885 



MESMERISM. 



MESMERISM; 



esc 



thus to render it more powerful. The sick persons arranged in great 

 pumben and in several rows around the baquet, thus, receive the mag- 

 netism by all these means ; by the iron rods which convey to them 

 that of the baquet ; by the curds wound round their bodies ; by tlie 

 connection of the thumbs which communicate to them that of their 

 neighbours ; by the sound of the pianoforte or of an agreeable Voice 

 diffusing the magnetism in the air ; by the finger and rod of the 

 magnetiser moved before their faces, above or behind their heads, and 

 on the diseased parts, always observing the direction of the poles ; by 

 the eye of the maguetiser ; but above all by the application of his 

 hands and the pressure of his fingers on the hypochondria and on the 

 regions of the abdomen ; an application often continued for a long time, 

 sometimes for several hours. Meanwhile the patients in their different 

 conditions present a varied picture. Some are cairn, tranquil and experi- 

 ence no effect : others cough, spit, feel slight pains, local or general 

 In at. and have sweatings ; others again are agitated or tormented with 

 convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable in regard to the 

 number affected with them and to their duration and force ; and are 

 characterised by the precipitous involuntary motions of all the limbs 

 and of the whole body, by the constriction of the throat, by the 

 leaping motions of the hypochondria and the epigastrum ; by the 

 dimness and wandering of the eyes; by piercing shrieks, tears, sobbing, 

 and immoderate laughter. They are preceded or followed by a state 

 of languor and reverie, a kind of depression, and even drowsiness. 

 The smallest unforeseen noise occasions shudderiugs ; even a change of 

 tone and measure in the airs played on the pianoforte influences the 

 jiatients, a quicker motion agitating them more and renewing the 

 vivacity of their convulsions. Nothing is more astonishing than the 

 spectacle of these convulsions ; one who has not seen them can form 

 no idea of them. The spectator is equally astonished at the profound 

 re|K>se of one part of the patients and the agitation of the rest ; at the 

 various accidents which are repeated and the sympathies which are 

 established. Some patients devote their exclusive attention to each 

 other, rushing towards one another, smiling, speaking with affection, 

 and mutually soothing their tv/xex. All are under the power of the 

 tiser; it matters not in what state of drowsiness they may be 

 his voice, a look, a gesture brings them out of it. 



Such is the account of M. Bailly, who, together with Lavoisier, 

 Franklin, and other distinguished men, were appointed by the French 

 government to examine into these splendid pretensions. These com- 

 missioners report -" That this pretended agent certainly is not common 

 magnetism, for that, on examining the baquet, the grind reservoir of 

 this wonderful fluid, by means of a needle and electrometer, not the 

 slightest indication of the presence either of common magnetism or of 

 electricity waa afforded ; that it is wholly inappreciable by any of the 

 senses or by any mechanical or chemical process ; that they tried it 

 upon themselves and upon many others without being able to perceive 

 anything ; that on blindfolding those who seemed to be most suscep- 

 tible to its influence, all its ordinary effects were produced when 

 nothing was done to them but when they imagined they were magne- 

 while none of its effects were produced when they were really 

 tised, but imagined nothing was done; that, in like manner, 

 when brought under a magnetised tree nothing happened if the subjects 

 of the experiment thought they were at a distance from the tree, while 

 they were immediately thrown into convulsions if they believed they 

 were near the tree, although really at a distance from it ; that, con- 

 sequently, the effects actually produced were produced purely by the 

 imagination ; that these effects, though gome cures might be wrought, 

 were not without danger, since the convulsions excited were often 

 violent and exceedingly apt to spread, especially among men feeble in 

 body and weak in mind, and almost universally among women: and 

 finally, that there were parts of the operation of magnetising which 

 might reajlily be turned to vicious purposes, and that immoral practices 

 had already actually grown out of them.'* 



Notwithstanding such a report from men so well qualified to form a 

 judgment, animal magnetism continued to flourish to such a degree, 

 that Dr. Franklin, writing some time after this report had become 

 public, and adverting to the proneness of mankind to credulity, 

 states tint Mesmer was at that time getting more money in the 

 ,-ha[>e of lees than all the regular physicians in Paris put together. 

 Mesmerism in this form did not become popular in England. There 

 was at one time some danger of it, but it was prevented by the 

 ijkilful management of a physician of eminence. A man of the mine 

 "i IVrkins had invented a wonderfully convenient instrument for 

 ' ing, condensing, and applying animal magnetism, composed of a 

 metallic substance, and called the metallic tractor. For this instru- 

 ment he had obtained a patent, and its virtues he set forth in a work 

 'ig the following title ' The Efficacy of Perkins's Patent Metallic 

 Tractors in various Diseases of the Human Body and Animals; 

 iitied by two hundred and fifty cases from the first literary 

 ters in Europe and America. With a Preliminary Discourse in 

 Refutation of the Objections made by Interest and Prejudice to the 

 Metallic Practice.' Dr. William Falconer, of Bath, having made 

 trictors of wood so exactly resembling the patent tractors tlut it was 

 impissible for the eye to distinguish between the one aud the other, 

 tn"l,in conjunction with Dr. Haygarth, the effect of these fictitious 

 tractors on a large scale on patients in the Bath Hospital, and produced 

 precisely the same effects with the fictitious as with the genuine, 



affording a demonstration that whatever effects were produced, were 

 produced solely by the imagination. The publication of these cases 

 put an end to the virtues of the metallic tractors in England. 



Since the death of Mesmer, however, animal magnetism has had 

 i directed towards it a great amount of attention, and has been inves- 

 j tigated by physiologists of eminence, and used as a curative agent 

 by many medical men. 



One of the first publications in this country on this subject was by 

 Mr. Richard Chenevix, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who published a 

 series of papers in the ' London Medical aud Physical Journal ' for 

 182'J, entitled ' On Mesmerism, improperly denominated Animal 

 Magnetism.' He performed numerous experiments, which were 



mil contained as an appendix a*trauslation of a report of a second 

 .'rench commission appointed to investigate this subject in 1831. 

 fills was followed by the arrival of Baron Dupotet in London, who 



published in the ' Lancet,' produced a great sensation, and phenomena 

 which had hitherto been regarded as impossible were constantly pro- 

 duced. Communications were also made at this time to various 

 medical journals of remarkable eases, and among others were some 

 from Mr. Herbert Mayo, then professor of physiology at King's College, 

 London. In 1840 a work was published by the Kev. Chauncy Hare 

 Townshend, entitled ' Tracts on Mesmerism, with reasons for a dis- 

 passionate inquiry into it.' This work contained many cases and facts 

 with regard to the phenomena of animal magnetism. In 1841 M. La 

 Fontaine, a Frenchman, visited England, aud commenced giving public 

 lectures on mesmerism and exhibitions of its phenomena. Whilst in 

 Manchester he attracted the attention of the late Mr. Braid, a surgeon 

 residing there, who, having repeated and modified variously the original 

 experiments of the mesmerisers, published a work oil the subject in 

 1843, entitled 'Neurypnology, or the Rationale of the Nervous Sleep.' 

 Since this time various public lecturers have appeared, and have created 

 a general interest on the subject. A great impulse was given to it by 

 the publication of a series of letters ill the ' Athemeum ' from Miss 

 Martinean, who attributed her cure from a long standing ailment to 

 the influence of animal magnetism. Subsequently to this, the subject 

 was taken up in Edinburgh, aud found a scientific advocate and 

 exponent in the late Dr. Gregory, professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Edinburgh. 



The phenomena presented by persons under the influence of animal 

 magnetism are various, as well as the modes by which the phenomena 

 are produced. Mesmer and his followers on the Continent, aud most of 

 those who have practised mesmerism in this country, have produced 

 its effects by placing themselves near to the individual to be mesmerised, 

 and making downward passes with their hands over their bodies with- 

 out touching them, but looking at them at the same time intently in 

 the face. This is found to affect the individual in a space of time 

 varying from two or three minutes to half an hour. All persons are 

 not however susceptible of the influence, and if an effect is not pro- 

 duced in the course of half an hour, the effort is abandoned. 

 Mr. Braid however, in the course of his inquiries, found that a second 

 individual was not necessary to the successful development of mesmeric 

 phenomena, aud that by causing a person to sit still, and simply 

 directing his attention, by means of the eyesight, to some particular 

 object, as a lancet-case or a cork, all the effects of the passes and 

 intense looking of the operator could be produced. This induced him 

 to give another name, Hypnotism, to the state in which persons are 

 thus placed. 



The effects of the passes or fixed attention on persons of nervous 

 susceptibility are various. Writers on animal magnetism distinguish 

 many stages. The following classification is by Kluge, a German writer 

 on the subject, and gives a tolerably correct estimate of the effects 

 wliich have been observed in mesmerised individuals : 



First degree : Called iruklny, presents no very remarkable phe- 

 nomena. The intellect and the senses still retain their usual powers 

 and susceptibility. 



Second degree : Half -sleep, or imperfect crisis. Most of the senses 

 still remain in a state of activity, that of vision only being impaired, 

 the eye withdrawing itself from the power of the will. 



Third degree : The magnetic or mesmeric sleep. The organs of 

 the senses refuse to perform their respective functions, and the patient 

 is in an unconscious state. 



Fourth degree : The perfect crisis, or simple somnambulism. In 

 this stage the -patient is said to "wake within himself," and his 

 consciousness returns. He is in a state which can neither be called 

 sleeping nor waking, but which appears to be something between 

 the two. 



Fifth degree : Lucidity, or lucid vision. This is called in France, 

 and mostly in this country (Jlaircuiiaucs ; in Germany, Jltthnheit. in 

 this state the patient is said to obtain a clear knowledge of his own 

 internal mental and bodily state, is enabled to calculate with accuracy 

 the phenomena of disease which will naturally aud inevitably occur, 

 and to determine what are their most appropriate and effectual 



