592 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by a light, sometimes by a violent friction, should restore the tempera- 

 ment of the debilitated parts, reinvigorate the blood and dissipate all 

 heterogeneous ferments out of the bodies of the diseased, by the eyes, 

 nose, mouth, hands and feet." Indeed, he recognized the difference 

 between functional and organic complaints; and he only meddled with 

 such diseases as ' have their essence either in the masse of blood and 

 spirit (or nervous liquors) or the particular temperament of the part 

 of the body ' and attempted to cure no disease ' wherein there is a 

 decay of nature.' " This is a confessed truth by him, he refusing still 

 to touch the eyes of such as their sight has quite perished." None the 

 less his cures were regarded as miraculous, and Dr. Stubbe tells us that 

 'as there is but one Mr. Greatrakes, so there is but one Sonne'; 

 Greatrakes' method consisted principally in stroahing and passings 

 and in driving the pains from one point to another until they went 

 out at the fingers or toes. 



In the latter half of the eighteenth century many fakirs, alleged 

 philosophers, quacks and cosmongerers came to the front. Sweden- 

 borg, with his inspirations; Cagliostro, with his idea of personal power; 

 Schrepfer, with the beginning of spiritualism; and then Gassner, the 

 priest healer, who gave to Mesmer later on some of the ideas for the 

 foundation of his theories. 



Johann Joseph Gassner, a Swabian priest, appeared upon the scene 

 in 1773. He was a forerunner of our modern spiritualist in a way, 

 but had the added distinction of attributing all diseases to the devil. 

 So his object was to pray for the expulsion of this satanic being. The 

 patient had to have implicit faith and was made to give a detailed 

 account of his malady. Gassner's next procedure was to chant various 

 symptoms such as pain, weakness, stiffness, etc., and at his peremptory 

 command to ' stop,' these symptoms would disappear and the patient 

 be well again. At the words ' You will cease being disabled,' the 

 patient's sjmiptoms vanished. i Your right hand and arm will become 

 somewhat weak,' he says; and no sooner are the words out his mouth 

 than the right hand is cold and numb and the pulse is accelerated. 

 ' Your left hand will become as your right one was and this one will 

 be normal,' is his next invocation, whereupon the left hand is cold 

 and numb and the right returns to normal. Gassner keeps up these 

 incantations until the patient is entirely cured, each prayer being ac- 

 companied by the invocation that ' this is accomplished in the name 

 of the Lord, Our Father.' Gassner's cures in theory and practise were 

 identical with those of Greatrakes, except that the mystery was now 

 clothed in a religious garb. In both, the predominant idea was the 

 suggestion to the patient that he would get well. 



The reason why hypnotism was not studied scientifically until the 

 middle of the eighteenth century was that there was too much of an 

 air of mystery surrounding the workings of the phenomena. Whenever 



