594 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



each other, while others laughed and became repulsive. This lasted for 

 hours and was followed by states of dreaminess and languor. A 

 picture given by Binet and Feret, two eminent French scientists, will 

 present an idea of these meetings. 



Mesmer, wearing a coat of lilac silk, walked up and down amid this 

 agitated throng accompanied by Deslon and his associates whom he chose for 

 their youth and comeliness. Mesmer carried a long iron wand, with which he 

 touched the bodies of the patients and especially the diseased parts. Often 

 laying aside the wand, he magnetized the patients with his eyes, fixing his 

 gaze on theirs, or applying his hand to the hypochondriac region and to the 

 abdomen. This application was often applied for hours, and at other times 

 the master made use of passes. He began by placing himself ' en rapport ' 

 with his subject. Seated opposite to him, foot against foot, knee against knee, 

 Mesmer laid his fingers on the hypochondriac region and moved them to and 

 fro, lightly touching the ribs. Magnetism with strong electric currents was 

 substituted for these manipulations when more energetic results were to be 

 produced. The master, raising his fingers in a pyramidal form, passed his 

 hands all over the patient's body, beginning with the head, and going downward 

 over the shoulders to the feet. He then returned to the head, both back and 

 front, to the belly and the back and renewed the process again and again until 

 the magnetised person was saturated with the healing fluid and transported 

 with pain or pleasure, both sensations being equally salutary. Young women 

 were so much gratified by the crisis that they wished to be thrown into it 

 anew. They followed Mesmer through the halls and confessed that it was 

 impossible not to be warmly attached to the person of the magnetizer. 



Mesmer was not an impostor by any means. He had deceived 

 himself and had thus deceived others. But the Academy of Sciences 

 in Paris believed that he was a mystic and a fanatic, and made it so 

 hot for him that he was finally forced to leave France, where, however, 

 he returned later. He died in 1815, and for a time animal magnetism 

 fell into disrepute and Mesmer was denounced as an impostor. 



Before Mesmer's death, he moved from Paris to a secluded spot 

 among the hills. We see him at the last — bitterly complaining of the 

 treatment he had received, thoroughly convinced as to the truth of 

 his pet theories, performing various cures for the peasants about 

 him, and living the simple life of a hermit. 



Throughout Mesmer's career, the streets were not paved with gold. 

 Many people died under his treatment, giving the belief that the 

 treatment itself was the cause of death. He was treated with ridicule 

 wherever he went. Papers, plays, etc., brought him even more 

 prominently before the public in a more ridiculous light than his own 

 hypothetical and mystical performances. A comedy, ' Docteur 

 Modernes ' brought his procedures on the stage. It severely criticized 

 his ' fanatical ' enthusiasm for a quondam science and portrayed the 

 supposed abuses of his treatment. In England notices like the fol- 

 lowing appeared in the leading journals: 



The Wonderful Magnetical Elixir. Take of the chemical oil of Fear, Dread 

 and Terror, each 4 oz. ; of the Rectified Spirits of Imagination, 2 lbs. Put all 



