196 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvn. 



ery; and in order to determine authoritatively how much 

 truth there was in the statements of the Animal Mag- 

 netizers, the Academie Koyale de Medecine, in 1826, 

 appointed a committee of eleven members, all, of course, 

 medical men, and presumably capable and impartial, to 

 inquire into the whole subject experimentally. Nine of 

 the members attended the meetings and experiments 

 during five years; and in 1831 they delivered a full and 

 elaborate Report, which was signed by the whole nine, 

 and was therefore unanimous. This Report (published 

 in the " Archives Generale de Medecine," vol. xx.) gives 

 the details of a large number of experiments, and con- 

 cludes with a summary of what was considered to be 

 proved, together with some weighty observations. As 

 this Report is very little known, and has been completely 

 ignored by almost all writers adverse to the claims of the 

 magnetizers, I will give some of the more important por- 

 tions of it, as translated by Dr. Lee in his work on Ani- 

 mal Magnetism. 



Report of the Commission of the Academie Royale 

 de Medecine on Animal Magnetism. . 



" Conclusions and General Remarks. 

 " The commission has reported with impartiality that 

 which it had seen with distrust; it has exposed method- 

 ically that which it has observed under different circum- 

 stances, and which it has followed up with an attention 

 as close as it is continued. It has the consciousness that 

 the statements which it presents to you are the faithful 

 expression of that which it has observed. The obstacles 

 which it has met with are known to you ; they are partly 

 the cause of the delay which has occurred in presenting 



