Cristy, Animal Magnetism. 209 



The existence of a wide-spread popular belief of any kind 

 is in itself a phenomenon worthy of study apart from the truth or 

 falsity of the belief. Such superstitions are problems for the 

 neurologist as well as the pathologist or physician. The neurol- 

 ogist inquires, what are the circumstances which predispose to 

 such a belief, what are the phenomena on which they rest, how 

 are these phenomena interpreted by the subject of the belief, 

 how far is such interpretation substituted for observed fact, how 

 far is it warranted, what are the actual forces concerned and how 

 far are they legitimately employed in the way indicated. To 

 the average mind the fact that a certain drug was taken at a 

 stage of disease which soon passed away proves conclusively 

 that the drug produced the change. If the drug is again taken 

 at that stage and that stage then passes away nothing could 

 shake the belief in cause and effect. It thus becomes next to 

 impossible to secure the bare facts respecting such beliefs as re- 

 late to the cure of disease because interpretation completely 

 obscures fact and the narrator cannot be induced to produce the 

 latter. 



It is therefore with satisfaction that we have secured the 

 testimony of an educated and, so far as may be, unprejudiced 

 observer as to the peculiar power which is commonly known as 

 animal magnetism. We do not believe that it is possible for him or 

 any one else strongly interested in a group of phenomena entirely 

 to divest himself of the language of interpretation. It is not our 

 purpose to undertake at this time an analysis of the phenomena 

 as stated or to attempt to indicate how far coincidence, how far 

 auto-suggestion, how far the counter-irritation from animal heat 

 and how far some actual transfer of force participate. One very 

 interesting point is the alleged transfer of a headache from pa- 

 tient to operator. This is distinctly insisted on and while the 

 operator is obviously exceedingly sensitive in his nervous organ- 

 ism it seems hard to understand that sympathy or suggestion 

 should have invariably produced such results. The statement 

 that during the operation thrills pass down the operator's hands 

 and seem to flow from them indicates a delicately adjusted vaso- 

 motor nervous mechanism peculiarly susceptable to suggestion. 



