2^4 Influence of Metallic Trailers, 



monflratedy it will not be therefore rejected ; for in that cafe 

 it would only be a proof that the empiricifm of the practifers 

 of magnetifm, by introducing abfurd glare, (how and myftery, 

 had been the means of obfeuring the principles on which it 

 was founded. We are led to make this remark by an ob- 

 fervation of the author, " That in fome inftances the 

 metallic influence, when excited by different pefons, produces 

 different effects. Experiments made to afcertain the point, 

 proved that there were perfons who might ufe the tractors 

 for any length of time, in difeafes which were fuitable for 

 the operation, and produce no perceptible effe El ; when by pla- 

 cing them in the hands of another perfon, who fhould perform 

 the operation precifely in the fame manner as before, the 

 pain or inflammation would be removed direclly" A note in- 

 troduced here by the author, to prove by this fact the 

 analogy between the influence of the tractors and Galvanifm, 

 does not appear, to us, to be in point. " On the application 

 of zinc and Giver to the tongue, the fenfation of tafte is very 

 flight to fome, while with others it is very ftrong : — when 

 the experiment is applied to the fenfe of fight, fome are 

 hardly fenfible of it, while ethers obferve a ftrong flafh." 

 Here, however, the caufe of the different effects produced 

 muft be fought for in the modification, or peculiar ftru£ture, 

 of the organs of fenfation in the patient — not in the operator. 



We mean not by this obfervation to detract from the 

 merit of the difcovery : that muft reft, independent of all 

 theory, on the degree of evidence that may he brought 

 forward to fupport it. If the facts fhall be fufficiently con- 

 clufive to eftablifh the efficacy of the tractors, in removing 

 only one /pedes of difeafe, the inventor has nothing to fear 

 from the oppofition of the faculty in England : — the gentle- 

 men who compofe that body are too liberal to oppofe any 

 beneficial innovation, merely beeauie it comes from a 

 foreigner. On the other hand, if the cures reported to have 

 been performed in America cannot be effected here by the 

 fame means, and in cafes in which there can be no ambiguity, 



they 



