678 MESMERISM. 



answer: just as in ordinary somnambulism we can rise, walk, see 

 with our eyes open, touch with the hands, &c. ; so we allow that 

 similar phenomena may take place in artificial somnambulism, and 

 even in a higher degree." " We acknowledge a fluid which has 

 an especial affinity with the nervous system, which can emanate 

 from an individual, pass into another, and accumulate, in virtue of 

 particular affinities, more in certain parts than in others." " We 

 admit the existence of a fluid, the subtraction of which lessens, 

 and the accumulation augments, the power of the nerves ; which 

 places one part of the nervous system in repose, and heightens 

 the activity of another; which, therefore, may produce an arti- 

 ficial somnambulism." 8 



A rigid mathematician, La Place, observes that, " of all the 

 instruments which we can employ, in order to enable us to dis- 

 cover the imperceptible agents of nature, the nerves are the most 

 sensible, especially when their sensibility is exalted by particular 



s It may be interesting to mention an observation which Gall made upon 

 himself by chance, and which, independently of the phenomena of mesmerism, 

 confirmed him in this opinion. Having, while in contemplation, placed his 

 hand upon his forehead, and walking backwards and forwards several times 

 with his fingers over the hairy part of the front of his head, at about the distance 

 of an inch, he remarked a gentle warmth, like a vapour, between his hand and 

 the upper part of bis cranium : he felt a heat ascend towards his shoulder and 

 cheeks : heat in the head and chilliness in his loins. The same thing having 

 recurred several times arrested his attention, and he repeated the experiment, 

 and always with the same results. If he continued to move for some moments, 

 with his hand suspended, the same phenomena increased. " The eyes become 

 painful, and tears run down ; the tongue can no longer articulate, twitchings of 

 the face occur, respiration grows laborious, and sighing and oppression follow ; 

 the knees tremble, and totter : and some hours of repose are required to restore 

 him perfectly. 



" He has often, by the continued movement of the hand, produced similar 

 phenomena in persons not previously aware of them. He produced even deep 

 and prolonged fainting : he has, in regard to this peculiarity, a particular 

 affinity with persons of both sexes who have fine and rather curly hair. They 

 only act upon him in this manner, and he is able to distinguish, by this singular 

 impression, if it is an individual of this description or not, who, at a fixed dis- 

 tance, in a numerous company, moves his hand over the superior anterior part 

 of his cranium. On the other hand, he can act upon persons of this consti- 

 tution only. The rapidity with which he loses his senses, and especially the 

 extremely disagreeable impression produced by an inexplicable depression, have 

 prevented him from pushing the trial beyond this and obtaining farther 

 results." 



