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REPORT ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 133 
The work of our brother-academician appeared in 
August, 1784. Never was a complex question reduced 
to its characteristic traits with more penetration and tact ; 
never did more moderation preside at an examination, 
though personal passions seemed to render it impossible ; 
never was a scientific subject treated in a more dignified 
and lucid style. 
Nothing equals the credulity of men in whatever 
touches their health. This aphorism is an eternal truth. 
It explains how a portion of the public has returned to 
mesmeric practices; how I shall still perform an inter- 
esting task by giving a detailed analysis of the magnifi- 
cent labours published by our fellow-academician sixty 
years ago. This analysis will show, besides, how daring 
those men were, who recently, in the bosom of another 
academy, constituted themselves passionate defenders of 
some old women’s tales, which one would have supposed 
had been permanently buried in oblivion. 
The commissioners go in the first place to the treat- 
ment by M. Deslon, examine the famous rod, describe it 
carefully, relate the means adopted to excite and direct 
magnetism. Bailly then draws out a varied and truly 
extraordinary table of the state of the sick people. His 
attention is principally attracted by the convulsions that 
they designated by the name of crisis. He remarked that 
in the number of persons in the crisis state, there were 
always a great many women, and very few men; he does 
not imagine any deceit, however; holds the phenomena 
as established, and passes on to search out their causes. 
According to Mesmer and his partisans, the cause of 
the crisis and of the less characteristic effects, resided in 
a particular fluid. It was to search out proofs of the ex- 
istence of this fluid, that the commissioners had first to 
