na 



: 



REPORT ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 145 



tumours, inveterate obstructions, gutta serenas, and strong 

 paralyses." Servan admitted, in short, that magnetism 

 had effected most wonderful cures. But there lay all the 

 question. The cures being admitted, the rest followed as 

 a matter of course. 



However incredible these cures might be, they must be 

 admitted, they said, when numerous witnesses certified 

 their truth. Was it owing to chance that attestations 

 were wanting for the miracles at the Cemetery of St. 

 Medard? Did not the counsellor to the parliament, 

 Montgeron, state, in three large quarto volumes, the 

 names of a great multitude of individuals who protested 

 their honour as illuminati, that the tomb of the Dea- 



n, Paris, had restored sight to the blind, hearing to the 

 deaf, strength to the paralytic; that in a twinkling it 

 cured ailing people of gouty rheumatism, of dropsy, of 

 epilepsy, of phthisis, of abscesses, of ulcers, &c. ? Did 

 these attestations, although many emanated from persons 

 of distinction, from the* Chevalier Folard, for example, 

 prevent the convulsionists from becoming the laughing- 

 stock of Europe ? Did they not see the Duchess of 

 IMaine herself laugh at their prowess in the following 

 witty couplet ? 



" A scavenger at the palace-gate 



Who, his left heel being lame, 

 Obtained as a most special grace, 

 That his right should ail the same." * 



Was not government, urged to the utmost, at last 

 obliged to interfere, when the multitude, carrying folly to 

 the extremest bounds, was going to try to resuscitate the 



* " Un de"crotteur a la royale, 

 Du talon gauche estropie", 

 Obtint pour grace spe"ciale 

 D'etre boiteux de 1'autre pie*." 



7 



