HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 593 



hypnotic power was discovered in a person, he at once considered him- 

 self as one who possessed attributes which placed him above the plane 

 of society. Suggestion was of course practised as it always has been, 

 but the true idea of what the power consisted of was unknown. At 

 last, toward the close of the century, Frederick Anton Mesmer rose 

 before the world as a disciple of a new force which was destined to 

 turn the scale on to the side of science and forever after to present 

 hypnotism in a new light. 



Frederick Anton Mesmer was born at Weil, near the point at 

 which the Ehine leaves the Lake of Constance, on May 23, 1733. He 

 studied medicine at Vienna under eminent masters, although at first 

 his parents had destined him for the church. Interested in astrology, 

 he imagined that the stars exerted an influence on beings living on 

 the earth. He identified the supposed force first with electricity and 

 then with magnetism; and it was but a short step to suppose that 

 stroking diseased bodies with magnets might effect a cure. In 1776, 

 meeting Gassner in Switzerland, he observed that the priest effected 

 cures without the use of magnets, but by manipulation alone. This 

 led Mesmer to discard the magnets, and to suppose that some kind of 

 occult force resided in himself by which he could influence others. 

 Mesmer's first practical work with magnets was in 1779, when he 

 magnetized a young lady complaining of various functional disorders. 

 This emotional young lady ' felt internally a painful streaming of a 

 very fine substance, now here, now there, but finally settling in the 

 lower part of her body and freeing her from all further attacks for 

 six hours.' She was extremely sensitive to any of Mesmer's sug- 

 gestions, but would obey no one but him. Thus we see the primeval 

 workings of animal magnetism, afterwards called hypnotism. 



Mesmer removed to Paris in 1778, and in a short time the French 

 capital was thrown into a state of great excitement by the marvelous 

 effects of what he called mesmerism. Mesmer soon made many con- 

 verts; controversies arose; he excited the indignation of the medical 

 faculty of Paris, who stigmatized him as a charlatan; still the people 

 crowded to him. 



While at Paris his practise became so enormous that it was im- 

 possible for him to handle all his patients. So he invented a scheme 

 by which a number of his patients could be magnetized at once. He 

 had troughs filled with bottles of water and iron filings, around which 

 the patients stood holding iron rods which issued from the troughs. 

 All the subjects were tied to each other by cords so that they could 

 not break away and thus spoil the contact. Perfect silence was 

 necessary and soft music was heard. The patients were affected 

 variously, according to the suggestion Mesmer gave them. Some be- 

 came hysterical, others crazed, some became affectionate and embraced 



VOL. LXVII. — 37. 



