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REPORT ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 129 
Royal Society of London, did not think proper to answer. 
The Academy of Berlin examined the work, and wrote 
to Mesmer that he was in error. 
Some time after his arrival in Paris, Mesmer tried 
again to get into communication with the Academy of 
Sciences. This society even acceded to a rendezvous. 
But, instead of the empty words that were offered them, 
the academicians required experiments. Mesmer stated 
—I quote his words—that it was child’s play ; and the 
conference had no other result. 
The Royal Society of Medicine, being called upon to 
judge of the pretended cures performed by the Austrian 
doctor, thought that their agents could not give a well- 
founded opinion “ without having first duly examined the 
patients to ascertain their state.” Mesmer rejected this 
natural and reasonable proposal. He wished that the 
agents should be content with the word of honour and 
attestations of the patients. In this respect, also, the 
severe letters of the worthy Vicq-d’Azyr put an end 
to communications which must have ended unsatis- 
factorily. 
The faculty of medicine showed, we think, less wis- 
dom. It refused to examine any thing; it even proceeded 
in legal form against one of its regent doctors who had 
‘associated himself, they said, with the charlatanism of 
Mesmer. . 
These barren debates evidently proved that Mesmer 
himself was not thoroughly sure of his theory, nor of the 
efficacy of the means of cure that he employed. Still 
the public showed itself blind. The infatuation became 
extreme. French society appeared at one moment di- 
vided into magnetizers and magnetized. From one end 
-of the kingdom to the other agents of Mesmer were seen, 
6% 
