REPORT ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 139 
must first be disordered, to enable us to restore order 
. ... but the shock must be unique . . . . whereas in 
. the public treatment by magnetism ... . the habit of 
the crises cannot but be injurious. 
This thought related to the most delicate considera- 
tions. It was developed in a report addressed to the 
king personally. This report was to have remained 
secret, but it was published some years since. It should 
not be regretted; the magnetic treatment, regarded in a 
certain point of view, pleased sick people much; they 
are now aware of all its dangers. 
In conclusion, Bailly’s report completely upsets an 
accredited error. ‘This was an important service, nor 
was it the only one. In searching for the imaginary 
cause of animal magnetism, they ascertained the real 
power that man can exert over man, without the imme- 
diate and demonstrable intervention of any physical 
agent; they established that “the most simple actions 
and signs sometimes produce most powerful effects; that 
man’s action on the imagination may be reduced to an 
art... . at least in regard to persons who have faith.” 
This work finally showed how our faculties should be 
experimentally studied; in what way psychology may 
one day come to be placed among the exact sciences. 
I have always regretted that the commissioners did not 
judge it expedient to add a historical chapter to their 
excellent work. ‘The immense erudition of Bailly would 
have given it an inestimable value. I figure to myself, 
also, that in seeing the Mesmeric practices that have now 
been in use during upwards of two thousand years, the 
public would have asked itself whether so long an inter- 
val of time had ever been required to push a good and 
useful thing forward into estimation. By circumscribing 
