MESMERISM. 679 



causes. It is by means of them that we have discovered the 

 slight electricity which is developed by the contact of two 

 heterogeneous metals. The singular phenomena which result 

 from the extreme sensibility of the nerves in particular indi- 

 viduals have given birth to various opinions relative to the 

 existence of a new agent, which has been denominated animal 

 magnetism, to the action of the common magnetism, to the 

 influence of the sun and moon in some nervous affections, and, 

 lastly, to the impressions which may be experienced from the 

 proximity of the metals, or of a running water. It is natural to 

 suppose that the action of these causes is very feeble, and that it 

 may be easily disturbed by accidental circumstances; but, be- 

 cause, in some cases, it has not been manifested at all, we are 

 not to conclude it has no existence. We are so far from being 

 acquainted with all the agents of nature, and their different 

 modes of action, that it would be quite unphilosophical to deny 

 the existence of the phenomena, merely because they are in- 

 explicable in the present state of our knowledge." l 



Cuvier fully admits mesmerism : " We must confess that it is 

 very difficult, in the experiments which have for their object the 

 action which the nervous system of two different individuals can 

 exercise one upon another, to distinguish the effect of the imagin- 

 ation of the individual, upon whom the experiment is tried, from 

 the physical result produced by the person who acts for him. 

 The effects, however, on persons ignorant of the agency, and 

 upon individuals whom the operation itself has deprived of con- 

 sciousness, and those which animals present, do not permit us to 

 doubt that the proximity of two animated bodies in certain 

 positions, combined with certain movements, have a real effect, 

 independently of all participation of the fancy. It appears also 

 clearly that these effects arise from some nervous communication 

 which is established between their nervous systems." 



I have no hesitation in declaring my conviction that the 

 facts of mesmerism which I admit, because they are not con- 

 trary to established morbid phenomena, result from a specific 

 power. Even they are sometimes unreal and feigned, and, when 

 real, are sometimes the result of emotion, of imagination, to 



1 Thtorie Analytique du Calcul des Ptobabilites. 

 u Analomie Comparee, t. ii. 



