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 



