MAGNETISM. 



623 



nerves. The magnetizer not only should have a 

 stronger body than the person magnetized, but also 

 a perfectly healthy one. He must have attained the 

 maturity of his bodily powers, but must still be within 

 the age of active life ; the mind, too, must be sound 

 and strong, in order to master the affections and 

 passions, to have a living faith and a firm will, and 

 thus to attain perfect control over this means of 

 cure, as also over the patient. The phenomena of 

 animal magnetism have been divided into six de- 

 grees. Those of the first degree are generally the 

 following : first, the feeling of a strong current from 

 the head to the extremities, after which a higher 

 degree of heat follows, easily observable by the 

 thermometer, greater redness of the skin, with in- 

 creased perspiration, and a feeling of ease and com- 

 fort throughout the whole body. In the second 

 degree, the warmth increases, and appears to the 

 patient to diffuse itself from the stomach, as if from 

 a central point, over the whole body. The pulse 

 becomes generally fuller and stronger, and the breath- 

 ing easier and deeper. The patient feels a heavi- 

 ness in the eyelids, and an irresistible desire to close 

 them. If he does close them, they seem to him ce- 

 mented by the strongest power, and, during the 

 remainder of the magnetic effects, it is impossible for 

 him to open them. All the other senses, however, 

 remain active, and their activity is often heightened. 

 The patient knows, therefore, every thing which is 

 done about him, though he is not always capable of 

 speaking. At the close of the magnetic operation, 

 he opens his eyes by himself, or with the assistance 

 of the mngnetizer, and feels generally strengthened 

 and well. After this the patient observes, some- 

 times, a shining appearance before his eyes, similar 

 to repeated lightning, a pricking in the points of the 

 fingers and toes alternately, a heaviness and cold- 

 ness in the extremities, unpleasant feelings about the 

 region of the stomach, sickness, violent shuddering, 

 wish to cough, &c. The particular signs often ac- 

 companying the third degree, are, especially, swoons, 

 convulsive tremblings, real convulsions, cataleptic 

 and even apoplectic fits. This state generally begins 

 with all the signs of an approaching drowsiness. 

 Repeated yawning, stretching, heaviness of the eye- 

 lids, announce it. A deep sigh generally follows, 

 after which the eyes close entirely, and a state begins 

 similar to sleep, in which the patient seems to be de- 

 prived of all sensation and consciousness. In the fourth 

 degree, the patient awakens, not from his sleep, but 

 within himself, and regains his consciousness; he knows 

 himself again, yet in a changed relation to surround- 

 ing circumstances. The external senses are either clos- 

 ed entirely, or their character is changed, and the in- 

 ternal sense only remains the same. The somnambu- 

 list (as he is called in this state), entirely awakened 

 within himself, distinguishes with his eyes nothing 

 but light and darkness, and not always even these, 

 although, as is sometimes the case, the eyelids are 

 open. The ball of the eye is either drawn up con- 

 vulsively or stiff, the pupil widened and without sen- 

 sation. Next, the sense of feeling is metamorphosed 

 into that of seeing, so that the somnambulist can 

 distinguish by it, not only the outlines of things, but 

 also colours, with perfect precision. The region of 

 the stomach becomes the central point of all sensa- 

 tion, and it is chiefly through this region that the 

 5ense of sight is supplied. The somnambulist, 

 therefore, can ascertain the time perfectly well by a 

 watch, closely held to the pit of the stomach. By 

 repeated exercise, the patient obtains this faculty in 

 a higher degree, and what originally appeared to him 

 indistinct becomes very clear. Persons appear to 

 him more distinct than inanimate subjects. Hearing 

 is likewise performed in this state by the pit of the 



stomach, and the sense of smell becomes sometimes 

 so acute as to distinguish the different ingredients oi 

 compound scents. Objects which the person does 

 not regard in a healthy and natural state, have often 

 very sensible, and even dangerous effects on him 

 when in a state of somnambulism. The vicinity of a 

 living being, whom the patient perceives at a dis- 

 tance of ten to fifteen paces, is generally very disa- 

 greeable to him. If persons whom he dislikes touch 

 him, paleness and coldness occur in the parts touched, 

 and convulsions are generally the consequence. 

 Among inanimate subjects, metals have the most 

 unpleasant effect. To the magnet the somnambulist 

 is still more sensitive than towards other metals. 

 Of every thing which has occurred to the patient 

 during this period, what he has perceived, thought, 

 said, or done, he has, when awaking, either no re- 

 collection or a very faint one ; but if he is brought 

 again into this state, he recollects every thing very 

 well. In the fifth degree, the patient attains, by his 

 heightened consciousness and the increased strength 

 of his general feelings, to that internal self-contem- 

 plation by which he is able to investigate even the 

 minutest parts of his bodily structure. By virtue of 

 this accurate knowledge of his internal frame, the 

 clairvoyant, as he is called in this state, not only 

 determines very distinctly the seat and quality of his 

 disease, but at the same time an instinct developes 

 itself in him, which makes him understand the means 

 necessary for his cure. Besides mentioning the 

 remedies, the clairvoyant also indicates the kind of 

 magnetizing necessary, and thus directs his own 

 cure. This deep insight is not limited to the clair- 

 voyant's self, but extends to persons brought into 

 magnetic relations with him, whose sensations are 

 always communicated to him. Between the magnet- 

 izer and the clairvoyant this sympathy is the strong- 

 est and most remarkable. Very often the feeling of 

 disease in the magnetizer is not only communicated 

 to the patient, but the disease itself, which, in some 

 cases, has continued after the patient was awakened. 

 Affections of the soul also pass from the magnetizer 

 to the clairvoyant. Sometimes this sympathy reaches 

 such a height, that it remains even when the parties 

 are distant from each other. This magnetic sympa- 

 thy may be still more heightened, and then the clair- 

 voyant has a clear insight into the internal physical 

 state of persons in a magnetic connexion with him, 

 just as he has of his own ; can determine their dis- 

 ease, its course, and future phenomena, and prescribe 

 the means of cure accordingly. He insists that he 

 perceives the diseased state of others precisely as his 

 own by the stomach. His language becomes more 

 elevated than ordinary, and is marked by fire, spirit, 

 precision. His perception is livelier and stronger, 

 his thinking freer, deeper, his judgment quicker and 

 more penetrating. He not only perceives the pre- 

 sent, and the influence of external relations, much 

 more distinctly than before, but penetrates also into 

 the most distant period of past time, by way of mem- 

 ory. There is an obvious inclination of patients for 

 each other, if they are treated by the same magnet- 

 izer, and particularly if they are in a state of som- 

 nambulism at the same time. The patient who has 

 attained internal clearness by the fifth degree, pene- 

 trates, in the sixth degree, the darkness of external 

 things, and attains a higher view of the whole of 

 nature. With uncommon clearness he often distin- 

 guishes the secrets of the past, what is distant and 

 unknown in the present, and the events of coming 

 time. If the patient is asked how he knows all this, 

 he generally answers, that it is as if he were told oi 

 it by some other person, or that he feels it through 

 the pit of the stomach. He is always fully convinced 

 of the truth of what he thus acquires. In respect to 



