CHAP. xvn. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 195 



He applied it to the treatment of disease, and obtained 

 great popularity in Paris, where he came to practise. 

 His knowledge of the subject was, however, necessarily 

 limited, and his interpretation of the facts often 

 erroneous. A Government Commission was appointed 

 in 1785, consisting of physicians and scientists (including 

 Lavoisier, Franklin, and other eminent men) who, find- 

 ing that many of the phenomena alleged by Mesmer to 

 be due to a special form of magnetism could be pro- 

 duced in the patients by suggestion, reported against his 

 alleged powers, and the subject soon fell into disrepute. 



Early in the present century, however, the phe- 

 nomena again occurred in the practice of some physi- 

 cians in Paris and elsewhere, a few of whom devoted 

 much time to the study, and obtained evidence of the 

 most perfect thought-reading, true clairvoyance, and 

 many other apparently superhuman powers. Many 

 medical men became satisfied of the genuineness of these 

 strange occurrences, and the amount of interest they ex- 

 cited in the scientific and medical worlds is shown by the 

 fact, that the article " Magnetisme " in the " Diction-, 

 naire de Medecine," published in 1825, treated the sub- 

 ject in a serious spirit, and recognized the whole of its 

 phenomena as being undoubtedly genuine. The writer, 

 Dr. Rostan, declares that he had himself examined a 

 clairvoyante who, when he placed his watch at the back 

 of her head, told the time indicated by it, and even when 

 he turned the hands round without looking at them, was 

 equally successful. 



Of course those who had no opportunity of investigat- 

 ing the subject under favorable conditions, could not 

 accept such marvels, and imputed them to clever trick- 



