of the medical sciences; and consequently physicians
should either use it themselves, or direct its use in their practice,
as is now the case among northern nations.
30. The Commission cannot verify, because it has not had
the means of examining, other faculties stated by the mag-
56
netizers to exist in somnambulism; but they have communicated
facts in this report, so important that they think the Academy
should encourage researches on magnetism, as a very curious.
branch of psycology and natural history.
Signed BOURDOIS DE LA MOTTE (President),
FOUQUIER, GUENEAU DE MUSSY,
GUERSENT,
LEROUX,
HUSSON,
MARC,
ITARD,
CHILLAYE.
It has been the author's desire, in the preceding pages, stu-
diously to avoid controversy; so much so, that some readers.
may think he has "fallen upon Scylla," while "wishing to
avoid Charybdis," and bestowed too little attention on the ar-
guments generally employed on either side of the magnetic
debate; he who desires it may find them briefly sketched
below.
The magnetizers assert, that one human being is capable of
influencing the vital motions of others, under certain conditions,
and by certain modes of action. In proof of this, they appeal to
observation and experiment, and state that in numerous ex-
amples changes both of a purely physiological and mental cha-
racter, are induced by those means, inexplicable on any other
hypothesis.
The objectors answer, they admit the fact of these changes
being wrought, but that, in the first place, they differ little,
if at all, from phenomena very often displayed in disease, or by
persons of a highly excitable temperament; and that, in the se-
cond, when they do appear to be produced by the direct agency
of a magnetic power, they are, in fact, explicable on common.
principles, such as imagination, imitation, and similar mental
causes.
To the first objection the magnetizers reply, that it is quite
true that very many of the physiological, as well as mental,
57
effects, do spontaneously occur; but the question here is not
whether they may or may not naturally arise, but whether we
are capable, under certain conditions, of producing them at
will. If this be proved, the mere fact of their occurrence,
under different circumstances, does not affect in the least
degree the proofs of our proposition; and that they do so, we
consider proved.
To the second they reply-imitation, you say, produces these
effects. Good. But imitation necessarily implies the presence
of something to be imitated. And how do you explain the fact
over and over again shown, that these effects are equally marked,
when the magnetized and magnetizer have had none beside them,
beyond those necessary to attest their occurrence? Imagina-
tion, however, you say is conclusive. Good, again. But how
do you get rid of the fact, often demonstrated, that very many
of those effects have been produced on persons in profound
sleep; or the same effects very constantly, on individuals
who had no conception of the means to be used, or the phe-
nomena expected? or how is it, on your hypothesis, that they
are displayed by infants, who can scarce be called very
imaginative? nay, by the lower animals themselves, in whom
imagination has positively no existence.
The objectors say, that admitting many of the phenomena—
sleep especially-they may arise from the monotony of the
waving motion, from the silence observed, from agitation on the
patient's part, or from the alarm produced by an unusual
situation.
The magnetizers reply, such silence and monotony may oc-
casionally induce sleep; but, independent of the fact that the
condition so produced by magnetic action, and called" sleep,"
for want of a better name, frequently presents phenomena of a
kind never seen in natural sleep; it (as well as natural sleep)
is often produced when no waving of the hand is attempted,
and where, instead of silence being observed, much and varied
noise surrounds the patient.
As regards the hypothesis of " agitation," or " alarm," they
reply, that the first sitting of the patient is of course the one
58
at which those causes must operate with most force; whereas
the general fact is, that the power of the magnetizer is more and
more shown as the sittings increase in number.
The objectors demand how it happens that healthy persons,
especially men, are seldom if ever affected, while diseased per-
sons, especially those labouring under epilepsy and other
nervous affections, where imitation is known from universal ex-
perience to have great power-or hysterical, susceptible
women, are usually, if not invariably, those who are acted on.
The magnetizers answer, it is not a fact that men are never
affected; so far from it, these phenomena are often displayed by
them. But the argument is not a fair one, for, according to
our yet slender knowledge of the laws of the magnetic action,
the weaker the person the more certain appear to be the effects;
and as women usually exhibit a greater mobility than men, so
you object only to what is deducible from our own theory. For
the same reason persons in disease are, cæteris paribus, more
likely to be influenced; and of these, the most likely, such as
suffer from nervous affections, as epilepsy.
The argument deduced from imitation we have already an-
swered.
But, say the opponents, you wish us to believe in all the
marvels related of somnambulism; you desire us to think with
you, that persons can be made to see by the sense of touch, to
derive an intuitive perception of what goes on within their own
bodies or the bodies of others, to prophecy future events-in
fact, to perform a thousand antics which must be false, unless
all the exploded tales of "second sight" and sorcery be true.
The Magnetizers answer-We do not ask you to believe
any-
thing, unless you have good foundation for your credence, and
this you can only obtain by experiment, as we fancy we have
done: on the contrary, we freely admit that one and all of
those phenomena are so entirely irreconcileable with what the
world has previously thought established, that it would be quite
unwise in you to credit them till after the most rigorous inves-
tigation. If they be facts (as we believe), they are at present
isolated facts, irreducible to any theory. What we assert
59
is, that in some rare cases we have observed them; what we
ask is, that you suspend your judgments till you too have had
an opportunity of observing them, and taken advantage also
of the opportunity so afforded.
But do not (say the Magnetizers, in conclusion) judge our
theory only by a reference to extraordinary cases; remember
that the basis of all our professions is, that we can often pro-
duce manifest physiological effects. These, at least, are cog-
nizable to the senses, removed from the fallacies which may
beset somnambulism, and hence afford not only better evidence,
but evidence which is much more readily procured. Examine
this faithfully, and let Magnetism depend upon the issue.
The circumstance named in the text (p. 31) seems well illus-
trated by the case of a young and respectable female, lately,
perhaps now, a patient of M. Dupotets. Early after her
attendance, she was affected by strong and continued con-
tractions of the muscles which elevate the shoulders and
chest towards the head, such commencing very shortly after her
magnetizer begins to operate. For some time these were quite
uncontrolable, and on one if not more occasions continued so
long as to become alarming; nor could her magnetizer discover
the means of ending them. At length, as she herself announces,
accident revealed it. Her shawl was on one occasion fastened
by a pin in front, which the heat, caused by this violent exer-
tion, induced her to remove. In the act of so doing, she found
that the contact of her own fingers with the upper end of the
breast bone at once quieted the contractions, and she now finds
no difficulty in resuming her natural state by these simple
means. The author has seen this frequently practised; nor has
he had the smallest reason to doubt that she is perfectly honest
in the statement given.
60
$
The case alluded to in the text (p. 41) was briefly as fol-
lows:-Madame P., aged 64, residing in the Rue St. Denis,
had long been afflicted with a cancer in the right breast, ac-
companied by an enlargement of glands in the axilla. M.
Chapelain, her ordinary medical attendant, had many times.
magnetized her, with a view, as he said, of removing the dis-
ease, but obtained no further result than that of establishing a
very profound sleep, in which sensation appeared to be anni-
hilated, while her ideas remained clear. He at length consulted
M. Cloquet, proposing to him that he should operate on the
patient while she remained in magnetic sleep; and that gentle-
man, considering the operation indispensable, consented.
The day fixed on to perform it was the 12th of April, 1829;
during the two previous days she was magnetized several times
by M. Chapelain, who persuaded her, while in somnambulism,
to support the operation fearlessly, though while awake she
repudiated the idea with horror.
On the day arranged, when Cloquet arrived, at half-past 10
A. M. he found the patient in magnetic sleep; she spoke with
calmness of the operation, and when every thing was arranged,
undressed herself, and sat down on a chair. The operation
lasted from ten to twelve minutes, being, from the extent of the
disease, protracted and severe.
During the whole time the patient conversed with the ope-
rator with great tranquillity, and exhibited not the smallest
symptom of sensation; not a movement of the limbs or features
was perceived; her pulse and breathing were perfectly un-
affected, nor did her voice even betray the least emotion;
throughout the operation she remained in the same automatic
state that she had exhibited before it commenced.
The patient was placed in bed when the operation finished,
while still in a state of somnambulism, and remained so during
48 hours. On the second day the dressings of the wound were
removed and fresh ones applied, without any signs of pain being
exhibited; after this dressing her magnetizer (M. Chapelain)
awoke her from the somnambulic state, which had continued
61
during two days. This lady did not appear to have the slight-
est idea—the smallest impression of what had passed; but on
learning that she had been operated on, and seeing her children
round her, she manifested great emotion, which the mag-
netizer quieted by immediately replacing her in a state of sleep
(magnetic).
The above case is condensed from the report of the second
French commission; in that document it is much more volumi-
nously given. The Commissioners did not witness, but report
it as supported by testimony which they could not doubt.
The very operator himself, M. Cloquet, is no mean authority,
and is certainly not rendered less worthy of trust, by having
also signed the report on M. Berna's 'commission (vide p. 17), so
decidedly hostile to magnetism. The only weak point in this
case is, that we have no proof that the patient might not
have been insensible to pain in her natural state.
The great difficulty in proving that the physiological effects
attributed to magnetism really result from such specific cause,
depends on the great number of accessory causes, such as
imagination and the like, to which they may be referred; any
example therefore which seems to exclude them, is more or less
valuable; the following is one :--
A child aged nearly three years had, from a year after birth,
suffered from paralysis of both legs below the knees, not re-
ferrible to any spinal or other central cause, as far as could be
determined after examination by various medical men.
At the instance of the author and a friend, he was sub-
jected to the treatment of M. Dupotet, and operated on by
him in his public room, in the midst of much noise and under
various causes of excitement. At the third sitting, I think
it was, this child, under the apparent influence of the mag-
62
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 05204 9502
netizer, soundly slept, and during sleep the evidence appeared
to myself and others perfect, that his magnetizer could deter-
mine the contractions, not only of the healthy, but paralyzed
muscles also, according as he directed his power to one or
other extremity.
I do not instance this case because the effects were manifested
with that intensity which is most likely to attract popular at-
tention; for these more trifling physiological effects are just
such as persons generally overlook, though they afford by far
the purest kind of evidence. I name it merely because, from
occurring in an infant, brought by a mother who knew not
what was to be done, or what was expected to result, there could
evidently be no imagination on the one side, and no collusion
on the other.
"There is no new thing under the sun," said the wise man of
Israel; and in accordance with the rule, magnetism may be one
of them, for hints of it are reported to be found in many old
authors; the following I have not heard alluded to in connec-
tion with the subject; it exists in an old book, the Enthusiasmus
Triumphatus of Henry More, and is set down in the second
volume of Southey's Omniana, p. 145.
“There may be (says he) a sanative and healing contagion,
as well as a morbid and venomous; and the spirits of melan-
choly men being more massy and ponderous when they are so
highly refined, and actuated by a more than ordinary heat and
vigour of the body, may prove a more powerful elixir."
"I shewed this place," he adds in the Scolia to this Treatise,
"to that excellent person Mr. Boyle at London, as I was talking
with him in a bookseller's shop; being asked by him what I
thought of the cures of Valentine Gretrakes," a noted quack of
the day, with the fame of which all places rung at that time: “I
told him my opinion of those cures was fixed some years before
63
they were performed, for that one Coker (for that was the name
of the person whose remarkable way of curing or healing I now
mention) by a very gentle rubbing or chafing of his hand cured
diseases ten years ago, to the best of my remembrance, as
Gretrakes did, though not so many and various." He then adds
that "Gretrakes wrote a book, attested by good hands," setting
forth cures of many diseases named, but states "that he did
not succeed in all his applications, nor were his cures always
lasting; moreover it was not only his hand that had this healing
quality, but his spittle, &c., whereby you may the more easily
discover that cures have a reference to the temperament of the
body."
Is it possible that what is now called animal magnetism
may be obscurely indicated in this treatise of the olden time?
Of course the professors of those cures were considered quacks
of their day (17th century), just as the magnetizers are often
considered mere tricksters in our own-but this goes for little.
Printed by J. Bradley, 78, Great Titchfield Street, St. Marylebone.