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 



O 



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 



O O C2 



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* 



