152 BAILLY. 



or with their heel ; people who wish to know exactly up 

 to what point the phenomena so boldly asserted by the 

 magnetizers of our epoch may be within the domain of 

 rogues and sharks ; all such people, we say, do not at all 

 deny the authority of the subject in question, nor do they 

 put themselves really in opposition to the Lavoisiers, the 

 Franklins, or the Baillys ; they dive into an entirely new 

 world, of which those illustrious learned men did not even 

 suspect the existence. 



I cannot approve of the mystery adopted by some 

 grave learned men, who, in the present day, attend ex 

 periments on somnambulism. Doubt is a proof of diffi 

 dence, and has rarely been inimical to the progress of 

 science. We could not say the same of incredulity. He 

 who, except in pure mathematics, pronounces the word 

 impossible, is deficient in prudence. Reserve is especial 

 ly requisite when we treat of animal organization. 



Our senses, notwithstanding twenty-four centuries of 

 study, observations, and researches, are far from being 

 an exhausted subject. Take, for example, the ear. A 

 celebrated natural philosopher, Wollaston, occupied him 

 self with it ; and immediately we learn, that with an 

 equal sensibility as regards the low notes a certain in 

 dividual can hear the highest tones, whilst another cannot 

 hear them at all ; and it becomes proved that certain 

 men, with perfectly sound organs, never heard the cricket 

 in the chimney-corner, yet did not doubt but that bats 

 occasionally utter a piercing cry ; and attention being 

 once awakened to these singular results, observers have 

 found the most extraordinary differences of sensibility 

 between their right ear and their left ear, &c. 



Our vision offers phenomena not less curious, and an 

 infinitely vaster field of research. Experience has proved, 



