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ANIMAL   MAGNETISM.
\f-
REPORT  OF DR. FRANKLIN
       AND OTHER COMMISSIONERS,
CHARGED BY THE KING OF FRANCE WITH THE EXAMINATION OF THE
         ANIMAL MAGNETISM AS PRACTISED AT PARIS.

               Translated from the French.
AN HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF  THE "SCIENCE,1'

                AN ABSTRACT OF THE

   REPORT ON MAGNETIC EXPERIMENTS,
Made by a Committee of the Royal Academy of Medicine, in 1831

                     AND

      i&Etnarfcs on <ftoL Stoue's UamjihUt.
                PHILADELPHIA
PUBLISHED BY  H. PERKINS, CHESNUT STREET.
                    1837. 
Me A.  Hist


    FU2«.
     I$37
 Entkred, according to the act of congress, in the year 1837, by II. Pkkkin*, in the

-Jerk'* office of the District Court for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania.
                                              A. WAU>IK, PR
! 
ADVERTISEMENT.
   In addition to the  contents of the  present pamphlet as
set forth in the title, the reader will find the first eight pages
occupied by the first report of the committee of the Royal
Society of Medicine in 1784.
   Next follows the Report of the Royal Commissioners,
Dr. Franklin at their head, and the pamphlet is concluded
by a succinct history of the  so called " science," and  an
abstract of  the  report made  in  1831, when lucidity  or
clairvoyance had  been added to  the  list  of  the wonders
of Animal Magnetism.   The whole is designed as  a
MANUAL on the  subject, which should be  carefully pe-
rused by those in danger of being led away by the doctrines
now broached.                                     «
Philadelphia, On  20, 1837. 
\ 
REPORT
                            OF A


  COMMITTEE OF  THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF  MEDICINE,


Appointed  to examine a work, entitled "Enquiries and  Doubts
  respecting the Animal Magnetism," by M. Thouret, Regent Phy-
  sician of the Faculty of Paris, and Member of the Society.   To
  which are subjoined, by the translator,  notes,  chiefly  extracted
  from M. Thourefs performance.
  The underwritten were charged by the Royal Society of Medi-
cine, with the examination of a work of M. Thouret, member  of
the society, entitled, "Enquiries and Doubts respecting the Animal
Magnetism."
  In the attentive perusal of this work, it is obvious to remark, that
it has two very distinct objects; one of them, which is in a manner
historical, is to explain the coincidences of the animal magnetism,
as it was known to the ancients, with that which is admitted by the
moderns : the other contains critical reflections  and doubts'in re-
gard to the evidences upon which the doctrine is founded, the
uncertainty of which M. Thouret undertakes to display.   We will
endeavour to lay before the society an  idea of his performance.
  The animal magnetism held a principal rank among the systems
which were  embraced in that period of literary history, when  sup-
positions were admitted to hold the place of facts ; and this hypo-
thesis vanished, together with many  others, when experimental
philosophy began to dissipate the impostures of the imagination,
and to afford an accurate measure of the value of arts and sciences.
  The  object of this system was a fluid  extremely subtle, upon
which were bestowed the magnificent  titles of soul of the world,
spirit of the universe,  and  universal magnetic fluid; and which
was pretended to be diffused through the whole space occupied by
the material creation, to animate the system of nature, to penetrate
all substances, and to be the vehicle to  animated  bodies in general,
and their several regions in particular, of certain forces of attrac-
tion and repulsion,  by means of which they explained the pheno-
mena of nature.
  Nor were  they contented  to admit, or rather to imagine, the fluid
       1 
2
       we have described;  they flattered themselves that they were able,
       in certain methods, to render themselves masters of this fluid, and
       to direct its operations.   Even this did not terminate their chimeri-
       cal pretensions: they affirmed that this fluid, in which they admitted
       a species of flux and reflux, exerted an important degree of action
       upon the nerves, and had a grand analogy with the vital principle ;
       that its effects, under the guidance of skill and illumination, extended
       to very  great distances, without the intervention of any foreign
       substances; that it was possible to  impregnate with  it. either cer-
       tain powders, in the  manner of Sir Kenelm  Digby, who asserted
       that he had done this, or fluids, or different parts  of the bodies  of
       animals; that this agent was like  light reflected by mirrors, and
       that sound and music augmented its intensity.
         The partisans of the animal  magnetism, who wrote in the seven-
       teenth century, did not yet confine their hopes within these limits:
       the art of directing the fluid, which they had  brought down  from
\      heaven, and which, according to them, acted  in so distinguished a
       manner upon the human body, might  be expected to have a con-
       siderable share in the medical  science, or rather to supersede  that
       science, as it had hitherto existed ;  they did not fail to assert, that
       in causing  it to circulate in a proper  manner, the  restoration  of
       diseased  organs was infallible, as well  as  the preservation of the
       health of those who were  yet unattacked with any disease.1
         Such was the origin of an external and universal medicine, of a
       species entirely new, and  which  boasted of having the  advantage
       of curing diseases, without obliging  any drugs to be swallowed by
       the diseased.  Soon after poles  were  discovered in the  human body,
       that is, points towards which  it appeared that the action  of this
       imaginary fluid ought to  be directed, cures and evacuations  were
       operated without the assistance of pharmacy,  sensations of various
       kinds were excited in the patients ; and, notwithstanding the distin-
       guished effects ascribed to this  agent, it was asserted, that persons
       the most feeble and delicate might submit to its process without
       danger.  The process had yet  another use, that of discovering the
  i " It must be confessed, however, that the manner of directing- the pretended mag-
..jtism, is different in these systems.  The ancients, as well as M. Mesmer, regarded
this fluid as universally diffused, as pervading the bodies of animals, and as capable of
being rendered the vehicle of the most salutary influences.  But, in order to call it intn
neti
netisrn.  The different humours of the human body, whether natural, as the blood, th<
urine, the excrements, or contrary to nature, as the pus bred in wounds; in fine,' ln(
solid parts of the frame, as the flesh, the nails, the hair, in a state of separation frorn the
body, afforded, according to the ancient doctrine, the suitable  and necessary means 0f
employing the magnetism. These different parts, so long as  they remained in a g{
of integrity, were supposed to be united in the link of a common vital  princip]e ^
the individual who had furnished them.  The union was operated by the intervention
of the universal spirit, and in acting upon them, the physician was said to^ct also
♦hn  nerson to whom they had belonged;  an actioD, which, as it was  ndepend  * »
contact  and wis not superseded by distance, was regarded as magnetic, -nou* «* 
3
seat of the distemper ; a thing frequently so difficult to be ascertained,
but which was pointed  out by the fluid by a sort of instinctive in-
telligence,  and with absolute demonstration.  It perfected the con-
coction  of the humours; nervous distempers, in particular, rarely
resisted its influence; it was favourable to transpiration.   In  fine,
and this last remark is  of particular importance, it had a powerlul
action upon  the moral principles of our frame.   A propensity, that
could scarcely be resisted, was the basis of the attachment and gra-
titude, which  were vowed  by the patients  to those who had em-
ployed upon them this method of cure.   Several, and in this num-
ber was Maxvvel, even gave us to  understand, that it  was possible,
in certain  circumstances of human life, to make an improper use of
this vehicle  of influence.1
   This picture of the  animal magnetism,  as it was invented and
applauded by the ancients, is faithfully extracted from the perform-
ance  of M. Thouret.   The  principal  authors,  to which he has
recourse in  the  progress of his enquiry, are  Paracelsus,  Van Hel-
mont,  Goclenius, Burgravius, Libavius,  Wirdig,  Maxwel,  Santa-
nelli,  Tentzel,  Kircher,  and  Borel.2   The  entire   passages are

  1 " Far be it from me," says Maxwel, " to lead you to improper actions.  If, from the
perusal of my works, you become acquainted with the means of such actions, you will
do me the justice not to divulge them.  I have seen" adds  he, " the most incredible
effects, and the  greatest advantages from a right use of this method.  I have also seen
infinite evils occasioned by the  abuse of it.  Indeed, it is scarcely prudent to treat of
these subjects, on  account of the dangers that may result from it.  If we were to express
ourselves  in a manner universally intelligible, fathers could  never be sure of their daugh-
ters, nor husbands of their wives;  women would be  deprived of theifr self-government
in spite of the most judicious and obstinate resistance."—Maxwel, de Medicina Mag-
netica, apud  Thouret-
  2 Paracelsus  Arecolus  Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus de Hohenheim is to  be
regarded  as  the  inventor of  the magnetical system.  He was born at a village near
Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1493, and died in 1541.  His profession was that of a physi-
sician, and he obtained great reputation by the use of mercury and opium, medicines
that were  unknown, or not employed, by the physicians of those times.  But beside this,
he was a proficient in alchymy, astrology, and magic.  He was acquainted with the
philosopher's stone, and the universal medicine.  And he invented an elixir, in the use
of which a man could not fail  to live to the age of a thousand years.
  Van Helmont was the immediate successor of Paracelsus in the pursuit of the mag-
netical science,  and wrote an express treatise De Magnetica Vulnerum Curatione.
   All the other persons enumerated lived in the seventeenth century.
   " To Maxwel, we are particularly indebted for the most complete and copious treatise
upon the subject, in which he has endeavoured to support its declining credit by calling
in the assistance of that theory of the universal spirit, which he derived from the earliest
philosophers of antiquity, and  in which we are presented with the exact counterpart of
the system of M. Mesmer.
  " Another  inhabitant of this island, the learned and illustrious Sir Kenelm Digby, is
well known for  his invention of the sympathetic powder; which it was only necessary
to apply to the  linen which had imbibed the blood or pus of a wound, or to the arm or
sword of  him who inflicted it, provided they were still stained with the blood  of the
wounded  person.   It was necessary, however, that the wound should be kept perfectly
clean, and protected from the  air.
  "There was  a sympathetic sweating powder, invented  so lately as the year 1745.
The means of applying it was, by mixing it with the urine of the person diseased, and
keeping it boiling over a fire as  long as you wished the perspiration to continue.  Dur-
ing the operation, the patient was to keep his bed, to be covered up warm, and to drink
several large basins of tea.  This medicine was never  known to fail of its effect."—
Thouret. 
4
extracted, and M. Thouret has  displayed  in  this performance, as
he  had already done  in  so  many others,  an erudition the most
variofJs, the most precise, and the most extensive.
  It is easy to see how analogous is the system we have described
to that of M. Mesmer.   To  demonstrate this analogy, M. rl houret
has considered separately each of the propositions published and
avowed  by the latter.  They amount to twenty-seven, and the
result of this examination  is, that they are all positively announced
in some of the authors whose names have been recited.
  Every part of Mesmer's system, even down to the experiments of
the  ring  and the sword, have been found  by M. Thouret in the
works of these writers.1  It is therefore  certain, that the assertions
of M. Mesmer, which are  represented by him as  principles of his
own, do not belong to him;  and that this  theory, in the room of
being an attractive novelty, is an ancient system, abandoned by the
learned near a century ago.
  In ascending  indeed to  the original systems which were formed
upon the subject, we are unable  to discover any thing but supposi-
tions destitute of proof, and  for that reason devoted to oblivion.
The parts of this hypothesis were not connected together by any
other tie than  that of the imagination.  The steps that were pro-
posed in order to its establishment, were  the very same that had
been employed in favour of the art of cure, now by enchantments
and now by exorcisms.  It has been always by sensations that they
have pretended to prove the existence of these different agents; and
if this kind of proof were sufficient, there is not one of them which
would not have been demonstrated.  Sound philosophy has there-
fore refused credit, as well to this  species of proof as to the mag-
netism, such as  it was proposed by Maxwel, Goclenius, and San-
tanelli, and such as we have described it in the opening of this
report.
  Has the animal magnetism of M. Mesmer any better claim to our
confidence ?   M. Thouret, without replying to this question  in a
positive manner, has permitted to himself, in the second part of his
work, certain reflections respecting it, which he has proposed simply
as doubts, and which relate entirely to what M. Mesmer has pub-
lished, or authentically advanced.   It may be objected to him, says
M.  Thouret,
  1. That the touch frequently employed in his method for a con-
siderable time, and on regions extremely sensible, such as those of
the stomach, is of itself capable of  producing effects, by communi-
cating a vivid impulse to the nerves of the plexuses which are there

  i The experiments of the ring and sword, are to be found in Kircher's Magnes, sive
de arte magnetica.  They are both wtll known. "That of the sword consists in the
balancing it upon the point of one of the fingers, the consequence of which will be a
very rapid rotary motion, provided the person  be  property magnetised.  That of the
ring is performed by a person initiated in the animal magnetism, holding it suspended
by a thread in the inside of a wine glass, when it will invariably strike the hour ot the
day."—Thouret. 
5
situated, and which have  an intimate  connection with the whole
nervous system;  that authentic records present us with a great
number of facts of this kind, and that,  in consequence, the sensa-
tions, which originate in the application of the touch, do not prove
the existence of a separate  fluid or agent.
   2. That the heat produced by the hand, and the motion commu-
nicated to the air, may occasion very strong impressions upon  a
person extremely sensible,  and whose fibres  are in a state of con-
vulsion, without these impressions being calculated to prove a new
agent.
   3. That  in  subduing the imagination by solemn preparations,
by extraordinary proceedings, by the confidence  and enthusiasm
inspired by magnificent promises, it is possible to exalt the tone of
sensible and nervous fibres, and afterwards  to direct, by the appli-
cation of the hands, their  impulse  towards certain orgafls,  and to
excite in them evacuations or excretions, without there  resulting
any addition to the sciences, either of philosophy or  medicine.
   4. That the partisans of the animal  magnetism do not produce
what they call crises, that  is, a state of convulsions, but in subjects
extremely irritable, extremely nervous,  and  above all, in women,
whose sensibility has been  already excited by the means we have
described.
   5. That among these disposing causes, particular stress is to be
laid upon the presence of a person already in a state of convulsion,
or ready to fall into that state ; that just as an organ attacked with
spasmodic affections easily propagates these  affections to the other
organs, in like manner are they transmitted  from  one man to an-
other ; that we  have therefore no reason to be surprised, if in the
halls, where the pretended magnetical  operations are performed,
spasms, and even convulsions, are diffused with extreme  alacrity;
and that history furnishes  a great number of facts, of convulsions
propagated through whole  villages or towns,  in a manner still more
astonishing than that of which the animal magnetism presents us
with an example.
   6. That  history has also transmitted to  us a great number of
cures operated by fear,  by joy, or the  commotion  of any  violent
passion ;  which proves, beyond controversy,  the power of nervous
influences over diseases.
   7. That in different ages, two famous empirics, Valentine Great-
rakes of the kingdom of  Ireland,  and  Gassner of Ratisbon, pro-
duced upon different persons effects which appeared surprising,
and have had their admirers ; that they employed only the instru-
mentality of the touch, either upon the nape  of the neck, or the
limb affected ; and that it  has been universally acknowledged that
they acted only upon the imagination.1
  1" Valentine Greatrakes, Esq., was a native of Afane in the kingdom of Ireland. We
are told, that one day he was conscious to a wonderful internal revolution, and at the
same time heard a voice like that of a genius, which cried incessantly for a long time:
' I endow you with the faculty of curing diseases.'  Importuned by this salutation, from 
6
   8.  That in many instances the partisans of the magnetism seem
to  bestow a greater  attention  to excite surprise in  the spectators


which he could in no way distract his attention, he determined to make an experiment
of the  truth of the intelligence.  The voice had first announced to him the  gift of cur-
ing the king's evil.  He made ail  experiment upon this distemper, and succeeded.  He
afterwards touched persons attacked with an epidemical fever  that raged in his neigh-
bourhood ; the voice  had announced to him the gift of curing  this disease.  In fine, he
was enabled to cure every species of disease;  and he succeeded in all cases, except
where, as he observed, the malady was too deeply rooted, or the patient laboured under
a particular indisposition to this method of cure.   The exterior of this man was ex-
tremely simple.  His cures were accompanied with no degree  of pomp  and ceremony,
unless we should  call such, his ascribing  his success to  God, publicly expressing his
gratitude, and inviting the patient to join with him  in the act of thanksgiving.  But he
made a very extensive use of the  operation of touch.   The distemper fled  before him,
and he was able, we  are told, to dislodge it from  its seat, and remove it to parts  the
least useful.  If its progress appeared  to be suspended in any part, he redoubled his
frictions upon that part to remove the  obstacle.  In this operation, nature, excited by
the stroking, seemed frequently to operate crises, and it produced stools, vomitings, and
perspirations."—Thouret.
  " Greatrakes cured not only internal diseases, but also external ones, such as wounds
and ulcers.  The  second Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was one of his patients.  His
attestations were  signed by  Boyle, Wilkins, Whichcot, Cudworth, and Patrick.   He
was born in 1628,  received the gift of healing,  1662,  and removed to London, 1666.—
Des Maizeaux, Vie de St. Evremond.
  " The  cures of Gassner are of a much later  date, and  are not  above ten or twelve
years old.  This German, having in his youth been afflicted with an ill state of health,
which  resisted the  efforts of all the physicians, suspected that his distemper might have
a supernatural cause, and derive from the  influence of the devil.  His conjecture waa
verified by his success in expelling the devil, having abjured him in the name of Jesus
Christ.   From that moment he enjoyed  the most perfect health for sixteen years.   En-
couraged by this event, he laid aside the study of medicine, to which his distemper had
prompted him, and procured all  the authors who had  treated of exorcism.  He began
with healing his parishioners in an obscure town upon the  borders of Switzerland and
the Tyrol, and his reputation increased so much, that, in the last two years of his re-
sidence there, he had between four and  five hundred patients who applied to him.  He
then made a progress through several of the Swiss cantons, and settled at Ratisbon in
1774.  He distinguished diseases into two  classes,  the natural and the demoniac, the
last of which were much the most  numerous.  Over the  former he  pretended to no
power.   His  cures were  performed with  much  pomp  and  solemnity;  and it was
observed, that he constantly rubbed his hands upon his girdle and his handkerchief pre-
viously to his touching the patient.  He performed his cures  in the name of Christ
and by the faith of the diseased  in his holy name;  if their faith failed, the cure did not
take place.  He gave the sick, when he dismissed  them, balm  and oil, which  he  con-
sidered as spiritual medicaments, together with certain waters and powders, and a little
ring, inscribed with the name of Jesus, to prevent a relapse."—Thouret.
  Thouret considers  the system of Gassner as  having had an  influence on  that of M.
Mesmer.   Astrology  and  possessions  were extremely current in  Germany •  and  as
Gassner  had taken possession of, and ruined the latter pretension, Mesmer had recourse
to the former.   It should however  be remembered, that Mesmer had written and  pub-
lished his thesis upon astrology before the pretensions  of Gassner were heard of.
  These instances  are produced  by Thouret, as distinguished proofs of the efficacy both
of the  touch and the  imagination.   In proof of the contagion of convulsive affections
he cites the convulsions of St. Medard, and the  possessions of Loudun.   " The former
of these took place in 1732, and  made their appearance as soon  as any of the religious
were approached to the tomb of their patron saint.  They were exposed in the most
triumphant manner, and covered with ridicule by Hecquet, in  his Natural History of
Convulsions.  The pretended possessions of Loudun (1740) originated in an infamous
scheme of avarice and revenge against the unfortunate Urbain Grandier  Rector  of
Loudun,  who became the victim of the machinations of his enemies.   The physicians
of Montpellier, charged with the examination of the affair, discovered the whole secret
of the possessions to consist in factitious and pretended convulsions."__Thouret. 
7
than salutary effects in their patients ; the spasms and convulsions
which they produce being the source of undoubted evil, were it
only by the habitude of that state which they are calculated to in-
duce, while the advantages of this method are not equally demon-
strated.
  9. That certain local diseases not being of the  number of those
upon which the animal magnetism acts, and certain persons, by the
confession of M. Mesmer, not being susceptible of its action, it may
be suspected that the partisans of  this system have  contrived for
themselves this resource, in order to account for their failure of
success in certain cases.
  10.  That to pretend to  the discovery of  a means which shall
extend to every kind of disease, that is, to an universal medicine,
is an illusion which cannot be excused in an enlightened age.
  11.  That the known effects of sensibility are sufficient to explain,
without  any new agent, the  phenomena which M. Mesmer pro-
duces by a method which he has not yet imparted to the public.
  12.  That M. Mesmer, in supposing a particular agent, has adopt-
ed a route contrary to the interests of his discovery, in following the
example of those who  have exerted their efforts to give credit to a
system, worthy upon every account  of the oblivion  into which it
has fallen.
  The society may judge of the performance from this extract: it
is proper here to call to mind, that the  Royal Society, acquainted
with the zeal of M. Thouret, and  his indefatigable  enquiries into
every thing that concerned  the  magnetism,  charged him in their
session of the twelfth of March, 1784, with the collection from the
authors, as well ancient as modern, of all that  had been written
respecting the animal magnetism.  This collection, which is suffi-
ciently complete to satisfy every reasonable  desire,  and of which
M. Thouret communicated  the plan to the  society, composes  the
first part of his work,  and is to be considered as his  report to  the
society upon that subject.   We are of opinion, that the society is
extremely indebted to him in that respect.  The  second part con-
tains judicious reflections and sagacious  doubts.  We think both
of them worthy of being printed with the approbation and privilege
of the society.
  The society, charged by the king with the examination of all
new inventions, and secret  methods of healing  diseases, has not
beheld without inquietude the species of vogue  acquired by the
animal magnetism; whose procedures, whatever be their merit,
have been and are administered to the diseased, and paid for by the
public, without having previously, in obedience to the express pro-
visions of the laws of the kingdom, undergone the examination of
the physical profession; an  abuse, against which the society, as in
duty bound, has exclaimed ever since its introduction.   They have
a rio-ht to take much pride to themselves that one of their members
is publishing so learned enquiries upon a subject which has not
been hitherto  treated but in anonymous compositions, which are, 
8
for  the greater part, destined more  for the amusement than the
instruction of their readers.  The work of M. Thouret, full of depth
and sagacity, will enlighten those who are impartial in their en<luj~
ries, and will greatly tend to the solution of a question upon which
the  public interest requires that sentence should be pronounced as
soon as possible.
  Louvre, July the 9th, 1784.
                           (Signed)         Geoffroy,
                                           Desperrieres,
                                           Jeanroi,
                                           Defourcroy,
                                           Chambon,
                                           Vicq, D'Azyr. 
REPORT  OF  THE COMMISSIONERS,
&c. &c.
  The king named, on the twelfth of March, 1784, four physicians
of the  faculty of Paris, Messieurs Borie, Sallin, d'Arcet, Guillotin,
to enter into the examination, and to lay before him an account of
the animal magnetism practised by M. Deslon :  and upon the peti-
tion of these physicians his  majesty joined with them, for the pur-
pose of this inquisition, five  members  of the Royal Academy  of
Sciences, Messieurs Franklin,  le Roy, Bailly, de Borie, Lavoisier.
M.  Borie having died in the commencement of the  business, his
majesty appointed M. Majault, doctor of  the  faculty,  to  replace
him.
  M. Mesmer has described the agent he professes to have discover-
ed,  and to which he has given the appellation of animal magnetism,
in'the following manner.  "It is a fluid universally diffused; the
vehicle of  a mutual  influence between the celestial bodies, the
earth, and the bodies of animated beings ; it  is so continued as  to
admit of no vacuum ; its  subtlety does  not admit of illustration;
it is capable of receiving, propagating, and communicating all the
impressions that are incident to motion; it is susceptible of flux
and reflux.  The animal body is subject to the effects of this agent;
and these effects  are immediately produced  by the agent insinu-
ating itself into the substance of the  nerves.   We particularly dis-
cover in the human body qualities analogous to those of the load-
stone ; we distinguish it in poles different and opposite.  The ac-
tion and the virtue of the animal  magnetism are capable of being
communicated from one body to another, animated or  inanimate ;
they exert  themselves to considerable distances, and without the
least assistance from any intermediate bodies: this action is-increas-
ed  and reflected by  mirrors;  it is communicated, propagated, and
augmented by sound;  and the virtue itself is capable of being ac-
cumulated, concentrated,  and transferred.   Though the fluid  be
universal, all animal bodies are not equally susceptible of it;  there
even are some, though very few, of so opposite a nature, as by their
       2 
10
mere presence  to supersede its effects upon any other  contiguous
bodies.
   " The animal magnetism is capable of curing immediately dis-
eases of the nerves,"and mediately other distempers; it improves
the action of medicines; it forwards and directs the salutary crises
so as to subject them totally to the government of the  judgment;
by means of it  the  physician becomes acquainted with  the state of
health of each  individual, and decides with  certainty upon  the
causes,  the nature and  the  progress of the  most complicated dis-
tempers ; it  prevents their increase,  and effects their extirpation,
without at any time exposing the patient, whatever be his age, sex,
or constitution, to alarming incidents, or unpleasing consequences."1
"In  the influence of the magnetism,  nature holds out to us a
sovereign instrument  for  securing the health and lengthening the
existence of mankind."2
   Such is the agent, with the examination of which the commis-
sioners have been charged, and whose properties are avowed by
M. Deslon, who admits all the  principles of M. Mesmer.   This
theory forms the basis of a memoir, which was read at the house of
M. Deslon, on the ninth day of May, in  the presence of M. the lien-
tenant general of the police, and the commissioners.   It is asserted
in this memoir,  that there is but one nature, one distemper, and one
remedy ; and this remedy is the animal magnetism.  This physician,
at the same time that  he acquainted  the commissioners with the
doctrine and process of the magnetism, instructed them  in its prac-
tice by discovering to  them the poles, and showing them the man-
ner of touching the diseased, and  directing in regard to thern the
magnetic fluid.
   M. Deslon undertook to the commissioners, in the first place,  to
evince the existence of the animal magnetism;  secondly, to com-
municate to them  his knowledge respecting  this discovery; and
thirdly,  to prove the utility of this discovery and  of the  animal
magnetism in the cure of diseases.
   After  having  thus made themselves  acquainted with  the theory
and practice of the animal magnetism, it was necessary to observe
its effects.  For this purpose the commissioners adjourned them-
selves, and each of them repeatedly witnessed the public method
of M. Deslon.  They saw in the centre of a large apartment a cir-
cular box, made of oak,  and about a foot or a foot and a half deep
which is called the bucket; the lid of this box is pierced with a
number of holes, in which are inserted branches of iron, elbowed
and  movable.   The patients  are  arranged  in ranks about this
bucket, and each has his branch of iron, which by  means of the
elbow may be  applied  immediately to the part affected;  a cord
passed round their bodies connects them one with the other :  some-
times a second means of communication is introduced, by the in.
  1 Memoir by M.  Mesmer, upon the Discovery of the Animal Magnetism, 1779
pages 74 and following.
  * Ibid. Advertisement, page vi. 
11
 sertion of the thumb of each patient between the forefinger and
 thumb of the patient next him;  the thumb thus inserted is pressed
 by the person holding it; the impression received by the left  hand
 of the patient communicates through  his  right,  and thus passes
 through the whole circle.
   A piano forte is placed in one corner of the apartment,  and dif-
 ferent airs are played with various degrees of rapidity ; vocal music
 is sometimes added to the instrumental.
   The persons who superintend the process have each of them an
 iron rod in his hand, from ten to twelve inches in length.
   M. Deslon made to the commissioners the following declarations.
 1st. That this rod is a conductor of the magnetism, has the power
 of concentring it at its point, and of rendering its emanations more
 considerable.   2dly. That sound, conformably to the  theory of M.
 Mesmer,  is also a  couductor of the magnetism,  and that to com-
 mumcate the fluid to  the  piano forte nothing more  is necessary
 than to approach to it the iron rod ;  that the person who plays upon
 the instrument furnishes also a portion of the fluid, and  that the
 magnetism is transmitted by the sounds of the surrounding patients.
 3dly.  That the cord which is passed round the bodies of the patients
 is destined, as well  as  the  union of their fingers,  to augment the
 effects  by communication.   4thly.  That the  interior part of the
 bucket is so constructed  as to concentrate the magnetism, and is a
 grand  reservoir, from which the fluid  is  diffused  through  the
 branches of iron that are inserted in its lid.
   The commissioners in  the progress of their examination discover-
 ed, by means of an electrometer and  a needle of  iron not touched
 with the loadstone, that  the  bucket contained no  substance either
 electric or magnetical; and  from the detail that M.  Deslon  has
 made  to them  respecting the interior construction of the bucket,
 they cannot infer any physical  agent, capable of contributing to
 the imputed effects of the magnetism.
   The patients then, arranged in considerable number and in suc-
 cessive ranks round the bucket, derive the magnetic virtue at  once
 from  all  these conveyances: from  the  branches of  iron, which
 transmit to them that of the bucket; from the cord which is passed
 round their bodies, and the union of their fingers, which communi-
 cate to them that of their neighbours ; and  from the sound of the
 piano forte, or of a musical voice, which  diffuses it through the air.
 The patients are beside magnetised directly, by means of a finger
 or a bar of iron, guided  before the face, above or behind the head,
 and over the surface of  the parts affected, the distinction of the
 poles still  observed; they are also  acted upon by a look, and by
 having their attention excited.  But especially they are magnetised
by the application of the  hands, and by the pressure of the fingers
upon  the hypochonders  and the regions of the lower belly; an
application frequently  continued for  a  long time, sometimes for
several hours.
  In this situation the patients offer a spectacle extremely varied 
12
 in proportion to their different habits of body.  ►Some of them are
 calm, tranquil, and unconscious of any sensation ; others cough,
 spit, are affected with a slight degree of pain, a partial or an universal
 burning, and perspirations;  a third class are agitated and torment-
 ed with convulsions.   These convulsions are rendered extraordinary
 by  their frequency, their violence and their duration.   As soon as
 one person is convulsed, others presently are affected by that symp-
 tom.  The commissioners saw accesses of this kind, which lasted
 upwards of three hours; they were  accompanied  with expectora-
 tions of a thick and  viscous water, brought away by the violence
 of the efforts.  Sometimes these expectorations were accompanied
 with small quantities of blood;  and there  is among others a lad, a
 patient, who  has frequently brought up blood  in considerable
 abundance.  These convulsions are characterised by precipitate and
 involuntary motions  of all the limbs or of the whole  body, by a
 contraction of the throat, by sudden affections of the hypochonders
 and the epigastrium,  by a distraction and  wildness in the eyes, by
 shrieks, tears, hiccupings, and  immoderate  laughter.   They are
 either preceded or followed by a state of languor and reverie, by a
 species  of dejection, and even drowsiness.  The least unforeseen
 noise occasions starting;  and it has been observed, that the chang-
 ing of the key and the time, in the airs played upon the piano forte,
 had an effect upon the patients-;  so that a  quicker  motion agitates
 them more, and renews the vivacity of their convulsions.
  There is an apartment lined with quilting, which was originally
 destined for the patients in whom the magnetism produced convul-
sions, and is denominated the apartment of crises;  but M. Deslon
 has not judged proper to make any use of it;  and all the patients,
 whatever be the accidents of their situation,  are placed together in
 the apartment of public proceeding.
  Nothing can be more astonishing  than  the sight of these con-
 vulsions ;  he that has not had it can have no idea of it: and in
 beholding  it, a man  is not less struck with the profound repose of
 one class of patients than with the violence which agitates another ;
 he observes with admiration the various accidents that are repeated,
 and the sympathies that are developed.  He sees some patients seek
 each other with  eagerness;  and in  approaching smile, converse
 with all the demonstrations of attachment, and soothe their mutual
 crises.   They are entirely under the government of the person who
 distributes the magnetic virtue: in vain they may appear to  be in
 a state of the  extremest drowsiness,  his voice, a look, a sign from
 him, rouses them.  It is impossible not to recognise in these regular
 effects an extraordinary influence, acting upon the patients, making
 itself master of them, and of which he who superintends the pro-
 cess, appears to be the depository.
  These convulsive  affections are improperly styled crises  in the
 theory of the animal magnetism: according to this  doctrine indeed
 they are regarded as a  salutary crisis, of the  same kind  as those
 which nature produces, or which a skilful  physician has the an to 
13
excite to facilitate  the cure of diseases.   The  commissioners will
adopt this expression in the following report;  and, wherever they
employ the word crisis, they will always understand the convulsive,
drowsy, or lethargic affections, produced by the  means of the animal
magnetism.
  The commissioners observed, that in the number of patients  in
the state of crisis, there were always many women and few men :
that it was one or two hours before these crises took place; and
that, when one had taken place, all the others  commenced succes-
sively, and without any considerable interval.  But  after  having
made these general remarks,  the  commissioners were  speedily  of
opinion, that  the public process could not be made the scene of their
experiments.   The multiplicity of the effects  is one obstacle; too
many things  are seen at once for any one of them  to be seen well.
Beside, the patients of rank, who repair hither upon account  of
their health, might be displeased with the enquiries of  the commis-
sioners; the very act of watching them might  appear  a nuisance;
and the recollection of this might be burdensome,  and impede the
commissioners in their turn.   They therefore resolved, that as their
frequent attendance at the public process was unnecessary, it would
be sufficient  for a few of them to go from time to time, to confirm
the former general observations, to make new  ones in  case an op-
portunity should occur for that purpose, and to report them to the
commission assembled.
   After  having observed these  effects  at the public process, it
behoved them, in the next place,  to endeavour to discover their
causes, and enquire into the proofs of the existence and utility  of
the magnetism.  The question of its existence is first in order ; that
of its utility  it were idle to examine, till the other shall have been
fully resolved.  The  animal  magnetism may  indeed exist without
being useful, but it cannot be useful if it do not exist.
   Of consequence the first  object of attention with the commis-
sioners, and  the direct tendency  of their first experiments, ought
to be the ascertaining this existence.   Again, this was itself  an
object of considerable comprehension, and had need of being sim-
plified.  The animal magnetism embraces the whole  compass of
nature ;  it is  the vehicle, we are told, of the influence exerted upon
us by the celestial bodies ;  the commissioners were  of opinion, that
they ought, in the first place, to leave this more extensive influence
out of the question, and  to  consider only that part  of the  fluid
which is diffused over the earth, without troubling themselves with
whence it comes;  in a word, to evince the action it exercises upon
us, around us. and within the sphere of our inspection, before they
undertook to examine its relation  to the universe.
   The most certain method of determining the existence of the
animal magnetic fluid, would have been, to have rendered its pre-
sence  capable of being perceived by the senses;  but  much time
was not necessary to convince the commissioners that this fluid is
too subtle to be subjected to  their observation.   It  is not, like the 
14
 electrical fluid, luminous  and visible; its action is not,  like the
 attraction of the loadstone, the object of our sight;  it has neithei
 taste nor smell; its process is silent,  and it surrounds  you  or
 penetrates your frame, without your being informed of its presence
 by the sense of touch.  If therefore it exist in us and around us,
 it is after a  manner perfectly insensible.   There are persons among
 those who profess the magnetism, who pretend that  it may some-
 times be seen  passing from the extremity of the fingers, which
 serve it  for conductors,  or who believe that  they feel its passage
 when you guide your finger before  their face,  or  along their hand.
 In the first of these cases,"the emanation perceived is merely that of
 transpiration,  which  becomes completely  visible  when  viewed
 through a solar microscope ; in the second, the  impression of cold or
 freshness which is felt, an impression  by so much the more perceptible
 the warmer  one is, results from the motion of the  air which follows
 the finger, and the degree of whose temperature is always below that
 of animal heat.   When, on the other hand, the  finger is approached
 to the surface of the face, which is colder than the finger, and it is
held at rest, the consequence  is a  sensation of heat, which  is no
other than the  communication  of the animal heat.
   It is also pretended that this  fluid has a smell, and that it is per-
ceived when either the finger or an iron conductor is brought into
contiguity with the nostrils; it  is even  said, that the sensation  is
different, according as the finger or the rod of iron is directed
 parallel with or  opposite to  the  poles.    M.  Deslon essayed the
experiment upon several of the commissioners  ; the commissioners
themselves have  repeated it upon different subjects; not one has
experienced this difference of sensation  : and if,  by giving a close
attention, any scent has been perceived, it has been that of the iron,
when the rod has been presented rubbed and heated ;  or that of the
emanation of the transpiration,  when the finger has been presented
a scent frequently combined with that of the iron  with which the
 finger itself has been impressed.  These effects have been erroneous-
 ly attributed to  the magnetism,  but they  may be traced in  reality to
 natural and definite causes.
   Indeed M. Deslon has never insisted upon these transient impres-
 sions; he did not think they were to  be offered in evidence •  on the
 contrary  he expressly assured the commissioners, that he could not
 demonstrate to them the existence of the  magnetism, otherwise than
 by the action of this fluid, producing certain chano-es in animated
 bodies.   This existence is so much  the more difficult to be demon-
 strated by effects, which shall be incontrovertible, and  whose causes
 shall be  unequivocal; by authentic facts, in  cases where moral
 circumstances cannot exert their  influence: in a  word, by proofs
 calculated to convince and compel the understanding,  the only ones
 which can yield any solid satisfaction to  persons really proficient in
 the study of nature.
   The action  of  the magnetism upon  animated bodies may be
 observed in two different ways; either as it consists  in that action 
15
continued for a long time, and in its  salutary effects in the treat-
ment of diseases,  or  in its momentary effects  upon the animal
economy and the perceptible changes  there produced.  M. Deslon
insisted that the former of these methods should be employed prin-
cipally, and nearly exclusively; the commissioners have been of a
different opinion, and their reasons are as follow.
  The  majority of diseases have their seat in the interior part of
our frame.   The collective experience of a great number of centu-
ries has made us acquainted with the symptoms which indicate and
discriminate them ; the same experience has  taught the method in
which they are to be treated.   What is the  object of the efforts of
the physician in this method?  It is not to oppose and to subdue
nature, it is to assist her in her operations.  Nature, says the father
of the medical  science, cures the diseased ; but sometimes she en-
counters obstacles, which constrain her in her course, and uselessly
consume her strength.  The  physician is the minister of nature ;
an attentive observer, he studies the method in which she proceeds.
If that method be firm, strong, regular, and well directed, the phy-
sician looks on in silence, and bewares of disturbing it by remedies
which would at least be useless ;  if the method be embarrassed, he
facilitates it; if it be too slow or too rapid, he accelerates or retards
it.   Sometimes, to accomplish his object, he confines himself to the
regulation of the diet:  sometimes  he employs  medicines.   The
action  of a medicine, introduced into  the human body, is a new
force  combined with the principal force by which our life is main-
tained :  if the remedy follow the same route, which this force has
already opened for the expulsion of diseases, it is useful, it is salu-
tary •  if it tend to open different routes, and to turn aside this inte-
rior action, it is pernicious.  In the mean time it must be confessed
that this salutary or pernicious  influence, real as it is, may fre-
quently escape common observation.   The natural history of man
presents us in this respect with very singular phenomena.   It may
be there seen that regimens the most  opposite have not prevented
the attainment of an advanced old age.   We may there see men,
 attacked according to all appearance  with  the same disease, reco-
 vering in the pursuit of opposite regimens, and in the use of reme-
dies totally different from each other ; nature is in these instances
sufficiently powerful to maintain the vital principle in spite of  the
improper regimen, and to triumph at once over the distemper and
 the remedy   If it have this power of resisting the action of medi-
cine bv a still stronger icuson it must have the power of operating
without medicine..  The experience of the efficacy of remedies is
always therefore attended with some uncertainty ; in the case of
the macrnetism the uncertainty has this addition, the uncertainty of
its existence.   How then can we decide upon  the action of an
agent whose existence is contested, from the treatment of  diseases,
when the effect of medicines is doubtful, whose existence is not at
all problematical?                                          .
   The cure which is principally cited in favour of the magnetism 
16
is that of M. le Baron de----.; all classes  are acquainted with its
history.   We shall not here enter into a discussion of the facts ; we
shall not enquire whether the remedies precedingly employed might
have contributed to this cure.   On the one hand the very critical
situation of the patient is admitted, and on the other the ineffjcacy
of all the ordinary means of medical science; the magnetism has
been employed and M.  le Baron----has completely recovered.
But might not a natural crisis have singly operated this recovery ?
A woman of low rank and extremely poor,  who lived at the Gros-
Caillou, was  attacked  in  1779 with  a malignant fever in all  its
symptoms; she resolutely refused every assistance,  she  only de-
sired that a vessel which she had near her should  be kept  con-
stantly replenished with water ; she remained quiet upon the straw
which served  her for a bed, drinking water  continually and doing
nothing more.  The disease developed itself, passed successively
through its different stages, and  terminated in a complete cure.1
Mademoiselle  G----, who lived at the lesser royal mews, had two
indurations formed in her right breast, which gave her great pain;
a surgeon recommended to her the use of the eau du  peintre as an
excellent dissolvent; at the same time informing her, that if this
remedy did not succeed in a month, it would be necessary to extir-
pate them by incision.   The young lady, terrified at this sentence,
consulted  M.  Sallin, who gave it as his opinion that the indurations
were susceptible of resolution ; M.  Bouvart, who was also consulted,
confirmed  the opinion of M.  Sallin.  Before entering upon  any
course of remedy, they prescribed  dissipation ; fifteen days after she
was  seized at the  opera with a violent cough, and so profuse an
expectoration, that she was  obliged to be carried home; she spit,
in the space of four hours, about three pints  of a viscid lymph; one
hour after this, M. Sallin examined the breast;  he discovered no
trace of induration.  M. Bouvart, called in the next day, proved on
his part the  happy effect of this  natural crisis.   If Mademoiselle
G----■ had taken  eau  du peintre, the honour of her cure would
have been attributed to this medicine.
   The uninterrupted observation of ages proves, and the professors
of physic acknowledge, that nature alone, and without our interfer-
ence, cures a great  number of persons.  If the  magnetism were
absolutely inactive, the patients, who undergo this method of cure
might be considered as abandoned to nature.  It would  be absurd
to choose a method of  deciding upon the existence of this agent
which, by attributing to it all the cures performed  by nature, would
tend to prove that it had an action useful and curative, when in
reality it might have no action at all.
   Upon this  head  the commissioners are of the opinion of M. Mes-
mer.   He rejected the cure of diseases when this method of provino-
                                                             o

   i The observation of this fact was laid  in detail before the faculty of medicine ■ i
Paris, in an assembly de prima mensis, by  M. Bourdois de la Mothe, Physician of ^
Tliarity of Suinl-Sulpicc, who visited the sick person regularly every day. 
17
 the magnetism was proposed to him by a member of the Academy
 of Sciences: "It is a mistake," replied he,  "to imagine that this
 kind of proof is unanswerable; it cannot be demonstrated that either
 the physician or the medicine causes the recovery of the patient."
   The treatment of diseases can therefore furnish  nothing but a
 result, always uncertain, often deceitful ; nor can this  uncertainty
 be dissipated, and all the causes of illusion compensated, but by an
 infinity of cures, perhaps by the experience of successive centuries.
 The object and importance of the commission demand  means of a
 speedier description.  It was the duty of the commissioners to con-
 fine themselves to  arguments purely physical, that is,  to the mo-
 mentaneous effects  of the fluid upon the animal frame, excluding
 from these effects all the illusions which might mix  with them,
 and assuring  themselves  that they could proceed  from no  other
 cause than the animal magnetism.
   They proposed to make experiments upon single subjects, who
 might be willing to submit to the various experiments  which they
 should invent; and who, some of them by their simplicity, and
 others by their intelligence, should  be capable of giving an exact
 and faithful account of their sensations.  These experiments we
 shall not confine ourselves to relate in the order of time, but shall
 follow the order of the facts they were intended to elucidate.
   The commissioners in the first place resolved to make their first
 experiments upon themselves,  and personally to experience the
 action of the magnetism.  They were extremely curious to become
 acquainted  by their own sensations with the effects  ascribed to
 this agent.  They  therefore  submitted themselves to these effects,
 and in such a disposition,  that they  would not have been sorry to
 have undergone some accidents and  a partial derangement of health,
 which being evidently produced by  the operation of the magnetism,
 should have enabled them to decide this important  question upon
 the spot, and with their own testimony.   But in submitting them-
 selves to the magnetism in this manner, the commissioners  have
 employed one necessary precaution.  There is  not  an  individual,
 in a state of the fullest health, who, if he paid a close attention to
 the point, would not be sensible to  an  infinity of interior motions
 and variations, either of a pain infinitely slight, or of heat, in differ-
 ent parts of his body; these variations which exist at all times are
 independent of the magnetism.  To turn and fix in this manner
 one's attention upon oneself, is not  perhaps  itself entirely without
 its  effects.  There  is so  intimate a connection, whatever  be the
 vehicle of that  connection, between the volitions  of the soul and
 the motions of the body, that it is  not easy to prescribe limits to the
 influence of attention, which appears to  be  nothing more  than  a
 train of volitions, directed, constantly and without interruption, to
 the same object.  When we recollect that the arm is moved by the
 will as it pleases, how can we be  certain that the attention being
 fixed upon some interior  part of our frame  may not excite some
slight emotion in it, direct the heat towards  it, and so  modify its
 actual  situation as  to produce in  it new sensations ?   The first 
18
thing, therefore, to which the commissioners were bound to at*eJ?~»
was not to observe too minutely what passed within them.  If yie
magnetism were a real and operative cause, there was no need that
it should be made an  object of thought, in order to its action ana
manifesting itself: it ought, so to express  ourselves, to compel ana
arrest the attention, and to render itself perceptible to a mind that
should even be distracted from it by design.
  But in determining  to make experiments upon themselves, the
commissioners  unanimously resolved  to  make  those experiments
private, without  admitting any  stranger, except M.  Deslon, by
whom the operation was to be performed, or such persons as they
should choose; in like manner they engaged  not to submit to the
magnetism at the public process, in order that they might discuss
freely their observations, and be in all events the sole, or at least
the first, judges of the  symptoms observed.
  In pursuance of these  determinations, a  particular apartment and
a separate bucket were destined for their use in the house of M.
Deslon, and the commissioners repaired thither  once in the course
of every week.  The operation was continued in each experiment
for two hours and a half, the branch of iron being in contact with
the left hypochonder,  surrounded with a cord  of communication,
aud forming from time to time the chain of fingers and thumbs.
They were magnetised either by M. Deslon, or in his  absence, by
one of  his  pupils, some  of them for a longer  time and more fre-
quently than others, and those with whom this was the case were
the commissioners who  appeared from constitution and habit the
most susceptible.   The  operation was performed sometimes with
the finger and the rod  of iron, presented and guided along the dif-
ferent parts of the body,  sometimes by the application of the hands
and the pressure  of the  fingers, either upon the hypochonders or
upon the pit of the stomach.
  Not one of the commissioners felt any sensation, or at least none
which ought to be ascribed to the action of the magnetism.  Some
of the commissioners are of a robust constitution; others have more
delicate habits, and are subject to interruptions of their health ■ one
of these last was sensible of a slight pain at the pit of the stomach
in consequence of a considerable  pressure that was employed  upon
that part.  This pain continued all that and the next day, and was
accompanied with a sensation of fatigue  and  dejection.   Another
felt, in the afternoon of one of the days in which the experiments
were performed,  a slight irritation of the nerves, to which  he is
very subject.  A  third, endowed with a still greater sensibility, and
especially with an extreme  restlessness of the nerves, was subject
to a higher degree of  pain and a more perceptible irritation  ; but
these lesser accidents are the result of perpetual and ordinary varia-
tions in the state of their health, and are of consequence foreign to
the operation they had undergone, or proceed  only from the  pres_
sure employed upon  the region  of the stomach.  The  commis-
sioners do not speak of these  slight details, but  from a scrupulous
fidelity;  they relate them, because they have imposed it as  a law
upon themselves constantly and in evtil'y pditimlm to say thft trjuh. 
19
  The commissioners could not avoid being struck with the differ-
ence of the private experiment made upon themselves from the
public process.   All was calm and silence in the  one, all restless-
ness and agitation in the other ; there, multiplied symptoms, violent
crises, the ordinary state both of body and mind  interrupted and
overthrown, and nature wrought up to the highest pitch ; here, the
body free from pain, and the mind from anxiety, nature preserving
her  ordinary course and her equilibrium, in a word the absolute
privation of every kind of effect: the stupendous influence, which
creates  such an  astonishment in  the public process, appears no
longer ; the magnetism stripped of its energy seems perfectly supine
and inactive.
  The commissioners, having at first submitted to the experiment
only once a week, were desirous to ascertain whether a continuity
of experiment would produce any effect; they submitted to it three
days successively, but their insensibility was the  same, and the
magnetism appeared with respect to them  perfectly impotent. This
experiment, made at once upon eight different subjects, several of
whom were subject to habitual derangements of health, authorises
the conclusion that the magnetism has little or no action in a state
of health, or even in a state of lesser infirmity.  We then resolved
to make experiments upon  persons  really diseased, and we chose
them out of the lower class.
  Seven of these were assembled at Passy, at the house  of Dr.
Franklin ;  the operation was performed upon  them by M.  Deslon
in the presence of all the commissioners.
  The  widow Saint-Amand, asthmatic, having the belly, legs, and
thighs swelled; and dame  Anseaume, who had  a swelling upon
her thigh, felt  no sensation; the  little Claude Renard, a child of
six years of age,  scrofulous, almost consumptive, having the knees
swelled, the legs  bent inward, and the articulation  nearly deprived
of motion, a very interesting child, and possessing a greater degree
of understanding than is usual at his age, was likewise conscious
to no sensation;  any more than  Genevieve Leroux, nine years of
age, subject  to convulsions, and to a disorder greatly resembling
that which is called St. Vitus's  Dance.   Francois Grenet  experi-
enced some effects ; he had a distemper in his eyes, particularly in
the right, in  which he had scarcely any sight, and in which there
was a considerable tumour.  When the operation was directed  to-
wards the left eye, by approaching and moving backward and for-
ward the thumb very near and for a considerable time,  he was
sensible of a pain in the ball of the eye, and the eye watered.
When the operation was directed to the right  eye, which was the
most disordered,  he felt no sensation in it; he felt the same  pain in
the left eye, and  nothing in any other part of the body.
   Darne Charpentier, who had been thrown down against a log of
wood by a cow two years before, had experienced the most unfor-
tunate consequences from this accident;  she  lost her sight, reco-
vered it afterwards  in  part, but remained in a  state  of habitual
infirmities; she declared that she had two ruptures, and the belly
ofT3o grcar sensmitlTy7"rhat she could not  bear the pressure of  the 
20
 strings of her petticoats;  this sensibility belongs to the case of ner-
 vous irritation ;  the slightest pressure upon the region of the belly
 is capable of determining this  irritation, and  producing, througn
 the correspondence of the nerves, effects in every part of the body.
   The operation was performed upon this woman as upon the rest,
 by the application  and the pressure of the fingers; the pressure was
 extremely painful  to her: afterwards,  in directing the finger to-
 wards  the rupture, she complained  of a pain in  her head;  the
 finger being placed before her face, she  said she could not draw her
 breath.   Upon  the repeated  motion of the finger  upwards and
 downwards, she  had sudden starts of the  head and shoulders, like
 those which are commonly occasioned by  surprise  mixed with
 terror, for instance, that of a person who has some drops  of cold
 water suddenly  thrown in his  face.   She appeared to have  the
 same starlings when her eyes were closed.  The fingers being held
 under her nose, while her eyes were  shut,  she complained  of  a
 sensation of faintness so long as they were continued there.   The
 seventh subject, Joseph Ennuye, experienced sensations of a similar
 nature, but much less considerable.
   Of these seven patients, four felt no sensation at all; three expe-
rienced some effects from the operation.  These effects deserved to
 engage the attention of the commissioners, and demanded an accu-
 rate examination.
  The commissioners, to obtain further light, and to define their ideas
 upon this part of the subject, resolved to make the experiment upon
 patients, placed in other circumstances, and selected from the polite
 world; such as could not be suspected of sinister views, and whose
 understanding made them capable of enquiring into and giving  a
 faithful account  of their sensations.  Mesdames de B----and de
 V----, Messieurs M----and R----were admitted to the  private
 bucket together  with the commissioners; they were entreated to
 remark their sensations, without fixing  upon them  too regular an
 attention.   M. M----and Madame de V----were  the only per-
 sons who experienced any sensation.   M. M>----had  an indolent
 tumour over the whole  articulation of the  knee,  and a constant
 pain in the patella.  He declared, during the operation, that he felt
 nothing in any part of his body, except in the moment that  the
 finger was guided  before the diseased knee; he then thought  that
 he felt a slight degree of heat in the place in which  he has habitu-
 ally the sensation  of pain.  Madame de V----, attacked  with a
 nervous disorder, was several times upon the point of falling asleep
 during the operation.  The experiment having continued for an
 hour and  nineteen  minutes without interruption, and for the greater
 part by the  application of the hands, she was  sensible to  nothing
 but  a  sensation  of irritation  and dejection.   These  two  subjects
 underwent the experiment only once.   M. R----/whose distemper
 was the remainder of an obstruction in the liver, the consequence
 of a very violent  disorder of that kind ill cured, underwent the
 operation three  times and felt  nothing.   Madame de B----, se-
 verely attacked with obstructions, underwent  the experiment  con-
 stantly at the same time with the cominkrybncrp. and £tU nothing.:
                                   i                          \ 
21
it is necessary to observe, that she submitted to the magnetism with
an extreme tranquility, which originated in the highest degree of
incredulity.
  Dr.  Franklin, though the weakness of his health hindered him
from coming to Paris, and assisting at the experiments which were
there made, was magnetised by M. Deslon at his own house at Passy.
The assembly was  numerous;  every person who was present un-
derwent the operation.  Some sick persons, who had come with
M. Deslon, were subject to  the effects of the magnetism in the same
manner as at the public process ;  but Madame de B----, Dr. Frank-
lin,  his two relations, his secretary, and an  American officer, felt no
sensation, though one of Dr. Franklin's relations was convalescent,
and the  American officer had at that time a regular fever.
   The experiments we  have related,  furnish a  number  of facts,
calculated to illustrate, and fit to be compared  with each other, and
from which the commissioners were at liberty to deduce certain in-
ferences.  Of fourteen sick persons, five only  appeared to feel any
effect  from  the operation,  nine  felt no effect at all.   The commis-
sioner, who had the head-ach, and coldness in the feet, derived no
benefit from the magnetism, nor  did his feet recover their natural
heat.  This  agent has not  therefore the property which  has been
attributed to  it of communicating heat to the feet.  The magnetism
has also been said to have  the property of  discovering  the species,
and particularly the seat of diseases, by the pain, which the  action
of  this fluid  infallibly occasions  in that part.  Such  an advantage
would be of great consequence; the  fluid which was the instru-
ment of it would be a valuable means in the hands of the physician,
often deceived by equivocal symptoms:  but Francois  Grenet felt
no sensation, no pain, but in the eye least affected.   If the redness
and tumour of the other eye had not furnished external symptoms,
 in judging from the effect of the magnetism, we  should have been
 led  to conclude that it was  undistempered.  M. R----and Madame
 de B----, both attacked with obstructions, and Madame de B----
 with great severity,  as they were  conscious to no sensation,  would
 have received no intelligence, either respecting the  species,  or  the
 seat of their disease.  And yet obstructions are among the disorders
 which are said to be particularly  subject to the action  of the mag-
 netism ; since, according to the  new theory, the free and rapid cir-
 culation of this fluid through the nerves, is  a means of opening
 the channels and destroying the obstacles,  that is, the obstructions,
 which it encounters in its  passage.  It is at the same time said that
 the magnetism is the touchstone of health  : if therefore M. R----
 and Madame de B----■ had  not experienced the derangements and
 the  sufferings inseparable from obstructions, they would  have had
 a right to believe that they enjoyed the  best health in the  world.
 The same thing may be said of the American officer:  the magnet-
 ism therefore, announced  as the discoverer of diseases, completely
 failed of its effect.
   The heat  that M. M----■ felt  in the patella,  is an effect too slight
 and fugitive  to authorise  any  conclusions.   It may be  suspected
, ttot-tt pi'oouoii«dtr»m-tk^eausc already descanted on, a too great 
22
 attention  to observe what passes  within  us:  the  same attention
 would discover similar sensations at any other time, when the mag-
 netism was not employed.  The drowsiness experienced by Madame
 de  V---- must undoubtedly  be ascribed to the regularity  and
 fatigue of preserving the same situation ;  if she was sensible to any
 vaporous emotion, it must  be  remembered that it is a known pro-
 perty of nervous affections to have much dependency  upon the
 attention that is paid them ; to renew them it is only necessary to
 hear them spoken of, or to think of them.   It is easy to judge  what
 ought to be expected from a woman, whose nerves are  extremely
 irritable, and  who, being  magnetised for  an hour and nineteen
 minutes, had during that  time no other subject of reflection than
 that of the disorders which are habitual to her.   She might  have
 had a nervous crisis more considerable than that we have described,
 without our having a right to be surprised at it.
  There remains then  only the effects produced upon dame Char-
 pentier, Francois Grenet and Joseph Ennuye, which can be sup-
 posed to derive from the operation of the magnetism.  In compar-
 ing these three particular facts  to the rest, the commissioners  were
 astonished that three subjects of the lower class should be the only
 ones who felt any thing from the  operation, while those of a  more
elevated rank, of  more enlightened  understandings,  and better
qualified to describe their sensations, have felt nothing.  Without
 doubt Francois Grenet experienced a pain and a watering in the
eye when the thumb was  approached very near to it; dame Char-
 pentier complained, that in touching her stomach  the pressure cor-
 responded to her rupture; and the pressure  might  have been in
 part the cause of what she felt; but the  commissioners suspected
 that these sensations were augmented by moral causes.
  Let  us  represent to  ourselves  the situation  of a  person of the
 lower class, and of consequence ignorant, attacked with a distemper
 and desirous of a cure, introduced  with  some degree of ceremony
 to a large company,  partly composed of physicians, where an
 operation is performed upon him totally new, and from  which he
 persuades himself beforehand that  he  is about to experience pro-
 digious effects.   Let us add to this that he is paid for his compli-
 ance, that he thinks he shall contribute more to our satisfaction bv
 professing to experience sensations of some  kind;  and  we shall
 have definite causes to which  to attribute these effects ■  Ave shall
 at least have just reason to  doubt whether their true cause be the
 magnetism.
  Beside this it  may be enquired,  why  the  magnetism produced
 these effects upon persons who knew what was done to them, and
 might imagine they had an interest in saying what they said, while
 it took no  sort of hold upon the little Claude Renard, upon an or-
 ganisation endowed with all the delicacy of infancy, so irritable
 so susceptible?   The sound understanding and ingenuous temper
 of this child evince the veracity of his relation.   Why too has this
 agent produced no effect upon Genevieve Leroux,  who was  in a
 perpetual state of convulsion ?   Her nerves were certainly sufficient-
 ly irritable, how comes it  that the rmigiiuum du*-n«< drcplny^ 
23
power, either in augmenting or diminishing her convulsions?  Her
indifference and impassibility  induced the belief, that the reason of
her having felt nothing, was the idiotism which did not permit her
to judge that she ought to have felt any thing.
  From these facts the commissioners are at liberty to observe, that
the magnetism has seemed to have no existence for those subjects,
who have submitted to it with any degree  of incredulity; that the
commissioners, even those who  have their nerves  most  irritable,
having expressly turned their attention to other objects, and having -
armed themselves with that philosophic doubt which ought always
to  accompany enquiry, have felt none of those  sensations  which
were experienced by the three patients of the lower class ;  and they
have a right to suspect that these sensations, supposing their reality,
were the fruits of anticipated persuasion, and might be operated by
the mere force of imagination.   Of this suspicion  another class of
experiments  has  been the result.   Their subsequent researches
were directed towards a new object; it was necessary  to destroy or
confirm the suspicion they had formed, to determine to what degree
the power of the imagination can influence our sensations,  and to
demonstrate whether it can be the cause, in whole or in part, of the
effects attributed to the magnetism.
    At this time the commissioners heard of the experiments which
 were made at the house of M. the dean of the faculty by M. Jumehn,
 doctor of physic; they were desirous of seeing these  experiments,
 and they met M. Jumelin in a body at the house of M. Majault, one
 of the commissioners.  M. Jumelin declared to them that he was
 a disciple  neither of M. Mesmer, nor of M. Deslon ;  he had learned
 nothing respecting the animal magnetism from them, but had formed
 his principles and digested  his process  from what he  had heard
 upon the subject in conversation.  His principles consist  in regard-
 ino-  the animal magnetic fluid, as a fluid which circulates  in the
 human body, and which flows from it, but which is essentially the
 same with  the principle of animal heat; like all other fluids he
 conceived that  it tended to an equilibrium, and  that it therefore
 passes from the  body in which the greatest quantity of it resides,
 into that which has the least. . His method does not differ from that
 of Messieurs Mesmer and Deslon less than his principles; like them
 he performs the  operation with the finger and the rod  of iron  as
 conductors, and by the application of the hands, but without any
 distinction of poles.                               .
'   Eight men and two women submitted to the operation in the tirst
 experiment, and felt nothing; at length a woman, who waits in the
  hall of M.  Alphonse le Roy, doctor of physic,  having been mag-
  netised in the forehead, but  without touching her, said that she felt
  the  sensation of heat.  M. Jumelin guiding his hand, and present-
  ing the five extremities of his fingers over the whole of her face,
  she said that she felt as it were a flame, that passed  from place to
  place • mao-netised in the stomach she said that she felt heat; mag-
  netised upon the back she made the same declaration : she also said
  that she felt hot in every part of her body, and that her head ached.
    Tho finmmr"""Q1,arohgprvin!r that, of  eleven persons that under- 
24
went the experiment, one only had been sensible to the magnetism
of M. Jumelin, were of opinion that this person had  experienced
certain  sensations, only because she had probably an  imagination
more easily excited than the rest: the opportunity was favourable
for clearing up the point.   The sensibility of this woman being
perfectly established, the business was only to protect her from the
illusions of the imagination, or at  least to leave her  imagination
without any thing to  direct its operations.   The commissioners
proposed to blindfold her, in order  to observe what her sensations
would be, when she could no longer know any thing respecting the
conduct of the experiment.   She was accordingly blindfolded and
magnetised; the phenomena no longer answered to the  places to-
wards which the magnetism was directed.  Magnetised successively
upon the stomach and in the back, she felt only a heat in  her head,
a pain in both eyes and in the left ear.
  The bandage was removed from her eyes, and M. Jumelin having
applied  his hands upon the hypochonders, she said that  she felt
heat; after a few minutes she said that she was ready to faint, and
she fainted in effect.  When she was tolerably recovered, the ex-
periment was resumed,  she was blindfolded,  M. Jumelin was re-
moved, silence recommended, and the woman was induced  to believe
that  the operation was performing.  The effects were the same,
though no operation, either near or distant, was performed ;  she felt
the same heat,  the same pain in her eyes and in her ears;  besides
which she felt a heat in her back and loins.
  After  a quarter of an hour, a sign was made  to M.  Jumelin to
magnetise her in the stomach, she felt no sensation ; in the back, it
was the  same thing.  The  sensations diminished instead of aug-
menting.  The pains in her head continued,  the  heat in her back
and loins ceased.
  We see in this instance certain effects produced, and these similar
to those  which were experienced by the three subjects, respecting
whom the experiment has already  been  detailed.  But the former
and the  latter were obtained in different methods; it follows that
this  difference is of no consequence.   The  process of Messieurs
Mesmer and Deslon, and an opposite process, have produced the
same phenomena.  The distinction  of poles is therefore  chimerical.
  It may be observed that while the woman was permitted to see
the operation, she placed her sensations precisely in the part towards
which it was directed;  that on the  other hand, when she did not
see the operation, she placed them at hazard, and in parts  very dis-
tant from those which were the  object of the  magnetism.   It was
natural  to conclude that these sensations, real or pretended, were
determined by the imagination.  Of this we were convinced when
we saw that, being entirely at rest, the preceding sensations having
ceased, and the bandage being fixed over her eyes, this  woman ex-
perienced all the same effects, though no operation was  performed;
but the  demonstration  was complete, when after a remission of a
quarter of an hour, her imagination being undoubtedly cooled and
worn down, the effects,  in the room of augmenting, diminished  at
the moment in which the operation  was -irtn.-.iiy rr»npwr.rL   ag^^ 
25
   If she was seized with a faintness, women are liable to this acci-
dent  from their garments being  tight or otherwise  burdensome.
The application of the hands upon the hypochonders was capable
of producing the same effect upon a woman extremely susceptible;
but there is no need of having recourse to this cause to explain the
appearance. The weather was extremely hot, the woman had un-
questionably felt some emotion in the beginning of the experiment,
she had made an effort upon herself to submit to a new and un-
known  operation,  and  it is  by no means extraordinary that  an
effort, continued for a longer time than the constitution will  bear,
should occasion a propensity to faint.
   This swoon had therefore  a natural known cause, but the sensa-
tions, which  she experienced when no operation  was performed
upon  her, could be only the result of imagination.  In similar ex-
periments, which M. Jumelin  made in  the same place the next day,
the commissioners  being present,  upon a man who was blind-
folded,  and upon a woman  who  was not blindfolded,  the result
was precisely the same; it was evident their answers were deter-
mined by the questions that were put to them, that  is, the question
pointed out where the sensation was expected to be; in  the room
of directing the magnetism upon them, all that was done was the
exalting and directing their imagination.   A child of five years of
age being afterwards magnetised, felt nothing but the heat which
he had just before contracted at play.
   These experiments  appeared sufficiently important to the com-
missioners, for them to desire a repetition of them,  in order to ob-
tain further light into the subject,  and M. Jumelin had  the com-
plaisance to comply with their request. It  would be to no purpose
to object, that the method of M. Jumelin was a bad one; for at the
present moment it was not proposed to bring the magnetism, but
the imagination to the proof.
   The commissioners agreed  to blindfold subjects who had already
undergone the magnetical operation, for the most part not to mag-
netise them at all, but to put to them interrogations, so framed  as
to point out to them their answers.  This mode of proceeding was
not calculated to deceive them, it only misled their  imagination.
In reality, when no  operation was performed upon them, their sole
answer ought to have been, that they felt no sensation;  and when
the operation  was  performed,  the impression they felt, not the
manner in which they were  interrogated,  ought to have dictated
their replies.
  The commissioners  adjourned themselves to the house  of M.
Jumelin; they began with an experiment upon his servant.  They
fixed  a bandage over his eyes, prepared for the purpose, and which
they employed in all the succeeding experiments.   The  bandage
was made of  two calottes of elastic  gum, whose concavity was
filled with edredon; the whole inclosed and sewn up in two pieces
of stuff of a circular form. These pieces of stuff were then fastened
to each  other, and to two strings which were tied in a knot at the
       4 
2G
 back part of the head.  Placed over the eyes, they left in their in-
 terval  room for  the  nose,  and the entire liberty of respiration,
 without the  person blindfolded being permitted to receive even the
 smallest particle  of light, either through, or above, or below the
 bandage.  These precautions having been contrived, with an equal
 view to the  convenience of the subject,  and the certainty of the
 result, the servant of M. Jumelin was persuaded that the operation
 was performing upon  him.   Upon this he felt an  almost universal
 sensation of heat, and certain emotions in the region of the belly,
 together with an extreme  heaviness;  by degrees he grew drowsy
 and appeared upon the point of falling  asleep.   This experiment
 proves what we have  already said, that  the symptom of drowsi-
 ness is the effect of situation and weariness, not of the magnetism.
   The  same person  being afterwards magnetised with his eyes
 uncovered, and a rod  of iron being presented  to  his forehead, he
 experienced  sensations of pricking: the  bandage being then  re-
 placed  and  the circumstance  repeated,  he was  conscious to no
 sensation.  The  rod  of iron was  then removed,  and the  patient
 being interrogated if he felt nothing in his forehead,  he  declared
 that he  felt something  move  backward and forward from one  side
 of it to the other.
   M. B----, a man of learning, and particularly acquainted with
the science of medicine, was then blindfolded, and presented us
with the same spectacle, feeling certain  sensations when he was
not acted upon, and often feeling nothing when the  operation was
performed.   These sensations went to such a length, that, previ-
ously to the  being magnetised in any manner, but believing that
the operation had been performing for ten minutes, he felt  a heat
in his loins which he  compared to that of a  stove.  It is evident
that M. B----had a very strong sensation, since,  in order to con-
vey an idea of it, he thought  it necessary to have recourse to such
 a comparison; this sensation however he owed solely to imagina-
tion, which was the only agent concerned in the affair.
   The commissioners,  particularly those of the faculty of medicine,
 made an  infinite number of experiments upon different subjects'
 whom they either magnetised themselves, or persuaded that they
 underwent the operation.   They performed the operation indiffer-
ently, either opposite to, or in the direction of the poles or at right
angles with them, and in each case obtained the same effects-  ex
penencing in all these  experiments no other difference,  than'that
of an imagination more or less susceptible.* They were therefore

n Jr5' H^'  d°Ct°^ °f th*faculty of P«iS, well  known for his invention of the
T™,f Ifl,SymP ^ °f-hG °SSa Pubis' made a  number of experiments, tending
  t   V'hU   magnetism u merely an imaginary power.  The following i8£f
detail which he made in a letter dated July the 30th, 1784, and addressed to one of
the commissioners.                       .11             « uue 01
 /'?aIinAgiVen thG ^rs2«Wil° inhabited-  a large  house in the Marais, to under
stand that I was a pupil of M Mesmer, I produced various effects upon the wZ^
of the house.  The magisterial tone and the serious air I affected, together with™eT
tain gestures, made a very great impression upon her, which she at first was desiro™
to conceal from me; but having guided my hand unon  the,  r.finn nC thP h*nr* 1 felJ 
27
convinced that the imagination alone is capable of producing va-
rious  sensations, and  causing the patient to experience both  pain
and heat, and  even a very considerable degree of heat, in all parts
of the  body,  and they concluded  that it of course entered for  a
considerable share into the effects attributed to the animal magnet-
ism.   It must  at  the  same  time be admitted, that the process of
the magnetism produces in the animated body changes more  dis-
tinguished,  and derangements more  considerable, than those we
have just  reported.  None of those  subjects,  whom we have hi-
therto described as the imaginary objects of the magnetical opera-
tion,  were  so  far  impressed  as  to  produce  convulsions;  it  was
therefore a new subject for the experiments of the commissioners,
to inquire,  whether  by the mere energies of the imagination  it
were  possible to produce crises,  similar to those which we have
stated in the public process.
   Many experiments were thought of for the decision  of this ques-
tion.   When  a tree has been  touched according  to  the principles
and method of the  magnetism, every person who stops under it,
ought to experience in a greater or less degree the  effects of this
agent;  there  have  even been some in this  situation who  have
swooned,  or  experienced convulsions.   We  communicated  our

that it palpitated.   The state of oppression  in which she appeared likewise indicated
a contraction of the chest. Other symptoms were connected with these; her face be-
came convulsed,  her eyes wandered, she at length fell into a swoon, then threw up
her dinner, had several stools, and was reduced to a state of weakness and sinking,
perfectly incredible.  I repeated the same trick upon several persons, and succeeded
more or less, according to their different degrees of sensibility and credulity.
  "A celebrated artist, master of design to the children of one of our princes,  com-
plained for several days of an extreme head-ach; he acquainted me with it upon the
Pont-royal; having persuaded him that I was initiated in the mysteries of M. Mesmer,
I expelled his head-ach almost instantaneously by the means of a few gestures, to his
great astonishment.
  " I produced the same effects upon the apprentice of a hatter in the  same distemper.
The lad felt nothing in consequence of my first gestures; I then laid my hand upon
his false ribs, bidding him at the same time look in my face.  He immediately felt a
contraction of the chest, palpitations of the heart, yawnings, and an extreme  dejection.
He doubted no longer of the power I  possessed over him.  I then guided my finger
over the part affected, and asked him what he felt. He replied that his pain  dislodged
itself, and descended. I assured him that I would guide it towards his arm,  and make
it come out at his thumb, at  the same  time squeezing it with considerable force.  He
took me at my word, and was perfectly well for two hours. At that period he stopped
me in the street to tell me that his pain was returned.  This effect seems  to be the
same with that produced by certain dentists upon the mental faculties of those who
go to them to have a tooth drawn.
  "Further, lastly, being in the parlour of a convent, rue du Colombier, fauxbourg
Saint Germains,  a young lady said to me: I understand, sir, that you are a pupil of
M Mesmer.   I am so, replied I; and I can perform the magnetical operation upon
vo'u notwithstanding the intervention of the grate. At the same time I  presented
my finger; she was terrified, trembled extremely, and besought me for God's sake to
proceed no further.  Her emotion was such, that, if I  had persevered in my experi-
ment she would  infallibly have fallen  into convulsions."
  M' Sigault relates that he  had himself felt the power of imagination.  One day, the
operator having undertaken to perform upon him the magnetical operation to convince
him of its reality, at  the moment he had determined to touch him, he felt a contrac-
tion of the chest and  a palpitation of the heart.  But having immediately  composed
himself,  the gestures  and the process  of the magnetism were employed in vain, and
made no impression upon hiin. 
28
 ideas upon this subject to M. Deslon, who replied, that the experi-
 ment ought to succeed, provided  the subject were  extremely sus-
 ceptible ; and it was agreed that it should be made at Passy in the
 presence of Dr. Franklin.  The necessity that  the  subject should
 be susceptible,  led the commissioners  to conceive, that to render
 the experiment decisive and unanswerable,  it was  necessary that
 it  should be made  upon a person of M. Deslon's choice,  and of
 whose susceptibility to the  operations  of the magnetism  he was
 already convinced.  M. Deslon therefore brought with him a boy
 of about twelve years of age;  an apricot tree was fixed upon in
 the orchard of Dr.  Franklin's  garden,  considerably distant  from
 any other tree, and calculated for  the preservation of the mag-
 netical power which might be impressed upon it.  M. Deslon was
 led thither alone to perform the  operation, the boy in the mean
 time remaining in the house, and  another  person  along with him.
 We could have wished that M. Deslon had not been present at the
 subsequent  part of the experiment, but he declared  that he could
 not answer for its success,  if he did not direct his cane and his
 countenance towards  the tree,  in  order to augment  the  action of
 the magnetism.  It was therefore  resolved,  that M.  Deslon should
 be  placed at the greatest possible  distance,  and  that some of the
 commissioners  should stand between him and the hoy, in order to
 ascertain the  impracticability of any signals being made  by M.
 Deslon, or any intelligence being maintained between them.  These
 precautions in an experiment the essence of which  must be authen-
 ticity, are indispensable, without giving the person with respect
 to whom they are employed a right to think himself offended.
   The boy  was then  brought into the orchard  his  eyes covered
 with the bandage,  presented successively to four trees upon  which
 the operation had not been performed, and caused to  embrace each
 of them for the space of two minutes, the mode of communication
 which had been prescribed by M. Deslon himself.
  M. Deslon, present,  and at a considerable  distance, directed his
 cane towards the tree which had been the object of his operations.
  At the first tree  the  boy being interrogated at the  end of a mi-
 nute,  declared  that he perspired in large drops;  he coughed, spit,
 and complained of a slight  pain in his head; the  distance of the
 tree which had been magnetised was about twenty-seven feet.
  At the second tree he felt the sensations of stupefaction and pain
 in his head; the distance was thirty-six feet.
  At the third tree the stupefaction and  head-ach  increased con-
 siderably ; he said that he believed  he was approaching to the tree
 which had been magnetised; the distance was then  about  thirty-
 eight feet.
  In fine at  the fourth tree which had not been rendered the object
of the operation, and  at the distance of about  twenty-four feet
frorn  the tree which  had, the  boy fell  into  a  crisis; he fainted
 away, his limbs stiffened, and  he was  carried to  a  neighbouring
grass-plot, where M. Deslon hastened to  his  assistance and reco-
vered him. 
29
   The result of this experiment is entirely contrary to the theory
of the animal magnetism.  M. Deslon  accounted for it by observ-
ing,  that all the trees  by their very  nature,  participated of the
magnetism,  and that their magnetism was beside reinforced by his
presence.  But in that case a person sensible  to the power of the
magnetism,  could  not hazard a walk in a garden without the risk
of convulsions;  an assertion confuted  by the  experience of every
day.  The presence of M. Deslon had no greater  influence  here,
than in the coach, in which  the boy came  along with  him, was
placed opposite to him, and  felt nothing.  If  he had  experienced
no sensation even under the tree which was magnetised, it might
have been said that at least upon that  day he had not been  suffi-
ciently susceptible: but the boy fell into a crisis under a tree which
was not magnetised;  the crisis was therefore the effect of no phy-
sical or exterior cause, but is to be ascribed solely to the influence
of imagination.  The experiment is therefore  entirely conclusive:
the boy knew that he was about to be led to a tree upon which the
magnetical  operation had  been  performed, his imagination was
struck, it was exalted by the successive steps of the  experiment,
and at the fourth tree it was  raised to the height necessary to pro-
duce the  crisis.
  Other  experiments were made calculated to support this, and
the result was the  same.  One day when the commissioners were
all together  at Passy at the house of Dr.  Franklin,  and M. Deslon
with  them,  they previously intreated the latter to  bring some of
his patients  with him, selecting those of the lower class, who were
most susceptible to the magnetism.  M.  Deslon  brought two wo-
men; and while he was employed  in performing  the  operation
upon Dr. Franklin and several persons in another  apartment, the
two women were separated,  and placed in different rooms.
   One of them, Dame P----, had films over her eyes; but as she
could always see a little, the bandage  already described was  em-
ployed.  She was persuaded  that M. Deslon had been brought into
the room to perform the magnetical operation; silence was recom-
mended; three commissioners  were present,  one  to  interrogate,
another to make minutes of the  transaction, and the third to per-
sonate M. Deslon.   The conversation was pretended to be address-
ed to M. Deslon; he was desired to begin the operation; the three
commissioners  in  the mean time remained perfectly quiet  and
solely occupied in observing her symptoms.  At the end of three
minutes the patient began to feel a nervous shuddering; she  had
then successively a pain in the back of her head,  in  her arms,  a
creeping in  her hands, that was  her  expression,  she grew stiff,
struck her hands violently together, rose  from her seat, stamped
with her feet: the crisis had all the regular symptoms.  Two other
commissioners, who were in the adjoining room  with the  door
shut, heard  the stamping of the feet and the clapping of the hands,
and without seeing any thing were witnesses to this noisy experi-
ment.
  The two commissioners we have mentioned were with the other 
30
 patient, Mademoiselle B----, who was subject to nervous distem-
 pers.   No bandage was employed upon her, but her eyes were at
 liberty; she was  seated with her face towards a door which was
 shut, and persuaded that M. Deslon was on  the other  side, em-
 ployed  in performing  upon her the magnetical  operation.  This
 had  scarcely taken  place a minute, before  she  began to feel the
 symptom of shuddering;  in another minute she had a chattering
 of the teeth and an universal heat; in fine in the third minute she
 fell into a regular crisis.  Her respiration was quick, she  stretched
 out both her'arms behind her back, twisting them extremely, and
 bending her body forward : her whole body trembled; the chatter-
 ing of her teeth became so loud that it  might be heard in the  open
 air;  she bit her hand, and that with so much force, that the marks
 of the teeth remained perfectly visible.
   It is proper to  observe that neither of these subjects were touch-
 ed in any manner; their pulse was not even felt,  that it might not
 be possible to say that the magnetic fluid was communicated  ; the
 crises however were complete.   The commissioners who  had  been
 desirous to know the effect of the influence of the  imagination, and
 to  appreciate the share it  might have in the magnetical crises, had
 now obtained all that they desired.   It is impossible to see this in-
 fluence displayed  in  a  clearer or more incontrovertible manner
 than in these two experiments.  If the  subjects have  declared that
 their  crises were stronger in the  public treatment, it must be as-
 cribed to the power of communication  possessed by the numerous
 emotions, and that in general every individual symptom  has  been
 increased by the contemplation of similar symptoms.
   We  had  occasion  to  try a  second  experiment upon Dame
 P----, and to experience how much she was  under the dominion
 of  her imagination.   The experiment of the magnetic basin  was
 proposed: this experiment consists in discovering among a number
 of  basins one that has  been magnetised.   They are successively
 presented to a patient susceptible to the magnetism; he  ought  to
 fall into a crisis,  or  at  least to experience  sensible effects, when
 the magnetic basin is presented to him, he ought to be  perfectly
 indifferent to all the rest.  All that was necessary,  according to the
 recommendation of M. Deslon, was to  present them to him in the
 direction of the poles, in order that he who  presents the basin
 may not himself  magnetise  the patient, and that there may be no
 other  effect than that of the magnetism of the basin itself.
  Dame P----was  sent  for to  the  arsenal, to  the house of M.
 Lavoisier, where M. Deslon was; she  began with falling into a
 crisis  in the ante-chamber, before she had seen either the  commis-
 sioners or M. Deslon, and merely from the knowledge she  had  that
 she was  about to see  him ;  a distinguished effect of the influence
 of  imagination.
  When she  had been  tolerably recovered,  she was led  into the
room  destined  for the experiment.   Several china  basins were
presented to her which had  not been magnetised; at the second 
31
basin she began to feel the usual symptoms, and at  the fourth fell
into a complete  crisis.  It may be objected  that  her actual state
was a state of crisis, that it  had begun in the ante-chamber, and
was renewed by its own single energy; but a circumstance which
is decisive, is  that having asked for something to drink,  the basin
which had been magnetised by M. Deslon himself was presented
to her; she drank with  perfect calmness  and said that  she felt
herself much better.  The basin and the  magnetism had therefore
failed of their effect,  since the crisis was tranquilised in the room
of being augmented.
  Some time after, while  M. Majault examined the films she had
over her eyes, the magnetic basin was  presented to the back of
her head, and  continued there for twelve minutes; she was uncon-
scious of the operation and felt no effect  from it; she had  even at
no time been more tranquil, because her imagination was diverted,
and fixed upon the examination that was  making into the disorder
of her eyes.
  The commissioners were informed that while this woman had
been left alone in the ante-chamber, different persons unacquainted
with  the animal magnetism had approached  her, and the  convul-
sive emotions had recommenced.  She was desired to observe that
the magnetical  operation was  not  performed upon her; but her
imagination was struck to such a degree that she replied: If you
did nothing to me, I should not be in the  condition in which I am.
She knew that she had been sent for in order to be made the sub-
ject of the experiments; and the approach of any person towards
her,  or the slightest noise  attracted  her attention, excited the idea
of the magnetism and renewed her convulsions.
  The imagination,  in  order  to  its  acting with considerable
strength, has often need that you should touch  several cords at a
time.   It has a correspondence with each of the senses ;  and its
reaction may be expected  to be in proportion, both to the number
of senses applied to, and of  sensations  received: the commission-
ers were led to this observation by the following experiment.  M.
Jumelin  had spoken  to them of a  young  lady, twenty years of
age, whom he had deprived of the  faculty of speech by the influ-
ence of the magnetism; the commissioners repeated the experiment
at his house, the young lady consented to submit to it, and to suffer
herself to be blindfolded.
  The first object of the  experiment was to  endeavour to  obtain
the same effect without performing the operation; but,  though in
this situation she felt or believed she felt the effects of the magnet-
ism, we were  not able to strike her imagination, with the  force
that was necessary for the success of the experiment.   The opera-
tion was then  really performed, the bandage  not being removed;
and  the  success was the same.  The bandage was  then taken
away; her  imagination was now attacked at  once through the
different channels of sight and hearing, and the effects were more
considerable; but  though  she  complained of a  heaviness in her
head, an obstruction in the superior part  of the nostrils,  and  a 
32
 number of the symptoms which  she had felt under the operation
 of M. Jumelin, she did not lose  the  faculty of speech.   She ob-
 served herself, that the hand by which she was magnetised in the
 forehead, ought to descend to the  level of  the  nose, recollecting
 that that was its  situation at  the time in which she  had felt the
 loss  of her voice.  What she demanded was accordingly perform-
 ed, and in three quarters of a  minute she was dumb;  nothing was
 now to be heard from her but  low and inarticulate sounds, though
 the exertion of the muscles of  the throat  for  the  formation of
 sound, and that of the tongue  and the lips in order to articulation,
 were visible.  This  state  lasted  only a minute: it is obvious to
 observe that,  finding  herself precisely in the same circumstances,
 the seduction of the understanding and the effect of that seduction
 upon the organs of speech were the  same.  But it was not enough
 that  she should be  expressly informed  that she was magnetised, it
 was  also necessary that the sense of seeing should yield her a tes-
 timony, stronger, and  capable  of greater effects; it was necessary
 that a gesture with which she was  already acquainted should re-
 excite  her former  ideas.   It should seem  that  this  experiment is
 admirably calculated to display the  manner in which the imagina-
 tion  acts, the degrees by  which it is exalted,  and the different
 exterior succours it requires in order to its displaying itself in its
 greatest energy.
   The power, which the sense of sight exercises over the imagi-
 nation, explains the effects  attributed by the doctrine of the mag-
 netism to the  eyes.  The eyes possess in an eminent  degree the
power of  magnetising; signs and gestures,  as the commissioners
were informed, have  commonly no effect, except upon a subject
who has been previously mastered by the employment of the eyes.
 The reason of this is very simple; it is the eyes that convey the most
energetic expressions of passion, it is in them that is developed all
 that the human character has of the  commanding or the attractive.
 It  is natural therefore that the eyes should be the source of a very
 high degree of power; but this power consists merely in the apti-
 tude  they  possess of moving the imagination, and that in a degree
 more or less  strong in proportion to the activity of the imagina-
 tion.  It is for this reason,  that the whole process of the  magnet-
 ism commences from the eyes  of the operator; and their influence
 is  so powerful and leaves traces so  strong and  lively, that a wo-
 man, newly arrived at the house of M. Deslon, having encountered
 a look of one of his pupils, who had performed the operation upon
 her,  just as she was recovering from a crisis, had her eyes set in
 her head for three  quarters  of an hour.   For a long time  she was
 haunted with the remembrance  of this look; she always saw before
 her this very eye fixed to regard her;  and she bore it uninterrupt-
 edly in her imagination, sleeping as well as waking, for three days.
 We  see  from this instance what an  imagination is capable of
 doing,  that  can  preserve  one  impression for so long a time, that
 is, can renew, of  itself, and by its single power, the same sensa-
 tion regularly and without interruption, for three days. 
33
  The experiments, which we have already reported, are uniform
in their nature, and contribute  alike to the same decision; they
authorise us to conclude  that the imagination is the true cause of
the effects  attributed to the magnetism.  But the partisans of this
new agent  will perhaps reply, that the identity of effects does not
always  prove  an  identity of causes.  They will  grant  that the
imagination is capable  of exciting these  impressions without the
magnetism ; but they  will maintain that the  magnetism  is also
capable of  exciting them without the imagination.   The commis-
sioners might  easily destroy this assertion by applying  the princi-
ples of all reasoning, and the laws of natural philosophy: of which
the first, is to admit no new causes without an absolute necessity.
When the effects observed are  capable of having  been produced
by a known cause,  and a cause whose existence other phenomena
have already established,  sound philosophy teaches that the effects
ought to be ascribed to that cause; and when on the other hand
we are  acquainted with the discovery of a cause hitherto unknown,
sound philosophy requires that its existence be made out by effects
which do not belong to a known  cause, and which cannot be ex-
plained  but by the new cause.  It therefore properly belongs to the
partisans of the magnetism, to bring forward other proofs,  and to
discover effects which  shall be entirely stripped of  the illusions of
the imagination.  But  as facts are more  demonstrative than rea-
sonings, and as their  evidence  is  more  universally striking, the
commissioners have been desirous of establishing by experiment,
what the magnetism could do in  cases where the imagination had
no  concern.
  For this experiment  they made choice of two rooms, contiguous
to  each other, and united by  a door of communication.  The
door  was  taken away,  and a frame of wood substituted in  its
place, with transverse  bars, and covered with a double texture of
paper.  In one of these rooms was a commissioner, who undertook
to make minutes of the  transaction, and  a lady,  who was given
out to be  just arrived from the country, and to have a suit of
linen, which she wanted  to have made up.  Mademoiselle B----,
a sempstress by profession, who had been already employed in the
experiments at Passy, and whose sensibility to the magnetism was
well known, was sent for.  Every thing was arranged against her
arrival in such a manner, that there was  but one seat upon which
she could place herself, and that seat stood within the frame of the
door of communication.
  The commissioners  were in  the other apartment, and one of
them, a physician, who had upon former occasions performed the
magnetical operation with success, had  undertaken to magnetise
Mademoiselle B----through  the paper partition.  It is a principle
in the theory of the magnetism  that  this agent  passes  through
doors, walls, &c.  A partition of paper could therefore be no ob-
stacle; beside M. Deslon had positively declared that the magnet-
ism passes  through paper.
      5 
34
  Mademoiselle B---- was  accordingly magnetised during  half
an hour, at the distance of a foot and an half, and in a direction
opposite to that of the poles,  in  conformity to the rules taught by
M. Deslon, and which the commissioners had seen practised at his
house.   During the  operation she conversed with much  gaiety,
and, in answer to an inquiry concerning her health, she  readily
replied, that she was perfectly well:  at Passy she had fallen  into'
a crisis in the course of three minutes; in the present instance she
underwent the operation of the magnetism without any effect for
thirty minutes.  The only reason of this difference  must be  that
here she was ignorant of the  operation, and  that at Passy she
thought it had been performed.   The inevitable conclusion  is,  that
the  imagination singly produces  all  the  effects attributed to the
magnetism, and that, where  the  imagination ceases to be called
forth, it has no longer the smallest efficacy.
  Only one objection  can be  suggested  to this experiment; it is
that  Mademoiselle B----might not be  prepared to receive the
magnetic fluid,  and might be less susceptible to its operation than
usual.   The commissioners  foresaw this objection,  and for  that
reason  made the following  experiment.    As soon  as they  had
ceased to magnetise  the patient through the paper partition, the
same commissioner passed into the other apartment;  he found no
difficulty in engaging Mademoiselle B---— to submit to the mag-
netical  operation.  It was accordingly repeated  in  precisely the
same manner as in the former instance, at the distance of a  foot
and  an half, and  by the  intervention of gestures only, together
with the employment of the right finger and the rod of iron.  If
he had applied the hands,  and touched the hypochonders, it might
have been objected that any difference of effect was to be ascrib-
ed to the application  having been more immediate in the  latter' in-
stance.  But the only difference between the two experiments was,
that  in the former Mademoiselle B----was magnetised in a direc-
tion  opposite to that  of the poles, and conformable to the rules of
the  magnetical theory; and in the second she was magnetised in
the  direction of the  poles, or in the transverse line.   On this ac-
count according to the principles of the magnetism no effect ought
to have been produced.
  In three minutes however she  felt a sensation of dejection  and
suffocation; to  these succeeded an interrupted  hiccup, a chattering
of the teeth, a contraction of the throat, and an  extreme pain in
her head;  she was restless in her chair;  she complained of a pain
in the loins; now and then she struck her foot with extreme quick-
ness on the floor;  afterwards  she  stretched her arms behind  her,
twisting them  extremely  as  at Passy; in a word the convulsive
crisis was  complete  and accompanied with  all the regular symp-
toms.   All these accidents  appeared in  consequence  of a process
of twelve  minutes, though the same process employed  for thirty
minutes a little before had been ineffectual.  The only ground of
difference that remains, is the play that was afforded in the latter 
35
instance to the imagination;  to this therefore the difference of the
effects is to be ascribed.
  If the crisis originated in the influence of the imagination, it was
the imagination also that put a stop to it.  The commissioner who
magnetised her, observed that it was time to have  done; at the
same time presenting to her his two  forefingers  in the  form of a
cross; and it is proper to observe that in  so doing he magnetised
her in the direction of the  poles, in the  same manner as he had
done  through  the whole experiment;  no  actual  alteration had
therefore been made,  and the process  being  continued, the impres-
sions ought also to have continued.  But the declared intention of
the operator was sufficient to dissipate the crisis;  her heat and the
pain in her head were immediately  alleviated.   The disorder of
her  frame was in this manner followed from place to  place,  an-
nouncing at the same time that it was going to disappear.  In this
manner in obedience  to the voice to which the  imagination was
subjected, the contraction of the throat ceased, then the accidents
of the breast,  lastly  those of the stomach and  the arms.   The
whole  required only  three minutes; after which  Mademoiselle
B-----declared that she no longer felt any sensation, but was per-
fectly restored to her habitual state.
  These last  experiments, as well as several of those  that were
made at the house of M. Jumelin, have the double  advantage of
demonstrating at once the efficacy of the imagination, and the im-
potence of the magnetism, in regard of the  symptoms which were
operated.
  If the symptoms are more  considerable  and the crises more vio-
lent at the public process, it is because various causes are combin-
ed with the imagination, to operate, to multiply and to  enlarge its
effects.   They begin with subduing the minds of the patients  by
the  employment of the eyes; this is followed by the  touch, the
application of the hands; it is proper to develop  in this  place the
physical effects of this method of procedure.
  The  symptoms are more or less considerable: the less are hic-
cupings, qualms of the stomach,  and purgings; the greater  are
the  convulsions to which they have given the  denomination of
crises.  The parts upon which the touch is  employed, are the hy-
pochonders, the pit  of the  stomach, and sometimes the ovaria,
when the patient is  a woman.  The hands and the fingers  are
pressed with  a greater or less stress upon  these different regions.
  The colon,  one of  the larger intestines, runs  through both the
regions of the  hypochonders, and  the region of the epigastrium
which separates them.  It is  placed immediately  under the integu-
ments.  It is therefore upon this intestine that the pressure falls, an
intestine full of sensibility and irritability.  A repeated voluntary
effort, without assistance from any other  cause,  excites  the mus-
cular action of this intestine, and sometimes procures evacuations.
Nature, as it were by instinct, indicates this manoeuvre  to persons
hypochondriacally affected.   The process of the  magnetism  is 
36
nothing more than this very mancruvre;  and the evacuations it is
calculated to produce are further facilitated in the magnetical pro-
cess, by the frequent and almost habitual use of a real laxative, the
cream of tartar in their drink.
  But while the motion which is produced  excites  principally the
irritability of the colon, this intestine  offers other phenomena.  It
swells in a greater or less degree, and sometimes distends itself to
a considerable  volume.  At  such times  it  communicates  to the
diaphragm such an irritation, that this  organ becomes more  or less
convulsed.   It  is  this  convulsion to which they have given  the
appellation of crisis in the  animal magnetism.  One of the com-
missioners  had occasion to  see a woman, subject to a kind  of
spasmodic vomitings, with  which she was seized several times in
the  course of every day.  Her efforts  produced nothing but a tur-
bid  and viscous water, similar to that  which is brought up  by the
patients in the crisis of the magnetical  operation.  The convulsion
had its seat in the diaphragm, and the region of the colon was so
sensible,  that the slightest touch upon  that part, a strong commo-
tion of the  air,  the surprise caused by a sudden noise, sufficed to
excite  the  convulsion.  This woman had therefore regular crises
without the assistance of the  magnetism,  by the single irritability
of the colon and diaphragm;  and  the women who were magnetis-
ed obtained their crises from the same cause and through the same
irritability.
  The application of the hands upon the  stomach has physical
effects not less remarkable.   The application is made directly upon
that organ.  Sometimes a strong continuous  compression is operat-
ed,  sometimes  a  number of  slight and successive compressions,
sometimes a discomposure of the stomach by a rotatory motion of
the  rod of iron  in contact with the part, or by the  successive and
rapid  passage of the  thumbs over it one  after the other.   These
methods  convey almost immediately to the stomach an irritation,
more  or less strong and durable, in proportion as the subject is
more  or less susceptible.  The part is  also previously disposed for
the  reception of this  irritation by being  first compressed.   This
compression prepares it to act upon the diaphragm and to commu-
nicate to it the impressions it receives.   It is  irritated, the  dia-
phragm is also  irritated, and  from thence result, in the same man-
ner as by the  action of the  colon, the nervous accidents  which
had been already stated.  In women who  are peculiarly suscepti-
ble, the mere compression of the two  hypochonders, without their
being acted upon in any other manner, occasions a contraction of
the  stomach and fits of swooning.  This happened in the case of
the  woman magnetised by  M. Jumelin, and it often happens from
no other cause  than an improper degree of tightness in their dress.
These cases are not followed by the crisis, because  the stomach is
compressed without  being  irritated, and  the diaphragm  remains
in its  natural state.   The same methods employed upon the  ovaria
in the female sex,  beside  their  particular  effects, produce with 
37
great force the above accidents.   The empire and extensive influ-
ence of the uterus over the animal economy is well known.
  The intimate  connection of the colon,  the stomach and  the
uterus with  the diaphragm is one of the causes of the effects  as-
cribed to the magnetism.  The regions of the  lower belly, which
are the subject of these operations, answer to the different plexuses
which constitute a regular nervous centre in this part,  by means
of which, leaving every particular  system out of the  question,
there most certainly exists a sympathy,  communication or corre-
spondence between all the parts of the body; such an action  and
reaction,  that the  sensations excited in this centre  affect the other
parts of the body, and reciprocally a sensation experienced in  any
part affects and calls  into play the nervous centre, which often
transmits  the impression back again to all the parts of the  body.
  The truth thus  stated not only explains the effects of the mag-
netic touch,  but  also the physical effects of the  imagination.  It
has been constantly remarked, that the affections of the  soul make
their first corporeal impression  upon the nervous centre, which
commonly leads  their subject  to describe  himself as having a
weight upon his  stomach,  or a sensation of suffocation.   The
diaphragm  enters into this business, from whence originate the
sighs, the tears, and the expressions of mirth.   The viscera of the
lower belly then experience a reaction ; and it is by this  automa-
ton  process that we are enabled to account for the physical dis-
orders produced by the imagination.  Surprise occasions the colic,
terror causes a diarrhoea, melancholy is the origin of hysterical
distempers.  The history of medicine presents to us an infinity of
examples of the  power of imagination  and the mental  affections.
The terror  occasioned by a fire,  a  violent degree of desire, a
 strong and undoubting hope,  a fit of choler, have restored the use
 of his limbs to one who  has been crippled with the gout or to a
 paralytic person; a strong and unlooked for degree  of  joy has
 dissipated a quartan ague of two months' standing; close attention
 is a remedy for the hiccup;  and persons, who by some accident
 have been deprived of the faculty of speech, have recovered it in
 consequence of some of the vehement emotions of the soul,   lhis
 last  assertion is  supported by the  testimony of history,  and the
 commissioners  have  themselves witnessed a  suspension ot this
 faculty, occasioned singly by the imagination.   The  action and
 reaction  of the physical upon the moral system, and of the moral
 upon the physical,  have been acknowledged ever since the pheno-
 mena of the medical science have been  remarked, that is, ever
 since the origin of  the science.
   Tears, laughter, coughs, hiccups, and in general all the effects
 which are observed in what have been  styled crises in the animal
 magnetism, do therefore originate either in the interruption of the
 functions of the  diaphragm  by  a  physical  vehicle, such as the
 touch and the pressure,  or from the power with which the imagi-
 nation is endowed of acting  upon  this organ and interrupting its
 function*         '"""■ 
38
   If it be objected that the touch is not always necessary to these
effects, it may be replied, that the imagination may be sufficiently
fertile in resources to produce them all by its sole instrumentality;
especially the imagination exerted in a public process, called into
play at once by the methods in which it is itself addressed, and by
the effects observed in those who surround it.   It has been already
seen what were  its effects in the experiments made by the  com-
missioners upon isolated  subjects ; it may easily be conceived  in
what degree those effects must be multiplied in the case of a num-
ber of patients collected together in a public process.  These pa-
tients are assembled in  a narrow space,  if the space be compared
with the  number of patients; the air of the  apartment is heated,
although care be employed to renew it; and it is always more or
less  impregnated with  mephitic gas, which  has the property of
acting immediately upon the  head and the nervous system.  When
the introduction  of music is  added, it affords  another means of
acting upon and  exciting the nerves.
   In the  public process several women are magnetised at the same
time, and they experience at first no effects but such as are similar
to those  obtained  by the  commissioners in various experiments.
It is even acknowledged that for the most part the  crises do not
commence in less than  the space of two hours.  By little and little
the impressions are communicated from one to another, and rein-
forced, in the same manner as the impressions which are made by
theatrical representation, where the impressions are  greater in
proportion to the  number of the spectators, and  the  liberty they
enjoy of  expressing their sensations.   The applause, by which the
emotions of individuals  are  announced,  occasions a general emo-
tion, which every one  partakes in the degree in which he is sus-
ceptible.   The same  observation has been made in armies upon a
day of battle, where the  enthusiasm of courage, as  well as the
impressions of terror, are propagated with such amazing rapidity.
The drum, the sound of the military musical instruments, the noise
of the  cannon,  the musquetry, the shouts of the  army, and the
general  disorder, impress the organs, have a uniform effect upon
the understanding, and exalt the imagination in the same degree.
In this equilibrium of inebriation, the external manifestation  of a
single  sensation immediately becomes  universal; it hurries the
soldiery to the  charge, or it determines them to fly.  The  same
cause is deeply concerned in rebellions; the multitude are governed
by the imagination;  the individuals in a numerous assembly are
more subjected to  their senses,  and less capable of submitting to
the dictates of reason; and where fanaticism is the presiding qua-
lity, its  fruit is the tremblers of  the  Cevennes.   It has been usual
to forbid numerous  assemblies in seditious towns, as a means of
stopping a contagion so  easily communicated.   Every where ex-
ample acts upon the moral part of our frame, mechanical imitation
upon the physical part:  the minds of individuals are calmed by
dispersing them; the same method puts a stop to their spasmodic
affections,  always contagious  in  thmr nuiu^- w*>  haYfi hiiU ° 
39
recent example of this in the  young ladies of Saint Roch,  who
Were in this manner cured of the convulsions with which  they
were affected when together.*
   The  magnetism  then,  or rather the operations of the imagina-
tion,  are equally discoverable at the theatre, in the camp, and in
all numerous assemblies, as at the bucket, acting indeed by different
means,  but  producing similar  effects.   The bucket is surrounded
with a crowd of  patients ;  the sensations are  continually commu-
nicated  and recommunicated; it  ought to  be  expected that the
nerves  should be at length worn out with this  exercise, they are
accordingly irritated, and the woman  of most sensibility in the
company gives the  signal.  Immediately  the  cords,  every where
stretched to the same degree and in perfect unison, respond to each
other;  the  crises are  multiplied; they mutually reinforce  each
other, and  are rendered violent.   In the mean  time the men, who
are witnesses of  these emotions, partake of  them in proportion to
their nervous sensibility; and  those with  whom this sensibility is
greatest and most easily excited become themselves the subjects of
a crisis.
   This propensity to irritation, partly natural  and partly acquired,
becomes in each sex habitual.  The sensations  having been felt
once or oftener, nothing is now necessary, but to recall the me-
mory of them, and to exalt  the imagination to the same degree,
in order to operate  the same  effects.   This will never be difficult
when the subject is  placed in the same circumstances.  The public
process is no longer necessary, you have  only to touch the hypo-
chonders and to  conduct the finger and the rod of iron before the
countenance; the signs are well  known.  Even these are not ne-
cessary, it is sufficient that the patients be blindfolded, made to
believe that these signs are repeated upon them,  and that they are
magnetised; the ideas are re-excited, the sensations are reproduced,
the imagination,  employing its  accustomed instruments and resum-
ing its  former routes, gives birth  to the same phenomena.  These
cases happen exactly to the patients of  M. Deslon, who fall into  a
crisis without the bucket, and without being excited with the  spec-
tacle of the public process.

  * On the day of the ceremony of the first communion, celebrated in the parish
church of Saint Roch a few years ago (1780), after the evening service they made
according to custom the procession tnrough the streets.  Scarcely were the children
returned to the church, and had resumed their seats,  before a young girl fell ill and
had convulsions. This affection propagated itself with so much rapidity, that in the
space of half an hour fifty or sixty girls from twelve to nineteen years of age were
seized with the same  convulsions; that is, with a contraction of the throat, an infla-
tion of the stomach, suffocation, hiccups and spasms more or less considerable. These
accidents reappeared  in some instances in the course of the week; but the following
Sunday, being assembled with  the  dames of Sainte Anne, whose business it is to
teach the young ladies, twelve of them were seized with the same  convulsions, and
more would have followed, if they had not had the precaution to send away each
child upon the spot to her relations.  The whole were obliged to be divided into seve-
ral schools. By thus separating the children, and not keeping them together but in
small numbers, three weeks sufficed to dissipate entirely this epidemical convulsive
affection.  Sec for other instances of the same  kind the Natural History of Convul- 
10
   Compression, imagination, imitation, are therefore the true causes
of the effects attributed to this new agent, known by the appella-
tion of animal magnetism, this fluid, which is said  to  circulate
through the human body, and to be communicated from individual
to individual.  Such is the result of the experiments of the commis-
sioners, and the observations they made upon the means employed
and the effects  produced.  This agent, this fluid, has no existence.
Chimerical, however, as it is, the idea is by no means novel.  Some
authors,  particularly  physicians of the last  age, have  expressly
treated of it in various performances. The curious and interesting
inquiries of M.  Thouret have convinced the public, that the theory,
the operations and the effects of the  animal magnetism, proposed
in the last age, were nearly the  same with those revived in the
present.  The magnetism then is no more than an old  falsehood.
The theory indeed is  now presented, as was necessary in a more
enlightened age, with a greater degree of pomp;  but it is not less
erroneous.   Human nature is  formed to seize, to quit and to re-
sume  the mistake  which is flattering to its  wishes.  There are er-
rors which will be eternally dear  to  the  sublunary state.  How
often  has the pretended science of astrology vanished and reap-
peared !  The magnetism is calculated to lead us back to it.  Its
professors have been  desirous of connecting it with the celestial
influences, that it might have the  stronger seduction, and attract
mankind by the two  hopes that are  nearest their  heart, that of
looking into futurity, and that of prolonging their existence.
  There is room to believe that the imagination is the principal of
the three causes which we have assigned to the magnetism.  It
appears, by the experiments we have  related, that it suffices alone
to produce  the  crises.  The pressure and the touch  seem to serve
it as preparatives; it  is by the  touch  that the nerves begin to be
excited, imitation  communicates and extends the impressions. But
the imagination is that active  and terrible power, by which  are
operated the astonishing effects  that have  excited so much atten-
tion to the  public process.  The effects strike all the world, the
cause is enveloped in  the shades of obscurity.  When we consider
that these effects seduced, in former ages, men, venerable for their
merit, their illumination,  and even their genius,  Paracelsus, Van
Helmont and Kircher, we cease to be astonished, that persons of
the present day,  learned  and well informed, that  even a  great
number of physicians, have been the  dupes of this system.   Had
the commissioners been admitted only to the public process, where
there  is  neither time nor opportunity of making decisive experi-
ments, they might themselves have been  led  into error.  It was
necessary to have liberty to insulate the effects, in order to distin-
guish the causes; it was necessary to see, as they have done, the
imagination act, if we may be allowed the expression, partially,
and produce its effects, one by one, and  in  detail, to have an idea
to what the accumulation  of those effects  might amount; to  con-
ceive  the extent of its power, and to account  for all its prodigies. 
41
Such an examination demanded a sacrifice of time, and a number
of systematical researches, which we have not always the leisure
to undertake for our private instruction or private  curiosity, nor
even the power properly to pursue without being, like the commis-
sioners, charged with the mandates of the sovereign,  and honoured
with the confidence of  the public.
  M. Deslon is not much averse to the admission of these princi-
ples.  He declared in our session, held at the house of Dr. Frank-
lin, the  19th of June, that he thought  he might lay it down as a
fact, that the imagination had the greatest  share  in  the effects  of
the animal magnetism; he  said that  this  new agent might be no
other than the  imagination itself, whose power is  as extensive as it
is little  known  : he affirmed  that he always acknowledged the con-
cern of this faculty in the treatment of his  patients, and he affirmed
with equal confidence,  that many persons have been  either entirely
cured or infinitely amended,  in the state of their health, under his di-
rection.  He remarked to the commissioners, that the imagination
thus directed to the relief of suffering humanity,  would be a most
valuable means in the hands of the  medical profession ;*  and per-
suaded  of the reality of the  power  of the imagination, he invited
the commissioners to embrace the opportunity which his  practice
afforded, to study its procedure and  its effects.  If, therefore, M.
Deslon  be still  attached to his first idea, that these  effects are to
be ascribed to  the agency of a fluid, which is communicated from
individual to individual by the touch or under the guidance of a
conductor, he  cannot,  however, avoid conceding to the  commis-
sioners, that only one cause  is requisite to one effect,  and that since
the imagination is a sufficient  cause, the supposition of the mag-
netic fluid is useless.  It  cannot be  denied that we are surrounded
with a fluid which peculiarly belongs to us; the  insensible perspi-
ration forms around us an  atmosphere of insensible vapours:  but
this fluid has  no agency but such  as is common to other atmo-
spheres ; cannot be communicated by  the touch but in  infinitely
small quantities; is not capable of being  directed either by con-
ductors, or by the  eyes, or  by the will; is neither propagated  by
sound, nor  reflected by mirrors ; and is in no case  susceptible of
the effects ascribed to it.
   It remains for us to inquire, whether the crisis or convulsions,
excited by the methods of the pretended magnetism  in the assem-
blies round the bucket, be capable  of any utility, or  be calculated
to cure or relieve the patients.   The  imagination of sick  persons
has unquestionably a very frequent  and considerable share in  the
cure of their diseases.   With the effect of it we  are  unacquainted
  * M. Deslon had already said in 1780, " Granting for a moment that M. Mesmer
possesses no other secret than that of employing the imagination in the extensive pro-
duction of the most salutary effects, will it not still be true, that his invention is an
extremely valuable one ?  For in reality, if the physic of the imagination be more
salutary than the other kinds of medicine, what good reason can be alleged, why the
physic of the imagination should not be brought into general use ?"—Observations on
the Animal Magnetism, pp. 46, 47.
                               6 
42
otherwise than by general experience;  but, though it has not been
traced in positive experiments, it should seem not to admit ot  a
reasonable doubt.  It is a known adage, that in  physic as well as
religion,  men are saved by faith; this faith is the produce of  the
imagination : in  these cases the imagination acts by gentle means ;
it is by diffusing tranquillity over the senses, by restoring the har-
mony of  the functions,  by recalling into play every principle of the
frame  under  the genial influence of hope.   Hope is an essential
constituent of human life; the man that yields us one contributes
to restore to us the other. But  when the imagination produces con-
vulsions,  the means it employs are violent;  and such means  are
almost always destructive.  There are indeed a few rare cases in
which  they may be useful; there are desperate diseases, in which
it is necessary to overturn every thing for the introduction  of an
order totally new. These critical shocks are to be employed in  the
medical art in the same manner as poisons.   It is requisite that ne-
cessity should demand,  and economy employ them.  The need of
them is momentary;  the shock ought to be single.  Very far from
repeating it, the  intelligent physician exerts  himself to invent  the
means  of repairing the indispensable evil which has thus been pro-
duced ; but in the public process of  the magnetism the crises are
repeated  every day, they are long and violent. Now since the state
introduced by these crises is pernicious, the habit cannot be other
than  fatal.  How indeed can  it be  conceived, that a woman, at-
tacked for instance with a pulmonary distemper, can undergo with
impunity a crisis, some  of whose symptoms are a convulsive cough
and compulsory  expectorations; or can safely fatigue, perhaps
shatter, the lungs by violent and repeated efforts, when so  great
pains are necessary to  convey to the wounded frame the sanative
and the balsamic 1 How can we imagine that a man, be his disor-
der what it will,  can  need in order to his recovery the intervention
of crises, in which the sight appears to be lost, the members stiffen,
he strikes  his breast with precipitate and involuntary motions;
crises in  a word,  that are terminated by  an abundant spitting  of
viscous humours and even blood ?  The blood thus discharged is
neither vitiated nor corrupted,  it flows from  vessels from which it
is torn by the violence  of effort and contrary to  the intention  of
nature; these effects  are  therefore to be regarded as a real  not a
salutary  evil, an evil  additional to the distemper be it what it will.
  Nor is this the only danger with which they are attended.  Man
is incessantly enslaved by custom; nature  is modified by habit only
in a progressive  manner, yet she is often so completely modified,
as to suffer an entire  metamorphosis, and to be scarcely capable of
being known for the  same.  Who will assure us that  this state  of
crises, at first voluntarily induced, shall not become habitual ? And
should the habit  thus contracted frequently reproduce the  same
symptoms, in spite of  the will, and almost without the assistance
of the  imagination, how dreadful the  fate of an individual, sub-
jected to  so violent effects, tormented, as well morally as physically,
with their unfortunate  impression, whose  days should be divided 
43
 between apprehension and agony, and whose life should be an un-
 interrupted state of suffering !  Nervous distempers of this descrip-
 tion, even when natural, are the opprobrium of the medical science;
 how little ought it to be the object of art to  produce them !  The
 art, which thus interferes with all the functions of the animal eco-
 nomy, urges nature out of her proper course, and  multiplies the
 victims of irregularity, is to be regarded as pernicious.   Its effects
 are the more to be apprehended, since it not only aggravates the
 disorder of the nerves by renewing their symptoms, and causing
 them to degenerate into habit; but if a distemper of this kind be
 contagious, as  it may be suspected to be, the method of provoking
 nervous convulsions and of exciting them in public assemblies is a
 means to diffuse them in great towns, and even to afflict with them
 generations to come, since the diseases  and the habits of parents
 are transmitted to their posterity.
   The commissioners, having convinced themselves that the ani-
 mal magnetic  fluid is capable of being  perceived by none of our
 senses,  and had no action either upon  themselves or upon the sub-
 jects of their several  experiments; being assured, that the touches
 and compressions  employed  in  its  application  rarely occasioned
 favourable  changes in the animal economy, and that  the impres-
 sions thus  made  are always  hurtful  to the imagination; in  fine
 having demonstrated  by decisive experiments, that the imagination
 without the magnetism produces  convulsions, and that  the mag-
 netism without the imagination produces nothing; they have con-
 cluded with an unanimous voice respecting the existence and the
 utility of the magnetism, that the existence of  the  fluid is abso-
 lutely destitute of proof, that the fluid having  no existence can
 consequently have no use, that the violent  symptoms observed in
 the  public  process are to be  ascribed to the compression, to the
 imagination called  into action, and to  that propensity to mechani-
 cal imitation, which leads  us in spite of ourselves to the  repetition
 of what strikes our  senses.   And at  the same time they think
 themselves  obliged to add as  an important observation,  that the
 compressions and the repeated action of the imagination employed
 in producing the crises may  be hurtful, that  the sight  of these
 crises is not less dangerous on  account of that imitation which na-
 ture seems to have  imposed upon us as a law, and that of conse-
 quence  every public process,  in  which the means of  the animal
 magnetism shall be employed, cannot fail in the  end of producing
 the most pernicious effects.
  If it be objected to the commissioners that this decision concludes
 respecting  the  magnetism in general, instead of relating singly to
the magnetism  practised by M. Deslon, the commissioners  reply
 that the intention of the king was to have their opinion  upon  the
 animal magnetism, and that in consequence they have not exceed-
ed  the  bounds of their  commission.  Again they reply that M.
 Deslon has appeared to them acquainted with what are called the
principles of the  magnetism, and that he  certainly possesses the
means of producing the  effects and exciting the crises which  are
aaoi'ibod *»~ttr--•  — "~~*\ 
44
   The principles of M. Deslon are the very same with those in-
 cluded in the twenty-seven propositions disseminated from the press
 by M. Mesmer  in  1779.  If M. Mesmer now announces a more
 extensive theory, it was not necessary for the commissioners to be
 acquainted with the theory to decide upon the existence and utility
 of the magnetism, it was sufficient to estimate the effects.   It is
 by the effects that the existence of a cause is established,  it is by
 the effects also that its utility must be demonstrated.   The pheno-
 mena are learned  from observation long before we can arrive at
 the theory which connects and explains them.   The theory of the
 loadstone does not yet exist, and its phenomena are ascertained by
 the experience of successive ages.   The theory of M. Mesmer is
 in this case indifferent and superfluous; the methods employed, the
 effects produced, this is what it was necessary to examine.   Now
 it is easy to prove that the essential practice of the magnetism  is
 known to M. Deslon.
   M. Deslon was for many years the pupil of M. Mesmer.   Con-
 stantly during that time he saw the process of the animal magnet-
 ism, and  the  means  employed in exciting and directing it.  M.
 Deslon himself administered the magnetism in the presence of M.
 Mesmer;  separated from him he operated the same effects. Being
 afterwards reconciled they united  their patients; the one and the
 other without distinction undertook  the nrnagement of them,  and
 of consequence the methods  were the same.   The  method which
 is followed at this day by M. Deslon can be no other than the me-
 thod of M. Mesmer.
  The effects are not  less  correspondent.  There are crises equally
 frequent,  and  accompanied by similar symptoms, at the house of
 M. Deslon and at the house of M. Mesmer; the  effects do  not
 therefore belong  to the method of an individual, but to the practice
 of the  magnetism  in  general.   The experiments of the commis-
 sioners demonstrate that the effects  obtained by M. Deslon are due
 to compression, to imagination  and to imitation.  These are there-
 fore the causes of the magnetism in general.  The observations of
 the commissioners have  convinced them that  these  convulsive
 crises and these violent means cannot be useful in medicine any
 otherwise than as poisons, and they have judged  independent of
 all theory that wherever it shall be the object to excite convulsions
they may become habitual and pernicious, they may be epidemic-
 ally diffused,  and even extend to future generations.
  The commissioners were of consequence  obliged to conclude
 that not only the measures in a particular mode of proceeding, but
the measures of the magnetism in general, might in  the end  pro-
duce the most pernicious effects.
  Paris,  the 11th day of August, 1784.
  (Signed)    B. Franklin,    Sallin,       De Bory,
              Majault,        Bailly,       Guillotin,
              Le Roy,         D'Arcet,      Lavoisier. 
HISTORY AND PROGRESS
OF
ANIMAL   MAGNETISM.
   Vain have been the efforts of science effectually to exorcise the
so called  " science" of Animal Magnetism;  it rises again imme-
diately in a new form.  Public credulity is an ample fund for all
those who wish to levy contributions  upon it.  Whoever has con-
templated the progress of real knowledge, during a long course of
years, will have seen bubble  after bubble  arise, glitter for a mo-
ment, and then disappear, to be succeeded by another as gorgeous
and illusory.          r.
   Animal magnetism is no new thing;  it has had its votaries for
more than half a century; its fire has  successively gone  out and
been relighted; but has it yet taken its place as a science ?  is it
tangible 1   The reader has seen in the foregoing pages that Doctor
Franklin and his associates appointed by the  King of France, ex-
tinguished its influence  for a time.  Its professors at that period,
never  dreamed of clairvoyance or second  sight; this new disco-
very was necessary to give it currency  in a more enlightened age.
Let the  same  degree of  care be  employed  now in detecting the
present imposture that was then brought to the subject,  and we
shall see to what shifts its professors will be brought.
   Man is naturally a credulous animal, with an appetite for the
marvellous too strongly implanted in his nature to be wholly era-
dicated.   Education,  it is  true, may weaken this propensity, but
can never entirely destroy it.  Astrology and  witchcraft have  been
consigned to  that oblivion they so richly merited; old women  may
now keep black cats  and ride broomsticks, without appeals being
made to the judicial tribunals; but there remains a class who give
implicit credence to other absurdities, which  do equal violence  to
the laws of nature; though each of us laughs  at  his neighbour's
credulity, we each  still treasure up a pet superstition of our own,
if it be no greater than a hesitancy in beginning a journey, or un-
dertaking a new business on a Friday.
  Our business is with the history of animal magnetism, a topic
that has  suddenly reached an importance in  America, which de-
mands from the press some notice.  A belief  in its virtues may be 
46
 traced  back to a very early period.   The  ancients admitted  the
 existence of a fluid or agent, which pervaded the whole  universe
 and was  the cause of life and motion.  The soul of man was a
 portion of this universal spirit, which,  on his death, became freed,
 and entered into other combinations.   According to Sir  William
 Jones, the Brahmins  believe, that not  only the  souls of men, but
 also all that exists in  the world, are an immediate  emanation from
 Brahma.   The philosophers of the dark ages had a theory some-
 what in conformity with this, and, in pursuing their investigations,
 the wonderful properties of the magnet soon attracted the attention
 of the learned, and all the characters  of the universal  fluid were
 thought to be concentrated in it; it appeared to be  a concentration
 of all the wonders of nature; the principle of its  action was un-
 known, and therefore must have emanated from the stars; and as
 it always turned to the north, the polar star was the great  origin
 of its powers.   Magnetism, and  the  all-pervading fluid  or soul,
 were now thought to be identical,  and  every action of nature was
 supposed to be the immediate result of  its influence.
  The science remained  in a very unsettled  state, until the time of
 the celebrated Mesmer, from whom it received a powerful impulse,
 and was reduced to some order.   Frederick Anthony Mesmer,  a
 native of  Switzerland, was born in May, 1734.   He studied  medi-
 cine in Vienna, and settled in that capital as a  practising physi-
 cian, having placed himself in a situation of independence  by an
 advantageous  marriage.   His mind  had  a strong bias  for the
 marvellous; the mystical writers, particularly those who  treated
 of astrology, were his delight.   He published a Treatise " On the
 Influence  of the Planets upon  the Human Body," which  drew
 upon him the universal  ridicule of his professional brethren, by
 whom  he was thenceforth  regarded  as a  confirmed visionary.
 Electricity he thought was the subtle element, or essence, pervad-
 ing all nature, but after a variety  of fruitless efforts, he at length,
 in 1773,  resorted to the magnet,  to which his  attention  had been
 called by Father  Hehl, or Hell, a Jesuit and professor of astro-
 nomy at Vienna.   He employed  in his experiments the magnetic
 plates invented by Father Hehl with extraordinary  success, if we
 are to credit his account.  He communicated  the  event to  Hehl,
 who not believing in Mesmer's theory, or rather having  greater
 reliance on his own, published the cures as originating in the form
 of his plates.  Hence  violent quarrels  arose between  them, and
 mutual appeals to the  public, which ended in a victory on the part
of Hehl.
  Mesmer's ideas on  animal magnetism,  differ in many respects
from those  now entertained by its supporters, being far less ex-
tended and chimerical.  He was at first of opinion, that the  mag-
net possessed a specific power in diffusing and communicating the
universal  fluid; and  therefore it was the chief agent in his  mode
of operating.  He insisted that he had  the power of transmitting
and  fixing this principle  at will.  " I  have observed," says he,
" that the magne ticmatter is analogous to the electric fluid, and 
47
that it is transmitted in the same manner,  by intermediate bodies.
Iron is  not the only substance containing  it.  I have  rendered
paper, bread, wool, silk,  leather,  stone, glass, water, wood, dogs,
and men, all magnetic; in a word, all I touched became endowed
with this fluid, and produced the same effects on patients, as the
magnet  itself."*
  Mesmer, soon  after,  submitted his  discoveries  to the Royal
Academy at  Berlin, the  only learned society that  would  receive
his  paper.   But they rejected  them as " destitute of foundation,
and unworthy the  slightest attention."   Undiscouraged,  he perse-
vered in his experiments, but now declared that the curative agent
was different from the mineral magnetism, and bestowed on it the
name of animal magnetism.  Being still discredited, he was obliged
to leave Germany,  and repaired to Paris in  1778.
  Public attention had been strongly attracted to the subject, and
crowds  of the  sick and the curious flocked  to consult him.   His
success  was  so great that he was obliged to take  pupils to assist
him.    The most  celebrated  of these was Deslon, who  soon
equalled his  preceptor, and who was the individual employed by
Dr. Franklin to display the miracles they professed to perform.
  The blow which was struck by the report of the royal commis-
sioners,  seemed likely to  be final, and from their convincing argu-
ments it is but now beginning to recover.  The report was consi-
dered as entirely satisfactory,  and a belief  in animal magnetism
was abandoned by all men of  science and observation, though the
delusion existed on the minds of the multitude for a long time.
  But a new phenomenon presented  itself which  excited  great
enthusiasm in its favour, and placed the art on a new basis; this
was the discovery that somnambulism was  capable of being excited
by it.
  Somnambulism, it is  well known, is a kind of morbid  sleep,
that occurs naturally in some persons,  during an attack  of which,
an  individual may walk about,  or perform his usual routine  of
occupations, and  even  converse with those   around him, yet, on
being awakened,  retains no remembrance  of what had passed.
This  condition is  produced by the magnetiser at will, and the
patient  is wholly under his influence, being obliged to answer ques-
tions  on almost every topic, although in the  natural condition  of
his faculties,  he  may be totally unacquainted with the subjects.
This  discovery was made by  the Marquis  de Puysegur; having
accidentally spoken to a person whom  he had  reduced to a state
of somnambulism,  to his extreme astonishment he was answered,
and informed of the proper mode of treatment to  be adopted  in
the case, and moreover, that  all patients  should be thus interro-
gated as to their diseases.  This opened a new source of astonish-
ment, and the hospitals were crowded by the  curious and credulous
to hear the poor patients  prescribe for themselves!  The details
which are given in the French works on the  subject are numerous,
+  Lcttro dc Mesmer, a M. Vuzer, 
48
 and they form a curious study for the philosopher.   The patients
 subjected to fits, predicted, in their state of somnambulism, the exact
 day and hour when they should have a return of the paroxysm, and
 as might very naturally be expected, the fits came on at the time.
 In this state they also were said  to possess  the same power of in-
 ternal inspection with regard to other persons who were placed in
■ magnetic connection (en rapport) with them.  This  condition was
 called  the  fifth  degree,  and  all   subsequent magnetic  states  are
 comprehended under the denomination of lucidity, or lucid vision,
 (Fr. Clairvoyance ; Germ. Hellsehen.)
   In the sixth degree, the lucid vision extends to all objects, near
 and at a distance,  in space  and time, and is hence  called the de-
 gree of universal lucidity.   No patient,  it is declared,  can reach
 the  higher  degrees of  magnetism,  without,  like good masons,
 having previously passed through the   lower.   Individuals, it is
 true, are sometimes placed in the higher degrees at the very first
 magnetic treatment, but they  are supposed  to  have  previously
 passed  through the intermediate   stages  in so rapid  a manner, as
 rendered it impossible to distinguish the transitions. " In conclusion,"
 says one of the accredited writers on the subject,* " in the higher
 degrees of animal  magnetism,  we may find a complete practical
 refutation of all the material theories of  the human  mind, an im-
 pressive proof  of the independence of the soul,  and the strongest
 grounds for presuming its immortality;  since it has  been demon-
 strated that in its manifestations, it is not confined to any one par-
 ticular portion  of the corporeal organism, and that it is  capable of
 exercising  its functions without the use of any of those material
 organs, by means of which it usually maintains a correspondence
 with the external world."
   The  modes  of producing somnambulism,  are  given at great
length in " L'Instruction Pratique  sur le Magnetisme  Animale, par
Deleuze,"f as well as in his " Histoire Pratique."   Mr. Colquhoun's
mode differs but little from that of M. Deleuze,  and as it is of later
date, 1833, we offer it for the benefit of those who wish to try the
experiment themselves.
   " Every  individual does not possess the capability of operating
magnetically upon others; and even he who does possess the power,
in some degree, will not always operate beneficially.  Certain pro-
perties,  partly physical, and partly psychical, are requisite in the
practical magnetiser; and the fortunate combination of these pro-
perties  may, in most  cases,  be considered as a gift of nature.
There is a similar inequality in  the susceptibility of patients,—
some being not at all, others very  slightly, and others, again, very
easily and powerfully affected by the magnetic  treatment.   In
general, strong  and healthy persons exhibit little susceptibility;
while weak  and diseased persons  are strongly affected in various
ways.J

  * J. C. Colquhoun, Esq.                 +  Paris, 1825.
  X " To these circumstances, perhaps, we  may ascribe the confirmed scepticism of
••-ertain persons, who have made trivial attempts to bring the magnetic  doctrines to 
49
  " With regard to physical constitution, experience seems to have
demonstrated that the magnetiser ought to possess a preponderance
of energy over  his patient.  A few instances, indeed,  have been
observed, in which weak persons have magnetised with  effect.
But such  exceptions are said to be extremely rare;  and Wienholt
attempts to  account for them upon the principle,  that, in such sub-
jects, the vital energy has a greater tendency to the surface,  and,
therefore, a more diffusive efficacy.
  " The magnetiser ought to possess,  not merely a strong consti-
tution, but  also a  sound state  of bodily health.  A  magnetiser
affected with sickness will not  only operate imperfectly, but, be-
sides, runs the  risk of communicating his diseased feelings to the
patient, and of thus  increasing  those sufferings which it is his
purpose to alleviate.  The age of the  magnetiser, too,  is a matter
of considerable importance.  The proper age is that in which the
corporeal and mental constitution have attained their utmost deve-
lopment;  and the doctrinal writers have, therefore, fixed it within
the period between the twenty-fifth and fiftieth  years.  To these
physical qualifications must be added the psychical,  consisting of
a sound and energetic mind, a lively faith,  and a determined, des-
potic volition.
  " It has been observed, that  different persons  are variously sus-
ceptible of the  magnetic influence.  This  will be best explained
when we come to speak of the effects produced by the  treatment.
  " The magnetic treatment is either simple or compound.  In the
former  case, the  magnetiser operates solely by himself;  in the
latter, he makes use of certain external media.  The simple mag-
netic treatment is usually administered with the hand, and is thence
called manipulation.  But the magnetiser can also  operate without
employing  the  hand—by breathing, or by fixing  the  eyes or the
thoughts steadily and  intensely upon the patient.  When the mag-
netic connection  has been previously established,  a  single  fixed
look  of the magnetiser,  accompanied with  energetic volition, has
frequently been found sufficient to throw the patient into the  state
of magnetic sleep, or somnambulism.
   " The magnetic treatment by manipulation comprehends  several
modes of touching and stroking with the hand, which could not
be  described here particularly without leading us into prolixity.
The  usual  method is to stroke  repeatedly, with the palms of the
hands and the fingers, in one direction downwards, from the head
to the feet; and, in returning, to throw the hands round in a semi-
circle,  turning  the palms outwards,  in order not to  disturb the
effects of the direct stroke.  To magnetise in the contrary direc-
tion—that is, from the feet upwards  towards the  head—not only
counteracts the effects of the  former method,  but frequently ope-

the test of experiment.  They do not reflect that the magnetic action depends upon
certain conditions, and that, if these conditions are not fulfilled, it is in vain to expect
any satisfactory result."
                                7 
50
 rates of itself,  prejudicially,  especially  in  the case  of irritable
 subjects.  If we attempt to operate with the back of the hand, no
 effect whatever  will probably be produced upon the patient.
   " If, in the course of this process, the hands or fingers of the
 operator are made  actually to touch the  body of the patient, it  is
 called  manipulation with contact; if, on the contrary, the opera-
 tion is conducted at some distance, it is called manipulation in
 distans.  The manipulation with  contact  is of two kinds:  it  is
 accompanied either with considerable pressure, or with light touch-
 ing—manipulation with strong or with light contact.  The mani-
 pulation with strong contact is certainly  the most ancient and the
 most  universally prevalent mode  of operating ; and traces  of it
 are to be found in almost all ages and countries.  In manipulating
 with light  contact, the hand, indeed, is conducted very lightly
 along the body of  the patient; but the magnetiser must perform
 this operation with  the utmost energy, and always have the desire
 of applying strong pressure to the body of the patient.
  " The  manipulation in distans is applied  at a distance of gene-
 rally from two to six inches from  the patient's body;  in the case
 of very susceptible persons, it is performed at a still greater dis-
 tance.   The effects of this mode of manipulating are less  intense
 than those produced by actual contact, and, besides, it requires a
 greater energy of volition on the part of the  magnetiser.   It is,
 however, frequently employed in magnetising  very irritable pa-
 tients,  who  cannot  endure  any stronger method."
  Here we may remark, that all the authors on animal magnetism
 agree in  opinion, that the  action of this fluid is better  communi-
 cated by the thumbs, than in any other manner.   Other highly
 important requisites,  according to  Deleuze,  must not be omitted;
 they are, " an  active feeling  of good  will, a firm  belief in the
power of magnetism;, and  entire  confidence  in  its employer."
 When it  is wished to unmagnetise the patient, " you must draw off
 the fluid by the extremity  of the hands  and feet, in making the
 passes  beyond  these  parts, and shaking your fingers after  each
 pass.   Afterwards,  you are to make some passes across the  face
 and breast, keeping the hands  about three or four inches  from
 them;  these are made,  by  presenting the hands joined, and sepa-
 rating them quickly from each other, as  if  to carry off the super-
 abundant fluid with which the patient may be charged."
   Somnambulism has become the great aim of the  magnetisers ;
 and it  is said to be obtained so frequently,  that a fifth part of all
 those who submit to be magnetised, are  thrown into different de-
 grees of  it.   The production of this state,  and the  clairvoyance,
 or  second  sight of individuals,  may be  considered  as  the great
 characteristic distinction, between the magnetism of the present
 day as it has been  practised for fifteen or twenty years,  and  that
 of Mesmer.
   The theories now professed, may be  reduced to three general
 heads.—That of Mesmer,  and his  disciples, that of the Spiritual-
 ists ; and that of Puysegur.  That of Mesmer we have described. 
51
The'Spiritualists believe that all the  phenomena are produced by
the soul,  and that physical action is almost  useless ;  this doctrine,
which is  by far the most mystical, has many believers in Germany
and Prussia.   They implore the benediction of God, if the cure of
the disease is conformable to the designs of Providence, to aid their
exertions.  They say " there is some  analogy between magnetism
and the imposition of hands, which was accorded by the Saviour
to the members of his  Church."  Such  are the wild and impious
doctrines of this sect of magnetisers.
  A similar class  took very many minds  captive in  the United
States; the most celebrated case was that of Miss  Rachael Baker,
at New York, whose visions astounded  all  conversational circles,
soon  after Redheffer's  perpetual motion was  exploded.  She  not
only answered questions whilst in that condition, but also composed
prayers and hymns; all of which she was incapable of doing when
awake.   Dr. Mitchell,  one of her disciples, or  at least believers,
favoured the world with a detailed account of her  case, accom-
panied with some choice specimens of her compositions.
   The school of Puysegur attribute  all the effects  produced by
magnetism, to a subtle and peculiar vital fluid, which is accumu-
lated in the brain, to which the nerves serve as  conductors.  This
fluid which presides over all actions  of the body,  is wholly under
the power of the will,  and can be transfused into  any other body.
They do not admit the theory of poles,  or  of planetary influence,
but consider the will to be the great  source of  power, and at the
same time this will must be directed by physical  means, in order
to act on patients.   He introduced a great  change in  the method
of operating, refusing the baquet and public exhibitions of Mesmer
and Deslon, and  conducting the treatment in private; this good
effect has resulted, that instead of  being thrown into convulsions,
and other violent symptoms, the  patients  now are reduced to a
state of somnambulism.
   Under  these new operators, the  excitement was  renewed in
Paris and elsewhere;  the subject of animal magnetism was again
brought  before  the Academy  of  Medicine,  in 1827, where  an
animated discussion took place, whether a committee should be
appointed to examine the merits and  consequences of the doctrine.
This was at first negatived, but on a subsequent trial, a committee
of  eleven members was appointed, consisting of some of the most
celebrated physicians of Paris.   Of these, M. M.  Double and Ma-
gendie refused to act,  and were not  willing to sign  the report, as
they had not assisted in making the experiments.   The others were
Bourdois de la Motte, Fouquier,  Gueneau de Mussy,  Guersent,
Huston,  Itard, J. J. Leroux, Marc, and  Thillaye.  They occupied
five years in making up their minds  on  the  subject, and went
through  a variety of  laborious investigations.  Of this report it
shall now be our duty to present  an impartial abstract.  It has
been referred to by the believers in animal  magnetism, as irrefra-
gible testimony of the  merits of the  practice, and demands there-
fore the  candid attention of the reader. 
52
  ABSTRACT OF  THE  REPORT ON  THE  MAGNETIC
                      EXPERIMENTS,


   Made by a Committee of the Royal Academy of Medicine: read June, 1831.*


   This committee was appointed at the solicitation of the  mag-
netic physician, M. Foissac, and they commenced  by examining
the somnambulist he first brought forward;  she  failed to exhibit
any peculiar phenomena of somnambulism.  They soon discovered
that a certain combination of conditions is required in order to the
production of the effect proposed to be exhibited.  The committee
sought only to be " inquisitive, mistrustful,  and exact  observers ;"
every facility was given them, and the process of magnetising was
the same we have already  described.   The penman of the  com-
mittee several times  submitted  to  the  operation  without  effect,
though the ennui of his position,  and  the silence  observed  might
have produced sleep at any other time;  this was when he was in
full health; on another occasion when tormented with very violent
and very obstinate pains,  he allowed himself to be repeatedly mag-
netised,  and he never obtained by this means the slightest mitiga-
tion, although his sufferings were so great  as to make him  vehe-
mently desire to have them alleviated.  M. Bourdois, his colleague,
experienced " absolutely  no effect."  M. Itard on the contrary,
thought a slight pain disappeared, though  it was very variable ;
his pulse rose 14 degrees, and he closed his  eyes during the opera-
tion.
   M. Magnien, a physician, had injured his left knee, and had an
aneurism of the heart; his pulse decreased at the end of five  sit-
tings, and at the sixth the number was the same at the commence-
ment as at the termination.   He  always experienced a coolness in
all those parts of his body to which the fingers of the magnetiser
were directed.   A  colleague, M.  Roux, who complained of a
chronic affection of the  stomach, was magnetised  six times; he
experienced, at first, a sensible diminution  in the number of pul-
sations, afterwards a slight  degree of heat in  the stomach, a great
degree of coolness in the face; the  sensation of a vaporisation of
ether, even when no manipulations were practised before him, and
finally,  a decided disposition to sleep.
   Anne Bourdin, aged 23,  was  magnetised  at the Hotel  Dieu;
she complained of head-ach, and of a nervous pain in the left eye;
the inspirations increased from  16 to 39, from 14 to 20, and  the

   * In making this abstract, the writer has used the very words of the report, only
abbreviating it when that was possible without injuring the sense. 
53
pulsations from  69 to 79, &c.  The head grew  heavy, she fell
asleep  for some minutes; no change was effected in the nervous
pain in the eye, but the head-ach was alleviated.  Theresa Tierlin
was very similarly affected.
  Several individuals were observed to fall  asleep who were not
subjected to the magnetic influence from the  monotony of the ges-
tures employed, the religious silence observed, and the ennui occa-
sioned by remaining long in the same position.
  Mademoiselle Lemaitre, aged 25, was afflicted with an affection
of the sight (amaurosis).  She  was  magnetised, became drowsy
at the  end of the third sitting, on the fourth she exhibited convul-
sive motions, and  her pulse was accelerated.  At each successive
sitting she appeared more and more susceptible ; at the eleventh,
the magnetiser seated himself behind her without making any ges-
ture, and without  any intention of  magnetising her, and she expe-
rienced a more  decided  tendency  to sleep than upon any of the
preceding days, accompanied however, with less of agitation and
convulsive motions.  Her sight did not improve.
   Louisa Ganot, a servant, was under treatment for leucorrhcea,
and was magnetised; she was  subject to nervous attacks, and con-
vulsive motions were exhibited.  She experienced the effect of the
magnetiser  when he was seated behind her and a chair interposed
its back between  them.  On another occasion all the preparations
were made for the operation,  except that the magnetiser was ab-
 sent, and she  exhibited the same symptoms!  An epileptic  man
 experienced the same  effects when he was actually magnetised,
 and when he only believed himself to  be so ; the imagination was
 the cause.
   A child of 28 months, subject to epilepsy, rubbed its eyes  under
 the influence  of  the  magnetiser,  yawned, appeared  agitated,
 scratched its head and its ears, seemed to contend against the ap-
 proach of sleep, rose and became sprightly; on a second aPPllca"
 tion no  symptom  of drowsiness  appeared.   A  deaf  and dumb
 epileptic patient exhibited no appreciable phenomena except heavy
 eyelids, a  general  numbness,  a  desire to  sleep, and  sometimes
 vertigo.  He had no fits afterwards for eight months.
    M. Itard again  submitted to the operation, and felt a heaviness
 without sleep" a  setting on edge  (agacement) in the nerves of the
 face,  convulsive motions in the nostrils, face and jaws, &c.
    Mademoiselle  Louisa Delaplaine, aged  16, had a  catamemal
 suppression; she  fell asleep at the first  sitting in eight minutes;
 was  spoken to, but made no answer; a white  iron screen was
 thrown down  near her; she continued in  a state of complete  in-
 sensibility; a glass bottle was forcibly broken—she awoke with a
 start    At  a second sitting, she answered by affirmative and nega-
 tive motions of the head; at the  third she intimated that in two
 days she would speak  and point out  the nature and seat  of her
 complaint; when pinched so as to produce a livid mark, she gave
 no sio-n of sensibility.  A bottle  full  of ammoniac opened under 
                              54

her nose produced only a motion of the hand to her nostril.  She
never spoke on subsequent  trial, nor fulfilled her promised revela-
tions.  Baptiste Chamet, a carman, was put to sleep, but failed in
his prognostications.
   Madame Martineau, aged nineteen, afflicted with chronic inflam-
mation of the bowels, was  magnetised  fifteen days consecutively,
and, in her sleep, said she did not see the persons present, but heard
them, when no person was speaking; said she must  be purged
with manna:  they gave  her bread, and it purged her.  She  an-
nounced that she  would give a detailed account of her complaint
on a certain day; when it arrived she told nothing.  A Mademoi-
selle Couturier did even worse  than this,  failing  in  every  thing;
others failed, on  repeated trials, in the most blundering manner.
One was operated on the right hand, and the convulsions took place
on the left, and so on.
  The committee next report on  a  case, which they did not see,
of a lady having  a cancer taken from her  while in a state of som-
nabulism, without knowing it.
  Attempts were  now made to  appreciate the faculty of lucidity,
or clairvoyance.  M. Petit was  the first subject;  with  his eyelids
held  down, he failed  to  recognize the date of a coin, saying 1813
for 1812; he was twice mistaken as to the time indicated by  the
hands of a watch.  With a sheet  of paper or pasteboard  before
his eyes, he played picquet well, and recognised the cards with fa-
cility.   (Query, by the touch?)
  We next have an experiment which  had the appearance  of  the
true  lucidity.  M. Petit was set asleep in  about  one minute;  his
eyes being  bandaged, he  could not see,  and the bandage was
removed; the  persons  present  watched  his  eyes,  and thought
they were constantly closed ; a catalogue was presented to him,
and  he  read, after  some  efforts which  seemed  to  fatigue him,
" Lavater; il est bien difficile de connaitre les hommes."  He  re-
cognised a passport,  &c.  He was shown an open letter; he de-
clared he could not read it,  as he did not understand English.   It
was  in fact an English letter.  He  could not read any of the con-
tents of a closed  letter, but followed  the  directions of the lines
with his fingers; the address on the outside he read.   He won a
game at picquet with facility.  The ball of the eyes moved under
the eyelid.  (We here recognise every probability of sight being
obtained by natural means.)
   Paul Villagrand had  suffered a stroke of apoplexy, which was
followed by paralysis, and he could not support himself  on the left
foot; the left arm he could not lift to his head.  His right eye saw
dimly and  he was very hard of hearing.   After bleedings, purg-
ings and blisterings,  he was magnetised, and  fell  asleep.  From
this period his deafness and head-achs disappeared. After a dozen
sittings  he prescribed certain pills,  &c. for his cure;  that in three
days he would be enabled to walk without crutches, and  so he was.
He then announced that he should be completely cured by the  1st
of January, and in a state of somnambulism he hopped  about  on 
55
the left foot and exhibited great strength, which was gone when
he awoke.  He was magnetised on  the  25th of December, and
kept in that state till January 1,  only awakened  occasionally and
made to believe he had been asleep only a few hours.   While asleep
he went to the hospital,  recognised his old neighbours in the beds,
the pupils,  &c. and  read a very little with his eyes closed.  On
the first of January he declared he was now perfectly cured, and
that he should die of apoplexy.  On the 12th of January he recog-
nised cards when  his eyes were closed, and  read  " Histoire  de
France" on a title page, but could not make out the two interme-
diate lines, and so on through a variety of experimenting; he at-
tempted in vain to distinguish cards  applied to his stomach.  (On
the whole this was certainly a case with  which much pains were
taken,  but it must be deemed unsatisfactory.)
   Pierre Cazot,  a hatter, predicted  accurately when his epileptic
fits would come on, was set asleep by a look from the magnetiser,
and could then bear pins to be thrust into him without flinching;
he was awakened by the mere influence of volition; he predicted
when he should be quite cured, but before the time arrived  he was
killed in attempting to stop a horse.   (The  whole of this case
admits of the clearest explanation from collusion, and  no import-
ance can be attached to it, though in the report it is relied on as
clear evidence.)
   Mademoiselle Celine  described the disease of one of the com-
mittee, but it was not  right in every particular.  To another pa-
tient she was introduced unexpectedly; she passed her hand, over
the stomach  and stated that worms, &c. must be cured by using
the milk of a goat which had previously been rubbed with  mercu-
rial ointment half an hour before milking;  this was the very pre-
scription of her physician !   The patient died a year afterwards,
the body was not  opened to verify the truth of  the  assertion re-
specting the disease, worms,  &c.
   A family in a case of great delicacy, supposed to be a syphilitic
taint, wished to have  the advice  of a somnambulist.  Madame
Celine placed herself in connection with the patient, and affirmed
that the stomach had been attacked by a substance like poison, &c.
She prescribed a mode of treatment, which was followed for some
time, and a perceptible amelioration of the symptoms was the result.
But the  impatience of the patient at  her slow recovery caused the
employment of the physicians again, and she died under them; and
they pronounced, on  opening the body, that there was no indication
of a syphilitic taint.
   [This is the sum and substance of the report, and any unpreju-
diced person who will read it with attention must come to the con-
clusion that  the committee were  duped ;   that collusion would
account for nearly all that they saw; in many cases  which the
magnetisers depended on, and promised much from, no effect was
produced, or it  was ludicrously contrary to what  they wished.
Notwithstanding this, the committee seem to be half convinced, and 
56
 we give their  " conclusions" without further comment.  The exa-
 minations as to  clairvoyance were not conducted with the same
 caution of covering the eyes, as was practised by the commissioners
 of the king, and the conclusions on  this subject are very unsatis-
 factory indeed.  The same may be said of the examination of 1836.]

            CONCLUSIONS OF THE COMMITTEE.
  In general, magnetism does not act upon persons in a sound state
 of health, neither does it act upon all sick persons.   Sometimes
 during the process of magnetising there are manifested insignifi-
 cant and evanescent effects, which cannot be  attributed to mag-
 netism alone,  but to hope or fear, prejudice and novelty,  ennui,
 silence, and imagination.  A certain number of the effects observed
 appeared to depend upon magnetism alone, and were never pro-
 duced without its application.   These, they thought, are well esta-
 blished physiological and therapeutic phenomena.
  The real  effects produced  are very various and uncertain.   It
 agitates some, and soothes others; most commonly it occasions a
 momentary acceleration of the respiration  and of the  circulation ;
 fugitive, fibrillary, convulsive motions, resembling electric shocks ;
 a numbness, in greater or  less degree;  heaviness; somnolency; and,
 in a small number of cases, that which  the  magnetisers call som-
 nambulism.   The existence of an uniform character to enable the
 committee to recognise, in every case, the reality of  the state  of
 somnambulism,  has not  been established.   The committee, how-
 ever, believe they may conclude with certainty that this state exists,
when it gives rise to the development of new faculties, which have
been designated  by the names of clairvoyance,  intuition, internal
 prevision ; or when it produces  great changes in the physical eco-
nomy—such as insensibility, a sudden and considerable increase  of
 strength ; and when  these effects cannot be referred to  any other
 cause.
  As among the  effects attributed to somnambulism there are some
which may be feigned, somnambulism itself may be feigned, and
furnish to quackery the means of deception.  It is only  by means
of the most  attentive scrutiny,  the most rigid precautions, and
numerous and varied experiments,  that we can  escape illusion.
 Sleep, produced with more or less promptitude,  is a real but not a
 constant effect of magnetism.   They hold it as demonstrated that
it has been produced in  circumstances, in which the persons mag-
 netised could not see, or were  ignorant of the means employed  to
 occasion it.
  The look of the magnetiser, his volition alone, possesses the power
 of magnetising, even with doors intervening.  Magnetism is as in-
 tense, and as speedily felt, at a distance of six feet, as of six inches,
and the phenomena developed are the same, but the action at a dis-
 tance  does not appear capable of being excited with success, except-
 ing upon individuals who have been already magnetised;  their
 memory appeared to be more faithful and more extensive; they re- 
57
membered every thing that passed at the time, and every time they
were placed in a state of somnambulism.  Upon awaking, they said
they had totally forgotten all  that took place during the somnans*
bulism.
  The muscular powers are  sometimes benumbed and paralysed ;
at other  times, their motions are constrained, and  they  walk or
totter about like drunken men, sometimes avoiding, and sometimes
not avoiding, obstacles  in  their  way.  Some display more agility
than when awake.  Two distinguished, with their eyes closed, the
objects placed before them, mentioned the value of cards without
touching them, read words traced with the hand, as also some lines
of books opened at random.  This phenomenon took place, they
think, when  the eyelids were kept exactly closed with the fingers.
In two, the faculty was found of foreseeing the acts of the organism,
more or  less  remote, more or less complicated; this appeared to
apply only to acts or injuries  of their organism.
  They  found only a single  somnambulist who pointed out the
symptoms of the diseases of three persons;  they had made experi-
ments upon a considerable number.   They examined too small a
number to establish, with any  exactness, the connection  between
magnetism and therapeutics.   Some felt no benefit,  others a more
or less decided relief.
  Considered as a cause of certain physiological phenomena, or as
a therapeutic  remedy, magnetism ought  to be allowed a place
within the circle of medical sciences, and, consequently, physicians
only should practise it!
  The committee conclude by stating, that they have not been able
to verify other faculties which the magnetisers had  announced as
existing in somnambulists.  But they think they have communi-
cated in their report facts of sufficient importance to encourage the
investigations  into  the subject  of animal  magnetism, as a  very
curious branch of psychology and natural history.
   Thus ends this report, which has been alternately approved and
ridiculed as the reader has or has not a bias in favour of the " science."
With it closes our history of animal magnetism, which now pretends
to greater and more wonderful revelations than had ever been be-
fore attributed to it, or even  thought  of.  That it is destined to a
short lived popularity we cannot doubt;  an acute examination into
its effects is yet to be instituted in this country; the report of the
royal commissioners will point out the mode of the enquiry.
   Colonel Stone's pamphlet stands alone in this country : much of
it is at war with  all  the known laws of nature ; we have yet had no
other observer who was willing to report in print all that he wit-
nessed.  Other visiters, if we are correctly informed,  make state-
ments directly at variance ;  in more than one  instance,  when the
somnambulist went  on an excursion during sleep, she was entirely 
58
 at fault as to what she saw in particular houses, while in otheu,
 where we are at liberty to suppose there was room for collusion, 1
 Ihe absence of direct proof to the contrary, the  revelations  hay
 appeared most extraordinary; let us  not be carried  away till in
 most minute scrutiny is instituted, and until a uniformity in resun
 is perfectly established.                    ,  .  .    ,      , roo to
   In conclusion, we warn females  from submitting  themselves to
-the action of magnetism;  so gross have been the indecencies  com-
 mitted, that the arm of the law has more than once  interposed to
 put a stop to its proceedings.
THE ENf 
  The   Law  of  Psychic   Phenomena*

A Working Hypothesis for the Systematic Study of Hyp-
       notism, Spiritism, Mental Therapeutics, etc.
             By THOMSON J. HUDSON, LL. D.
            Tenth  Edition. i2mo, 409 pages.  $/.jo.
   " There cannot be too many books, so honest, so faithful  to a
point of view, so elevated and just in tone, so strong and able and
comprehensive in reasoning, as this one is.  It is the most far-sighted
and complete  work yet  issued on the subject."—Public Opinion,
Washington.
   " The book  is an exceedingly interesting one and deserves the
examination and study of all thoughtful investigators in the field of
psychical research."—Detroit Free Press.
   " The author is reasonable and logical in his endeavor to bring
psychology within the domain of the  exact sciences.  His book is
sound in principle and painstaking to the last degree.  The investi-
gation flashes a clear light upon the general subject of psychology."
Public Ledger, Philadelphia.
   "Throughout  Mr.  Hudson is discreet,  candid, and reverent.
His pages impress the fact that there is a wide realm of truth bear-
ing upon his subject in which but the most incipient discoveries have
been made as yet, and into which earnest  thinkers may well en-
deavor to penetrate further."—Con^regationalist, Boston.
   " It would be very pleasant and profitable, if  space permitted, to
quote largely  from  Mr. Hudson's  interesting book, for it is full of
curious things, but we must be satisfied with this general reference
and with saying that the volume is fresh, novel, somewhat exciting,
mentally stimulating, and ought to  be  widely read, as it probably
will be."—New York Herald.
   " The work is a thoughtful one and  should be  read by all those
students of mental phenomena who desire to  find a satisfactory
scientific basis for what  they have heretofore accepted  as facts of
consciousness."—Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia.
   " The author has  shown himself to be a diligent student of a
theme which is destined  to be uppermost in public  attention for a
long time to come, and his observations are worthy of careful study."
Beacon, Boston.
For sale by booksellers generally, or will be sent,postpaid, on receipt
              of the price, $1.50, by the publishers,

              A.  C  McCLURG  &  CO.,
                        CHICAGO*                   (over.) 
A  Scientific   Demonstration
        of  the   Future   Life.
          By THOMSON JAY HUDSON, LL. D.
                 i2mo, 326 pages.  $1.50.
   "The success that  Mr. Hudson's 'The  Law of Psychic Phe-
nomena,' published some time ago, met with induced him to pre-
pare and publish the present volume, 'for  the purpose of carry-
ing to their legitimate conclusions some of the principles laid down,
in his former one.  Mr. Hudson, in  pursuing his inquiry, has  en-
deavored to follow the  strictest rules of scientific induction, taking
nothing for granted that is not axiomatic, and holding that there is
nothing worthy of belief that is not sustained by a solid basis of well-
authenticated facts."—New York  Times.
   " It contains a new advance on the  subject and  one marked by
careful thinking and well equipped scholarship.  You can't have the
book in your hands without feeling intellectually stimulated, and
though you may take issue with the author, you will certainly feel
indebted to him for handling the matter with a skilful hand."—New
York Herald.
   " Mr. Hudson approaches his subject entirely from the psycho-
logical side, and  he  seems to have a thorough command of all the
latest information bearing upon the question.  .  .  . His book is
important, perhaps not so much as a scientific treatise or a philoso-
phical argument, as  it is for the indication it gives of the tendency
among thinking people to seek for a reconciliation between the facts
of mental science and the fundamental principles of Christianity.—
The Beacon, Boston.
   '* The devout religious reader will and the thoughtful religious
reader may find complete satisfaction in 'A Scientific  Demonstra-
tion of the Future Life.' The deep earnestness of the book rather
than its extraordinary eloquence gives distinction, if it fails to bring
conviction. It certainly bears reading."—Philadelphia Press.
   "The entire subject is  treated in a firmly scientific manner;
nothing of theory or vague arguing is  admitted.  There is  every
evidence of an honest, painstaking effort on the part of  the writer
and there is no doubt that the book will be as widely read and dis-
cussed as was its predecessor."—Chicago News.
   " The book is a masterly effort of convincing argument and may
be read with profit by scientist and scholar."— The Evening Wiscon-
sin, Milwaukee.           ___________

For sale by booksellers generally, or will be sent, postpaid, on receipt
             of the price, $1.50, by the publishers,

             A.  C  McCLURG &  CO.,
                       CHICAGO.                   (over.) 
 

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