MESMERISM. 669 



Many of the phenomena of mesmerism are unquestionable, 

 and no more than occur in health or disease. To yawn and 

 fall asleep, have catchings of different parts, and various little 

 sensations, is nothing wonderful. To become more or less in- 

 sensible to all around, and more or less powerless in one or 

 more or all external parts, and have one or more of the intel- 

 lectual faculties or external senses highly exalted beyond their 

 usual pitch in the individual, to have not only trains of thought 

 and inclinations, but to speak and sing, walk, write, &c., in the 

 midst of extreme insensibility, and afterwards to forget what has 

 occurred, or even to remember it when the same state returns, and 

 only then, is no more than what we occasionally observe in patients. 

 But when we are requested to believe that persons perceive objects 

 of sight through dead walls; perceive objects of hearing and sight, 

 smell and taste, with their bellies and fingers or toes ; know what 

 is going on at a distance, what will happen in regard to persons 

 and places with which they have no connection, know the his- 

 tory of persons whom they never heard of before, but who are 

 put in relation (en rapport) with them by contact, speak lan- 

 guages they never learned, display scientific knowledge which 

 they never acquired, and make anatomical and pathological ob- 

 servations in their own frames and those of others, the matter is too 



peared in a patient at the Hotel- Dieu in 1820, see Experiences Publiques sur 

 le Magnetisme Animal, faites d VH6tel-Dieu de Paris. Par J. Dupotet, 3d edit. 

 1 826. The woman had gastritis and aortic aneurysm, and is said to have de- 

 scribed the inner surface of her stomach as raw with red pimples, and perceived a 

 little pouch full of blood ! The Baron is now publishing a work upon mes- 

 merism in London. 



For a complete history, see the Diction, des Sc. Med. article Magnetisme 

 Animal. The writer remarks that, in some Egyptian monuments, Anubis is 

 represented near the patient as a mesmeriser, with one hand raised above the head, 

 the other on the breast, while behind the patient another figure stands with the 

 right hand elevated. See also the work of Deleuze, 2 vols. ; the Marquis de 

 Puisegur, 3 vols. ; the Count de Puisegur, 4 vols. ; Chardel, 1 vol. j Tardi de 

 Montravet, 2 vols. ; the Bibliothgque du Magnetisme, 4 vols. ; Archives du M., 

 4 vols. ; Annalen des M., 4 vols. Dr. Bertrand's excellent treatise Du Mag- 

 netisme Animal, fyc., 2 vols. Paris, 1826. He at first ascribed all to imagin- 

 ation; but was obliged at last to admit an unknown power. The reader of 

 English only should consult Isis revelata, a work just published in two volumes, 

 by Mr. Colquhoun of Edinburgh. It contains great information, and is highly 

 amusing, not the less so perhaps for containing some nonsense. 



