SEA SICKNESS, ETC. 963 



The function of respiration is diminished by 

 swinging, whirling round, or riding backwards 

 in a carriage, which interferes with the voluntary 

 power of the brain, causing giddiness, weakness, 

 nausea, and sometimes fainting. Nor is it more 



modifications of the same influence ; and that it cannot be pro- 

 duced on persons in a state of vigorous health and sound mind. 



But as Dr. Paris justly observes, " a propensity to attribute 

 every ordinary and natural effect, to some extraordinary and un- 

 natural cause, is one of the striking peculiarities of medical su- 

 perstition." (Pharmaclogia, vol. i. p. 17.) And it was said by 

 Becquerel, that whatever has been found most difficult to compre- 

 hend, men have latterly referred to electricity, which has been 

 supposed to be the cause of animal magnetism, and capable of 

 enabling people to see without the organs of vision, to predict 

 future events, and to perform many other miracles. Yet we are 

 told by Menzel, that " the discovery of animal magnetism is cer- 

 tainly one of the most important that was ever made, and does 

 .especial honour to Germany,' 1 while he ranks the great dis- 

 coveries of Gall along with " the foolery of Lavater." (German 

 Literature, Vol. II. $>. 218.) That no material agent or fluid is 

 communicated from the operator to the patient, has been re- 

 peatedly demonstrated by the fact, that no impression is produced 

 when the process is performed without his knowledge, or upon 

 -young children, who are unconscious of what is done. And that 

 many of the cases on record are gross impostures, has been shown 

 by making patients believe that they were mesmerized, when no- 

 thing of the kind was done, and thus producing all the pretended 

 effects, without any intervention of the assumed cause ; and by 

 the counter experiment of performing upon them the magnetic 

 process without their knowledge, when no effect was produced. 

 It is therefore obvious that all the phenomena are resolvable into 

 impressions made on the nervous system, or into operations of 

 the mind, like the visions of Swedenborg, and other dreamers of 

 disturbed imagination. 



