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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE




          Bethesda, Maryland 
 
 
 DNDERHILL ON MESMERISM,
                WITH       ^

   CRITICISMS ON ITS OPPOSERS,
 AND A REVIEW OF  HUMBUGS AND HUMBUGGERS,
  WITH PRACTICAL  INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXPERI-
    MENTS IN THE SCIENCE—FULL DIRECTIONS
     FOR USING IT AS A REMEDY IN DIS-
        EASE--HOW TO AVOID ALL
               DANGERS,

   THE PHILOSOPHY OF ITS CURATIYE POWERS;
 HOW TO DEVELOP. A GOOD CLAIRVOYANT;
        THE PHILOSOPHY OF

 SEEING  WITHOUT EYES.
 THE PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY DERIVED FROM THE
   UNFOLDINGS OF MESMERISM--EVIDENCE OF
    MENTAL COMMUNION WITHOUT SIGHT
        OR SOUND, BETWEEN BODIES
        FAR APART IN THE FLESH--
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS, OR WITH THE  DEPARTED,

                BY

SAMUEL UNDERHILL, M. D., L. L. D.,
 LATE PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, ETC., ETC.


          CHICAGO:
      PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR,
               BY THE
 RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING ASS'N.

               1868. 
  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868,
    By SAMUEL UNDERHILL, M. D., L.  L. D.,
  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the North-
ern District of Illinois.
HOPEWELL Sc 8LATTERY,

      BINDERS,
   86 & 88 Dearborn St 
      UNDERHILL
               ON

MESMERISM.
 " Nature hears but one kind of questions—they are ex-

periments. Her answers are phenomena."

                           Liebig.

 What are called Laws of Nature, is only the history of

experiments. 
 
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INTRODUCTION.
  Effects indicate causes.  Effects, become in
turn, causes of other  effects.  Effects  are crea-
tions.   Back of all experiences must exist a cause
uncaused.  Illimitable space must have eternally
existed.  Illimitable power is inferable from the
forms  and substances in space—their affinities
and repulsions.
  In all our experiences we look after the causes
which  we witness.
  The many and varied phenomena of mesmerism,
have excited the wonder and admiration of the
honest  investigator, whilst the sons and daughters
of old  Mrs. Grundy, are desirous that their igno-
rant denunciations  and cry of humbug,  should
pass for profound wisdom, and prove mesmerism
false  in fact, and prove its advocates  arrant im-
postors.  During the nearly thirty-five years that
                     5 
6
INTRODUCTION.
the writer has been constantly engaged in experi-
ments, many great and distinguished men have
become converts  and experimenters, and  these
Mrs.  Grundy's  boys have,  (themselves  often
holding the highest positions in our literary and
scientific institutions), denounced unreliable men.
See Dr.  Elliottson,  of  London,  Dr. Braid, of
Manchester,  etc.,  etc.   They will not stoop so
low as to investigate; or, if they attempt it, they
act as foolish as would a surveyor, who expected
his needle to traverse well whilst a crow-bar was
held within two inches of the compass.  I had  a
personal friend, (a brother professor  in the same
medical college with myself), who witnessed two
cases, and immediately denounced it in the news-
paper.  He  fought it four years,  during which
time the writer often invited him to his house to
witness experiments the most convincing, but he
never came in.   To  use his own  words  to me,
after  his conversion: "I knew that there was
nothing in it, and I did  not want to hurt your
feelings."   I refer to Prof. Ackley, of Cleveland,
Ohio.  He was convinced by some experiments
of my pupils in Portage county, whilst visiting a
patient near Garrettsville, stopping  at the house
of Dr. Stephens.  I had the history from  his own 
INTRODUCTION.
7
mouth.   Much more wonderful phenomena might
have  been witnessed by him  at my house years
before.   This  is a specimen of the  boldness and
candor  of our Great  Men in  science, toward
new discoveries.   There are exceptions,  every
where.   Agassiz was mesmerised by the Reverend
Chauncey Hare Townsend, in  Europe, and wrote
his recollections of it.  Colleges are  not instituted
for the purpose of making discoveries in science,
but to teach well-established truths, and to fight
all  newly  discovered  truths. They are Robin
Hoods.   He fought every new recruit he received
into his band of robbers.  As soon as I discovered
what a college was, by delivering  two lectures in
1834-5, I resigned my chair and set myself free.
  Mesmerism,  or rather Animal Magnetism, is not
a matter for mere belief.  Its reality is as palpable
as Rocks.  I was  a believer from reading.  I am
no longer a believer.   It is now a matter of knowl-
edge.   I know it better than I know there are
stars.   Stars are only sights.   To me, mesmerism
is a sight and  a feel, having often felt its power
on myself, and witnessed it on others, thousands
of times.  I commenced  the investigation of the
subject in 1830, since  when, it has been the chief
business  of my life.  In  1838 I commenced a 
8
INTRODUCTION.
monthly periodical, the Annals of Animal Mag-
netism, on  the subject, which thousands  have
read.  In  1839, the  writer brought  the  subject
before the State Medical Convention of Ohio, (as
the Annals of that convention will  show), and
was made chairman of a committee to investigate
and report thereon.   Dr.  Trowbridge, of  New
York, and  Dr. Robt. Thompson, of  Columbus,
were the other members of that committee.  Dr.
Trowbridge went off to New York; Dr. Thomp-
son determined to explode it.  On the day of theii
appointment, I requested them to go with  me and
take a first lesson.  They declined; offering as an
excuse, some trifling engagement.
  But  Thompson  afterwards  investigated,  and
became  a  convert,  and  reported  to  the next
convention that it was one  big truth.  His experi-
ments were many  and varied.  He demonstrated
it with great success.
  I have referred to the  above facts to inspire
confidence  in  this work.  The author's  history
previous to his investigation, does not indicate an
easy credulity.
  I shall give  no theory but what Aoavs from the
facts which I  shall state.  Nearly thirty years of
experiments furnishes abundance of facts. 
INTRODUCTION.
9
  I preceded Buchanan in exciting  the  mental
organs, by experiments which I related to O. S.
Fowler, in 1838, whilst Dr. Buchanan commenced
them after 1840.
  I published the "Annals of Animal Magnetism"
m 1838, and Sunderland issued the first number
of his "Magnet" in April or May, 1842.
  Sunderland's "Pathetism,"  Dr. Braid's  "Hyp-
notism,"  Burr's  "Biology,"  and  Dr.  Dodd's
"Psychology,"  different  names for  the same
thing, presenting phenomena, long familiar to the
writer, rose  and passed away during the author's
investigations.   Braid exploded his own  theory.
Sunderland, methinks, gave the child a new name
with deep parental feelings.
  Elliottson,  of London, gave  to it the name of
'Mesmerism," in honor of Messmer, the first mag-
netist,  through British pride, England being so
far behind France, Germany, Russia, and Sweden,
in the  investigation  of this subject, that  a new
aame  served as a veil  to obscure the light from
other nations, and as a shield to English ignorance.
  A simple substance has  no  biography;  no  life
history; it is itself.   Being uncompounded,  we
can speak of its conditions; its specific gravity;
its ductility;  malleability; its combinations with
acids; its effects; its uses, etc. 
10             INTRODUCTION.
  We feel relieved by a name sometimes, though
that name  indicates  nothing.  The  physician
meets  with  a case which, to him, is new,  or ob-
scure, or which he does not at all understand, then
how useful is the word  "Hysteria,"  or plainer,
hysterics.   Proud ignorance leaps deep and dark
abysses on meaningless  words.  Of these, none
are more convenient than the great word imagin-
ation.   Has this word any fixed meaning?  Can
you define  it to suit yourself?  Dugald Stewart
defines  it, " An acquired faculty, possessed only
by cultivated minds." Is  this the  reader's idea
of its  meaning?  It must be discarded  in  all
scientific investigations.
  There occurs no phenomena but which can be
described better without  the  use  of the word
imagination, than  with it,  if we  understand  the
subjects which we  describe.   This fact will be
fully illustrated in these lectures.
  This  science  includes  Phrenology and Neuro-
logy.   It explains sympathy.   It reduces  many
heretofore poetic ideas to facts.  It demonstrates
vital fluid—a nervo or magnetic fluid; it unfolds
its origin;  it proves its  varieties; it explains its
possible and  natural  changes; it shows its wide
radiations; its instrumentation under will-power,
and the philosophy of its healing influence. 
INTRODUCTION.
11
   Mesmerism exhibits  clairvoyance; explains it.
 Induces a  condition of foresight;  explains  it.
 Proves that ignorance of this science, made the
 hundreds of  thousands of  cases  of  witchcraft.
 Proves that ignorance is a very big devil.
   We shall follow this introduction with thoughts
 upon a nervous fluid, involving a consideration of
 the great wilderness of imponderable substances.
 Let the reader make up his mind  to read all the
 evidence, before he rejects the subject, and not be
 in haste to believe.  Belief is  under the control
 of no man's will; and therefore, while it is never
 a  crime, it may be  a  great misfortune not  to
 believe the truth.  When the evidence is sufficient
 we can not help it; we are forced to believe.
   Many things conspire  to make us suspicious of
 evidence when presented; but nothing is so great
 an obstacle  as  dishonesty  in  our  own dealings
 with men.   I  knew  a magician, a sleight-of-hand
 professor, who told me, after seeing a  subject
 waked up: "Now," said he, "I don't believe that
 that  young man was in a mesmeric sleep, I did
believe it when I was looking on, but now I don't.
But," said he, "I will be frank with you, I believe
nothing.  I have deceived  the senses of  others
until I have no confidence in my  own." And he
said it in sorrow. 
INTRODUCTION—Continued
  This science was first made manifest in Europe,
about the close of our revolutionary war,  by Dr.
Antony Messmer, who,  when he  made the dis-
covery, was  associated  with  a  Jesuit Doctor
called Father Hell.  Failing, in an attempt to get
it examined before the medical faculty of Vienna,
in Austria, he left the place in disgust, and came
to Paris.  There thousands witnessed the wonders
which he performed.
  Some members of the Royal Academy of Medi-
cine  became converts, and this so alarmed  Mrs.
Grundy, that a committee was appointed by the
Academy of Science and the Academy of Medi-
cine, to which the King added, as chairman, our
own  Dr. Franklin, then our Minister  to France.
It is generally  understood  that this  committee
denounced animal magnetism as without reality.
Nothing can be more false.  It is true that Mess-
mer would not  wait upon the committee, but one
                     12 
INTRODUCTION.
13
 of his pupils,  a  member of the Royal Society of
 Medicine, named Jussieu, did wait on them, and
 presented  them many  cases, which cases they
 reported as real.  Franklin was unable to attend
 any of the sittings of the committee.*
   So much  is true.  But is it not also true, that
 the report of that  committee rendered  it unpop-
 ular?  Aye, that it  did.  Then tell  us  how?  I
 will tell you the whole truth.  They made a report
 to the Academies, signed by Franklin, and another
 to the King, which  was not shown  to  Franklin.
   The report  to the King admitted its reality,
 and  pronounced it dangerous, ending with a grave
 petition to the King, to have Messmer ordered
 out of Paris.  And this petition was granted.   I
 had  the letter which Messmer addressed to the
 Queen, on leaving Paris.
  The other report admitted the facts, but closed
their report in language like this: "In conclusion,
 as most of the patients were  of a nervous tem-
 perament, we  have thought that the whole thing
may be explained by referring the whole matter
to the power of the  imagination,  as this power
has no limit."  And  this, and  this  alone, was the
* See Spark's Life of Franklin 
14
INTRODUCTION.
mad dog ory, which put the shafts of ridicule in
motion, drove Messmer from Paris, got it carica-
tured in the theatre, and  pamphleteered almost
to death.
  But  just before this awful ordeal, Messmer
instructed a hundred  noblemen,  at the price 01
one hundred louis d'or each.   Of those noblemen,
our own beloved La Fayette was one.  In his
Memoirs, published by Sanders & Otley, New
Y"ork, you may find a letter from him to General
Washington, in which are  these words:
  "A German Doctor, by the name of Messmer,
having made some of  the  greatest discoveries in
animal magnetism, he has instructed pupils, of
whom  your humble servant is one of the most
enthusiastic.  I know as  much  as any conjuror
ever did, which reminds me of  the story of our
friend, with whom we  stayed,  near  Peekskill,
about  his interview with  the devil, about which
we laughed so much;  and before I go, I will try
to get leave to let you into the secret,  which, you
may depend upon it, is a  profound  philosophical
discovery.  (Each pupil was sworn not to tell the
secret without Messmer's consent)."
   Of these noblemen, the Marquis De Puyseger,
retired to his estates in the country, and continued 
INTRODUCTION             15
to heal the sick, and there he made the discovery
of clairvoyance.  LTp to this time, the operators
used steel rods, as commenced with by Messmer.
The clairvoyant, on being asked where this influ
ence came from, replied:  "From your  hands;
from your eyes; from all parts of your bodies."
Then what is the use of these rods?  "None."
And they threw them away.
  It will help us to perceive how men have fooled
themselves and their readers with the word imag
ination, to give in brief, the  history of Perkins'
" Tractors."
  About 1810, a Connecticut  Yankee made  a
forked  instrument, called by him a Tractor.  Gal-
vanism suggested the idea probably, and so it was
compounded of different metals, and this  passed
over affected portions  of the human body, was
followed by relief, in many cases.   He went over
to England, and they were adopted in the Hospi-
tals, and the  Quakers  built an establishment in
London, for the gratuitous use of them  on the
afflicted.  But, alas, they are exploded and gone.
And by what power, think ye ?  By the  mighty
and potent word,  imagination!  Dr. Haygarth
did it!    We  will give his history of it.  It was a
splendid affair!!!  Having had  a pair of  tractors 
16
INTRODUCTION.
constructed of chestnut wood,  painted  metalic
colors, he  was now ready.  A favorable oppor-
tunity offered: a man, with a rheumatic shoulder,
presented himself at the hospital.  He asked the
man to move his arm out from his side; he tried,
but  could  not.  Now  the  wooden tractors were
applied  for a  number of minutes, when  lo! the
man could extend his arm at right angles with his
body.  After a short interval, the tractors  were
again drawn by the Doctor's hand, as before over
the shoulder and arm, and lo ! the man was well!
could put his arm in any position.
  Dr. Haygarth then called in his brother doctors,
and presented the case, and then, in their presence,
broke the stick;  and then and there announced
that he  had  always  thought that it was only
through  the imagination, and not by the tractors,
that cures were effected.
  Dr. Haygarth then  published  a,  pamphlet, in
which he reported wonderful cures effected by the
Irish gentleman,  as  he was called, whose name
was  Greatrakes.
  The  history of Greatrakes is simply this: He
was  a protestant, and a justice of the peace, in
England.  A very pious man, who felt impressed,
he says, to lay hands on cases of ague, and many 
INTRODUCTION.
17
cures followed his laying on of hands.  His own
words are: "I laid hands  on  all that came, and
many were  cured,  and some were not."   But,
before he said this, he  felt  his gift extend to all
kinds of diseases.   So numerous were the patients,
that the village authorities feared that diseases
would be brought in, that were contagious.
  Greatrakes  then retired from the village to his
farm, and set  apart two days in the week, to lay
hands on the diseased.
  So wonderful were  the reported cures, that the
fame  thereof  filled the country;  and the  Royal
Society of England  were induced to  appoint a
committee, of which Sir Robert Boyle was chair-
man.  They attended, and investigated, and  re-
ported  cures  so  wonderful,  that this same Dr.
Haygarth cites  them, believes  them, and from
them draws the following inference: "It  would
seem, therefore, that the imagination was capable
of curing, in susceptible subjects, any disease, in
any stage, where there was no organic lesion.  Or,
in plain words, no destruction  of organization."
  Kind reader, do you not think Dr. Haygarth's
belief, or believing organ was very large ?   I mean
his  belief in these wonderful  cures.  It is true,
that they were  well attested, and he had cured 
18
INTRODUCTION.
the lame  shoulder, with  the  stick.  More than
that, than  all,  he, himself,  had discovered  the
cause!  Was not he in luck ? was not he a great
man ?  Did not  he publish a pamphlet, and thus
overthrow the  tractors?  But  had  the  Doctor
proved that these  cures were performed by  the
imagination?  I think not.  I will tell you, kind
reader, what  did it: A stream of gas, that was
projected from  the planet Herschell, impinging
upon those cases of disease, getting into the man's
shoulder, and carrying away the disease !
  How do you prove this?  In the same way that
Haygarth  proved  it  done by  the imagination.
What had Haygarth  really proved ?   He had
proved that the metal had nothing to do with  the
cures, and he had proved  nothing'else.  We now
know that all these cures were effected by animal
magnetism; that the  curative power was in  the
operator.  Did  I not say, that that  meaningless
word, imagination, was a bad, very bad word.   It
has made wise  men  act  the  fool.  This is  my
definition of the word: Imagination, a Avord of
five syllables, which  pride uses to cover up its
ignorance, but destitute of any fixed meaning.
  If Dr. Haygarth had had a clairvoyant to ques-
tion, as the Marquis De Puyseger had, when he 
INTRODUCTION.             19
inquired about the use of the steel rods, which
Messmer had always used, he would have been
told that neither the sticks or metals had anything
to do with the cures, but that the influence flowed
from himself.  Am I not, kind  reader, right  in
expelling the Avord?  Behold  the mischief it has
done.
  Now, as we enter into this subject, talking only
what I know, how plain and simple we shall find
the whole subject.  There is some mystery yet, but
we shall not fill out with that great word. Very
much will be made plain to every understanding.
It has been  ascribed to the devil, as  the cause,
but  Jesus answered that  argument: The tree is
known by its fruit.   Good  fruit implies  a good
tree.
  Among the many amusing traits of  character,
strikingly observable  in those professional men
who denounce mesmerism as a  humbug, is their
great abuse of language; not only in using that
great dead word we have referred to, but on those
subjects of which  they know  nothing,  they  will
boastingly declare they are very skeptical, when
they should  humbly and  modestly say:  "I am
very ignorant."
  About the year  1831, I met Henni, a Catholic 
20
INTRODUCTION.
priest, (now Bishop of Wisconsin), in  Canton, O.
I asked him: Mr. Henni, do you know anything
about animal magnetism ?  His answer was :
  "No, sir."
  I observed that  I  had been  reading  a good
deal about it, and was inclined to think that there
Avas something in it.   He gave me a piercing look,
and replied:
  "As I said, Dr. Underhill, I know nothing about
it, because  I have never investigated it. But,
since you believe that there  is something in it, I
will say this much to you.  I have seen a great
deal of it.   I boarded two years with a German
physician, who had many patients at his house,
and I saw many curious results in his patients."
  Wise would it be in these scoffers, to follow this
noble example  of knoAving  nothing about what
they had not investigated, when Dr. Hufeland,
who long held a Professorship  of Animal Mag-
netism, in the Medical College, at Berlin, Prussia,
when  all the medical students on the continent
are instructed in it, and when nearly five hundred
authors have given testimony to its truth.
  Soon after Messmer's expulsion from Paris, at
the instance of the medical faculty, a society  Avas
formed  in Strasburg, composed  of 188 members,
who continued  their  experiments for years,  and 
INTRODUCTION.
21
published the results of  their experiments.  It
was revived in  Paris again, and in 1826, a new
committee  engaged  in  the  investigation, which
investigation they continued for  five years, and
then, in 1831, they reported to the Academy, a full
confirmation of the truth  of all its claims.  Two
days were occupied in the reading of the report;
the unbelievers raved and stormed, interrupting
the reading again and again.   Then, and not until
then, it got a foothold in England.
  A little  earlier,  Dr.  Ducommon, teacher  of
French, in West Point Military Academy, gave
three lectures, in Fanny Wright's Hall of Science,
New York city, in 1829.   These lectures came to
me the next year; and this was the beginning  of
my inquiries on this subject.  After reading these,
a German merchant  loaned  me several  Avorks in
German, which readings led me to experiments.
I saved the life of a patient, by producing sleep —
when all  other  means  failed—by  magnetism.
Thus encouraged, by repeated experiments on
this first patient, two facts  were established: first,
the thing is real; second, it is good.   Thus begin-
ning, I obtained all the  books that I could find.
Deleuze's  "Practical Instruction,"  and Towns-
hend's "Facts in Mesmerism," being the  most val-
uable then known. 
     INTRODUCTION—Continued.
                      »« a-------

  Give me  a few words in medicine, and I can
name all diseases.  I want hysterics,  catalepsy,
imagination, shalloAvs, filleborelius, and obfusti-
cation.  In physical science, I want quintessence,
substratum,  imagination, abstract, occult, flora-
biscubitis, and a few others, and  now come  on
with your questions.  I understand you; that is
a very simple question, madam;  I wonder that
so simple a matter should appear  to you to have
any  obscurity.   Why, that  is  an  imaginary,
occult  substratum of quintessences, pointed with
a wreath of florabiscubitus.  You certainly ought
to been able to solve so simple a question.  You
may have to repeat  the answer  once.  If you are
required to, put on  a  Haygarthian look of self-
importance, that will imply that  you think  the
listener a little addle-brained, and the listener
will walk away, and with a swell of vanity will
ansAver others as he  has been ansAvered.
                      22 
INTRODUCTION.
23
  And thus, from age to age, the savans of the
world have handed down to those who come after
them, the lucid  reply of "That is an imaginary
occult,   abstract  substratum  of quintessence,
pointed with a wreath of florabiscubitus;" words
without  meaning,  strung   into  sentences  and
palmed off  for knowledge. Let  us  avoid this,
by humbly OAvning, where  we do not know, our
ignorance.
  Every substance gives off an aura; odoriferous
substances give "off  aroma. Each simple sub-
stance, and  each compound substance, give off
an aura  or  aroma peculiar  to itself.  Permit me
to call all auras aromas, as now practiced by the
French, who give this name to all  imponderables,
even when destitute of odor.  Scientists have just
glanced at the field of imponderable substancss.
We must more closely survey it.
  Aristotle  found but four  elements in nature:
Earth, Air, Fire,  and  Water.  Our  chemical
philosophers have found,  already,  above  sixty
elements, or sorts of matter.  This  number  in-
cludes of imponderable substances, simply, Light,
Heat and Eletricity.   Most authors  make Elec-
tricity,  Galvanism, and  Terrestrial  Magnetism,
all one thing.   There is no excuse for this but 
24
INTRODUCTION.
laziness.  Why cannot a Leyden vial be charged
with electricity from a galvanic battery ?  While a
spark four inches long  can be obtained from the
prime  conductor of an  electric  machine, I can
not get a spark over one-fourth of an inch from
the heaviest galvanic  battery  or the  strongest
magnets.  I have used  all  three; have felt the
shock  of each,  and the shocks are  not alike.
Some  speak of  the difference, and  pretend to
define  it by using the word modified, which means
something added or extracted,' but  when  used
here, belongs to  my list of unmeaning words, and
conveys no more meaning than  the word florabis-
cubitus, which names no sight, sound, taste, feel,
smell,  or  internal consciousness, that is, mean
nothing.
  Perhaps, one reason why the  aromas have been
so little heeded,  and so little investigated, is that
few have felt the need of distinctions.   How wise
we can appear,  if  the usual course  is adopted.
What  is life ?  Answer, Electricity.   What con-
trols  vegetable  action?  Answer,   Electricity.
It runs the sap up the tree.  It  works  constantly
in the  mineral changes.   Dr. Humbert says it is
God.   Another man says God never created any-
thing but  Electricitv, and out of Electricity, and 
INTRODUCTION
25
by  and  with Electricity has  God created all
things.  He goes on to say, that all things can be
resolved back into electricity.
  Byron says that  "When Bishop Berkley said
there  was no matter, and proved it, it was no
matter what he  said "!!!
  Men frequently talk of big  nothings, and also
of great realities as nothings.  It is a lamentable
fact, that a large portion of the most expensively
educated men are very badly educated.
  In Pittsburgh, in 1840, a physician ordered me
out of his office, on finding me  engaged in mes-
merising one of his  students.  And he  was  a
gentleman,  but  trembled  with  fear that  Mrs.
Grundy would be offended.  I  was^called to order
in a medical convention, for  attempting to give
information  on   mesmerism, when the President
had invited communications;  but this was before
the first  report on the  subject was  received.
Even the appointment of a committee was granted
in order to get rid of this subject.  But we must
return to  the matter before us, the Nervous or
Magnetic  Fluid. 
INTRODUCTION—Continued.
  The nervous fluid, animal magnetism, or what
ever you please to name it, is an imponderable.
Chiefly eliminated from the blood by a glandular
action of the brain and ganglionic centres  dis-
persed along the spine and back of the lungs, liver,
stomach  and spleen.  It can  be sensibly felt by
any one, and can be seen by the clairvoyant. Stars
are only sights, yet no one denies their existence,
except the blind.   You would like to be informed
what it is ?  Well, I Avill tell you.   It is itself.
It is  Avhat you can feel  and see.  What is any
elementary substance?  The best definition is to
present the thing itself.   Any person can perceive
a current passing from his hands to the patient's,
after drawing his hands over the patient's, slowly
draw the  hands aAvay,  Avith an effort of will to
attract, and at from six to eight inches, you will
perceive  a cool current passing on to each hand
                      26 
INTRODUCTION.
27
from  the  other.  You can make each  hand,  in
turn, positive or negative, as you please.
  There came to me at Republic, Seneca county,
Ohio, a farmer who had, in hanging up his meat to
smoke, received a  hook wound in his  hand.  It
soon healed; and  then began to swell, became
very painful, the whole periosteum or skin of the
bones being affected.   So very frightful was the
case, that he went twice to a surgeon expecting
him to  amputate it.  Mesmerism  cured  it.   And
he found, in operating with his well hand that he
could shut the fingers closer by attraction with
the well hand, than by an effort of will to shut his
hand.
  This  constitutes the healing power.  Its con-
dition is that of the person in whom it inheres.
It is healthy or diseased as we are.   It is the
medium of contagion, and why may we not catch
health as well as disease?
  It is  the moral  organs that yield  the most
healing  fluid.   They  are the unselfish organs;
they delight in the happiness of others.  When
these are in high orgasm, they sanctify what flowf
from the selfish organs.   When you are sick, you
are unfit to magnetize;  you will injure instead of
benefit,  and only exchange nervous fluid with the
patient, 
28             INTRODUCTION.
  To operate on a paralytic case, or one just out
of a fit of convulsions, will load the operator with
dullness  and languor, and  will unfit him  for any
mental exercise for some time.  In such cases, I
like to lie down, and cover up very warmly, so as
to sweat a little, doze a little, and then sponge all
over with cold water, if not convenient to take a
cold bath.
  I met, in 1845, a severe case of chorea or St.
Vitus' dance, in Green  county, Illinois.  He much
desired clairvoyant examination.  I had a clair-
voyant with me, who felt great pity for the case,
who,  when mesmerized, fled  from the case, nor
could he be persuaded to make the examination.
"I shall be just like him, if I do," said he.  He
could not touch the cane which had been handled
by the patient.  He lay and jerked all night with
the same disease.   Many kindred instances have
occurred in my practice.
  Many clairvoyants are affected with the  precise
symptoms  they   see in  an examination.  This
always occurred with Mary Eccles, in  St. Louis,
where she prescribed  for  150 cases  during her
own remarkable cure.   She prescribed for a child
of Mr. King,  in  Jacksonville, Morgan county.,
Illinois, while she was attending  school  at the
Ladies' Academy, then taught by the ReA\  Mr. 
INTRODUCTION.             29
Williams and wife, in 1845.  The child only four
years old had  no use of its lower extremities.
The joints were remarkably loose.  She was their
only child.  Miss Eccles examined it, and at the
close, informed me that she was just as the child
was.  After a  quarter  of  an hour of  my best
jfforts  to  restore her, she  remarked: " There, I
5an hobble along home.  It will only last twenty-
four  hours.   You may let  me  go."    She did
hobble, indeed.
  An examination of deafness was followed by
deafness  for twenty-four hours in  a clairvoyant,
who acccompanied Mr. Hedges, one of my pupils,
to Quincy, Illinois, in 1844.
  Not  only does your health affect  your mag-
netism, but  every change of moral  feeling affects
it.  If, for instance, a subject became  so easily
magnetized  that it  required  only five  minutes to
be thrown into  the clairvoyant state, which is the
highest or sixth degree, and should you approach
them, intending some evil, to  rob them of money
or of their virtue, as soon as slightly under the influ-
ence, you  seem  repulsive to them, and  they would
throw  you  off.  If,  when  fully  magnetized, you
should let such a design originate in  your mind,
you would be repulsed; and should you persevere
in your   intention  to wrong them, they would 
30             INTRODUCTION
become convulsed and wake up.  If you had no
design to keep their money, but to return it, you
might take it from them without let or hindrance.
Twice I became  angry with  individuals while
having a subject mesmerized.  In one case, as I
approached the subject, she exclaimed:
  " Keep away from me ! don't come near me!
You have  been  angry; you are not fit to touch
me.   Go, calm yourself."
  In  the other case, I  was not so much excited,
and  I had two  subjects mesmerized.  One  had
long been acquainted with  me; he seized me by
the hand, and patting it  on the back,  said :
  "Be calm, Doctor,be calm.  You are excited."
  The other, by the name of Day, six feet  and
seven inches high, raised his long arms and hands
high, and shudderingly  cried:
  "I am afraid of you!"
  I doubt  Avhether a bad man, living in an open
violation of all moral  laws,  ever had a  sweet
breath.  These facts I deem sufficient illustration
of the above principles of attraction and repulsion.
It is when  the subject is most fully mesmerized,
that he is securer against any misleading.
  I charge  you, Avho will  desire to become a suc-
cessful mesmerizer, to keep your mind and body
clean, and your thoughts pure.  Let the feelings 
INTRODUCTION.
31
of right and the love of doing good be uppermost.
I operate from two motives which coalesce.  One
is to heal, and the other is to teach others to heal.
To this may be added, to produce clairvoyance,
unfold the philosophy of mind,  and to  describe
and prescribe for disease.
  It has, with me, subserved various purposes, all
all truly estimable, which will  be  spoken of in
their proper places.  I have many new discoveries
in the human body to set  forth, of a very high
value to all inquirers, and shall  not pause to see
how Mrs. Grundy will like it
  The humbugs of three  hundred years  ago, and
a good way this side of that, are  the grand truths
of this age.   The fact that twenty years after
Newton  published  his Principle, there  were not
twenty believers  in  his doctrines  in  England,
ought to make us  slow to decide  against  any new
doctrines  in the  present day.  I care  nothing
about your judgment  upon a new thing Avhich I
have investigated thirty years, and which  you have
not investigated at all.  I care not how much you
know about  other  things; nay,  I care  not how
much more you know about other things than I
do.  How much will it aid you  to decide upon a
case of psychology  to have  a competent knowl-
edge of pneumatics?  What  aid will  it be in 
32
INTRODUCTION
hydrostatics  to have  a large acquaintance with
splanknology ?  How much will it aid one in botany
to be largely acquainted with coralology, ichthy-
ology,  ornithology, myology, conchology, ascites,
or bronchitis?  How  did you learn what you do
know?  Did you  not  learn the  alphabet before
you could spell baker?  Did you not begin your
arithmetic  Avith  notation  and  addition?   Did
you  not begin  chemistry with  the study of the
elements?  Now, you think you can go cross-lots
to all other knowledge !!!
  Vain sapheads in science, always investigate all
new principles, and new sciences, and are ready
with a wise decision, to give the first person who
speaks of it in their  presence.  But, strange to
tell, the first  witness they call to their aid to the
witness stand, if you please, is their own ignorance.
This is sworn, examined and cross-examined.   The
next witness is  their pride of opinion,  and the
third is their laziness.   On the testimony of these
three learned and self-important witnesses, the
decision is attained.
  The testimony of ignorance was: " I know of no
such thing."  Pride said: "Sure you would have
known it, had there been any thing in it.  Do not
stoop to learn of that mountebank.  Don't every 
INTRODUCTION.
33
 man, who has much self-respect, keep away from
 him?  What will Mrs. Grundy say, if she finds
 you attending  his lectures?  It  is popular  to
 denounce it, you  know.  Even should it prove
 true, it Avill  be a very long time before it will be
 accepted by the public."
   I could give the names of many who come under
 the above description.
   One physician in Cleveland, Ohio, a member of
 the  London  Medical  Society,  declared that  he
 would not  give his eyes a chance to deceive him.
 One day he came  into a drug store where his son
 had a subject asleep.  His son being the operator,
 suspicion was allayed, and  he looked on, and be-
 came a convert.  He said that he had no idea that
 the evidence was so palpable.
  Ten times  the good, ten times the cures would
 have been  wrought by mesmerism, since  its in-
troduction  into  the United  States, but for  the
prejudices excited by men in the practice of medi-
cine, most of all, by  the  professors in colleges,
who belong  to  the class above described, vain
sap-heads.  I said  in the first pages of this book,
that colleges were not  instituted  to  search  out
truth, but to teach long established opinions, and
to put  down  all new  ideas.  Like  creedified 
34
INTRODUCTION
churches, all  is suppposed  to  be known.   Every
new truth is  heresy.   All  progress is forbidden,
and, therefore, until recently, all discoverers of
new truths were  persecuted with the same  zeal
that religious heresies  were  persecuted.   Even
now, this  set of wise sapheads  go as far toward
committing murder as the world will admit.
  To illustrate the above assertion, permit me to
relate a few  cases out of many that I know of.
Some of the facts are known to many, and I give
names to identify them. 
INTRODUCTION—Continued.
  The first presentation of magnetic experiment?
in St. Louis, was by a Professor Johnson, I think,
about 1840 or '41.  Directly after he left, or rather
not long  after,  one Wright, a  painter by trade,
set out from  Cincinnati, with  a Dr. Madison, to
lecture  and exhibit mesmerism, Wright feigning
the magnetic sleep.  At Jacksonville, Illinois, the
fraud was detected   They promised full satisfac-
tion the next night, and the same night they fled.
This Wright, again detected at St. Charles, Mis-
souri, came to St. Louis, and presented himself to
Prof.  McDowell, and  told him  how perfectly  he
could simulate all the phenomena, and engaged the
Doctor to  lecture and exhibit him.   At this lecture
a man rose, and notified the audience, that this
Wright was an impostor, and he did  not dare to
appear again.
  But now two  brothers, students under Doctor
                      35 
36
INTRODUCTION.
McDowell, engaged  to  play the deception.   One
pretended to go  to  sleep, and the  other lent his
aid in the deception. The Doctor obtained large
amounts of money, and then, after two or three
crowded houses, at Music Hall, (at 25 and 50 cents
a head,)  the Doctor acknowledged the fraud, but
declared all other cases fraud.   What a deadly
assault upon the character of all honest teachers
of this noble science; also upon all subjects used
to illustrate the science.
  Next came  Byington.  He challenged Doctoi
McDowell to a public discussion, but he declined,
giving as a reason, that  Byington was only a cub,
while he was a bear.
  When afterward challenged by  me, Avith the
declaration that I was not a cub, he excused him-
self on the ground that he Avas commencing his
annual course of lectures; excused himself from
attending,  on that  ground,  also, for  Professor
Merriman, of Springfield, had asked me to take a
letter to  him, in which he  had strongly urged him
to attend my lectures.
  But nothing places the sapient professor's in a
fan-er  light than  the conduct  of  one  of New
England's noble sons, I mean Prof. DeWolf, of
Kemper College, St, Louis, Professor of chemistry. 
INTRODUCTION.
37
 He  and the Adjunct Professor of Theory  and
 Practice,  sent  and begged an  invitation to my
 house,  that they might privately  investigate the
 matter, like Nicodemus, of old.  I will not men-
 tion the adjunct's name, as  he did not so  fully
 break faith with me.  I sent them the invitation
 they requested, because I could only have the  hall
 three or  four evenings  in the  week.  I  invited
 them to come at two o'clock, p. m.   I came in ten
 minutes after two, and found  them there Avith the
 with the gentleman who begged and carried the
 invitation.   They  looked like cats in a strange
 garret,  and were  evidently glad that my blinds
 were closed.  They were not aAved by a sense of
 inferiority, but  rather abashed  at  the thought of
 what Mrs. Grundy would  say, should their visit
 come to her knowledge.
  It may be well to state here, that the Avriter had
filled the  same chair in a medical college,  that
DeWolf now occupied.
  After introduction  and  salutation, the writer
remarked:  "You have come  to learn something
about Animal Magnetism?"
  "Yes,"  said DeWolf.  "There is so much said
about it, Doctor, that we  want to believe right
about it."
      a2 
38
INTRODUCTION.
   "Well, Doctor," I said, "will you let  me talk
 some ? "
   "Yes, sir."
   "You came  here to learn  something about
 animal magnetism?"
   "Yes," said the  Doctor;  "and I want to  tell
 you just what will satisfy us.  We come to your
 house, rather than go to the hall, because, if one
 capable of investigating the subject, goes to a
 public hall, he might  do something that would
 offend the magnetizer,  and  the audience might
 join the  magnetizer,  and that would make a
 pretty kettle of fish."
   I  rudely interrupted  him with, " Doctor, will
 you let me talk?"
   Again he commenced, when, stamping my foot,
 I reiterated:  "Will you let me talk a little?"
   " Yes."
   I asked the question, "You came here to learn
 something about magnetism?—"
  As before, he began, when I said,  "Hold on !"
 I proceeded, " You are a Professor of Chemistry,
 in Kemper College?"
  "Yes."
  "Well, I once occupied  that chair in  a college,
but I dare say  you  could learn me much.  If I 
INTRODUCTION.
39
should attend  your lectures, would you allow me
to dictate the mode of teaching?''''
  "No, sir," he answered.
  "Well, could you give me the whole science  in
one introductory lecture?"
  " No, sir," was his  answer.
  " Well, now, firstly, I say to you that I will not
be dictated  by you, in the least.  And secondly,
unless you promise to come again and again, and
if I say so,  again and  again and again,  before
you decide,  I  wish you to take your hats and go
now."
  This they freely promised,  and added: " Tell
us how to behave ourselves, and we will try."
  I remarked, "That is good boys.  And  now
we'll go to work."
  I asked them to blindfold Charles Eager, which
they did, and witnessed some most extraordinary
experiments, which continued at least an hour.  I
then brought in Mrs. Chase, (wife of the brother
of our Chief Justice of the United States), whom
I had thrown into the magnetic sleep, in the next
room.  She was a  good  clairvoyant.  I gave her
into  their hands for experiment.  With experi-
ments with her, the seance ended.  They took no
exceptions;  they simply  said  nothing about the
result. 
40             INTRODUCTION.
  When about to leave, I said:  "I hope, gentle-
men, you will not go forgetting any thing."
  This set them to thinking what I could mean.
When I  saw they could  not understand what it
was, I said : " You intended to invite me to come
and hear your lectures at Kemper College!!"
  They  looked mortified, and freely gave me the
invitation.  And why  did they  not think of it?
Chiefly because they could  not realize that I, the
humbugger, was their  equal, and, in  this, much
their superior.
  DeWolf never came again.  The  other came
once. I suppose that Mrs. Grundy heard of their
visit, and held them to a strict account.
  In forming  a class in St. Louis, only  one  allo-
pathic Physician and one Dentist subscribed, and
both backed out before the course was through;
and yet, many of them became  converts, before
the winter ended.
  No modern discoveries have  so much mystery
about them as Animal Magnetism, not even Phre-
nology,  and therefore,  none haAre  been  opposed
with such bitter  and  malignant spitefulness,  as
this  science.   LaAvyers  have met it  with much
candor,  generally, and  clergymen  have, in most
cases, done themselves  honor by giving it a fair
investigation.  Some clergymen have  been a little 
INTRODUCTION.
41
shy, for fear that their church members  might
censure them.
  In  Southern Illinois,  in  1844,  such was  the
ignorance, that a Methodist Minister in St. Clair
county, told me  that  tAVo-thirds of a large con-
gregation in that place,  could  neither read  or
write.   And I believe that, in many places, only
remove one quarter of the most intelligent portion
of the population, and let the rest make the laws,
thev would have burned me at the stake. 
INTRODUCTION—Continued.
  It was often said, " such men are dangerous in
the community; not safe members  of society."
This was because they did  not understand the
laws of mesmerism  laid down by Deleuze, that
first, you cannot magnetize with an evil design;
and  secondly, that  should a person produce the
condition, and then suffer to arise immoral con-
ditions of mind leading to   immoral acts,  the
subject, if of good moral  character  when  not
mesmerized, will be doubly  so now;  and as has
often happened, become convulsed and wake up.
  Bishop  Soule,  of the South, reports  a case,
where  a  preacher  of his denomination was the
operator.  His passions led him astray.  He had
greatly benefited a  lady patient by a series  of
sittings, and no  doubt, aAvakened much gratitude
and attachment, but this attempt on her chastity,
                     42 
INTRODUCTION.
43
quickly resulted in her  being  convulsed  and
aAvakened, and her outcry brought in Avitnesses.
He had to be silenced in the  church.  Bishop
Soule thought the Methodists had better not have
anything to do with mesmerism,  on account of its
spoiling a preacher.   Would it not  have been
more consistent to have  nothing to do with the
Methodist preachers?  Mesmerism took care of
itself.
    But I always teach my pupils to have at least
one witness,  when  operating upon any female,
except your  own wife or daughter.  You want
water brought to you.  The patient will be more
perfectly resigned,  and,  therefore,  you can  act
with more force.  You may be alone part of the
time,  if others  have free access to  you every
moment.
  Ignorance  and superstition have flooded the
earth with vagaries; and many truths are stained
and smutted  so as to appear ridiculous, and have
been rejected on  this account.  Something on
this subject, will be found is the next paragraph
of this introduction.
  The  seventh son can cure the King's evil.  This
is true. But  why can not the  sixth  son do the
same? He can, just as well, if  he can be made 
44
INTRODUCTION.
to believe that he can: or the fifth, or fourth, or
third, or  second, or ninth, or tenth?  But seven
became a cabalistic  number.  There are seven
golden candlesticks;  seven  spirits of God; seven
last plagues, etc.; seven sevens made the year of
jubilee;  seven heads, etc., etc.
  Names and numbers were  supposed  to have
power.   The magicians imitated Moses in many
things.  Paul and Peter denied not that there were
names other  than that of Jesus Christ, by which
cures could be wrought.  Simon Magus Avas called
the great power of God.  Paul and Peter rightly
contended that there  was no name under heaven,
or among men,  equal to  the  name  of Jesus of
Nazareth.  His pure  life and  spirit, the  affusion
of spiritual  influence which they at times  felt,
made greater Thaumaturgists  than had  existed
before them.   And if they did effect greater cures
than preceding prophets, there Avere more healers
then than at any time before that day.
  It is also true  that, if a person Avill  smother a
ground mole in their hands, they can drive away
swellings with  their  hands.  This  is  true,  too;
and if the same individual had only knoAvn it, he
could have done it before.  One can talk fire out
of a burn, if  they only get the right instruction. 
INTRODUCTION.
45
But  a  man  can only give it  to a Avoman, and a
woman must always instruct a man.  If a woman
tells a  woman, or a man  tells a man, their power
is gone.   This is true, because,  believing  that
their power  is gone, they haA'e'no more  confi-
dence.   You will learn by this book, the entire
philosophy of these things.  When  you  learn the
philosophy of these  things, you may  tell  every-
body and their wives and children, without any
loss  of power.
  All superstitions have kernels of truth in them.
It may be very small in some.   All religions have
truths; but in some, the truths are diluted with
blood, and nothing else can be seen.
  There may be  men who can work wonders in
the name of Juggernaut; men, who believe that
to be the name of creative power.  The health-
ful mesmerizer uses no words or names, any more
than they do when plowing or planting potatoes.
  We have certain endowments, certain faculties,
and we exercise them.  If we suppose these gifts
miraculous, to be called  up by incantations, as
believed among Indians and other ignorant people,
we shall  use the necessary  incantations.  One
accustomed  to  leaning  on divine help, will, in
attempting to  heal, involuntarily  aspire  after 
46
INTRODUCTION.
spiritual aid, and these will often feel that they are
aided from above.
  The  laws which govern  in  this science, are
congenial to it.  Like all laws of nature, laws are
simply, to us, the  history of  oft repeated experi-
ments.   At first,  experiments  are not made by
laws; the experiments  develop  the laws, or con-
trolling circumstances, and we name them laws.
  I shall now proceed with  matter, long written,
in which there may be  some repetition of points
already discussed, but  they  are points  that will
bear repetition. 
INTRODUCTION—Continued.
      DR.  DRAKE'S PAMPHLET.

  The Doctor has gone, madam.
  "Well, I have brought a few friends with me to
hear what you have to say about Doctor Drake."
  Thank you, ladies.   At once I Avill proceed to
tell you.  You see, when my friend Dr. Boynton,
was lecturing in  Louisville, with Mary, as a sub-
ject, she often gave  the highest proofs  that she
seemed  to see whatever the person in communi-
cation fixed his  mind upon.  Doctor Drake was
was induced  to join in a committee to ascertain
if this was  a fact.  Well, she did not altogether
succeed. But, ladies, she came nearer than the
experienced  magnetizer ought to have expected,
under the circumstances.  She ought to have be-
come reserved, and refused to do anything, or she
ought to have failed in all her efforts,  in presence
of such  minds.  This is the rule.
                     47 
48
INTRODUCTION.
  Such unbelief, such deep prejudice, make clouds
and  darkness  round  about the  somnambulist.
This is  no stranger  than what occurs in the
traversing of the magnetic needle; in many elec-
trical experiments, and through the whole field
of chemical analysis and synthesis.
  I knew a jeweler who  effected at the seventh
trial only, a result which he usually  produced on
the first, and he could  see  no  cause for  the six
failures.  The  six failures did not prove the im-
possibility  of the  desired  result, but the seventh
trial proved its entire possibility.  Please, ladies,
make the application.   Well, when  he had the
result of the experiment, he appended a few pages
to garnish the report.   He gave you the history of
natural somnambulism, and relates things quite as
marvelous as are claimed by magnetism.
  His cases occur from causes not well understood.
Ours are produced and ended by ourselves.   But
the Doctor tells us that the patient Avas dull.  This
proves what I  said was  the general rule, Avhen
prejudiced  persons are  present.   She is often very
lively.
  But the  strangest part  of the book is the last
page.  It is a rhapsody of falsehood.  He tells us
that  magnetism makes no  advance — that it is not 
INTRODUCTION.
49
 cumulative;  that it only changes; and that this
 one point on which the committee sat, is all that
 it now claims.  He knew this  was false, and you
 can prove it from the book.  If I  had found one
 individual who took any  interest in the book, I
 would say more; but I assure you, ladies, that I
 have not.   I regret to say that the violence of the
 Doctor's prejudices unfit hiin for  candid  investi-
 gation.  He is a great man, a splendid lecturer,
 and a sorry bigot.
  A committee  of the  Royal Academy of Paris,
 after five years' patient  investigation, pronounced
 magnetism true  in  all  its  claims.  Phreno-mag-
 netisin was then unknown.  That  was discovered
in 1841, by Dr. Buchanan, of Louisville.   Le Roy
 Sunderland also claims the discovery, although I
 had made a  feAv discoveries three years  before.
Which would  you deem the best testimony: Dr.
Drake's examining  one  subject for a few sittings,
on  one single point, or  the French committee of
nine, who, for five years, tested, on different sub-
 jects,  the various phenomena?
  Ladies, Doctor Drake ought to dive to the very
bottom, and hide himself in  the mud, before the
French committee.
  Walk in, gentlemen, and be seated. 
50
INTRODUCTION.
  At this rate, I shall soon have an audience.   To
 go  on, then, since the matter has gained a footing
 in this country, it has rendered  itself quite inde-
 pendent of all need of support from all transatlantic
 Avitnesses.  You wish to know how I first became
 acquainted Avith magnetism?  Thank you.  I will
 tell you.
  In 1829, you would have deemed me too skeptical
 on almost every thing.  I had read of the various
 impostors in the  medical Avorld; the tractors of
 Perkins; the seventh son; talking fire out burns;
 of talismans;  incantations, and  of animal mag-
 netism.   I had read the satires of Fessenden,  and
 felt that they were just.  In 1830, I received a
 pamphlet containing three lectures on magnetism,
 by Dr. Ducommon, delivered in the  city of New
 York, in  1829.   He was a disciple of Messmer, and
 at that time a teacher of the French  language in
 West  Point  Military Academy.  The  kind of
 proof he  offered, was rather  astounding.   He
 referred  to cases  Avhich had taken  place at  the
various hospitals  in Paris.  He  gave the names
of  the patients,  the disease, the operator,  the
time Avhen, the names of distinguished witnesses
present, and the names, dates, and numbers of the
journals  in which the cases were published. 
INTRODUCTION.
51
  I felt unable to reject such testimony, and more
especially, as I well knew  that the whole history
of human nature was not yet written.  I had pub-
lished  in 1829, a lecture on "Mysterious Emo-
tions," myself, which demonstrated  that  much
darkness rested on the physiology of the nervous
system.  This made these statements  interest me
the more.  I wanted more light.  My pamphlet
excited much attention, and a new edition was
called for.  I had written fifty  pages on a revised
and enlarged edition, when Ducommon's lectures
fell into  my hands.   The new edition has not yet
been published.
  I soon after found seAreral valuable productions
in the possession of a friend, Mr.  Hurxthall, in
Massillon, Ohio.  They were in German.   Here I
learned the history of the science in Europe, and
was surprised to find that not less than four or five
hundred authors had  appeared on  the subject, on
the continent of Europe, and  numbering among
the authors many men ef the first standing in the
various governments where they lived.
  It seemed almost  impossible  that a subject
should obtain such  a footing  in countries  with
which  we had so much intercourse, and  the me-
dical world  on this  side the Atlantic not  know it. 
52             INTRODUCTION.
I did not so well know that books were got out to
meet a demand, and until that demand was created,
they would not be published.  I then read these
German  authors,  among  which the one entitled
the "Archives of Animal Magnetism,"  was the
most valuable.  It was made up of tAvo volumes
of a quarterly periodical,  edited by  Eshenmayer,
Kieser & Naase, all eminent  German medical
professors.
  It was in  the  spring of 1832, if I remember
correctly, the wife  of Abram Harry, had, soon
after confinement with her  first child, a severe
attack of mammetis, usually  called ague in the
breast.   Though I had been her Accoucheur, yet
without calling on me, they  gave her hot brandy
sling to break up, what they  called the weed, and
having failed, they  sent for  me.  I found much
inflammatory  fever,  and  considerable  delirium,
and great apprehension that the case  was very
dangerous.  The action of medicine gave me con-
fidence, more  especially as the intermissions from
delirium were sufficient to secure some sleep.   But
on the fifth or sixth day of the attack, the delirium
became constant, and defied for forty-eight hours,
all my skill  with known means.  This induced me
to try magnetism, and my success was complete; 
INTRODUCTION.
53
 my patient was saved by it.  Sweet sleep, in any
 amount I wished, was procured by it from day to
 day,  and her  recovery  was rapid.  After three
 days, I could  begin  when she was  raving, and
 produce  sleep  in one minute.   Two things were
 demonstrated: First,  magnetism is true; and  as
 equally important,  magnetism is  good.  Thence
 forward until the present day have I been a mag-
 netizer.  My interest has not diminished.   I have
 cured many, and taught  many to cure.  It settles
 the  vexed  question  of  mental  philosophy.  It
 makes us know  ourselves better,  human  nature
 better, and it adds  a very important remedial
 agent to  those  already  known.   It often  cures
 where medicine utterly fails.
  My first lectures on  the  subject were delivered
 at Willoughby, to a medical class, while occupying
 the chair of chemistry in that  institution, in the
 years 1834-5.   I  commenced my career of public
lecturer,  at Massillon, in 1838.   In 1839 I visited
Massillon, Canton,  and  Wooster,  gave lectures
and made experiments.  In 1840,1 gave, in April,
 at Wheeling, Virginia, my first regular course of
lectures.   Since then, most of my  time has been
devoted- to  it.  I hardly expect to satisfy, by a
single  lecture,  and by a few experiments  those 
54
INTRODUCTION.
who have not examined the  subject.   But where
they make me up a class, I always pledge myself
to demonstrate what I teach.
  Finding time  to write a book on the science, I
avail myself of the opportunity.  There are many
things to be said that have not been written, most
writers being over-anxious to establish a theory.
I have every qualification for writing, unless I fall
short in the trifling ones of sound judgment, and
in a happy manner of presenting my ideas.
  The method I have been habituated to commu-
nicate knowledge on this subject, is by instructing
classes.  Could you, ladies and gentlemen,  honor
me so much as to form yourselves into a class, to
listen to a  course of instruction ?  The lectures
delivered to you will be published, and this will
make the book I have  been  talking about.  Here
are thirty of you, and, if you please, we Avill forth-
with  commence the course.  Meet  me tAvice  a
day until the course is finished.  It may require
fourteen, perhaps,  sixteen  lectures.   We shall
refer to experiments for illustration.
  I want you to  remember that you can prevent
my being successful in my experiments, by  dis-
orderly conduct.  When I magnetize, I want you
to be a quaker silent meeting.  Be  still, both in 
INTRODUCTION.
55
body and mind.   I ought to have told you that a*
the night lecture, I admit all  who please to come,
on paying an  admission  fee.  We  shall, in this
way, instruct some good magnetizers, and, at the
same time,  convince the  public of the truth of
the science.  This will prepare the place to suffer
magnetism to be used as a remedial agent.
  Ridicule,  the  weapon  dishonest  minds  use
against truth,  will  lose its  venom,  and  a  few
cures Avill command  for this  science, that respect
and veneration which  all valuable and  known
scientific truths now enjoy.
  In this way, ladies and gentlemen, in one week
your belief  will not require  the support  of the
testimony of other men, but  your  eyes shall see,
and some of you shall feel, and you Avill know for
yourselves, the truth and  great  value of Animal
Magnetism. 
 
LECTURE  I.
        animal  magnetism.
Ladies and Gentlemen :
  As I intend to demonstrate by experiment
all that I teach in words, permit me to omit
the subjunctive mood,  and speak what  I
know, as if I knew it.
  In teaching you magnetism, I shall teach
you how to magnetize.  I am a disciple of
Deleuze; but I have made  many  experi-
ments which  had never been made, when
he wrote his manuals.  I shall avoid giving
birth to a  darling theory.  Many theories
have been  published, and with none are
magnetizers satisfied.  I desire to make you
fond of facts, and slow to theorize.
                  51 
58             LECTURE I.
  The agent by which  we act, the means
by which we effect the subject magnetized,
is  so practical  a matter, and  lying, as it
does, at the foundation of a right apprehen-
sion of  how we act, claims  for  it our first
consideration.  If we perceive an  actual
communication  of  an invisible, yet  per-
ceptible matter, from the magnetizer to the
subject, we shall bear this constantly in
mind,  and  keep awake the intention to
communicate it, as the  only  ground  of
success.
  Deleuze contends  for  its  existence,  but
admits that its existence  has not been fully
demonstrated.   I contend for its existence,
not by inference, as he does, but find myself
able to  make it sensibly  felt by every one;
by some much more easily than others, it is
true; and even some, from trepidation, are
incapable of feeling it on the first trial.   It
is the same  thing that has been called  the
nervous fluid. 
MAGNETISM.
59
   By holding the hands a minute, and then
making a few passes down the arms, you
will establish a flow of this  matter from
yourself upon the person  before you, and
by holding your hands over theirs, with the
effort to attract them to you, they will feel,
and you will also feel, a cool aura or breeze
on the hands.
   If the person  upon whom you make the
trial, is very susceptible to magnetism, their
fingers will involuntarily rise toward yours.
They will often be thrown apart, like bodies
similarly  electrified.  Sometimes  the sen-
sation  is tingling, and not cool.   On very
susceptible persons to magnetism, it can be
felt ten, twenty,  and even thirty feet, when
awake.   But the distance which a first trial
requires, is from three to ten inches.   There
seems to be  a focal distance,  but differing
in different cases.  In some cases, you affect
them so rapidly, that you render torpid the
excitability of the reflex nerves, which con-
vey impressions from the extremities to the 
60             LECTURE I.
head, and though their fingers move invol-
untarily, they may not feel.   You may then
call their attention to the, by them unob-
served fact, of the moving of the fingers,
and thus make them perceive that you exert
a power upon their  muscles.  Even when
you  have thrown  off the magnetism, you
will  be able to make them feel.
  This fluid has been  thought by some to
be electricity.  It feels just  as  electricity
feels,  when you hold the back of your hand
toward a  charged prime conductor.   But,
likeness of feeling, does not prove identity,
of course.  Both are imponderable.  But
this  is, emphatically, the lightning of the
mind.
  Let us keep close to what we know.  It
is a part of us; it is one of the ingredients
that go to make up  the  sum total of our-
selves; it  is the instrument of the will; it
is the vitality of the animal system; it is
subject to disease;  it  is  infectious;  or, in
other words, it may pass from the body in 
MAGNETISM.             61
 which it originates into the body of another.
 It  may carry its  condition  of  health or
 disease with it.   It differs in the same indi-
 vidual, with every change of health,  and
 with every change of mental condition.  It
 is,  probably, secreted from the blood by
 the brain and ganglionic system exercising
 a  glandular capacity.   It  is seen by the
 good somnambulist,  and is described by
 them as being  like  a vapor of  a pellucid
 appearance, proceeding in jets—wavy.  It
 has been compared to the  phosphorescent
 light left on a  wall by igniting a lucifer
 match.   It is constantly produced, and con-
 tinually flows off from our bodies.   It is,
 therefore, subject to deterioration.  It goes
 out with the utterance of words—words of
 truth.   It flows  from different organs, and
 is  of a different nature  from that  which
 flows with  falsehood;   but when truths,
 deeply felt by the speaker, are  uttered, it
is most potent.  Its influence  upon the or-
gans of belief, veneration, conscientiousness, 
62
LECTURE I.
cautiousness,  hope,  and ideality, may pro-
duce ecstatic faith, not only without reason,
but contrary to it.   I must not take you
any farther on this route now.  The sub-
ject is one of deep  interest, had you only
proofs to believe what you hear.
  I will now proceed  to prove  that mag-
netism can be felt.  I shall not attempt to
put any one  to sleep now.  You are  not
ready yet for that;  you would disturb me,
and  prevent  me by your  anxiety, your
whispering, your gazing at the patient, your
coming around him.  But when you can all
be still, in body and mind; when you  can
wait until the magnetizer calls you, before
you approach the patient, even keeping your
eyes away from the subject; then I shall
succeed.   I speak of making new cases
  Persons who have been ofttn magnetized,
may be  thrown into that state in a  few
minutes, standing or sitting, with  thousands
gazing upon  them.   Then fear is  a great
hindrance; so is a  feeling  that it  is veiy 
MAGNETISM.
63
foolish; the dread of being talked about,
laughed at; that you may say  something
indiscreet, etc., etc.   So, you see, the time
has not come to put any of you to sleep.
  Yes, yes; I know you think that you are
willing; but there are two sorts of willing:
willing to be tried on;  willing to be mag
netized, if you can do  it in despite of my
resistance; and no real  desire to  be  mag-
netized.  Six of you say you are willing.
You are all of the first.  I  know it; that
peculiar smile; never mind now.
  If I should get some  of you to sleep, the
rest of you would say so much to them, and
laugh so much at them, that I could not
persuade them to sit again.
  Deleuze  forbid magnetizing for public
exhibition, and therefore his instructions are
so very inadequate to guide you  in public
experiments.  I revere Deleuze, but dare to
differ with him in this particular.   I am an
apostle of magnetism.  I teach with demon- 
64
LECTURE I.
 strations; he  taught with a book, without
 demonstrations.  His  motive was benevo-
 lent; so is mine.   Hundreds of good mag-
 netizers have  been made by my teachings,
 and thousands have been  relieved by m\
 pupils.  My demonstrations made them buy
 his book.   When no good is aimed at, mag
 netizing is perverted from its true sphere.
   And now having demonstrated that mag
 netism  can  be sensibly felt by all,  I  will
 remind you that feeling is the most certain
 sense.   You can not see the air, nor a body
 that is  perfectly  transparent;  not to refer
 you to  your conscient internal sensations.
 Electricity,  in passing from the positive to
 the negative pole, through  your  bodies, is
not seen but felt.
  Now, as I can  not finish this subject in
this lecture,  without detaining you too long,
I will  close with a  few general  remarks.
Your minds demand  demonstration  of the
reality.  This is right, and I give it.   But 
MAGNETISM.            65
they equally insist on a development of the
rationale or philosophy of the demonstra
tions.  Here  you are a little unreasonable,
and I want you to see it.  All inconsistency
is unreasonable.
  Now can you explain fire?   Can you
explain heat ?   Can you explain terrestrial
magnetism?  Can you explain any of the
mysteries of chemistry?  Finite mind is
unequal to these matters,  and should it be
so to magnetism, ought you to  complain?
It is  not a human invention, a mechanical
machine, but like all scientific truth, a dis-
covery.  "It  must  have  its own  laws."
Truly, but as no science has any laws, only
so far as you call the history of its ascer-
tained mode  of  action, laws; you will, at
once perceive that I am now dictating the
laws of magnetism to you.   I wish here, to
say, that you can now see why the laws of
one science will  not  suffice to test another
science, and why reasoning upon new truth
with old laws, will not enable you to reach 
66
LECTURE II.
it.  You will  always prove it false.   This
has generally escaped the attention of the
learned.  The great Liebig, says: "Nature
speaks a peculiar language, the  language
of phenomena.   She hears only  one  sort
of questions, and these are experiments."
  Never forget this.   You can never arrive
at truth but by experiments.  This is why
science made no advancement from the time
of Aristotle until the days of Lord Bacon.
The student learned words and logic, in-
stead of making experiments, and  so he
gave words and logic instead of knowledge.
This is the  great fountain of  all humbug-
gery in science.
   By-the-by, before we adjourn, permit me
to inform my class, that,  although we must
return to the primary subject of this lecture,
yet,  as we shall admit the public to our
lectures at night, and shall, therefore confine
our practical instructions to the  afternoon
lectures to the class, in private.
  The next  lecture  will  be  upon  humbugs 
MAGNETISM.
67
 and humbuggers.  Try to get in early, and
 bring all your friends.
  And now a final thought for this evening.
 Consider yourselves a jury, sitting upon the
 subject of animal magnetism.   Look upon
 it as indicted for the  crime of humbuggery.
 Lay aside  all preconceived  opinions, and
 resolve to see and hear all  the witnesses,
 before  you  make  up your  minds.   Look
 upon me  as  counsel for the  defendant;  to
your own suspicions as the prosecutor, and
to your enlightened senses and clear reflec-
tion as the judge.  The public  are gazing
upon you.  Truth should be your only aim.
I ask you not whether you have expressed
an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the
 prisoner at the bar, but will only entreat
you to give a candid rehearing if you have. 
LECTURE  II.
              HUMBUGS.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
  In  teaching, we must  meet the  pupil
where he is.  It is not  for the teacher to
complain that he finds the pupils afraid of
him.  It is his business to remove that fear.
It is not for the lecturer to complain, that,
while he would gladly  unfold the truths
of magnetism, his audience are constantly
thinking it all a humbug.  In such circum-
stances, he  must meet them on the subject
of humbugs.   He must,  if he can convince
them  that   he has well  considered that
charge.   He must, if he can, point out  the
characteristics of animal magnetism, which
ought to  exempt it from this charge.
                   68 
HUMBUGS.             69
   To do this, it will not be inappropriate
 to  take a view of humbugs, and of hum-
 buggers in general.  There are two kinds
 of humbugs in the world, and  two very
 distinct  classes of humbuggers.
  Humbugs are distinguished  into  false-
 hoods imposed upon the public for truths,
 of which the number is legion.  And the
 second  class is made up  of attempts to
 prove truths to be  falsehoods.
  The first class  propagated by persons
 without principles for gain and  applause.
 The other class by men of integrity, lovers
 of truth, but such  as had rather write than
 investigate. ' But to this last class there are
 some exceptions.  A few  may  be found,
 who, knowing a new discovery to be truth,
 write against it for the love of gain.  Such
 was Durant, when he wrote his "Magnetism
 Exploded."   I need not dwell upon the first
sort.  They can deceive  no intelligent,per-
son, unless with patent medicines.   Already 
70
LECTURE I.
those who practice sleight-of-hand, have no
thought of being allowed  credit for any
thing but dexterity.  You can impose no
scientific falsehood for truth with any hope
of success.  It will live but a day.  It will
be detected and exposed.   It does not follow
that no religious impostors can flourish in
this day.   Religion is matter of belief.   As
I have told you in my last  lecture, belief
may  be enforced  without  evidence,  but
science  is matter of knowledge, cognizable
by  the senses, and it is of  science  that I
speak.
  The world of enlighted men are guarded
against the first sort of humbugs, but in
relation to the  second  class, they are an
open  sepulchre.  Let me go to any city,
and give  notice  that I  will expose mag-
netism, and I will get a full house.  Let me
proceed in my lecture and tell them  that
all  my  experiments were mere  matters of
collusion,  that  I  have led a life of dishon- 
HUMBUGS.
71
 esty  and fraud, and back all this with a
 legion of falsehoods, and the Doctor  Mc
 Do wells, Drakes, etc., etc., would  swallow
 it all.  They would  then be  humbugged.
 And  this leads me to speak of humbuggers.
 I will premise that it is wrong to express
 any  opinion for or against any person or
 thing, of which we know nothing.   By
 what right do we do it?
  In a village where I was lecturing on this
 subject, in the  State of New York, while
 great excitement  and prejudice  prevailed,
 a very sensible lady observed:
  " Doctor, I don't say anything about this
 matter, because I don't know any thing
 about it."
  Could any one give a better reason for
pursuing a course ?   And, when you remem-
ber that your  experience in one  science,
while it  may aid  you in making experi-
ments in another, will never enable you to
infer the result of the experiment.  Ought 
72
LECTURE II.
it not, therefore, warn us never to depend
on a priori reasoning ?   Think how flat he
must  feel, who, after he has  wasted time
and  talents  to disprove  a new discovery,
shall witness its perfect triumph.
   Caleb Cushing, a good and talented man,
wrote  upon "Humbugs  and  Delusions,"
and he put in  both animal magnetism and
phrenology.   They have, as you will see,
both triumphed.  How must he feel now?
He was humbugging the public; uninten-
tionally, it is true, but just as really as if
he had intended it, and much more success-
fully  than  a  dishonest man could  have
accomplished it.
   Dr. Sewall—he is now dead; was a good
man, but he also was a humbugger.  He
denounced phrenology  which  magnetism
demonstrates.  He humbugged Hon. John
Quincy  Adams,  and many  others.  Mr.
Adams then  wrote a letter to Dr. Sewall,
thanking him  for furnishing arguments to 
               HUMBUGS.             73

prove the  falsehood of  phrenology.   He
was  humbugged; and when he permitted
that letter to go to the world to strengthen
Dr. Sewall, he also became a  humbugger.
He used his weight of character to sustain
conclusions that  were not the result of any
deliberate investigation, and which proved
to be false.  Like many others, he thought
his extensive knowledge on other subjects,
qualified him to judge one of which he
knew nothing.
  Dr. Reese, of  New York city, is another
great humbugger.   Indeed, of him, I say,
I doubt his motives, and almost his honesty.
But  grant  him honesty, he  and  Caleb
Cushing have  butted  against the  same
wall, par nobile fratrum.
  Daniel Drake, M.  D., is another hum-
bugger, when he makes the world believe,
as he doubtless does a part of it, that he
has impartially  investigated animal mag-
netism.   The subject  of his almost  daily 
74             LECTURE IL

ridicule to his class,  of his bitter  denun
ciation, while  he  avows  some belief in it,
but in which, I presume, he never stooped
to make an experiment.
  Dr.  McDowell, of St. Louis, is another
humbugger on this subject, who deserves a
passing notice.  When he first opposed the
subject of Dr. Boynton,  Boynton  was
attending daily the medical school of which
Dr. McDowell is  the  very able Professor
of Anatomy.   Boynton, desirous of con-
vincing his teacher, invited him to  be put
in communication with Makt, his subject,
then magnetized.   She  repelled him, and
gave as a reason, that she was afraid  of that
big knife which he carried. This astonished
him.   It was not known, nor was he willing
that it should  be  known, that he  carried a
bowie knife; but he did, and she denounced
it publicly.  One of his friends assured me
that the Doctor acknowledged to him, that
he could  never quite get over that.  He 
HUMBUGS.
75
now adm'.ts that there is something in it,
but avows that it has no foundation, at least
the phreno-magnetism part, has no found-
ation in anatomy that can be detected.
   But what did the Doctor do, after being
staggered on  the  subject?  He went and
took unto himself an avowed impostor, and
prevailed upon two respectable physicians,
Dr. Thompson and one other,  to  unite in
the fraud, and then announced a lecture on
magnetism.   After a display on the subject,
as if he was a believer, he presents a feigned
case,  in  the  impostor  Wright, a  portrait
painter, who had  practiced this fraud in
portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Mis-
souri.  Placing Thompson and his  other
aid beside the subject, on the ground that
he did not speak loud enough to be heard,
then holding  articles before the  blinded
patient and  the  open eyed committee,  the
patient was asked what he saw before him.
He made  a  noise without coining a word,
and  these noble minded men  said:  "He 
76
LECTURE II.
says it is a knife," or whatever thing was
held before him, they named, as repeating
after him.
  Boynton  having exposed the  previous
frauds of Wright, the painter, publicly, in
his  next lecture, McDowell instructed one
Dr. Stephens, the largest of two brothers,
now in St. Louis, and then with McDowell;
one of whom has since  opened an  eye in-
firmary, the other, I believe, edits the  St.
Louis Medical  Journal.  And I think the
smaller one a pretty good man.
  This  young  Stephens,  on  McDowell's
next lecture, feigned sleep for him, and the
same farce was performed over again.  I am
assured that he  then told the audience that
the matter presented by him, was all collu-
sion and fraud; as if making  counterfeit
money proved there was no good money;
as if feigning sickness and  death, proved
that there was no death in the world.  But
he kept the money.
  I have  been  thus particular, lest they 
HUMBUGS.             77
stiould escape the fame they have so richly
earned.
  Wright has confessed to me his frauds,
and says Dr. Madison is settled somewhere
in Indiana.   If I knew where, I  would
mention  it.   I treated Wright with  con-
tempt.  Wright imposed on McDowell, by
making him believe that there was a book
printed, and used by Prof. Johnson, and all
the pretended magnetizers, teaching a sys-
tem of collusion.  McDowell announed this
as a fact, and declared he would give the
book to the world.   Why don't he do it?
  I have suffered by the prejudices excited
by these frauds.  I therefore feel it my duty
to expose them.  I would advise the whole
clique  to go  to  Oregon or Texas.  I pre-
sume  Wright  has gone, and  McDowell is
talking about going.   Men have  as much
right to counterfeit  money as they have to
counterfeit truth.
  But see how  different is the course we
     A3 
78
LECTURE II.
pursue, to that pursued by all impostors.
If we magnetize a  case brought  with us,
you  are  allowed  to choose a committee;
but  we also magnetize some of your own
citizens before your eyes.   More,  we teach
you to do the same.   We have no curtain
behind which you may not go.  All is open
to your vision.
   We might arraign before you, witnesses,
than whom none stand higher in the scien-
tific world.  Our  own country has  a host
of witnesses.   Among divines,  Dr.  Way-
land and Dr. Beecher.  I might name many
medical professors, but that I fear  it will
make them  enemies.  Prof.  Caldwell, is,
however, too independent, and  has pub.
lished  too much to shrink from popularity
now.   In my travels, I find not a third of
the medical profession who pretend to doubt
its truth, though  most of  them greatly
desire instruction on the subject.
  Against it has been arrayed much talent, 
HUMBUGS.
79
more  bigotry, and from both have flowed
streams of ridicule.   For a season  these
things checked its progress, now they seem
rather to forward than retard it.
  Look at St. Louis! where the Catholic
church, unitedly with Doetor McDowell,
opposed  it.  Twenty-four years ago, Mc-
Dowell got up his counterfeit overthrow,
and now,  more than  half of the medical
staff of that city, have avowed their belief.
Dr. Coon is  magnetizing;  Drs.  Campbell
and Edwards, of Alton,  Drs.  Moses, Mc-
Donough,  Phillips,  and many others, are
openly avowed on this subject.
  Does this  look  like humbug?  Would
LaFayette have written Washington  as he
did, that he  might depend upon  it that
animal magnetism was a profound philo-
sophical discovery, had he not ascertained
that  there  was truth  in  it?  With  some
experiments and then  dismiss. 
LECTURE  III.
        the nervous fluid.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
  We now resume the subject of the mag-
netic or nervous fluid.  Its existence has
been denied by magnetizers.  Even LaRoy
Sunderland,  in  his  Pathetism, denies the
function we ascribe to it; denies its agency
in producing the magnetic state.   The ex-
periments  by which he proved his theory,
prove no such thing.   Careless experiments
have seemed  to prove a great  deal that is
not true.
  Dr. Braid, with his new name of Hypno-
tism, (meaning nervous sleep), labors under
the same delusion, though each has a Aery
different theory  for  the result produced.
                   80 
NERVOUS FLUID-
81
 Dr. Braid confidently  believes  that  the
 patient  is put to sleep  by fixing the eyes
 on some point, giving  them an  angle of
 some forty-five degrees.
   Both  are  entirely mistaken, as I shall
 satisfy  you.   Sunderland  is an  excellent
 man ; so, also, is Dr. Braid, of Manchester,
 England.  Both are excellent magnetizers.
 Dr.  Braid conceived his theory first, and
 made his experiments to  prove it afterward.
 His patients go to sleep as he says they do,
 but not because they look  in a particular
 direction, but because a good magnetizer's
 will is yielded to, in so doing, and more es-
 pecially  as  a  good magnetizer  keeps  his
 eyes and mind, one or  both, upon them.
 He magnetizes them with the same influ-
 ence that I do, and with the same conse-
 quent exhaustion of his own vitality.
  Immediately on  the receipt of the sup-
posed discovery of Dr. Braid I made  ex-
periments to settle the question.   If I took 
82
LECTURE III.
susceptible persons and fixed their eyes up-
on  some bright object and  my  eyes and
mind upon them, they became magnetized.
But if I directed my eyes and  attention
from  them their looking had none of Dr.
Braid's results.
  The Rev. Le Roy Sunderland fell into
his  error from adopting the idea that to  es-
tablish the magnetic communication, that
was necessary  which is only the most cer-
tain.   He supposed  contact was  essential,
when it is not so.  It may be established by
the eyes alone ; by your words in lecturing;
by  breathing  the  same atmosphere, espe-
cially in a close room; by touching those
whom the magnetizer has touched.   It may
be established  by touching any thing which
the magnetizer has touched.  It  may  be
established by the patient's mental act,  as
well as by the  magnetizer's.
  The magnetized state in relation to the
physical  condition is  one  in  which the 
NER VO US FL UID.          83
nerves of the five  senses cease to convey
impressions from without to the mind.  I
speak of the fully magnetized state.   But
each degree is an approach to this condition.
These  nerves  are  not  occupied by the
patient's own nervous fluid in its natural
condition.  It may  chance  that different
agents may produce this state, especially as
it is a negative condition.  It occurs natur-
ally in the natural somnambulist; but then
you cannot control his will, nor at a moment's
thought end the condition.   It may super-
vene at the will of the patient, after a few
sittings, in some cases; but  it may occur
without the wish of any one, only by think-
ing of it.
  The case of Miss Everett, of Alton, Illi-
nois, magnetized by J.  Buffum, who fell
into the magnetic state, on  a  moment's
thought of it,  for  a year; no one could
arouse  her but him.  It was  to him most
harrassing;  it  embittered with anxiety a 
84
LECl URE III.
whole  year of his life.    Neither of them
had even witnessed a case when this occur-
red.   They had  been reading a case in the
newspaper, when at a party, and she pro-
posed to him  to make a  trial  on her.  It
took  effect, and probably  alarmed  both.
He awoke her after a few sittings, but she
fell right off to sleep again on  thinking of
it.  This case  proves that the influence was
always drawn  from him, as no one else could
wake her.
  This fluid radiates very widely from the
magnetizer—often many  miles  to a person
to whom we are magnetically in union.  All
who  love each other are  similarly situated,
so far  that a living chain  unites  them.
Many facts go  to prove this but the time to
refer to them is not  yet.
  The subtile, imponderable fluid,  light,
moves 192,000 miles in a second.  Electric-
ity is quicker  still.   Ought  we not, there-
fore,  to give our minds  a little more sea- 
NER VO US FL UID.
85
room than we  usually do?   Had LeRoy
Sunderland kept these facts before him he
would never have run into Pathetism.   The
word is from the root, and from which our
word sympathy is derived;  and would the
man have us believe that one mind acts on
another body without an agent? producing
an effect without a cause ?!!
  Natural  somnambulism may  place the
nerves of the senses in the same relation to
the patient's  mind, as  if they are under our
system  of  affecting the  patient;  but, of
course, the body and  mind  of the patient
does not stand in the same relation to any
other person, as the  magnetized  sleeper's
mind and body stand to the magnetizer.
  The natural case has more  mystery about
it than the artificial to the magnetizer. He
sees  the  same condition  of  bad and good
mind, but no evidence of the chain which
links it to  an  other  human being as the
cause.  It  may be, however, in all cases, 
86
LECTURE III.
that on some persons the mind becomes
fixed, from whom they derive the influence,
which paralyzes, for the  time being,  their
nerves.  Similar results arise from different
causes, in very many instances.   Fear and
cold may both prove  destructive;  dryness
and wetness may prove the death of plants;
different force of the same cause may  pro-
duce contrary effects.  A man was cured of
palsy by being struck with lightning.
  By how  many ways may  death be  in-
duced.  Death by lightning, and by prussic
acid,  or by a blow on the stomach, leaves
the blood uncoagulated—it runs like water.
I might go on for hours with facts  of this
kind, all going  to  show  that neither spor-
adic  cases,  nor  any  thing else militates
against the doctrine that the agent by which
we affect the magnetic condition is a subtile,
imponderable fluid, over which, our  wills
have  extensive  control, and by which the
will produces all the  voluntary motions in 
NER VO US FL UID.           87
ourselves.  I dwell the more upon this point,
because  the  right  understanding of the
curative  powers of magnetism, and the en-
tire philosophy  of clairvoyance hang upon
this important first principle, so fully dem-
onstrated to your senses.  This fluid is sub-
ject to disease; to disorganization, by which
it becomes irritating to the nerves.   Thus
you will remember, that the sore  on the
hand made pain run up your arm.
   Pain is often felt, like a flash, where no
disease exists.   On the  same principle, the
magnetizer feels the  pain running from the
patient  to himself.  He  often knows the
moment when the  pain ceases which he is
attempting to  relieve by perceiving it no
longer to flow  on himself..
   The magnetizer gives  his good and re-
ceives the patient's impure, nervous  fluid,
and because the patients look to and  yield
to the magnetizer,  the  magnetizer's  will
holds  a  controlling influence  over what he 
88
LECTURE III.
gives and what he  receives.   He  can even
throw what he receives from him in part, and
thus feel its unpleasant influence less; thus
by his will he produces, through this fluid,
movements involuntary to the patient,  and
often despite  his resistance;  so we  compel
his hands to rise, and even when quite waked
up,  in  many  cases, we  expel them from us
without touch;  attract them to us from the
other  side of the  room; compel them to
place the hand on the  head,  or any where
we  please, midst roars of laughter, and cries
of "dont do it."   Often to boys, bribes are
offered to urge successful resistance, but al-
ways in vain ; but for an evil purpose you
cannot magnetize;  because this fluid thrown
out with an evil intent would produce a re-
pulsive feeling.  You  see, then,  that  the
magnetizer must be healthy, and  also of
good moral character.
  It seems to me that the whole product of
magnetic fluid,  from  any  magnetizer,  is 
NERVOUS FLUID
89
characterized  by  the organs  in  highest
action; that,  characterized by the moral
sentiments,  is the kind that heals; it  goes
out for the good of others.  When I mag-
netize healthy persons it fatigues me but lit-
tle, unless they resist me.  When they re-
sist me their  nervous fluid  rests  with a
deadening weight on my system ;  but when
I  magnetize the sick, especially paralytic
cases, or persons subject to, or, more espec-
ially,  just aroused from   fits,  then I  am
weighed down, and look upon myself as the
scape-goat of the diseased person.
   It becomes so mixed  between  husband
and wife, who love each other,  and live to-
gether, that a good  somnambulist will, by
this, select them out; give the  patient the
hand  of one of them, and the other, un-
known also to  the  magnetiser, comes up
with half  a  dozen  others,  and  the  patient
will reject every hand but the right  one,
the husband or  wife to  the  one already
there. 
LECTURE III.
90
  You know how truly the dog  will track
an animal,  or his master.  From the mas-
ter's feet, through his shoes, is left enough
of  something at every  step to produce
recognition in the dog;  so of his master's
gloves or  pocket handkerchief, the same
may  be  affirmed.    So  the somnambu-
list,   who  does  not  see  as   some  do,
will find the owner of any article given the
patient, by feeling the article, and then the
hands of those  present.  One of my sub-
jects, who could not  see,  but who excelled
in this experiment, always carefully felt the
article and then raised the hand and moved
it around the room,  and  it would traverse
just like the magnetic  needle, and become
still precisely towards  the  person from
whom the article came.   By accident I dis-
covered that it was not ownership but pos-
session alone that guided the patient.
  A  man  gave me his own knife;  the
patient  went to him and felt his hand, let 
NERVOUS FLUID.
91
it go, and felt the hand of one near him,
returned and examined the  owner's again,
and then turned and carefully examined the
other,  and placed  the knife in his hand.
As this was her first  error—and she  had
been tried often—nothing could perplex her,
so I  thought.   Many can be bothered by a
change of place in the owner, etc., etc., but
she had never been,  and I,  therefore, ex-
pressed surprise!  when the owner said:
"Perhaps I can explain it.  It is my knife,
but that man,  to whom she gave it,  has
carried it for the past hour in his pocket; I
just  took it from  him and handed it' to
you."  It is through this exchange of  ner-
vous fluid that old persons injure children,
by sleeping with  them,  while it proves
beneficial to themselves. 
LECTURE  IY.
      curative power of magnetism.
 Ladies and Gentlemen :
   The curative power of magnetism claims
•our attention this night.  I shall not dwell
 upon the history of cures, but the philoso-
 phy of  its curative power.  It  is closely
 connected  with  the subject of our last lec-
 ture.
   I deny that imagination  ever effects the
 health; or, in other, and better  language,
 that Ideality ever affects the health, except
 by depressing the action of hope  and other
 organs, and poles of the brain, or by bring-
 ing on  an over  action of these poles and
 organs.  If those who use  the word imagi-
 nation, mean thereby,  the whole  mind and 
CURATIVE PO WER.
93
its organs,  then they  should  use  language
which we  can  understand.    Their own
minds may  be made up so much of imagina-
tion that to them  it may be synonymous
with mind.
  It  should not be denied  that  the mag-
netizer, as well  as  the  physician, acts
through the mind of the patient, in restor-
ing  health, in  many  cases; in some more
than others, and in some not  at  all.   In
this respect the difference is two-fold be-
tween the drug doctor and the magnetizing
doctor; because, firstly, the drug doctor
has no clear motives or  ideas how he cures
through the mind.   The magnetizer under-
stands how the raising  of hope may ener-
gize the sources of innervation to the sys-
tem, and thus bring health from itself; this
is  one difference.   Another  difference  is
this:  the  magnetizer  can-awaken  those
sources of  innervation by the direct action
of magnetism upon them. 
94
LECTURE IV
  Like the shipwrecked mariner, tossed in
the long  boat, sinking from thirst, hunger,
exertion and hope deferred, lying helpless
in the boat, the cheering cry of "land in
sight!" electrifies his whole system, through
awakened hope, and to  his own astonish-
ment, and that of all around him, he seizes
the oar,  and wields it like a man in full
vigor.  This exertion is frequently followed
by death; but could the moment of restored
energy have been met with food and water,
prudently administered, restoration to health
would have followed.
  One of  the  chief  differences  between
medical men lies in their power of inspiring
the patient.  Your long  faced,  gloomy, or
ascetic, whining physicians, may give  the
same remedies, in the same doses and per-
iods,  and  lose  his  patient, under circum-
stances  which a cheerful, affectionate  and
hope awakening practitioner  would  cure
without any difficulty. 
CURATIVE POWER.         95
   Patent medicines, highly recommended,
inspire hope, and thus awaken the despond-
ing powers of the system.  If you ask why
this view of the subject has not been gen-
eral, and why the physician,  has not taken
hold of it systematically,  in his practice, I
answer, because, until the mind was phren-
ologically understood it  was hardly possi-
ble so to comprehend the matter as not to
leave room for  the charge  of quackery;
besides, failures with an article will soon
destroy your power of exciting high expec-
tation in its use.   But when you can mag-
netize a person there is no such limits to the
excitement of  hope;  you excite the or-
gans, not by the stimulus of an idea, a fact
or a  rumor,  but by impinging  you own
healthy nervous fluid upon them,  by plac-
ing your fingers upon the organs.   This is
the second and superior  method of acting
on the system through the mind.   So much,
then,  for  the  much sneered at method of 
96            LECTURE IV.
curing through  the mind.   In my  own
practice this has been one  of my best  aux-
ilaries.  I never gave my patients the blues;
I cheered and aroused the mind, awakened
hope and firmness, and few have been more
successful.
  But there is another  form of action of
magnetism.  It is direct  action  upon the
part affected,  without exciting hope, and
even  very often against  hope.   This  is
done by supplying the part with good ner-
vous  fluid, and at the  same time taking
away much that is bad.    This is the chief
mode, and the grand secret, of* magnetic
cures.
  That the nervous  fluid may become dis-
eased; that it  may be exchanged, and that
in this way cures may be  effected, I shall
quote to prove.  It may all look to you as
the most baseless theory;  with me, it is but
deductions from experiments.
  But before I proceed  to detail the facts, 
             CUR A TIVE PO WER.          9 7

 which formed for  me the above conclusions,
 let us enquire whether, in the wide field
 of observation, there  may not be  found
 many things analogous to the above views
 of magnetism.  If we can find such, it will
 give this theory a philosophical harmony.
   Imponderable substances have been but
 slightly investigated.  Their number, so far
 as known, is few.  With me the probable
 number is considerable.   I am not convinced
 that  electricity,-galvanism  and magnetism
 are identical.  I know that this is looked
 upon as a proof of obtuseness of intellect;
 but I cannot help it; their identity of effect
 does not prove their identity of substance;
 we have  before spoken of this.  Similar
 results  follow  different  causes;  besides,
 there is some evidence of  their not being
 identical;  at the same time many experi-
ments indicate their identity; but I find
much indication of identity between copper
and gold, zinc and tin, iron  and nickle, etc., 
98             LECTURE IV.
etc.;  and so of many other things.   But
have you not observed that the magnet gives
off magnetism without lessening the quan-
tity that is left.   This seems to be a peculi-
arity  of imponderable matter, dwelling in,
or adhering to,  ponderable matter.   This
would indicate a power  of reproduction in
itself, or  a faculty of induction  or imbibi-
tion from surrounding nature.  This would
seem less strange where vitality, either ani-
mal or vegetable, exists;  but many strange
things are true.   The  power of yeast or
leaven to reproduce  itself in  substances
which contain gluten,  is well known, and is
a good parallel with magnetic effect.   The
well  known  effect  of the insertion of a
small quantity of small  pox virus, or the
virus  of  many  other  contagious diseases,
and  the  action of the virus of animal poi-
sons  on the human system, not only proves
that foreign matter is  readily absorbed, but
that   it is extensively reproduced. 
CUR A TIVE PO WER.          O 9
   How great a matter a little fire kindleth?
 How much small pox matter is generated by
 a small amount of original virus in the
 body, though the quantity be not the tenth
 part of the size  of a pin  head ?  What  is
 taken in at one breath from the fine  parti-
 cles floating in  the air  around  you?  If,
 therefore,  diseased matter may generate
 disease, and diseased nervous fluid as readi-
 ly as any thing, why may we not inoctulate
 with healthy nervous fluid, just as well as
 with diseased effluvium ?
  Even  in the  days long gone  by, it was
 believed that a  well  person might  take
 the plague away  from the  infected,  and
 save them, but at the expense of their own
 life.  It was  an exchange of health for dis-
ease.   Some kinds of earth extract poison;
but where you see the power which, by this
inserted  fluid, we exercise over the muscles
of the patient,  taken  at will,  we  give
them increased sensibility, or render them 
100            LECTURE IV.
utterly insensible, you can more freely ap-
preciate  that we  can awaken  and restore
natural action in parts where it is defective
It cures burns in a few moments; that is, it
relieves the smarting; it also  hastens the
healing process.   A scald of the legs, by
hot water, dashed  against them, was entire-
ly relieved in eight minutes, so that the boy
cried out,  "There, Doctor,  you need not
do  so any more,  for now  it don't smart
any."  The scald was continuous, from one
to three  inches wide, and from four inches
above the knee to the end  of the toes, on
both legs.
  A cooper,  in Alton, cut his foot with an
adze; the next morning it  was very  sore.
He sent for me.   I found it red, but to the
hand, placed on it with magnetic intention,
it felt cold.   Having kept my hand  on it
until the feeling was warm and natural,  I
bid  him put on the sock over a magnetic
rag.  He did so;  went off to his shop, and 
CURATIVE POWER.         101
worked every day, standing on his feet, and
after some days came to my lecture and in-
formed the audience that  it had never hurt
him after I left it.   It is so with sprains,
and bruises;  they are quickly relieved.  It
is frequently so with  salt  rheum, tetters,
etc., etc.
  My time to speak  of  diseases has not
come.   I quote the above because there will
be few who can suppose that these are cured
through the  mind,  especially, as frequently
the patient has had no faith  in magnetism.
When  we can get to the subject  of the
treatment of diseases,  I have much to tell
you.
  My next lecture  will be upon the qualifi-
cations of a  good magnetizer; that will be
followed by  the mode and manner of pro-
ducing sleep. 
LECTURE  V.
   qualifications of a good magnetizer.
Ladies and Gentlemen :
   Every person, male or female, possesses
more or less magnetic power; but the dif
ference that exists between human beings
in musical talent is not greater than the dif-
ference which  they  exhibit in  magnetic
power.   Indeed, I consider  this  the best
parallel that we have of  the difference.  In
singing,  all can make some noise;  many
sing tolerably, and a smaller number quite
ably, and a very few with a most remarka-
ble and  surprising perfection.  It is so in
magnetizing.
  There are other analogies—those of qual-
ity and  strength.   Some   produce  sleep 
OF MAGNETIZERS.         103
with great success, who do not heal so readi-
ly as  some whose power in this respect is
much less.  The well known grounds of
difference lies  in physical and moral quali-
ties, and peculiarities of temperament;  good
health is  an essential  requisite;  what has
been stated in our preceeding lecture indi-
cates this  clearly.
  You  cannot  draw health from the dis-
eased.   A diseased  person  might, in  some
cases, improve his health by  magnetizing
healthy persons, if he can find those who
are willing to  be  infected  by  him.  In
Bluffdale, one of my class, who was suffer-
ing from rheumatism in the shoulders, mag-
netized  a person who  was in health, and
got rid of his rheumatism,  and found his
subject  groaning under the  same same dis-
tress  of which he found himself relieved.
This has occurred frequently under my ob-
servation.
  The good magnetizer should, nay,  must 
104
LECTURE V.
be well or he cannot be fit to magnetize.
He should be regular in his diet, rest and
exercise.   He should wash  his whole body
daily, in cold water.  He should drink no
intoxicating liquors.
  How the magnetizer shall preserve him-
self  from injury from magnetizing,  and
every  matter in relation to magnetizing,
will come, in  due course, by and by;  but
at present I  proceed to name the next requi-
site—confidence-   This  arises  from  self
esteem,  firmness ..and  concentrativeness
brought into  action by the intellectual ex-
citement  of things read or seen; evidence
from books, lectures, or experiments, or all
together.  You require to feel that you can
magnetize; to feel so, coolly, dispassionate-
ly,  and unwaveringly;  you require to feel
that you are equal to any emergency that
may occur;  though the patient go into con-
vulsions you are not agitated.  With a firm
voice,  and a  mind  unwavering, you com- 
OF MAGNETIZERS.        105
mand  the system to be calm;  and often
you must calm the  fears of those around
you.   To  be thrown into  trepidation is
dangerous to your patient, and has, when
magnetizers have  become alarmed, awak-
ened prejudices against magnetism.  There
are many instances  in  which the patient
and every one around you believe that the
patient is free from magnetic influence, and
yet, the patient, when awakened, shall have
no  consciousness  of  what has transpired.
The magnetizer will  frequently have some-
thing of this sort to  contend  with.
  When I come to speak of  the dangers of
magnetism, these  cases  will  be mentioned
in illustration.  There ought to be a happy
faculty in inspiring  confidence in  your
patient, in making your presence agreeable
to them, and of convincing them that you
take a real interest in their recovery.  This
belongs to the next qualification,  to wit:
Benevolence. 
106
LECTURE V.
  Benevolence is that feeling which rejoices
in the happiness of others.  It loves to do
good to others.  It is patient in trying to
do good to others.   When benevolence and
its associate  moral organs  are in  higher
action  than  the  propensities  and  selfish
sentiments, the magnetism from  all parts,
which give rise to  it, seems  to  be  qualified
and consecrated by these higher sentiments
into  its own nature, and this gives to the
whole a healing quality.
  It is thought  strange that one  shall not
be able to  magnetise with a bad motive—
to seduce,  rob,  disfigure, etc.   It is only
necessary to perceive, that when the selfish
sentiments predominate in action  the mag-
netism is  repulsive to the  patient.  You
may make an impression  on them, but the
effect will be just  to awaken a perception
not naturally possessed, that  will  make
them repel you from them  without the
attainment of your desired  sleep.  So,  if 
OF MAGNETIZERS.        107
you get them asleep, and  then attempt to
take an advantage, which you  contemplate
only after they are fully magnetized, they
will  generally detect you and  place them-
selves  out  of your power.  Even when I
have been  made  angry,  or when I have
touched some very  diseased person whilst
my subject was magnetized, when I would
again approach my  subject, I have been
repelled from them, often with great indig-
nation.   " You have been angry, go way
from me.  You  are unfit  to  touch me."
" If you magnetize him, you shan't magne-
tize me any more," and the like.
  Some persons have so little  benevolence
that they never can do much at healing.
Some of these might magnetize one of their
own family,  where  great attachment or
much interest was felt, but utterly fail with
others.
  In the common intercourse  of life, per-
sons having large benevolence  display it in 
108
LEC1URE V.
all their  actions.   It  makes  the  language
soothing and musical  to  the  sick of body
or mind.  Benevolence " thinketh no evil,
beareth  all  things,  hopeth   all  things."
Benevolence  makes one  willing  to  bear
fatigue  and pain  that others  may enjoy
rest  and tranquility.  It dries  up  the
orphans  tears,  and changes  the  widows
tears of grief to tears of  gratitude.
  When this organ, by a right system of
education, is fully developed in all, should
it be possible, then will peace and goodwill
reign among men.   The millennial  day
will have come; the great secret will have
been  discovered.  Men  will seek  hap-
piness in  trying to make  each other
happy.   And therein will it  be found that
creeds and ceremonies have never done it,
and  never will do it.   Love  must reign
over all we do,  and then all we do will be
right.  It will bless the giver no less than
the receiver. 
OF MA GNETIZERS.         109
  That cold distance, which  vice, vanity,
ignorance, covetousness, self-esteem and fear
have created and nourished, must be melted
away by the  sun  of intelligence,  love,
veneration,  hope,  ideality,  adhesiveness,
conscientiousness and  suavity,  and  then
will men seek happiness in a broader field,
and with a truer light, and with a mining
rod that will lead directly to  the precious
ore of happiness.
  Remember how happy you have  made
yourself when you have aided the distressed,
relieved the oppressed and bound up the
broken  hearted; then can you  appreciate
the pleasure we take in  healing the sick
and relieving the  distressed.  But a good
magnetizer  must  also maintain a  good
moral  character.   He cannot  expect  to
succeed without it.   He may  be  a Mahom-
etan, a Hindoo, a Christian or a skeptic  in
religious faith, yet, as either,  may  have
excellent moral characters,  so either may 
110
LECTURE V.
be  excellent  magnetizers.  I  do not say,
remember, that none but such as I describe
can magnetize.  Bad men are not always
in a  bad  disposition  or state  of  mind.
Kindness and sympathy are  often found at
times  in even  obdurate hearts,  and,  not
unfrequently, the tenderest hearts in those
who are easily ensnared by  temptation.
Their susceptibility to impressions  is the
foundation  of their  weaknesses.   They are
not deliberately viscious, for they are too
susceptible to be  deliberate in anything.
Such  should avoid  temptation  as  they
would avoid misery and  distress ; hence, a
good  magnetizer ought to  possess great
firmness  and great  decision of character.
He should  be of adult years, and not too
old.   Some would magnetize well at ten or
twelve, or even younger, but  it would injure
them  to magnetize much, and  some very
healthy men of from sixty to sixty-five may
be very good magnetizers, but not  many, 
OF MAGNETIZERS.         HI
 and not  then, unless they have excellent
 health and suppleness,  that  indicates full
 vigor.
   The cures  in  the  Catholic church have
 been mostly by the excitation of the mind,
 and little by direct magnetic  action.  The
 age or character of the priest has less to do
 in these cases, nor has his health any more.
 They pass them for  miracles, and believe
 them  to be so, and hence the zeal they show
 against magnetism.  It is too late in the
day now,  and they will be shorn of all this
glory.  Magnetism will prevail. 
LECTURE  VI.
mode of operating, and condition of the
                PATIENT.
Ladies and Gentlemen :
  Having considered some of the primary
principles of magnetism, and the qualifica-
tions of the magnetizer, we shall now speak
of the mode and circumstances of magnet-
izing.  No writer  has given  full  instruc-
tions on this department.  From experi-
ment I learned much that was not  in  the
books.
  It is impossible to say what proportion
of mankind can  be thrown  into the mag-
netic state.  This can never  be ascertained
until whole  communities are  found,  all
willing and free from all fear and trepida-
tion, and these carefully tried upon.  From 
MODE AND CONDITION.      113
such experiments alone can we get an an
swer to the question.   Deleuze, who  only
magnetized  the sick,  sets  down  perfect
health  as  generally an insusceptible state.
This is by no means true.  Although many
who are susceptible when out of  health
become insusceptible  when they  recover
their health.   But more just rules can be
drawn  from temperament and  phrenologi-
cal development, than  from health and ill-
ness.  Nervous lymphatic, nervous bilious,
nervous sanguine, are  favorable  tempera-
ments.   With either of these, a low place
on top of  the  head, (in phrenological lan-
guage, small veneration,) furnish the  most
good cases.  Between ten and twenty years
of age is the most favorable age.   I  have
produced cases of eighteen months all along
up to seventy-six years of  age.  There are
two sorts of willing to be magnetized.  One
is, " You may put me to sleep if you can ;"
in which you see there is defiance ; and the 
114
LECTURE VI.
other kind is a real desire to be magnetized.
The last is the best condition.  I have often
succeeded  with the first class—more  fre-
quently with the second.
  It is sneeringly said that " faith in the
patient  is  necessary."  It is true that this
enables  them to  be  calm and unagitated.
They can  avoid resistance; and it is more
pleasant  to attempt a  believer  than a
sneerer.   But, at the same time,  I am able
to say that I have, years ago, thrown a
number into the  magnetic state, who knew
nothing about the object I had in view, and
who knew nothing about magnetum.  And
I have  thrown  hundreds  into that state,
some of whom believed that it was impos-
sible to  magnetize them;  as also  great
numbers who looked upon the whole matter
as a humbug.
  This is  the whole truth about the matter.
Belief may and does help in many cases;
Unbelief may  and  does hinder  in many 
MODE AND CONDITION.      115
cases;  but neither has any influence only a?
affecting the calming or trepidation of the
patient.  Frequently persons have sat once
without acknowledging that they were af-
fected  in  the least, who, after being con-
vinced that  magnetism  is  true,  have  sat
again  and were easily  magnetized.  But
many who are willing can be but very little
affected, though full believers.  On myself
it acts quickly, and takes the control of  my
voluntary muscles in  a few minutes — ren-
ders me unable to open my eyes, or speak,
in five minutes.   I have never been beyond
the third degree.
  But I am to talk of magnetizing.  Well,
to begin, your patient ought to sit comfor-
tably.   If an adult, a little lower than  the
magnetizer — with no one but the magnet-
izer  to look him in  the face.  He should
have  the magnetizer sitting immediately
before him, not leaning back  too much, as
this  would  put  him  too  far  from  the 
116           LECTURE VI.
magnetizer.   His head should not fall back,
as this would soon be uncomfortable, and
his eyes  should  fix calmly on those of the
magnetizer.   The magnetizer should never
expect to succeed with persons talking, or,
worse still, whispering in the room.  Worse
still, if there is talking to, or about, the pa-
tient, or  about  magnetism.  I have  suc-
ceeded under all kinds  of circumstances,
but failures  are so numerous when all is not
still that, in attempting a new case, I am
disappointed if I succeed.  Even gazing at
them will often prevent you from getting
them further than the first degree.   This is
far enough  to wake up  some of that new
power of feeling or perception,  and all pro-
gress is  at  an  end.  The moment those
present draw near to watch your progress,
and get close to the patient, as  they gener-
ally will at first, you will get them no fur-
ther.   I  succeed very  well,  often, on a
steamboat;  often when  many  are talking, 
MODE AND  CONDITION.      117
but do not know that I am magnetizing
But the moment  the attention is caught
and they gather around you, what you have
gained  already is all you  should expect.
The great difficulty which prevents my sue
cess is not in want of susceptible persons in
this audience, but in the want of willing
cases, and my inability to induce those who
look upon it to be a humbug, to  obey my
injunctions.  Never go near the magnetizer
until  he calls you.  If you can get some
thing to read  draw your mind  away from
the subject.  Be still.  Now let  the mag
netizer,  sitting before the patient near as he
well can, with the patient's feet between his
own, take his  thumbs  by placing the ball
of his thumb  to the ball of the patient's,
bringing the fore-finger across the nail of
the thumb, that he  may   not strain the
thumb back too far for comfort, and throw-
ing his fingers as far over into the hand of
the patient as may be, he has as good a 
118
LECTURE VI.
contact and position as can be  selected.
Many other ways will do well, such as tak-
ing hold of the hands or wrists, or laying
the hands  on the head, etc., etc.; but at
first we will do best to follow a rule, so that
the attention be not distracted with fears
that we are going wrong.
  Now, collecting your thoughts and fixing
your eyes  and mind on the patient, exert
firmly  the  intention  to magnetize.  You
will a motion of a limb, and it moves ; and
so in magnetizing, you will to magnetize,
and the effect begins to take place.  But
you must not sit as a gentleman once told
me that he ofttn had.  He took the thumbs
of the patient and waited for them to go to
sleep.   The good magnetizer makes an ef-
fort, even  when he sits motionless, that
often makes  the sweat  flow freely.  The
first symptom that  you will observe in
ninety-nine cases  out of a  hundred is, the
thumbs becoming wet  and cold;  and the 
MODE AND  CONDITION.      119
next, the drawing a deep inspiration.  The
whole hands become cold and wet.  After
holding the thumbs a few minutes, draw
your hands away and, turning the backs of
your hands towards the patient, you will
move them apart the width of the patient's
body, and a little more, and  thus you will
carry them up to the shoulders  of the pa-
tient.  Placing the fingers here a few  mo-
ments, you will pass them lightly down the
arms a few times,—and always carrying
them up in the same position  as  at first.
You will next place them a moment on the
head, the thumbs placed on the forehead
just above the nose. Then you will pass
them over the  face, and then placing  the
thumbs on the pit  of the stomach, and the
fingers around the sides, you will keep them
there two minutes.  Then pass them down
to the knees.  These are called preparatory
manipulations.   They are intended to es-
tablish  the  communication  between  the 
120
LECTURE VI.
magnetizer and the patient.  You will then
proceed to  make  passes  from  the  head,
shoulders, etc., to the knees, and occasion-
ally to the  feet.  These are the rules for
producing magnetic sleep.   But there are
many auxiliary  movements which are  of
sufficient importance to decide the experi-
ment, of which  no one has written, that I
will now proceed to detail.
  When your patient's hands, after becom-
ing cold, begin again to get warm, and you
have got the eyes closed, and yet not more
than one degree of magnetism on the pa-
tient, you will lose all unless you resort to
an auxiliary aid.   Nothing  is better than
to desire them to rise and  walk with you.
Walk lively, and no matter  if  the eyes
open.  Keep your mind strongly on them,
and give them several turns across the floor.
Then magnetize as before.   The hands will
become cold again, or, if they do  not, you
may give over the experiment for this time. 
MODE AND CONDITION.      121
If the hands become hot whilst the eyes
are yet open, give over at once.  You may
make the head ache, but you will  not pro
duce sleep.  You remember it is  about in-
ducing sleep that I am now instructing you.
It is a good plan to give them the  hand of
some one and let them try to tell whose
hand they hold-   This  will often get the
hands cold again.  No matter whether they
tell right or wrong, never correct  them at
this stage, but, after a  few trials,  continue
to  magnetize  them if  their  hands have
become cold, if not, give over.  I often ask
them if they sit comfortably, and in a firm
voice,— never fear its waking them.  This
often helps you.   "Does  the light hurt
your eyes ?"  This is a very proper ques-
tion, as, in four cases out of five it  becomes
necessary to cover the eyes soon after they
close, or  they will suffer pain from the light.
A few can bear  the light.   To many it is
utterly intolerable.  If you have  them so 
122
LECTURE VI.
that you can feel a hope that they may ex-
ert a little  clairvoyance, place your thumb
upon the forehead, and, concentrating your
mind for a moment, bid them look  at their
liver, or look to the house where some per-
son whom they would  like to see resides.
Never propose what would be disagreeable
to  them when awake.  If they make the
effort and succeed you are  now safe for this
case, unless you present too soon what is
less agreeable to them.   If now you  can
induce them to sing, either by exciting the
organs of tune, time, harmony,  etc., or by
asking them, or by both, you will  find, if
your mind is still kept on them with inten-
tion to magnetize  during the singing, that
you have got  them into a  deeper  state.
This is not  always the  case, but it  fre-
quently is.   I  sometimes give  them  my
cane, or any magnetized article, and charge
them  to let no one but  me have it.  A
struggle by some  one present to take the 
MODE AND CONDITION.      123
article  from  them,  whilst  I   mentally
strongly will them to resist, often gets them
deeper.  A second walk, after finding the
first to  have helped you, is always proper,
and sometimes I gain by repeating again
and again.  But mark well! If those pres-
ent break into a giggle, you draw a blank.
No one  should look at them.  Keep your
eyes and mind away from, them, ye anxious
ones.   Again, you will often  gain by mag-
netizing two or more at a time.  No one is
certain that they are the person  on whom
the operator has  set his mind.  He  can
manipulate one while his whole mind is on
another.   But in joining more than three,
you may get one who will excite  to  invol-
untary resistance every  one in the chain.
We now adjourn, to resume the  subject at
our next lecture. 
LECTURE  VII.
        same subject continued.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
  By reference  to the former lectures, you
will perceive that the magnetic fluid flows
from the magnetizer upon the patient; and
now I proceed  to state that it would seem
that the magnetizer can direct  the magnet-
ism of those who choose to unite with him.
To do this, you had better connect  them
by having them lay a hand  on your knee,
one on each side of  you;  and,  if there are
more  than one,  let them form a circle be-
hind you.   They should, in all cases, direct
their  influence upon the magnetizer and not
on the patient.   But when persons have 
MODE AND  CONDITION.       125
been daily in the same chain, their nervous
fluid becomes so united that  they may all
fix their minds with success on the patient
But yet some patients prove that they are
only under the magnetism of one;  yet  in
some it will require the persons joining in
magnetizing to join in waking, whilst  in
others any one in  connection with the pa-
tient or magnetizer may wake the patient.
I have been compelled to call upon  several
persons to wake the patient in connection
with myself.  Generally, when I could not
awaken them, they have been able  to tell
me whose influence was  joined to mine.  In
all such  cases, we should be calm.  And
never should we awaken them because they
have become alarmed.  Cases of patients
becoming  alarmed are very rare;  never
when they sit down perfectly resigned to go
into the magnetic state, unless  either the
magnetizer or some near friend of the  pa-
tient  present should  first  get  alarmed 
126           LECTURE VII.
This  alarm is often communicated with
great facility without sight or sound, and
from  the next room.  Often have I been
magnetizing a child, say ten or twelve years
old, when the mother was in the next room
unknown to me,  and much  opposed to the
child being magnetized.  The startings of
the child has told me to enquire for the
mother, and why she was not present, when
the whole  matter came out in full.   The
mother, especially, is always closely joined
magnetically to  the  child, and  now the
child, with  its feelings greatly quickened by
a little magnetism, partakes of an irritating
influence from the mother.   When I have
a subject whom I magnetize daily, and some
one in my presence" attempts  to magnetize
them, even when they are  quite willing, I
can by a mental insistence prevent them
from  being more than  slightly  affected.
They become very restless,  and sometimes
have told the person  attempting to magne- 
MODE AND CONDITION.      127
tize them,  " the Doctor won't let you mag-
netize me."  I speak of well-attested facts,
experiments meant  to produce  not specific
proof of any thing, but simply made to see
what the result would be.  Often have I
found it different from what I anticipated.
Truth is all I sought and seek.  Truth is all
I write  or say;  and when I come to speak
of any  point or fact not entirely establish-
ed, I shall speak of it as such.  In  this
way, we shall walk safely—our footing will
be firm.
  Ladies and  gentlemen, the  rules  laid
down may suffice to direct you in producing
the magnetic state.  But you need much in-
formation beyond  this, to give it remedial
direction.  It consists in  directing it upon
parts affected, and giving  motion and ener-
gy to their actions, to  imparting new life
where death almost reigns.  Sometimes we
at first only remove the  distress to some
other part, but do not lessen the suffering. 
128
LEC1URE VII.
The necessity to keep up our exertions un-
til we have wholly discharged the system
of  this  distress,  is  now  imperative.    It
might, like the metastasis  or change of lo-
cality in gout, be more distressing and more
dangerous  than before.  But in relation  to
this subject, I shall treat fully when I come
to speak of particular diseases under mag-
netic treatment.
   It is quite appropriate  to close this lec-
ture by giving directions  how to awaken
your  patient.  And first  let me say that
you should alwaken your patient whether
they go  to sleep or not#   You will under-
stand this paradox by what follows.  The
signs of unequivocal  magnetic  sleep  are
plain and simple, with a few exceptions.
The good  magnetizer is more  likely to  be
deceived about the  patient by  supposing
him awake when he is not, than by suppos-
ing him asleep when he is not.  So  true is
this, that had I not carefully followed the 
MODE AND  CONDITION.      129
rule  which I lay down for you, I should
have left more than one  case fully magne-
tized yet apparently awake. You can never
be too careful here, and  to enforce this I
must  relate a few cases.  But first let me
say, that to awaken  a patient ordinarily,
requires only that for a few moments you
reverse the motion of your hands.  Throw
it off.  This is all, in most cases, that you
need do.  More  than  in  most cases than I
do; I generally tell them to wake up in five
minutes, and this suffices.   It  is well to
throw off  a little when  their  eyes  open,
when you wake  them either by reversed
passes or by setting a time.  One minute is
in some cases sufficient, and in some cases-1
have awakened them instantly.  But while
sudden waking agrees well with a few and
not well with most, with  some it seems im-
possible.  No plan I can devise will awaken
a little girl of J. J. Warsham's in Memphis.
About three hours is the shortest time the 
130
LECTURE VII.
most incessent  exertions can effect it.  I
bade them finally put her on the bed and
let her sleep it out.   At tea time, I saw her
at the table again waiting on  people  at
about three hours after my attempt to wake
her.   This had been the result of various
trials of her master—bid  her to awake,
leave her, and in about three  hours she
comes out of it.  She is colored, and about
ten years old.
  In 1841, in Maumee City, I mesmerized
the editor of a paper in a  lawyer's office,
without succees, because he would not  re-
sign  himself.  Immediately his brother, a
lawyer, took the seat and was  immediately
thrown tnto the magnetic sleep.   The phe-
nomena was remarkable in face-making—
Hogarth said, this lawyer's partner who was
present.   " Hogarth could never equal this
exhibition of  distorted faces.   He  could
only be brought to a quiet by a severe slap
on his leg.  Then being asked what caused 
MODE AND CONDITION.      131
his contortions of countenance, replied with
difficulty, " why, why, they all stand round
here and don't believe anything in  this;"
and then he would give way again to face-
making.
  The next day he came to my room to be
again mesmerized.   There was but one per-
son in the room besides us two, yet I could
not close his eyes.  He often remarked that
"he was sorry that  I did not  affect  him
any."  His hands  had been cold, but be-
came warm again,  and I  became satisfied
that I could not produce sleep this time.  I
therefore said so.    " Sit  still, and let me
throw it off Hosmer;" " there  is nothing
to throw off,"  was his instant remark.  I
commenced the  reversed  passes, and in a
few moments his eyes closed and he rose up
on his feet, placed his hands to the back of
his head, commenced  a rapid jumping up
and down for perhaps a  minute and then
dropped back into his chair.  Then he com- 
132
LECTURE VII.
menced making comic faces with motions of
hands  and  feet in conjunction.  This  he
again  interrupted  by rising,  placing his
hands at the back of his head and shooting
them as high as he could, at the same time
jumping  as high as he could.   He made
perhaps a  dozen jumps, and then awoke
unconscious of  all that had occured since
sitting down to be mesmerized when he first
entered the room.
  There is  another case which has frequent-
ly occurred with me, that is important to
know.  Persons who have been some time
intemperate are very easily magnetized, but
you should never magnetize such in a crowd.
Better have a very few, and these few  be-
lievers. They are liable to start suddenly,
open their eyes without being awake; and
in two instances have  turned  to me with
sparkling eyes and a cunning look and said,
"Doctor, haven't I played possum about
long enough?"  This before a public audi- 
MODE AND CONDITION.     133
ence is  very mortifying.   But mark well,
they are never awake.  If, as is not uncom-
mon, they rise to their feet, in a firm and
gentle manner say (calling them by name if
you  know the name) " please sit down a
minute," and they will sit down, their eyes
will close, followed  by a long-drawn deep
breath, two  or three or more  such breaths
and he is under your control again.   If you
cannot get him to sit down, you must watch
him until he goes to bed and sleeps it off,
as I had to do in one case.  This  last case
went, as he had previously agreed, to a ball-
alley, and played several games,  speaking
to no one.   He had no recollection of see-
ing me at the alley.   I could relate more
cases, but these may suffice for the making
you careful  to know  that your patient is
fully awake  when you leave him. 
        LECTURE  VIII.

HOW to apply  mesmerism  as  a remedy
              in disease.

Ladies  and Gentlemen:
  This is  a very different thing from put-
ting into the magnetic sleep.  And yet you
must begin as if that was your  aim.   And
right glad am I  if they go to sleep, for then
they are always capable of directing their
own treatment.   I always ask them where
and for  how long I shall direct the influence
upon them, how long it should remain on
them, etc.  But you should never make  a
strained effort to get them deeply asleep.
There  are good reasons for this.   Some- 
        MESMERISM AS A REMEDY     135

times you had  better make the long pass,
i. e., move  the hands from  head to  feet
every pass you  make.  This is required in
very delicate cases, cases of  extreme  ner-
vous  impressibility.   But generally  you
best operate gently until they appear to
make no more  progress  towards going to
sleep, then direct the influence on the part
or parts affected, for half to three quarters
of an hour, and if the hands  have become
warm throw it  off by reversed passes.  If
the hands are yet cold, continue longer to
magnetize.   You will close the eyes in from
five to fifteen minutes or  never.   " A man
tried me two hours and could not affect me
at all."  This has often been told me.  My
reply always is, " he must have been green,
or he would never have  worked  so long."
In nearly all cases if you affect them at all,
the hands become cold and  wet.   If the
heat returns to  the hands, give over.   But
I have said this before and need not repeat 
136
LECTURE VIU.
it.   The above directions apply to nearly
all cases.
  When I come to speak of the dangers of
mesmerism, I shall have several abnormal
cases to report.
  But now I shall refer to an error nearly
universal, and that is,  " can a  person be
benefited when you can not produce sleep?"
Deleuze, the most experienced man in the
world, gives the name of a very distinguish-
ed healer who never could produce  sleep.
One of the most remarkable cases occuring
in my hands was  affected without ever clos-
ing the  eyes but  once,  and so violent did
the carotid  arteries  beat—in other words,
so wild  was the action of the heart—that I
regretted making so strong an effort, and
ever after avoided it, though  the case was
subject to treatment for three months daily.
This was a remarkable case. Miss Crary
resided  with an  aunt in Cleveland, Ohio.
She was the patient of Prof.  Ackley.   Un- 
MESMERISM AS A REMEDY    137
der his advisement her grave clothes were
made ready.  She had an abscess, opened
three inches from the  spine over the right
illium, which discharged a  pint a  day.
Eleven weeks before I saw her,  an abscess
commenced in the psoas muscle of the left
side, drawing her knee up to her body and
the matter run  over  the pelvis  below to-
wards the  knee, and I  could press up a
quart at a time into the  abdomen by plac-
ing my hand under the  thigh.   I was in-
duced to try  on this case, not with any ex-
pectations of curing it, but as she suffered
much pain I hoped to lessen that.   For
four daily  efforts I  greatly increased the
amount of pain.  But when I threw off
the  magnetism the fourth time,  the pain
ceased forever.   Thus encouraged, I contin-
ued for three months,  when she was  about
the house at work.  The first abscess soon
reduced  its  dischage, lessened  to  a few
spoonfuls, when I ceased to  throw my in- 
138
LECTURE VIII.
fluence upon it.  The laying of my hands
over the affected parts produced swelling of
the hands, and very disagreeable sensations.
In this, and in fact in all cases, it is well to
have cold water near and work your hands
over in it frequently.
  When your hands are laid  over torpid
portions of  the animal functions, you will
feel a coldness in the hand, often not larger
than a silver dollar.  Costivness  produces,
to my hand, an astringent,  contracting feel-
ing.  In the case before us, the patient vol-
untarily drank two quarts of  magnetized
water daily, and thereby had two or three
motions of  the bowels daily without produc-
ing any debility.  Soon her appetite became
excellent, and after  two months  the great
left side abscess, which had at least  a gallon
of matter in it, adhered to the rectum, ulcer-
ated through, and discharged itself  into the
vessel, thus, at once relieving  the  system.
Her recovery  was raoid.  It was at first a 
MESMERISM AS A REMEDY    139
case of spinal affection, ultimating in these
abscesses.
  A most remarkable case was the case of
Antonette  Holly, of Dixon,  Lee County.
Near the close of  a course of  lectures, in
August, 1845, at Dixon, Dr. Nash informed
me  that he was now convinced of the real-
ity  of mesmerism.   That he had a patient
that might possibly receive benfit from  it.
" She is a girl thirteen  years old, was last
spring taken with a very severe, dry cough,
attended with  fever.   That the act of
coughing hurt her back, hurt it more and
worse until she  lost all power in it.  That
she could not rise to a sitting posture, and
if lifted  to  that position it  hurt her very
much.   That every known  measure had
been used, and many physicians  consulted,
—all in vain."   The Doctor saw her par-
ents,  and spoke of me and my method.
The mother had an impression  like this:
" That man can cure our daughter."  It was 
140
LECTURE VTH.
ten miles to Dixon.   Fearing that I would
he  gone,  she  was placed  on a bed and
brought her into Dixon on Sunday.   I had
gone the  day before.  Nearly three  years
after I was again at  Dixon, on business at
the land office.  Met  Dr. Nash in the street.
He wished another course of lectures  on
mesmerism, saying, "I was so busy in prac-
tice when you was here before, that I could
not attend all your  lectures;  now it  is
healthy, will  you stay?"   Immediately I
drew up  a subscription paper,  and  in  an
hour the class was made up.  " Do you  re-
member the girl I told you about when you
was here  before?"  I do.   "Well, she is
just so yet, and now lives within two miles
of  here."  Before, she was ten miler, off.
He took me immediately to see her.  She
was now sixteen years old, developed into
womanhood, healthy looking, intelligent, a
great reader, and very skeptical about mes
merism. 
MESMERISM AS A REMEDY     141
  I proposed to remove her from the corded
settee, where she always remained,  into an
arm-chair on pillows.   She assured  me that
it would not do; that it would hurt her so
much that it would take four days to recov-
er from  the hurt, as it had been frequently
tried.  So sitting by her, I took her hands
and locked eyes with her.  She smiled with
incredulity.  In perhaps ten minutes, her
eyes grew heavy but her  hands remained
warm, and I became  satisfied  that  sleep
would not be induced.   I then made passes
along the spine, lightly touching her clothes,
for half an hour or more.
  Four  days Dr. Nash took mc daily to the
patient, and seeing no evidence of her going
to sleep, asked me if I had not better quit
My answer was, by no means, for I am gain-
ing.  I  lecture  at two p. m.  and at night,
the forenoon is  mine and I shall continue.
  A short time after, the Doctor asked me
to go and mesmerize his sister, who had just 
142
LECTURE VIII.
had  severe hysteric  convulsions.   On  the
third operation she became clairvoyant, and
after answering her brother about her own
case, I asked her to look at Antonette Hoi
ly, two miles off.   Do you see her?  " I see
her very plainly."  And  now she told me
that that great muscle  that lies low in the
back on one side,  (the psoas muscle),  was
thrown out of its place so far that some of
it is past the middle of the back-bone; you
have got it  back a quarter of an  inch al-
ready ;  you will certainly  cure her.   Dr.
Everett was present,  and  asked to have her
look down Rock river six miles at a woman
he named.   She saw her, and said  that her
liver was very bad, and that she would die
right away.   She did so die.
  Encouraged,  I persevered.   Gave  her
plenty of magnetized water to drink.  Soon
she was able to see her own case.  When my
course of lectures was through, I continued
to lecture evenings and attend this  case day 
        MESMERISM AS A REMEDY     143
times for two weeks, then went to  Grand
De Tour, six miles, and gave a course there,
and  so made  out four weeks.   She  now
could sit up all day, could get from chair to
chair all about the house,  could  rise and
stand as straight as any one, but could not
walk.   I  then went  home.   But  before
leaving, took Dr.  Nash over to give  the pa-
tient to him.   He had not seen her since
my fourth visit.   He gazed with  astonish-
ment, though he had heard from her daily.
Turning to her father, he said,  "I will not
take  this patient  off Dr. Underhill's hands
—my health is not good.  If she was my
daughter, I would not have her separated
from him for a  thousand  dollars.   The
Doctor then lent  him  his easy carriage, in
which she made  the journey to my house
(fifty miles) sitting up, in two days.   I had
told  her  mother if I cured her, that that
cough would, in the course of the cure, come
back in all its fury. 
144
LECTURE VIII.
  When she had been at my house about a
week, the cough commenced and increased
for two weeks.  It became very severe, but
at the .end of two weeks reached  its acme,
then rapidly  subsided, and was  gone in
about two weeks.   And now,  as the cough
abated, she began to walk and soon to run.
At the end of three weeks after commenc-
ing the  treatment,  she ceased to be clair-
voyant,  and soon her  eyes remained closed
for only a short time.   But I continued my
manipulations, and giving the mesmerized
water, as at first.
  At the  end of two months, her  father
came for her with  a  lumber wagon.  He
told  me that he should take from Peru part
of a load of lumber, and he had a common
wooden-bottomed chair for her to sit on.  I
enabled  her  to dispense with  anodynes,
that she had thought  indispensable  once a
month.  I have seen her repeatedly since. 
         MESMERISM AS A REMEDY     145

Her mother observed  to me,  that  she  was
the healthiest girl in that vicinity.
   Here there was a case out  of the power
of medicine,, belonging to no catalogue of
diseases, stationary three years, cured by
my hands.  The whole case is very instruc-
tive.   Before I proceed with  my history of
cures, as the  best method of teaching my
readers how to cure, I will  talk about that
most  ridiculous  of  all things, magnetizing
water.  It may  be  well before entering up-
on this subject, to stretch your credulity by
the introduction  of a  few simple scientific
truths. 
LECTURE   IX.
          magnetized water.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
  I have a small vessel, filled with a very
subtle fluid.  It can't hold more than a gill
but if you bring me a thousand empty ves-
sels  just like  it only empty, I will  pour
them all full out of mine, so full that every
one will run over, and when the last one is
filled, mine will be more full  and running
over than when I began to fill the thousand.
  Now, if this is true, does it not confound
your reason.   My vessel is  a horse-shoe
magnet, and if you know anything about
terrestrial magnetism, you know the longer
you use a magnet the stronger it is. 
MAGNETIZED WATER.       147
  All magnets constantly run over.  They
are hardened steel,  charged from galvanic
magnets, or from one  already charged.  A
candle will throw light at the rate of about
192,000 miles in a second.   One cubic inch
of good charcoal will absorb ninety cubic
inches of Ammoniacal gas.  One cubic inch
of the impalpable powder of the metal pla-
tinum, will  instantly -absorb  800  cubic
inches of oxygen gas.  If, then, one cubic
inch of charcoal can condense, in its orifices,
ninety cubic inches of  Ammoniacal gas, and
the platinum absorb  800  cubic inches of
oxygen gas,  may not water absorb large
quantities of nervous fluid?   It is  accumu-
lated in large quantities when we rest, then
we  feel vigorous; and it becomes exhausted
by  great physical and mental effort.
  It goes out with every word we  utter.
It is expended by every physical effort we
make.   It  is the messenger of the will to
the voluntary muscles.    It goes in alter- 
148
LECTURE IX
nate jets to the heart, to give its motions;
and to the diaphram and pleura,  to  keep
up the breathing.  It vitalizes every gland,
and  sustains every function.   Going out
with a fixed determination of the will into
any substance,  liquid or solid.  It acts in
the direction given, long after it leaves the
giver.
  To magnetize water, you will take a tum-
blerful and fix your eyes upon it, hold your
hand over it with the  fingers extended,
slowly moving them round over it for one
minute.  Deleuze said it took about a min-
ute to magnetize a glass of   water, and I
wondered how he found it out.  But  soon
a clairvoyant taught me.  Her hand would
slowly rise  to the glass,  and when about a
minute was  up, she  took it from  me  and
drank it.  It takes five  minutes to magnet-
ize a common bottle full.  I had a case of
scrofulous  swelling  on  the shoulder  and
neck, that  laid the patient  up, which was 
MAGNETIZED  WATER.       149
under treatment for several weeks.  Twice
when nearly well, she did a washing and
got a back-set, which made the treatment
much longer than it would have been.
  Magnetized  water  tasted, to her, to use
her own words,  "Like very  good water
sweetened with loaf  sugar."   I left her a
bottleful every night.  I have often filled
the bottle before I put her to sleep, then,
when asleep, I have put several en rapport
with her, and she was very sociable, and
after she became deeply engaged in conver-
sation with  her company, I have laid my
watch out, marked the time, and taken the
bottle in hand.  If  my mind was concen-
trated on it, in just five minutes the patient
would cry, "That's enough!"  Rarely had
one of the company noticed what I was at,
and therefore  some one would  quickly cry,
" What's enough ?" The answer was, " He's
fixed that water enough."   It is best, in
most cases,  to place  the vessel in the pa 
150
LECTURE IX.
tient's hands.   And often, if you do not let
them have it as soon as magnetized, they
will involuntarily shake the water out.
  Magnetized water often tastes like water
with saleratus in it.  Many believe that it
tastes like some medicine proper for the pa-
tient.   On many  sensitive  patients,  you
may will  it any taste you please,  or  you
may make it act  like  any medicine  you
please.  Or you may make any drug taste-
less,  or a bitter  one taste sweet, etc., etc.
  I have always found my patients improve
faster, and mesmerize much  easier, when
they are supplied with, and drink freely of,
magnetized water ad interim, than when it
is  omitted.   The  patient  soon discovers
this.  When  I would give water any speci-
fic direction, I think of the medicine I wish
it to imitate,  call to mind its tase, etc.
  The patient,  in local  affections,  and  sub-
jects in health, may help you magnetize
the water, and when they have done it once, 
            MAGNETIZED WATER.      151

generally, ever after, involuntarily, without
invitation, commence with you, and sieze it
as soon as mesmerized.  It takes me longer
now, than when I was younger, to mesmer-
ize the same quantity of water.
  Akin to this, are the magnetizing band-
ages and compresses  to  apply  to parts.
And this is  the  origin  (instinctive, per-
haps) of Amulets of all kinds.  They act
on the  body through  the  mind;  or,  more
plainly, the idea excites certain fountains of
innervation full of healing power.  Besides
this, the magnetized  substance gives off
healing influence.    Water  or metals will
retain,  for a  long time,  the  magnetism.
Every  living being seems to photograph it-
self  upon all it comes in  contact with.
Read Denton's "Soulof Things."
  I must next speak of the  dangers which
you may meet and desire to  conquer. 
 
LECTURE  X.
on the dangers  which  may  attend
              magnetizing.
Ladles and  Gentlemen:
   You can nearly always wake the sleeper
at will.   Usually patients feel better awak-
ening slowly.  Five minutes, when you set
a time, is  a  usual  time.   De Bonneville
awoke his subjects, at a public exhibition,
instantly.   I have frequently done it.
  Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose, of New York
City, after being awakened  on time a num-
ber of times, said to me one time,  "wake
me, Doctor, wake me instantly."   I did,
and ever after waked her  the same way.
She passed instantly from  a condition  in 
153     DANGERS OF MESMERISM
which she heard me  only, and from which
condition she could  carry nothing into her
normal state, unless I willed her to, all that
had occured in her abnormal condition now
a blank, to be instantly remembered when
again in that condition.   But  I am now to
speak of difficulties.
  Compared  with the  thousands  success-
fully mesmerized by me, mostly before pub-
lic audiences, surrounded often with inhar-
monious conditions, it seems strange that so
few cases  of difficulty came under my no-
tice.
  I had a case at Mel more, Seneca County,
Ohio, in 1843, thrown into convulsions by
a near approach of a man with whom the
patient was on very  bad terms.  Uninten
tionally I threw a subject into convulsions,
by holding a cane towards her  and thinking
of a snake.  By a stern, firm,  be calm, once
or twice uttered, brings them out at once. 
LECTURE X.
154
  I think the  following will instruct and
interest the  reader  in several ways.  The
case was published at the time in a Cincin-
nati paper, in 1843.    In a lecturing  tour
through Ohio from  Cleveland,  the  above-
named year, at  Bucyrus I received a letter
from Melmore in Seneca County from two
physicians of that place, requesting me to
visit their place and give them some lec-
tures on Mesmerism and Temperance.
  I reached  the place  just at night, and
was met by Dr. Moe  before I entered the
house.   He said, "I wish you to visit  with
me  some  cases  of  sickness,  and give me
your advice about them."  Tell me nothing
about them, said I, for I have a clairvoyant
that will unfold all the mystery there is
about them.  I  therefore had not heard a
word  about them, when, next morning af-
ter  breakfast,  he took us  to a house.   I
guessed they were old, nervous cases, only
one of which would be found at this house. 
155     DANGERS OF MESMERISM.
For, dear reader,  except  to you and  me,
"the whole field of  nervous diseases is a
perfect wilderness" to the M. Ds. who have
not the light of clairvoyance."  The quot-
ed words were uttered to me by Prof. Men-
derhall of Cincinnati.
  We entered a room where there were no
sick persons.   I  immediately threw  the
clairvoyant into the magnetic state.  I al-
ways gave her a glass of magnetized water
before requiring any action.
  They brought me  some  water—I mes-
merized it.  She always reached out slowly
to the glass and took hold of it.  Now she
carried  her hand away from it, thinking
that she was  not fully asleep.  I  reached
the water towards her and said,   "Jane,
here's the water."   " Take it away,"  said
she "it is bad."  "No,"  said I, and raised
it to my lips, she pushed it away, and as
she did so said,  " don't drink it,  it is poi-
son."  And instantly went into convulsions. 
       DANGERS OF MESMERISM.      15 5
                                      a
My son-in-law siezed  the vessel,  a white
bowl, and placed it on a table near by, and
I exerted all my authority to bring her out
of the convulsions, and was  successful in a
few moments,  but the moment she could
speak, she cried,  " take it farther, take it
farther, it is poison, it is poison," and again
went  off  into convulsions.  She was not so
quickly restored this  time.   The bowl of
water was taken out  door,  the pail from
which it had -been taken was also carried
out, when it was perceived that the convul-
sions  continued.   When  she  returned to
consciousness, I bid her to be calm, and tell
me what poisoned the water.   "Oh, lead
from the  pump; lead from the pump."
  She became calm in mind, but trembled
like an aspen leaf all over.   Soon she said,
" I will go and see the sick."  Usually she
could  walk as well as when awake, but now
she seemed to require support, and Dr. Moe
and myself led her into the next room. 
156
LECTURE X.
  Here were four  persons;  a mother,  a
daughter eigteen, a son fifteen, and a girl
thirteen years old,—all looking as if long
afflicted with the ague.   She was led by
Dr. Moe to the young woman being the
worst case.  She took her hand, looked her
through  from five  to  eight  minutes, and
commenced her description.
  " She is poisoned with that water,  it af-
fects her lungs most of all.   She has small
water-blisters rise and break on the surface
of her lungs.   The water is taken up by
those vessels that have mouths."   I told
her  that  we called them  " absorbents."
After that she called them " absorbentces."
Turning to me,  she said,  " she is paralitic
of her right leg."   Having presented her
description,  she commenced her prescrip-
tion : " She must not be mesmerized,  it will
make the poison act  the more violently."
Turning to me she said, "do you  know,
Doctor, that if I had drank that bowl of 
         DANGERS OF MESMERISM     157

water you  offered me, I would have been
dead  in five  minutes."   I  replied, no.
" Well, I would,  because  it  was  magne-
tized."   Calomel, in small doses, was the
chief  remedy prescribed.   A medicine of
which she often said when  awake,  " I will
sooner die than take it," and she very rare-
ly prescribed it.
  Although it was my usual rule to exam-
ine but one ca3e during a  sitting or sleep,
she voluntarily examined all.  Found each
paralytic of an arm or a leg, prescribed for
each, and called in all the family and point-
ed out the affected ones, and the degree of
taint or poison of  each.   "This woman"
said  she, on taking her hand,  "nurses a
child, it is affected from her."   I may as
well say here, that they all rapidly recover-
ed their health under her prescription.  But
I am not done with the subject.
  I may mention here, that the head of the
family was the  first  attacked.   All com- 
158
LECTURE X.
menced with violent vomiting and purging.
And his case was followed by hemiplegia or
palsy of half the body, and ended in death
before my arrival.
  No clue had been got to the cause of the
disease.   I induced Dr. Moe to obtain some
water from  that well  under pretense of
sending it off to be analysed and to pass it
into  the lecture room to see if  she would
detect it there.   He placed two tumblers
of water on  a place  near me.   She was sit-
ting  on  a table in front of the master's seat
in a Masonic Hall, and I stood beside her.
I knew not which the glass of lead water
was.   I took up one and mesmerized it.   I
saw  her hand move off  a little—satisfied
that I had the poisoned water, and wishing
to avoid a scene before an audience, I put it
down and took up the other, and brought it
near the subject, raised my hand to magne-
tize it, when there burst from her such a yell
as few have  ever heard.   She rose, I seized 
A.NGERS OF MESMERISM.      15 ^
her by the arm.  Dr. Moe seized the tunc
bier and hurled it through a pane of glass
She sprang from the table,  carrying me
with her to the middle of the room nearly.
  Dr. Moe said, in  his written history of
the case,  " I hurled the tumbler of water
through the window, rushed to the Doctor,
and found four men vainly endeavoring to
hold her."
  After each of these horrible fits of con-
vulsions,  she  complained  of  feeling bad,
wished to  be magnetized, prescribed a glass-
ful  of  magnetized water  for  herself, and
wake up well.
  An extensive suspicion prevailed, that
this was all a  matter of collusion, got up
to give  eclat to magnetism.   Two young
men got a pitcher of that water and intro-
duced it  into  the lecture  room at  night,
when the  clairvoyant was not mesmerized,
and  unwittingly I gave, to two new cases,
one was in the second degree and the other 
160            LECTURE X.
in the third degree, a  glassful of  this wa
ter, and neither of them detected the water
These young men then openly proclaimed
the fact, to expose the imposture.   It hard-
ly satisfied them to be told that  they were
not clairvoyant, but as one of them vomit-
ed  all night,  and the  other three hours,
they felt differently next morning.
  I was about to leave, but they sent for
me to see the well, for now they had raised
the platform  and all stood revealed.   A
new pump had been  put in the previous
year, made of short pieces, covered with a
coat of  rosin, and  this  covered with  a
heavy coat of white lead  paint.    The ros-
in had absorbed water and bursted off the
paint; and it was all off,  save a little just
under  the platform,  and paint  and  rosin
had run down and mingled with and cover-
ed the water.  Rosin is lighter than water,
paint is heavier than water, so it had min-
gled with the water and filled it with lead 
DANGERS OF MESMERISM.      161
 poison, and now the tide  turned, and they
 raised a purse and detained me another day.
   In this place occured another case full of
 instruction.  I held a morning session, free
 to all ladies desirous of being mesmerized.
 To this, came the daughter of a Universal-
 ist woman who believed  in  no  devil,  she
 charged her daughter not to be mesmerized.
 This was  not made known to me, and she
 took a seat.   She wassome what affected,
 and not yet asleep; no care  was taken to
 throw it off.   In the  night, her physician
 sent for me.   The case was one of extraor-
 dinary pain in the head, which I partially
 relieved by passes to the feet, and still she
 would have returns of it.  Her mother was
 unwilling to have her mesmerized, and I left
 her.  Her mother became a full believer in
the devil,  and thought this his work.  She
kept watch over her two days, and then be-
ing tired out, went  off  to get some sleep.
And now, having all  the while  anxiously 
162
LECTURE X-
desired to be  put to  sleep,  and one of my
pupils being with her put her to sleep, when
she was fully relieved and waked up well.
  My wife, when we were  in  New York,
in 1841-2, mesmerized her sister's daguhter,
about twelve years old, who was suffering
with an inguinal hernia, which she cured
by  mesmerizing.   Her sister, when alone
with my wife, would say, if you were not
my sister, you should never do that to my.
child, but desired her to continue the treat-
ment.  When the little girl was mesmer-
ized, if  her mother entered the room, she
would commence groaning.  On being ask-
ed  the  cause, she would answer: " Oh,
mother worries about me so that it hurts
me."   Her mother would say, " I want you
to be mesmerized."  She would reply,  " I
know it, but you do  worry  so  much about
me, it distresses me so much."   Her moth-
er  would leave  the room,  and then she
would feel  so happy. 
DANGERS OF MESMERISM.     163
  Some can not bear the presence of stran-
gers at all.   To some you can  reconcile
them by rubbing the hand of the stranger,
to some you can not.  A young printer, by
the name  of Gamble, whom I met at Car-
rolton,  Green  County, Illinois,  in 1845,
since a physician at Le Claire above Rock
Island, would feel the pointing of the finger
of  any person, if  brought within  a few
inches, as  sensibly as if pricked with a pin.
Every person  in the lecture room tried it
with him, he  being carefully blind-folded
and being mesmerised.
   When you find any difficulty with a sub-
 ject, in waking them,  or  from a cramp  or
severe  distress, and you have a clairvoyant
near you,  always resort to them for instruc-
tion, or give the patient over to them to  re-
lieve.  If it be their own case, make them
tell  you.   If   they are partially waked  up
when the  difficulty occurs, put them back
again. 
164            LECTURE X.
  At Moline,  in  1852,  a clairvoyant had
examined a sick woman, and prescribed for
her.   The patient had gone home, only a
few rods, and I  had bidden the subject
wake in five minutes, and had left the room
to visit another  patient under  the  same
roof.  Pretty soon the husband  called me,
saying his wife did not wake up.  Return-
ing to  her,  my efforts failed to  wake her.
It was partly off.  I therefore put her back
into the clairvoyant sixth  degree, and de-
manded the  cause  of  her not  waking.
Answer—"Why  that patient went right
home and went to sleep, and I keep looking
at her, and that keeps me asleep."  Reme-
dy—1 wiU  you not to  see her any  more
and to wake up instantly.  She obeyed me.
On inquiry, that woman said  she left us
feeling so sleepy, that she hardly knew how
to get home.  That on reaching her room,
she at once fell upon a lounge and dropped
asleep. 
DANGERS OF MESMERISM      IQ$
  Few cases are more interesting than the
case of Mrs. Buffam, although she bore not
that name when the facts I shall relate, oc-
curred.   He reported the case to me in Al-
ton, and I met her and had her recollections
of  the case  at Plattville, Wisconsin.   At
the time  of  the occurrance, she was teach-
ing school in Alton, I think  about  1840.
They were at a party, and some newspaper
article was read on this new subject.   No
one present had any knowledge on the sub-
ject, or were ready to own any belief in the
matter.
  This young lady proposed to Mrs. Buf-
fam to make trial on her.  He did success-
fully.   And afterwards, again and again,
put her to sleep and  brought her out of it
successfully.   Suddenly came a change, she
went to  sleep  without his  manipulations
and contrary to his wish or desire, and no
one could wake her but himself.   " It har-
ms sed my life  out, and no one can  imagine 
166
LECTURE X.
my anxiety," said he to me.  She told me
that she commenced a letter to her parents,
in which she thought she would describe
the case.   " The  moment  I fixed my mind
upon it, I went to sleep."   He went off to
St. Louis, determined to   stay away from
her.   The next  day came a message that
she was asleep, and  that he must return.
The next day came another, and he refused
again.   The next  day came a messenger,
declaring that she would die if he did not
return.  This compelled him to return.
   He wrote East for information what  to
do, and was advised to mesmerize her  as
deeply as he could, and ask her.   He obey-
ed.  And she told him, that he must mes-
merize her as deeply as he could for a few
days,  and the last time keep her asleep so
many hours, (I have forgotten the number),
and then  awake her, and he would  have
no more trouble with the  case.   And so it
proved. 
DANGERS OF MESMERISM.       107
   When I saw her in 1845, they were mar-
 ried and living together.
   She had found him a  Lead of lead min-
 eral.   And the last I heard of  them, they
 had gone to California, seeking gold.
   Yes, whenever you are bothered, seek the
 aid  of clairvoyance.  This always  extri-
 cates me  from all  difficulty.   I have fre-
 quently resorted to it.
   I know I have spoken of Mrs. Buffam's
 case before, but I think best to  speak of it
 again.
   While  lecturing  in Clinton,  Parish of
 East Feliciana, Louisana,  a young lawyer
 laid  down some papers that he  had in his
 hand,  and took a seat  to  be mesmerised.
 He passed  quickly  into the fourth  or fifth
 degree, and, on testing him, was found to
 possess extraordinary sensitiveness.   He
 could not bear the touch  of any  one of my
class, even when put en rapport with them,
except his partner's wife  and a young lady 
168
LECTURE X-
living in his partner's family.   With them
it was a task to suffer them to touch him,
after rubbing their hands and bidding him
take their hands.   The touch of all others
produced  the severest shuddering and in-
stant repulsion.
  I was careful, therefore,  to  charge him,
when I came to wake him, to sit still until
it was all  off.  He promised that he would.
Too soon  his eyes opened.   He rose  up.
gathered  up the  papers that he  had laid
down on  sitting  down,  took two or three
steps, gave a yell, and shot off like a racer
for  out  of the room and down the stairs.
My door-keeper tried to arrest his progress,
but  in vain.   He went down the  north
flight of stairs, ran around to the south pair,
ran up again into the east room to me, and,
throwing  himself  across my lap, threw his
arm around me, panting like a frightened
hare.  I soothed  him, and got him calm.
He afterwards  said,  that when he reached 
         DANGERS OF MESMERISM.     169

the hall below, he perceived that his only
safety was in getting, as soon as possible,
back to me.  The next  day, he  was again
put into the magnetic condition.   When
about to wake him, he was strictly charged
to remain quiet until it was all off, but  his
eyes opened too soon, he rose,  took  a step,
then a fearful leap  into  the  air,  but after
three  jumps got self-control and was quiet. 
LECTURE   XI.
          on  its medical use.
Ladies and  Gentlemen:
  In Paris, they collected a list of  well-at-
tested cases of cures by mesmerism.   There
was a list of  one hundred  cases of  palsy.
Few of these became clairvoyant.  No kind
of disease yields higher proof  of the true
philosophy of cure than this  disease, for
with me, no disease gives more unequivocal
evidence of taking largely of your vitality.
You exchange nervous power with  the pa-
tient.
  Next to this, is  cases exhausted  by con-
vulsions.  Then any susceptible patient, that
is, very weak, exhausts you very much.  No 
ON ITS MEDICAL  USE.       171
kind of labor demands as much food as the
labor of magnetizing the sick.   To operate
on well, sound, healthy persons, seems only
to expend what can be referred to the phy-
sical exercise of manipulating the subject.
I like to operate on the young and healthy
immediately after mesmerizing a  case  of
great debility.  I am a gainer by so doing.
The subject can bear it.  But a sickly per-
son is not a proper person to operate on the
sick.
   This reminds me of  the bad effects of
young  children sleeping with  old people.
Many people know that it is bad for the
child.   Solomon made the  prescription for
his old father, of a very buxom and beau-
tiful young girl.  It was very unjust to the
girl, but was life and health-giving to his
father.
   Andrew Combe, in his Physiology, gives
an account of an old,  sickly woman who
discovered that sleeping with a young, ro- 
172
LECTURE XI.
bust, healthy servant girl, made her  feel
better.  Three such sickened and died with
her; and in the sickness of the foruth, the
patient says to the physician, " It was sleep-
ing with this old woman that sickened me.
I begged  and plead with her  to  let me
sleep alone; but she said, that it made her
feel so much  better, that she must  have it
so."   On  inquiry, the physician  learned
that three had already perished  in feeding*
the flame of life in this expiring old wretch.
  I know a man, an  own cousin of mine,
one of  the kindest  and most affectionate
husbands  I ever knew, the son of  a very
sickly mother, and who never saw  a well
day in his life, who  married, for his first
wife, the daughter of a near neighbor  of
mine, a blooming, healthy girl of  very
healthy parents,  who withered  gradually
away, and died of  a consumption in about
four years. 
ON ITS MEDICAL USE.
173
   No consumption in the ancestry, nor has
there been in  the family since her decease.
He was frantic with grief, beyond any case
I ever knew.  He litterally wept night and
day for several weeks.  At  the end of a
year, he married  Anna Quinby, a  rosy-
cheeked girl, who lived less than two years.
She was was wept over like  the first, and
at the end of  about a year,  he married a
Miss Powell, with whom I was not acquaint-
ed  personally, but  am  told  that she was
very healthy.   She lived four years, bore
him one child, and  then died, mourned as
the others had been.   After  the usual pe-
riod,  he  again married, one  of  whom his
acquaintances  said,  " He has one now that
will stand him."  I visited them in 1842,
she was pale and ghastly in looks.  And I
found that he was  just getting ready  to
send her off to his brother's, in Western
New York, by which  she recuperated, and
afterwards bore him a daughter.   She out- 
174
LECTURE XI.
lived him.  Both are gone to the spirit-land
now.  He became conscious of the bad ef-
fects of  his companionship and bed-fellow-
ship, and thus protracted her life.
  In my own  person, I  have very convinc-
ing experience of the  result of  sleeping
with a sick wife.  And no one should sleep
with a sickly person,  unless they are quite
willing,  as many are, to  suffer for the good
of others.  Hence, with feeble, sickly chil-
dren healthy puppies to play with are good
medicine.   Dogs are very affectionate,  and
good mesmerizers, as  the licking of sores
prove.  I have mesmerized a  young man
just recovering from what was called  the
Maumee fever, and who knew that he  was
going, as others had  gone after this fever,
on  the verge of the  ague.  I  mesmerized
him, and he escaped, whilst  I roasted  all
the next day with  the  fever, which I am
sure was taken from him. 
ON ITS MEDICAL  USE.
  I visited a case of Phlegmasia Dolens, or
milk leg.   It had existed three months, and
was much the worst case ever examined by
me.  Two large abscesses were being poul-
ticed, one above and  one  below the  knee.
I operated on the limb, and she went to
sleep.  As my hands passed over the affect-
ed limb, I could realize a strong current of
vapor, or nervous fluid, coming to my hands,
and indeed felt it all over.  While magne-
tizing a  jug of water for her, I grew sick,
and soon had to take myself to  bed, where
I roasted all day with fever, and  at  night
was taken to Maumee, where  I boarded at
Mr. Young's.  My host was a great believer
in Thomsonianism, and I told him to give
me the lobelia and steam. He did, and yet a
week supervened before I was able to visit
this patient again.  I  found  the  poultices
thrown away, abscesses gone, swelling two
thirds gone, in  fact,  she needed no  more.
The cure was effected. 
176
LECTURE XI.
  It is my business to tell the whole truth,
even if  some should decline  to mesmerize
on this account.   When it is known that
its effects  soon  pass  away, people will  be
less alarmed.  The wife of a very eminent
physician, in Paris, often aided her husband
in casts that he was treating, and always
took the disease herself, less violently than
the patient,  but  very distressingly.
  You may, by  an effort of will, and by a
motion of the hands to threw it off, relieve
yourself some, and by having a washdish
of cold water to work your hands  in, you
escape much.  And there are some who do
not very much feel it at all.
  Among the cases of very frequent  cure,
rheumatism  stands high on the list.  Gland-
ular affections, of  every kind, are where it
displays great power,  and as rheumatism
is nearly always the result of derangement
of the liver, it  yields with the restoration
of that organ.   That is  a gland, the larg- 
ON ITS MEDICAL USE.        177
est in the system.  Any derangement of the
uterine organs, or the breasts, yield readiiy.
Prolapsus-uteri  of  long  standing,  yields
readily to  its power.   I have  cured one
case, of not long standing, with one opera-
tion.  Others have taken longer time.  One
Mrs. Allen, of Bloomington, she had been
unable to walk for  fourteen years, without
the aid  of a globe pessary to keep it up.
In a short time, she was compelled to re-
move it, and thenceforth walked a half mile
to meeting without it.   After  I left, her
husband sent  me  a  letter,  detailing the
wonderful cure, which has got mislaid or I
would give it to the public.  She was oth-
erwise diseased, had a partial paralysis of
the left side.  That is twenty one years ago,
and she enjoys good health yet. 
LECTURE   XII.
           on clairvoyance.
Ladies  and  Gentlemen:
  If I shall be esteemed too credulous 01
this subject of clairvoyance, let the readei
comfort himself with the fact, that I com
menced at the other extreme—incredulity.
With my first experiments, I refused to try
to get any result of any kind in seeing with
closed eyes carefully blindfolded.
   When addressed on the subject, I often
stated that I wished that the thing had
never been thought  of,  that there was
enough of the wonderful without it in mag-
netism.   And for  some time  I persisted in
refusing to make experiments on  the sub- 
ON  CLAIRVOYANCE.        179
 ject.  One time I left  a clergyman with a
 subject, whilst I retired to attempt to mag-
 tize another person in the  same room, and
 soon found that he had got the subject men-
 tally off to Akron, at his house, describing
 furniture and family.
   At once, I gave in  to the idea, that not
 having made  the world, it was well to in-
 vestigate what came  in my way.   I knew
 that failures did not always prove fraud.
 I knew that three successes proved a thing,
 and fifty failures only  proved that I had not
 succeeded those times.  And if after three
 successes, they indicated that my ignorance
 of laws, or principles, and conditions, ne-
 cessary to success, might be the true ex-
 planation of the failures.
  The clairvoyant  may be a good reader
blind-folded, in books, and not a good ex-
aminer of disease.  You must  find out by
trying.   The  best  one  I ever  had, one  I
used for many months, was at first indiffer- 
180
LECTURE XII.
ent.   I took her with me as one easily mag-
netized, to exhibit with my lectures.  I let
her examine free of  charge for three weeks,
when people examined began to make her
presents.
  Within six weeks, she  made the examin-
ation of those wonderful cases at Melmore,
in Seneca County, Ohio, which I have re-
lated a few pages back.    She became my
teacher  in  many things,  and especially  in
Phrenology, of  which she was  entirely ig-
norant when awake.  I would take a chart,
give her the hand of the  person, name the
organs,  and mark as she directed.   If  I
thought her in error, I found myself  wrong.
For instance, she placed the organ of Color
as almost wanting in a brow full, and with-
out a central depression.   Rather narrow
forehead with large individuality and order.
On inquiry of the man, I found the  faculty
as she had described. 
            ON CLAIRVOYANCE.        181

  But this proved  her  clairvoyance to be
independent.   Soon after the Melmore af-
fair, at Tiffin,  my son-in-law, who was my
door-keeper, became uneasy about his fami-
ly, as, for some days, he had received no
letter from his wife.  She was magnetized,
and sent home, as she often had been before,
always  finding  our family well, (as they
were together),  but now she fell to weep
ing, declaring that little Mary (my grand-
child, his daughter) was lying at the point
of death; that she would die in spite of all
the doctors would do  for her.   We inquir-
ed what ailed her.  She replied, it is like a
pleurisy, affecting the left side,  involving
the left lung,—and  again declared,  she
would die in spite of all the doctors will do
for her.   Turning  to the father, she said,
" you must go  right home, they want you
very much," and was only pacified  by his
promise to go.   It was  100 miles.  I never
saw a  healthier looking child.   We were 
182           LECTURE XII.
on our way to Illinois.   I had a class made
up at Tiffin, another at Republic, and I bid
him go.   He  took  the cars to Sandusky5
and  from there,  in April, through deep
mud, the stage, home.  Reached home near
midnight, and was  not surprised  to  see
lights  burning.   Entered  the  house, and
found the child alive.  It  died  soon after,
and to the father's  question, to the physi-
cian,  "what ailed the child?"  received for
answer, " Oh, it was undoubtedly worms."
He told him of what the  clairvoyant had
said.   " Will you permit a post rnortom ex-
amination ?"   He assented.  And together
with Prof. George Mendenhall, now of Cin-
cinnati, made  the examination.
  Firstly, he  traced the alimentary canal,
to find proof of worms. Not the least was
to be found.   He then opened the  chest,
and, to his astonishment, found the left side
exhibiting great  evidence  of  inflamation,
and the left  lung  almost annihilated.  Dr 
ON CLAIRVOYANCE.         183
Mathivett, the attending physician, turned
to Mr. Hill,  the father of the child, and
said,  " Mr. Hill, I will  never  touch a cent
of your money for doctoring your child, for
I have  been wrong  from the beginning."
How many thousands of cases have deserv-
ed a like sequel, could the truth be known.
  I kept track of this case  all the  time •
where I was, even to its funeral, by the aid
of clairvoyance.  I sent her, after the child
was dead and  buried, but before I knew
that it was dead, and on being willed there,
she turned her head as usual to look to the
bed, and  instantly went into convulsions.
I brought her out and  waked her up, and
did not let her  know what had happened.
A young man with me  came in,  I put him
to sleep, he was less  sensitive, was not like
Jane acquainted with the child.    I willed
him there.  He looked,  and turning to me,
said, "she is gone, they have  buried her." 
184           LECTURE XII.
  And two days after, my son-in-law and my
  wife arrived, confirming all.
    This  clairvoyant's  examinations would
  fill a volume.  Dr. Man, of Union County,
  Ohio, followed her until  he got notes of
  sixteen  examinations.   She took the pa-
  tient's hand if present, with her left hand,
-  and the right hand she passed slowly over
  her own body, in from five to seven minutes
  she had seen  and knew the condition  of
  every molecule of his or he rbody, and be-
  gan to describe.   Nor would she permit a
  question, until she had given a general des-
  cription.  If you put a question before that,
  she would say,  " wait until I tell you to
  ask questions."  And when she was ready,
  you could not weary her,  and she did not
  have to look again,  like many new begin-
  ners do, but  answered instantly.   Often
  when the physician was satisfied with ques-
  tioning, and would say, " well, I am satis-
  fied, now, what shall be done in the case ?" 
ON  CLAIRVOYANCE.        185
 She would say, " Oh, you ain't  half done
 asking questions,  you will think of them
 hereafter, better think of them now."  And
 if they hesitated, she went on to  say, I was
 going to tell you of a pain she  has so and
 so, and then of this and that,  etc.,  etc.
 Then after a pause she began her prescrip-
 tion.
   In very complicated cases, she sometimes
 requested me to wake her for ten minutes,
 giving as  a reason, "I can't get my eyes off
 from the  diseased  parts enough to look up
 the medicine."  They don't think at all.
 they see, and see the medicine act; so they
 tell me, and I believe them.
   On this subject, there may be found some
 repetitions.   I hope  there are.   For in
 nothing do I find  myself  so  often failing,
 as to make my pupils good managers of the
 clairvoyant.   They will keep them depend-
ent, when they are only valuable when in-
dependent. 
186
LECTURE XII.
  Davis, I think,  esteems as independent
only such as go  into the seeing-state with-
out manipulations  by others.   I call those
independent whose seeing is not influenced
by any mind present.  When I have train-
ed them, you can  not  change their views,
by silent willing, or by  open declaration.
For instance, you try to change their views
of treatment of disease, and you can not do
it.
  A dependent clairvoyant looks  into the
questioner's mind  to find the answer,  and
sees it there.   Yet some are both depend-
ent and independent, at the same time.
  For instance, a  young man who told me
that he looked into the mind of  the ques-
tioner for the answer to his questions,  was
taken mentally to a man's house, where he
gave a good description of house  and furn-
iture.  Then he  was asked to visit the sta-
ble, and  see his  "black horse."  Reply—
"your black horse  is white."   Right.   But 
ON CLAIRVOYANCE.        187
now another  question,  "what is the horse
doing now ?"   Answer—" He  is out in the
yard kicking up his heels."  The question-
er felt sorry, he had been right all the while
before, but was now wrong.  I says, " how
far is the stable from here."   " Not more
than  sixty rods, or something near  it."
" Can not some one go and see?"  He  was
sure that the horse was  tied in the stable.
The messenger returned, the  horse was in
the yard, playing as affirmed  by the clair-
voyant.
  This  was a  clear case of  independent
clairvoyance ;  and I have seen many such.
  Be very careful  to charge them never to
depend  on others, never  guess, to be careful
to watcji their  own vision, and notify  you
when it ,in the least degree fails.   Never
begin with them without asking them " do
you  see well?"  Never press them to do
any more seeing after examining one case, 
188           LECTURE XII.
unless, on inquiry, they tell you they can
do it.
  What reliance can be placed upon a de-
pendent clairvoyant?   None; nay, more,
they may make trouble.   I knew a case,
which is  too instructive to pass over.   It
occured in my own family, under my own
eye,  in St. Louis, in 1843.  While deliver-
ing lectures in Mechanics Hall, in  Novem-
ber and December, I could have the Hall
but  four nights  in the week,  and  after a
while, but three.   This gave  us an oppor-
tunity to  have many private  meetings  at
my house.
  Among those who came frequently, was
a Lawrence Hoyle, who was  called "Our
Almanac ;  for, though a season of great ir-
reuglarity of  weather, he would always tell
us what the next  day, or the  next three
days, would be.   Another attendant was
William  Chase,  Esq., a  brother  of our
Chief-Justice of the United States. 
ON CLAIRVOYANCE.        189
  The night I refer to, Chase had  tried,
upon an easy subject, that lived with me,
by the name of George  Case, and had got
him into the third degree only.  Now, in
the first, second and third degrees, the pa-
tient hears everybody and remembers every
thing, when they wake up.  I had magne-
tized Hoyle  into the fifth degree.  In the
fourth, fifth  and sixth degrees, the subject
hears none but the magnetizer, and remem-
ber  nothing when they wake  up,  unless
willed to by the magnetizer.
  Now, George was deeply in love with a
young lady in the house, and this young
lady  was engaged to her present husband,
and it had been hinted to him that she was
engaged, lest he should be misled.  It  seems
he doubted this, and so the matter stood.
  My best clairvoyant gave  the young la-
dy's hand to Hoyle, and asked him  to de-
scribe her character; which he did, perfect-
ly.   He said that a disappointment in love 
190           LECTURE XII.
would break her  heart.   " Am I likely to
be disappointod ?" queried the  girl.   Ans-
wer—"no, not if  you are prudent."
  Just now my  clairvoyant  asked  him,
" Does she like George ?"   He looked and
replied, " She likes him a great way off."
Instantly every muscle in George seemed to
become rigid.
  Shortly after, the  young lady, who had
left the room, returned, and, taking Hoyle's
hand, asked him  to look carefully and see
if  there was  any likelihood of her  being
disappointed.   (I ought to have said, that
when he described her  character,  by re-
quest, he also described her husband's char-
acter and person.  That instead of being a
white-haired, pale person, he  was  black-
haired,  and very different  from  George,
which  perhaps intensified his feelings).  In
answer, now, to the question, he looked for
some time, and then described her intended
as faithless, was now paying attention to 
ON CLAIRVOYAMCE.
191
another girl, etc., etc.   He was  in  Cleve-
land, we in St. Louis.
  I observed that soon after, George's mus-
cles  relaxed.   On  Chase attempting to
wake him, he  failed.  I  took him into the
other room,  asked him  why he could not
wake.  "I will; let me be fifteen minutes."
But  he now observed that  he must leave
me,  that  M. had not used  him well,  etc.,
and he awoke sadly dejected.
  I said to the young lady,  " that's  pretty
tough."   "Fie!"  said she ;  but it was not
sojie as she thought, for  she passed a sleep-
less  night, and entered  the  room  in the
morning with  tears in her eyes, threw her-
self  into  my arms, and said "Had not
Hoyle given such a perfect description of
me, and him, I could have got round  it, but
now  I am miserable."
  "Jane," said I, to my perfectly independ-
ent clairvoyant, " sit down and go to sleep,
and unriddle this."   She did.   Her  first 
192
LECTURE XII.
words were, " Hoyle was not to blame for
that, George made him tell that; there is
no truth in it."   And  shortly  after,  I
brought a  letter from  the post-office from
him, addressed to her,  and the wound was
healed.  We happened to have the means
by us to unravel it.  Well for us that we
had.
  Away, then, with dependent clairvoy-
ance.   Davis  says the number, as  he  de-
scribes them, is  few, and I presume it is.
As I describe  them, numerous and  useful. 
LECTURE   XIII.
            on clairvoyance.
Ladies and  Gentlemen:
  The  Philosophy of clairvoyance  looks
very obscure to most minds, and most, if
not all, writers, seem satisfied with the pos-
itive proof of its reality.   I confess, with
Eschenmyer, " give me the facts; and again
I say, give me the facts.  One fact is worth
a thousand theories."
  Yet I confess to the weakness, if so it be,
that I like to understand the philosophy of
things, and especially of strange things.
And in commencing this  discussion, allow
me to repeat or remind you, that you and I
have always been  in danger of forgetting 
194          LECTURE XIII.
that we know any thing  that appears un-
reasonable.
  Now, remember all I have said about light
and electricity.   And now I will add, that
if you are making a magnet, you will make
your positive pole by attaching the new in-
tended magnet to the negative pole of the
galvanic magnet, and you will make the ne-
gative pole by contact with the positive
pole of  the same.   That snow and salt mix-
ed together in a warm room will make wa-
ter freeze.   That water shrinks from hot
vapor  down to  forty  degrees  Farenheit.
That  then it  begins to swell, and swells
down to thirty-two degrees, when it becomes
ice.  That hard and brittle as ice  is, it con-
tinues to swell, as it grows colder, no matter
if the thermometer sinks forty degrees be-
low zero.
   What do you suppose will be the temper-
ature  of ten pounds of snow at thirty-two
degrees, and ten  pounds of water boiling 
           ON CLAIRVOYANCE.         195
hot, which is 212 degrees?  Will  it divide
half way?   It  will be  sixty-six  degrees
nearer thirty two than the 212 degrees.   It
takes sixty-seven degrees of heat to raise
ice of thirty-two degrees to water of thirty-
three degrees.   And this is the secret of
our being able to preserve ice in hot weath-
er, and to take it to hot climates.
   Did you  know that  milk kept a little
more than blood warm, would remain sweet
for days?   This discovery  I  made many
years ago.  Horace Mann  scolded  me, in
1840, because I  did  not take a  patent for
the discovery.   I must do it now.
   Well, do you  know that all the volatile
oils, such as the oil  of cedar, pine, penny-
royal, peppermint, etc., are all composed of
the  same, and  the same proportions or
quantities of carbon and hydrogen ?  They
differ in color, taste, smell, medicinal and
chemical effect, and even in specific gravity.
So that if there  was no clue to  the piloso- 
196           LECTURE XIII.
phy of  clairvoyance  but  abundance  of
proof of it, it would occupy the same field
in our minds that half we  know occupies
and two-thirds of what we believe occupies.
  How do we see with our eyes ?  Can you
explain how ?  Is that picture formed on
the retina seen by the mind, and thus we
see ?   Does the  mind peep  down into  the
show box, the retina, and see the pictures ?
  What a wonderful thing is vision!  I can
see with  my eyes five, ten,  fifty, five hun-
dred,  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand,
ninety two millions, thousands of  millions
of miles.  The Moon is 240,000 miles dis-
tant ;  the Sun 96,000,000 of miles; and
the fixed  stars  thousands  of millions of
miles distant.  It is wonderful!  who  can
grasp it!
   The clairvoyant, with eyes blind-folded,
or, as in many cases  in my hands,  utterly
blind, see through  walls  of brick,  stone,
wood or iron; see into human bodies, into 
ON  CLAIRVOYANCE.        197
to-morrow, next week, or month, or year.
  In 1844, a clairvoyant, whom I asked to
look at the Southern States and  slavery,
said,  " I see the South recovering  from a
terrible civil war."  Which I thought would
never occur.
  I published, in 1839, the  statement of a
Miss Burke, and added,  " I  do not  believe
it."   She said Shannon would be  elected
governor of Ohio, that the democratic can-
didate would be  elected in  Pennsylvania,
that the whig candidate would be  elected
in New York, and strangest  of all,  General
Harrison would be elected president of the
United States.   Strangest of all, I say, be-
cause there were no Harrison men in North-
ern Ohio,  at that time.   All the whigs and
whig papers were for Henry Clay.
  But how do they see ?   To see with the
eyes, certain conditions are requisite—light
and a transparent medium between  the ob-
ject and the eyes.  Why is anything trans- 
198
LECTURE XU.
parent?   Parent is a  name for light, and
trans passing=passing light.   I know no
reason why glass,  or any other thing, per-
mits light  to pass.  Do you know ?   But
suppose that nervous  fluid, or electricity,
instead of light, acted from the object to
the mind, then the best medium  might be
iron, the worst medium, glass.   And this is
the philosophy of  seeing into,  or through,
opaque bodies.
  I think it is the nervous or magnetic fluid
that penetrates all substances, which brings
the vision in contact  with the mind.   I
might speak phrenologically, but I pass at
present.   When they look  into the future,
they must be able to see the now state of
things, and, fastening  to the chain, follow
the links of events, as  there is no chance in
the Universe.
  Previous to the election of Polk, on ask-
ing a clairvoyant who  would be elected—
Polk not having been  nominated yet—she 
ON CLAIRVOYANCE.        199
looked up and said, " things are so mixed
that I can not disentangle them."
  One reads through book covers, and on
bottles at the drug store miles away, and
anotner excels in something else.   At Mo-
line, near Rock Island, I made eight case
who could read well, when most carefully
blind-folded,  and but one of  these was a
good clairvoyant physician.   Calista Kin-
sey was a good examiner and prescriber in
disease.  She was also very much benefited
in her own case, which was a bad one.
  There are  six degrees of the magnetic
sleep.  All clairvoyants say so.  Yet while
it is a law, that the  magnetizer can will
them to remember when they wake up all
they did or saw in the  fourth, fifth  and
sixth degrees, yet I have had four clairvoy-
ants, whom I used sometime, that became
unable to be made to remember any thing
  In the first, second and  third degrees,
without  your  willing,  they remember all 
200          LECTURE XIII.
that transpires.  I had one subject who al-
ways had, in going to sleep, six fits of deep
and rapid inspirations, each making one de-
gree.
  The following case, occuring in my ex-
perience, seems worthy of insertion.  Anna
Macy, daughter of Jethro  Macy, sitting in
the magnetic state at leisure, i. e.,  under no
questions, suddenly  expressed great grief,
and on being questioned, declared that she
saw her father shot.  Her father was living,
at the time,  with the Shakers in Kentucky.
Some two or three years after, her father
came to Cincinnati to come north to see his
children.  He went upon a canal boat, of
which a son-in-law was captain.   The  cap
tain having  been out  to shoot ducks, came
to the boat at a lock, handed  his gun muz-
zle first to his father-in-law, it hit something,
went off, and killed Macy instantly.  I give
this as a fact, to join others in pre-vision. 
ON CLAIRVOYAMCE.        201
  I made a series of experiments on heat,
that proved that there existed  a heat-pro-
ducing function in the brain.  The clairvoy-
ant can point out a spot to excite, that will
produce a flash of heat through the system,
even fever heat.   It is near tha organ of
hope.  Fear may excite it, if hope be not
too much depressed.   Then it may produce
cold.
  Two  men were hunting,  on the prai-
ries near Wisconsin, as was related  to me,
when one began to apprehend that he should
freeze.    The other took  off his overcoat
and put it on  his companion.  They were
lost.  The air was filled with sleet.   The
cold was intense.   The freezing man gave
out.  They were now in woodland, and by
a large log.   The  live man  deposited the
freezing man by the log,  got the big dog
on one side of the  man, and himself on the
other, hoping to kaep him from freezing
through  the night, and find him able  to 
*vz           LECTURE XIII.
travel in the morning.  They had not lain
but a short time, when they heard the yell
of a panther.  He drew nearer and nearer,
until he placed his feet on the log and peer-
ed over at them.  That moment, the dog
broke^  and they clinched.   The unfrozen
man sprang up and  hissed  on the dog.
Away  they went, yelling  as  they  fought.
The noize ceased, the dog returned, the man
turned  to look after  the  freezing  man,—
there he stood, quite  warm and vigorous,
ready to travel.
  I had a kindred experience with a run-
away stage.   Where  did the  heat  come
from?   Ought not this subject to be more
looked  into?  Others have had kindred ex-
periences.   Oh, philosopher, do not die be-
cause all is known!!   The  field  of  the
unknown is very large. But don't give up,
investigator. 
LECTURE  XIV.
   management of the clairvoyant.
Ladies and  Gentlemen:
   Having given the philosophy of clairvoy-
ance, I now proceed to teach you how to
manage the clairvoyant.
   While lecturing at Elizabeth, in Joe Da-
vis County, Illinois, I found Alice Harris,
an orphan, who came where I went to mes-
merize an old lady who had fits.   Alice and
another girl came there,  wishing to be mes-
merized, not being able  to pay the admis-
sion to the lectures.   I  put  them both to
sleep, and invited them to the lecture that
evening.
  To show the  old lady that Alice was in
an abnormal state, I proposed that she go 
204          LECTURE XIV.
with me, to which, of course, she agreed.
  After she went away, the  old lady says
to me,  " I wish you would take her, Doctor,
for  she is  an orphan, running wild here
among the miners.   She is not a bad girl,
but needs a protector."
  At the lecture, at night,  she read in a
pamphlet when carefully blind-folded, and
I concluded that she would  make a good
clairvoyant.  Just then, my wife and broth-
er came to see me.   I had a  man, an Eng-
lishman,  and a  good  clairvoyant, and a
good phrenologist, with whom I was for
two months yet a partner.
  When my wife came, I sent for Alice,
and bargained with her to go home with
my wife, and remaim with my family until
my return.   Then I would  take her and
my wife, and pay her  wages.   She went
with her.
  When I came home, the first thing my
wife told me about her was, that as a clair- 
MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.  205
voyant she  was good  for  nothing.   She
tells everybody anything they want told.
My wife, brother, son-in-law, and my daugh-
ter, each had mesmerized her, and such was
the result.   I said, I am sorry, but don't
quite believe it.
  I remained at home ten or twelve days,
and  during  this period  mesmerized  her
twice with great care.  Charged her never
to guess, to keep watch of her power of
seeing, and to  notify me when  her  vision
failed.   She promised to do so.
  We  set  out,  about  the tenth of July,
1845, and  stopped at Lowell.   Here she
commenced examinations  We charge noth-
ing until we test them well.   My wife look-
ed  on with astonishment.   She saw there
was no guessing.
  At Aurora, we gave two courses of lec-
tures.   Many  got  her to make a mental
 journey to  their friends  East.   They took
her description of  who, besides their rela- 
06
LECTURE XIV.
tives, were at the house, what they  were
doing, etc., and then they wrote, and found
her invaribly correct.
  At Lockport, Judge Blackston came, in a
great  hurry,  "Doctor, I want to consult
Alice, (I remember a lawyer, by the name
of Weeks, was with him), immediately, can
I ?"   Of course, I instantly placed her, mes-
merized, at his service.   "Alice,"  said he,
" a man has run away, this  morning, that
owes  me seventy dollars, I want  to know
where he has gone."
  After a few moments, she  said,   "he has
not gone the way you think  he has;  you
think that he has gone to Peru, but he has
not; he went up the east side of the Oplain
river two miles,  and  taking off his under
clothes, waded the river, and is starting for
Galena; just now, he is on the road,  in a
piece  of woods, towards Naperville;  why,
if you will start immediately, you will over-
take him before he gets to Naperville." 
    MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS-  207
  He immediately left, and at a lecture in
Chicago, a  fortnight afterwards, he stood
up in my lecture room, and asked leave to
make a speech.   He related what  I have
told you, and added: " I thought the man
had struck for Peru,  as the quickest way to
get out of  the  country, as the river was
open.  I went as she directed, and in three
hours  had  him  back and  got my debt
secure."
  We had no railroads in 1846.
  This lesson  may help you very much  in
training a clairvoyant.   Do not spoil them,
and then proclaim clairvoyance a failure.
  This clairvoyant,  on another occasion,
failed me.   Did not  mislead me, but said,
"you  are so agitated, that I dare not trust
myself farther."
  The occasion was this.  At Bloomington,
in the winter  of  1847, when I  returned
from the court house, and went to my room
to put away the  money handed me  by my 
203           LECTURE  XIV.
door-keeper,  I  missed,  from  my table, a
traveling  secretary, in which was a  linen
bag with fifty-five dollars in it.
  I immediately called Alice and mesmer-
ized her.  I knew that I was agitated;  for
if I did not need the money, my creditors
did.   " She says, " I see the man, a  short
man,  thick-set, with  a slouched  hat; but
you are so agitaed, I dare not trust myself
any farther."  I immediately informed the
landlord,  and he rang  for his  hostler, a
stranger,  only there  a few days, as Alice
had well described him.
  I called Jane, a servant in the family,
whom I had mesmerized in my  room that
day, and again at the court house after  my
lecture.   She came to my room, and was
soon asleep.
  She said  that  she  could see the hostler
come into the room, and  take the secretary,
go down the stairs, go out of the front door,
steer  right to the barn, and there is a little 
     MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.  209
I don't see plain, but I see him hiding the
money in the litter in the barn by the cow
stable.  Here we found the bag of specie,
and across the road from the bam was found
the  secretary, knocked to pieces  with  a
brick-bat, and around it some papers, among
which was a ten dollar bill.
  Judge  Davis,  now  of  the  Supreme
Court, defended him, and had both  girls
sworn, and demanded of them what  they
told  me.   Their answer was, " nothing that
they knew of."   He asked Jane how she
knew she was magnetized.   She  replied,
that  she knew  " that she went  into the
Doctor's room to be mesmerized, and the
next thing she knew, she was down stairs
in Dr. Stipp's room;  and I think, if I had
not been magnetized, I should know how I
came there,  and I  don't know."   I had
brought her  down into the  bar-room, where
the thief was, and  she went and laid her 
210          LECTURE XIV.
hand  on him, saying, "this is the man,
Doctor, who stole your money."
  Judge Davis remarked,  that  before Sat-
urday  night (this was Monday) he  never
believed that there was anything in it, and
he thought he  would avail himself of this
opportunity of having it  sworn to.   The
man Avas discharged, when no one doubted
his guilt.  The justice thought  it might be
difficult to satisfy a jury, and so discharged
him.
  I know that such statements are most ri.
diculous; I know that a man of sense must
know that none but fools will believe them;
I know every man that utters them, ought
to be, and will be, denounced by the aris-
tocracy in science in  America:  but I also
know  this,  and hundreds more  such cases
as the abo\re, are true.
  I only state  what I know.
  It is said, that an Irishman who had nev-
er been on a feather bed, was urged to test 
MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS'  211
the softness of feathers.   He took a single
feather, laid it on a rock, and laid his head
on it, and ever after declared that there was
no  perceptible softness in feathers, as he
had proved by experiment.
  You are cowards!  traitors to the  cause
of honest, free inquiry, and ought to be im-
peached and removed  from your position. 
LECTURE   XV.
            on immortality.
Ladies  and  Gentlemen:
  But I am to provoke you yet more.
  Twenty years of my life I doubted all
spirituality, all future  existence,  and  the
preaching of  the pulpit only case-hardened
my unbelief.   Generally they insulted  me,
charging that I wanted more liberty than
the New Testament allowed.   While, in
fact, I thought the moral standard of  the
churches too low, and the  doctrines of  the
churches favoring immortality.
  I could not see  how a  man  could  be a
good man and keep a bar to sell liquor.   My
quaker education had not left me.   All the
evidence of future existence lacked weight. 
             ON IMMOR TALITY.         213
 I saw  that between me and most of the
 clergy, was only this difference and nothing
 more.   Both were profoundly ignorant of
 a future state.  I felt my ignorance deeply,
 they little, or none at all.
   Or,  to be more severe on myself, I took
 my ignorance for proof  of no  existence
 hereafter; and they took tradition as proof
 of future existence.
   In this state of things, in defending mes-
 merism, I was compelled to refute some 'f
 my darling arguments for infidelity.   Es-
 pecially had I been compelled to teach that
 experiment alone, and  not reasoning,  was
 the road to knowledge.
   Clairvoyance   shook   my  skepticism.
 While  with many  it proved immortality,
 with me it left doubt.
   At Mechanicsville,  in  Champaign Coun-
 ty, in 1843, I put Jane, my clairvoyant, to
 sleep, to examine a case of  disease, as was
my practice, three times a day 
214          LECTURE  XV
  She said that  she  did not feel well, and
would rather that I  would leave the case
until morning, and go to my lecture, where
the audience was waiting for me.
  " Leave me with Mrs Underhill, and let
me remain magnetized until your lecture is
out."
  When I returned, my wife met me at the
first room I entered,  and  said,  "Jane has
gone  away."    Gone away!  I  repeated
after her.    Where  has  she  gone to?
" To Cleveland," was her reply.
  Then she proceeded to tell me  " that af-
ter  I left, she  seemed  very  desirous  to
please me, and  said  that  if I would  take
care of her body, and not let the Doctor or
John touch it, she would leave it with her
and go to Cleveland and  see her children,
and  make them think and talk about her,
and would return and bring her word; and
she bid me  ' good-by,' and since then I can
not get a word out of her." 
ON IMMOR TALITY.         215
   " Well," said I,  "/can;"  for I had mes-
merized her, you know.
   I entered the room where  she lay on the
bed, called her by name, no answer; called
loud; shook her roughly:  but all in vain.
   I passed to the foot of the bed, and after
a  short time,  she slowly lifted her hands
from near her head, and tremuously brought
them down by her side, had a fit of hurried
breathing, as if she had been running, and
then said,  " I've got back, Mrs. Underhill.
There didn't nobody meddle  with  my body
while I was gone, did there?"
   No one answered, and she  related  her
visit.
   It was a common thing  to take or send
them to  places, but you could always be
with them, and  talk with them,  but here
was something different.
   While in St. Louis, the following winter,
George  Case went with my  son-in-law and
three other men into the Missouri lead re- 
216           LECTURE XV.
gion.   And when they returned, they told
me that George had done the same thing.
  I then began to ask them to go.   I put
Charles Egar to sleep, in an audience, and
called  a physician  to come with a watch
with a second hand and  count  his pulse.
He came, counted, and reported  100 beats
to the  minute.
  Hold on, Doctor,  said I, and count again
in a minute.   Charles, said I, leave your
body with me; and I sent him, I don't re-
member where, for  five minutes.  He  bid
me good-by.   Count his pulse, Doctor, said
I.  He reported, with a pale expression of
countenance,  " his pulse, ladies and gentle-
men, is only  thirty  beats  to the minute."
And now, to  me, during this time, he seems
unconscious.   I can  not make him hear me,
nor feel me, or do anything.
  Before he leaves for this five minutes, I
can attract him out  of his seat, make him
follow  me anywhere I please;  fasten his 
ON IMMORTALITY.         217
arms anywhere.   Nay, I could do this with
with him when awake, as is  usual in all
cases after they have been fully magnetized.
   But behold, now!!   I have  no  power
over mind nor body;  not any more than if
he was dead.  He returned, at the end of
five  minutes, and  was at  once in  normal
magnetic condition.
   Soon after this, I gave  a lecture, up at
the  Great Mound,  east part of  St. Louis,
when, after putting Jane (the one who first
went away)  to sleep, and then  sending her
to the farther end of the hall with my daugh-
ter, I put  to sleep  Sweet—now one of the
Commissioners of the Air-line Railroad that
passes from Fort Wayne, by way of Lacon,
to New Boston.   He lived in  St. Louis
then.
   I  asked him to leave his body, and go
down town to  Esquire Chase's, (brother of
the Supreme Judge), and  see what he was
doing.  I had made a good case of his wife, 
218
LECTURE XV.
and he had a houseful every evening.   He
went.
  Instantly Jane, who was very busy at the
far  end of the  hall,  turned  suddenly to-
wards  me, and with  a measured, solemn
step, and frequent sighs,  and oft repeated
" wonderful, wonderful," etc., came close to
me, peering, evidently at his body.  What
is wonderful, Jane ?   " Oh, his  spirit  has
gone and left his body, and his body looks
so strange."   He will come back, won't he ?
" Oh yes, but his spirit has gone  away,  and
his body looks so strange."  I asked,  how
does it look different from when the spirit
is in it ?  " Oh, Doctor, can't you see;;  the
spirit is gone,  and the body is all full of
air."
  For  many years, the repetition of  this
experiment has been common.
  If we have a nnmber mesmerized,  and
send off one, you can get no singing or free
conversation with those left.   They watch 
ON IMMOR TALITY.        219
the body, often see the spirit coming; and
as they always  jump on returning to the
body, all present witness it.
  I believe we can live separate from the
body. 
LECTURE  XVI.
       NEW mental phenomena.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
  About 1848, a new feature presented it-
self.   My subjects began to claim that they
could see departed friends;   see  into  the
spirit-world;  and  a remarkable fact was,
that some would suddenly seem engaged in
conversation with departed ones, when their
attention had not been called to it.
  In Kane County, I  mesmerized a lady,
who, with her husband, were allowed to be
materialists, believing in no future existence.
  Suddenly she was intensely engaged in
conversation with some one above her.  Few
of  her words were distinct to us who were
present,  but she  appeared, in manner,  like 
NEW MENTAL PHENOMENA-    221
 one who had met a long-absent  friend.   I
 called her away, and  asked who she had
 been  talking with.   She replied, "I must
 not tell  you, but I promised her to come
 again, And you must let me go."   Go,  I
 said, a*d instantly she was engaged as be-
 fore.   After waking her, having charged
 her to remember what she had experienced,
 I ask*xi her to tell.   She replied, " I must
 not."    Her husband urged  her.   "Hus-
 band  ' she said,  " you' cun make me faint
 away  by urging me, but I must not tell."
  I'li ask a question, and you may answer
 it if it is proper.  Do you believe in people
 living after they leave  these bodies ?   She
 colored deeply and  answered,   "why,   I
know they do."
  In Wakegan, two sisters by the name of
 Hawley, the moment they were magnetized,
would  direct their attention to the spirit-
world.  Would say, " Oh, beautiful! beau-
tiful !" etc.  And one was invited to come 
222
LECTURE  XVI.
 into their society: she started back, and
 cried,  " no, no, no, I can't come, I am not
 pure enough yet—not pure enough yet.
   One lady, at Freeport, cried out,  " take
 me away, Doctor—quick, quick, quick."
 One approached her, and said,  " don't come
 too near,  none but the  pure are admitted
 here.
   The following  "memorable relation," as
 Swedenborg would have called it, occurred
 at Moline.
   A Mrs.  Robinson, who, with her husband,
 kept a boarding house in that place,  called
 to see me, from gratitude I believe.    She
 informed me, with deep feelings,  that  last
 autumn (this was in the winter) they lost,
 by fever,  a  son and daughter.  One who
 knew them well, told  me that they were re-
 markable  for the  purity of their lives, for
 their strict attention to  Sunday school and
Bible-class, and for their very amiable char-
acters, and their attachment to each  other. 
NEW MENTAL PHENOMENA.     223
 But they had never  had that spasm of
 mind, called conversion, or being born again,
 and of  course had gone  to hell.   The  pa-
 rents  belonged   to   the  Congregational
 Church.  The distress of the affectionate
 mother bordered on insanity.   The minister
 tried to console her.   His breast of consol-
 ation yielded very thin milk.  It did not
 suntain her drooping spirits.   He told her
 that God saw they would never be any bet-
 ter,  or  He  would not have  taken  them.
 This was  all he could say.
   She informed me that that day she had
 taken her husband to where one of my good
 cases lived, and that the lady of the house
 had  put the girl  to  sleep, and  carefully
 blind-folded her.   That  then she saw her
thread a  fine cambric needle  and do very
delicate sewing.   That then she was asked
to look  into the spirit-world;  and then by
Mrs. R.,  "do you see our children?"   She
replied,  " I  see them  standing, dressed in 
224           LECTURE  XVI.
white, holding each other by the hand, sing-
ing praises."
  This so comforted the mother, that  she
went home with her husband, and, as soon
as she could, came to pour out her gratitude
to me for opening the  way to such sudden
and perfect relief. 
LECTURE  XVII.
     mesmerism takes a new phase.
Ladies and  Gentlemen:
   In the spring of 1850, came to my house,
in Eden, Lasalle County, John Strong and
wife, who wished to consult me about their
child.  The parents had been engaged as
actors on the stage in New York, and they
were at present giving theatrical readings
in the country villages.   This intellectual
life told on the child.  Too much brain and
nerves.   It was nearly two years  old  and
could not walk.  It remained in my family
two months, and was mesmerized daily, and
recovered pretty good health.
  Mrs. Strong had a swollen breast.  Mag-
netism is almost omnipotent  over such af- 
226          LECTURE XVII
fections.  It was applied, with a happy re-
sult.
  She became clairvoyant.   Seven years
before, Strong had traveled with me in Ohio
for two months as  a magnetic subject.  Af-
ter seeing his wife  clarvoyant, he desired to
be again mesmerized.   After a few sittings,
he also became clairvoyant.
  Spirit-rappings,  of  which I knew noth-
ing, was everywhere talked about.  Both
himself and wife were full of ridicule  on
the subject.   I wished to know about  it.
I sent them both to Rochester to look into
it.  With much surprise depicted in their
countenances,  both declared that the rap-
pings were made by spirits.  He proceeded
to say,  "see what  thousands  are trying to
look into it and can't."   Why can't they,
John?  "Because  there is a  mighty wall
betwixt them and the  reality."   What is
that wall  made of?   "Of the flesh; if I
was not in the spirit, I could not see." 
A NEW PHASE.          227
   " Why, Doctor, continued  he,  " it will
spread all over the  country.   There is a
great revolution  at hand."   When will  it
take place, John? "It is operating power-
fully now, and will be  manifest to every-
body in  1852."  What will  it  consist of
when it comes ?   " Why,  Doctor, mankind
are going to begin to do justice;" as seen  in
providing schools for all, and letting women
have souls, etc., etc.
   One evening, while they remained with
us, three of our neighbors came  in, and
with my son-in-law's  family, and our hired
help, we made quite an  audience.  I put
Mr. Strong to sleep, and gave him over to
my wife; then  put  Mrs. Strong  into the
clairvoyant state.  Soon she said, " Doctor,
I want you  to let me go away from you,
and I desire you not to speak to me until I
return;   will you ?"   I said, certainly, Sa-
rah.   I  let go her hands, and she turned
from me a little way, and, placing her hands 
228
LECTURE  XVII.
neatly together, she dropped her forehead
upon the ends of her fingers,  then bowed
nearly to the floor.  This she repeated sev-
eral times, and then, separating her hands,
bowed, spreading them out.  And this she
repeated several times.   She then arose,
turned around and walked to a lounge, and
kneeled  in silence for a few minutes.  Ris-
ing, she  returned to her chair.
  She now elevated her face,  raised her
right hand, and commenced speaking rapid-
ly in an unknown  tongue.   She had only
an ordinary English education.  No one
present  knew any other language but the
English, except myself, and my extras only
reached  to a little German, French and Lat-
in.   But  this was made by the  lips and
tongue,  soft as the Italian, or more so.  Af-
ter  speaking  for  sometime,  In  a very
reverent manner, her hand fell to  her lap,
her head dropped  forward,  and her  chin
rested against her breast for a few moments. 
A NEW PHASE.         229
  Then raising her head  and both hands,
she extended both precisely as if a piano
was  before her.   They also moved as if
playing an instrument.  First as if playing
an air,  and then as commencing a tune.
And thus she sang in that strange language,
perhaps ten verses, in a tune which her hus-
band said he had never heard before.
  When her singing had ended, she made a
number of reverent movements with head
and hands, and then returned to me, reach-
ed me her hands, and, as I took them, said,
"hold me, Doctor, don't let  me fly away."
  Come, Sarah, said I, explain this to  me ?
She placed her hand upon my head, and,
leaning towards me as if gazing attentively,
(she  having her eyes bandaged all the time,
because  the light would hurt them), said,
"if  you were  good,  Doctor,  you  might
know all about it."
  Sarah, I do not wish to  know what I
ought not to know.   " Doctor, let  me go 
230
LECTURE  XVII.
again, and I will see if I can not tell you."
Again she had  her  time of making rever-
ences;  and then, with a manner indicating
intreaty,  she  talked  some time in  that
strange  language;  but on returning to me,
declared that she could not tell me.
  Will the reader bear in  mind the  above,
for there comes an  explanation by and by.
  I said, I heard you praying there.  " Not
praying, Doctor, not praying, only praising,
only praising."  Did you see anyone?   "I
saw thousands of glorious  beings, and talk-
ed with  them."
  And could they not understand your lan-
guage ?  " They could understand mine, but
I could not understand theirs."   How could
you speak it then ?  " Why, they taught it
to me."
  Now, this was hardly an hour from the
time I commenced to put her to sleep.-
  Shall I  will you  to  remember what you 
              A NEW PHASE.          231
 have seen and experienced ?   "By no man-
 ner of means."
   Her husband, who witnessed all this, be-
 ing in the clairvoyant state, said, " Doctor,
 could we know, in our waking state, what
 we now know,  it  would drive us both in-
 sane."   Shall I will you to remember how
 happy you are?   "You may," was her an-
 swer, after a pause.
   I willed her to  remember that.  Awoke
 her.   They never remember on first open-
 ing their eyes.  She fell into lively conver-
 sation with Mrs. Weston  for  about a min-
 ute, when the remembrance came.  She sat
 a moment in silence, then  arose and walked
 to a corner as remote from us as possible,
 and,  sitting down, looked at me, saying,
 " Dr. Underhill, what ails me ?"   I replied,
not anything that I know of.  Do you feel
bad?   "Oh, I feel  uncommonly happy;
but I  feel  as if I was going to fly away.
What does ail me  ?" 
232          LECTURE XVII.
  The next  evening we had the same rev-
erences, the  same  singing and  instrument
playing, with this  addition: she returned
to me in great distress*  What is the mat-
ter ? I asked.   " O,  Doctor, my unbelief
when awake.  If  I could only believe in
my  waking state what I  now know, what
a comfort it would  be to me!"
  I laid my hand upon her head, and willed
her to believe more in her waking state,
and this would help her to do so.
  The next  evening, before putting her to
sleep, she requested that we would have pa-
per and pen, or pencil, and if  she  uttered
any of that strange language,  we  should
write down  some  of  the words that she
might  see them.   We got the material
ready.   She went to sleep as usual,  and left
me  as usual, made  reverences as usual, but
instantly came  to  me, saying,  " put away
your paper,  you must not write a  word—
not a word." 
A NEW PHASE.
233
  We did so, and then she went cheerfully,
as usual, and sang,  and talked, and rever-
enced as before.   But on returning to me,
declared that she had made a discovery.
  What is it?  " Why, Doctor, I could not
have translated that language to you, if
there had been no objection." How is that ?
said I.   She replied, "I know that I under-
stood,  that language when I was there.  I
know that I  shall understand it again as
soon as I am  there again, but the moment
that I return to you they take it all away
from me."
  This was the true reason why she  must
leave  me, that she  might  ascend upon a
plain above me.
  I caught and retained two words, Lapo
and Latau.   And  my wife retained one,
Pithau.
  Now, was it not the same law, that pre-
vented Paul from telling what he saw ?  So 
234           LECTURE  XVI.
much, then, for this new phase of mesmer-
ism. 
LECTURE   XVIII.
     mesmerism takes a new phase.
 Ladies and Gentlemen:
   A fact in mental philosopy, which man}
 experiences go to prove, is explained by the
 mediatorial capacity of this  nervous fluid.
 Circumstances transpire that seem to indi-
 cate a total annihilation of  space.   The
 clairvoyant once said to me,  "I can  see
 anybody you wish  me to  see."   I  could
 name no  one, but she would  instantly say,
 " I see them," and would give the most pre-
cise description of their personality.
  Persons   have seen great   distances.
Swedenborg  saw and  described a fire  in 
236         LECTURE  XVIII.
Stockholm, when he was 200 miles, or more,
distant.
  A young man was shot at  the battle of
Buana Vista, through the center of  his
body.  His twin brother, who was plough-
ing,  in Western New York, left his  plow
that day, and came to the  house, pressing
his haud on  the spot on  the bowels where
his brother was shot.   Pale and faint, he
said to the  family,  "my brother  is  shot
right here.   And this was  found to be the
fact, and also the time.
  We are linked to those we love by vital
cords that can play the telegraph at great
distances,  or make great distances  touch
each other.  There is much experience of
this kind on record.
  A man by the name of Tibbits,  assured
me that his magnetizer,  in Detroit,  would
compel him to come  to  him whenever he
desired it.   Such cases are very numerous,
and  the philosophy of it is as above stated. 
A NEW PHASE.         237
  I was busy at work in  my orchard dig-
ging potatoes, when, for three days, I was
constantly conscious that a cousin, in West-
chester  County, New York, was wanting
something of me.
  I had stopped there the  winter previous,
and found her insane.   Had remained ten
days, and cured  her.  Had heard nothing
from her for six months.  I addressed her
a  letter,  demanding what she  wanted.
"What art thou hagging me for?   Tell me,
and if it is anything I can do, I will do it.
  Now for the answer.  " I don't wonder
at thy question at all, for I have been so
anxious  to  get a letter from thee, hoping
thee would write a prescription for a  diffi-
culty of the kidneys, of which  I am suffer-
ing,—that I did not know  how to wait."
  But the reader says,  "why did not the
same medium make known to you what she
wanted ?"  My answer is:  this  has  often
been the case with cases near me.   And 
238         LECTURE XVIII.
had I sat  down in stillness,  I might have
known what she wanted.  But I had no re-
collection  if I had ever heard of  her com-
plaint, and I did not try it.
  But some will say that a spirit came and
impressed you.   Possibly;  but  although
various causes  may produce the same result,
yet I have  found for  this effect a cause,
without going  into a new subject.
  I could  fill  a volume with  facts of this
kind.   Dr. Justinus Kerner,  in the volume
of the Magicon, gives  many cases of mod-
ern date.   I will relate one of  Kerner's
from memory.
  A French gentleman dreamed  one night
that he  saw a  son extending his  arms im-
ploringly toward him, and heard him plaint-
ively cry,  "Father, I die."
  It awoke him.  He was in Paris, his son
m New Orleans.    He marked  the time,
and took  the  first ship for New  Orleans.
Reached  there, and went immediately to 
LECTURE XIX.
239
to his sons  boarding house.   Enquired for
him, was informed that he was dead.  That
he died the day and hour when he saw him.
That just as he expired he stretched out his
arms and made the plaintive cry " Father I
die."
  I am aiming to  establish  the scientific
fact, that commerce, communion may take
place between minds  whilst  in the  body.
Some quaker preachers  have been  remark-
ably clairvoyant, seeing the conditions  of
minds around them and are often led by the
preception  to  know thoughts  and  feelings
and  even intentions  of persons.   Silence
unfolds this preception and thus their gifts
have been deemed  extraordinary.

        LECTURE   XIX.

             ON THE BRAIN.
  That each function in  the  animal depart-
ments of the body has a particular as well 
240
THE BRAIN.
as a general source of innervation, by which
its actions are  maintained,  is revealed by
clairvoyance and demonstrated by extensive
experiments.   Not with  the very few, by
which my friend Horace Greeley gained his
wonderful  knowledge  of Spiritualism and
became a believer, but by years  of experi-
ments.  Greeley's investigation reminds me
of the  Irishman's testing the  softness of
feathers.  Horace told me in Cleveland, per-
haps in 1852, that he  had  examined some,
that  he knew there was something in it;
that he wished he could come to  Cleveland
and devote a few weeks with me to the in-
vestigation.  But he was full of other things
and has been severely rebuked in England
for publishing on the subject in his paper.
I think a simple confession of his ignorance
is about all he should say about it, such lim-
ited investigation does not qualify a man as
a witness either for or against a  subject so
mysterious.   I  have just read Greeley's 
SUBJECT CONTINUED.        241
Glamour in the Ledger on that subject, which
will acconnt for this degression.   On these
sources of innervation  I  will  give some
light, as demonstrated by me.   Whilst ale-
mentiveness lies just in front of the  ears,
and gives appetite, the whole power of di-
gestion is derived  from  a  spot between
firmness and veneration.   This spot in dys-
peptics often feels as   though  something
was crawling there — the hair  often be-
comes dead and frequently falls out.
  Amativeness lies in the base of the brain,
giving  sexual  passion,  whilst  the entire
power of reproduction lies between self-es-
teem and  concentrativeness.  In all weak-
nesses of the  reproductive functions, and
especially  in all deseases  of those  organs
this point is tender on  pressure; and  in
bad cases of prolapsus is often so sore, that
it gets badly hurt in combing the hair.  In
cases of barrenness this  spot is often great-
ly  depressed,  as  well as  often  tender  on 
242       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
pressure.  Where this point on the head is
very full, no  barrenness, and  few female
weaknesses, exist.  Where this point is de-
pressed, yet not to barrenness, conception
is  difficult, gestation  tedious, labor slow,
painful, and the mother gets up slowly—
where it is full, all these circumstances  are
reversed.  The eyes have their  power from
a point, half way from the ear  to the cor-
ner of  the eyebrow.   This is found tender
with sore  eyes.  The ears have  their power
from a point each side of Philoprogenitive-
ness.   The lungs from a little below Ideal-
ity, in  what is called the temple.   The  liv-
er from between Combativeness and Cau-
tion.   The bowels from each side of vener-
ation.   The voice from between firmness
and selfesteem.  The anterior  portion of
what is marked as the organ of caution, is
the organ of  courage.   With a good clair-
voyant you may get the true location of all
these points.   There are many  poles on va- 
           SUBJECT CONTINUED.       243
 rious parts of the  body, of great interest,
 and every mental feeling has poles in the
 face.   There is a spot, where the red flush
 appears  in a hectic fever, that I can not
 pass without describing.   It lies just below
 the cheek bone as it is called, and you must
 have  observed it.   The effect of exciting
 that spot lightly, as  done, twice only, by
 myself, is rather frightful.
  Having heard of the relation of this point
 to the lungs, I excited it  in Cyntha Bur-
 gess,  an  excellant  clairvoyant,  but  not a
 very excitable subject.  The result on the
 first trial was a feeling of great happiness.
 Her language was: "I'm  happy now, so
 happy! "  Her countenance was serene and
 heavenly, and it took me some time to get
 it off  and wake her up, and  I thought I
 would never do it again.
  But, at Tiffin, a Doctor who took a great
interest  in the science of mesmerism, to
whom I related the above case, begged me 
244       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
to do it again, and I did.   The former phe-
nomena were  intensified.    "I'm  happy,
O, I'm so happy, I'm going to die, I want
to die, let me die!"  etc., etc., etc.  I at-
tempted to throw off  the excitement from
the face.   I could not do  it. In vain  I
tried to wake  her, she all the while beg-
ging to be let alone, avowing that she nev-
er felt so happy before, wanting to die, etc.
I knew that she could tell me how to wake
her, but she refused.  Now, when she had
been conversing with any stranger, she was
unwilling to let them  depart, if they were
pleasant  to her, until she  was awakened.
Then  she commonly cared  nothing  for
them.  I kuew that she would not  be wil-
ling for  the Doctor to leave, so  I  bid him
tell her that he must go.  She begged, she
entreated,  but he kept moving toward  the
door,  when  she  raised  both hands, and
placed her fingers on a point about half
way from the neck  to  the  point of  the 
          SUBJECT CONTINUED.       245
shoulder, and, following the indication, I
excited those   places.     Instantly  she
drew two or three deep  inspirations  and
then  remarked  that  now she  could be
waked up, but  that  before those inspira-
tions she had not strenght enough to wake
up.  We found her pulse  sunk to forty a
minute, and for several days she was unfit
for clairvoyance.   She  was very costive,
and  finally, at  the Doctor's  suggestion, I
gave her some wine, it helped to cut short
that unpleasant condition.
  Once I  asked a  clairvoyant: Could  you
point out to me any place, that I might ex-
cite, to aid me in curing a case of deafness?
She  raised her hands and placed her fingers
on those places each  side  of the occipital
spine, and, following  the  indication, I ex-
cited the places.  She placed her hands on
her ears and shrieked, crying: "Oh,  oh,
why is that bell  ringing so ?"   Now re-
member, before  exciting  those  places the 
246       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
loudest cannon would not have been  heard
by her.   A church bell was then  ringing.
We  have tested  this  on  various  persons
many times, and it makes the hearing ten
times more acute than natural, in persons
mesmerized.  When a person has been long
deaf  of  one ear,  that spot  becomes de-
presed very much. I have been often tried,
and never failed to point out the deaf ear,
when only one was defective.
  But there is no  points more  interesting
than the poles of the  heart.   Draw a line
right over reproduction, between selfesteem
and concentrativeness, and about two  inch-
es from  the center  of the brain,  and  you
will be on the poles of the heart.  When
one is subject to palpitation, on any sudden
excitement, when in good  health, you  will
find  a depression there.  Mrs.  Ennestine
Rose, of  New York, pointed out this to O.
S. Fowler and me, when she  was  mesmer
ized.  She also  pointed out the pole of re 
SUBJECT CONTINUED.       247
production.   The circumstances of the dis-
covery are instructive.   O. S. Fowler, Mr.
Wm. E. Rose, Mrs. Rose and myself, were
locked up day after day, investigating.  I
mesmerized  the  clairvoyant,  and  Fowler
took notes, and both asked questions.
  We knew that about an  inch from the
center of the  chin, each way, was a point,
by exciting which, the heart would lessen
its action as low as we dare let it.  I al-
ways excited  Avith one hand, and felt the
pulse with the other.   In some very excit-
able  cases, the slightest touch  would be
followed by a fluttering, smothering action,
requiring instant relief.   We  wanted to
know, whether the excitement went  direct-
ly to the heart, or  by first a reflex  action
to the brain?  She said it went first to the
brain, and at once placed her finger on the
spot.   Now we wished to know its bound-
aries, and asked: "is it  a central organ?"
" No."  " What lies between, self esteem ?" 
248       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
" No."    " Concentrativeness ?"    " No."
" What then ?" " I won't tell you."  " Why
won't you tell us ?"  " Because fashion has
said,  that certain  subjects are not  proper
for gentlemen and ladies to  converse  upon
with each other."   I then excited her be-
nevolence and her  conscientiousness,  and
she began to  say.   " I ought  to  tell you,
1 ought to tell you.  I will  tell you, I will
tell you."  Turning to me, she said: "you
know,  Doctor, that  sometimes the  farmer
sows his field, and the  seed  don't grow ?"
" Mrs.  Rose, speak plainly,"  said  I,  " Does
the  reproductive  power  reside  there ?"
" Entirely."   And then, throwing off false
diffidence, she told us, what hundreds of ex-
aminations have  'confirmed.  To use  this
point  remedially,  I draw  two   or  three
breaths, through a thin  towel over  this
point, and blow it  away, and then breathe
into the place. 
LECTURE  XX.
249
         LECTURE   XX.
    ON THE  ROBBERY OF THE  ORGANS.

   You are aware, Ladies and Gentlemen,
that, in some regions of the earth, a portion
of the population are overfed, live on too
rich food,  are in fact surfeited, whilst a
larger portion are  underfed  and live on
poor  food, and yet  another portion are al-
lowed to starve.   This is an  apt illustra-
tion of individual experiences.
  The faculties  of  the mind  are a social
body.   One  set of facuities  may be  over-
fed, whilst another set may get little  food,
and some  are  killed by  starvation.   The
family of  faculties, like  the family of so-
ciety, can,  and  ought to, aid one another,
by various modes of co-operations and oc-
cupations;  and  this mutuality  ought to
benefit each. 
250    ROBBERY OF THE ORGANS.
  Both,  the intellectual and moral  facul-
ties, as well as the animal  and mechanical
powers, are all good and useful; but would
it be wise to encourage in  childhood and
early youth the developement of the re-
productive appetite and passions?   I think
not.
  Nor is  it wise, or safe, or healthy, to a-
waken and highly  stimulate the  organ of
veneration; because its  successful excite-
ment results in  death to the child.  You
never have, and never will, read the history
of  a case of remarkable  piety  in a child,
but  you are reading  the  history of  its
death.  I am going to tell you  how the
death takes place; and then, if you  dare,
glory in infant conversions.
  But we must get out our timber, before
we  build  the house.   You know that we
have spoken of  the sources of innervation
to the different functions  of the  body; so
also are the faculties of the  mind  supplied 
SUBJECT CONTINUED.       251
 by proper forces, from  appropriate  fount-
 ains in the brain.
   Each organ is a self supplying fountain;
 but they also aid each  other.   When the
 intellectual faculties  are  in high  action,
 nearly  every  fountain  yields them  assist-
 ance.  When one is speaking to an audience,
 all the intellectual faculties are  actively en-
 gaged.
   Whilst firmness, self  esteem, love  of ap-
 probation, conscientiousness, hope, caution,
 combativeness, and  perhaps  adhesiveness,
 and in  some  cases   philoprogenitiveness,
 are all sending nervous power to the labor-
 ing organs.  And this is all right, and not
 injurious, unless too long continued,  or too
 frequently repeated.
   " There  are  Eunuchs  that are born Eu-
nuchs, there are eunuchs who are made eu-
nuchs by men, and there are  eunuchs who
have  made  themselves  eunuchs, for  the
Kingdom of Heaven's sak." (Bible.)  I am 
252       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
giving  the  philosophy  of these  cases.
Thousands of women, and some  men, have
rendered themselves impotent, by using up,
in sustaining veneration and possibly other
functions, the nervous fluid designed to sus-
tain  the reproductive functions.  I  have
found a case of prolapsus  uteri in a lovely
girl of se\7enteen, who had been a methodist
shouter, since eleven years old.
  I think you can  not find a shouting wo-
man of a few years' standing, without pro-
lapsus, and that spot on  the head tender
on pressure.    A  very devoted  and pure
minded methodist  minister married at thir-
ty two, after twelve  years of gospel  labor,
thought himself in good health, but found
himself impotent for six months.
  The contemplation of a pure and beauti-
ful  man like Jesus, may waken adhesive-
ness, philoprogenitiveness, and in some cas-
es amativeness, connected with high  vener-
ation. 
          SUBJECT CONTINUED.       253
  I have found the breath excessively am-
ative, in a case of shouting, not excited  by
mesmerism.   Noav the pious child  looses
its appetite, firstly when destroyed by pre-
cotious religious excitement.  You will re
member that I  told  you, that the  whole
power of digestion depended upon a portion
of the brain, lying between firmness and
veneration.   When the tender organ  of
veneration has  been unduly excited,  for
day  after day, without intermission, it  be-
comes inflamed in the child, and it involves
the  source of innervation to  the  stomach
in inflamation, and thus destroys digestion.
General debility follows, producing  great
paleness, general emaciation, whilst in  the
adult it frequently ends  in a  cicatrice or
scar; in the child it winds up by death.
  When you get home,  get your  book on
"Piety promoted," get the history of very
pious children, and then, if you have  one
in the family, draw them off into  innocent 
254       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
amusements, and relieve the organ and save
the ehild.
  A good Babtist  minister, many  years
ago, on  listeniug to these  facts, declared
that he knew a live, healthy woman, who
became pious very young.   "And,"  said I,
interrupting him, " I'll tell  you what else
you  remember, to wit; that she  was also
the merriest girl in the flock."  " I  do re-
member  that," said  he.  But that  is not
one of my cases.   A  child may say her
prayers, go to Sunday school and believe
with her parents, and have  health;  but I
speak of  those who come to have no fellow-
ship with mirth and laughter, no  thoughts
but God and heaven.
   " Be  not  righteous  overmuch,   why
shouldst  thou  destroy thyself?   Be not
wicked overmuch, why shouldst  thou die
before  thy time?"   You will find  these
words in  the bible.  I have been preaching
from them as a text. 
SUBJECT CONTINUED.
255
  A  child well  organized  and well edu-
cated, will always make a good and useful
man.   The Bible says so.   " Train up a
child in the way he should go, and he will
continue to walk  therein."   This is not  be-
lieved  by professed  christians generally,
because they say, such a one gave his child-
ren a good education, and they turned out
bad.
  But whilst they may have had  a costly,
surely they have  not had a good education.
Their  morals  may  have been neglected,
whilst their intellects have been overstrain-
ed.  Or, being too rich or too  good to  la-
bor, their physical developement has been
neglected, and they are  dwarfs in body,
when with  Avell developed bodies, there
would have been  giants in mind.
   Some are educated without the  sweeten-
ing influence  of parental  love.  Some  are
so petted that  they  learn no  self  denial.
Others, with many advantages, have fretful 
256       SUBJECT CONTINUED.
parents, bad companions at school or play.
  Everything  they see, everything  they
come in contact with, goes into the forming
of their characters.   All wrong doing pro-
duces misery; and,  surely, no one  likes to
be miserable.
  Ignorance permits bad example to betray
into practices, which end in misery.   The
careless,  badly  educated  youth, who,  if
they knew that they were  mingling worm-
wood and gall, which they must themselves
drink, they would turn from that path in-
stantly.

         MAGNETIC  PHRENOLOGY.

  It is quite easy to deceive ourselves, in
proving phrenology by experiments on the
brain.   I am a  full  believer, and  am con-
firmed by observation, by the clairvoyant
seeing, and by exciting the organs.   I also
know that you may get any demonstration 
         MAGNETIC PHREXOLOGY.     257
of any faculty b}7  exciting anyAvhere you
please.  Once associate an idea or emotion
by a touch, no matter where, by  expressed
will  or unexpressed  will, and ever  after
you  may get that phenomenon by the sim-
ple touch of that spot.
   It is nevertheless true, that I  have dis-
covered organs, the location of which  I had
never  heard of, and  of AArhich I  was not
thinking, and wliilst thinking intensely of
other organs.
   Once I wished to produce singing, I ex-
cited tune,  time and imitation, and the sub-
ject began  to say:  " I don't Avant to sing,"
of which I  had not  spoken, when I thought
that  perhaps number  had to do with music,
and  knowing  that,  though   number was
marked at  the corner  of the eyebrow,  there
was no brain near that  point,  I placed my
fingers a little toward the ear from the cor-
ner of the eyebrow,  and  excited there.   The
patient instantly   cried  vehemently  for 
2 5 8      MA GNETIC PHRENOL OGY.
water.  I mesmerized a glass and gave her,
and again touched that place, and produced
the same earnest cry for water.  I said : " it
is  coming," and  instantly passed my fin-
gers over that point, and she cried:  "I
don't  want it noAV."
  Noav mark, there Avere, Avith a will, three
organs excited,  to produce singing, and yet
the excitement, without  will  of bibative-
ness, of the  existence  of which I had  no
knowledge, came into strong action.
  The very best phrenologists flatter, even
when  they intend to avoid exageration.
  I was convinced of this by my own clair-
voyant.   My  clairvoyant, when awake or
not mesmerized, was  profoundly ignorant
of phrenology,  but when  clairvoyant, she
was perfect in  knowledge on  this subject.
What satisfied  me,  was her disagreements
with me, in which cases I found that she
was right. For instance, in a full brow, I
said, color was  good; and  she said that it 
MAGNETIC PHRENOLOGY.      259
was  very difficult.   On inquiry I found
that the man could  not distinguish green
from red,   The broAv was full but narrow,
and the other perceptions  were large, and
so the brow was full.
  My classes nearly always  formed socie-
ties,  Avhen I left  them, and thereby re-de-
monstrated  all I  taught.    I  advise  this
course with  my readers.  If  phrenology is
true, we  have a very  simple mental phy-
lospohy.  With any other system, I find no
bottom to stand on.   All is vague and un-
certain.   It does  not follow  that all  pro-
fessors of phrenology understand the sci-
ence, or are  honest  workers in making
charts.  Yet I think, bungling as many of
them are, their labors  have, on the  whole,
been very beneficial.   Yet the science will
justify extensive  investigation.   Caution
has a large portion of  brain  assigned on
Fowler's Bust.   I have discovered that the
anterior  portion  of what is marked cau- 
260     MAGNETIC PHRENOLOGY.
tiousness, is really the  organ of courage.
And, not knowing this, some  have been
marked cowards, who possessed great cour-
age.  It gives the feeling of cool courage.
If you excite combattiveness, it strikes at
once.  The other  says:  " I'm ready, either
now or to morrow morning;" but it  don't
strike until the opponent  says  that  he is
ready.
  Dnring  many years I had no patients
taken from me by an invisible influence,
and  all  I  put to sleep  I must  awake, or
commission  some  one  by  robbing their
hands, and  putting them in rapport with
the patient, to awake them.  I had no run-
ning away  to look into  the spirit  world,
no leaving  the  body, to visit distant pla-
ces.
  But now, in 1848, came spirit rappings,
and after the rumor was abroad, I sent Mr.
Strong and his wife, when mesmerized, to
Rochester, to look into the matter.   They 
ANOTYLER PHASE TURNS UP.    261
 were great at ridiculeing the rapping, Avhen
 awake, and  therefore exhibited much sur-
 prise at finding  them to be  produced by
 spirits.
   All this I have  said  some pages  back,
 but I repeat it to apply  it  to  a different
 purpose.  I related it simply as a marvel-
 lous fact occurring in mesmerism.  Now it
 must be looked at as  my  first step in the
 investigation of modern spiritualism.
   Hitherto  this  book is  all science  made
 up of experimental facts.   Will  it be less
 than  science, if, keeping close to facts, we
 affiiwt Avhat these clairvoyants affirmed?
 But before we do this, allow me to tell you
 what folloAA^ed  this clairvoyant  statement.
And I premise that I knew, that never, in
any age or period of time, had the demand
for fresh  evidence of man's immortality
been so great, and so  thirsted  for.   The
Bible facts were  very old.   No one knew
who wrote the  Bible,  or  where,  or exactly 
2f-2
ANOTHER PHASE.
Avhen it was written.
   It  was an  undeniable fact, that all  old
books of science, all works on Astronomy,
Anatomy,   Physiology,  Chemistry  and
Philosophy were false.  That Geology Avas
unknown, and that Alchimy  was  not a
science.  Now it  was impossible to  throw
all these books away, and  retain  full  con-
fidence in the religious book.
   Enquirers not only found gross errors  in
the old authors in science, they found the
professors of religion not  only  wrangling
about the meaning of the  bible,  but  also
coming far short of living up to its simple
and beautiful teachings.
   In the early part of my  life I had great
religious zeal, and at one time I attempted
to labor with a Deist about his fearful in-
fidelity.   With tears streaming from  his
eyes, he said:  " I wish I could believe, most
of my friends  believe, but  Tom  Paine has
ruined my faith.   Why (said  he) if the 
ANOTHER PHASE.
263
bible be true, angels used to  be almost as
plenty  as  swallows  are  now;  why don't
some one see some now?"
  He did not demand to  see them himself,
but  he wanted  some  living   testimony
on the subject.   I was  not honest enough
to own the force of this argument,  but I
was  bright enough to feel it deeply.
  " There is no new thing  under the sun,
that which has been, is now."  (Scripture.)
Reader, don't you feel the force of the old
Deist's argument ?
  I could answer him  now, they are seen
and conversed Avith by thousands.
  To proceed then—as soon as  I  could  ar-
range  my  affairs, so as to leave  home, I
went to Cleveland, and devoted six months
to the  investigation of the subject.  Pre-
ceeding this, I had  letters from  a brother
and  a  daughter,  who  had  had  excellent
opportunities  for investigation,  affirming
their conviction  of the reallity  of spirits 
264         ANOTHER PHASE.
communing with mortals.   Mediums were
plenty in Cleveland, and I  was hungering
for  truth, and I was  free.   Had  I been
preaching for  money, living and  support-
ing a family on my salary, I might have
shrank with dread from the  enquiry.  But,
though I was a preacher, among the Quak-
ers or Friends, now, I  got  no  money  for
preaching, and got my living off my farm.
  In this condition,  midst  numerous me-
diums, I passed month after  month, became
a writing medium  myself, and  after much
experience  returned  home, taking Abby
Warner with me.
  Abby, who  was prosecuted in Massellan,
for  disturbing an Episcopal  church,  on
Christmas eve, by \Tery loud rappings,  by
which they contradicted much  of  what the
preacher said.  We, that is, my wife, Abby
and myself, stopped and mardc  converts in
Detroit.   On getting  home, we freely  ad-
mitted all our  neighbors,  that  they might 
ANOTHER PHASE.        265
come and examine for  themselves.   Many
came and believed.
  Then we set out on a tour, stopped at
Peru a  few days, thence to Homer, Troy
Grove  and  Franklin,  and  from there to
Dixon.   We stopped  at Franklin with  a
Mr. Frost, who told me that he would ra-
ther see all  his family  dead corpses, than
have them believe spiritualism; But before
he told me this, the  rappings had compel-
led us to leave his house.
  From Dixon we went to Grand de Tour,
where the people  put  red pepper on the
stove, making it impossible to stay  in the
school house, and with these powerful ar-
guments compelled us to leave.
  At Rockford we came near getting mob-
bed, a man  from New York leading the
gang of roughs who engaged in it.   A cit-
izen put a veto on them, and they soon left.
  At Galena, a mob  of  very respectable
men, of whom Hesler, the  great  picture 
266*        ANOTHER PHASE.
maker, of Chicago, was one,  entered the
Hall, and fastened the door on the inside,
so as to prevent any  one from coming in.
Then they surrounded  me with  guns and
bayonets.  One wrote: " I promise to leave
the place to morrow morning,"  and, with
several bayonets pointed at me, demanded,
or rather commanded me, to sign it.   I did
not sign it.  I told them to kill me if they
pleased, but  that I would not sign it.
  At  Dubuque I was  prosecuted for lec-
turing  without taking out a  licence, as if
it was a puppet show.    I  stood  trial, and
beat them;  two lawyers, Mr. Davis and
Mr Hamilton, voluntarily came  and ten-
dered  gratuitous assistance.
  At Rock Island, Joe Knox, now of Chi-
cago, had me arrested twice for the crime
of preaching immortality with demonstra-
tions,  and got  me fined, each  time, one
hundred dollars.
  Now, I have  stated  the above facts,  to 
ANOTHER PHALE.         267
show  what my opportunities were to test
this matter, in an early day.
  I have been much in it since  that day,
and have experienced  much.   Twice have
I stood upon a table,  weighing one hun-
dred and fifty pounds, and the second time
with another  man,  weighing one hundred
and  fifty  pounds, whilst I weighed  two
hundred and  forty pounds, in a well light-
ed room, and  no one even laying a hand on
the table; yet was the table taken  slowly
up, and we carried as high as the  ceiling
would permit, and slowly set down again.
  In the first trial a father and three child-
ren sat  around the table, in the last the
father was on the table with  me, and the
three children only sat around  the  table
as mediums.
  This  took place in Warren,  Trumble
county, Ohio, at the house of Mr. Thorpe,
who kept a shoe store.
  Judge Shirtliff was a frequeut attendant 
268         ANOTHER PHASE.
there,  I was  told,  when  off  the circuit.
Now, I affirm that all men of science know
that electricity  is not the motive power;
they ought to know,  that it  would take
more power to control electricity for this
purpose, than to move the  table without
it.
  To accumulate electricity, the receiver
must  be insulated  by  glass, beeswax, or
some  other nonconductor.    If spirits out
of the body could lift tables with  electrici-
ty,  without  accumulating  by insulation,
then I could do it.   But I defy  any man
or spirit, to get any men  or things more
positive or negative,  than all other  things
on the same  floor.   Even when  magnets
are  used to produce  motion,  that  powes is
magnetism, not electricity.
  But, if you will examine  the subject, you
will find that there is a controling inteli-
gence engaged in the movement, that is in-
visible to us.   That  this controling inteli- 
    .±N ALL CONTROLING INTELICENCE.  269
gence  declares itself  by  raps, by  Avriting
with a  medium's  hand, by spelling  out an-
swers, and by clairvoyant declarations, that
they, the inteligences, are our  old  earthly
associates---Rebut  this testimony, if you
can.   It is  enough for me.   Strike,  but
hear me.  Truth  is older than falsehood.
It is better to live by,  far  better to die by.
   The  following lines were written  by  my
hand, without  passing through my mind,
whilst the  hand was controled by, AArhat I
call spirit.

    There's joy in heaven, when men obey
    The  high behests, made known this day;
    When spirits, from the upper sphere,
    Demonstrate that they are here,
    They come with messages of love,
    Descending like the gentle dove;
    And  ears shall hear, and hearts rejoice,
    When spirits use the human voice.

   And  now to thee this truth is plain:
    That God  did not make mau in vain, 
270           SPIRIT WRITING.
     But for the joys of endless life,
     Redeemed from all th£t leads to strife

     Hosannah to his name be given,
     Who rules by love the hosts of heaven,
     Whose messengers come gently here,
     To cleanse from sin and every fear !

     That Ave may know, and feel, and see
     That we immortal spirits be,
     And can converse with those, away
     In regions of eternal day;

     Can feel our guardian angels near;
     Not start with fright or idle fear,
     But safely in  their love abide,
     As with the bride groom rests the bride.
       These joys  substantial now are given,
      A foretaste of your future  heaAren.

   Now read  with the honesty, with whicn
I have written,  and you will believe. 
SUMMARY.            271
            S U M*M A R Y .

   There are six degrees of magnetic  sleep.
 [n the  first, second and third degrees the
 subjects hear every body and  remember
 everything..  In the fourth, fifth and sixth
 degrees they hear no one but the mesmer-
 izer and those whom he puts  in  rapport
 with them.
   I have  known two  exceptions to this
 rule:  Mr. Yearnshaw, of Beauro, and  Mrs.
 Winsbrenner, of Carrolton, Green  county,
 111.  They heard every one, and remember-
 ed all they heard, when in the sixth degree.
   I had one subject,  who had six fits of
 deep breathing, each  taking  him  one de-
 gree.
   After the second degree, they can usually
 tell in what degree they are.   Some  times
they see a figure before them, when you
ask what degree they are in. 
272
SUMMARY.
  I know one case:  Mrs.  Allen, of Bloom-
ington, who, after being in the sixth degree
for  several  weeks, announced  to  me that
she  Avas loosing  all voluntary power, and
added: " my power of speech will  also be
gone, if you do not exert yourself to pre-
vent \t.  You can not wake me now, I am
out  cf your  power;" and she  laughed at
me.   "But hoAv are you to  wake up?"
"Oh, after a while I shall come back with-
in your reach."   "Can you explain this?
You said you  was in the highest degree
lo^g ago."   "So  my mind  was, but now
my  body has gone further.   My  nerves of
voluntary  motion, which  ought always to
s^eep  Avhen I sleep, in consequence of dis-
ease, have  had no perfect sleep for a long
time.  They are now taking their first nap,
and now my recovery will be rapid."
  When I speak  of acting  on the  body
through the mind,  I use the  term "force
of an idea.'1 
SUMMARY             273
  You may make a piece of money, or any
thing, hot by rubbing between your hands.
so as to burn  a blister.   You  make hot
ginger tea of cold  water—draw  a blister,
etc., etc., by your will,  or a word, in very
susceptible cases.    It  is the force  of an
idea.
  With  these  statements, having left all
Latiu,  French,  German and  Greek  quota
tions for the  reader to  put in at his  own
pleasure,  I,  for the   present,   bid  you
Adieu.
the  end. 
 
BEL J Gl 0-PH1L OS OPHICAL
Publishing    Association,

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